Accounting
Art of Accounting: How to be a great employee, manager, partner, advisor and team member
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Being a great resource is quite easy. Just do what the person you report to needs you to do. Do it when you say you will do it and better than anyone else could do it. Also, never, ever upward delegate.
This should be a standard operating procedure but it rarely occurs except by exceptional people. The more exceptional people an organization has, the more successful it — and everyone there — will be.
I modestly suggest that a major reason for my success has been adhering to due dates and trying to do the work better than anyone else. Also I had a resolve to never leave my boss (when I started out) or client where they had to do something. It has always been my firm or me that had to follow through and never the boss or client. Additionally, when I was a staff member, I always tried to anticipate what my boss would do with what I was doing, and then tried to do some of that too. I never left part of what I had to do for my boss to clean up or complete. Likewise with clients I always tried to assume the responsibility to do as much of what the client would do as I could.
Whether you are the lowest-level employee or highest-level CPA firm owner or partner, your job is to provide services for the person hiring or engaging you. Those services include, and really demand, that the right work gets done at the right time in the right way. It cannot be simpler than that. Do what you are supposed to do without error while meeting the time commitment. And then anticipate the use of that information and try to do something extra to save the effort of the person above you, i.e., your boss or client.
Anticipating means two things. Understanding the purpose and use of what you are doing, and how it could meet or exceed that purpose, and/or whether alternatives might be more appropriate. This is how you become a trusted advisor.
My first boss told me that, since I was just starting out, I was not expected to know too much, but I was expected to do what I was told to do and to get it done on time without careless errors. He told me that as he would gain confidence in me, I would be given more responsibilities and higher-level work that I could grow from and advance my career with. This is a lesson for all of us. Prove your ability by doing the right at the right time in the right way.
Clients need you, and expect you, to suggest alternatives to their plans, better ways of doing things, with methods that will help the client accomplish their objectives more reasonably, efficiently and effectively. That’s what made me successful.
I also taught this to my staff, i.e., my team, and those who learned were permitted to continue working for me. They made my job easier, more valuable and more fun…and I reciprocated by doing the same for them.
Today there is a big emphasis on advisory services. The advisory services are not new, but the recent (in the last 10 or so years) emphasis on this is new. I always did that. If I did not, then you would never have heard my name or read anything I wrote because I would have had nothing new or different or innovative to write about. I also would not have had the clients that were open and receptive to what I had to offer them, and who recognized this. The recognition was not with accolades but with quick acceptance of, and payment of, my fees.
I also loved being an independent CPA, but I loved being a businessperson more. That is because if I could not succeed in my own practice, I would cease being a businessperson, but I would never cease being a CPA; my role would just have shifted to being an owner to an employee of a better businessperson’s CPA business.
I accomplished a lot and still do, but it has never been alone. I had partners, staff, support people and clients wanting to be exceptional and who wanted to work with exceptional people. I never compromised by doing less than the best anyone could do, and then some, and never accepted anything less from anyone working with or for me.
Anyone can do what I did. Just do what you say you will do, when it has to be done and the way it needs to be done. That’s all. That’s the secret sauce. If you are the leader of your firm, then lead with this standard. If you are a staff person, then everything you do should be following this standard. Whatever your position, you are part of a team. Be aware that no team could rise above the attitudes, skills and desires of its weakest members.
If you agree with what I just wrote, then do it. Start now. You can get started by using this standard and making any necessary adjustments or changes in your practice as the opportunities arise. Give yourself a year to get things working right. But get started.
If you do not agree with what I wrote, then email me and provide your phone number. I’ll call you and give you an opportunity to tell me why I am wrong and how it should be done. I am not too proud to ignore adapting better ways of doing things. After all, that’s how I grew.
P.S.: My checklist file for managing a practice and tax season is being added to, updated and completed. Information about how to receive it for free will be in my column next week. Look for it. If you want to request it now, send an email to
Do not hesitate to contact me at
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.
The
- ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
- ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
- ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
- ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.
The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the
In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.
President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an
The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings.
Trump has
Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.
Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an
The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.
Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist
Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time.
“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said.
One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load.
“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai.
Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies.
“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.
However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area.
“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai.
As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales.
“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai.
While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves.
“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”
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