Long known for our inability to communicate effectively either orally or verbally (yes there is a difference) as accountants we’ve found new facades to hide behind. Our communication with our clients is typically limited to brief general conversations, and written communications mandated by professional standards, such as engagement letters. The email / text message / voice mail have supplemented the traditional letter facilitating the anonymity so many in our profession seem to prefer, with the frequent result being misunderstanding or no understanding at all. Read more…

In a recent post on Trendlines, Gary Boomer held forth on the staffing crisis in our profession.  Succinct and to the point, Boomer lists four reasons.  While all four are valid, my experience over the past five years has identified one as being most significant – Firms with low retention and high staff turnover work their associates too many hours.  It’s not rocket science. Read more…

Did you suck at ‘Economics’ in college.  I did.  So when my friend and mentor, Ron Baker, recommended that I read The Economic Naturalist by Robert Frank, I smiled politely, assured him I would, and then blew it off.  (I did buy it, just so I could document my intent and not feel entirely guilty for lying through my teeth.)  Last week, I again found myself in an airport, having mistakenly thrown this tome in my computer case, thinking it was an adventure novel.  With no other entertainment, besides trying to determine which passenger had the worst hang-over in the Las Vegas airport, I read the book. Read more…

After writing my first blog post, “Intern’s Corner: The Big Four Push” I began to think about how does one choose the right firm. I am lucky enough to have had to opportunity to experience different firms and different values over the past two years. I have been a member of Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) in that time period. By having those opportunities, I feel that I have been able to explore different options, and I know what is right for me. These are the steps that I took when choosing the firm I choose Read more…

When Mark first suggested eliminating performance evaluations, I was appalled. How would our aspiring professionals get the feedback that they so desperately needed? Then I started to think back. And being a pack rat, I looked back at my old performance evaluations. And realized that I had been writing rebuttals to performance evaluations since the very beginning of my professional career. Read more…

In a post by Rita Keller on CPA Management she advocates the practice of publishing rankings of the firms associates. It would seem this is a practice of Moss Adams, a large national firm. The post titled Ranking Your Individual Team Members doesn’t provide specifics as to what the criteria that were used in the ranking scheme by Moss Adams. They state that you should rank people by the criteria that are important to your firm. The article goes on to state that the staff felt it was a positive motivator and “no one quit”. (Yet!) Read more…

We are an accounting firm. Why would we blog?

The list is endless, but mainly, we are different. We are not a typical accounting firm, nor are we a typical work environment.

I actually like coming in to work everyday. Wow, that’s not something you hear everyday. It’s true, though!

Our boss respects us, the staff is fun and works hard, and we have a purpose in our work. Neither our work nor our time is micromanaged. One of our main goals is to make people enjoy working here, working with each other, and spending lots of time with their family and friends.

Read more…