june2022 - 35

BRIDGING THE GAP
Your Firm's Next Hire:
A Project Manager
JIM BOOMER, CPA.CITP
CEO, Boomer Consulting, Inc.
Director, Boomer Technology Circle™
jim.boomer@cpapracticeadvisor.com
WHY YOUR FIRM NEEDS
A PROJECT MANAGER
How often do you leave conferences,
webinars and workshops burning
with motivation to make a change,
implement new technology, or offer
a new service line? You take these
ideas back to the firm, but they soon
fall by the wayside as the day-today
responsibilities of serving your
clients, and managing your staff
and practice take precedence.
A project manager would be
responsible for planning, organizing
and overseeing the completion of
those projects and helping to ensure
they happen on time and on budget.
It's easy to see why firms that have
hired a dedicated project manager
quickly realize value.
Here's what you need to know
about hiring a project manager for
your firm.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A
PROJECT MANAGER
The exact duties of a project manager
will depend on the needs of your firm.
Some of the areas in which we've seen
firms have success with a project
manager include:
■ Technology. A project manager can
assist your internal or external IT
teams with identifying, evaluating,
selecting and implementing new
technologies and training staff.
■ Human resources. Project managers
can assist with recruiting,
TODAY, FIRMS JUGGLE increasingly complex projects. They need to evaluate technology decisions,
handle recruiting, train and onboard new employees, work through process improvement and
client experience initiatives, engage in strategic planning, and mentor and coach team members,
to name a few. Partners, IT, and human resources all play a role in these initiatives, but their
attention is torn between managing these projects and their day-to-day responsibilities. Running
a modern firm is a team sport. So if you want to increase your capacity and capability to get
these projects done successfully, you need to hire a project manager.
screening applicants, interviewing,
onboarding, training, coaching and
mentorship programs and reviews.
■ Financial. The annual budgeting
process is a challenge for many
firms because it requires input from
several different departments and
stakeholders. A project manager can
help oversee the process by keeping
everyone on task.
■ Strategic planning. Working on and
toward the firm's overall strategic
plan and its IT plan includes a lot
of tasks, contributors and deadlines.
A project manager can help assign
responsibilities for action items and
ensure deadlines are met.
■ Process improvements. Process
improvement initiatives can fail
without effective communication
and buy-in from the right people. A
project manager can assist with this
by assembling a cross-functional
team, ensuring communications
happen at the right time and to
the right people. They can also
gather feedback after the initial
implementation, which helps with
continuous improvement.
The project manager's role isn't
to handle all the tasks involved but
to oversee complex projects from
inception to completion. Once a project
is complete, the project manager
conducts a post-implementation
review to identify lessons learned
and what the firm can do to improve
the project management process in
the future.
SKILLS OF A PROJECT
MANAGER
Many firm leaders fall into the trap
of thinking anyone they hire must
either be a CPA or have experience
working in an accounting firm. But a
project manager doesn't necessarily
need accounting firm-specific experience.
This person just needs project
management skills - knowledge of
the accounting profession can follow.
Some of the skills of an effective
project manager include:
■ Effective communication to know
how to approach people, build
relat ionships, and ar t iculate
expectations
■ Negotiation skills to keep involved
parties happy and working toward
a shared goal
■ Scheduling and time management
to create well-defined project plans
■ Coaching and leadership skills to
move projects forward and deliver a
positive outcome
■ Technical expertise to use project
management software and communication
tools
■ Risk management skills to identify
risks at the outset of a project and
develop proper mitigation strategies
■ Critical thinking and problem solving
to navigate tricky or ambiguous
projects
The
Professional
Project
(PMP)
Management
is an excellent
certification program for project
management professionals, whether
you hire someone who already has
the certification or hire someone with
the above skills and invest in his or
her development.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TOOLS
Most firms have a workflow solution
for tracking tax, assurance, and other
client-facing engagements. But what
about all the other projects your firm
has going on? It's just as essential to
have a systematic method for tracking
those projects and understanding who
is working on what and whether the
project is on schedule.
Asana, Trello, Monday,
and
ClickUp are all excellent software
options, but there are many others
out there, and many offer free base
versions if you want to give them a
try before you upgrade to a premium
plan with all the bells and whistles.
It may seem as though hiring
a project manager is an unnecessary
expense. However, if you have
teams that are not communicating
well, budgets going out the window,
and missed deadlines on internal
projects, it's time to hire a dedicated
project manager. The right person
will save you time, money and a lot
of frustration. ■
JUNE 2022 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
35

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