The Scaling New Heights Conference is always a highlight of each year for me. It provides opportunities to network with fellow accountants, pause to take in enriching educational sessions and to learn about new accounting technology. I always leave the conference feeling like I did not have enough time to absorb all of the resources available during the conference. But maybe that’s how it should be -- leaving participants challenged to continue scaling for new heights when returning to the office and counting down the weeks until the next Scaling New Heights Conference. This year proves to be another fabulous conference with each day filled to the brim with rich content!
Don’t miss our session “How to Create a High Tech Firm” on Tuesday, May 24th at 10:50 a.m. This interactive session will include both a mini-lecture period and a panel discussion with three dynamic panelists who are truly helping accountants create a High Tech Firm. You will have the opportunity to ask the panelists questions and learn how your fellow accountants are capitalizing on the benefits of being a high tech firm.
You may ask, “How does creating a high tech firm benefit my practice?” To answer this question, I would like to ask you a question, “How can you accomplish 10 hours of work in an eight-hour work day?” We love our hourly bill rate schedule, but realize that we only have so many hours in a day to complete all of the work our clients need us to do. We can either hire more employees to help us accomplish this task, or we can empower our current team to work smarter and more efficiently to accomplish the same goal.
By empowering our teams, we will realize the hourly rate we so desperately want to bill, and we will also be best positioned for value billing. This is a win-win for you and your clients, because value billing allows you to not only charge your standard rate, but charge a set overall price for those services that would be greater than our hourly rate. The work is completed accurately in a shorter time period and you have the feeling of accomplishment because you have happy clients. Plus, as you are adding value to the services for your clients, your clients value it enough to pay more for it.
You will leave the session with the tools to begin your journey to a high tech firm or continue growing the one you currently have. We will explore a sample of ways to gain efficiency in the daily tasks you perform, and will offer approaches to change the way you think about your daily workflow. Remember, if you are performing the same transaction for your client twice, or, if you are manually entering information in their QuickBooks file, you are probably not maximizing the tools that have already been created for accountants like us. We will break down how to navigate the sea of third-party applications and what you need to know to stay on the cutting edge of the solutions that can help solve daily work flow problems for your clients. I hope you make plans to join us this year for a conference that continues to delight all of us each year!
Denise Bailey, ABA, is Director of Accounting Systems Consulting for elliott davis decosimo. Denise has provided businesses of various sizes with accounting, tax planning
Denise Bailey, ABA
and new company, startup consulting for over fourteen years. She has specialized expertise in sales and use tax reporting and compliance, payroll tax reporting and compliance and income tax planning.
She has extensive knowledge of QuickBooks accounting software, specializing in inventory system analysis and procedure implementation. Denise provides customized tracking data and reports for large, complex projects and delivers scalable solutions aimed at improving processes, utilizing technology and ensuring compliance. She has provided training and technical support to QuickBooks users since 2001.