Efficient CPA: 10 Super Easy Ways to Increase Productivity

By Charles Hall | Accounting and Auditing , Technology

Do you want to be an efficient CPA?

Here are ten super easy ways to increase your productivity.

10 Ways to Become an Efficient CPA

1. Use Control f

First, I see too many CPAs hen-pecking around, trying to find information in their electronic piles. Many times the quickest route to finding information is Control f (Command f on a Mac). Hold your control key down and type f. This action will usually generate a find dialog box–-then key in your search words. Control f works in Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat.

2. OCR Long Documents

Computers can’t read all electronic documents (that is, not all documents are electronically searchable). Sometimes you need to convert the document using OCR. OCR stands for optical character recognition. So how can you make an electronic document readable and searchable?

Scan documents into Adobe Acrobat and use the OCR feature to convert bitmap images into searchable documents. Then use Control f to locate words. When should you OCR a document? Typically when it’s several pages long. Do so when you don’t want to read the entire document to find a particular word or phrase.

For example, suppose your client gives you a one-hundred-page bond document, and you need to locate the loan covenants. Rather than reading the entire document, convert it to searchable text (using Adobe Acrobat) and use Control f to locate each instance of the word covenant. 

3. Dispatch Paper Quickly

A clean work surface enables you to think clearly.

So make filing decisions quickly–as soon as a paper or electronic document is received. Keep your desk (and computer desktop) clean.

If you can dispatch a document in less than two minutes, do so immediately. For documents that take more than two minutes to file, electronically scan them. Then place the document in an action folder on your computer’s desktop. (If you don’t have time to scan the document at the moment, create a To Be Scanned pile in a paper tray.)

You’re thinking, “But I’ll forget about the document if it’s not physically on my desk.” Allay this fear by adding a task in Outlook to remind you of the scanned document (you can even add the document to a task). I create tasks with reminders. So, for example, the reminder pops up at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday; attached is the relevant document. That way I don’t forget.

For more information about scanning, see my post How to Build an Accountant’s Scanning System. I also recommend David Allen’s book Getting Things Done which provides a complete system for making filing decisions.

4. Close Your Door

An open door says what? Come in.

A cracked door says what? Knock and come in.

A closed door says what? Don’t enter, especially without knocking.

I close my door for about an hour at a time. Additionally, I turn off all electronic devices and notifications. Doing so allows me to focus on the task at hand. 

5. Use a Livescribe Pen

Do you remember everything someone says in a meeting? I sure don’t. Livescribe allows me to take notes and simultaneously record the conversation. Then I can hear any part of the discussion. For example, if–in a meeting–I write the words “intangible amortization,” I can (later) touch the tip of my pen to that phrase (in my Livescribe notebook) and hear what was said at that moment. The recording plays back through my Livescribe pen. That way, I don’t have to call and ask, “What did you say about intangible amortization?”

If you have an iPad, a cheaper alternative to Livescribe is Notability. 

6. Take Breaks and Naps

Another idea to become a more efficient CPA is to take breaks and naps.

Counterintuitive? Yes, but it works.

Breaks

I come from the old school of “don’t lift your head or someone will see how lazy you are.” I’m not sure where this thinking comes from, but you will be more efficient–not less–when you take periodic breaks. I recommend a break at least once every two hours.

Naps

Naps? You may be thinking, “Are you kidding?”

Research shows you will be more productive if you take a nap during the day. It doesn’t have to be long, maybe ten or fifteen minutes after lunch. You’ll feel fresher and think more clearly. According to Dr. Sandra Mednick, author of Take a Nap, Change Your Life, napping can restore the sensitivity of sight, hearing, and taste. Napping also improves creativity.

Michael Hyatt recently listed several famous nappers:

• Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps a day and slept less at night.
• The French Emperor Napoleon was not shy about taking naps. He indulged daily.
• Though Thomas Edison was embarrassed about his napping habit, he also practiced his ritual daily.
• Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, used to boost her energy by napping before speaking engagements.
• Gene Autry, “the Singing Cowboy,” routinely took naps in his dressing room between performances.
• President John F. Kennedy ate his lunch in bed and then settled in for a nap—every day!
• Oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office.
• Winston Churchill’s afternoon nap was non-negotiable. He believed it helped him get twice as much done each day.
• President Lyndon B. Johnson took a nap every afternoon at 3:30 p.m. to break his day up into “two shifts.”
• Though criticized for it, President Ronald Reagan famously took naps as well.

For empirical evidence that naps help, check out the book Rest, Why You Get More Done When You Work Less.

7. Answer Emails and Phone Calls in Chunks

If you pause every time you get an email or a phone call, you will lose your concentration. Therefore, try not to move back and forth between activities. Do one thing at a time since multitasking is a lie.

Pick certain times of the day (e.g., once every three hours) to answer your accumulated emails or calls. Doing so will make you a more efficient CPA.

See my article Text, Email or Call: Which is Best?

8. Exercise

I run (by myself) or walk (with my wife) six days a week–usually in the morning before work. Exercising helps my attitude and clears my mind. Also, I feel stronger late in the day.

9. Lunch at 11:30 a.m. or 1:00 p.m.

Another idea: Go to lunch at 11:30 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. Why stand in line? 

10. Take One Day Off a Week

Finally, I usually don’t work on Sundays (even in busy season). For me, it’s a day to worship, relax, see friends, and revive. I find the break gives me strength for the coming week.

Muddled minds destroy productivity.

Your Ideas?

These are my thoughts about becoming an efficient CPA. Please share yours.

Four Steps to Delightful Accounting Presentations

By Charles Hall | Technology

In this article, I provide you with four steps to delightful accounting presentations–even if you are a CPA. Yes, this can be done!

If you’ve read the book Presentation Zen, you know that many speakers–without intending to–hide their message. In watching CPE presentations and board presentations, I have noticed that (we) CPAs unwittingly hide our message. How? We present slide decks that look like intermediate accounting textbooks–chock full of facts, but too much to digest. And do we really believe that those attending will take those slides back to the office and study them?

Probably not.

My experience has been those slides end up in the office dungeon, never to be seen again. We have one chance to communicate–in the session.

Four Steps to Delightful Accounting Presentations

It is the presenter’s duty to cause learning. So how can we  engage our audience (even those sitting on the back row playing with their cell phones)? Let’s start with the slide deck.

1. Make Simple Slides

Make simple slides.

2. Include a picture related to the topic

Include a picture.

For example, if I am presenting to auditors, I might display a picture of someone being bribed. Verbal information is remembered about ten percent of the time. If a picture is included, the figure goes up to sixty-five percent. Quite a difference.

3. Tell a story (and ask questions)

Tell a story and ask questions.

People love stories. If your presentation is about bribes and you have not audited a bribery situation, Google bribes, and you will find all the stories you need. If you can’t find a story, use a hypothetical. Why? You are trying to draw your audience in–then maybe they will put that cell phone down (your most triumphant moment as a speaker!).

Telling your story at the right pace and volume is also important.

Also engage your audience with questions. Stories get the juices going; questions make them dig. And, if they answer you, there is dialog. And what’s the result? Those talking learn, the audience learns, and, yes, you learn.

4. Move

Move. Not too much, but at least some.

A statue is not the desired effect. Moving like Michael Jackson is also not what you desire (moonwalking was never in my repertoire anyway). But movement, yes. I walk slowly from side to side (without moonwalking) and will, at times, move toward the audience when I want to make a point. So, am I constantly roaming? No. Balance is important.

Now, let me provide a few thoughts about presentation software and handouts.

Presentation Software and Handouts

Presentation Software

If you have an Apple computer, let me recommend Keynote as your presentation software. I do think PowerPoint (for you Windows users) has improved, but personally, I prefer Keynote.

Another option—though there is a cost—is using Canva to create your slide deck. Your creativity is almost unlimited with this software—pictures, graphics, templates, colors, resizing, and more. Once the slides are created, you can download them as a PDF. Then present the slides (in the PDF) using the full screen option in Adobe Acrobat. I’ve done this a lot lately. Love it. 

Here’s a sample Canva slide:

Why Accountants Use ChatGPT (or should be)

By Charles Hall | Technology

Evernote for CPAs: Developing a Super Power

By Charles Hall | Technology

There is no Evernote just for CPAs; even so, it’s a game-changer for beancounters. I’ve used this tool for about twenty years and it is one of my favorites software packages. In this article I tell you what Evernote is, how you can use it, how to feed information into it, and how to search it using Evernote operators. 

So, what is Evernote?

What is Evernote?

Think of it as your digital library. 

Evernote is a cloud-based storage system that allows you to capture and file voice recordings, documents (including Word, Excel, PDFs), pictures, and videos. Once information is placed in Evernote, it is searchable in a Google-like fashion. Even hand-written notes are searchable.

What can CPAs do with this app?

Things CPAs Can Do with Evernote

Here are examples of what you can do with Evernote:

• Create a personal digital library (e.g., use an Evernote notebook to store research information, Journal of Accountancy articles, CPE material, videos of class instruction)
• Share individual files or notebooks (a compilation of files) with others 
• Capture meeting conversations with your smartphone and save them to Evernote
• Use your smartphone to take a picture of meeting notes on a whiteboard (remember manually written words are searchable)
• Encrypt selected text within an Evernote note (password protected); the encrypted information can’t be viewed without the password
• Add selected web information to Evernote using an Evernote clipper 
• Forward any email to your Evernote account using your private Evernote email address 

So, what are the main components of an Evernote storage system?

The Skeletal Framework: Notes, Notebooks, and Tags 

The skeletal framework for Evernote has three elements: Notes, notebooks, and tags.

 

1. The primary element of Evernote is a note.

Think of a note as a blank piece of paper on which you can type. You can also attach other files to the note (e.g., an Excel spreadsheet or a picture taken with your cell phone or a voice message recorded with your cell phone or a note you’ve jotted down). Once you create your notes, organize them in notebooks. 

2. Notes are placed in notebooks.

Think of a notebook as a three-ring binder.

For example, if I want to create a note about comprehensive income, I can do so. Then I can attach related files (e.g., PDFs) to the note. Next, I might add a note about other comprehensive income and another about reclassifications from other comprehensive income. The separate notes can, for example, be a text file, an Excel file, and a voice message.

All three notes can be added to a notebook titled Comprehensive Income.

Another way to organize your information is to tag each note.

3. You may also tag each note.

I could place the comprehensive income notes in a notebook titled accounting (a more generic category) and tag each note as comprehensive income. Then I can search and find all comprehensive income notes by using the comprehensive income tag. When I type tag:”comprehensive income” in the Evernote search bar, all notes tagged in this manner appear. (See below for information about operators such as tags.)

Use both folders and tags to help you more readily find information.

And how do you put information into Evernote?

Getting Information Into Evernote

First Set Up Your Default Evernote Notebook

Before sending information from one of your devices (e.g., smartphone) to Evernote, specify where it should go. My default landing area is my Often Used notebook. (You will need to create the Often Used notebook—or whatever you’d like to call it—in your Evernote account.)

Since I send information from a variety of devices, I initially send information to the Often Used notebook; later, when I have time, I tag each note (e.g., Fair Value) and then move each to an appropriate notebook (e.g., Accounting).

Tip – If you put asterisks in front of the folder name (e.g., **Often Used), Evernote will present it (the folder) at the top of your folder list. This will make it easier to locate your default folder.

Here’s a screenshot of Evernote from my iPad. 

In short, my standard operating procedure: (1) capture on the fly and (2) classify with a block of time (it usually takes me less than five minutes each day to tag and move the new notes).

Seven Ways to Feed Evernote

1. Smart Phones

You can use your smartphone to create and send pictures, text files, and voice messages to Evernote.

To download Evernote for an Android phone, click here.

iPhone users should download the Evernote app.

Here’s a screenshot of my iPhone Evernote app. Notice the note names at the top of each note and the tags (in the oval shapes) at the bottom of each note. 

2. Scanners

I use a Fujitsu scanner (model iX500) to scan documents directly to Evernote. (The iX500 costs about $780 from Amazon.)

3. Web Clippers

Evernote provides web clippers for browsers including Safari, Explorer, Google Chrome, and Firefox. If you click this web clipper link, Evernote will automatically recognize your browser; then you can download the clipper software to your browser. While browsing, click the Elephant icon to clip a portion of the web page, the full page, or the full article.

4. Hotkeys

Evernote allows you to use hotkeys to capture information from any program (as long as Evernote is running in the background). To activate screen clipping, use the key combination (e.g., for Windows: Win+PrintScreen). See Preferences to change your hotkeys.

So if you are working on an Excel spreadsheet, for example, and would like to capture the information into Evernote, use the hotkey combination and select the portion of the screen you wish to save. The screenshot will go to your default Evernote location.

You can do the same with an email, a Word document, and anything else that appears on your screen.

5. Email Directly to Evernote Account

One of my favorite ways to feed Evernote is to email a document (e.g., Excel, Word, PDF) directly to Evernote; when you set up your Evernote account, you will be provided a private Evernote email address. Set this address up in your email contact list; then you can send any email or document (attached to an email) to your Evernote default notebook.

6. Drag and Drop

With Evernote open, you can create a new note and then drag a document (e.g., Word or Excel file) onto the open note. The material is added to the note. You can add multiple documents to one note.

7. Import Folder

An even easier way to get files into Evernote is to use an “import folder.” After you specify in Evernote where the “import folder” is located on your computer (i.e., a particular Windows folder), you can drop files into the designated folder, and they will automatically feed into your default Evernote notebook. 

Searching Your Evernote Account

Once you’ve used Evernote for some time, you’ll have several thousand notes, so many it can be difficult to find the information you’ve stored. That’s when operators can help. Use these to locate the notes you are looking for. 

Evernote Operators

You can use Evernote operators in the search box to locate particular information. Some of the more commonly used operators are:

1. And
2. Any
3. Tag
4. Notebook
5. Intitle
6. Created

And – Normally you will not type the word “and” as an operator; it’s implied. So if you type: comprehensive income in the search box, Evernote will locate all notes with the words comprehensive and income. If you want to see all notes with the phrase “comprehensive income,” then type: “comprehensive income”–using quotation marks.

Any – Typing the words “any: compilation review” will provide all notes with either the word “compilation” or the word “review.” If a note has the word “compilation” (and not “review”), then it will appear in your search list. If a note has the word “review” (and not “compilation”), then it will also appear in the list.

Tag – By typing “tag:Bank” into the search box, you’re telling Evernote that you want to see all notes tagged “Bank.” (You can tag each note regardless of which notebook it is in; for example, you might have four different notes in four different notebooks, but each tagged “Bank.”)

Notebook – Let’s say you have a notebook titled: Auditing (along with 70 other notebooks). You can type: “notebook:Auditing” in the search box and Evernote will locate your auditing notebook.

Intitle – Typing intitle:”fair value” will yield all notes with the words “fair value” in the title.

 

Created – “created:day-1” will provide you with a list of all notes created yesterday and today. You can substitute “day” with “week,” “month,” or “year”. If you want to see all the notes created in the last two weeks, issue a search with “created:week-1.”

Combining Evernote Operators

Searching becomes even more powerful when you combine operators.

For example, typing:

Intitle:derivative swap “cash flow hedge”

will provide you with all notes that have the word “derivative” in the title and the words (1) “swap” and (2) “cash flow hedge” as a phrase.

Another example, typing:

Notebook:Accounting any:swap “cash flow hedge”

will provide you with a list of all notes from your accounting notebook that have either the word “swap” or the words “cash flow hedge” as a phrase.

Finally, typing:

Notebook:Bank tag:Deposits FDIC “Due to Due from”

will provide you with notes from your Bank notebook that have a “Deposits” tag and that contain the words FDIC and “Due to Due from” as a phrase.

Create Your Evernote Account

To create your account, go to the Evernote website and follow the directions. There is a free version if you want to try it out. You can see a comparison of their plans here. I have not received any type of commission for this recommendation. 

See my article An Auditor’s Cell Phone.

Review Financial Statements on Monitors

By Charles Hall | Accounting and Auditing , Technology

Today I give you seven steps to review financial statements on computer screens. I explain how to review financial statements in Word and in PDFs. 

In another post titled How CPAs Review Financial Statements, I provide information about creating and reviewing financial statements, but it doesn’t provide information about doing so on computer screens. This article does.

Financial Statement Review in Word

1. First, open and visually scan the entire financial statement (spend two to three seconds per page) just to get a feel for the whole product. How do the parts fit together? Are the financial statements subject to the Yellow Book? Do they contain supplementary information? Are the statements comparative?
2. Second, use a large computer screen (22 inches or more) to compare your financial statement pages. If you are reviewing in Word, reduce the financial statement page size by holding the control key down and scrolling back with your mouse. As you do so, you will see multiple statements on the screen, for instance: balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement.  Now that you can see multiple statements, you can tick and tie your numbers. I use step 2. to compare the financial statement numbers. For example, I compare the net income number on the income statement to the same number on the cash flow statement. Then I use step 3. to compare the financial statements to the notes and the supplementary information.
3. Next, use two to three computer screens to compare your financial statements with the notes and supplementary information. Open the financial statement on each screen–for instance, the balance sheet on screen 1, the notes on screen 2, and the supplementary information on screen 3. In Word, click View, New Window and another instance of the document will open. Then you can move the new instance to a second screen. Alternatively, you can use the side-by-side feature in Word to place two open documents on one screen. 
4. After completing your review of the notes, return to and take a second look at the balance sheet to see if the disclosures are complete. (Since you just reviewed the notes, it’s easier to compare them to the balance sheet. If, for example, you look at the balance sheet and see inventory but no disclosure for the same, you’ll more easily see the error.)
5. Use the find feature (in Word, click the Home tab, click Find, then key in the number–or word–you are looking for) to locate words or numbers. If you want to compare the long-term debt number on the balance sheet to the notes and to supplemental information, type that number into your search dialog box and you’re immediately taken to the same number in the notes. Click next, and you will see the next instance (in the supplementary information). You can do the same with words. (Note: If you embed Excel tables in the Word document, the find feature will not locate numbers in the embedded tables. Consider PDF review option below.)
6. When needed, take breaks. Never spend more than 1.5 hours reviewing statements without taking a short break. You get more done by relaxing periodically.
7. Finally, if you are reviewing financial statements in Word, consider turning on Track Changes and key in suggested revisions. Word reflects your modifications in a distinct color. That way, others can see your suggested changes. They can also see who made the suggested corrections. Thereafter, they can accept or reject the proposed changes.

Financial Statement Review with PDF Documents

You may find it easier to review financial statements after converting them to a PDF (rather than in Word). This makes all numbers and words fully searchable (no embedded Excel spreadsheet limitation issue). 

You can use the split screen feature (click Windows, Split in Adobe Acrobat) to see the same financial statements on one screen. I usually do this on my center screen. This allows me to scroll and compare numbers in the financial statements. For instance, I compare total assets with total liabilities and equity. Or I compare equity on the balance sheet with my statement of changes in equity ending balances. 

I also open a second instance of the PDF on my right-hand screen, mainly to compare my notes with the financial statements (on my center screen). Then I use control-f to locate numbers or words. For instance, if I see $456,856 for total plant, property, and equipment (on my center screen), I click on the right-hand screen, then control-f, then key in the number to find it in the notes. 

I make review comments in the PDF using the comments feature in Adobe Acrobat. Then persons can respond with the reply feature in the comments field. That way, they can provide a response, whether they agree or not—and what they did if a correction was made. 

Your Suggestions

Those are my ideas. What are yours?