What we’re working on…

I was recently speaking with someone who was referred to our firm and he asked "what projects are you currently working on." Wow! What a great question. There's no better way to judge whether someone is what they say they are than to look at their actions. In our case we often say that we're different from the average accounting firm, but it is sometimes hard for clients to understand how anyone can put a different twist on CPA work. So here's a list of projects we have on the table this week.

• Land developer business plan: a client came to us several months ago with an idea to improve access to rental property investment. This week I have been working with him to layout the entity structure and key provisions that should be written into partnership operating agreements. We are also providing support and materials that will help the new venture explain the benefits of their program to potential partners, investors, land developers and builders.


• Controllership support: each month I sit down with the controller of one of our clients and we discuss broad financial issues that are affecting the business as well as specific balance sheet and income statement line items. As we tackle one area and get it under control we focus on the next major project. This month we added the development of a comprehensive income and balance sheet budget to the list of things we will work on in coming months.


• New owner consulting and support: we work with a lot of startup businesses as well as businesses that have just changed hands. In this case the owners purchased the business in late 2006 and there are a number of accounting and reporting issues that need to be cleaned up. Currently we are working with Paychex to departmentalize the payroll costs and get a better idea of how labor expenses impact revenue generating activities vs. overhead expenses. We have also been helping them understand monthly breakeven sales requirements and how to forecast seasonal trends.


• Lender liason: One of our clients has experienced tremendous growth after purchasing an existing business and needs to re-examine some of their loans. This week I spent some time on the phone with one lender explaining the intricacies of this client's business and reporting practices and outlining the exact improvements we've seen since addressing several distinct areas.


• Act as a referral source: Nothing makes us happier than being able to help a client get new business. Last night I had the pleasure of relating the experience I've had as a customer of one of our clients. The conversation went well and I hope they get the business.


• Tax prep:We continue to get the information in that allows us to complete 2006 tax returns currently on extension. At the same time we are using the information to update CRM databases with critical client numbers such as annual revenues, gross and net profit, etc. We also use this information to build tax provisions and estimates for the 2007 year so clients do not run into surprises in the last quarter.


• Cash forecasting: several clients use us to help them forecast cash positions for the upcoming year on a monthly basis. This work is a natural extension of our operations consulting since the obvious question is always "but how do I improve these numbers?"


• Accountability: tomorrow I will sit down with one of our business owners for a weekly meeting to discuss measures she is taking to turn the business around. These are intense engagements but they're also a lot of fun because you get to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.
  

That's my list and some of our staff have been working on these items with me. Additionally, they are engaged in quickbooks training, monthly tax compliance and researching various tax and accounting matters at client's request. They do such a fantastic job that we sent them to the spa this morning for some pampering and then got together for a great lunch on the firm. Who says accountants don't have fun?