Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

Telling Prospects Too Much

Know when to stop.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers

Q. I usually give away too much info at a meeting to get a new client. We simply answer too many of their questions during the initial meeting.

MORE: How to Improve Quality Control | How to Get Into Your Own CPA Practice | When Not to Charge for an Initial Consultation | What Good Managers Know about Bad Judgment
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We don’t know how much info to give away, so the possible new client will get hooked and not take the information and run to somebody else. Usually, somebody else is cheaper.

How do I find the right balance?

MANAGEMENT

Rule #1: Start with Cash

Lots of information is lurking there.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow! The Checklist Handbook for Small-Business Advisory Services.

One time I was asked to audit a hotel in Florida that was going to be foreclosed on by the mortgagor and for which I was paid in advance. The audit was planned and scheduled, and it looked like we had everything under control from our end as much as we could.

MORE: Organization Minutes Too Often Overlooked | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing | Which KPIs Do You Need?
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I received a call on a Friday morning that the foreclosure was going to take place sooner than expected, and I had to either do my work Monday through Wednesday or return the retainer because the foreclosure was going to take place on Thursday. I took a Sunday evening flight with a senior accountant. When I walked into the hotel, I got really nervous. This was not a small motel but a big Hilton hotel – not what I anticipated.
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MANAGEMENT

How to Improve Quality Control

Your reviewer should be adding value.

By Ed Mendlowitz
101 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice, The Complete 2-Volume Set

Q. I want to improve my firm’s review and quality control. Do you have any suggestions?

MORE: How to Get Into Your Own CPA Practice | 15 Tips for Novice Managers | What’s Your ‘KG’ Value? | When Clients Call You at Home | Why Partner Retreats Are Worth the Cost | Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy
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A: This is a recurring issue for most firms. Every CPA practice needs quality control. The issue is whether a dedicated quality control (“QC”) person is needed, and if not, how the QC can be done without one.
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MANAGEMENT

Organization Minutes Too Often Overlooked

We’ve got a 34-point checklist to fix that.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow! The Checklist Handbook for Advisory Services.

Corporate, LLC, partnership and not-for-profit organizations are usually required to have minutes memorializing certain actions taken by the board of directors or governing body. Yet, many do not either because it has never been done, is a bother, is considered not necessary or overlooked through inaction or unawareness.

MORE: Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | The Priorities Were Backward | How to Read a Financial Statement | 77 Thoughts about Client Needs
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However, it is something that should be done as a best practice, as recognition that there are non-active stakeholders who need transparency, or as tangible evidence that the actions recorded took place timely. In some instances, the IRS looks for minutes as a symbol that the affairs were handled on a businesslike basis or were not one-sided “secret” actions by those in control.
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MANAGEMENT

How to Get Into Your Own CPA Practice

BONUS: 14 tips on getting your first clients.

By Ed Mendlowitz
101 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice, The Complete 2-Volume Set

Q: I am working for a CPA firm, but would like to get into my own practice. Can you give me some suggestions?

MORE: 15 Tips for Novice Managers | Why No One Listens to You | How to Stop Yourself | How to Handle Referrals with Attorneys | Why Checklists? | Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice
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A: Essentially, you have three options (four if you count my pet project, but I won’t belabor it).
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Edward Mendlowitz

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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