Latest News
Sourcing Succession Can Be Hard
Sourcing and attracting new partners to a firm can be challenging at times with our many years within the professions highlighting that many firms experience one of two trends. The first is a pattern that we’re often asked to advise on where a firm is unable to source internal successors and therefore feels they need…
Read MoreStaff Culture and Management Key to Successful Practice Sales
One of the primary drivers, in addition to growth, for the current acquisitions of practices / fees is the desire by the purchaser to also retain any professional staff that may currently be employed in the practice for sale. This is also generally a key criterion for selecting the right purchaser with most vendors telling…
Read MoreThe Forces Driving Small & Sole Practitioner Firms to Sell
I recall a report that was published within the profession some three, four, or even perhaps five years ago, suggesting that something like 51% of equity holders within firms at that time, would be heading for the door over the coming five or so years. Fast forward to today, and whilst that event may not…
Read MoreImproving Your Firm’s Lock Up & Cashflow
Managing a firm’s lock up and cashflow often varies across the profession depending on profitability, practice structure and size, desired salaries or drawings, profit distributions, external funding sources and even the desire to manage the payment of tax. However, pleasingly we have been noticing some gradual improvements in the average WIP and debtor days being…
Read MoreIs Everyone Suited to Buying a Practice?
The short answer is no! A question I often ponder is ‘is everyone suited to being a business owner or are there some individuals that will always be better suited to being employees?’ Importantly, there is no criticism of either. However, I have just always thought that running a business is not for everyone, particularly…
Read MoreCompleting the Sale of Your Practice Doesn’t Finish at the Exchange of Contracts
Are you in the process of selling your practice? Have you found a purchaser and exchanged contracts? Congratulations if you have! However, please know that this is not the end of the process. There still remains some very important activities that need to be performed in the anticipation of settlement and depending on how much…
Read MoreA Snapshot of our Australian Accounting Profession’s Performance in 2022
This year’s cohort of participants in our June 2022 Charge Rates & Salaries Report, released earlier this month, gave us some real hope for improved performances in some of the regularly monitored benchmarks, although there still does remain some challenges. Some highlights from this report include: Profitability has continued to improve, most notably in QLD…
Read MoreThe Impact of Firms’ Return to Work Policies on Staff Retention & Recruitment
Much is continuing to be said about the difficult recruitment market at present, across all industries including the accounting profession, with emphasis being applied on what can be done to differentiate your firm to make it more attractive to potential employees. From most reports, it sounds as though our ability to source and secure good…
Read MoreHave Firms in Locked Down States been More Under the Pump Leading Up to Review Time?
We have all been hearing about, and I would imagine many firms may also have been experiencing, the tough staffing market out there of late, with recruitment and retention front of mind for most within the professions. We previously reported how large sign on bonuses were being offered to personnel throughout Melbourne city and suburban…
Read MoreHow do We Determine ‘Maintainable’ Fees or Revenue when Negotiating a Practice Sale?
This is often one of the hardest conundrums for particularly vendors, and we have certainly seen some interesting approaches. I think the first point to note is that generally the vendor, in our experience, will be quite conservative about what fees they feel will transfer across to the prospective purchaser. Now, I have certainly heard…
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