Practice Management: Planning for your Firm | Nelson Croom

Every sucessful firm has a clear understanding of its own strategy-the path that the partners and employees wish to travel.

There is not necessarily a single right or wrong direction for a public accounting firm. Successful firms can be large or small, highly specialized or general, focusing on transaction or compliance services or high-end advisory services. Planning for Your Firm examines the business and strategic planning processes and the more detailed policies that govern the development and implementation of the strategic plan within your firm.

This course is part of a series of eight courses based on the IFAC Guide to Practice Management for Small and Medium Sized Practices and has been produced with the permission of IFAC.

Work through the knowledge and application modules to understand the theory and exchange your ideas with your peers. Then complete the final Putting it into Practice module to create an action plan for your practice.

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Planning for your Firm enables the learner to:

Develop an effective strategy for your firm
Manage the internal and external risks a new practice faces
Effectively implement your plans for your firm
Deal with difficult people when starting a practice
Establish benchmarks to manage risks

Learning outcomes

Strategy and business planning

To specialize of generalize? Your competitive strategy.

How do people negotiate?

The strategic planning process

Planning for effective client relationships

Developing your business

Developing plans for your firms various functions

The strategic planning diagram

Clients perceptions

The "devaluing" of information

How do I persuade people effectively?

Managing risks and using benchmarks

Ten steps to successful risk management

Minimising potential problems in service delivery

Using benchmarks to drive performance and improvement

Internal and external benchmarks?

Running your firm

The key stages in running an effective firm

Monitoring external forces

International standards for accountants

Anti-money-laundering

Business continuity: the short-term and long-term imperative

Putting in to practice

This module helps you put the learning from this course in to practice in your firm.

Target audience

This course is suitable for all accounting professionals looking to start or improve their practice.