Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

The Priorities Were Backward

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 →

MANAGEMENT

Why No One Listens to You

How long are you talking?

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

Q: I notice that most of the time my staff doesn’t listen when I talk. How can I make them listen?

MORE: When Not to Charge for an Initial Consultation | 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
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A: Err, what did you say?

Just kidding! I find this issue very widespread. I believe there is an epidemic of people not listening, not just staff.
READ MORE →

MANAGEMENT

When Not to Charge for an Initial Consultation

BONUS: A sample initial business valuation consultation engagement proposal.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: The Complete 2-Volume Set

Q: I was wondering what your thoughts are regarding initial consultation fees. Currently, I do not charge a fee for an initial consultation, and it seems that most CPAs do not charge either (at least not the sole practitioners that I know).

MORE: What’s Your ‘KG’ Value? | How to Stop Yourself | 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.

Would the fee deter new clients or actually weed out the ones who are most likely not going to become clients anyway? If a fee is charged, then how much, and how long should the consultation last? Should the fee be applied to any work that I am eventually engaged to do?

A: There seems to be a toss-up between two different philosophies:

ADVISORY & CONSULTING

The Seven-Minute Financial Statement

Don’t skip the notes.

By Ed Mendlowitz
77 Ways to Wow!

How do you start reviewing a financial statement? Like any good book, you must start at the beginning.

MORE on ADVISORY: 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.

But where is the beginning? And how can you do it in only seven minutes? Here is how …
READ MORE →

GROWTH STRATEGIES

What’s Your ‘KG’ Value?

The quick and easy system for measuring top talent.

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers

Q: I suspect that my partner has “maxed out” and cannot grow further, which will retard our growth. What can I do or how can I deal with this?

MORE: How to Stop Yourself | What Good Managers Know about Bad Judgment | Audit Reports Without Doing the Work? | Ask These 10 Questions Before Adding Financial Services | 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A: This is a frequent question, and sometimes it is the person asking it who has “maxed out.” But sometimes the partner or a key staff member wants to be made a partner.

I developed a Knowledge Gap (“KG”) method to provide a way of measuring the difference in growth when you interact with people.

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