client service opportunities

ask stupid questions early

by

group of businesspeople hiding their faces behind question mark signs at officelate queries give a poor impression.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

one time i was working for about a month at a client who was a stockbroker. throughout the office were signs that said p&s with arrows.

more: becoming an expert in irs collections | how i got a mercedes as a fee | hot shot sales manager is not such a hot shot | you must push the pencil | the art of the deal: starts with listening | working for a jerk | the ‘wrong’ cpe | be a sounding board to your clients | roger is my only client
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when i got started on the account, i did not pay much attention to the signs. instead i concentrated on learning what to do and then doing it. after a couple of weeks i looked at one of the signs and had no idea what it meant, never coming across anything referring to it.
read more →

becoming an expert in irs collections

by

young businessman in office on phonethe takeaway? don’t say no to new types of business.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

after i received a mercedes as a fee to help a pair of businessmen resolve their tax withholding problems with the internal revenue service, i soon became an expert in irs collection matters.

more: how i got a mercedes as a fee | mendlowitz: how i owned a printing company and restaurant | am i happy? | my boss hated the client | fired from my first job | staffers need to speak up with clients | bored by cpe? you’re missing out! | clients buy solutions, not hours | roger is my only client
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

after that job was completed, their attorney recommended a few other clients and i became quite active with collections. each time i got a new client, i took giant steps in learning how to handle these matters. i also got to know many irs revenue officers, at least one in almost every irs office in new york city, long island and new jersey. while i was learning, it seemed as if everything built on what i had previously learned, and i was becoming an expert in settling tax delinquencies.
read more →

mendlowitz: how i owned a printing company and restaurant

by

hand watering small plant in pot shaped like upward arrowand 3 lessons i learned.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

my childhood dream had two parts. one was to have my own cpa practice and the other was to own a bunch of businesses.

more: high cpa fees should be a client’s goal | hot shot sales manager is not such a hot shot | you must push the pencil | the art of the deal: starts with listening | working for a jerk
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the cpa part worked out great. the businesses part did not.
read more →

padding deductions? clients need to be warned

by

drawing of unhappy face and arrow pointing from it to happy facesome critical clarifications.

by barry j. friedman, cpa
industrynewsletters

“in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” is a quote often attributed to benjamin franklin. with that in mind, it’s best to be prepared, at least financially, for taxes and tax season each year.

more: alternative minimum tax: what’s it like today? | the latest rules on charitable donations | how clients should gather their papers for taxes | the latest fraud problem: synthetic identities | real estate, iras & clients | percentage-withholding for clients | basis: turning a common client question into new business |  the w-4 time-bomb and what to do about it
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the risks

when it comes to deductions, things can get a little sticky. what’s the harm in taking a little extra here or a little extra there?
read more →

tax season 2019 serves up a taste of the future

by

“thirty percent of tax services will be obsolete in three years.”

robert hockensmith talks about tax season 2019 on local tv news in phoenix.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

this year’s tax season is giving tax preparers a taste of the future—a future where tax returns are both simpler and more complex.

according to data streaming into the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey, tax practitioners are just beginning to get a handle on the radical changes wrought by the tax cuts and jobs act—not just the technical changes to the tax code but the resulting changes to the business of tax preparation.

more: the biggest reason fraudsters run rings around the irs  | the big free-file flop | the demise of schedule a? | refunds still up, but only by 0.7% | survey: busy season goes sour | tax refunds up 1.7% | lessons learned: how the federal shutdown hit busy season 2019 | tax refund fury roils busy season | taxpayer advocate slams congress over funding

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

robert f. hockensmith, cpa, ea, in phoenix, ariz., and a website site notably named azmoneyguy.com, offers a variety of tax and non-tax services, sums it up thus: “thirty percent of tax preparation will be obsolete in three years. clients will want advice and tax resolution more than preparation for 50 percent of taxpayers. and only 50 percent of all tax returns will be prepared by professional tax preparers.”

read more →

high cpa fees should be a client’s goal

by

businessman sitting on scales with stack of coins in other traythey don’t want their accountant doing as little as possible.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

one time i had three clients who were on the board of directors of the same nyse-listed company. two of them questioned every bill and every hour spent, and their fees were fairly low for people of that caliber. the third person did not seem to care what he paid, and his fees were quite high. let me call him jack.

more: hot shot sales manager is not such a hot shot | am i happy? | my boss hated the client | fired from my first job | staffers need to speak up with clients | bored by cpe? you’re missing out!
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

jack also wanted to have lunch with me about twice a year. there was no special agenda. he just wanted to talk about how he could get richer and whether i could come up with anything that might help his company. we ate in the company’s private dining room – just him and me and three people waiting on us. the only thing i remember about the food was that at the beginning of the lunch we were served a wheel of brie cheese measuring 10 or 12 inches in diameter, and he proceeded to eat almost all of it.
read more →

protect your clients’ assets

by

digital visualization of a blue alarm clockget the plans locked down.

by anthony glomski

let’s look at ways to help your clients minimize taxes when they sell their business, to avoid leaving money on the table and to reduce concentration risk.

more on liquidity: even entrepreneurs must diversify | when clients cash out: four smart financial moves
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

here we’ll take a closer look at two common missteps that business owners and their advisors make during the exit process – and how to avoid them.
read more →

hot shot sales manager is not such a hot shot

by

businessman holding a printed red "down" arrowsometimes people reveal more than intended.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

a client decided that to grow her business she needed a top-tier sales manager and recruited someone from a much larger competitor.

more: am i happy? | how hidden bias taints results | when to keep some plans to yourself | employees have better memories than bosses | when writeups went extinct
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

read more →

even entrepreneurs must diversify

by

also: don’t let them undervalue themselves.

by anthony glomski

based on my years of experience helping successful entrepreneurs, as well as my research and interviews with experts in the area of successful business exits, i have identified key financial challenges that entrepreneurs who are about to cash out must address.

more on liquidity: when clients cash out: four smart financial moves
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the idea is to ensure that you can help them make a smooth and successful transition from where they are today to where they want to be post-exit. read more →

am i happy?

by

life is short, you know.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

my father was dying – too young and too soon. he succumbed over a nine-month period to coronary heart disease. today his life could have been extended, but not in 1976.

more: how hidden bias taints results | you must push the pencil | the art of the deal: starts with listening | working for a jerk | the ‘wrong’ cpe | be a sounding board to your clients
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

i would visit him and see his strength waning to the point that he could barely lift his head or talk and even then it was in a hoarse whisper. one of the last things he said to me was, “are you happy?” i answered quickly, “yes.”
read more →

when clients cash out: four smart financial moves

by

how to put your clients in the best possible position.

by anthony glomski

there are over 28 million businesses in the united states today. while the odds of being highly successful remain long, many businesses that do succeed are often worth far more than their owners imagined.

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the main reason for that disconnect is that owners are laser-focused on growing their business; they’re not in the business of buying and selling businesses like investment bankers are.
read more →

how hidden bias taints results

by

statue of scales of justicedon’t make your job harder.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

it is very hard to avoid injecting bias in investigatory forensic work, but essential if you want to be successful. i had a great experience to illustrate this.

more: you must push the pencil | my boss hated the client | fired from my first job | staffers need to speak up with clients | bored by cpe? you’re missing out! | clients buy solutions, not hours | roger is my only client
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

first, very few people do things that are completely unbiased. most everyone starts with some sort of preconceived idea and, whether consciously or subconsciously, they lean toward that. maybe i should have said unconsciously. so many people do things without a clue, but that is a different story.
read more →