by Rob Pillans | Dec 18, 2024 | Articles
In July 2024 Kate and I had the good fortune to spend five weeks in Europe. As part of this we spent some time in Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The short summary is these are all fabulous countries and I highly recommend them as places to visit. Denmark I’d...
by Rob Pillans | Dec 18, 2024 | Articles, Planning
I love the end of a calendar year. It’s a time for family Christmas celebrations in many households, including mine. It’s summer and there are some extra holidays to be had. There is generally a positive vibe in the community. These are all good things, but perhaps...
by Rob Pillans | Dec 18, 2024 | Articles
In 2017 I presented a session for the leaders of the firms in an association of firms in Australia. It was on lessons from 30 years in the profession and one of those lessons was “you can do more with less than you think (process and people)”. One of the key messages...
by Rob Pillans | Dec 18, 2024 | Articles, Technology
As an accounting firm coach, consultant and mentor I interact with a lot of accounting firm owners and managers. Two of the hot topics of discussion for some time now have been Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). In many ways there has...
by Rob Pillans | Nov 7, 2024 | Articles, Client Management
As an accounting firm coach, consultant and mentor I interact with a lot of accounting firm owners and managers. One of the common themes during 2024 in most firms is that there is no shortage of work. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Most firms I speak to say there...
by Rob Pillans | Nov 7, 2024 | Articles
Earlier this year I wrote an article with a focus on succession via internal means. Observations about succession in accounting firms – Planet Consulting I promised I’d write on the option to achieve succession through an external sale. Whether you go down an...
by Rob Pillans | Nov 7, 2024 | Articles, Technology
I’m seeing an increasing use of generative AI tools for note taking in meetings. So I thought it would be useful to summarise some pros and cons of these tools and identify some of the popular tools being used. Let me start by listing in alphabetical order the four...
by Rob Pillans | Nov 7, 2024 | Articles
Many of you would be aware that I love to explore other countries with my partner Kate. In fact I love travel nearly as much as I love accounting firms! I get asked regularly to share some observations from my travels. Nothing to do with running a better accounting...
by Rob Pillans | Feb 14, 2024 | Articles
As an accounting firm coach, mentor and consultant I get to see inside a lot of accounting firms. I get to see a lot of stuff that works and a lot that does not. In the area of learning and development, or training as some may call it, I’ve concluded that there are...
by Rob Pillans | Feb 14, 2024 | Articles
Succession could be defined as the process by which the current owner/s of a firm transition and handover ownership to new owner/s. When I say handover I don’t mean for free! The usual situation will be a sale of equity to new owners. Those owners could be inside the...
