Going with the 'flow

Busy season is stressful enough. We don't need increased complexity or delays making it virtually unbearable. By all accounts, it's not going to get better. While we may not be able to impact decisions beyond our control, careful planning and a good handle on the status of all work in progress can help minimize the chaos. 

It’s getting late in the game if you haven’t started thinking about ways to improve how you do things. From a pure economic standpoint, your peers that have adopted new technologies and embraced the changes required to compete in today’s market are starting to pull away from the masses.

In the “Google Age”, there’s an escalating pressure to have all the answers, all the time. For us business professionals, this creates stress and anxiety when dealing with existing clients, prospects and team members. It’s just not comfortable for most of us to say “I don’t know”, so we come up with defensive strategies to avoid having to admit it.

This tax season wasn't without its unique challenges, adding further pressure to an already stressful time of year for accountants. Getting back to basics can help you take control over your final month.

The Mega-Trends Geoffrey Moore identifies represent an exciting time for all parts of the public accounting firm.

I'm often asked, "What's the difference between tracking and workflow?" Tracking is actually a by-product of a good workflow system.

This is a time of year when you can get some great ideas for the gadget lovers in your life. The advancements in our profession leave me thinking about the now nearly, if not completely, obsolete relics from our profession's not so distant past - of which, I made my own list.

I always find it interesting that when a company achieves success in launching a new category of product how quickly others try to “innovate” in the same category…without really innovating, that is.

With the presidential election heating up, so does the discussion of whether or not outsourcing is good for our economy. Outsourcing is a political football that has come up in the last two election cycles, so this year is no different. As the CEO of an outsourcing company, I thought I would weigh in as well.

How often do we think there's got to be a better way in the immediate aftermath of busy season? We work our tails off during the busy season - working all sorts of crazy hours, away from our families for long periods of time, to get to April 15th. Then, we put a little distance between ourselves and busy season and the complacency settles in. Now, is the time to look at your processes and find a better way.

February is winding down and you might feel like your workload is piling on. Research suggests that there are a number of small things you can do to help mitigate the stress. After 35 tax seasons, I'm more than a little familiar with the job hazards caused by our profession's annual cram session. Here are some of my favorite tips for reducing burnout.

The word workflow has permeated every type of software being brought to the market place. Document management has workflow, scanning and auto populate software have workflow, depreciation software has workflow…heck, even our accounting software has "workflow." Overnight, a word that was never used by the accounting profession has become ubiquitous…and very confusing.

This past week, I spoke at the AICPA National Tax Conference in D.C. and the AICPA Sophisticated Tax Conference in Boston. In each session, I had discussed aspects related to helping firms maximize their IT investments – focusing on the move to the paperless office.

A recent study by the Bay Street Group found that high performing firms not only embrace positive change, but create a culture of curiosity in which staff are encouraged to innovate. In fact, they're 11 times more likely than low performing firms to encourage employees to explore new technologies and better ways of doing things (read the Seven Habits of HighlySuccessful Firms white paper, based on the study).

Okay, I thought I would weigh in on the heavily debated question of where does the iPad fit into the arsenal tools for the CPA? This battle between the believers and non-believers will be waged until full enterprise solutions like the tax and engagement software are available for the iPad and iPhone.
 

How often are you in a management, project, or even a client meeting when everyone appears sold on an idea, but still the the result is "Let's wait..."? Sometimes it's more like, "Let's wait until..." some better set of circumstances present themselves. But, once the decision is made and everyone has weighed in, just what are you waiting for?
 

So, I guess I’ve decided that I’m writing for men and women who practice public accounting and, like me, tend to keep abreast of the latest trends in technology and practice management for our profession, but are more cautious about fully embracing new ideas before they’re really battle-tested.