Category: Accounting
-
Status of Paycheck Protection Program application?
This comes from a real email exchange today: CLIENT: Subject: Re: status update on Payroll Protection Program Tony, I don’t believe I heard anything back from this? Has xxxxxx responded to our request? ME: Correct. No response after initial confirmation of application more than two weeks ago. I did attempt to contact the officer who…
-
Brilliant small business strategy for post-shutdown recovery
Early Sunday morning a few weeks ago I received a text and phone call1 asking me to form a new nonprofit group. I had a long history of forming and working with grassroots nonprofit groups in the seven years after super storm Sandy turned our world upside down. Sandy recovery projects led me to the…
-
Change to client services agreement
This is a template for a new letter to be used beginning today: CHANGE TO CLIENT SERVICES AGREEMENT The past six weeks have been unlike anything I’ve experienced in the past 33 years of serving in the advisory profession. I responded by increasing my average daily client caseload from 3 to 5, increasing hours and…
-
Small business roundup of crisis response news
The past day generated more financial news affecting U.S. small businesses than any previous day of this pandemic. While the learning curve is steep, typically 1-2 hours each day, the time requirement today and for the rest of this week will be substantially more. No doubt that after I speak with some small business clients…
-
Costs associated with Paycheck Protection Program application processing
I’ve publicized here and on other platforms that my firm and some affiliates will prepare and submit economic relief applications under the CARES Act without charge. But submitting the application is the easy part. Doing the required underlying accounting and assembling the documentation to support these loan and grants applications is potentially expensive. Of course,…
-
How am I helping business owners survive the crisis
I might be known around here as the “crisis management guy”. In fact, most of my professional career was spent creating a path forward to help local small businesses climb from economic disaster. Until now, it was mostly a bad joke among peer CPAs. Now it is the most important professional focus that we need…
-
Crisis response message
This short message will go out to business clients ASAP: “Over the past four days I’ve switched my small business advisory practice from cautious planning to full-fledged crisis management. Obviously the intent of this work is to stay ahead of the impact but that is especially difficult with the situation changing by the hour. My…
-
Introduction message to the new CPA firm
“Thank you for asking about my services this year! I had the exciting opportunity a few months ago to start a brand new CPA firm in New Jersey. It was quite an undertaking but now have a new address, new licenses and new staff. We are motivated by this new unfettered ability to make real…
-
Security enhancements during tax season
Avoiding the usual scams: Tax-related scams this year have risen to a level I’ve not experienced before in more than 4 decades of practice. Tax preparers are among the most targeted group. The defenses tend to require low tech personal attention. EMAIL – We observe that most (I read 85%) of scams begin with email.…
-
New Jersey election violations cost nine candidates $42,797
Today the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) announced that nine municipal government candidates, one county clerk candidate, one freeholder candidate, and one state assembly candidates must pay fines and fees totaling $42,797 for violating the Campaign Contributions and Expenditures Reporting Act. My job as a NJ certified election campaign treasurer is to help…