BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ACCOUNTING FIRM: Strategies for the Modern Accounting Practice

This book is more than a guide to building a sustainable accountingfirm; it's an invitation to rediscover why you became an accountingprofessional. It's a roadmap for stepping off the transactional treadmill and into the transformation economy, where relationships thrive, liveschange, and legacies are built.Professions aren't transformed by sweeping mandates or top-down reformdecreed by professional bodies. They are remade by bold individuals whodare to reimagine what's possible.As you read this book, I encourage you to embrace the challenge. Be thechange you seek for your firm and your profession. Because the future ofaccounting isn't something to observe―it's something to build.Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm illuminates the path forward.You'll meet some of the pioneers who are blazing the trail of new business models that challenge the fossilized status quo, while leaving behind maps for the curious.Whatever the design, the bold leap into the unknown is yours to create. Oneday, posterity will thank you.CONTENTSForeword....................................................................................................... IIIIntroduction: Why I Wrote This Book........................................................ 1About the Author......................................................................................... 17My Personal Story........................................................................................ 19Section 1: Revenue....................................................................................... 31Section 1.1 Changing the Revenue Model for Accounting Firms........ 33Section 1.2 How Modern Accounting Firms Set Prices........................ 51Section 1.3 Systematize Your Marketing .............................................. 59Section 2: Staffing ........................................................................................ 81Section 2.1 Motivating People and Aligning Compensationwith Billing............................................................................................. 83Section 2.2 What It's Like to Work at a Virtual CFO Firm.................. 89Section 2.3 Franchise Model: Alternative to the Partnership Model.... 95Section 2.4 How to Incentivize People Beyond Hours ......................101 Section 2.5 Give Employees Flexibility About How Much,Where and When to Work..................................................................105Section 2.6 Offshoring.........................................................................111Section 2.7 Managing Remote Teams.................................................117Section 3: OpEx .........................................................................................125Section 3.1 Building and Upgrading Your Tech Stack........................127Section 3.2 How Niching Simplifies Operations................................145Section 3.3 New Client Onboarding...................................................155Section 3.4 Quality Control and Quality Management.....................167Section 3.5 Marketing as CapEx vs. Operating Expense....................179Section 4: Profit.........…………………….……………….…………189Section 4.1 Building Services and Systems So You Can Have a Life..191Section 4.2 Measuring Capacity: Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better.........205Section 4.3 How to Maximize the Value of Your Firm.......................209Section 4.4 Selling Your Firm ..............................................................219Conclusion................................................................................................... 235 Read more