Professional News

By Tom Mishoe, CPA, CMA, MBA CPA firm growth may occur either organically or through acquisition. Firms often choose to acquire other practices to (1) more quickly achieve desired client, revenue or profit growth, (2) fill existing or expected partner/employee, geographic or service capability

By Ira S. Rosenbloom, CPA Mergers and acquisitions are much like any other marriage. While the courting and planning are exciting stages, the success of the match comes once the parties are living and functioning together. There is no such thing as a perfect CPA firm merger, but like marriage, some

By Gabriele Lingenfelter, CPA The accounting profession is changing. Because of the automation of routine accounting tasks, CPA firms will not need to hire as many accounting graduates for entry-level positions. Future entry-level CPAs will need to shift from preparing historical financial documents

By Brannon Poe, CPA A few years ago I read “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” by Alice Schroeder. One of the business adventures the Oracle of Omaha encountered in his career happened when he bought a company from an 89-year-old seller without a noncompete agreement. Whatever

When Luck Companies decided it was time for such a thought shift, it wound up changing the company’s culture in a way none of the company’s leadership could have predicted. Luck, a Richmond-based mining and construction company, went through a period of rapid growth in the 1990s, but the growth

By Yanhua Bai and John Brozovsky, Ph.D. In 2013, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) listed theft of sensitive data as the fourth top cybercrime. Database security breaches have caused a huge amount of damage to companies across the United States. As companies rely more and more on the Internet

By Cheri G. David, CPA, CVA Divorce can be like a stomach-turning roller-coaster ride. For me, it started in the Hanover Circuit Court, headed up to the Virginia Appellate Court and then all the way to the top — the Virginia Supreme Court — with an explosive win. And then, I came all the way back

There are many good accounting firms out there, but there are far fewer great ones. Improvement is an ongoing part of being in business, and the higher you reach, typically the better the result. The results are dependent on many factors, not the least of which are planning, timing and luck. Timing

By Neena Shukla, CPA CFE, CGMA, FCPA You will often hear from leaders in professional service firms that a key challenge for them is business development and bringing in new business. Success is driven by the competency in mastering these skills and building a firm culture where everyone

By Kevin Doyle, CPA, CFE, CFF, CGMA How much is your company losing each year to fraud? According to the 2014 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), survey participants estimated that the typical organization loses 5 percent of