Membership Course Catalog

The Ideal Practice course will introduce you to Woodard’s Ideal Practice Model™ which is comprised of 7 key areas of focus.  The course is broken into 2 parts.  In this first part, you will set the standard for your overall company Vision, Mission, and Purpose to guide you through building an Ideal Brand (You), identifying Ideal Services that foster higher-impact engagements, and creating a profile of Ideal Clients that are coachable and value-focused.  You’re building the foundation of your Ideal Practice.

In part 1 of The Ideal Practice course you created a solid foundation for your Ideal Practice.  You defined a Vision, Mission and Purpose that guided you to build an Ideal Brand (You), to identify Ideal Services that foster higher-impact engagements, and to create a profile of Ideal Clients that are coachable and value-focused. In this 2nd part of the course you will learn the final four key areas of Woodard’s Ideal Practice Model™.  You’ll identify the gaps in each area and create a prioritized plan to build the practice you want.  

Having a vision provides your business (and life) with meaning, energy and direction. A vision statement is a guiding beacon for when you need to make corrections in order to stay on track to your intended destination. The Ideal YOU workshop will map out (or refine) your vision and growth trajectory and explore the story that brought you to where you are today. 

Work with your peers and one of our esteemed practice coaches in this highly interactive workshop:

• Connect your unique story and journey to the outcomes you wish to drive in your practice
• Discover the "Why" that connects the services you offer to your vision, and elevates your service offering into the "mission" of your practice.
• Leverage a purpose statement to cast your vision to your team members and clients and keep your vision connected to the operations of your practice.
• Mature your vision into a "brand promise" that informs your strategy, focuses your team, and inspires your clients. 

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course.

Craft a slate of services for your clients that are aligned with your mission (from the Ideal You model). Conduct an inventory of your practice's knowledge and skills to deliver services that are differentiated and provide a unique value proposition.

Work with your peers, alongside one of our esteemed practice coaches, in this highly interactive workshop:

• Develop a customized slate of services for your practice 
• Structure your services into 2-3 service tiers
• Package your services into a subscription model while maximizing profitability and measurability
• Create a transition strategy to foster the adoption of your tiered services by your existing clients 

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course. Note: While not required, we strongly recommend attending the Ideal You workshop and the Strategic Pricing course prior to participating in this workshop.

Collect the characteristics of your ideal clients into a profile that encompasses niche, target market, personality, and leadership styles, and most importantly, aligns with your vision. Score each of your current clients using your ideal profile and develop a plan to curate your base to perfection. Achieving the ideal client base is one thing but maintaining that level of ideal takes intention and dedication. By actively working a maintenance plan, you will establish an ideal client base that aligns with your vision, provides the revenue you desire, and fosters a vibrant team culture.

• Define Your Ideal Client Profile
• Evaluate Your Current Client Base
• Create Transition Strategies
• Guard Your Front Door

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course. While not required, we strongly recommend attending the Ideal You and Ideal Services workshops prior to participating in the Ideal Client workshop.

• Taking an Infrastructure Inventory
• Taking an Application Inventory
• Vetting Technology
• Crafting a Technology Plan

Defining your ideal processes begins with documenting production workflows and managing to the team wide adoption of those workflows. By doing so, you will

• Equip yourself and your team to deliver consistent, high quality services
• Increase efficiencies
• Reduce errors and omissions
• Streamline client onboarding
• ...and more! 

In this workshop, you will create an organizational structure to contain process documentation, explore & share your experience around software solutions designed to manage workflow, and learn the key factors required to develop and maintain a powerful catalog of processes to deploy in your practice.

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course.

What does it mean to have Ideal Engagements? Explore these key areas that will ensure you have enjoyable, productive and wealth generating relationships with your clients.

• Vetting Potential Clients Using Your Ideal Clients Profile
• Best Practices for Client Assessments
• Management Considerations when Building Contractual Agreements
• Maintaining Boundaries in Client Relationships and Managing Scope Creep

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course.

What does it look like to have an Ideal Team? How would this impact me, my team members, and my clients? Explore key areas that will ensure you have a thriving, confident and loyal team who all work together toward mutual growth and client success.

Topics addressed during this workshop include:

• Building a Thriving Team Culture where team members adopt the practice’s vision and values
• Fostering Meaningful and Honest Team Interactions
• Defining Roles and Responsibilities within the Team
• Hiring Strategies
  • Candidate Identification, Qualification and Assessments
  • Conducting Effective Interviews
• Maximizing Productions through Team Accountability
  • Measurements
  • Review Cycles

*PREREQUISITES: This workshop is available to Advantage and Premium members who have completed the 10-week Ideal Practice Course.

Defining the right pricing model is an ever-increasing challenge as external disruptors set price expectations, commoditize bookkeeping services, and obscure the perception of our value for our clients and prospects. Woodard’s Strategic Pricing 4-week course equips accounting professionals to effectively and strategically price cyclical accounting services (CAS…aka, Bookkeeping Services), income tax preparation, and advisory services through proven pricing strategies and service structures.

• Week 1: Value Pricing Foundations
• Week 2: Creating an Ideal Client Profile and Revenue Model, and Vetting Clients and Prospects
• Week 3: Designing Service Structures that Maximize Client Value...and Price
• Week 4: Pricing the Engagement and Getting Client Buy In
• Bonus Segment: Protecting Your Practice from Scope Creep and Write Downs/Write Offs

Accountants that handle sensitive client data are often the target of cybercrimes. This increased risk is supported by evolving regulatory actions including the IRS 4557 guidelines, cyber security mandates, and the state-based introduction of safe harbor laws. How is your firm managing risk in line with these guidelines? Are you IRS 4557 compliant? Explore the eight most common cyber threats to be aware of and outline a holistic approach to cyber security which covers technology, team training and compliance. Understand the risks and learn how to be secure and compliant in today’s cloud-based environment.

• The 8 Cyber Threats Your Firm Needs to Know About
• The Tech Your Firm Needs to De-Risk, Survive and Thrive
• Training & Compliance - How to Manage the Human Risk
• Practical Tips to Secure Your Firm, Including Demo of Practice Protect

It is imperative that you find calm in the storm when priorities shift and know how to gather, assess, organize, and prioritize your tasks at hand. With focus and understanding, you can identify the task with the highest return, and see it through from start to finish. Learn how to conquer task overload, achieve and maintain a clean inbox, harmonize work and life, adopt extreme intentionality, and maximize production.

• Understanding WHY Your Current Task Management Habits Do Not Serve You
• Building Your Productivity System
• Practice Readiness - Bringing it To the Team

A solid marketing plan is a roadmap that gives you strategies, costs, and anticipated results. Learn how to create a marketing plan that will take the guesswork out of your efforts and align with your ideal clients at each level of service. Fine-tune your marketing investment through specific measurables to ensure the highest returns. You can realistically aim for a 6-10x return on marketing spend—a high benchmark that is very achievable.

• Introduction to Marketing Essentials
• Principles of Marketing
• Measuring Your Success
• Pulling it All Together into a Marketing Plan

Management is the measurement of people and process, while leadership is the development of people and process. Whether you’re a team of one or many, both management and leadership skills are critical to the success of your practice.

This course will enable you to form effective teams, enhance employee performance, clearly define roles and responsibilities, foster accountability, and build a distinctive company culture.

• Fundamentals and Strategies of Practice Leadership
• Personality Styles and the Impact on Individual Performance, Team Performance and Company Culture
• Functional Roles - Mapping and Structuring the Roles and Responsibilities within Your Practice
• Building Functional, High-Performance Teams
• Culture Formation: The Vision and Values Driven Practice
• Measuring Individual and Team Performance and Outcomes
• Strategies for Conducting Focused, Effective Team Meetings
• Strategic Planning with Your Teams: Harvesting Ideas through Brainstorming Sessions and Team Ideation

Selling your practice has many layers to consider and will impact many people. There are factors that can affect the transaction, some of which you have control over and some you don’t.   In Part-1 of this course you will learn the building blocks of a successful transfer of ownership for your practice. Depending on your goals this may involve taking care of your clients and team, or perhaps just a quick book-of-business sale. You will learn how to build a powerhouse succession team, explore the fundamental components of business valuation, learn some key steps to maximize the value of your practice, and make it as attractive as possible to potential buyers.

Email fraud emerged as the most costly cyber attack, inflicting a staggering $2.4 billion in losses upon US businesses in 2022, as reported by the FBI ICC Annual Report. While AI advancements offer immense potential, they've also opened doors for cybercriminals to execute more sophisticated and convincing attacks. Discover crucial strategies to shield your accounting firm from the rampant rise of email fraud in this one-day class. In a world where cyber threats constantly evolve, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage – it's a necessity.

In this one-day workshop you will learn key concepts, methodologies, and career opportunities in fraud and forensic accounting. Through engaging presentations, interactive discussions, and case studies, participants will gain valuable insights into the world of financial fraud and its mitigation.