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Educators Can Benefit from New Generative AI Course

A teacher’s aide unlike any other?

By Rick Richardson
Technology This Week

Many people focus on the potential benefits of generative AI for kids when considering its application in the classroom. Still, teachers can gain as much, if not more, from the technology. Google and MIT Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) have launched a free Google Generative AI Educators course to assist middle and high school educators in utilizing generative AI tools to improve their workflow and their students’ learning environment.

MORE: Could Mobile Phones Be Next on the Extinction List? | AI Named the Highest-Paying In-Demand Tech Skill for 2024 | AI Generates Revolutionary New Battery Design | Breakthrough Implant Uses Excess Blood Sugar to Generate Electricity | Nuclear Battery Could Keep Your Future Phone Running for 50 Years | MIT Tests New Ingestible Vital Signs Sensor | Study: Solar Will Lead Global Energy by 2050 | New Tech Could Let EVs Go 3,000 Miles on a Single Charge | AI + MRI = Diseases That Doctors Might Miss | Your Boarding Pass Could Onboard Hackers | The First Police Officer on the Scene Might Be a Drone
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The self-paced, two-hour course is designed to help educators leverage generative AI to save time on routine tasks. From email composing to adapting content for various reading levels, creating innovative evaluations and organizing activities around students’ interests, generative AI can streamline these processes, freeing up valuable time for educators.

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AUDIT & ASSURANCE

How Do We Drive Relevance in Audit?

The insights you deliver don’t just add value to the client but also result in a better audit. 

By Alan Anderson, CPA
Transforming Audit for the Future

Business owners and organizations typically regard the annual audit as a cost or “a necessary evil” that adds little or no value to the business. In contrast, auditors routinely say that their audit is different and absolutely does add value to the company or organization. To be sure, all audits have a purpose, as they are generally required to maintain financing or to meet regulatory requirements. But is the auditor genuinely adding value?

MORE: Before the Audit: More Than Just Planning | Are You Correctly Identifying the Relevance Intersection? | Lack of Relevance Drives Audit Commoditization | Five Crucial Attributes for Successful Audit Leadership | Traditional Audits Don’t Deserve Premium Billing | Four Basic Understandings Every Auditor Must Master | Put the Ethics Code to Work for Your Clients and Your Firm | Turning Audit & Accounting into Assurance & Advisory | WANTED: Great Audit Mentors | Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions? | Stop Sending the Wrong Message to Audit Teams | Closing the Audit Expectations Gap
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There are numerous dictionary definitions of “value,” all centering around the concept of something being useful. “Adding value” should then mean making something more useful.  When you plan an audit, are you thinking of ways to make the audit more for your client? You will only convince your clients that you deliver value when you back up your words with action.

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CHARTS & GRAPHS

Payroll Leads Job Gains in Tax & Accounting Sector

line chart
Overall accounting profession employment

 

Everyone is earning more this month, and most downs are slight.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

The tax and accounting profession is not a bad place for job seekers, it seems. A new analysis by CPA Trendlines shows a lot of up notes, including some in the double digits.

MORE ON JOBS: Let Interns Fix the Staffing Shortage? | Accountants Bullish Locally, Bearish Nationally | Accounting Hiring Hits Another High | Compensation’s Up, but Up Enough to Retain Staff? | Staff Wages Hit Record High | Despite Staffing Crunch, Firms Freeze Pay Raises | Tax & Accounting Firms Grow for 9th Straight Month | Tax & Accounting Profession Grows, but Wages Don’t
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New highs are coming in:

  • The accounting profession overall
  • Staff earnings
  • Payroll staff
  • Payroll staff earnings
  • Women overall and in CPA firms

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MARKETING & SALES

How Life Cycle Changes Your Marketing

illustration of business life cycle

Startups have different needs than mature businesses, so the messaging must be different.

By August J. Aquila
Price It Right: How to Value Accounting Services

The business life cycle refers to the stages that a business goes through from its inception to its eventual closure or exit. Each stage presents unique challenges and opportunities, and it is essential for accounting firms to adapt their marketing strategies accordingly.

MORE: Eleven Possible Pitfalls of Mergers | Dodge the Four Curses of a Production Orientation | Client Acquisition Never Stops | ‘Sales’ Is Not a Four-Letter Word | Maybe What You Need Is a Marketing Audit | Three Types of Marketing Message, and Which Is Best | Why You Need Progress Billing | Five Tips for Cross-Selling and Upselling | Five Keys to Successful Marketing | Twelve Fundamentals of Planning | One Question to Guide Your Growth Plans | Four Ways to Prepare for New Business Development
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Here are some marketing strategies that can be effective during different stages of the business life cycle. Take a fresh look at your existing clients, and sort them according to their business life cycle: startup stage, growth stage, mature stage and transitional/decline. You want to make sure that as your clients go through these different cycles, your marketing messages and services change and address the right business concern.
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PODCAST

Accounting ARC: Unraveling the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank

Delving into financial disarray and what contributes to the shutdown of community banking institutions

Accounting ARC 
With Donny Shimamoto, Liz Mason, and Byron Patrick
Center for Accounting Transformation

In the labyrinth of financial intricacies, the collapse of a bank sends shockwaves through the economic landscape, leaving stakeholders scrambling for answers. In this episode, “Accounting ARC: Unraveling the Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank” dissects the demise of Silicon Valley Bank to unravel the intricate web of factors that precipitated its downfall.

MORE: Harper & Co. CPAs: The Perspective of a Non-Accountant is Imperative | Menlo Innovations: Improve Office Culture by Overhauling Internal Reviews | Dustin Wheeler: For Serious CAS Success, Hire Tech Teams | Chase Birky: Overcoming Paralysis By Analysis |

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Hosted by seasoned financial experts, the Accounting ARC  dives deep into the underlying causes of bank collapses while offering invaluable insights for CPAs, auditors, and financial professionals to fortify against such catastrophes.

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ABOUT US

Meet Steve Yoss: Quick Tech Talk

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music and Audible, Player FM, Audacy, Gaana (India), and Boomplay (Africa).

Quick Tech Talk
With Steve Yoss
CPE Today

My life is really kind of split right down the middle.

I spend about half my life writing, talking, teaching, and researching technology. I’ve published and written over a hundred courses for financial professionals on how to leverage and utilize technology effectively and efficiently in your personal lives and in your organizations. I really try to help find ways that you can use this tech to help you save time, to get more work done, to make your life easier, reduce your risk of data breaches and security issues, uh, and more.

Click here for more Steve Yoss

Outside of my work as a speaker and author, I also work as a software developer. I come from an accounting background with my father being a CPA and growing up in the profession. But my love and passion has always been with technology. I got my first computer when I was seven years old. It was an IBM 386 running DOS, and it was an incredible time in my life. I fell in love from that very moment and created my life’s work of really trying to learn and utilize technology the best way I can.

And throughout my life, I’ve explored that countless times. Now I work in the other half of my life as a software developer, leading a very talented team of developers and engineers to build software solutions – typically in the accounting space or enterprise resource planning space – for niche industries to help them find technology, to make their operations more effective and efficient. Ultimately, everything I do has a common thread of tech and accounting.

It’s something I love to my very core, and I’m excited to share with you some of the things I’ve found that have worked for myself and for my clients, to, hopefully, give you the knowledge and wisdom to make good and effective decisions down the road for yourself, for your family, and for your organizations.

PRO Member Exclusive

Three Steps to Becoming a Millionaire

Dump “nonprofit” tasks and focus on the high-value ones.

By Sandi Leyva
The Complete Guide to Marketing for Tax & Accounting Firms

Let’s do the math. To earn a million dollars in a year, you have to bring in $83,333 per month. Assuming you bill hourly and work for the standard 1,000 billable hours per year, you need to charge $1,000 per hour. If you want to make $5 million in one year, you will need to charge $5,000 per hour.

MORE: Five Business Development Mistakes to Avoid | Twelve Ways Your Business Card Can Hurt You | Got FOMO When It Comes to AI and ChatGPT? You Should: Here’s What You’re Missing | How to Weather Any Economic Storm | Ten Ways to Have More Energy This Tax Season | Seven Steps to Keeping Your Clients Forever | Give to Receive, and Eight More Ways to Boost Sales | Five Things That Clients Don’t Know about Accountants | Five Ways to Wow Your Clients | How to Fight Feeling Overwhelmed | You’re Missing 60% of Your Revenue | Make the Most of CPE Conferences
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Here’s some breaking news: You won’t get there doing tasks that are worth $10 per hour. Even if we drop a zero and aim for six figures in a year, you won’t get there doing $10-per-hour tasks either. At six figures, you’re worth $100 per hour.

The difference between poor people and rich people is simple: One values the scarcity of their time and uses every minute wisely, and the other doesn’t.
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ABOUT US

Bissett Bullet: Your Greatest Successes

Today’s Bissett Bullet: “The most powerful marketing weapon you have in the fight against the competition is the stories of clients you’ve helped in the past.”

By Martin Bissett

Client success stories are one of the best ways to interest potential future clients. Are yours clearly documented as a part of your marketing literature? If not, why not?

Today’s To-Do:

Reflect on some of the best outcomes you’ve achieved for your clients. What service did you deliver? What was the outcome and what savings were created for the client? Write this into a case study to share with potential future clients.

See more Bissett Bullets here

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