Author: Tony Novak
-
Trump v. Vance Supreme Court case preview
Our matter-of-survival national crisis aside, this is an interesting legal case for Constitutional law hobbyists like me. To be clear, I blog on Supreme Court cases from time to time here as an interested hobbyist, not as an adviser and not meant to imply any level of expertise. Accounting Today did a great job of…
-
Verizon Wireless cellular data throttling revisited
Today the news coverage of ATT’s $60 million fine for deliberately throttling cellular internet data raises new questions for me. I’ve covered the same issue with Verizon Wireless in detail here on my blog for years. The most recent blog post documenting the problem is here. Verizon Wireless admits to the practice of deliberate throttling.…
-
A workers’ compensation insurance primer for small businesses
In the past many small businesses avoided carrying workers’ compensation insurance. In the future, more small firms will carry this insurance. This blog post is meant for small employers who are facing this issue for the first time. This is a big risk facing the smallest unsuspecting employers. What is changing? State laws have always…
-
Accounting services engagement agreement – updated for 2020
This page is outdated. A more recent version is available: Sample accounting services engagement agreement 2021 Dear : Thank you for choosing me to help you with business services and accounting. This engagement agreement is meant to clarify the details of our work. Even though it is long, it is written in plain language for…
-
IRS just got serious about cryptocurrency
The just-released draft copy of Form 1040 Schedule 1 that starts off with the question: “At any time during 2019, did you receive, sell, send, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?” I’m sure much discussion will follow about the potential consequences of answering with a false negative. Responding with an affirmative,…
-
An extraordinary 30 year wrestling memory
Thirty years ago in Doylestown Pennsylvania I was privileged to be part of the most successful team ever at Del Val University, and, I suspect, one of the most distinctive performing teams in the NCAA. We were a Division 3 team and we started the season by surprising some Division 1 teams in pre-season tournament…
-
Address review – October 2019
For all of my adult life I’ve had more than one address. Occasionally government entities and agencies have launched investigations or made complaints about my address. I suspect this is politically motivated but I have no proof. Those government actions have accelerated lately and I anticipate more aggressive prosecutions in the future. The tension is…
-
Lenovo Thinkpad T-580: one year review of a solid notebook computer
A little more than a year ago I purchased a Lenovo Thinkpad T580 notebook computer and by now I now have at least a thousand hours of use on it. I reviewed it last October in another log post here. This is a short bullet point update of that review now, a year later. No doubt, this…
-
Why hourly billing rates are a bad idea in small business accounting
This excerpt below comes from a 10/23/2019 article in Accounting Today by Loren Fogelman titled “Your Hourly Rate is Unfair to You and Your Clients”. It echos and reaffirms many of the concepts I’ve used to develop my Pricing Policy. An Hourly Rate Creates Tension Clients closely watch the clock when you charge for your…
-
Edge vs. Chrome for small business
I am considering switching from Chrome to Edge as a primary business browser on Windows 10 machines. Security will be the highest consideration in the decision with privacy, speed and resource consumption also important issues. No decision is made yet. One thing is clear: the two were not even close until the most recent fall…