Just like the heavyweights of the accounting industry, your brand must leave a lasting impression to your clients and prospects — and what better way to showcase this than in a vision statement that embodies what your practice is all about.
Regardless of your company size or years of operation, our comprehensive guide can help you create the best vision statement possible for your accounting firm.
Elements of a Good Vision Statement with Examples of Vision Statements from Industry Leaders
1. Simplicity
A good accounting firm vision statement is simple and easily understood, even by the layperson. It’s key to limit the use of accounting jargon when creating a vision statement —not every client is acquainted with terms in the industry.
Let’s take Deloitte, the biggest accounting firm in the world right now, as an example and examine how it demonstrates simplicity in its vision statement:
2. Balance Between Broadness and Specificity
When creating a vision statement, it pays to list down your firm’s specific goals, take important words, and incorporate those into one solid and cohesive statement. It’s key to strike a balance between general and specific.
Avoid leaning too much towards the broad strokes approach so that your vision statement doesn’t sound cookie-cutter or even irrelevant. At the same time, don’t be too specific that you alienate even your target clientele.
A good example of a vision statement showing this balance is that of KPMG — they are able specify that they value quality over quantity, while also displaying broadness by stating that they are the “clear choice”.
3. Cultural Sensitivity
Even if it seems unrelated, it helps that accounting firms declare their cultural and sociopolitical sensitivity through incorporating these concepts into their vision statement. In today’s age, cultural sensitivity is heavily promoted and encouraged, especially among Fortune 500 companies. Take the vision statement of accounting titan EY for example:
4. Social Responsibility
Finally, we have industry giant PwC demonstrating its commitment to solving social issues as rewarded by institutions like B Lab and the UN. Today more than ever, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are encouraged and even protocolised. If you want to show the public that your firm is socially conscious, it’s best to put it in your vision statement, like what PwC did:
Vision Statement Tips: Ways to Show the Core Values of Accountants in Your Vision Statement
1. Use the Right Keywords
The right keywords will attract the right audience – so these belong in your vision statement. Timely and industry-relevant keywords will help with your accounting firm’s strategic direction and goals.
When your team utilises a strong set of keywords ensures clarity and alignment within the vision statement, communicating both internally among team members and externally with stakeholders by providing the best vision statement possible – one that highlights what the company stands for and aims to achieve.
2. Gather Input from Your Accountants
Accountants have knowledge, expertise, and ethical standards essential to their professional identity. When you involve your accounting employees in shaping your vision statement, your accounting firm can better demonstrate its commitment to integrity, accuracy, transparency, and accountability – core values of accountants that cut across industries.
This collaborative approach to formulating your vision statement as an accounting firm not only reinforces the importance of the core values of accountants within the organisation but also fosters a sense of ownership and pride among your firm’s accountants.
3. Pick Up Points from Trusted Institutions
When making the best vision statement possible, you should include guidelines like the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), especially when showcasing the core values of accountants.
This is because GAAP provides a framework for consistent and reliable measurement of financial performance, while IFRS promotes global comparability and understanding of financial statements, especially when you’re creating a vision statement.
Embracing these standards and incorporating them into your vision statement reflects your firm’s dedication to upholding professional ethics within the accounting profession and instills trust among both clients and prospects by ensuring that financial information is presented accurately and fairly.
Vision Statement Guide: Helpful Tips to Craft the Perfect Vision Statement
After determining the core values of accountants, creating a vision statement should have a clear direction at this point. But how do you make your vision statement stand out from the rest?
For an attention-grabbing accounting firm vision statement, here’s our vision statement guide consisting of four foolproof tips to help you create the best vision statement your firm can come up with.
- Offer what your competitors don’t — showcase your unique value proposition (UVP) and grab your target audience’s attention
- Show that you supply the market demand — spotlight a problem while also offering the solution to said problem
- Ensure that it responds to current issues — take cultural sensitivity and corporate social responsibility into account
- Make your message hopeful — incorporate optimism and a sense of looking forward to the future
Is Your Vision Statement Good Enough?
So now you’ve crafted the best vision statement possible — where do you go from there?
No matter how promising or game-changing a vision statement is, it can only go so far, especially if your workflow and processes are falling behind. Staying true to your vision statement will only be possible if your current business model can keep up with your accounting firm’s goals and values.
Unfortunately for some practice owners, their vision never comes into fruition. For most cases, the lack of adaptability is the main reason. As the accounting industry is ever-evolving, firm owners must embrace change — lest they fall into the same trap as the giants who never returned to their former glory.
What’s Changing in the Accounting Industry
Because of the talent crisis plaguing the industry, newer business models have been filling this gap: specifically, accounting outsourcing. As most accounting practices are short-staffed and drowning in tasks, more and more firms have been turning to offshore accounting to improve their day-to-day processes.
When you partner with accounting professionals across the globe, you significantly slash costs compared to hiring an onshore team. Especially if you pick the right team to work with, you get to enjoy top-notch services while increasing your firm’s capacity and improving your team’s productivity in turn.
Need a Partner for Outsourced Accounting Services?
TOA Global provides staffing solutions for accounting firms worldwide. With our accounting staffing services, we supply top talent to accounting practices who need offshore accounting professionals for their day-to-day tasks, projects, and overall workflow.
Successfully addressing the current talent shortage in the industry, TOA Global has a proven track record to boot. Join us in revolutionising accounting and book a chat with us today.
