Spring, with its spirit of renewal, is the perfect time to breathe new life into your career (and dust off all those work-related resolutions you made on New Year’s Day). These six action items will help you to keep your professional pursuits moving in the right direction, especially if you’ve been on cruise control all winter. 

President Barack Obama’s push to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour has given certain industries—and the CPAs who service them—pause, as they ponder the potential implications. 

Microsoft plans to end support for its 12-year-old Windows XP operating system (OS) on April 8, which means that the company will no longer provide security patches, technical assistance and other forms of service for those still using the software—a development that could leave businesses at increased risk of cyberthreats and other glitches if they don’t upgrade. 

This month brings the year-end audit season to a close and, with it, a familiar routine: Firm partners will either be spending their days reviewing workpapers prior to issuing reports or, if the reports have already been issued, conducting postmortems. They’ll engage in discussions about audit risk and attempt to identify how the audit team can place increased reliance on the client’s business processes to effectively achieve audit objectives.

Here’s some sobering news for hiring managers: According to a recent online survey by CareerBuilder.com, one in five workers will be shopping for a new job this year. The website polled 3,008 full-time employees across industries and found that 21 percent planned to change employers in 2014, up from 17 percent in 2013. Researchers linked the increase to a drop in job satisfaction, with the unhappiest workers complaining most about their salaries and grumbling that they felt undervalued. - See more at: file:///T:/TrustedProfessional/2014/03-March/feature/career.html#sthash.qDlp9a9C.dpuf

Problems stemming from fee billing and collection have always plagued CPA firms, but there are basic steps you can take to avoid or manage most of these issues. Client screening is the first step toward controlling losses and enhancing your clientele, but at this late stage of busy season, let’s look first at billing and collection tips.