Get Work Done - Issue #7
Why running your firm feels like a 24/7 job with no PTO plus Dawn Brolin's workflow for tackling significant regulatory updates head-on
Welcome to "Get Work Done," where we dive into the nitty-gritty of running accounting and bookkeeping firms efficiently. This isn't your average newsletter – we're all about down-to-earth tips and insights that cut through the complexities, helping you streamline processes, embrace practical tech solutions, and boost your team's productivity.
Brought to you by Financial Cents and delivered to your inbox every 2 weeks.
Small change, big difference
Running your firm 80+ hours a week and feeling like you’re missing out on important things like family time?
A popular YouTuber describing her life as a business owner after quitting paid employment said, “I traded my 9-5 for a 24/7.”
Running a business can sometimes feel like a 24/7 job with no PTO and endless to-dos.
What small change can you make to reduce your work hours, improve the quality of your life, and build a firm that can run without you?
In addition to wisely choosing your work location—remote, hybrid, or in-office—you should set up systems and processes. This is one of the most important, foundational things you can do for your firm.
Your firm should have standardized ways of handling work. This way, you can delegate work and still ensure consistent client deliverables, and your business will run well without you. It will also help you buy back time for a proper work-life balance, which will help you manage your firm better.
🎉 Special Giveaway 🎉
Win a prize to transform your practice in our post-tax/busy season daily draw from May 20 - 24.
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Business growth coaching sessions with experts.
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A grand prize of $500 cash.
How to Enter:
Browse through each day’s giveaway(s).
Enter the draw by filling out the simple form
Tune in live on Financial Cents' YouTube channel for the daily drawing from May 20 - 24 at 12 pm ET.
Good luck!
Firm spotl💡ght
Powerful Accounting is a high-energy, person-centered, gaga-blaring, rockstar team that delivers and conquers businesses' numbers. The Connecticut-based CPA firm provides tax and accounting services in addition to operational and fraud protection training to businesses.
The CEO, Dawn Brolin, has been named one of the most powerful women in Accounting. She is known for her passion for helping people and businesses evolve and improve on a daily basis.
In this episode of Accounting Flow Podcast, Dawn shares her firm’s strategies for tackling significant regulatory updates head-on, revealing how to turn potential disruptions into opportunities for growth and innovation.
Take a listen below:
Excerpts below:
Roman Villard (Host):
We all know that once you establish that workflow setup, you have a good rhythm to work with. So now that you have an established workflow for the work you’re doing for your clients, when those changes occur, what are your first few steps to ensure that the team is aware of them?
Dawn Brolin:
Yeah, so we’ll typically do it if it’s a big regulatory change where there’s risk involved. Let’s use BOI reporting, as an example. So now we’ve got some risk here. We’ve got clients that are LOCs, and we’ve got a lot of businesses that we deal with. We get them on Zoom and talk through it. “Alright, let me make sure you guys are up to date.” This is important enough to have a call; some can just be done through Slack. Now, with the BOI reporting, we have changed the entire process, which we refer to as CorpNet. We have CorpNet, a great product for setting up LOC use, getting EIN, setting up different states, and all this other stuff, but they’re also handling BOI reporting. So now if somebody comes to us and says, “Hey, I need to open up a new LOC,” Nicole (my colleague) knows how to do it. It’s simple. The other thing that had to change was our engagement letters. Your procedures will change a bit, and considerations will be made when these regulatory changes are correct.
H🔥t topics
NPAG releases draft strategy report analyzing the root causes of the accounting pipeline shortage, potential solutions, and next steps
The National Pipeline Advisory Group has conducted in-depth research including a comprehensive review of existing research, collecting insights from a national pipeline survey, focus groups with state societies and firms, and discussions with professional and regulatory bodies. More than 7,800 students and accounting professionals took the national survey, and more than 1,600 people participated in the focus groups. Their goal? To understand accounting talent hurdles and recommend positive solutions.
Proposed recommendations are organized into six key themes:
Telling a more compelling story about careers in accounting
Creating a more engaging college experience for accounting majors and potential majors
Reducing the time and cost of education
Growing support for CPA Exam candidates
Expanding access for underrepresented groups
Transforming employer cultures and business models
Share your thoughts about these recommendations in the comments.
Gen Zs and Millennials Are Cautiously Optimistic and Focused on Purpose in Job Expectation Survey:
The 13th edition of Deloitte’s Gen Z and Millennial Survey connected with nearly 23,000 respondents across 44 countries to more broadly track their experiences and expectations at work and in the world. The biggest takeaway from the survey is that Gen Zs and millennials are cautiously optimistic about the economy and their personal finances despite uncertainties.
Key insights from the survey:
Nearly all Gen Zs and millennials want purpose-driven work and are not afraid to turn down work that doesn’t align with their values.
Environmental sustainability continues to be among Gen Zs’ and millennials’ top priorities. It is a personal concern that consistently weighs heavily on them.
Positive perceptions of GenAI increase with more hands-on experience, as do workplace concerns.
Gen Zs’ and millennials’ career and workplace expectations are evolving.
Workplace factors contribute to stress levels, so employers must focus on providing better workplace mental health.
Swipe this workflow template
Get the Step-by-Step QuickBooks Cleanup Checklist Template to help you perform QuickBooks cleanup accurately and professionally for your clients.
Meme
Someone’s got some extra time on their hands 😂
FOMO events
MAY 19 - 21
Accounts Payable & P2P Conference & Expo by the Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM)
MAY 30
Reduce Manual Work and Scale Your Firm Faster with Tech
PS: If you’d like us to spotlight your event in the next issue, send an email to marketing@financial-cents.com
The Financial Cents team will release a music video titled “Work flow flow baby” tomorrow at 1 pm EST. Join us for the live premiere on YouTube.
Noteworthy
QBO Tech Tip - Clearing Accounts: Using And Taming Them: Clearing accounts in QBO is a mighty useful tool for e-commerce, POS bookkeeping, and other accounting situations. Clearing accounts are where you send transactions that can’t be cleared properly from the bank feed, involve other transactions like subtracted fees, or are interrelated and need to wash out in tandem. You will create some clearing accounts; sometimes, an app pushes them through to your COA. Payment processors and e-commerce apps are examples of apps that create clearing accounts
Why Automation Should Be Your Number One Priority When Choosing Accounting Apps in 2024: Accountants, bookkeepers, CFOs, and controllers have common goals, even though their day-to-day work may vary. Accurate books, timely closes, and keeping on top of regulatory compliance issues are table stakes; however, quality of life and quick access to business insights are becoming increasingly important. The stakes get higher when clients add additional sales and payment channels because the additional workload and complexity make it difficult for even the most experienced accounting professionals to keep up. Here’s how one accountant automates everything with her “Starting Lineup.”
AI and fraud: What CPAs should know: In this article for the Journal of Accountancy, Ray Sang and Clay Kniepmann describe how AI is used for finance fraud schemes and how CPAs can use AI to detect and prevent fraud.
“With AI, criminals can generate deepfake voicemail or video messages from the CEO — or even live deepfakes of the CEO’s voice or video. That’s a next-level threat, but new types of fraud may not even be the biggest risk for CPA firms and other potential targets. The fear is that AI can help criminals automate old fraud schemes, increasing the speed, efficiency, and persistence of the attacks.”
Until next time,
