Author: Tony Novak
-
No excuse accounting
Last week I wrote that there are no excuses for an accounting system that does not reconcile with the bank and financial accounts. This week Insightful Accountant carried this article about the improved reconciliation features within QuickBooks online accounting system. QuickBooks accounts for more than 3 out of 5 small business and nonprofit organization accounting systems. I think…
-
Trends in individual health insurance, 2016
In the 19 states that have not expanded eligibility to Medicaid to lower-income individuals, the results of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are minimal, at least as observed from ‘street level’ among those who are not covered by group or government-sponsored health plans. In Florida, for example, more than half a million remain without health insurance.…
-
Is it smart to pay no taxes?
Donald Trump brings fresh attention to the possibility that affluent individuals and businesses can pay no federal income taxes. Last night, at Hofstra University, Trump said “That makes me smart”. Is he right? Is it smart to pay no income taxes? The first point we should reach is that it is possible for an affluent…
-
Small business advertising that’s better than TV commercials
Three types of marketing generate a more positive user experience than TV commercials according to Hubspot. Everyone seems to have a solid understanding and opinion of TV commercials as an advertising medium so this seems like a natural benchmark for discussion. This revelation is important to small businesses that typically do not have access to…
-
Tax filing deadline and penalties
With less than three weeks until late tax filing deadline for 2015, I have only one signed engagement to complete a tax return and many clients who still haven’t filed. I need to emphasize that unless they actually hire me, and not just presume that I’ll take care of their tax filing requirements by the…
-
How the decline in civility affects small business advice
I read much about how an overall decline in civility is evident in many parts of our modern life. I commented on this theme in my earlier blog post reviewing the 2005 book “Collapse” by professor Jared Diamond. Increasing tension between government and its citizens has always been an observed corollary of a declining society.…
-
Cleaning up my old blog posts
I just finished manually de-duplicating my personal web page blog posts and found 267 duplicates of the 1200+ gross count. A few were reproduced up to five times. I do not know how that happened. It is possible that they were imported from different publishing sources years ago. There seems to be some harmful impact…
-
Sobering message to nonprofit board members
I expect to deliver this message of my engagement findings to the CPA board member and treasurer of a nonprofit client over the weekend: 1) you are in a fiduciary environment with responsibility for other people’s money. 2) We all recognize there are weaknesses in the bookkeeping. 3) There is no evidence that the accounting…
-
Revisiting CRM for sole practitioner
It is time for me to revisit the topic of Client Relationship Management systems. I put together notes here in 2014 and in 2012 for the NJCPA. I am looking for a CRM that is well-suited for a sole practitioner CPA practice. I’ve been using Pipedrive and there are many things I like about it. Price…
-
Blind trust basics
I can’t figure out if the Trump campaign people don’t understand how a blind trust works or they just hope that the rest of America doesn’t. Blind trusts are usually a great tool for politicians. The basic concept is that the politician is not aware of what company stocks or investments their independent investment managers…