CPA Practice Advisor - 4

FROM THE EDITOR

Set Yourself Some Deadlines
THERE ARE HISTORICAL references from the 19th century supporting an origin of the word,
deadline, indicating a line or ditch created around the perimeter of a prison, over which if a
prisoner crosses he (or she) will be shot dead. While such usage might seem outdated or even
overly extreme, it stands to reason that the significance of the term could not be overlooked,
lest one's life itself might be on the line, as it were.Today we think of deadlines as due dates,
times after which a project or activity will no longer be accepted or allowed. Under normal
circumstances, a phrase that probably will never be applied to anything that happened in
2020, April 15th represents a deadline for filing certain income tax returns; another deadline
example that is also potentially being extended or modified this year might be the upcoming
U.S. election, the votes for which might or might not be required to be made by November 3rd.
But 2020 aside, we in the
accounting profession live in a
world defined by deadlines. Not
only are there various types of filing
deadlines that occur every month,
we constantly force deadlines on
ourselves by scheduling audits,
reviews, examinations, appointments, calls, meetings, and so on.
Without deadlines, our work world
might spiral into chaos.
And while 2020's pandemic has
upstaged much of what we like to
think of as normal work scheduling, it appears that deadlines are
actually more important than ever.
When your colleagues are working
remotely, when children are schooling at home, when elderly family
members need extra care, when
businesses are closed and people

CPA

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm

are taking gig assignments, when
everything we once considered
normal is in a state of upheaval,
the one thing we can count on is
the deadlines we set for ourselves.
Whether you enter your deadlines into your electronic calendar,
jot them down on a pad of paper,
write them on sticky notes placed
on your mirror or refrigerator or
computer screen, tie strings around
your fingers, or use other creative
methods for remembering, the
deadline becomes the organizing
tool in your life. It's the one thing
we can count on to guide us to the
next milepost.
I encourage employers, team
leaders, parents, individuals to set
hard deadlines for yourself and
those who report to you. Adding

NSA

an item to your to-do list is a great
way to keep track of the item, but
without a fixed date and time for
finishing the project, that project is
likely to get pushed aside.
And while there is plenty of talk
these days about how successful
remote working is turning out to
be, I think most can agree that it's
easier to manage projects when
people are present and accounted
for during fixed times of the day.
If your team (and that can be your
work team or your personal/family
team) is working a flex schedule and
can't always be reached at what we
once thought of as normal business
hours, it's more of challenge to finish tasks by particular dates. Set
some deadlines. You might find they
will help. And watch out for ditches.

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm

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VOLUME 30, NUMBER 9
Publisher: Barry Strobel
Editor-in-Chief: Gail Perry, CPA
Managing Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon
Contributors: Ken Berry, JD
Doug Sleeter
Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP
Kristy Short
Randy Johnston
Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP
Paul McDonald
Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Becky Livingston
Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA
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John Higgins, CPA
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Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP, CGMA, MBA
Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CGMA, CISA
Randy Johnston, MCS
Greg LaFollette, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA
Doug Sleeter
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GAIL PERRY, CPA

Editor-in-Chief
gail.perry@cpapracticeadvisor.com
@gperrycpa

Meanwhile, on an unrelated topic,
I'd like to provide a hat tip to the
AICPA and its technology arm,
CPA.com. We've never experienced
anything like this global pandemic,
there's no pandemic rule book for
the accounting profession and the
clients it serves, and yet, somehow,
the folks at AICPA/CPA.com have
managed to provide extraordinary
leadership and guidance in these
uncharted waters. From bi-weekly
town hall meetings, to legislative
representation, to worksheets
and FAQs and constantly revised
resources and tools, I believe I'm
speaking for the entire profession
in saying we are uniformly grateful for your direction, assistance,
support, long hours, weekends
and nights, outreach, compassion,
and responsiveness as we all make
our way through COVID-19 and its
many ramifications. Thank you. ■
- Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief
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CPA Practice Advisor

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