The relationship between accountant and client is a relationship based on open communication and the exchange of relevant ideas, and this serves as the basis for decision making. Without the exchange of ideas between client and accountant there is no value added to the decision making process. Key to the relationship between both client and accountant is what can be viewed as an exchange of “relevant ideas.” For there to be an exchange of relevant ideas both parties need to establish what information the other party would likely need in the near-term and the long-term.
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You may have heard about subscription businesses and what owning a subscription business might be like. This article will help clarify what you may or may not have heard by going through some of the basics of owning and operating a subscription business.
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With the holidays fast approaching, many people are looking for ways to combine their desire to help the causes they believe in along with their desire to save on taxes. For the charitably inclined, there are strategic ways of giving that can accomplish both goals. The following strategies, as noted by Fidelity, are for your consideration and can help you make the most of your charitable giving this year.
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Clients (and accountants) are human whether we like it or not. And as we know, humans make mistakes. Identifying and fixing financial mistakes is a large part of the effort expended by clients and accountants. An analysis of these efforts make up the crux of this article.
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As noted in recent reports, current US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as prescribed by Accounting Standards Codification (ASC 840) focuses on whether the lease transfers substantially all of the risks and rewards of ownership.
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On September 27, 2017, the Trump Administration and select Republican members of Congress released a “unified framework” for tax reform. The document provides more detail than a number of other tax reform documents that have emerged from the Administration over the past few months, but it still leaves many specifics to be worked out by the tax-writing committees. The term “framework” means it is not the finished bill or a draft of actual legislation. The framework is subject to change after the September 27, 2017 issuance of the framework.
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As the IRS has noted in its alerts to the public, a variety of different tax scams continue to rob people of millions of dollars and trick them into handing over sensitive personal information. Scammers use the regular mail, telephone, fax or email to set up their victims.
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The decision of when to draw social security benefits can have a lifelong impact on one’s ability to have sufficient enough funds to afford retirement. For too many retirees, an insufficient social security nest egg is all they have.
Waiting to collect social security benefits versus not waiting to collect social security benefits can be a difficult decision make. A number of factors need to be taken into account in order to make an intelligent and well-informed decision.
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In recent days the world has become familiar with perhaps the largest data breach event ever known to humanity. I’m referring, of course, to the Equifax data breach.
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What is a foreclosure?
A foreclosure occurs when a property owner cannot service their mortgage (i.e. make principal and/or interest payments), usually leading to the property (distressed property) being seized and sold (foreclosure sale). Typically, the property in foreclosure is available for investors to purchase.
Buying a foreclosed home is different from buying a typical resale. In many cases the following applies:
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An adoption tax credit is a tax credit offered to adoptive parents to encourage adoption. Section 36C of the United States Internal Revenue code offers a credit for “qualified adoption expenses” paid or incurred by individual taxpayers.
The tax code provides an adoption credit of up to $13,570 of qualified expenses (in 2017) for each child adopted, whether via public foster care, domestic private adoption, or international adoption.
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What is a workflow?
A workflow is a list of repeatable tasks that need to be performed in order to achieve a particular business goal. A workflow documents the procedures and processes that form an organization’s “assembly line,” so to speak—the order of steps that need to be performed to get from start to finish.
Documenting the order of steps (workflow) that an organization needs to perform provides a number of opportunities to enhance and improve an organization’s business operations.
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Trump administration officials and congressional Republican leaders are negotiating the terms of a tax reform bill. While they have not introduced legislation or a detailed plan, here are some of the latest news items detailing what we know so far about their goals and possible intentions with respect to taxation of income flowing through pass-thru entities—and only applying to pass-thru entities.
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What with all the talk about “cash flow” and “cash flow management,” it’s worth your while to gain a better understanding of what these terms actually mean.
Positive cash flow, for example, does not mean the business is profitable.
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This article tries to draw attention to the role that accountants could play as business advisors within your business. Historically, accountants occupied the position of “bean-counters,” which essentially focused on what happened in the past, not on what the future of the business holds.
This has changed, and it’s important to understand the dynamics of how it works in today’s business context.
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When choosing for the right qualified CPA for your business, the goal is to find a business advisor who is qualified to help take you from point A to point B—the long haul, in other words. The plan is to find the right complimentary relationship.
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Before getting into a discussion of common bookkeeping mistakes, it is worthwhile to address the importance of sound bookkeeping in general.
The importance of sound bookkeeping is frequently lost and ignored by management. It is apparent that the main reason management tends to ignore the bookkeeping function is because it is focused on the “big picture.” What management fails to recognize is that there is no “big picture” to look at without bookkeeping first doing its thing in the details.
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One of the most significant, if not the most significant function within any secure business is that of risk management. Risk Management equates to having a set of policies and procedures in place that are designed to mitigate losses caused by a myriad of circumstances including natural disasters (floods, tornados, hurricanes, etc.).
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A green business is a business that cares about its profitability while at the same time is constantly attentive to the impact the business has on the environment.
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Small businesses looking to increase sales and profit, reduce dependence on the domestic market and stabilize seasonal fluctuations should consider exporting. Consider these facts:
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Entrepreneurial finance is the process of making financial decisions for new ventures (i.e. startups). New ventures are inherently different from established ventures, as are entrepreneurs inherently different from conventional business managers. The financial decisions faced by each are starkly different as well.
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Most professionals have only a vague understanding of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is or means. Absent an understanding of these capabilities, it is near impossible to have a working knowledge of the opportunities for applying AI to the accounting field.
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
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So, you have an interest in owning and operating a franchise? Or maybe you know someone, such as a family member, who shares your interest? Hopefully, this information is getting to you before you’ve completed your acquisition because many of the following points should ideally be addressed and prepared for prior to making any commitments to purchasing a franchise. The following are some of the higher priority points of relevance.
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If you’re contemplating executing a business project and want to be as prepared as you can be then we highly recommend you dig your teeth into the following information.
As Technopedia defines it, a project plan is a formal document that is intended to serve as a roadmap from start to finish of a contemplated project. The plan is made up of elements such as resources used, milestones, and timing to name a few.
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According to McKinsey & Company, the rapid shift of economic activity from established markets in Europe and North America to developing ones in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has many CFOs asking treasurers to improve their performance. In an effort to help corporate treasurers improve their performance in core activities, 120 treasurers were surveyed and an additional 50 in-person interviews were conducted.
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The world of financial literature is replete with discussion concerning how to identify successful projects and how to increase the success of existing projects. What the world doesn’t seem to do enough of, however, is to make an effort to identify bad projects that can be a drain on the profitability provided by good projects. More attention needs to be given to the fact that overall profitability of an organization can be increased by eliminating any bad projects in the organization’s product mix.
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For companies experiencing temporary cash shortages, asset-based financing may be an alternative that makes sense as a viable way of meeting its cash shortfalls. With this method of financing, a cash-strapped business can use the assets that they have to overcome its cash flow shortages.
As noted by FinWeb, there are two primary means of asset-based financing, as follows:
1) asset-based loans
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The position of Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) is typically the “top of the pyramid” in the career path for those seeking advancement within a finance career. The following information is provided to assist anyone seeking to pursue such a position.
1. What Does a CFO Do?
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Rollovers as Business Start-Ups (ROBS) are financing mechanisms in which current or prospective business owners use their 401(k), IRA or other retirement funds to pay for new business start-up costs, for business acquisition costs or to refinance an existing business.
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Although the official tax filing date has passed us by, the subject matter of this blog is still relevant because many taxpayers have filed extensions and have a number of months before the extended filing date is final.
Immunity from making mistakes on your tax returns is something that no one can ever really guarantee. Some mistakes are accidental while other kinds of mistakes are not so accidental or are intentional.
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