Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

Forensic Techniques Can Be Fraud Deterrence

BONUS: 11 examples of “control culture” services.

Trained forensic professionals investigate accounting and financial transactions that are, or will become, subject to legal proceedings. It is an early step in a potential war, and many times it is the first shot.

MORE: Six Benefits of an Internal Audit | The Ten Financial Controls That’ll Make You a Hero | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Attorneys and c-level executives are often not familiar with forensic techniques and see them as a means to quantify a loss. Financial forensics also provides a means to deter and detect fraud. Today, I share my views on the value of forensic techniques used to deter fraud and encourage CVAs to consider attending the CTI’s Forensic Accounting Academy™ or Fraud Risk Management courses offered through the MAFF programs.
READ MORE →

PRO Member Exclusive

Tax Return Prep: Commodity or Professional Service?

Think of where your value is added.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns: The Field-Tested Update

QUESTION: Are tax returns commodities or the result of a professional service?

MORE: Seven Types of Tax Return Reviews | How to Turn Tax Returns into New Business
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

ANSWER RE: COMMODITY

If you believe tax returns are a commodity, then you will also believe there is no product differentiation and the business should go to the lowest cost provider. There is nothing wrong with you thinking this way and running your practice accordingly. However, you should still want to provide a complete and error-free tax return.
READ MORE →

MANAGEMENT

Anatomy of a Fraud

Can you spot the five accounting weak points?

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

In this fraud, ING, an extremely large and well-known financial services company, had approximately $8.5 million stolen from it by a single employee for a little more than four years.

MORE: Six Benefits of an Internal Audit | The Hazards of Poor Internal Controls | Rule #1: Start with Cash | The Priorities Were Backward | How to Read a Financial Statement | 77 Thoughts about Client Needs
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Here’s how it worked:

PRO Member Exclusive

Seven Types of Tax Return Reviews

It’s time for “tick and tie” to die.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns: The Field-Tested Update

There are numerous ways to review tax returns. Most reviewers have their own techniques, and some alter these based on

the type of or size of the return, or
who the preparer is or
who the partner in charge of that client is.

MORE: How to Turn Tax Returns into New Business
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

There is nothing wrong with this as long as the reviewer is experienced and really knows their stuff.
READ MORE →

MARKETING & SALES

How to Turn Tax Returns into New Business

How are you using your reviewers?

By Edward Mendlowitz and Andy Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns: The Field-Tested Update

Tax season is a microcosm of everything done in an accounting practice. One of the primary concerns of a business is having the proper processes and quality control procedures. Choosing how to properly use the reviewers’ time and interface them with the staff can contribute immensely to a smooth tax season.

Edward Mendlowitz

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

Buy now | Learn More

Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, PFS, is a partner at Withum, a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory, and accounting firm. Ed has over 40 years of public accounting experience, is recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today, and is the CPA Trendlines "Practice Doctor." His latest handbook for CPA Trendlines is 77 Ways to Wow! The Handbook for Small-Business Advisory Services.

Ed is also the author of "Memoirs of a CPA," available at Amazon.

Buy now | Learn more

"Memoirs" tells his story as a CPA and provides an inside look at what CPAs do and how they run their accounting "business." CPAs must serve clients effectively and exceptionally, recruit, train, retain and grow staff, and charge fees that clients happily pay because of the value they receive while the CPA earns a living, funds a retirement account, grows infrastructure, and perhaps makes a profit. This book tells how he did all of this and much more.

More Ed Mendlowitz in the CPA Trendlines Store:

He is a licensed, certified public accountant in the states of New Jersey and New York and is accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in business valuation (ABV), certified in financial forensics (CFF) and as a personal financial specialist (PFS). Ed is also admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court and has testified as an expert witness in federal and state court regarding business valuations, and twice at the House Ways and Means Committee on tax reform, fairness, and reduction. A City College of New York graduate, Ed earned his bachelor of business administration degree.

He is a member of the AICPA, the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA) and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA). In addition, Ed was a founding partner of Mendlowitz Weitsen, LLP, CPAs, which merged with Withum in 2005. Currently, he serves on the NYSSCPA Estate Planning Committee and was chairman of the committee that planned the NYSSCPA’s 100th Anniversary. Ed, the author of 19 books, has also written hundreds of articles for business and professional journals and newsletters.

He is the contributing editor to the Practitioners Publishing Company’s 706/709 Deskbook, the AICPA’s Management of an Accounting Practice Handbook, Corporate Controller’s Handbook and Wiley’s Handbook on Budgeting and is on the editorial board of Bottom Line/Personal newsletter and the Journal of Accountancy Member Panel on Business Valuation. Appearing regularly on television news programs, Ed has also been quoted in numerous major newspapers and periodicals in the United States. He received the Lawler Award for the best article published in 2001 in the Journal of Accountancy.

Ed frequently speaks to many professional and business groups, including the AICPA, NJSCPA, NYSSCPA, American Management Association, the National Committee for Monetary Reform, the University of Medicine and Dentistry in N.J., and many more. For 11 years, he taught courses on financial analysis, corporate financial policy and theory, monetary and fiscal policy, and managerial accounting in the MBA program at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Here’s what you’re looking for: Edward Mendlowitz