May 16. 2012 | Kristin Drozdowski
101 Uses for SharePoint
Okay, I’m not going to list 101 ways to use SharePoint, but I’ll bet I could.
It’s hard to find a company these days that isn’t using SharePoint, but I’ve been surprised by the number of users who seem to view it only as a document repository. After all, isn’t being a document repository what a network shared drive can do for you? SharePoint not only allows you to store documents centrally, but also to collaborate with co-workers, maintain version history, add columns of information to be associated with documents, add lists of information that can be quickly and easily transformed into an Excel spreadsheet, and more. These are just the basics. With a little creative thinking, the possibilities are endless.
Remember the days of the network shared drive with folder, inside folder, inside folder, and naming conventions mutating with every user? My personal favorite was using some combination of “v1,” “v2,” or a date after the filename to manage version history, only to find that an earlier version had a more current date stamp. It’s a miracle we could find anything. Our Risk Services team has created a SharePoint portal with multiple SharePoint sites to manage almost everything our group needs. We have areas for blogs and newsletter articles, proposal and seminar development, upcoming training and networking opportunities, policies and procedures, links to frequently used websites, and more. We’ve even created a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Database for our firm using SharePoint. If our team is working on it, there’s a site for it.
No matter what your business, SharePoint can help you get organized and share information efficiently and effectively across your team or department. For example, Accounting Departments can manage account reconciliations, including the use of a simple approval workflow to track preparation and approval. Internal Audit Departments can manage audit work paper preparation and approval. Once you envision the layout, creating sites is simple.
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May 10. 2012 | Patricia Suchter
Value Pricing vs. Hourly Billing
CPA professionals typically use an hourly rate to bill customers for the services provided. However, some CPA professionals believe we should start moving away from hourly billing and start moving towards value pricing.
Value pricing is the practice of setting the price based on the value of the services provided to the customer. Some will argue that most accounting firms do just that by examining hours spent providing services and marking them up or down according to the value given to the customer for those services. Value pricing is a little bit different, as it allows you to provide a fixed price up front to the customer and/or bundle services into a package deal.
Advantages of value pricing:
- Provides the opportunity to cross-sell additional services
- Improves communication
- Projects confidence as opposed to being unable to inform the client up front of a price as with hourly billing
- Allows the firm to gain back price leverage
- Easier to increase fixed-price agreement (FPA) prices than to increase your hourly rate
- Provides a competitive differentiation for your firm
- Provides less risk for the client when it comes to the certainty of the price
- Allows the client to focus on the firm’s total value proposition rather than prices for each service rendered.
Approximately one quarter of accounts in small and sole practitioner firms have implemented value pricing and some professionals believe this will become the way of the future. One of those professionals is Jody Padar, an up and coming CPA who has transformed her father’s CPA firm. Check out this interview she did in which she talks about value pricing: http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2012/03/21/cpa-jody-padar-and-the-new-world-of-digital-accounting/.
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April 27. 2012 | Vanessa Teitelbaum
Client Service
Here’s what the email said:
“From: Transit, DoNotReply – Good morning Ms. Teitelbaum, I do apologize for your bus not showing up but the bus in question did not come because of an unscheduled service interruption. Again, I do apologize for your bus not showing up."
Really? Is that it? Here’s the back story. Recently, I’ve been taking the bus to work. It has actually been pretty nice. I don’t live far from the office, it’s nearly door to door, it’s not a long ride…all in all – it’s quite pleasant. Except when the bus doesn’t show up, and this has happened twice. Because the bus only comes every 30 minutes, I waited for 35 minutes for the next one. Later, I fired off a complaint. And you can see the helpful response received.
This got me thinking about client service. Are my clients satisfied? Are the prospects I am targeting satisfied? As tax season winds down, it’s a good time to find out. A little discussion can go a long way. Just asking can smooth ruffled feathers (if there are any). It doesn’t have to be a formal survey, just an email or a phone call or lunch – “How are we doing?” Companies that didn’t have a positive audit or tax experience and are contemplating a switch may be receptive to a meeting. You don’t want that company to be your client.
We all make mistakes, and we can always do better. Are you receptive to your clients’ feedback? Are you making suggestions to your clients on how they can help the process? Hopefully your clients don’t want to switch accountants. They like you. They want to stay in their current situation, but would (maybe) like something (fill in the blank) to change. Having this discussion can improve your service and your client’s satisfaction.
As for my new commuting situation, I have signed up to receive “real-time notifications” via text of when the bus will arrive at my stop. This is a welcome service that provides me with information I need and makes my commute more efficient. For now, I will continue to take the bus as long as it proves reliable, convenient, and economical.
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April 25. 2012 | Daniel O'Shea
What’s on your 990?
You may have heard about the recent report by an identity security company that reviewed approximately 2.9 million 990’s for years 2001-2006 and found that approximately 100,000 nonprofits had disclosed almost 500,000 social security numbers (SSN’s) on their Form 990 returns. The bad news: Because Forms 990 are available for public inspection, there is a risk that a person’s identity could be stolen from information reported on the 990. The good news: The risk is very manageable when a few simple steps are followed:
First, organizations need to be mindful of the sensitive data being included on their Form 990. SSN’s should not be on the return, except when required (such as when Form 5471 must be attached to the 990). Board member home addresses should only be used when the Board member requests it. Instead, use the filing organization’s address.
Secondly, the filing organization should ask its preparer to provide a draft of the 990 before it is filed. The CFO should review not only the accuracy of the data and narrative disclosures, but also the nature of the disclosures.
Third, when providing a copy of your 990 or putting your 990 on your website, make sure it does not include donor information on Schedule B, and, in some cases, Schedules A and O. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have your tax preparer provide you with a “Public Inspection Copy” of the return, which should have donor information redacted. This copy should be different from the “Taxpayer Copy” of the return.
It should be noted that the returns reviewed were for tax years prior to 2008, when filing organizations often attached numerous schedules to the returns, containing all kinds of data. With the revision of Form 990 in 2008, filing organizations can no longer attach such schedules, so that has reduced the likelihood of sensitive data being disclosed. Although the incidence rate is lower, organizations must continue to be vigilant in their attempts to protect personal information.
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April 23. 2012 | Jim Wagenmann
Individual Retirement Accounts
Any taxpayer with earned income, wages, or self-employment income can contribute to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The contribution limit for 2011 is the lesser of earned income or $5,000. If you were age 50 or older by December 31, 2011, you may also contribute an additional $1,000 as a catch-up contribution for a total of $6,000. Contributions to an IRA could have been made at any time during 2011 or they can also be made before April 17, 2012, and earmarked as 2011 contributions.
The tax deduction rules are somewhat complex and depend upon coverage by an employer plan and your income level. If you and/or your spouse are not covered by an employer plan, you may contribute to a tax-deductible IRA no matter what your income level is. If you and your spouse are covered by an employer plan, the deductibility of the IRA depends upon your adjusted gross income (AGI) shown on your tax return. If you are single and your adjusted gross income is less than $56,000, the IRA would be fully deductible. If your AGI is between $56,000 and $66,000, the deductible portion of the IRA contribution is reduced while the nondeductible portion is increased. If your AGI is above $66,000, the entire IRA contribution becomes nondeductible even though it can still be retained by the IRA account. If you are married filing jointly, the income limits for computing the amount of tax-deductible IRA contributions are AGI between $90,000 and $110,000. If you are married filing a separate return, the tax deductible income limits are at AGI of $0.00 to $10,000.
One point to consider is that if you are married filing separate and you are under a separate maintenance agreement and you have lived apart for the entire year, the single taxpayer rules will apply rather than the married filing separate rules. Another scenario to keep in mind is where you are married filing jointly and only one spouse is covered by an employer plan. The income limits for calculating the deductible portion of an IRA contribution are $169,000 to $179,000 of combined AGI. The covered spouse will still have to follow the married filing jointly rules above.
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