In his keynote address at the 2015 California Accounting & Business Show & Conference, Jim McGinnis, vice president, Intuit® Accountant and Advisor Group, unveiled FirmoftheFuture.com, a free online resource that helps accounting professionals transform their businesses to ensure future success.
FirmoftheFuture.com curates content, actionable step-by-step guides and resource links, developed by Intuit and key industry leaders, to support and help accounting professionals navigate the current trends to work more efficiently, better collaborate, connect with their small business clients and achieve long-term success.
“Accounting firms that don’t adapt to the economic, demographic and technological trends affecting how clients expect to collaborate will not survive the onslaught of disruptive changes,” said McGinnis. “We’re pleased to be the first to partner with accounting professionals and offer them a resource center to help them embrace change and build a future-ready firm now.”
FirmoftheFuture.com helps accounting professionals transform their practices by offering resources in three key areas:
- Get on the Cloud: Nearly 80 percent of U.S. small businesses will be fully adapted to cloud computing by 2020, around the time 75 percent of accounting professionals reach retirement age. After spending a lifetime building their firm, accountants risk firm stagnation or extinction if they don’t reduce dependence on paper documents and help clients shift toward a digital platform.
- Become a Trusted Advisor: According to the AICPA, 52 percent of business decision makers rank CPAs as their most trusted advisor – the highest among all financial professionals. Being viewed as a trusted advisor, rather than as an accountant or bookkeeper alone, can help insulate your firm from competition. It can also uncover opportunities to provide advisory services that generate additional revenue.
- Get Connected: In the past, a storefront sign was the ideal way to promote and greet your prospective and current clients. But, the web is now the new lobby for future-ready firms. Clients and prospects are no longer local; they are around the globe and expect their accountant to take advantage of social media tools, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, to connect and engage with them.
The Search for the Top Firms of the Future
Intuit also plans to celebrate the top accounting firms whose forward-thinking and practices make them a future-ready firm right now. A contest, expected to launch in early July, will reward up to 20 accounting firms that are innovating and shaping the way accounting professionals meet the needs of their small business clients. The competition will culminate with the top Firms of the Future being recognized on stage at QuickBooks Connect, November 2-4, in San Jose, Calif. For those interested in applying, visit FirmoftheFuture.com to be notified about further details, and join the conversation online using the #QBFirmOfTheFuture hashtag.
Intuit has secured the collaboration of Darren Root to help define the criteria for evaluation of entries and participate in the selection of winners. Root, a longtime CPA.CITP, is a widely-acclaimed industry thought leader, prolific author and CEO of Rootworks, an organization geared toward helping accounting firms transform through technology and entrepreneurial strategies. Having inspired thousands of accounting professionals to change the way they think about their businesses, Root is a natural voice to amplify the message of FirmoftheFuture.com.
“As accountants, we are often so consumed with the day-to-day workflow of our firms that we don’t make time to think holistically about our businesses,” said Root. “Cloud computing technologies are tools that can help firms operate more efficiently and support the balanced life we desire. Intuit’s FirmoftheFuture.com will help accounting professionals understand and implement these beneficial technologies and business practices and transform their traditional firms into what I refer to as the ‘Next Generation Accounting Firm®.’”
QuickBooks® Connect Early Bird Registration Opens June 8
With dozens of sessions specifically designed for accountants that hone in on leveraging the cloud, becoming a trusted advisor and building your online presence, QuickBooks Connect will help your firm become the firm of the future…right now. Registration to attend opens June 8. You will be challenged to go further, think differently and embrace the cloud to properly value the services you provide, grow your firm and better support your clients. Go to quickbooksconnect.com for more information.
Source and Disclosures:
Source - Press Release: Intuit® Opens FirmoftheFuture.com to Help Firms Transform Their Practices, June 1, 2015. Published in the Intuit Accountant's News Central Blog here.