outlook & analysis

the case of the client daughter: tread carefully

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卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 community forumthe lesson: even the best can make mistakes; talk it with peers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

in his column client’s difficult daughter balks at bill, ed mendlowitz fielded a question about a client’s daughter who asked for help with her divorce proceedings, and did not want her father to know what was going on. the work was rushed and difficult, and when the cranky client called the bill highway robbery, the accountant wondered if he should call her father.

mendlowitz noted that an engagement letter and retainer should have been the starting point, then added, “i would tell your client that if she did not pay you in full, or work out a method of payment including automatically charging her credit card on a monthly basis, you will ask her father for payment and will lay out everything you did for her and the specific benefits she got because of your hard work.”

readers were swift to disagree. read more →

4 metrics to measure change, progress & success in your tax and accounting practice

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champagne glasses 20460685_sand how to set bold new goals for the next year.

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

think back to this day one year ago for just a minute. where were you in your business? what were your revenues, salary and profits at that time? what were your clients like? what were your biggest issues?

if we don’t occasionally look back to take a snapshot at a point in our history, we may not realize how much we’ve accomplished in such a short time. i’m not much for dwelling in the past, but this exercise is tremendously useful for a couple of reasons: read more →

readers sound off on liberty, h&r block plans to launch bookkeeping services

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liberty block logosnew strategic ally, or competitive threat?

practitioners are actively debating the effects and impact of h&r block and liberty jumping into the bookkeeping business, as detailed by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间’ hitendra patil here.

“this is an opportunity to highlight quality,” says wesley middleton, head partner at middleton raines in houston. “the only person who has something to worry about are those that are only focused on price.”

not all practitioners agree in the discussion which began at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 and has spilled onto the 20,000-member 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 linkedin group. read more →

client’s difficult daughter balks at bill

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ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and ado you talk to the dad?

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i have a very good client who pays us to prepare his daughter’s tax return. the daughter was going through a divorce and asked us to assist her and her attorney and she said she would pay us herself, and we shouldn’t ask her father to pay us and she also asked us not to tell her father what was going on. we did a lot of work and because of what we did she got a much better settlement than if we did not help her. additionally a lot of what we did was rush on-demand work and some of it was quite difficult. also, she was not the most pleasant to deal with on many occasions. read more →

6 ways to move beyond compliance services

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dollar concept, financial adviser or finance advisorybecoming a ‘trusted advisor.’

by sandi smith leyva
the accountant’s accelerator

here’s a question: what portion of your revenues are derived from compliance work – e.g., tax preparation and irs representation; bookkeeping; quickbooks setup, cleanup and training; payroll; and audit work – versus value-added work, e.g., revenue improvement, business consulting, profit margin analysis and workflow improvement projects?

if you answered 100 percent compliance work and no value-added services, you’re not alone.  there’s a lot of lip service about moving from compliance services to becoming a “trusted advisor.” there’s an equal amount of confusion in how to get started.

here are a few tips to help those of you who want to move in that direction. read more →

mirror, mirror on the wall

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11 weekly self-assessment questions for successful professionals.h

by august aquila
the effective partnership

when’s the last time you talked to your partners about the “mirror questions”? we all know that it’s easy to kid ourselves about how well we’re doing. but when we have to look ourselves in the mirror, well, it’s another story.

rather than giving the partners the questions they should answer, we suggested that they come up with their own self-assessment. specifically, we wanted them to devise questions they could ask themselves each week to evaluate how well they had performed. in the end, we came up with 11. read more →

threat or opportunity as h&r block, liberty jump into bookkeeping services?

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liberty block logoswhat it means for independent tax and accounting firms.

by hitendra patil
pransform inc. 

the accounting profession in the u.s. has been shaken up by announcements from liberty tax services and h&r block that they are entering into core bookkeeping and accounting services business.

more on the entrepreneur accountant:  six steps for a better tax season   •  8 seconds into the future: meet generation z   •   5 reasons gen y will make or break your firm   •   3 ways amazon’s new fire phone hints at the future of accounting   •   the 8 traits creating the firm of the future today   •   get more done, make more money: stop doing these 17 things   •   what shopping habits reveal about accounting clients   •   create your “not-to-do’s” list   •   irs bitcoin rule: 5 things accountants need to know   •   tax season tips: train your brain to focus   •   what the bitcoin phenomenon means for accountants   •   overcoming your clients’ worst fears   •   5 tech tips for reigniting growth   •   a case study in using linkedin   •   accountants and six fundamental human needs   •   client satisfaction starts with ‘likeability’   •   why accounting? your clients want to know   •   what’s next: predictive accounting

the news came as a surprise to many and i had a few discussions with some accounting professionals, especially smaller firms and some solo practitioners, on what they think of this new development. read more →

what a cpa firm is worth

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calculatorlook at the revenue stream. goodwill is another story.

by marc rosenberg
retirements & buyouts

to illustrate a cpa firm’s value, let’s use an example of a plain-vanilla or average firm:

  • annual revenues: $6 million.
  • six partners with ages spread evenly between 45 and 62.
  • average partner income: $350,000.
  • ratio of professional staff to partner is 3.5.
  • firm is located in a city with a population in excess of 1m.
  • clients are all in common industries such as manufacturing, real estate, health care, etc. no niches or specialties.
  • services are all traditional annuity types such as accounting and tax.
  • the firm’s accrual basis capital, primarily wip and a/r, is $1.2m.

now, let’s compute the value.

read more →