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Articles by Amanda Aguillard
Why firms should review their pricing
feature FIRM PRACTICE MANAGEMENT There is a direct correlation between an accounting firm’s capacity and its pricing methods. If a firm is underpricing, it will not be able to hire the staff it needs to keep up with the work it has, let alone take on additional clients or services. Its revenue is capped, and the firm’s value is stagnant at best. The problem is particularly acute for small firms that don’t raise fees high enough to pay for the staff or technology needed to handle the workload.
Why firms should review their pricing
There is a direct correlation between an accounting firm’s capacity and its pricing methods. If a firm is underpricing, it will not be able to hire the staff it needs to keep up with the work it has, let alone take on additional clients or services. Its revenue is capped, and the firm’s value is stagnant at best. The problem is particularly acute for small firms that don’t raise fees high enough to pay for the staff or technology needed to handle the workload.
Small Archives
Letter to the Editor: Small Firms Are Suffering in This Market, Does Anyone Care? We received the following from a small firm owner who is suffering under the weight of talent shortages, massive workloads, and hoards of would-be clients shopping around because their accountant (rightly) raised their fees. What’s a small firm to do? I have a small firm in [redacted].
XERO + QBO SHOOTOUT WITH CATHY ICONIS & AMANDA AGUILLARD
Cathy Iconis, CPA & Amanda Aguillard, CPA duel in the cloud in a Monday December 7th at 11:00 am CST FREE and CPE-qualified About this webinar One of the most common questions advisors have about cloud-based accounting software is “How are QBO and Xero different?” Join Cathy and Amanda as they compare common features in each cloud accounting platform. They’ll be shooting from the hip and targeting the best features of their favorite cloud accounting software.
How Accountants Can Look at Their Work With Fresh Eyes
Reassessing the health of our practices and how we work should be as important as taking stock in ourselves and our personal lives. Here are three ways accountants can to start to review and make the right changes this year: 1. Scrutinize Your Accounting Files I’m talking about the electronic data and systems within your general ledger, not paper file folders. Some of my Xero client files are nearly seven years old.
Xero: A Quick Primer, Part 2
Xero is attracting former Quickbooks users. Group Invoices A client may have the need to create identical invoices for multiple customers. Rather than creating many invoices, Xero allows a user to draft an invoice and automatically duplicate over a group of contacts. Again this is a base feature in Xero, while it appears to be available in QBO only at the Advanced subscription level.
Xero: A Quick Primer, Part 1
Xero is attracting former Quickbooks users. In recent months, Intuit has made two moves that seem to be, at the very least, annoying to Quickbooks accounting consultants. The first is a de facto price increase for some files, based on arbitrary levels of use. In an industry where fixed fee pricing that includes software seems to be the trend, the significant increase in price for certain businesses is sensitive.
Xero Expenses — Definitely Worth Another Look - Accountex Report
For those of us who have used Xero since their entry into the U.S., the classic Xero Expenses functionality left a lot to be desired. It was very restrictive on who could view and edit, for example, to the point where I as an Advisor could not correct my clients’ expense report errors. It was almost embarrassing for a product that prided itself on being at the forefront of the technology curve, and many of us with Xero-exclusive practices largely ignored it entirely.
Xero Announces Gusto as U.S. Strategic Payroll Partner
Sometimes the most obvious solutions are the ones right in front of us. After the initial shock of yesterday’s announcement that Xero will be “winding down” its U.S. payroll product and replacing it with a “strengthened partnership” with San Francisco-based Gusto, the sentiment around the Xero community is one of optimism and excitement.
Why I Have a Strictly Remote Workforce
For more information on how your firm can take the first steps in building a remote workforce, please join Amanda and her Bluewire Strategy co-founder, Ryan Watson, for their webinar: Five Things You Need to Build a Remote Workforce (And It’s Not Just Technology) on May 21. Register for free here. In 2012, I started an accounting firm, although I didn’t realize that I was starting an accounting firm at the time.
Amanda's Favorite Apps
As a cloud-based practice owner, I dabble in lots of apps. If you want to get me off-track just tell me about a new app that solves a problem I have, and watch as I go down the rabbit hole. So, when Murph asked me to write about my five favorite apps, these rolled off my fingers as fast as I could type. # 1 Slack - By now you have probably heard of Slack. If texting and email had a baby, it would be Slack.
Women in Accounting Wednesday - More with Amanda and Liz
Last week we kicked off our new Women in Accounting Wednesdays By-line with a portion of the contributions submitted by Liz Scott, our own contributing QBO author, and Amanda Aguillard, our contributing Xero author. They began the series by introducing themselves on a professional basis and then by discussing family and some of the demands that professional women face in meeting the obligations of work and family.
Women in Accounting Wednesdays - An Introduction
Insightful Accountant is kicking off something new for 2018: Women in Accounting Wednesday. This new column will consist of contributed articles from women in the accounting, finance, bookkeeping and business advisory professions dealing with everything from careers to home life. We not only want to provide meaningful content to our readers, but from our readers.
Amanda's Take-away: Xerocon to XeroCommunity
Last week, Xero held its conference, Xerocon, in Austin, Texas. It was the fourth such conference in the United States, but the first outside of either of its U.S. headquarters, Denver and San Francisco. The day before the official conference agenda was Precon, Xero’s full-day educational offering. Having participated in most of the other sessions before, I opted for the new BookkeeperX, taught by practice owner, Xero Ambassador and friend, Ryan Watson.
Amanda's Take-away: Xerocon to XeroCommunity
Last week, Xero held its conference, Xerocon, in Austin, Texas. It was the fourth such conference in the US, but the first outside of either of its US headquarters- Denver and previously, San Francisco. The day before the official conference agenda was Precon, Xero’s full-day educational offering. Having participated in most of the other sessions before, I opted for brand-new BookkeeperX, taught by practice owner, Xero Ambassador and friend, Ryan Watson.
3 Ways to Transform the Way Your Practice Works
As the owner of an accounting practice born in the cloud, I’ve seen my firm experience a tremendous amount of growth over the last few years. Recent Xero research indicates that I’m not alone, with survey results showing that firms with nearly 100 percent of their clients on the cloud see a 15 percent increase in year-over-year revenue - compared with traditional firms who see only a 4 percent increase.
3 Ways Your Firm Can Boost Word-of-Mouth Marketing
If you believe the most powerful marketing tool is your existing network, just how do you make sure that when your client is asked if they know of a good accountant, they will jump to recommend you? We are in an age where a world’s worth of information is at our fingertips, so who would’ve thought that the average person would be more likely to turn to their cubicle-mate to get a recommendation for an accountant rather than scouring the Web?
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