Sarah Templeton

So, your firm has made the big decision to invest and implement a customer relationship management system. Good for you. Now, it's time to make sure the transition goes as smooth as possible. Communicate and educate. First things first, leadership must communicate this decision to the rest of the firm. This means conduct an educational campaign explaining to the professional staff the reasons for the CRM system, when the rollout will start and what goals are ultimately trying to be accomplished. This process will be easier if management gets buy-in from a cross-section of the firm prior to this educational campaign, where this groups helps and is involved with the system and vendor selection process. Also consider setting up a focus group that meets regularly for continued feedback and development improvements. Recognize the change. Most firms know that once they im... (more)

Rules of Engagement

Most CPA firms have yet to establish a social media policy, as they are likely considering the best approach to bring social media into the marketing mix. Truth be told, there is no hard and fast rule on how companies should approach this. The accounting industry is no exception, and faces particular challenges in creating social media plans, such as whether to include client references, and giving tax or other consulting advice in a public forum and later being held responsible for it. It boils down to encouraging your team to engage, and eventually participate, in the greater... (more)

Issues Facing Businesses in An Accountant’s Perspective

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) After the Enron debacle, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) assumed a leadership role in the rush toward an international set of accounting standards (IFRS). The long and proud independent standard setting process in the United States of America is being phased out in favor of an international standard setting process with an international governing body, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). So what’s the big deal? Confusing Standards? So will we have a single, simple, principles-bas... (more)

Five Steps to Ensure a Clean CRM Database that Builds Relationships

CRM on Ulitzer When speaking with a partner of a local law firm, he lamented about their database, "Just getting our holiday card list right requires a monumental effort!"  Many times sales leads in the database are kept long past their shelf life which means they no longer hold any revenue potential and should be jetissoned. A well-known stumbling block for anyone who has worked in marketing or sales is bad data.  While there are many protective measures companies can employ to make sure they are operating with clean data such as Access Hoovers as a plug-in to Microsoft's Cust... (more)

Perception and Reality: Shedding Light on Level 3 Assets

In the winter of 2007-2008, sweeping new financial reporting standards were launched - directly into the path of an unforeseen perfect storm. Known as fair value accounting, these new rules had been years in development. They were designed to unify global standards and provide greater transparency through market-based, rather than earlier cost-based, methods of valuation. But no sooner had fair value gone into effect than markets worldwide all but evaporated in the worst economic crisis in over ninety years. As asset values drifted erratically into what analysts called a "no man's ... (more)