Edward Mendlowitz, Author at CPA Trendlines

Six Ways to Get Paid Faster

It’s good for business and considerate to clients.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Accounting is a business and businesses need to be paid.

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It’s harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. Products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.

Many accountants price tax returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. Sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done.

It shows that you run a business and also provides a courtesy to the client in that they can immediately evaluate the cost and value of what was done.

But just as importantly: READ MORE →

CLIENT SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

When to Avoid the Appearance of Assuming a Responsibility

Bottom line: Are clients willing to pay for your services?

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

Accountants are really nice people who look for ways to help and better serve clients.

MORE: Yes, Shirt Logos Can Matter | 10 More Reasons CPAs Quit Public Accounting | The 10 Best Movie Accountants | When CPAs Leave to Work for a Client | When Parents, Children Hit an Impasse | Wealth Is a State of Mind
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Sometimes we present the appearance that we are doing something or are assuming a responsibility that we are not, and this should be avoided.

Here are some illustrations:

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Yes, Shirt Logos Can Matter

Marketing is the totality of your efforts to get additional business.

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

I like to wear shirts with my firm’s logo. We have an arrangement with Land’s End where we can order what we want from their catalog and have the Withum logo applied. It is a very easy process.

MORE: 10 More Reasons CPAs Quit Public Accounting | Family Trees of Clients | Why Accountants Quit | When Siblings Battle over the Family Business | How Bickering Can Ruin a Family Business | One Hour a Year Since 1972 50 Ways to Make More Money in Busy Season
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When I had my own firm we let staff freely choose what they wanted from the Land’s End catalog, and we ordered it for them. It shows pride in the firm, is a walking billboard advertising your firm, and presents an appearance of a “together” firm. It is a low-cost method of promoting your firm and strengthening your brand and culture. In instances in which clients asked for shirts, we willingly provided them. There are other vendors, including local suppliers, and this is not restricted to Land’s End.
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What Is a “Reasonable” Number of Work Hours?

It depends. But you knew that.

By Ed Mendlowitz
The CPA Trendlines Practice Doctor

QUESTION: How many hours a year do you recommend staff working?

ANSWER: It depends…

MORE: Make Today “Day One” of Your New Business | Why Does All Work Take So Long? | Profit Sharing for a Staffer? | Titles Can Make People Happier | Reasons to Drop Your Book of Business | Are You Marketing for 2022 Yet?
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The quick answer is: As many as reasonable.
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10 More Reasons CPAs Quit Public Accounting

Bosses are part of the problem.

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

As I have written about CPAs who leave public accounting, there has been widespread interest. There is a lot more to say so I’ll address many of those questions.

MORE: Family Trees of Clients | Preparing for the Worst (Thanks to My Wife) | The 10 Best Movie Accountants | Why Accountants Quit | Why CPAs Should Stay in Public Accounting | When CPAs Leave to Work for a Client | When Siblings Battle over the Family Business | Readers Rip: ‘She Wanted Her Shoebox Back’
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General Comment

Generally speaking, many bosses do not listen to staff concerns. At many firms, there is a lack of serious mentoring and little help for staff people in managing their careers. In many practices, there is an appearance of a lack of growth, or if there is growth, then staff people are often left behind. In most instances, these problems are exacerbated by staff people not being clear about what they want. They are hesitant to speak up, share their concerns with their bosses or venture beyond their comfort zone. Both are culpable, but I place greater blame on the bosses, who should know better.
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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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