CPA Accountant

Looking for a Bookkeeping / Accounting / CPA firm – which works for your best interest?

Hiring the right Bookkeeping firm is an important aspect of your business. What do we look for in the firm we select to serve our business? Is it their business knowledge, skill sets, their approach & attitude, their passion towards work, customer service, price or a mixture of everything?  You ask me, I’d say everything!

A lot of things from these mentioned points can be found out only by talking with them or by passage of time. However you can make an initial decision to go with them based on some skills and knowledge related questions.

Why does it become so important to test a firm for their knowledge / skills before we outsource our accounting work to them – Well it’s because the costs you pay every time you move your accounting firm can be huge. Also untimely and inaccurate reports can put you under heavy penalties from taxing authorities.

We have used various questions below which will help you when interviewing your bookkeeping / accounting compliance firm in your initial conversation with them. With these questions you can test their knowledge in QuickBooks, Excel and General Accounting / Bookkeeping concepts.

QuickBooks: 

Are you Quick book certified?

Having a QuickBooks ProAdvisor License or a QuickBooks Certified User really differentiates a person / entity with other service providers. After achieving the ProAdvisor or Certified User status these QuickBooks professional gain required knowledge and skills needed to assist you with your Bookkeeping assignment.

Can you show us the process of invoicing and collecting from a customer in QuickBooks?

A QuickBooks Certified user or a QuickBooks ProAdvisor will mention creating an invoice, receiving payment and making a deposit, QuickBooks aging reports and QuickBooks pre-written collection letters.

Can you show us how to use QuickBooks to track or manage employee’s time?

QuickBooks has some neat time tracking features. An experienced QuickBooks have had the opportunity to use them, and if someone can explain you the details of the feature instantly then it is great sign of their knowledge.

We are maintaining our bookkeeping in Peachtree Accounting, can the data be transferred to QuickBooks?

An experience QuickBooks user will instantly say that it can be done. QuickBooks has a conversion feature wherein a data can be converted from Peachtree Accounting or many other similar accounting system in QuickBooks.

General accounting knowledge: 

What is the difference between capital expenditure and regular business expense?

An Accountant should be able to explain you a difference between an asset and an expense. Any expenditure that is associated with that asset usually qualifies as a Capital Expenditure.

Explain the differences between purchasing a computer and a travel expense, with respect to profitability, cash flow and general accounting?

An experienced bookkeeper will understand depreciation and easily talk about this.

Excel:

Scenario: you have a spreadsheet with information on 500 products.  You have a column which says the total available quantity. You want product line arranged in ascending order of quantity.

An experience Excel user will immediately tell you that this can be done by sorting.

General Business Knowledge:

You have a friend who is considering purchasing a company and she asks you to look at the numbers and let her know what you think.  What do you do?

There is no definite answer to this question. However an experience Accountant will talk to you about terms like due diligence, profitability of the firm compared to industry standards, cash flow analysis, balance sheet analysis, etc.

ICS Accounting Team is a group of professionals who are QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Certified Users. ICS, Inc (www.mybizfiler.com) offers a wide range of services typically offered by a Big 5 Accounting firm and a CPA firm in the U.S. ICS offers Incorporation, Book Keeping, Payroll Services, HR & Business Consulting etc.  Contact ICS today at 203 437 4083, e-mail – sales@mybizfiler.com, or by accessing 24/7 chat page on www.mybizfiler.com

 

 

 

Choosing the right tax CPA Houston preparer is one the most important financial decisions we make in our life. Although many people don’t often think about it, your income taxes are your largest lifetime expense, more than your home mortgage, your retirement contributions or your children’s college expenses.

As someone who has prepared over 10,000 Federal Tax returns, I know that controlling your income tax expense can make a tremendous difference in your financial well being. So let’s examine the types of tax preparers and how they work.

The most common type of tax preparer is the non-CPA who works for a national tax franchise. This type of preparer generally has no formal education in accounting and frequently has only a few weeks of training. Often they are retirees looking for a few weeks of extra income each spring. This type of tax preparer is not licensed to respond to IRS inquiries and generally has only a rudimentary understanding of the techniques used to reduce taxes. An unlicensed tax preparer should never accompany you to an IRS audit, and in fact this type of preparer would probably not be allowed by their employer to do so. The non-CPA tax preparer is in my opinion usually appropriate for only the simplest types of tax returns, such as an hourly worker that has household income of under $50,000 a year and that does not invest in stocks or itemize deductions.

A Tax CPA Houston is very different from the unlicensed tax preparer found in most franchised tax operations. The CPA normally has at least 5 years of college study in accounting, has passed a comprehensive technical examination. In most states a new CPA has to apprentice under an experienced CPA for 2 years before getting their license.

For any business tax return, or for an individual who itemizes deductions or makes investments, or for any situation where there is a dispute with the IRS or in which tax planning is required a licensed Houston tax CPA is a must.

Of course not all CPA’s operate the same. Some tax CPA’s only want to fill out the tax forms (the historians), and others are afraid of the IRS (the phobic’s).

The rarest type of tax preparer is pro-active and likes to search tax saving opportunities for the future while preparing your current year’s tax return. At Trippon & Company CPAs our goal is to be forward thinking enough to protect our clients now and in the future. Call us at 713-661-1040 and put our experience at work for you!