here’s what you’re looking for: edward mendlowitz

management

should you buy a practice from an estate?

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
author of “implementing fee increases”

question: a widow called me to ask if i wanted to buy her husband’s practice. he died suddenly a month ago. what should i offer and how should i handle this?

response: it is always hard to buy a practice from a widow or estate when the accountant did not make arrangements.

more practice doctor q&a: no more printouts at cpe programs? | how to apply value pricing to bundled services | 6 ways to take a client beyond tax prep | 18 ways to blow a partnership opportunity | when experience doesn’t add up | 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing | 6 ways to know what you don’t know | 10 do’s and don’ts for making small business clients happy | client’s difficult daughter balks at bill | 6 simple steps to impress a prospect

the expectations of the seller are usually greater than reality, and the buyer is getting something that already has declined in value, with clients leaving as they hear of the death, and the information about client servicing is likely not too organized, if it exists at all. this also applies to a sudden complete disability. this should be a “lesson” to get your own affairs in order.

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management

no more printouts at cpe programs?

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and atech advice for everyday use.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i always like to take notes on the handouts when i attend cpe programs. now all the handouts are provided digitally and it forces me to sometimes print out as much as 400 or 500 pages before i go to the program. how can i get the sponsors to provide printed copies?

response: things change. what worked yesterday doesn’t always work today. read more →

management

how to apply value pricing to bundled services

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and adon’t confuse it with value billing.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i tried value billing and it didn’t work. i would rather bill my business clients on a fixed fee for my services.

response: actually, you are value pricing when you do the fixed fees. you confused value pricing with value billing. value pricing is where you sit down with the client and you jointly determine the price before any work is done.

more practice doctor q&a: 18 ways to blow a partnership opportunity | 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing | 10 do’s and don’ts for making small business clients happy | 10 (nearly) painless ways to keep up to date with technology | 23 reasons clients really need you for taxes | running an accounting business | 14 ways to switch to value pricing | pricing, billing, costing: don’t blame clients

value billing is where you try to get an extra payment after the work is done. i believe the best way to determine a fee for recurring services is to set the fee with the client in advance of performing any work. i’ll explain. read more →

growth strategies

6 ways to take a client beyond tax prep

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aset an agenda; call a meeting.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i have many small business tax clients and seem to lose them as they grow. i provide good service, never have extensions and call the clients in july to see if i can update their books and in december if they want any year-end tax planning. what else can i do?

response: based on our conversation, you are their tax preparer and they do not think of you as their “accountant” or business advisor. and based on what you told me, you aren’t, although you obviously have the skills. read more →

client service opportunities

how to tell a client how the fee was set

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i performed some additional services for a client and gave her a bill that she questioned and wanted to know how much time i had spent. i billed more than the time charges, but this client never gets time bills – everything i do is on a fixed fee so i never account for my time with her. what should i say now?

more practice doctor q&a: 18 ways to blow a partnership opportunity | when experience doesn’t add up | 8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing | 6 simple steps to impress a prospect | making meetings more productive | 5 time management tips for an overworked accountant | running an accounting business | 14 ways to switch to value pricing | pricing, billing, costing: don’t blame clients

response: if a client is on a strict time basis, they are entitled to a breakdown of the hours and person performing the services.

otherwise, when clients ask me how i arrived at a bill i tell them something similar to this:

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management

18 ways to blow a partnership opportunity

by ed mendlowitz

question: i have been working for a one-owner cpa firm for the past eight years and want a partnership, but it hasn’t been offered. how should i approach it?

response: i had a couple of rather long discussions with this practitioner. why, i don’t know. i suppose i was being polite to the person who told him to call me.

here is some additional information before i give my response: read more →

management

when experience doesn’t add up

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i need to hire an experienced person and am looking for someone with two to three years’ experience. i know you don’t think this is advisable. why not?

response: if you hire people who already had their first job, the chances are they were not trained your way, and something happened that made them want to leave that is still in them and will be duplicated in some form in your firm.

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management

8 times when hourly billing trumps value pricing

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aand when it doesn’t.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i am trying to switching to value pricing and am having trouble getting completely away from time-based billing in certain situations.

response: value pricing is a great method and concept. i suggest reading, and thoroughly understanding ron baker’s “implementing value pricing: a radical business model for professional firms.” i like what he suggests, have used some of his techniques even before he started writing and speaking about them, and recommend it in many situations.

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management

6 ways to know what you don’t know

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: occasionally i get a new client in an area i am unfamiliar with. how do i find out what i do not know?

response: this happens to everyone and probably more often than we expect. thankfully we will continue to get new business and getting clients in areas we are unfamiliar with enables us to grow.

more practice doctor q&a: 10 do’s and don’ts for making small business clients happy | client’s difficult daughter balks at bill | 6 simple steps to impress a prospect | 10 (nearly) painless ways to keep up to date with technology | when a staffer stops listening | 10 ways to get new 1040 clients | making meetings more productive | tax return reviewer ticking and tying

here is what i suggest: read more →

client service opportunities

10 do’s and don’ts for making small business clients happy

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and aby ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: most of my clients are either tax returns or small business clients. the number of individual tax returns grows each year, but i seem to be standing still with business clients. for every new one i get, i lose one. otherwise, i have about a 6 or 7 percent turnover. is there anything i can do to keep them?

response: i think small business clients need extra hand-holding from us because they are really alone.

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outlook & analysis

the case of the client daughter: tread carefully

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 community forumthe lesson: even the best can make mistakes; talk it with peers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

in his column client’s difficult daughter balks at bill, ed mendlowitz fielded a question about a client’s daughter who asked for help with her divorce proceedings, and did not want her father to know what was going on. the work was rushed and difficult, and when the cranky client called the bill highway robbery, the accountant wondered if he should call her father.

mendlowitz noted that an engagement letter and retainer should have been the starting point, then added, “i would tell your client that if she did not pay you in full, or work out a method of payment including automatically charging her credit card on a monthly basis, you will ask her father for payment and will lay out everything you did for her and the specific benefits she got because of your hard work.”

readers were swift to disagree. read more →

management

client’s difficult daughter balks at bill

ed mendlowitz cpa the practice doctor q and ado you talk to the dad?

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: i have a very good client who pays us to prepare his daughter’s tax return. the daughter was going through a divorce and asked us to assist her and her attorney and she said she would pay us herself, and we shouldn’t ask her father to pay us and she also asked us not to tell her father what was going on. we did a lot of work and because of what we did she got a much better settlement than if we did not help her. additionally a lot of what we did was rush on-demand work and some of it was quite difficult. also, she was not the most pleasant to deal with on many occasions. read more →