Ohio Chapter

Why Xcentric Pays CPAFMA Dues for Clients

Published October 26, 2017
More than thirty years ago I began my transition into the administrative role within my firm and it was obvious I needed help. While I had been a CPA doing taxes, accounting work, and helping others understand personal computers, overseeing the administrative and technology management of the firm was a little outside my wheelhouse. The firm’s newly appointed Managing Partner and I attended the then-AAA National Conference together with the intent of solidifying my job description and responsibilities, which turned out to be “whatever the rest of the partners didn’t want to do.” One day it was HR, the next billing, then marketing, then new server purchases and audit program updates.

What I found at that first CPAFMA conference was that there were many others exactly like me that had to respond to a wide variety of administrative problems and that there was always someone that had addressed that problem and was willing to share that knowledge. Being a member of CPAFMA provided access to the knowledge and experience of hundreds of other peer administrators, which in turn made each of us smarter and able to direct decisions with confidence that benefitted our firms. As CPAFMA has grown to over 1,200 members, it has retained its position as the leading resource for sharing accounting firm best practices and member to member networking addressing today’s CPA firm management issues. This peer sharing allows members to cut through the marketing hype about what applications work or not, whether a new process is worth pursuing, and understanding the pitfalls of making a change by listening to those that had already run that gauntlet. In essence, providing each of us with reliable, trusted information makes each of our firms better.

As Xcentric has been hosting firms in the cloud for more than a decade, we have become the #1 CPA cloud vendor to members (according to CPAFMA’s latest survey). Xcentric has understood that to be a firm’s technology partner we had to not only provide cloud hosting, but thought leadership and resources, resulting in hundreds of articles, whitepapers, and webinars being created for clients. We also understood the inherent value of the member networking that CPAFMA provided, and were surprised to find out that many cloud and consulting clients were not even aware of CPAFMA. When these firms were subsequently exposed to CPAFMA they immediately got value. Xcentric leadership believes so strongly about the benefits garnered from CPAFMA membership that they felt it imperative to pay CPAFMA dues for their cloud clients. Working together we all become better.

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP, CGMA, PAFM, LSS BB is Director of Consulting for Xcentric and works exclusively with accounting firms as an independent, outsourced IT partner optimizing the firm’s tax, audit, client services and administrative workflows, utilizing the Firm Process Optimization (FPO) Review process. Roman has partnered successfully on with over 400 firms and incorporates the best of his Lean Six Sigma Black Belt training. He can be reached directly at roman@xcentric.com or (678) 495-0508.