Related Posts
Anyone marry their law school sweetheart?
Rising Star
How do you get “distinctive achievement”?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
That was just a preview…
Sign Up to see all discussions
Sign Up to see all discussions
- Discover what it’s like to work at companies from real professionals
- Get candid advice from people in your field in a safe space
- Chat and network with other professionals in your field
Sign up in seconds to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
"" is an unusual email domain. If correct, please proceed to the next step
Messaging rates may apply
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Share
Embed this post
Copy and paste embed code on your site
Preview
Download the
Fishbowl app
Scan your QR code to download
Fishbowl app on your mobile
Sign up for free to view this conversation on Fishbowl
Sign up for free to continue using Fishbowl
Messaging rates may apply
Too many partners in purely administrative roles or EAL roles, supposedly driving growth that hasn’t materialized. This culture of rewarding firm administration needs to go away, otherwise the doers are going to find other place to go do it.
Two many highly paid partners in admin roles
Come on over to BDO. An identical situation but we have an ESOP!
How do other firms track growth? We have a dozen people all getting credit for new business, which makes it look like everyone is doing great on growth but then surprised when actual revenue hasn't grown. Ten people all reporting a dollar of growth is actually one dollar of growth. Our growth tracking is just a BS game.
Im personally thinking of simply going small firm. I honestly never thought I would say that as I've always been a big firm person but with all the changes in the industry over the last 20 years that have resulted in the larger firms having to operate the way they do it's taken a lot of the fun and reward out of it. Every day the thought of going small regjonal sounds better and better.
I agree w RSM 1, we need to have few EALs and admin partners and fewer “leaders” and more people who focus on client service and growth.
We could also review our leadership team s performance and see what they ve delivered in 2022.
I may consider doing that or any other MM just because I m losing confidence in this place entirely
Unless you go alternative ownership structure, your options are very limited in the top 15 at this point. Forvis Mazars, Crowe… anyone else left? Issue with a smaller firm would be the pay cut and potentially loss of stability. Not sure how much smaller you’re thinking. I personally just think this is just the winter for cpa firms after a pretty nice run and even the winter is pretty profitable and lucrative for most partners. Just need to keep your head down and once the market comes back the gravy train will make the burn out more bearable.
Give us idea of your years, area and pay. Can tell you where we are and if pay is similar.
Does rsm try to retain partners who get another offer like they do the employees? Or do they just show you the door at partner level? I’m a younger partner.
Show you the door unless you are killing it
Also targeting to just increase margin is the tail wagging the dog. Margin is the result of many factors including pricing pressures, comp costs, training, technology, etc. Focusing on the underlying factors will increase margins not the other way around. But often times we're expected to achieve results without the required support or acknowledgement of underlying issues.
Being asked to present a plan to 3 different masters about why average hourly rate was down $3/hour and a plan to fix it, was the last straw. Combine that with unreasonable growth goals, lack of collaboration and a mentality of every man for themselves…got out as quickly as I could.
Partner comp is down
Same at CLA. Lost 3 principals in our office and none replaced, you can guess who gets those clients. No more pay but more responsibility.
Oh yeah, same here in my office! Been the "beneficiary" of this as well with my client load 2-3xing all while still being told to go hit my original go out and get. But sure, let's preach audit quality. 😆
BDO1 The small regionals are being gobbled up by PE so you will be back in the same situation in just a couple years. I think we are seeing every firm’s leadership is weak and has been shadowed by 10+ years of extraordinary growth. Wasn’t the leaders but they benefited with their over the top packages or $4-8mm.
OP - why would increased expectations and margin pressures dilute profitability ?
Maybe to clarify, expectations are constantly increasing and at times appear unachievable. If you don’t meet those or the one that management picks this year, your rating is impacting and so is income allocations. Margin pressures are much driven by external forces, then added ever increasing use of offshore, if those don’t fit firm’s criteria, once again income allocations are adjusted.
How was partner comp in a “down year” for the industry over there?
Any updates on RSM?
They next to take PE or not that drastic of change?