Cuba Gooding Jr.'s famous line, "Show me the money," from the movie "Jerry Maguire" won him an academy award for best supporting actor. Current economic conditions have a lot of business owners saying the same thing, unfortunately they are not acting. The question is, are you showing your clients their money? Are you going to win the award for best supporting CPA? Read more...

Burnout has a direct impact on the value of a firm, but because it is intangible, it doesn’t show up on the balance sheet. Just like any other liability, it can take down another intangible, your firm’s morale and good will, without you even realizing it. Over the 20 years I have worked with the accounting profession, I’ve met a lot of CPAs who recognize their burn out for what it is; an indicator that they need to reinvent themselves, broaden their horizons and expand their competencies to embrace more interesting work. I’ve also met a lot of tired, burned out CPAs who have resigned themselves to cope with the status quo until they retire. Read more...

For thousands of years, scientists and religious leaders introduced, modified, and later abandoned hundreds of different calendaring models. People take calendaring very seriously. Wars have been fought over the appropriate association of time and measure. There are a few calendars that are still actively referred to in today’s society; such as the astrological, lunar, Gregorian, Chinese, Balinese, Islamic or Jewish.  All these calendars have three things in common, a start date, a means of measuring time in various and cumulative units, and an end date. The units of time may correspond to earthly occurrences, like seasons or astronomical changes. Or they may be very arbitrary based on a governmental or religious edict. Conflict over calendars continues even today. There is one fringe group that seems to still struggle with defining their calendar; the accounting profession.  I believe it is the profession’s undefined calendar that often gets in the way of taking on new initiatives and advancing toward their goals at the same rate as other businesses.  Here’s why . . . Read more...