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

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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

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.
READ MORE →

Profits don’t mean a thing if they’re not represented by cash.

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

Cash is the lifeblood of a business. Cash amounts. Cash flows. Cash changes. No matter what anyone tells you, cash is the bottom line you must watch and accumulate.

MORE: The Priorities Were Backward | The Seven-Minute Financial Statement | The KPI an Absentee Manager Needs
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Simplistically, knowing your cash balance gives you a sense of how you are doing. If it goes up, you are making money – if it goes down, you are losing money.
READ MORE →

How to prioritize instead of juggle.

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

Q: My boss asked me to call you.

I am a staff accountant with five years experience. I am having a lot of stress trying to manage everything I have to do. I am juggling supervising people I don’t know how to supervise, being managed less by those above me and having to figure out more for myself – including things I never did before or in industries I never worked on previously, keeping current with changes in accounting rules and taxes (since I am more like a generalist and clients ask me everything), never seeming to have any free time, juggling my schedule because most of my clients are never ready when they say they will be and being accountable to my boss for everything I do plus what the staff working under me does.

MORE: When Not to Charge for an Initial Consultation | What’s Your ‘KG’ Value? | When Clients Call You at Home | How to Handle Referrals with Attorneys | Why Checklists? | Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

So how do I do it all? How can I prioritize all my responsibilities?
READ MORE →

What is the worst thing that could happen?

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

When I was a junior accountant an eon ago, my boss would always give me the cash to reconcile or audit, the minutes to “abstract,” and the internal control questionnaire to go over with the controller or bookkeeper.

MORE: The Seven-Minute Financial Statement | When an Audit Is a Great Thing | How to Read a Financial Statement | The KPI an Absentee Manager Needs | Which KPIs Do You Need? | 77 Thoughts about Client Needs
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Then when I became a manager, I continued this practice of having lower-level staff perform these procedures. I now consult with many accounting firms and find it is still being done that way. I stopped it many years ago and wonder why it’s still widespread.
READ MORE →