BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE ACCOUNTING FIRM

This book is more than a guide to building a sustainable accounting firm; it's an invitation to rediscover why you became an accounting professional. It's a roadmap for stepping off the transactional treadmill and into the transformation economy, where relationships thrive, lives change, and legacies are built.

Professions aren't transformed by sweeping mandates or top-down reform decreed by professional bodies. They are remade by bold individuals who dare to reimagine what's possible.

As you read this book, I encourage you to embrace the challenge. Be the change you seek for your firm and your profession. Because the future of accounting isn't something to observe—it's something to build.

Building a Sustainable Accounting Firm illuminates the path forward. You'll meet some of the pioneers who are blazing the trail of new business models that challenge the fossilised status quo, while leaving behind maps for the curious.

Whatever the design, the bold leap into the unknown is yours to create. One day, posterity will thank you.

CONTENTS

Foreword....................................................................................................... III

Introduction: Why I Wrote This Book........................................................ 1

About the Author......................................................................................... 17

My Personal Story........................................................................................ 19

Section 1: Revenue

Section 1.1 Changing the Revenue Model for Accounting Firms........ 33

Section 1.2 How Modern Accounting Firms Set Prices........................ 51

Section 1.3 Systematise Your Marketing .............................................. 59

Section 2: Staffing

Section 2.1 Motivating People and Aligning Compensation with Billing............................................................................................. 83

Section 2.2 What It's Like to Work at a Virtual CFO Firm.................. 89

Section 2.3 Franchise Model: Alternative to the Partnership Model.... 95

Section 2.4 How to Incentivise People Beyond Hours ......................101

Section 2.5 Give Employees Flexibility About How Much, Where and When to Work..................................................................105

Section 2.6 Offshoring.........................................................................111

Section 2.7 Managing Remote Teams.................................................117

Section 3: OpEx

Section 3.1 Building and Upgrading Your Tech Stack........................127

Section 3.2 How Niching Simplifies Operations................................145

Section 3.3 New Client Onboarding...................................................155

Section 3.4 Quality Control and Quality Management.....................167

Section 3.5 Marketing as CapEx vs. Operating Expense....................179

Section 4: Profit

Section 4.1 Building Services and Systems So You Can Have a Life..191

Section 4.2 Measuring Capacity: Bigger Isn't Necessarily Better.........205

Section 4.3 How to Maximise the Value of Your Firm.......................209

Section 4.4 Selling Your Firm ..............................................................219

Conclusion................................................................................................... 235