Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

Why Partner Retreats Are Worth the Cost

Send your toughest questions to Ed at emendlowitz@withum.com

New environment, new ideas.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Managing an Accounting Practice, The Complete 2-Volume Set – 202 Questions and Answers, The 650-Page Encyclopedia of Practice Management

Q: Is there any value to a retreat?

MORE: Why Checklists? | Ask These 10 Questions Before Adding Financial Services | Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy | Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice | 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Send your toughest questions to Ed at emendlowitz@withum.com

A: Absolutely! Retreats are very important to reconnect with your partners and reassert why you are in business and what you hope to accomplish, in addition to making a living and not having to work for a boss who isn’t as good or nice as you are.
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CHECKLIST

Why Checklists?

Life isn’t always about you.

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

Q: I know you preach using checklists, but are they really necessary? I don’t like using them.

MORE: Ask These 10 Questions Before Adding Financial Services | Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy
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A: Well…
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FEATURED

Ask These 10 Questions Before Adding Financial Services

Remember it’s a new business.

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

Q: I am thinking of adding financial services to my practice. What are your thoughts?

MORE: Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy | Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice | 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A: For starters, “financial services” means selling investment products or managing money. This is different from adding financial planning, which I see as an extension of and a next step to sound tax planning for clients.
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FEATURED

Selling Your Practice Is Not a Retirement Strategy

Consider your other possible sources.

By Ed Mendlowitz
101 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Q: I’ve heard you say that you shouldn’t count on anything from your practice when you decide to retire. Are you serious?

MORE: Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice | 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

A: I probably said that, but it was in the context of planning for guaranteed cash flow in retirement. A practice’s value is never guaranteed until the checks clear.
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FEATURED

Thirteen Things to Know Before Selling Your Practice

Timing is critical.

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

Q: I am getting older and want to continue working at least five more years. Should I merge now to anticipate and facilitate a buyout?

A: Selling means retiring. Is that something you want to do?

MORE: 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Pay
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

I’ve written many times about being clear about your goals and what you really want. That being said, here is a general discussion about the reality of the value of your practice.
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Edward Mendlowitz

MORE AT STORE.CPATRENDLINES.COM

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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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