December 4, 2024

Hear, Hear!

Boost your business by becoming adept at active listening.

43:57.
According to an analysis of thousands of sales calls conducted by Gong Labs, a data services firm, that’s the talk-to-listen ratio of the nation’s top sales performers. In other words, they listen more than they talk. In the study, salespeople who focused less on sales pitches and more on active listening to uncover their clients’ pain points were selling at 120% above their quota.


Here’s another compelling statistic: More than 64 percent of HR professionals believe that active listening is the most critical leadership skill managers can possess, reports a study from the Society for Human Resource Management.


Active listening isn’t just a key skill for salespeople and CEOs: CPAs need to hone their listening skills so that they can fully understand their clients’ concerns and goals, ultimately leading to better client relationships and more effective service delivery. Listening also helps CPAs gather all necessary information to make decisions and identify potential issues that clients might not explicitly state. In addition, listening well is also critical to boosting productivity, reducing mistakes due to miscommunication, spurring problem solving among team members, and more.


So what is active listening? Harvard Business Review defines it as “when you not only hear what someone is saying, but also attune to their thoughts and feelings.” 


Here are four strategies to hone your active listening skills:

1. Stop talking. Next time you’re in a conversation, try to talk less and listen more. You don’t have much to gain from the conversation if you’re the one talking all of the time. Avoid the temptation to fill up pauses in the conversation with words. Often, such pauses give the other person more time to think and formulate their responses, which provides a more fruitful exchange.

 

2. Ask good questions. Show the person you’re conversing with that you care what they have to say by asking questions that reveal your interest. Avoid “yes” or “no” questions, as they tend to limit the conversation. If you’re talking to someone you know a little bit about, prepare for your meeting with some conversation-starters that relate to their hobbies or interests. People like to talk about themselves, and by establishing a friendly rapport at the start of a conversation, they’re likely to open up more. If you’re attempting to converse with a complete stranger at, say, a networking event, come prepared with questions designed to help the two of you find common ground.


3. Pay attention to visual cues. A great deal of communication is unspoken, so observing nonverbal cues can help you understand what the speaker is really thinking. For instance, if the person is crossing their arms or won’t make eye contact, they’re likely not being forthcoming or don’t have an interest in speaking with you. Make sure your own body language is welcoming by maintaining eye contact, nodding your head when appropriate and mirroring the speaker’s facial expressions to show understanding. Avoid fidgeting or staring at your watch or phone.


4. Summarize and validate. Restate the speaker’s key points in your own words without altering the meaning or tone to show that you’ve been paying attention. This may seem awkward at first, but saying something like, “Sounds like you are saying. . .” lets the person know you’ve been paying attention — and allows them to correct you if you’ve misunderstood something they said. It also helps the person feel validated -— which will go a long way to building your relationship.


Collemi Consulting leverages nearly three decades of experience to provide trusted technical accounting and auditing expertise when you need it the most. We regularly work with CPA firm leadership to help them develop and deliver the right training programs for their teams. To schedule an appointment, contact us at (732) 792-6101.

 

 



It’s Time For Year-End Audits

December 20, 2024
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A woman's hands holding a microphone

Shake It Off

December 9, 2024
Conquer your fear of public speaking and present like a pro
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There’s Only One Year Left to Implement the PCAOB’s New Quality Control Standards

November 18, 2024
ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE: Since this blog was first published, the PCAOB released two new guidance documents. The Nov. 26 updates can be found here: An additional overview of the requirements of QC 1000 and staff guidance for firms about how to comply with the standard. This document provides additional staff insights on scope and applicability, responding to engagement deficiencies, and documentation for AS 2901, Responding to Engagement Deficiencies After Issuance of the Auditor’s Report. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) recently announced a new set of quality control standards designed around a risk-based approach. And there’s only one year to design and implement them. The PCAOB’s new QC 1000 standard is more than two decades in the making, as it replaces the quality control standards it adopted on an interim basis back in 2003 from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). The new standard is intended to make independent registered public accounting firms significantly improve their quality control (QC) systems. QC 1000 applies to all PCAOB-registered member firms, with more extensive requirements for those that audit more than 100 issuer clients annually. It has been approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and goes into effect on December 15, 2025. The new requirements and the work required to implement them will be extensive, and the larger public accounting firms require external oversight of the QC system. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that firms do not put it off until the last minute. At its core, the new standard is intended to enable firms to identify their specific risks and design a quality control system including policies and procedures to guard against those risks. The overall goal is to establish what the PCAOB calls “a continuous feedback-loop for improvement.” In this, the new standard differs from the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s (IAASB) International Standard on Quality Management No. 1 (ISQM 1) and the AICPA Statement on Quality Management Standards No. 1 (SQMS 1). An extensive but not comprehensive comparison document of the three standards may be found here, but is presented only as a reference tool. New requirements QC 1000 has requirements that do not appear in other QC standards. They can be more prescriptive or more specifically tailored to the U.S. legal and regulatory environment. There are 10 main areas in which the QC 1000 standards go beyond other, existing standards. These are: Evaluation and Reporting: QC systems must be evaluated annually and reported to the PCAOB. They must be certified by specific individuals with responsibility and accountability for the firm’s QC system. Governance and Leadership: Firms must create and maintain clear lines of responsibility and supervision. Larger firms must have outside oversight and a confidential complaint system. Ethics and Independence: Quality objectives must be tailored to the U.S. regulatory environment. Larger firms must implement an automated system for identifying securities investments that could impair independence. Monitoring and Remediation: QC 1000 divides monitoring into engagement and QC system levels. Engagement and QC deficiencies are defined, including requirements for their determination. Larger firms must (and smaller ones should) monitor in-process engagements. Quality Objectives: The firm’s personnel must comply with its policies and procedures Information and Communication: Quality objectives for communication with external parties are established at the firm and engagement level. Communication of the firm’s QC system’s policies and procedures must be communicated in writing. Resources: The firm’s personnel must adhere to standards of conduct. Policies and procedures must address both enumerated and circumstance-specific competencies. Mandatory training, licensure and technological resource requirements are established Risk Assessment Processes: Quality risks must be identified and assessed annually. Roles and Responsibilities: A single person must be assigned responsibility for each role and responsibility in the QC 1000 standard. Documentation: With respect to the QC system’s operation, documentation that allows an experienced auditor to evaluate the operation of quality responses must be provided. Documentation must be retained for at least seven years. That’s not an exhaustive list, but it does give an indication of how much work will be involved. And it’s happening at the same time as the AICPA extensive new Statements on Quality Management Standards (SQMS) requirements are coming into effect . Collemi Consulting leverages nearly three decades of experience to provide trusted technical accounting and auditing expertise when you need it the most. We regularly work with CPA firm leadership to help them reduce risk and maximize efficiencies. To schedule an appointment, contact us at (732) 792-6101.
A man is sitting in front of a laptop computer holding his glasses.

Time’s running out on preparing for the new Quality Management Standards!

October 10, 2024
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) new Quality Management Standards have been out for some time, and you can’t wait to read it. That’s not a prediction. It’s a warning. The new standards have to be in place and in use by December 15, 2025, and getting into compliance is not something that can wait until the last minute. Yes, that’s more than a year away, but according to the AICPA, you should have started working on it two years ago. You probably know the new Statements on Quality Management Standards (SQMS) is out there, but not just how much effort coming into compliance will take. That applies to sole practitioners as much as it does to medium-sized and large public accounting firms. The new SQMS is what we call “thinking standards” — you have to really think it through and customize it for your attest practice, based on things like the type of clients you have and the services you provide. It’s not just new requirements and changes in the way you do things. The new SQMS takes an entirely new, risk-based approach to quality, with two completely new components: Risk Control, and Information and Communication. Risk and Information Under the new risk assessment process, firms must establish specific quality objectives. They must “identify and assess quality risks, and then they must design and implement responses to those risks that are tailored to the firm’s unique circumstances.” Information and communication is the second entirely new component of the new SQMS. It requires the establishment of processes that support the SQMS, including the use of reliable internal and external sources of information, and the creation of a culture that supports and reinforces the responsibility for sharing information with colleagues and the firm. This information must be communicated in an understandable and actionable manner to internal personnel, service providers, and external sources as required. Specific quality objectives must be created for each of the eight SQMS components: ● Risk control ● Governance and leadership ● Relevant ethical requirements ● Acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements ● Engagement performance ● Resources (formerly human resources) ● Information and communications ● Monitoring The other six components have also changed under the new SQMS, several dramatically. Changes Throughout The leadership responsibilities for quality within the firm component, for example, is now Governance and leadership. It includes a new and more robust focus on the role these two elements play in establishing and supporting an environment, and establishing a culture, that supports the SQMS. Leaders are now not only responsible and accountable for quality, but are expected to demonstrate a commitment to quality through their actions. Relevant ethical requirements are less prescribed under the new standards, but have a new focus on responsibility and on ensuring that others involved in the SQMS or in performing engagements understand and meet those requirements. The acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements has a new emphasis on professional standards and the integrity and ethical values of the client. It also highlights the need to ensure that financial and operational priorities don’t influence acceptance and continuance judgements. Engagement performance has a new focus on an engagement partner’s oversight and involvement. There is also a new emphasis on the exercise of professional judgment and skepticism. Resources is no longer prefaced by “human” and now has new requirements revolving around technological and intellectual resources in the SQMS. Other requirements relate to the competence and commitment to quality of personnel, and bringing in outsiders to fill any personnel gaps. Finally, the Monitoring component has a new focus on the firm’s remediation process, and offers expanded and enhanced guidance throughout. One aspect is a new requirement that firms establish policies and procedures that address the objectivity of the monitors. Monitoring now also includes a new term, findings, that focuses on any deficiencies that exist. The firm must “evaluate the severity and pervasiveness of identified deficiencies using a root cause analysis,” and design appropriate remedial actions. Get Going The end of that three-year time frame suggested by the AICPA for creating and building out the new Quality Management Standards is now just a year and a quarter away, and firms have three responsibilities between now and December 15, 2025. The first, of course, is to continue using the extant standard (Statement of Quality Control Standard (SQCS) No. 8, (Redrafted) until your firm is ready to implement the new requirements. The second is to perform the risk assessment and gap analysis, and then design and implement the new standards. Finally, firms need to consult with their peer reviewer before final implementation. If you haven’t started yet, that’s a lot of work for the next 15 months! Then there’s one more year, until Dec. 15, 2026, to carry out the first annual evaluation of your new quality management system! Collemi Consulting leverages nearly three decades of experience to provide trusted technical accounting and auditing expertise when you need it the most. We regularly work with CPA firm leadership to help them reduce risk and maximize efficiencies. To schedule an appointment, contact us at (732) 792-6101.
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