PUBLIC PRACTICE

Many firms perform a large majority of their services in the first 25 percent of the year, and this often requires a significant overtime commitment to make sure that the workload gets completed timely in such a compacted period. Successful firms will strive for creative ways to increase capacity and decrease burnout. Hiring per-diem help during crunch time is a solution many firms have used for years. This concept has expanded recently with more professional service firms offering outsourced businessto-business services.

For accounting firms, outsourcing can take various forms. One is sending tax returns to an outsourcing provider, and another could be having a “team member” from anywhere helping the team as a temporary, remote employee. If there was a bottomless talent pool, there would not be an issue; however, it is a struggle for teams to find talent. By adopting remote desktops, firms can add employees from other states. This opens the talent pool, but also requires a firm to be able to work, communicate and train remotely.

The unicorn for many accountants is the day that they no longer need to keep time sheets. In an age when firms utilize realization statistics and KPIs to help evaluate staff members, it may be hard to eliminate the time sheet. But firms with no timesheets still have time as a component of the conversation. The timesheet is more of an internal measurement strictly to ensure that jobs are not a bottomless pit of time. Firms that do not keep timesheets can focus on making sure their staff have shortterm, hard deadlines that they are required to meet to promote quick turnaround. This concept is still evolving, and traditional firms will likely not eliminate timekeeping altogether, but it is a step in the direction of the future. When the larger firms figure out how to do this and successfully evaluate team members, other firms will likely follow. The pandemic has proved that working remotely can be successful. While lessexperienced staff may need to be in the office to develop their skills and learn from management, it is possible to work remotely for extended periods of time and still get the work done. This gives employees the flexibility to not only choose their own hours, but also to choose where they work. Logging in from a vacation home or Air B&B could be just as productive as logging in from home.

Next Steps

While not every firm may be ready to make the leap to future-proof themselves all at once, changes can be made one step at a time. This could be as simple as testing software by putting a small batch of work through it or having a few remote-only days during the slower months to help with work-life balance. At the end of the day, the profession is changing, and those who do not adapt will slowly fade away.

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