Surveys: Walking the Fine Line

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Rob Nance

How careful is your public accounting firm or company when it comes to conducting surveys of your customers or clients? With today’s technology, it’s incredibly easy to produce and distribute surveys in various forms and then collect the data without a whole lot of effort. However, like the kid in the candy store, just because there’s a seemingly endless supply, does that mean you should indulge?

Think about how much we are all hit with surveys and polls on a personal level. Aren’t there times when you just want to scream “enough is enough!”? Unless you’re in a coma, you know the feeling.

Over Thanksgiving break, our family used United Airlines, Dollar Rental Car and Hilton Garden Inn. These three companies have all assaulted me in the past week wanting my opinions on various aspects of their service. No way are they getting my time, now or ever—unless I have a complaint.

Think long and hard about the strategy behind the surveys unleashed by your public accounting firm or company. How often, how long, how complex…and remember, just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean that you should.

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Perspective

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Rob Nance

We’ve all known someone who fell into what they called a “life and death situation” due to a loss of data, missing smart phone or a fried computer. With all of today’s low-cost backup options and other tools, I don’t feel the least bit sorry for people who have lost their data, contacts, etc., when they only have it existing on one device. There’s no excuse for not having such information backed up somewhere and possibly also printed. It’s what you might call “tech insurance.”

Hearing of a public accounting firm dealing with one of their CPAs fighting for her life after a tragic automobile accident, or even what I read about The Institute of Medicine reporting 98,000 annual deaths from medical errors in the United States last year…now’s that
“life and death.”

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Press Release on the 250th Blog Post

Today’s Employment Landscape: Your Company, Your Clients

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Rob Nance

With all of this talk in the recent election campaigns about jobs and growing the economy, it’s interesting to note that the median job tenure for workers age 25+ is rising, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Conventional wisdom says Americans are changing jobs more frequently, but the data shows otherwise. The median worker age 25 or older has been with his or her current employer for 5.4 years, up from 5.2 years in 2010.

Now, according to a Towers Watson survey of 440 midsize to large companies, employer health care costs will increase 5.3% in 2013. Clearly, everyone in Washington D.C. has their work cut out for them—not to mention today’s employers and their employees.

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Press Release on the 250th Blog Post

Drive Those News Possibilities

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Rob Nance

Rarely does a day go by in my accounting life when succession planning does not come up in conversation or in what I read. According to a recent PwC family business survey, over 25% of businesses expect to change hands in the next five years. Nearly half do not have a succession plan. If these statistics are representative of your client base, that smell coming from the firm’s oven isn’t a succulent pot roast, it’s the sweet smell of opportunity.

The CPA Consultants’ Alliance has issued a new white paper titled “CPA Firm Leadership: Communication Drives New Possibilities,” which covers this type of critical information and data that every CPA firm partner can use. Explore the findings of leadership perceptions within the public accounting profession, frequent reasons for not continuing in public accounting, and more. I recommend that you download it, which you can do by clicking on the photo at the bottom.

One sentence in this paper that really struck a chord with me was: “the overwhelming ‘cry’ we heard is for better communication from leadership and to be truly heard by them, as well.” That applies to every firm, every business, every leader and every employee, without question.

No One Told You When to Run, You Missed the Starting Gun

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Rob Nance

Time is our common commodity. Some spend it wisely; some let it get the best of them. Speaking with a colleague this morning who now works from home instead of going into the office every day, she commented that she can’t believe how much more productive her work day has become. A friend of mine who works at a large accounting firm also recently told me of his geographic work change, stating that he’s now working from home 2-3 days a week. It’s more of an adjustment for him, one which you might say “the jury is still out.”

When it comes to vacation time, maybe you’re one of those people who can’t truly disconnect from the office—or maybe you don’t think about the office during days off. Either way, according to Robert Half International, 51% of CFOs say they don’t check in with the office at all when on vacation. This statistic is up from 26% in 2010. With that large of a gap in only two years, color me skeptical.

What wastes time at work? Excessive birthday cakes with accompanying songs? A recent study didn’t have that one on the list, but it did have these five gems below.

Top 5 Business Time Killers:
1) E-mail
2) Procrastination
3) Social networking
4) Meetings
5) Surfing the Internet

I would write more, but I need to schedule a meeting about using e-mail, social media and shopping online simultaneously. I’ll do it tomorrow.

How Many Billionaires?

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Rob Nance

There are an estimated 1,226 billionaires worldwide. Many of them have bad hair.

Ten states can claim primary residences for 72 percent of America’s billionaires. I wonder how many homes each of them has, though.

Billionaires pay the salaries of a lot of accountants. The more accountants employed, the better, I say.

Put On That Jumper, It’s Getting Cold Out There

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Rob Nance

There are a lot of poor people in America. That’s a fact, regardless of what politicians preach or what certain news media outlets bark. What’s even more staggering than any statistics on the number of welfare recipients, homeless or unemployed is the latest measurement that the average Canadian household is $43,232 richer than the average America one. That’s a huge spread—far more than I would have estimated.

I don’t hear Obama, Romney or any other candidate running for office this November talking about how we need to catch up to Canada, our seldom talked about friendly neighbor to the north.

Does the State Auditor Need to Be a CPA?

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Rob Nance

Leave it to Utah to do things differently. The state does not require its state auditor to be a CPA. Seems odd, doesn’t it? For the first time in 40 years, though, Utah is about to elect a state auditor who is not a certified public accountant. Critics say this is akin to having a non-attorney as the attorney general, while others say it’s not a big deal. What do you think?

What Will Be the Economic Consequences of Tax Increases?

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Rob Nance

Earlier this week on iShade’s BulletIN–the news section of our accounting community site–I spotlighted the fantastic Ernst & Young report titled “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Increasing Tax Rates on High-Income Taxpayers in 2013.” Regardless of your political beliefs on tax increases, I think you’ll find this a fascinating read. I did, devouring it slowly in the basement a couple of evenings ago. Shockingly, the kids wanted no part of reading it or hearing any findings of the report.

The results of this study indicate long-run economic repercussions should the top two ordinary tax rates and investment tax rates rise as planned in 2013. Quoting the E&Y report: “this policy path can be expected to reduce long-run output, investment and net worth.” Note the word “reduce” in that sentence. This isn’t simply an overt opinion piece from E&Y intellectuals; there’s raw data to back this up. Of course, you can choose not to believe it.

Spout these data lines from the report around your company or public accounting firm if you want to spark some discussion on the matter:

*Changes would translate into a decline in GDP of $200 billion (yes, billion)
*Employment would fall by roughly 710,000 jobs or 0.5% (yes, unemployment would rise)

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It Gets Late Early Out There

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Rob Nance

Once again, Dayton’s own Rita Keller has penned a spot-on piece on one of my favorite topics: being late. People who are chronically late, especially when it comes to business, annoy the snot out of me. There’s no excuse for it. In fact, I think it’s like blatantly saying, “I’m more important than you”…and that’s not what my momma taught me. In Rita’s post (click her photo below), she states that according to a recent survey of 2700 CEOs, they arrive late for 6 out of 10 meetings. I’ll bet in reality that figure is even higher.

As Rita also points out, being late on a regular basis negatively impacts your reputation. She’s singing my song. I can think of a bunch of people over my last 30 years in the workplace who were always late for everything; not one of them is now in my mind as someone who was “on top of their game” or whom I now highly respect.

If the culture in your workplace is one where tardiness for meetings is generally accepted–and it bothers you–what can you do?

If you’re a managing partner and your other partners are often late for meetings–or are generally not respectful of subordinates’ time–how can you fix it? I suggest you dial up Rita.

Pink Floyd’s “Time”:
ticking away the moments
that make up a dull day
fritter and waste the hours
in an off-hand way

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Category Archives: Surveys