Most businesses and companies understand how beneficial and necessary business services in Long Island City or elsewhere can be, especially when provided by an efficient CPA firm. The significant business services offered by a CPA firm can be for the legal and financial operations of a business. It is very important to make sure all CPA firms follow all of the best practices known in the industry to provide their clients their desired results and ultimate efficiency.
Many CPA firms now believe that adopting smart working practices have helped them to maintain and improve the quality of their services while increasing their profits by cutting down on the hours they end up investing in auditing, tax preparations, and other services. Here are some of the best practices for excellent efficiency and control in a CPA firm.
1. Managing and training of the client
Managing and training the client is a best practice for CPA firms, especially when concerned about audit efficiency. CPAs can do their job well when they are given the data and information they need. Hence, it is important that the CPAs train their clients. Different CPA firms may have different strategies when it comes to educating their clients about what they may need to be able to do their job.
However, if a CPA and their team have to spend their time trying to catch-up on bookkeeping work or locating the files and data they need, it really is waste of their time.
Hence, for a client to completely realize the fees they are paying for CPA services, it is recommended that they supply the CPA team with all the data they have. In addition, the CPA should clearly communicate their list of requirements and request cooperation from the clients. To further make their point clear, they can mention extra fees to be charged for any preparation work that they might have to do. Similarly, they can also offer a discount in case of exemplary cooperation from a client. Make sure that your expectations for client preparations are realistic and doable.
2.Retaining clients and staff
Most firms would agree that investing in an industry niche can be a key contributor to work efficiency. Retaining clients and even team members can be helpful for any CPA firm, as a sense of familiarity with a business or client allows the team to streamline their tax and audit approach and enables them to make the most of their time and efforts spent on each client. This allows the firm to provide their clients with valuable advice on the best legal and financial practices according to client’s industry. Also, they can eventually charge premium fees, once they have developed a specialization in a client’s niche. One way to continue keeping a smooth working relationship with a client is to get a renewal before or at the time of handing over documents for the financial year.
Staff retention is also important for complete efficiency, as your staff is trained to work on your client-specific industry, and they have experience and understand your work. There are a few strategies you can adopt to ensure low employee turnovers, like an employee growth plan that includes new opportunities, recognition of team member’s work and the progression to partner level. Other strategies may include competitive benefits and compensation, a casual dress code, flexible working hours, and creating a sense of responsibility and involving the team in the planning process to keep the work interesting for them.
3. Properly plan for CPA firm
Planning properly is critical for service efficiency in any CPA firm. Previously, accountants or CPAs would go to the client, maybe for an audit, and they work until they the end of the day just getting done whatever they could.
Today, the approach used for an audit or any other service is quite different. The team working on a client would spend some time in advance getting to know this individual client and their operating system. This has helped firms to spend less time on the fieldwork itself, as they knew what is to be expected. One way for CPA firms to plan in advance is to review a client’s prior fiscal year’s paperwork, to get familiarized with this specific client’s issues and look for repetitive inefficiencies and prepare for possible improvements.
Other ways may include having a meeting with the client to cover all important and necessary matters, confirming and clearing any visible doubts and involving the staff or team in the reviewing and planning process and considering any suggestions offered.
4. Accessing risk
Another recommended practice for CPA firms, especially for audit services is to strive to limit the procedures that fall in the low-risk area and try to focus more on trouble areas. When classifying risk in an audit, it is recommended to involve the whole team working on this specific client. This way, you have the senior members who can share insights on industry risks, the middle-level members who may hold more knowledge about the control issues and actual competency of the said client and the younger members who have a great opportunity to learn. By bringing the whole team together, some great audits any other strategies can be developed.
Analytical procedures, which may include reasonable and predictive tests, are seen to be more efficient as compared to transactional testing when assessing risk. This is because it saves time, it tells more about what is not easily visible and a lot of CPAs think of such tests as more interesting to perform and offer a more detailed understanding of client’s business.
Areas where a transactional test is more appropriate and suitable include interest income, depreciation, rent paid or payable, supplies, payroll and payroll taxes and more.
Author Bio:
This is Michael Williams and I am a blogger. I believe maintaining my blogs allow me to stay updated with the new happenings and help my readers by on top of the market as well. Some of the usual go-to blog areas are accounting technologies and business services in long island city
