Leading An Accounting Firm

Section 4Leading Systems

The systems necessary to operate as a sole CPA are radically different than those needed to manage a multimillion dollar, multioffice, multipartner business. The same is true for the incremental steps along the way. One of the reasons that I wanted to interview so many founders of firms was to get them to describe for me the incremental systems that they used and the continuous changes that were employed along their growth path. Many of these leaders led their firms from start-up to being a part of the elite top 100 firms in the United States.

Section four, comprising chapters 14–15, is all about management systems and processes and their continuing changes as your firm evolves into your future. One of the biggest mistakes we witness in stagnated CPA firms is that they are still using the same processes that they used 5, 10, or 20 years ago. For example, it is common for us to encounter partners in firms that handle 300–700 clients: 280–650 small individual tax clients and 20–50 significant individual or corporate clients. In many of these firms, the managing partner carries a large book of business, and he or she is constantly challenging the other partners to do more.

Managing Processes for Your Future Firm	Building the Future Firm Continuously
Chapter 14	Chapter 15
Section Four: Leading Systems

A visionary leader’s role cannot be carried out without someone, or a group, ensuring that the processes being used in the business fit the leader, ...