About Tony Novak, CPA, MBA, MT

About the web site:

This is the personal web site of Tony Novak and does not represent and of the businesses affiliated or mentioned. The web site was launched more than 20 years ago and has accumulated more than 2,000 pages of small business tips, news clippings, former newspaper columns, and other writings. Some of these are outdated, but remain for a sense of historical perspective in the industry.

About Tony Novak:

Tony Novak served clients in all 50 states and DC over a span of more than four decades as an independent accountant, controller, board member, coach and adviser. He helped operate businesses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware ranging from an accounting and financial services firm to an organic farm, from a nonprofit community development group, a marina and seafood company, to an early internet technology company. Work through the startup struggles and seeing so many self-employed and small business clients eventually succeed is a fantastic reward.

Prior work through Freedom Benefits and OnlineAdviser consumer support services, I communicated with more than 50,000 users, mostly self-employed, by telephone and email in the 1990s. That work even led to an invitation by former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative Newt Gingrich to testify before Congress on consumer health care needs. In the early 2000s he produced a series of training recordings sold on CD (this was before the internet podcast era) by Rockhurst University.

He now lives and works in southern New Jersey through a boutique CPA professional firm, an environmental nonprofit organization, a clean energy marina, and a sustainable harvest seafood company.

Now he focuses on helping smaller firms to incorporate technologies that allow more efficient workflows, maintain compliance and help us keep more of what we earn. If you would like to have a conversation about your situation or learn more about mine, Tony welcomes a call at (856) 314-5626.


Team:

Our last full time employee was in 1995 and our last commercial office space closed in 1999. Since the mid 1990s we have operated successfully as a virtual firm with contracted professional and nonprofessional remote specialists assembled for each engagement. Tony works from two home offices; one ‘in town’, and one at the bayshore. We look forward to assembling and introducing a staff best suited to your specific project.


Services and pricing:

Single engagement service may be negotiated as necessary. Ongoing services are offered to individuals and firms that can budget 2% to 5% of gross income to financial management and compliance. I typically offer four types of engagements that collectively make up the field of accounting advisory services: 

1) TRANSACTIONAL SERVICES including bookkeeping, payroll, and bill payment designed to keep operating efficiently

2) COMPLIANCE SERVICES including tax preparation and filing, audits, reviews, and financial reporting for government and stakeholders

3) OUTSOURCED CFO including financing, contracting, purchasing, performance-based service, data analytics, benchmarking, business advisory, and lean processes. This is like the in-house treasurer.

4) STRATEGIC PLANNING including clarifying the business plan, preparing financial forecasts, acquisitions, sales, mergers and succession planning.


List of services for nonprofit organizations

List of services for small businesses

List of services for individuals

Clear transparent value-based pricing


More information about Tony Novak:

  • Advice cited by The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and NJCPA Magazine.
  • Served small business clients in all 50 states through a networked remote online practice.
  • Over 2,000 short practical tax and employee benefits planning advice columns, blog posts and recordings published in multiple media formats since 1982.
  • Certified Public Accountant licensed in the states of Delaware (original license now expired) and New Jersey (current resident license)
  • Masters of Taxation from Villanova School of Law with a focus on compensation planning
  • Masters of Business Administration from Temple University in finance and accounting
  • Bachelor of Science from Delaware Valley University with a focus on agriculture
  • Supplemental credentials and certifications in sustainability, farm management, and food safety 
  • Academic credentials
  • Resume: