1. Vol. 30 I No. 4 I April 2016 accountingtoday.com
TAXESAND DIVORCE P.9
What to do when your married clients quit
each other — but still want to work with you
ONLINEACCOUNTING P.18
Case studies of four firms that serve clients
by taking their general ledgers into the cloud
PAYROLL = PROFITS P.23
Technology and new practice models are
making this a must-have offering for many
Back to
normal?
As we move into the home stretch of tax
season, the general verdict of practitioners
seems to be that there have been no huge
surprises or speed bumps thus far in 2016
— which isn’t the same thing as saying that
it was easy.
“Making sure you have all the records
you need is the biggest challenge preparers
face when dealing with clients,” according
to Dave Kautter, partner-in-charge of the
Washington National Tax Office at Top 10
Firm RSM US. “This year, the one wrinkle is
the [Affordable Care Act],” he said. “Some
people will struggle with respect to ACA
requirements. For many it’s not a problem
because they just check a box that says they
have health care coverage and that will be
BY ROGER RUSSELL
See NORMAL on 44
OHIO’S CLARK SCHAEFER HACKETT MAKES SURE ITS
EMPLOYEES CAN SEE WHERE THEY’RE HEADED. See page 6
A CLEAR PATH Clark Schaefer Hackett’s
director of learning Brad
Self (left) and chief HR
officer Jon Horn.
Change management is an in-
dispensable part of today’s busi-
ness landscape, yet it remains a
difficult concept to grasp, or is, at
worst,simplyoverlooked.Further-
ing one’s firm is always part of the
equation, but whose responsibili-
ty is it to manage the schedule for
change and evolution? Is it strict-
ly a managing partner’s job? A
shared responsibility among firm
leadership? Or should the respon-
sibility be more widely diffused?
In 2016, there still isn’t a clear
answer as to who exactly controls
the pace of change in a firm. How-
ever, there are a number of factors
thateveryfirmcankeepinmindto
makesurethattheirrateofchange
is outrunning their clients’. When
a firm recognizes what particular
factors to pay attention to, they
learn why change management is
importantfornotonlyanticipating
the future, but making themselves
more marketable.
SQUARE ONE
Perhaps one of the biggest ob-
stacles to change management is
decidinghowtofirstinitiateacon-
versation. But getting the ball roll-
ing can be easier than you think.
Carl Peterson, vice president of
small firms at the American In-
stitute of CPAs, argues that when
talking change management in a
place with limited resources, you
should seek a connection with
similar firms in order to move for-
ward together: “I think the best
thing they could do is participate
in networking groups. The AICPA
has networking groups, and
change management is one of
those things that comes up all the
time, and when they find out what
other people are doing and learn
to implement it, that’s probably
one of the best resources.”
Erik Asgeirsson, president and
CEO of CPA.com, believes that the
right state of mind is what drives
change management inside a
business.“Ithink,broadly,change
management is all about having
that progressive mindset,” he said.
“What we’re seeing in successful
firms — [no matter] what size or
type — is it’s the progressive firms
that are really making the most of
these new opportunities that are
The indispensable discipline of change
With every aspect of the profession in flux, accounting firms need to get much better at adapting and evolving
See CHANGE on 45
BY SEAN MCCABE
Closing out a season
marked by less drama,
and the usual hurdles

2. 6 accounting today | April 2016 accountingtoday.com
BY DANIEL HOOD
Accounting firms have long understood
thatmostoftheirassetsgohomeeverynight;
thebigquestioninthesetalent-starvedtimes
is how to make sure they come back in the
next morning — and Ohio-based Top 100
Firm Clark Schaefer Hackett is ahead of the
packonthatscore,withasetofinternalstruc-
turesandprocessesthatareamodelforfirms
looking to boost recruiting and retention.
As part of a strategic planning process in
2013,thefirm’sleadershipcreatedavisionfor
its future that necessitated a new approach
to staffing and firm culture. “We envisioned
the firm we wanted to become,” explained
chief human resource officer Jon Horn. “As
the‘warfortalent’continuedtogrow,andthe
poolofhighlyqualifiedcandidatescontinued
to shrink, we recognized the need to make a
moreconcertedefforttoattractandretainthe
best employees.”
The approach it eventually developed
combinedawholerangeofcarefullythought-
out tools for professional development, a set
of clear and transparent career pathways for
employees at all levels, and, perhaps most
important, a significant emphasis on a firm
cultureofbuildingstrongrelationships,both
withclientsandamongstaff,thatbeginseven
before an employee has joined the firm.
To identify and start creating that culture
of “remarkable relationships,” as Horn de-
scribesit,thefirmtookanumberofsteps,in-
cluding internal surveys of staff, competitive
analyses of other professional services firms,
research in academia and other broader ar-
eas of the profession — and hiring two HR
professionals, Horn himself, and director of
learning and development Brad Self.
Their research fleshed out an approach
that the firm would eventually summarize
as “Change-80-5,” where CSH pursues cul-
tural change to increase staff engagement;
stronger employee engagement will lead to
stronger client engagement with a goal of 80
percent,whichshoulddrivethe5percentor-
ganic growth rate the firm has targeted.
“Overthepasttwoyears,we’vebeentrying
tofocusnotjustontheclientrelationship,but
on understanding that we can only achieve
excellence in serving clients if we first care
for and serve each other,” said director of go-
to-market services Chad Person.
Building stronger relationships, however,
requires intentional relationship-building
skills — and that kind of “soft skill” is not tra-
ditionally a strength of the profession.
SKILL DEFICITS
As Brad Self recalled, “Coming into public
accounting, it amazed me that it’s such a re-
lational business — you’re building relation-
ships with clients and that’s what grows the
business,andyetthefocushasbeensomuch
on the technical aspects and the technical
acumen of tax and assurance, and there’s
very little work on the ‘soft skills’ of relation-
ship development competencies.”
In studying other firms, as well as the hun-
dreds of project assessments that CSH does
on its own staff, which outline the strengths
and areas of development for each person
on a project team, they discovered that tech-
nical skills were rarely an issue, but relation-
al development skills were. “The technical
skills are there, but the relational skills are
sometimesnotfullydevelopedbecausethat’s
not where the focus has been in their career
development,” Self said.
With that in mind, the firm started de-
veloping ways to teach those skills to staff,
and created a set of six core competencies
(technical, interpersonal, communication,
management,businessdevelopment,leader-
ship) for each job level, with specific training
programs to address each competency.
Underpinning these competencies are the
“CSHWay”—thefirm’sdeeplyingrainedcli-
ent service philosophy and approach, as laid
out in the appropriately titled book,The CSH
Way — and CSH Max, an HR development
plan that gives employees a comprehensive
career life-cycle support system, helping
them grow and develop throughout their
entire time at the firm.
That attention to an employee’s whole ca-
reer starts even before their career begins.
AN UNUSUAL WELCOME
With its culture firmly in mind and a clear
idea of the soft skills and behaviors it wants
to see in staff, CSH has developed behavioral
interview processes and questionnaires that
allow it to hire exactly the type of people it
is looking for, and bring them in through a
unique onboarding process.
Ontheirfirstday,manynewemployeeswill
already have been contacted by the “buddy”
thefirmhasassignedthem:“Theseareafour-
weekpartnerwhomeetsthenewemployeeat
the front door when they walk into the office
and really is a buddy,” Self explained. “They
Clear paths at CSH
practiceprofile
AT A GLANCE
Firm
Clark, Schaefer, Hackett & Co.
Headquarters
Cincinnati
President
Carl Coburn
No. of partners/staff
27 / 368
Year founded
1938
Services
Audit, assurance, risk manage-
ment, benefit plan consulting,
forensic and litigation support,
valuation, transaction services
Employees at this Ohio firm know exactly where they’re going
New employees of Clark Schaefer Hackett in an onboarding session

3. accountingtoday.com April 2016 | accounting today 7
help them through the logistics of lunch and
where to park and where their cubicle is, and
are really a friend, more or less. It also gives
thatpersonareallycomfortablefeelingabout
the firm they’re working for.”
Besides their buddy, new employees will
meet their onboarding cohort, a group of
people that can range in size anywhere from
five to 25 or even 35 people, including both
full-time employees and interns.
To kick things off, “We spend a full day
doing personal professional development,
which really surprises a lot of people,” Self
said. “We do some basic individual leader-
ship development, we talk about their core
values, we talk about good communications
skills. I love giving them the analogy that you
are starting with a clean slate, and you have
an opportunity to really make an impact on
and influence the new people you’re going
to meet here.”
Much of the next day is spent delving into
the firm’s culture, including the CSH Way,
and after that, the new employees break off
into an extremely hands-on introduction to
their work at the firm: “We reproduce what
their office will look like, we bring in their
laptop and two monitors, and we take them
through a hands-on, real-life experience of
what they’re going to do for their first few
weeks,” Self said. “They’ll work with our soft-
ware packages in a simulated environment
and do exactly what it is they’ll be doing in
the real world — not tied in to our database,
of course! The whole idea is they can hit the
ground running.”
CLEAR PATHS
After their initial onboarding, employees are
assigned a coach — usually someone from
their group who will be able to answer tech-
nical questions.
“Our coaches are specifically trained to
build relationships,” Self said. “For instance,
we train them to make sure that your body
language doesn’t put people off — so when
they come to you with a question, you don’t
make them feel like they’re disturbing you.”
That’s part of the intentionality of the re-
lationships the firm is trying to build with its
employees,whichcontinuesinitsmentoring
program,accordingtoSelf:“Everysharehold-
er and principal in our firm mentors one of
our managers for a year. It’s not necessarily
about skill and performance; it’s something
much deeper — it’s about building the rela-
tionship,takingyouundermywingandintro-
ducing you to people I know in my network.”
Butwhilethefirmgivesstaffpersonalguid-
ance throughout their careers, it also gives
them a clear roadmap to follow on their own.
“One of the things we found in our surveys
with our people, and particularly with our
Millennials, is that they are looking for a very
clear line of sight: ‘What do I need to do to be
successful at my current position, and what
does progression look like to the next level?
Can you lay that out for me?’” Self said. “So a
clear line-of-sight path has been very, very
critical to meeting the needs of our folks as
farastheyprogress,anditalsoprovidesreally
important direction for high performers.”
Thefirmhasacompletecareerprogression
model for every position, from Staff I to prin-
cipal,withspecificperformanceexpectations
tied to the firm’s six core competencies. That
allows CSH to develop training programs
that are geared to those performance expec-
tations, and it also gives employees a clear
idea of what they need to do at every given
step in their career.
One critical point that Self stressed was
that the steps are not tied to a timeline: “This
is a performance progression model, not
a tenure progression model. If you have a
high performer, they don’t want to be tied to
years of service. It’s not that they’re going to
go from staff to shareholder or principal in
two months or two years, but this is a perfor-
mancemodel,andthatreallyresonateswitha
lot of the people who are looking to progress.
Ifyouwanttodisappointsomeone,tellthem,
‘You have to sit here for five years and then
maybe be considered for that next level.’”
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
Though still relatively new, the firm’s initia-
tives are already paying off.
“Wemeasureengagementtwiceayearwith
a formal employee engagement survey, and
we’ve seen consistent increases in engage-
ment every year,” said chief HR officer Horn.
“Client engagement has also seen consistent
improvement toward a goal of 80 percent of
clientsindicatingtheyareengaged.…Evenin
the midst of the current war for talent in the
profession, we certainly are holding our own
in retaining talent.”
Going forward, CSH is working on initia-
tives on race and gender diversity, as well as
divingdeeperintothedynamicssurrounding
Millennialemployeesandtheirexpectations.
Theyalsowanttoexplorewaystoimprovethe
profession’s reputation in certain quarters,
according to Self.
“It was surprising as I met with other firms
and talked to people in universities and the
academicarenatohearthestigmathathangs
around public accounting,” he said. “The ac-
ademic world is saying that people should
use public accounting as a stepping stone
to a ‘real career.’ We need to change that. …
We want to start talking to these universities
about pushing more of a career opportunity
— it’s not just the Big Four; don’t go to a firm
justtogetanameonyourresume;gotoafirm
thatalignswithyourvaluesandwhereyou’re
going to feel like you can grow the most.”
Making that case will require building
stronger relationships with the academic
community — but then, stronger relation-
ships are what CSH is all about. AT
practiceresources
CSH staff at all levels get clear guidance on what’s expected of them,
like this description of the competencies of a senior.

4. Back cover copy
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