Sarah Templeton

Most CPA firms have yet to establish a social media policy, as they are likely considering the best approach to bring social media into the marketing mix. Truth be told, there is no hard and fast rule on how companies should approach this. The accounting industry is no exception, and faces particular challenges in creating social media plans, such as whether to include client references, and giving tax or other consulting advice in a public forum and later being held responsible for it. It boils down to encouraging your team to engage, and eventually participate, in the greater dialogue. Firms cannot be seen as educators in the industry if they are not helping clients do their research and discuss issues. When creating our own social media participation guidelines, Templeton & Co. addressed these concerns to allow our firm to focus on the important end goal, which ... (more)

Five Steps to Ensure a Clean CRM Database that Builds Relationships

CRM on Ulitzer When speaking with a partner of a local law firm, he lamented about their database, "Just getting our holiday card list right requires a monumental effort!"  Many times sales leads in the database are kept long past their shelf life which means they no longer hold any revenue potential and should be jetissoned. A well-known stumbling block for anyone who has worked in marketing or sales is bad data.  While there are many protective measures companies can employ to make sure they are operating with clean data such as Access Hoovers as a plug-in to Microsoft's Cust... (more)

MICROSOFT DYNAMICS ERP SPOTLIGHT

In this tough economy, every dime counts!  In an effort to control expenses, companies are turning more towards Requisition Management systems.  A requisition system provides organizations with increased control and visibility over the entire purchasing process, and adds a formality to the process, reducing paper and streamlining approvals.  Equipped with Web-based requisition management capabilities, employees can enter purchase requisitions online for manager approval.  Requisitions are then automatically transferred to Purchase Order Processing saving time and ensuring accur... (more)

Perception and Reality: Shedding Light on Level 3 Assets

In the winter of 2007-2008, sweeping new financial reporting standards were launched - directly into the path of an unforeseen perfect storm. Known as fair value accounting, these new rules had been years in development. They were designed to unify global standards and provide greater transparency through market-based, rather than earlier cost-based, methods of valuation. But no sooner had fair value gone into effect than markets worldwide all but evaporated in the worst economic crisis in over ninety years. As asset values drifted erratically into what analysts called a "no man's ... (more)

A Case for Business Intelligence

Everyone has heard the business maxim: you cannot manage what you cannot measure. No one seems to be given original credit for this quote, but chances are there are many frustrated Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) that have used it many times trying to get timely and actionable organizational insight. As organizations grow in scope and complexity, aggregating real-time data from numerous systems and converting that data to decision-ready information becomes increasingly challenging. When striving for Business Performance Improvement (BPI), Busi... (more)