BVR Firm Economics & Best Practices Guide, 2019/2020 Edition
BVR's one-of-a-kind Firm Economics & Best Practices Guide provides business valuation, forensic, and litigation support (BVFLS) professionals with the largest and most thorough analysis of BVFLS firm best practices in financial management, marketing, human resources, compensation, and professional and ownership standards.
- Executive Summary
- General Firm Information
- Years in the BVFLS profession
- Job title of person completing the survey
- BVFLS practice headquarters location
- Firms outside the U.S.
- Number of offices or locations per firm
- Form of business organization
- Primary business of firms providing BVFLS services
- Total gross revenues from BVFLS activities only
- Total gross revenues from all sources (BVFLS and all other billings) and percent of revenues derived from BVFLS services
- Financial Management
- Growth rates and estimates
- Business valuation firm specialization
- What is the fastest growing specialty in your practice?
- Most profitable business valuation practice area
- Percentage of total business valuation billings from litigation and non-litigation work
- Realization and utilization rates
- Annual billable hour targets
- Revenues per employee
- Staff Ratios, Hiring, Qualifications, and Certification
- Professional and staff employee counts
- Professional/administrative staff ratios
- Professional certification
- Hiring in the past 12 months
- Current professional and support staff shortages
- Hiring plans for the next 12 months
- Incentives for new hires
- BVFLS staff benefits
- Staff Compensation and Incentive Compensation
- Average staff base salaries and incentive compensation
- What was the average percent salary increase awarded during the last 12 months?
- Performance incentives for business valuation professionals
- Bonus compensation plan documentation
- Factors considered when calculating bonus compensation
- Staff included in firm’s bonus compensation plan
- Bonus compensation forecasts
- Partner Promotion, Compensation and Policies
- Partnership promotion
- Partnership or shareholder agreements
- New partner capital contributions
- Distributions to partners
- Partnership distribution formulas
- Billing and Fees
- Engagement letters and standards compliance
- Engagement “down payments” and retainers
- BVFLS billing practices and methods
- Use of hourly billing for engagements
- Hourly billing rates for BVFLS services
- Average increase in hourly or standard flat flee billing rates
- Research costs recovery practices
- Do you charge late fees for delinquent client bills?
- Marketing
- Who has primary responsibility for your firm’s marketing?
- Sources of new and referral BVFLS revenue
- Other referral sources for BVFLS engagements
- Newsletters, e-zines, blogs, social networking, and other client communications
- BVFLS firm web sites
- Most common BVFLS firm marketing methods
- Most effective marketing methods
- Marketing budgets
- Marketing plans for 2019
- Business Valuation Research and Technology Resources
- BV research budgets
- Most popular BV research databases and tools ;
- Do you outsource any research tasks?
- Use of packaged valuation report-writing software?
- Professional and Management Concerns
- What do you consider your firm’s most pressing management-related challenge?
- What do you consider the BVFLS profession’s most pressing management-related challenge?
- What do you consider your firm’s most successful new management practice or policy for this year?
- Appendix: BVFLS Firm Economics & Best Practices Survey
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