Over the years, I’ve written and spoken a great deal about the role of CPAs and their unique characteristics, especially related to talking with, not at, people and promoting interaction, communication and conversation.

What I’ve found is that CPAs and their clients occasionally need more structure to consulting, or CAS, aspects. It comes down to a checklist approach with organized questions and topics that can be embraced.

In my experience, these 10 questions are rarely asked by owners and managers:

1. What methods are used to empower personnel?

2. What key indicators have been established?

3. What are driving threads of the business?

4. What are key operational report results?

5. How effective is communication with stakeholders?

6. In what ways are incentives consistent with goals and objectives?

7. How are human resources in line with business needs?

8. What tools are used to manage growth?

9. How are key causes of crisis addressed?

10. How have tangible and intangible assets been identified? 

Each of these questions was created over years of watching and interacting with small- to medium-sized businesses—from $2 million to $350 million—where management and leaders avoided or side-barred.

Why ask these questions? Change. Change is always present. The world has always changed, but not as quickly as we are experiencing today when it comes to new technology, new products, new services, new business, new ways to do business and more.

How do CPAs fit in this? We often see our clients several times a year, we are interested in our clients and their success, how they are doing and, most importantly, what they are thinking about. Clients often need an outside perspective. Seeing and understanding what others may see and know is essential and is most effective from a non-critical, non-judgmental viewpoint.

Next Steps

How do we advance our meeting or our conversation to learn more about what the business is doing? How can CPAs help and how does “knowing” help our work? There’s nothing better than finding out what is happening now, rather than finding out what happened months later when you may be limited in your ability to impact services.

This is where these 10 questions come in handy—plus others you may have developed along the way.

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1. What Methods Are Used To Empower Personnel?

Accountability, responsibility, personal growth, training and accurate information are critical to developing yourself and others. This needs to be in line with business goals. By “out of line” I mean that people may not understand their role and where you want them to be.

2. What Key Indicators Have Been Established?

It can start with daily sales or daily/weekly production or cost effectiveness data. The essential ingredient is that the data indicators are relatable to team members and their control or influence over what is being measured. One can’t be responsible when there is no control over it.

3. What Are Driving Threads Of The Business?

There can be any number of operational, organizational or philosophical components that drive success for a business. These can include how customers are being treated, pricing structures, amount of research and development or quality control, employee commitment and on and on. These also can change by year. No matter the timing, it matters that these core threads are acknowledged and work.

4. What Are Key Operations Report Results?

This is information reporting as opposed to key indicators with historical bent—it can be monthly, quarterly, annually or as needed. What are customers doing? What are they buying? How profitable are individual customers? How has their buying changed—more returns, cheaper products, etc.? You can look at markets the same way. The same can be said for production and other areas, like service. Gross profit by customer, sales pipeline and sold work vs. lost work are also examples.

5. How Effective Is Communication With Stakeholders?

Stakeholders are individuals or other businesses connected to the owners or the business itself for something like retirement or outside vendor needs. They are often essential to well-being of the business. For instance, retired owners, maybe the original founder or founders, are still around and collecting income. Their influence, knowledge and history can be invaluable. How well are they and others being connected with?

6. In What Ways Are Incentives Consistent With Goals And Objective?

This question is in line with No. 1, more specifically: What do people know, react to and need to adhere to? Is everyone on the same page? Are we using the same language—or close to it? Are we philosophically aligned? I had a very successful tech business as a client that wanted help with next steps, so I led a retreat where we addressed these questions. It was a critical exercise because, within the previous year, the business had been hiring team members from a much larger, less entrepreneurial company; and the influence of those new team members was already slowing down the business.

7. How Are Human Resources Aligned with Overall Business Needs?

Surprisingly, human resources (the department) can sometimes be one of the last groups to be
included in decision making. How involved are they? What kind of influence do they have? Do they realize their potential and what can be done

Bringing them into a retreat or meeting with other departments can make a positive impact throughout the business, including technology, managerial skills, loyalty, vision/mission and leadership/leadership development.

8. What Tools Are Used To Manage Growth?

All businesses, individuals and other organizations are constantly going through cycles of growth, from entrepreneurial to professionalized to decentralized.

Years can go by in a blink and it’s easy to miss how much change has happened. This standard issue happens as individuals get older, their limitations begin to show and people can become restless. Career changes can mean more managers are looking for a growth pattern and they, too, have changed. Succession is always an issue—from Day 1—so it’s key that management retreats, outside evaluations, employee surveys and the like are incorporated.

9. How Are Key Causes Of Crisis Addressed?

What is not discussed enough is that crisis can be around the corner—and it isn’t anyone’s fault per se. Crisis
is a natural process, just like change—in fact, succession is a form of crisis and not attending to business cycles can evolve into a crisis. To stay on top of potential crises—at least as best as possible—consider early warning systems and knowledge-based management.

10. How Have Tangible & Intangible Assets Been Identified?

Sometimes, the intangible is essential, and you never find its value on the balance sheet. One thing that comes home for me: location. Being on the right corner (metaphorically) at the right time and realizing it can be a lifesaver. Copyrights and patents along with the right insurance are essential at acquiring and holding on to very precious parts of our businesses and our clients’ businesses. In addition, we might think more about our customer base, product diversity, business model, unique assets and trademarks as intangibles now.

Consulting advisory services have to be tailored to clients: How are they approached? How is value gained calculated? How often are you needed? Should there be connections to other professionals who have deeper experience in specific areas?

Being a partner in these kinds of situations greatly increases your value to clients as a trusted adviser.

By working through these questions, you can help your clients succeed even more than they are.