CPA Firms Become More Comfortable with Virtual Amid COVID-19

To understand how the demands of CPA firms are changing within this virtual COVID-19 environment, we turned to three notable consultants for their perspective on the current trends. We asked them what has changed for them in the way they work with firms or in requests they have received from firms.

Overall, they each see trends of CPA firms embracing the virtual environment in different ways from learning to recruiting to business development. As firm leadership becomes more comfortable working virtually, they are looking to explore how all operations can be done in a virtual environment. The true test will be what things look like when firms return to traditional work from the office environment and to what level virtual solutions are still desired.

Here’s what we heard:

Art Kuesel

President  |  Kuesel Consulting, Inc.

My work with firms has changed. Their thirst for knowledge about virtual business development, virtual firm/practice management, and virtual people development is at an all-time high. So, I have retooled the delivery of knowledge into an on-demand and real-time format with three new roundtable groups.

Sarah Elliot, PCC, CPA

Co-founder and principal  |  Intend2Lead LLC

Firms are embracing a much more flexible style of learning—one that is effective, engaging and provides powerful results—with no one in the same room! They are looking for virtual learning offerings, as well as a deeper level of support as they navigate their COVID-19-related challenges. They want to use this struggle to step into a more conscious form of leadership, too.

Jeff Phillips

Co-founder  |  Accountingfly

Firms are far more open today to hiring talent remotely. I think it has to do with how working from home helped them believe they can make remote hires work because they were forced to. This is good since hiring a U.S.-based remote CPA is faster and cheaper than hiring someone in any location.

Click here to read the full story on these CPA firms and the virtual trends being embraced during COVID-19 in the Fall 2020 issue of Growth Strategies on Page 20.