Blog: Productivity

There are two things called remote work in accounting firms, and only one of them functions.

Remote-allowed means the firm operates as it always did and permits people to be elsewhere. Decisions happen in a room, the informal coordination happens at desks, and the people who are not there receive a summary afterward. Remote staff in such a firm are structurally second-class — they are less informed, less considered for good work, and promoted less — and the firm ...

Most mid-year reforecasts are unreliable for one structural reason, and it is not a modelling problem.

The forecast and the budget are being treated as the same document.

A budget is a commitment — a target, tied to accountability and frequently to compensation. A forecast is a prediction — the best available estimate of what will actually happen.

Once those merge, the forecast becomes a negotiation. Nobody submits a ...

The question clients ask about a scheduled expiration is "what should I do." The honest answer usually begins with what not to do, and it is more valuable than a prediction.

Because the central feature of a scheduled sunset is that it may not happen — legislation has repeatedly modified, extended, or replaced scheduled expirations, often late, sometimes retroactively. Which means every recommendation has to survive two outcomes rather than ...

The firm most owners think they are selling and the firm a buyer is actually valuing are different firms.

Owners describe profitability, revenue, and years in business. Buyers price transferability — the likelihood that the revenue continues after the person who generated it stops being there. A highly profitable practice in which every significant relationship runs through one partner's personal credibility is worth less than a modestly profitable ...

The question clients ask is which plan is best. The question that answers it is narrower:

How many employees are there, and does the owner want to put in the maximum?

Almost every selection error comes from answering a different question than that one — or from failing to notice that the client has employees they did not mention.

The Structural Difference

The three plans differ in one respect that drives everything else: who can

Somebody has just told you they think the bookkeeper is stealing.

What happens in the next few hours largely determines whether the matter ends in a documented recovery or in an unprovable suspicion, a wrongful termination claim, and a denied insurance claim. Almost every instinct at that moment is wrong.

Before Anything Else: What Not to Do

Do not confront the suspect. Not to "give them a chance to explain," not to gauge their reaction. A

The useful exercise here is not analyzing the balance sheet. It is predicting what a credit officer will conclude from it — which is a different activity, and the one that actually helps a client.

A lender is deciding two things: whether the borrower can repay from operations, and if not, what can be recovered. The balance sheet informs both, and it is read for a specific set of items rather than as a whole.

The Lender's Read, Item by

Worker classification is the area where a confident client is most likely to be wrong, and the reason is structural: they believe there is a test, they believe they have satisfied it, and there is no single test.

Different agencies apply different standards to the same worker under different laws. A worker can be an independent contractor for federal tax purposes and an employee for state unemployment purposes. Both determinations can be correct simultaneously, and ...