There are two major costs when taking client accounting advisory services into account: technology and people, according to Samantha Mansfield, Director of Professional Development & Community at CPA.com. For technology expenses, firms need to plan for experimentation time, to try different tools and assess what works and doesn’t for the firm, and training time, whether for one person or a team. On the people side, firms need to consider current staff skillsets and the risk of losing subject matter expertise as staff depart or retire and how to counter the loss. It is when you marry subject matter expertise on staff with the right technology that you can really drive profitability for clients, and your own.
