client service opportunities

passwords: how to beat the hackers

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nine new rules for hack-proof security.

by barry j. friedman, cpa
industrynewsletters

consider all the passwords you use, in your personal and business lives. passwords secure all the resources on your computer and phone — your email and important online accounts.

more hot-button topics for clients: supreme court’s wayfair ruling on sales tax sows more confusion

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why work on making your passwords stronger?

hackers will attack the low-hanging fruit first.

what attackers will do is steal the storage of passwords on a vulnerable screen. these passwords are encrypted, but with tools like pwdump, airodump-ng and the meterpreter, hackers can take as much time as they need to crack your password.

the best way to make your password less appetizing is to choose a random set of characters in the maximum length your account or system will accept: read more →

when discounts don’t work

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don’t just report numbers; help clients see the big picture.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

my father’s largest client was a luggage manufacturer with a national brand sold in specialty luggage stores, but not in department stores.

more: it’s not always about the money | perception becomes reality | call me before you do anything | the value in value consulting | the making of a consultant | learning to delegate: slow is faster | a cpa looks back across the generations
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he did this because he wanted to maintain the selling price, did not want discounting and felt his customer base would be more loyal if they did not compete against the larger stores’ discounting policy. he was very successful and very profitable, but probably not as large as he could have been had he had the volume that department stores would have provided.
read more →

what the value-pricers get wrong

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and 5 ways to fix it.

by frank stitely

beeeeeep.  briiinnnnggg.  boooooop.  you reach over to turn off the alarm.

but it’s not your alarm, and it’s not 6 a.m. yet.  it’s the coffee maker.  or is it the dishwasher?  or the washing machine?  it turns out to be a text message.  you glance down at your smartphone, and you see 14 app notifications, 27 e-mails, and three texts.  your smartwatch yells at you for not meeting your “fitness” goal yesterday.

by 6 a.m., half of humanity competes for your attention.  every computer programmer on the planet believes his notifications rock your world.  when everything beeps, do any of the beeps really matter?  the rock group, chicago, wrote, “does anybody really know what time it is?”  yes, it’s time for another notification.

we don’t suffer alone.  our clients share our pain.

the value pricing people tell us that we aren’t selling time.  but we are.  we aren’t selling our time.  we are selling our clients’ time – back to them.  21st-century clients want perfect compliance, fast service, and a competitive price – as a start.  most importantly, they want us to save them time.

read more →

new tax advice: what clients need now

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16 hot topics for tax planning – all billable.

by ed mendlowitz
the practice doctor

it seems all anyone is talking about these days is the new tax act. for over a year i have been posting a tax blog every four weeks on www.bottomlineinc.com. so now there are more than a dozen.

use the titles below to select what you are interested in, and i am sure you will get some valuable information you could use with clients.

read more →

the w-4 time-bomb and what to do about it

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you don’t want clients to blame you for any unhappy surprises.

by barry j. friedman, cpa
industrynewsletters

with so many recent tax changes, two-income families and people who work multiple jobs should check their withholding amount.

more hot-button topics for clients: supreme court’s wayfair ruling on sales tax sows more confusion  |  making passwords hack-proof |

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the irs is urging two-income families and folks who work multiple jobs to complete a paycheck checkup to verify that they’re withholding the right amount of tax from their paychecks.

read more →

supreme court wayfair ruling sows confusion – and opportunity

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the cost of compliance could be enormous.

by barry j. friedman, cpa
industrynewsletters

the supreme court has ruled that a company does not need to have a physical presence in a state to be subject to its sales tax.

it has long been the rule that a state cannot collect sales tax from a vendor that is selling products in that state, unless that vendor has a physical presence, called a nexus. however, on june 21, in a 5-4 decision, the supreme court swept away the nexus rule in south dakota v. wayfair, inc., saying states could collect sales tax even if there is no physical presence.

the brick-and-mortar stores are happy with the ruling, because it levels the sales tax playing field. the states are ecstatic because they can collect more sales tax. but there are complexities, and no one is entirely sure how it will play out in the long run.

who is affected?

read more →

it’s not always about the money

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the true value in a prenuptial encounter.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

prenuptial agreements are essential in many situations, but it is always awkward for one of the blissfully in love parties to bring it up. prenups consider the possible failure of the happiest thing in the two people’s lives.

more: perception becomes reality | call me before you do anything | learning to delegate: slow is faster
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

a client once asked me to accompany his son to a meeting where the terms of a prenuptial agreement were to be worked out to make sure the son’s small ownership of the business could never pass outside of his blood line … or the father’s control while he was alive.
read more →

the rise of the robot accountant: opportunity or threat?

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robots are replacing some accounting tasks, but only some.

by hitendra patil
accountaneur: the entrepreneurial accountant

by one oft-cited study, robots will replace 94% what accountants and auditors are doing today.

more accountaneur: six never-before opportunities for the accounting profession | urgently required: a new definition of accounting   |  you cannot prove your value  |  certified blockchain accountant: from cpa to cb  |  you don’t need more clients. you need better clients.  |  who wants to be a comptometrist?  |  blockchain: questions are the answer  |  the 7 experiences millennials want from your firm  |  is blockchain an extinction event for accountants?

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but look a little deeper and you’ll find that instead of replacing accountants, the profession stands to gain from mastering new robot technologies and putting them to work to enhance client service, streamline processes, and provide more high-value high-ticket work.

read more →

when perception becomes reality

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overstuffed and overflowing filessometimes looking less than your best is more effective.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

is reality what something actually is or what people perceive it to be? jack welch of ge fame once said that reality is “seeing the world as it is rather than as you wish it were.”

more: call me before you do anything | the value in value consulting | the making of a consultant | learning to delegate: slow is faster | a cpa looks back across the generations
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

sometimes that is not so. and sometimes you can alter reality to make it seem like something else.
read more →

call me before you do anything

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man with net chasing winged moneywhen a good number should be a great one, justify it.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

i have always told my clients to call me before they did anything major or new financially to see if there was anything tax-wise that could be done to help them.

more: the value in value consulting | the making of a consultant | learning to delegate: slow is faster | a cpa looks back across the generations
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nowadays, there is much less tax maneuvering, but much more from a financial aspect, and it is amazing how accountants can help.
read more →

the value in value consulting

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woman in officekeep your eyes and ears open.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything: the art of accounting

people can learn new skills and either do nothing further or use it to grow.

more: the making of a consultant | learning to delegate: slow is faster | a cpa looks back across the generations
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

using my experience from consulting for an ice cream shop, i started to think about doing some extras for clients (see “the making of a consultant”). i still had my day job as an accountant and needed to follow the work schedule my boss gave me, but i now knew something and wanted to see how else i could use it.
read more →

a cpa looks back across the generations

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why the profession is so great.

by ed mendlowitz
call me before you do anything

when i became a partner emeritus, it meant that it was time to slow down and work less.

more ed mendlowitz: how many hours should staff work? | is this a rut?  | taking over poorly done work | when to offer profit sharing | what’s in a title? | managing partners should drop their book of business | what’s lousy, the client or your approach? | checklist for running a practice | why credentials are worthwhile
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

i started working only two days a week. i thought i would have more time to pursue many of the things i had always wanted to do but never had the time. since that point, i seem to be busier than i ever was and still have many projects i want to do, but can’t seem to get to.
read more →