Abdo, Eick & Meyers LLP

people coming out of school to have. Colleges are starting to build data programs in support of their accounting programs and that’s an area, where if we understand data and what is clean data and what it all means, we can really help our business owners and our governments.” What McDonald finds intriguing is that CPA firms are having the opportunity to be advisors sitting at the table alongside clients’ leadership when decisions are being made. He recounts, “A few years ago we bought an outsource HR firm with a component of payroll to it, along with HR consulting. It’s been really interesting to watch that because all of our clients have some form of HR issue. It could be performance pay plans, or a compliance issue, people development, those kind of things. Those questions continue to come up and when we look at our top 10 clients, almost all of those clients now have some HR services in our delivery.” Overall process is another area where the company gleans good insights on how things should work. When they’re able to map out a process for their clients showing the current state, they can then describe what the future state may look like, and that may result in great efficiencies. It isn’t about reducing head count; it’s about getting people doing what they’re best equipped to do. Abdo, Eick & Meyers has some great success stories helping clients reengineer their finance department or other processes. When it comes to a competitive edge, McDonald says, “Relationships are the most important part of the equation. In the past, when we were so focused on the compliance work, we would only see our clients once or twice a year, and if we delivered the tax return or the audit on time, we thought we were delivering great client service. But we’ve come to the realization that that doesn’t do anything to establish a deep relationship. It’s about how much contact we have with that client throughout the year. So we started a ‘listening call’ process about five