The Connected Accountant

So what do your employees REALLY think about your company?

Or, for that matter, what do they think about you.  You could hang out at the water cooler to try and find out, but there are also some other tools out there that might help you peek behind the curtain.

One of the best that I have seen is www.glassdoor.com.  Just enter your company's name (or the name of a client company) and see what the anonymous employees (or ex-employees) are saying about you.

A few gems:

Reznick Group: (an IGAF Worldwide member) “A fast growing, young firm, that is a great place to start and could be a good place to stay.”  Reznick scored a 3.7 average

Crowe Horwath: (not an IGAF Worldwide member) “A descent (sic) place to work.”  Crowe Horwath scored a 3.4 average. 

(One could perhaps suggest that elementary grammar and spelling lessons might be in order at some firms!)

KPMG: (a member of the 'Final 4') "A great company, but beware of the internal politics and backstabbing." KPMG scored a 3.6 average.

All of which is to say that your employees MAY tell you what they think of working for you - but they will DEFINITELY tell their peers, and these days that is not confined to the water cooler! 

Accountants in Congress

I don't know what to make of this but, according to a report on the 109th Congress  from the Library of Congress, 6 members of Congress were (or are still) accountants.  That is a little over 1.1% of the 540 individuals who serve in Congress from the 50 states, as well as delegates from places such as Guam, Puerto Rico and D.C.

During the same time period, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report states that there were 1.3 million auditors and accountants employed in the US. With non-farm payroll at the same time quoted as 137M, it could be argued that accountants were slightly over-represented in Congress - although the loss of one member would have changed that to slight under-representation!

Compare that to vintners (two members) and radio broadcasters (five members) and accountants might certainly seem to be outnumbered - at least proportional to their numbers in society.  The real discrepancy comes when you look at lawyers (42% of the 109th Congress) and Congressional staffers (20% of the 109th Congress).

Any accountants out there want to answer the call to public service?

Disaster Recovery? I mean a REAL disaster

First of all, the really bad news.  IGAF Worldwide member firm Stone Carlie, based in St. Louis, MO recently lost their Managing Partner, Tom Valenti to a senseless act of violence.  Family, friends and IGAF Worldwide member firms were able to follow Tom's ordeal through the postings that his wife, Carla, made on a website designed for this purpose.

And while it might seem gauche to even ponder 'business' at a time like this, it is worth pointing out that in addition to attending the funeral and other events to memorialize Tom, IGAF Worldwide members sent their internally developed 'partner loss' programs to Stone Carlie.

And so the question is this - Many firms have 'key man insurance' on their Managing Partner and/or other partners.  And while cash is always handy, what plans to you have to deal with clients, the media and perhaps most importantly the lost partner's family? 

For you, will a crisis like this truly become a disaster, or the implementation of plan that works, but that you hoped you would never have to use?

Value Billing/Pricing

O.K, I am not sure if lawyers are the ones to follow here, but there does seem to be more traction for this in the legal community than among accountants.

A post on Jim Hasset's blog has a neat summation of all of the reasons why lawyers should at least look at this - and most of them apply to accountants too.