07 2023 CPAmerica Advantage Newsletter

CPAmerica ADVANTAGE

News From Your Accounting Association

July 2023

IN THIS ISSUE:

► Saving time and money through outsourcing staff

► Preferred Provider Spotlight - SurePrep

► Tax Conference & Leading Partners Retreat

► Member News

► CPAmerica Insights - Grace Horvath

Saving time and money through outsourcing staff

Interview with Bridget Fee, Processes Manager, Haefele Flanagan

As firms continue to adjust their services and operating processes for their clients, outsourcing staff may be a viable option. At Haefele Flanagan (HF) located in Maple Shade, New Jersey, they have found that utilizing third-party outsourcing services has helped streamline their tax and audit departments.

We spoke with HF processes manager, Bridget Fee, about how they have made these arrangements work for their team and clients. Fee manages all processes for the firm, ensuring everything is running smoothly and implementing necessary tweaks along the way.

With more than 55 employees, the HF team elected to outsource some work through services such as SurePrep and Paro. Both offer different arrangements for outsourcing and were set up in their own ways.

Fee’s more than 13 years with HF have included experience in marketing, information technology, administration and more, helping her to have a 360-degree view of the firm and allowing her to create processes that run the most efficiently. To lay the outsourcing groundwork, Fee also worked with HF tax partner, Andrew Ryzner and audit partner, Erica Peterson, to provide additional support and guidance.

The HF team has partnered with SurePrep for the last three tax

seasons, expanding their agreement with them this year to include outsourcing returns. SurePrep is a CPAmerica Preferred Provider and offers a wide range of outsourcing services which help you expand your firm’s bandwidth without the burden of hiring and training personnel, allowing your team to concentrate on reviewing returns and providing other important value-added services to your clients.

They have also utilized the third-party services offered through Paro for more than two years. With Paro, your firm has the ability to interview and work with a specific person for a contracted period of time. You can also work with each new individual during a trial period to ensure they are a good fit for your team. Through their contract, HF is guaranteed for this individual to work a certain number of hours during tax season.

Aside from the obvious benefits of saving time and decreasing employee workloads, there was an unexpected benefit that arose through their SurePrep partnership.

“When we receive the materials back from SurePrep, someone needs to review everything before it goes to a manager for approval. So we actually had our second-year interns help check all the returns, follow up with the clients for any missing documents and prepare it all for the manager’s review. We found that because of this system, we were actually creating ‘baby checkers’ in our staff,” explained Fee.

Integrating these outsourcing tools was not a complicated process, however Fee shared that it may not operate perfectly at first. Noting that their team needed to make a few adjustments regarding things like how they shared engagement letters with their clients, what technology was available to the outsourced employees, and educating individuals in other states on local laws.

“Once we had all of our processes in place and we could see the quality of the work being produced, we had no concerns about outsourcing. Plus, it freed up people to be able to complete

See Outsourcing, continued on page 2

Bridget Fee

Preferred Provider Spotlight: SUREPREP

About SurePrep

They’ve been building relationships with CPAmerica, Inc. member firms since their founding in 2002, and we’ve been a CPAmerica, Inc. Alliance Partner since 2018. They use a consultative approach to help you improve the efficiency and profitability of your tax practice.

SurePrep is the leader in 1040 productivity

SurePrep delivers seamless integration with your exisiting tax software to automate the process of three times as many source documents as their competitors and streamlines the collection of those documents with software your clients will use and love.

CPAmerica members receive

• Consultation to explore the firm’s 1040/1041 tax

Continued from Outsourcing, on page 1

necessary higher-level work,” said Fee.

Now more than three years into the process, Fee has some valuable insights from their experiences.

“Before selecting a company to work with for outsourcing, it’s crucial to spend some time doing your research and figuring out exactly what you want to be outsourced and how you can fit that into your firm,” said Fee.

When looking to explore outsourcing staff for your firm, Fee recommends asking yourself the following questions: Is your

Upcoming Event Dates

Scan the QR code below for complete event information, a full list of events and to complete your registration.

document automation

• 20% software discount for new customers

(SurePrep sometimes offers early season discounts and CPAmerica memebrs can leverage the larger discount)

• Scanner testing

• 10 free 1040SCAN ORGANIZE units

For more information, visit www.sureprep.com or contact Greg Pope at gpope@sureprep.com.

team short staffed? Do you need to free up resources in some fashion? And most importantly, where are the bottlenecks in your processes?

Fee says the answers to those questions will help shape what your actual needs are and how to manage outsourcing at your firm. There are many vendors that offer various levels of outsourcing that can be utilized for a short- or long-term arrangement. Selecting the right provider for your firm is imperative and will save you more time in the long run.

If you have any questions about outsourcing staff at HF, please contact Bridget Fee at bridget.fee@hfco.com.

Member News

LMC announces new partner promotion their outsourced CFO services, fullservice tax consulting, and compliance support. Pritchard is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA).

LMC is pleased to announce that Maritza Ortiz has been promoted to Partner in the LM CFO Partners Division of the firm. LM CFO Partners provides clients with high level strategic planning, CFO and bookkeeping services. Ortiz has been with the firm since its inception in 2010, and has been an integral part of the firm’s overall growth. Her dedication to clients, together with her ability to intuitively understand clients’ needs and to consistently meet multiple deadlines has proven to be an incredible asset to the firm. Adding Ortiz to their firm leadership will strengthen the firm’s overall position and allow us to continue to provide clients with superior service. Congratulations to Ortiz on this welldeserved promotion.

Hospitality industry veteran joins Antares Group

Antares Group is pleased to announce Alisia Kleinmann has joined the firm as their new director of strategic growth.

Kleinmann brings over a decade of experience in restaurant/hospitality industry technology, including SaaS and ERP sales, and has spent time at both Sage Intacct and Restaurant365.

tax, for-profit reviews and compilations, as well as non-profit and governmental auditing. Brickley DeLong is excited to watch these three committed individuals grow within the profession and contribute to the firm’s success for many years to come.

Thompson Greenspon named top Washington-area workplace

CS&L CPAs, a certified public accounting firm located in Bradenton, Sarasota, and Tampa, Florida, is pleased to announce Amie Fox and Jordan Pritchard have been promoted to principal. Fox is a certified public accountant with more than 15 years of experience in public accounting. She began her career in Arizona with an accounting firm focusing in high-net worth individuals and real estate. She specializes in small business and individual clients, trust and partnerships. She enjoys working closely with her clients to understand their unique business needs in order to deliver exceptional service and outcomes. Fox is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA) and the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants (ASCPA). Jordan Pritchard has been a certified public accountant for more than 10 years and has spent his career in both public accounting and the private sector.

Pritchard brings an added perspective of having been a chief operating officer and chief accounting officer for a closely-held business being responsible for financial reporting, treasury management, internal controls, and merger and acquisition activity.

Pritchard works with their clients through

Kleinmann’s expertise is in enterprise brands, partner ecosystems, and leveraging both best-in-class and emerging technologies. She has spent her career building long-term, powerful partnerships that provide value and insight in an ever-evolving industry. With more than 40 years of experience providing accounting, tax, and technology services to a client base that encompasses more than 1,500 restaurant locations that span 39 states and the District of Columbia, Antares Group is dedicated to providing its clients with best-inclass technology that can integrate the solutions they need to help their operations run smoothly. The addition of a director of strategic growth marks their firm’s ongoing commitment to investing in these solutions for your continued success.

Brickley DeLong announces recent promotions

Brickley DeLong, a full service public accounting and business consulting firm in West Michigan, is pleased to announce recent promotions. Amy Deming, CPA , is in the Muskegon office and has been promoted to supervisor. Deming joined the firm in 2018 as an intern and specializes in employee benefit plan audits and also performs non-profit audits and provides tax services. William Wright, CPA , is in the Grand Rapids office and has been promoted to supervisor. Wright joined the firm in early 2019 and works largely with the governmental sector, and is assisting in expanding the firm’s municipal audit service line. Christina Schultz, CPA , is in the Grand Haven office and has been promoted to senior accountant. Schultz also joined the firm in early 2019 as an intern. Schultz’s experience has been in various areas of

Thompson Greenspon has been named one of The Washington Post’s 2023 Top Workplaces in the Washington, D.C. area. Selection is based solely on employee feedback gathered through an anonymous third-party survey administered by research partner Energage, LLC, which measured several aspects of workplace culture, including alignment, execution, and connection This year’s honorees include government contractors, real estate firms, consulting groups, and tech companies. Chip Helme, managing principal, says “We are truly honored to be recognized as a Washington Post 2023 Top Workplace for the ninth year. This achievement reflects our unwavering commitment to cultivating a positive and empowering work environment where our team members can thrive and make a lasting impact.”

DMJPS named one of the 2023 Best Employers in N.C.

DMJPS PLLC is pleased to announce it has been named one of the 2023 Best Employers by Business North Carolina. DMJPS is one of only one of four accounting firms honored. In the large employer, DMJPS is was one of the 17 businesses selected and only one of four accounting firms that made this year’s list. DMJPS CPA + Advisors is a tax, assurance, and business advisory firm that provides a wide range of specialized solutions and routinely solves complex matters for individuals, nonprofit organizations, privately-held businesses, and corporations. DMJPS was formed to make a positive impact by one guiding principle: Be Greater. To determine the 2023 Best Employers in North Carolina Business North Carolina partnered with DataJoe, a market research firm, to survey employees and their employers. The survey included important workplace satisfaction topics such as work-life balance, benefits, training, and social responsibility. DMJPS has received this recognition by Business North Carolina for 10 consecutive years.

Maritza Ortiz

Amie Fox

Jordan Pritchard

Alisia Kleinmann

CS&L CPAs promotes two new principals to leadership team

CPAmerica Insights

Think beyond work

The quickening pace of disruption and the irreversible paradigm shift in the workforce have firms facing an unrelenting set of challenges today. Technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), is enjoying celebrity status with some firms seeming to have found the way into the inner circle, while others are hanging in the crowd outside the velvet rope taking in the red carpet looks anticipating when the affordable version will be available for the mainstream.

The outcomes of mastering new technology solutions of any scope for your firm are exciting, energizing, and a path to better client service and growing profitability. The subject of talent, in comparison, is discussed like the infamous relative you have to invite to the party.

I’m not suggesting firms don’t value and respect their people. What I am hearing is fatigue from trying to understand why team members aren’t staying, if you can even get them to come in the first place, despite your genuine efforts. Compensation plays a role here, but we can discuss that another time. I’d like to address the ideas of purpose, worklife harmony, and the notion that work being someone’s entire life is no longer a measure of success.

We agree the profession suffers from misperceptions about being boring, grueling and unrewarding. Those of you have been around awhile know this to be

wholly untrue – in the long run. Every career has elements of the job that are unfulfilling, yet somehow accounting is the unwitting winner of the award.

You have to ask what you’re doing internally to overcome this misconception. One observation is partner behavior that dually effects client transition and the ability to develop new partners. Not passing down work and not encouraging client relationships with the team, rather than with only the partner, are missed opportunities for technical development, and more importantly, to expose future leaders to the best parts of the job, helping people and the relationships.

This is a people profession; you are helping people in profound ways they could not do without you. That is surely a noble purpose that is underplayed. Society would be a mess without you!

Remote and hybrid work remain controversial. However, it does support the flexibility required to create a harmonization between work and personal life. Technology is the backbone of allowing such flexibility. And top talent expects your firm to be technologically sound or they will go elsewhere.

I heard a speaker on AI who asserted that in “co-working” with technology, the human side is community focused which is not an attribute of the tech side. Community implies a togetherness achieved by purposefully interacting with one another through teaching, learning, and fellowship.

Having a culture committee or a position

dedicated to people can identify meaningful ways to connect. Creating an environment that encourages a healthy personal life and offers a sense of community will produce a team that understands there is an equilibrium between the high-intensity times and their long-term satisfaction.

Member firm Maxwell Locke + Ritter’s motto, “No success at work is worth failure at home,” is a great example of this balance.

The inherent opportunity here is to be a role model for your talent. Imparting the importance of what you do through exposure. Surveys show in many cases that partner hours are surpassing staff hours. The positive impact is taking care of the firm and its people. But at some point, this becomes negative when no room is being made for the creativity and stamina of younger people; those who can grow to lead the firm. Witnessing unremitting working hours is not inspiring to the younger generation of leaders whose resounding voice says, “I don’t want that as my life.” This has been said to me during many VIPs. This issue of CPAmerica Advantage is about outsourcing, which is one remedy to the talent crisis. Outsourcing can be a great solution, but is separate from the issue of attracting and retaining the firm’s domestic staff.

You have a choice to make decisions that do not diminish your value but instead empower you to be more of a teacher and less of a doer. You can show people not just how to work, but how to live.

Grace Horvath, President