Rosenberg Associates Blog

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You Need More Partners: How Do You Get Your Managers Interested?

Avatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / July 31, 2024

We all know that promoting from within is often the best path to continue a CPA firm’s success. The ability for long-term managers to carry on the client service practices you’ve developed over the years is easier than getting lateral hires up to speed and in alignment with your culture. On this topic, we received…

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Bringing in a New Partner: Changing to Today’s World

Avatar photoMarc Rosenberg, CPA / June 24, 2024

We know all too well that the #1 challenge in the CPA profession is finding and retaining people. Drilling down, the interrelated issues are: The declining number of accountants High school and college students’ reduced interest in accounting majors Partners being too busy to mentor staff and focus on this The challenge that firms have…

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Should CPA Firms Continue the Decades-Long Practice of New Partner Buy-Ins?

Avatar photoMarc Rosenberg, CPA / August 9, 2023

Aspiring accountants who are invited to become a partner in their CPA firm usually face the hurdle of a buy-in requirement. This requirement is a payment that new partners must make to gain an ownership stake in the firm. Depending on the practice’s size, the buy-in requirement can be substantial at some firms, ranging from…

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Time Tracking: A Partner-Candidate Asks If It’s Worth It

Avatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / May 17, 2023

We previously shared Part 1 of this series. Read it here.  We occasionally receive lengthy replies to our blogs and like to share our readers’ perspectives. A senior manager of a three-partner firm in the Midwest wrote to us, following my April Fool’s blog on raising the minimum retirement age to 85, articulating frustration with…

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What Partner Candidates Need to Know

Avatar photoMarc Rosenberg, CPA / November 16, 2022

I recently spoke with a young man at a 12-partner CPA firm who was anticipating being offered a partnership in the next couple of years. He wanted some guidance on whether or not to accept the offer, should it be made. It turned out he had quite a few misconceptions about how someone becomes a…

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Can a 100% Remote Person Become a Partner?

Avatar photoMarc Rosenberg, CPAAvatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / August 30, 2022

Working remotely triggers “outside-the-box” thinking Can you name a more vivid example of a situation needing “outside-the-box” thinking during the last three years than dealing with the avalanche of remote workers? Remote working in the CPA profession was in use for decades before the pandemic, but relatively infrequently, with the vast majority of remote workers…

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Professional reviewing compensation document at desk.

How Do Founders Compensate New Partners?

Avatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / August 11, 2022

Many CPA firm founding partners are generous in casting off some of their compensation to incoming partners in the form of a promotion raise. At the same time, few founders would give up a sizeable chunk of what they have created to date. In other words, just because the new partners join as owners, they…

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Hands-Off Leadership Development Heralded by CPA Firm Leaders

Avatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / April 1, 2022

As featured in Accounting Today. You’re busy. Everyone is. You also need a pipeline of future leaders to continue to run the profitable accounting firm you’ve created and provide you, hopefully, with a generous internal buyout. You’ve been hearing that you need to actively develop your team to be successful, but who has time for…

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10 Steps to New Partner Development

Avatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / March 29, 2022

As featured in the CPA Leadership Journal. Do you want your CPA firm to thrive for years to come? Invest in the future of your firm by prioritizing new partner development. Use these ten best practices in new partner development to guide your firm to a bright future. 1.  Communicate the Benefits of Partnership Never…

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Income Partner: Permanent Position or Stepping Stone to Equity?

Avatar photoMarc Rosenberg, CPAAvatar photoKristen Rampe, CPA / February 16, 2022

Question from a CPA firm: Our firm has an annual revenue of $10M. We are considering someone for partnership who will likely always be an income partner. In the past, we have admitted new partners as income partners, knowing that eventually they would become equity partners. This is a first for us, and we need…

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