For years, we have stressed the importance to our clients of making quarterly estimated tax payments. And unlike many tax preparers, we also do bookkeeping, accounting, and consulting for our small business owners — so we’ve also encouraged them to have us do a quarter-by-quarter calculation of how much to pay. There were many reasons for this: · Making sure the client had their books up-to-date and reconciled for the quarter, so they can be used for real-time managerial decisions; · Matching the cash flow of a given quarter (or the actual sales and vendor invoices, for accrual-basis clients ..read more

Photo by coco tafoya on Unsplash As my readers and colleagues know, I’m a huge proponent of leveraging technology to remove the drudgery from our jobs and those of our small business clients. We all have enough on our plates already! As a CPA whose company works with loads of small businesses that need to process payroll, I’ve used quite a few payroll systems through the years… and Gusto has become our favorite. It’s not without its quirks and issues, but overall it does a great job for a great price, and — key for the work we do — it syncs nicely with QuickBooks Online, as well as with Guidel ..read more

So very pleased to announce that Nancy been nominated once again for Insightful Accountant’s prestigious “Top 100 ProAdvisors Award”! It’s her fifth time being nominated, and after last year’s win, we’re hoping to make it a two-fer. One small challenge this year is that due to an administrative snafu, the name “Nancy McClelland” shows as the very last one on the list, rather than in alphabetical order. We have the utmost confidence that you can figure it out anyway — and just scroll to the end to check the box. If you find this blog of value, please consider voting as a way to show your appre ..read more

The IRS is offering an amazing deal to those who either fraudulently or mistakenly claimed Employee Retention Credits (ERC) to which they weren’t entitled. If a taxpayer claimed and received ERC funds, and for whatever reason now realizes that they may not actually have qualified (either for a particular period or for the whole thing) — they can return 80% of the money to the IRS and call it a day. Considering that more than 3.6 million claims have been submitted, and the IRS refunds run up to $26,000 per employee… we’re talking about big dollars here. As of July 31, 2023, the IRS Criminal In ..read more

Thanks so much to Insightful Accountant — a leader in news and education for our industry — for inviting me to join a truly exceptional group of colleagues on the inaugural advisory panel. “The primary purpose of the panel is to help us stay in touch with the audience we serve and to continue to provide the content you want. The panel members will also be instrumental in helping us shape the future of Insightful Accountant by identifying areas of improvement, new opportunities and being a collective sounding board for us as we explore what is next for our business.“ I’m looking forward to get ..read more

QB Ledger was announced at QB Connect a few months ago. If you’re like me, March is that special month from hell where clients that have ignored your pleas for four quarters in a row suddenly show up again… and lucky you. Because now they’ve got a new AirBnb rental property in tow! Or yet another side gig! Or even better: an estate that they have to manage until it settles, and it’s caught up in probate! To be honest, I’ve been slowly weeding these folks out of our client list – and I feel like a jerk about it – but it just doesn’t make sense for us to spend time during our busiest season gett ..read more

I first came across the concept of “Open Book” management (OBM) for restaurants back in 2009, when I purchased Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating from a local food & wine retail client of mine and we were discussing their recent adoption of this business philosophy — first popularized by Jack Stack in his excellent 1992 book, The Great Game of Business. Having lived in Ann Arbor for 10 years and attended the University of Michigan, I was of course a fan of their world market and pricey-but-delicious deli salads and sandwiches. But it wasn’t until 2012, when I took a deep dive into restauran ..read more

The past four years have been challenging in so many ways, to so many people — but as a tax preparer, I can confidently say that the inability for the IRS to provide its usual level of customer service has been among the most impactful. Luckily, recent Congressional funding to make up for years of inadequate budgets, combined with Treasury Secretary Yellen’s direction that IRS priorities should include clearing the backlog of unprocessed tax returns and improving customer service, seem to be making a difference. Pre-pandemic, the IRS offered all sorts of taxpayer assistance options, but the i ..read more

(c) NATP If you’re a regular reader, you already know that I’m a huge fan of the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP), for a bunch of reasons: Fabulous and affordable education with top-notch instructors Straightforward “how-to” resources Practical monthly newsletter with case-studies On-demand “pay as you go” research service And a very fun group of folks at the annual conference! (That last one’s a teaser for the final photo in this post.) I’m especially indebted to NATP because when I first started doing taxes, I wasn’t a CPA yet — and spoiler alert: they don’t really teach yo ..read more

(Many thanks to the AICPA Town Hall for allowing members to leverage their resources, such as the slides included in this article. The opinions shared here are the author’s and not those of AICPA or CPA.com.) Tax preparers everywhere spent the past two months gearing up for yesterday’s “opening day” of tax season, January 29th. It was an exciting time for us, as it was finally going to be a return to normal. What does that even mean anymore, you might ask? Well, most of the pandemic financial relief programs have wrapped up (save a straggler ERC claim here or there); amendments resulting from ..read more