On April 30, 2019, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined YAEGER CPA Review & More’s podcast. In this episode of CPA Review & More Phil interviews Jeff Phillips from Accountingfly, click here to listen.
PODCAST: Thought Leader – Jeff Phillips on his passion for remote work (Sage Advice)
On April 22, 2019, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined Sage Advice’s podcast, click here to listen. Jeff Phillips is an entrepreneur and business leader who has spent the last 19 years in the recruitment industry. He is currently a Co-Founder and CEO of Accountingfly, an online recruitment platform that matches accountants and bookkeepers with full […]
PODCAST: All about Jeff Phillips and Accountingfly (Playing Above the Line)
On April 9, 2019, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined Playing Above the Line’s podcast, click here to listen. Jeff Phillips is an entrepreneur and business leader who has spent the last 19 years in the recruitment industry. He is currently a Co-Founder and CEO of Accountingfly, an online recruitment platform that matches accountants and bookkeepers […]
Why Accounting is the Key to Expanding the Digital Nomad Movement
Getting paid to sit on a beach in Tahiti or ski a few runs at Whistler Mountain might sound a little too good to be true—if it were 2004. But with the power of reliable Wi-Fi and a trusty laptop, the age-old idea that traveling the world while earning a living is only a fantasy […]
Accounting Job SEO Checklist
This post is an excerpt from the Accountingfly eBook, “How to Write the Ultimate Accounting Job Posting.” This eBook will teach you how to write more engaging and actionable job postings. Click here to download. Before submitting your accounting job posting, consult this SEO checklist to make sure you’re maximizing traffic and visibility. You’ve used […]
3 Insurance and Liability Concerns Cloud and Hybrid Accounting Firms Must Consider
If you’re running a purely cloud or hybrid accounting firm, you’re living in the Wild West. The regulatory and tax laws that will ultimately govern your business haven’t been written yet. It’s impossible to prepare for the legal and liability issues you’ll face one, five, or 10 years down the road. And as such, the […]
The Top 5 Questions Your Accounting Job Posting Must Answer
This post is an excerpt from the Accountingfly eBook, “How to Write the Ultimate Accounting Job Posting.” This eBook will teach you how to write more engaging and actionable job postings. Click here to download. There are many approaches to writing a successful accounting job posting, so sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. […]
What Happens When an Accountant Violates Your Remote Work Policy?
Hopefully by now you’ve got a remote accountant policy firmly in place. If not, check out some of our older blogs for legal steps you need to take before making your first remote accountant hire and six things your remote accountant policy should include. But before you start deploying a full-scale cloud accountant army, there’s another […]
Adding a Video to Your Accounting Job Posting Can Improve Results
We live in an age of glowing rectangles, buzzing smartphones, and unlimited entertainment options. It’s the era of TL;DR, where innumerable sources of work and fun are constantly vying for our attention. Through email, text messages, news articles, advertisements, and industry reports for work, we’re bombarded with thousands of words a day. We couldn’t read […]
What to Do When Your Accounting Job Postings Aren’t Working
It’s no secret that hiring accountants is a buyers market. While the number of accountants in the U.S. is increasing, demand is outpacing the supply, particularly when it comes to CPAs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of accountants and auditors is expected to grow 10% by 2026, which is faster than the […]
6 Things Your Remote Accountant Policy Should Include (But Probably Doesn’t)
In a previous blog, we talked about some legal steps you need to take before bringing on your first remote hire. We outlined a few basic components you should include in your remote accountant policy, but we kept things pretty general. Hopefully by now you have a remote accountant policy firmly in place. But as […]
Is Marketing Automation Right for Your Accounting Firm?
We, for one, welcome our new computer overlords. You’ve already surrendered many HR and internal accounting tasks to the gods of automation. Should marketing be next on the list? Well … maybe. Many of your peers have made the leap. Marketing automation software generated $3.86 billion in 2016 and is projected to earn up to $7.63 […]
Does Workplace by Facebook Offer Anything for Accounting Firms?
Over the last few months, Facebook has been relentlessly pushing its Workplace by Facebook platform, expanding the app’s feature list while ramping up its marketing. Its most recent PR blitz occurred this past June, as Facebook unveiled the company’s new Workplace for Good program, touting free access to Workplace Premium for nonprofits and educational institutions among […]
Why Accountingfly is the Best Recruiting Service for Hiring Remote Accountants
Over the last few months, we’ve provided you with a lot of great content about remote accounting. From what to do before you make your first remote hire to helping your remote workers stay productive to deciding between a pure virtual or hybrid model, we’ve given you a lot of tools that will help you […]
Top 5 Virtual Communication Apps
As you move your accounting firm more into the cloud and rely more on virtual employees, you’ll need to use virtual communication apps to stay in touch with workers and clients, keep everyone on the same page, and ensure key benchmarks are being met on time. But with the wealth of virtual communication app options […]
How Accounting Firms Can Turn Data Into Analytics for Better Decisions
Everyone is talking about analytics these days. As we gather more info about our customers, we need to find ways to turn that data into insights that drive stronger decision making. The conversation used to be about big data. That was a discussion about how to properly store the massive amounts of customer demographics and […]
PODCAST: Recruiting Expert Reveals How to Attract 50X More Qualified Job Applicants (Jetpack Workflow)
On June 14, 2018, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined Jetpack Workflow’s podcast. Jeff Phillips, a co-founder of Accountingfly and publisher at accounting blog, Going Concern, has been in the recruiting business for over 20 years. He’s about to reveal how to attract 50X more qualified job applicants, click here to listen. Because, in today’s […]
Which Model is Right For You? Purely Virtual vs. Hybrid
As your firm transitions toward the cloud and remote accounting, what does the end result look like? Should you be moving toward a purely virtual model, abandoning the traditional office completely and connecting to each other and clients purely through technology? Or is a hybrid approach smarter, with some work occurring virtually but some still […]
How Can You Tell If You’re Running a Truly ‘Cloud-First’ Accounting Firm?
We’re rapidly approaching the point where nearly all traditional accounting firms are operating some part of their business in the cloud, or are at least planning to do so soon. And we know there are a growing number of “cloud-only” firms that operate exclusively through web-based software, many of which don’t have a physical office. […]
4 Surprising Facts About Remote Accountants
You know by now that the remote revolution is upon us. Workers are embracing work-from-home options and flooding to the gig economy in droves. According to a 2017 report, 3.9 million employees currently work from home at least half the time. That’s a 115% increase in remote workers since 2005. But misconceptions about remote work […]
How to Help Remote Workers Stay Productive
We live in an age of constant distraction–especially for those who work at home. TV, videogames, Netflix, and more are all within an arm’s reach. And that’s not to mention the ultimate time stealer: the smartphone. How many times have you picked up your smartphone for legitimate business and wound up spending $0.99 on the […]
How to Build the Ultimate Cloud Accounting Team
Maybe you’re interested in moving some or all of your accounting firm into the cloud, but you’re stuck with a lingering question: How do I organize my team in a way that will maximize the benefits of the cloud? Cloud accounting teams are typically a mix of freelance per diem workers performing gig assignments, permanent […]
What Is a Cloud Accounting Firm?
Google “cloud accounting firm,” and what do you get? A bunch of ads for businesses promising “flexible deployment,” “integrated systems,” and “remote capabilities.” What you won’t find is a real definition of the term. So we’ve gathered insights from some of the world’s leading experts on the subject and combined them with our own knowledge […]
4 Crucial Steps to Take Before Making Your First Remote Accounting Hire
So you think you’re ready to join the craze and hire your first remote accounting employee. But are you really ready? Really, really legally, every contract signed, every hypothetical planned for, every policy in place ready? Even if you’ve been spending months preparing for your first remote hire, you still may have missed a critical […]
Why Some Companies are Resisting Remote Work (and Why They’re Wrong)
Last year, IBM decided to “co-locate” its 2,600 member US marketing department. Translation? IBM is eliminating remote work. The news is especially shocking as IBM is one of the pioneers of remote work, installing work-from-home terminals for some employees as far back as the 1980s. As more businesses move toward embracing remote work, others are resisting the […]
How to Get Big Money from Small Business
Hear that? It’s the sound of a new business starting. And if you can pinpoint exactly what that sound is (a car engine revving, maybe?), you’ll hear it about 450,000 more times this year. (Now, admittedly, that number is a 40-year low for the US, and overall entrepreneurship is down, at least based on the 2014 […]
PODCAST: Workaholism, toxic meetings, and remote work (Blake Oliver)
On March 7, 2018, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined Blake Oliver and FloQast’s podcast. On Episode 6 of the podcast, I’m joined by Jeff Phillips of Accountingfly, a site for accountants and finance professionals to apply easily to hundreds of great jobs, click here to listen. Topics discussed: The four drivers of workaholism, and […]
How to Make Remote Workers Feel Like Part of the Team
Picture the remote worker. Is he in his PJs, waking up at noon, getting in an hour of work between his favorite soap operas? Is she isolated on some distant planet, beaming projects to your office across intergalactic satellites, a faceless drone whose physical appearance is a mystery to coworkers and bosses alike? Remote working […]
The Generation Gap Doesn’t Exist
Articles about how millennials are changing (or per your perspective, ruining,) the business world are everywhere. I even wrote one myself. And I stand by everything I wrote in that blog. You do have to change some things about your business to recruit millennials. But one of those things isn’t viewing millennials as alien beings who […]
A Data Security Breach is Now a When, Not an If
In the information economy, data has become the lifeblood of business. (Yes, we realize the previous sentence is today’s ultimate biz blog cliche, but hey, some things are cliche because they’re true.) Accounting firms feel the impact of this transition with a degree of severity far greater than other industries. Risking the sensitive financial and […]
Solving the Busy Season Cycle: The Importance of Project-Based Talent
Ever feel like you’re stuck in a cycle of upsizing and downsizing your employee roster? Busy season hits, more clients sign up, workloads increase, and you enthusiastically bring on new accountants to pick up the slack. But then the inevitable happens: clients leave, projects disappear, and workers have to be let go.
Hey, Small Accounting Firms, No One’s Reading Your Lousy Job Postings
Writing great accounting job postings is a lot like writing an ad. You don’t have to be as silly as a beer commercial, but you do have to be memorable.
To Improve Recruiting, Offer Real Employee Perks, Not Gimmicks
To land the best prospects, you need to offer real benefits that employees want. Everything else is just window dressing. Read on to discover the top employee perks that will truly accelerate your recruiting.
The Right Way for Accounting Firms to Handle Maternity Leave
Ask moms and dads across the accounting industry why firms should offer competitive maternity leave, and you’ll likely get the same answer. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
PODCAST: Where Emotion and Analytics Meet (Thriveal)
On October 11, 2017, Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly joined Thriveal’s podcast. In Episode 76, Jason Blumer and Greg Kyte discuss the emotional side of growing a firm beyond yourself (via The Emyth). How should an entrepreneur handle the business having needs of its own? Jeff Phillips from Accountingfly and Going Concern then joins them […]
4 Ways Embracing Remote Accounting Workers Can Benefit Your Business
Remote working is on the rise. In 2016, 22% of American employees did at least some of their work from home. And for those with advanced degrees over the age of 25, the number is even higher—a full 43% reported working remotely at least some of the time. It may feel natural to some accounting […]
Why Company Culture Matters—And How You Can Improve It
Salary, benefits, vacation time—these are all important factors that will determine your firm’s ability to attract and retain high-quality accounting talent. But perhaps the most important factor is one that’s often overlooked: company culture. So how do you determine the current culture at your business? And if you don’t like what you find, how do […]
3 Keys to Recruiting and Retaining Millennials in Accounting
Whether its because they’re truly fascinating or simply due to the era of widespread and constant communication we currently live in, millennials are without doubt the most analyzed generation in human history. Depending on whom you listen to, millennials are either spoiled, entitled brats or motivated, ambitious big thinkers. They’re either killing the economy or […]
How Not Responding to Accounting Candidates Can Hurt Your Brand
As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, the accounting recruitment world is a seller’s market. To land the top recruits, you need to actively market your brand and make your firm attractive above other companies competing for mindshare. At Accountingfly, we deal with the recruitment and placement of accounting professionals every day. And the #1 complaint […]
Project-Based Staffing: The Future of Accounting in the Gig Economy
Across nearly every industry, project-based or “non-recurring” jobs are on the rise. Millennials in particular are starting to abscond the traditional 9-5 workday, preferring to work on a freelance basis. The accounting industry is no different. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a surge in temporary, project-based, and seasonal accounting employment. To shed some […]
How Improving Your Brand and Content Leads to Better Accounting Hires
There are many factors that affect the hiring process for accounting and financial professionals. But we’ve found that two of the most important ones, branding and content, aren’t considered strongly enough by most hiring organizations. This blog explores why branding and content are so vital in making better hires, and offers best practices on how […]
5 Reasons to Use Accountingfly to Recruit CPAs and Financial Professionals
Meeting CPA staffing needs is a great challenge and there are plenty of options that are vying for your attention. There are dozens of recruiting agencies out there like Robert Half, the Lucas Group, and Ranstad. And there are online services such as job boards and LinkedIn. These services are fine for recruiting in some […]
Onboarding in a Virtual Environment
In a recent column, we talked about the relationship between onboarding and recruiting. That discussion relates to all firms. Virtual firms face onboarding/recruiting issues, too, but with components traditional brick-and-mortar firms don’t encounter. We spoke with Jason Blumer, managing partner of Blumer CPAs, to talk about how onboarding works in a firm like his. “The […]
Why Firms Should Begin Onboarding at the Recruitment Stage
Here’s a chicken-or-egg question for you: Is onboarding a part of recruiting or is it a totally separate process? The war for talent adds importance to the issue of whether onboarding is part of recruiting or is a separate endeavor. You know what differentiates your firm from other firms. It’s part of your firm’s tagline, […]
What Does Your Firm’s ‘Body Language’ Say About Your Firm?
Recently I wrote about the importance of being aware of body language during an interview. Body language creates a picture of who you are—Confident or nervous? Extroverted or introverted? Happy and open? These are cues interviewers look for. But it works both ways. Interviewees are equally interested in your firm’s “body language.” That, too, paints […]
Webinar | How to Improve Work Life Balance for Your Accounting Team
A recent Accountingfly poll of students and young CPA’s revealed that work life balance is more important than compensation when it comes to selecting an employer. This should serve as a wake up call – if you want to get and keep the best, your organization should take steps to increase work life balance for […]
Webinar | Recruitment Process is Mission Critical
The way your team manages new candidates has a lasting impact not only on your ability to make the hire, but also on how long they stay with you. What’s required is a new process — a simple repeatable formula you can follow, and teach to your team, that leads to better hires and better […]
Embracing Generational Disruption in the Workplace
Tech savvy | Always connected | Ambitious | Self-focused | Eager to learn | Don’t like to waste time | Entrepreneurial | Freedom-loving | Good multi-taskers | Feel respect should be earned by actions not titles | Want frequent feedback and validation | Fun-loving According to Jonathan Ebenstein, Partner/Managing Director, Marketing, at Skoda Minotti these traits are commonly exhibited by Millennials. “Their concerns have to be […]
Webinar | What Do Public Accounting Candidates Want in Their Next Job?
What do the best public accounting job seekers want in their next job?Knowing these answers can help you recruit for success. Accountingfly CEO Jeff Phillips reviews the results of the Accountingfly/Going Concern 2016 Job Seeker Survey and covers the most important factors that Senior and Manager candidates are expecting from their next employer. Jeff also […]
How One Firm’s Commitment to Value Pricing Attracts Talent
We all know things are changing in accounting. There have been many stories about how audits are a commodity and how tax software has made it easy and convenient for individuals to prepare their own tax returns. Successful firms don’t compete on price alone because they understand that is not a winning proposition. They look […]
Performance Review vs. Performance Management
“Anxiety” should be a synonym for “performance review”. The process alone can make you break out in hives. How do you rate yourself? Too high and you could appear arrogant or out of touch. Too low and you could be setting yourself up for a lower rating than you really deserve. Not having the option […]
The Talent Has Won: How Big Public Firms are Embracing Flexibility
We have a saying about the recruitment issues facing public accounting, and while I’m certain we didn’t come up with it, we’re stealing it anyway: The race for talent is over. And the talent won. If you expect to hire, and more importantly keep high performers, you should know by now the talent has won. […]
2016 Ultimate Recruiting Guide For Public Accounting Employers
Earlier this year we teamed up with Gusto to produce the 2016 Ultimate Recruiting Guide For Public Accounting Employers. In this webinar we present some key findings and important strategies from the guide that are needed to improve the culture within your team to attract and retain talent. Learn the latest tactics and technologies to source […]
Webinar | Firms That Have Great Technology Attract Great Talent
Firms must adapt to meet the needs of talent in order to recruit the best and part of that means using the latest and greatest technology. The tools your firm uses can attract or repel talent. Amy Vetter is Xero’s Global Vice President of Education & Head of Accounting and has owned her own firm. […]
Webinar | Recruitment Marketing for Accounting Firms: Proven Methods
Jeff Phillips, recruitment marketing professional and CEO of Accountingfly, walks through the top 5 strategies you need in play to attract high performers to your firm. In conjunction with the Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM).
Webinar | The Humor Account: Creating a Relevant Culture
Culture. It’s an important topic. And the reality is, most firms could use a little help in the culture department. So we called in an expert, just for you! In this webinar, Kristen Rampe, of Kristen Rampe Consulting, leads a discussion on the best practices for creating a relevant culture at your firm. Topics covered include: […]
How PYA Made 4 Hires in 6 Weeks
Pershing Yoakley & Associates (PYA) is a national leader in providing professional services to the healthcare industry. They are a multi-office firm based in the Southeast and like most firms, are working hard to attract scarce lateral talent. They rely on job boards, headhunters, and Accountingfly to deliver leads to hire. In the Summer of […]
The Power of a Strong Firm Culture
You’ve probably heard the old adage about the importance of giving children roots and wings. You’ve probably also heard that the roots are the easy part—they are your values—and that the wings are not so easy. Sometimes you have to let them go and wait for them to come back, like a boomerang. Strangely, it’s […]
The Recruiting Strategies You Need in a Tight Labor Market
It’s important that you understand what’s going on in the labor market for CPAs. Lots of accounting firm partners have unrealistic expectations about hiring high performers. It takes much longer and will cost more than you think it will, and it’s not as simple as posting a job and praying that a high performer applies. […]
What the Accounting Profession Says About Its Talent Shortage
“R u hiring? If so, give me a call.” Okay, that was a text message received by an HR manager in retail, not accounting, but it made us think about the well-documented shortage of accountants seeking a career in public accounting. Is there really a talent shortage, or is there just a disconnect between what […]
Webinar | How to Hire Seasonal CPA Talent Now
Busy season is around the corner, and if you’re looking for seasonal CPA talent, we’ll show you what you can do quickly to make key hires.
Webinar | Positioning Your Firm to Attract the Next Generation of Talent
Accountingfly CEO Jeff Phillips presents his checklist for finding your next generation of leaders. That means being the kind of workplace millennial accountants want to join and communicating your employer brand the way young accountants digest career information. Jeff also reviews how to make the most of Meet The Firms Week 2015 (October 19-23) and […]
How to Recruit and Keep Great Talent in Public Accounting
Recently, Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People opined on the most pressing issues facing our profession. Many of them talked about issues around talent. In fact, talent came up a lot. Here are some that got our attention: –Joe Adams, Managing Partner & CEO, McGladrey: In addition to firms taking individual action to […]
Leading a Revolution in the Way Accounting Firms Recruit
Accountingfly, the career center to the Accounting profession, was honored last week when its Co-Founder and CEO, Jeff Phillips, was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People by Accounting Today. Team Accountingfly is honored by this recognition, appearing alongside many of our friends, partners and role models in the profession. The article recognizes Phillips […]
Webinar | Why Employer Branding is Key to Recruiting CPA Talent
Recruitment marketing guru and co-founder of Accountingfly, Jeff Phillips, discusses how firms can land top CPA talent by developing a simple recruitment marketing strategy.
Developing a New Generation of Leaders
Firms everywhere are struggling to cope with the “Choose Your Own Adventure” approach millennials (and millennials at heart) take with their careers. Who are these brazen young kids that boldly shun the traditional career paths that decades of faithful CPAs have so nicely blazed for them? More importantly, how do we recruit/develop and retain these […]
The Freedom to Close Your Firm’s Doors
In my 12 years of running my own CPA firm, perhaps the most controversial thing I’ve done has been to close my office. It’s been three years now since we began operating as a virtual firm with no offices, no paper, and no physical contact with clients. I wasn’t sure we could pull it off, […]
How Work/Life Blend is Replacing Work/Life Balance
Work/life balance (impossible in this 24/7/365 world) Generational change (inevitable) Corporate social responsibility (worthy and workable) Here’s the thing: There isn’t much down time in our busy lives. For many of us, time off only happens in micro-doses, so we need to feel fulfillment in all areas of our lives – including (maybe especially) our […]
Job Posts That Don’t Work
It’s frustrating. It’s challenging. It’s discouraging. Wondering what are we talking about? It’s job posts that don’t work. Yes, the talent pool is small, but some firms are getting responses to their job posts. Here are some things you can do to make sure your firm is one of them:
To Interview or Not to Interview?
Why do people change jobs? What are they really looking for? What will make your firm attractive to them? Recruiters ask themselves these questions on a daily basis, and so should you. Some of the answers to these questions are practical: a better work environment higher salary more opportunity for advancement We’ve all heard this list so […]