Accounting
Cloud Services Are Driving Growth At Accounting Firms
Firms that want to lead and continue to be relevant to clients need to find innovative ways to serve them and differentiate their firms in the marketplace. Better training and strategic planning resources must be put in place, too, as the category ...
Dec. 08, 2015
Client advisory services are leading accounting firm growth, with a 91 percent increase since 2010, and services powered by the cloud are now firmly established as a growth opportunity in the accounting profession. This is according to Erik Asgeirsson, the chief executive of CPA.com, in his keynote address at this year’s Digital CPA Conference.
Firms that want to lead and continue to be relevant to clients need to find innovative ways to serve them and differentiate their firms in the marketplace. Better training and strategic planning resources must be put in place, too, as the category expands.
“As client advisory service practices becomes more established and broaden into new areas, he said. “Firms will need new tools to sharpen strategy and staff development – and we’re providing them. Our theme for the conference this year is ‘Ideas for Tomorrow’s Business,’ but Digital CPA firms are already putting these concepts into play right now,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com.
In his address, Asgeirsson noted:
- The expansion of client advisory services into new fields, as symbolized by CPA.com’s new alliances with Vertex SMB (state and local use tax compliance) and Biz2Credit (financial technology), as well as its pilot program for Rivio, a secure, financial document clearinghouse for private companies.
- Initiatives to address change management issues, including 1) the upcoming launch of a seven-part leadership training program for firms by noted leadership coach John Engels, which is being produced and delivered by CPA.com and the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section and 2) CPA.com and the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) will be advancing a joint program with technology futurist Daniel Burrus, a keynoter for next year’s Digital CPA.
- The launch of a new review guide of business process outsourcing software for accounting firms by TrustRadius, a leading business technology review company. The guide, the first of its kind in this field, rated six different software solutions on a range of factors, including applicability for various firm size segments. The report is available at www.cpa.com.
As part of his presentation, Asgeirsson also recognized CPA.com’s first “Innovative Practitioner of the Year,” Natalie B. Hoffmann, CPA, CITP, a partner with Honkamp Krueger & Co. who helped launch her firm’s first business development app.
For next year, the Digital CPA Conference will return to Las Vegas on Dec. 5-7, 2016. As in 2014, the 2016 conference will be co-located with the Information Technology Alliance, an industry group that brings together leading accounting firms, vendors and value-added resellers with similar technology interests. For more information, visit www.digitalcpa.com.