Today's Features
CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Make Obsessed Leadership Work for You

Serious-looking businessman in front of empty conference roomThen spread it to your clients.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

I spend a lot of time with clients and I believe I have identified the one quality that most of my successful clients have – it is obsession.

MORE: Roger Is My Only Client | Mendlowitz: Why My Firm Merged with WS+B | A Long Time Ago, at a CPA Firm Far, Far Away … | When Discounts Don’t Work | Call Me Before You Do Anything
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They have many qualities, but obsession is universal among them.
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FEATURED

190 Universities Launch 600 Free Online Courses

MOOC logoHarvard and MIT are among the participants.

By Rick Richardson

If you haven’t heard, universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free).

MORE TECH THIS WEEK: MIT Investing $1 Billion in AI College | Learn of Heart Attacks Years in Advance | Robot Teachers Might Be the Largest Internet Business in 2030 | Microsoft Targets Consumers with ‘Modern Life Services’ | 6 Blockchain Jobs of the Future
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These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses.
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SPECIAL

Tax Update: Changing Water to Wine

'Dealer Intent' converted to 'Investor Intent' midstream – Ta Da!!
And other pulling-rabbits-out-of-hats stories.

By Bradley Burnett
Federal Tax Update

There is a long-standing story about a man changing water to wine at a wedding. Not a bad deal. And, pretty economical at that. Recently, a Houston area real-estate developer pulled off pretty much the same thing. And saved about $1.9 million in income tax as a result.

Our “pulling-rabbits-out-of-a-hat” story begins long ago with an 883-acre oilfield southwest of Houston. A real estate developer bought it in 1998 with visions of subdividing into residential and commercial lots and making millions. For 10 years, Sugar Land Ranch Development, LLC (SLRD) cleaned up the oil field, built a levee to keep the nearby Brazos River under control and agreed to a development plan with the city of Sugar Land. But, no dividing into lots or construction ever took place.

So far, so good.

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INNOVATION & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Ruthlessly Efficient Workflow Management

Work smarter, not harder.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

For years, I’ve written angry-man blogs flogging CPAs and tax preparers for not treating their practices like businesses.

More Stitely: What the Value-Pricers Get Wrong  |  Four Amusing Millennial Myths  |  The Annual Tax Meeting is Dead. Clients Killed It.   |  3 Rules for Asking Great Tax-Return Questions  |  Where Workflow Management Runs Off the Rails  |  Three Ways Your Office Tech Is Ruining Your Firm  |  When Value Pricing Works  |  The 4 Dark Clouds Hovering Over Cloud Accounting Software  |  Value Billing on the 19th Hole  |  The IRS and Big Data Gone Bad  |  Will Zero Data Entry End Your Tax Practice?  |  Three Trends That Will Transform Your Tax Practice or Eliminate It  |  Value, Billem & Dunn: A Value Billing Case Study  |  How to Make an Extra $72,000 by Working Smarter  |

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I coined the term “ruthlessly efficient workflow management” to promote the marriage of project management and delegation.

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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Busy Season Prep: 12 Essential Checklists

More than 50 items to get off to a good start.

CPA Trendlines Research

Planning for tax season is an important step in both optimizing profits and managing the professional liability risk associated with providing tax services,. Pre-tax season training of personnel and proactive review of administrative procedures will improve efficiency through April 15th and beyond. 

Part 1. What to do now… before the big rush

  • 4 ways to help clients prepare
  • 5 steps to review e-file requirements and processes
  • 4 ways to update engagement letter processes
  • 3 must-do’s to review client acceptance and continuance procedures
  • 8 steps to prepare the firm for tax season
  • 5 ways to help staff prepare for tax season

Part 2. What to do during busy season

  • 11 items to cover in a pre-tax season staff meeting
  • 15 things to include in a control log
  • 4 things to remember when testing tax software
  • 8 things every tax preparer should do for each client
  • 4 ways to better plan for deadlines
  • 2 keys to survival

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CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

The Client of the Future

The five mega-trends that will make or break your "firm of the future."

By Hitendra Patil
Accountaneur

Your client of the future will be vastly different from your client of now. You won't have a firm of the future without understanding the new breed of client.

More Accountaneur: The Rise of the Robot Accountant: Opportunity or Threat?  |  Six Never-Before Opportunities for the Accounting Profession  |  Urgently Required: A New Definition of Accounting  |  CPA Trendlines Author Named Top 10 to Follow on Social Media in 2018  |  You Cannot Prove Your Value  |  Certified Blockchain Accountant: From CPA to CBA  |  Who Wants to Be a Comptometrist?  |  Blockchain: Questions Are the Answer  |  The 7 Experiences Millennials Want from Your Firm  |  Is Blockchain an Extinction Event for Accountants?  |  Is Blockchain a Cloud Killer?  |  22 Ways Blockchain Will Change the Accounting Profession Forever  |

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Like most accountants, you probably have faith that numbers tell a story. So, let's look at some numbers and seven mega-trends that can help you get clarity about your client of the future. READ MORE →

FEATURED

10 Roles of an Executive Committee

People seated in board room in near silhouettePlus who should serve and for how long.

By Domenick J. Esposito
8 Steps to Great

Every small and midsized CPA firm requires an executive committee that serves as the key corporate governance mechanism within a firm.

MORE ON STRATEGIC PLANNING: How Partners Fail | Ineffective Management Is Hazardous to Your Firm’s Health | Profitability Requires Discipline | Pitching Vs. Pursuing | The Top 11 Reasons CPA Firm Mergers Fail | Growth: The Difference between the Disruptor and the Disrupted? | M&A: Sometimes Bigger Is Better | What a Value Proposition Truly Is (and Isn’t)
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Said simply, an effective executive committee keeps its nose in but its hands out. In other words, an effective executive committee has the responsibility to be the check and balance over a firm’s operations but isn’t responsible for running the day-to-day activities. That is the responsibility of the firm’s CEO and the firm’s operating or management committee.
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CHECKLIST

10 Tips for Maximizing Referrals

It doesn't happen by accident.

By Michael Rozbruch, CPA
The IRS Audit Notice Checklist

If you’re like most people, it’s only when customer service dramatically impresses or exceeds your expectations that you begin to create word-of-mouth advertising and referrals.

Conversely, service has to be really bad before you starting warning people to avoid a company at all costs. The thing is, often it only takes one or two “little touches” to create exceptional service.

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CANNABIS

Leveraging R&D Credits and Depreciation for Cannabis Clients

Portrait of Bryan McDonald
McDonald

CPAMD's Bryan McDonald shows clients how to start off on the right foot.

By Liz Gold
CannaBizCPA.Pro

How a cannabis company is structured can have huge tax implications – and getting companies set up correctly, from the get-go, is what Bryan McDonald does when he starts working with a cannabis client.

More at CannaBizCPA.Pro: Cannabis Lights Up Midterm Ballots | ‘Genius Accountant’ Helps Cannabiz Clients Manage Effectively | Bruce Jolliff: Jumping into Cannabis Head First | Mark Guiley Oversees New Cannabis Niche | Jessica Velazquez on Cannabis Accounting and Activism | PODCAST: Jim Marty and Cory Parnell Go National | 5 Biggest Mistakes Cannabis CEOS Make
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As he said, “How you form your entity is really key. It is much more difficult to do that later in the life of a cannabis company.”
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FEATURED

Get Paid Faster This Tax Season

STAMP PAID - 3DStart now with the right mindset.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Tax season is a business and businesses need to be paid. It is harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. Products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.

Many accountants price returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. Sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done.

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