SFA

Thank you. I will check out some of these suggestions. I have an employee who is very tech savvy, but sometimes, his tech talk is hard for me to wrap by head around. It helps to know what others in our industry are doing. The challenge is to find the right balance between productivity, profitability and security.

I'm sorry if this has been asked and answered recently, but we are reviewing our procedures for sending large and/or sensitive files to our clients. Currently we are using the ATX add-on feature: PortalSafe, but we have had clients who have difficulty accessing their materials. A representative recently contacted me from Citrix ShareFile, but their monthly cost is a lot more than PortalSafe. Any suggestions please?

Powerful and heart wrenching. Thank you KC for posting. I am a lucky one. My son served in the military and came home ok.

I need animal therapy every day.

​I think you are right Joan. That is my observation as well.

Last year one of my clients state refund was deposited into an incorrect account. The bank (Wells Fargo) accepted the deposit. When we discovered the problem, we called Wells Fargo and fussed with them and laid it all in their lap, even though the tax return had designated the deposit into the incorrect account. Wells Fargo put the correct amount into my client's account. We never found out how they handled the details on their end. We didn't really care. Mission accomplished!

I don't judge. I am happy for the work, and know that usually the client is relieved to get back on track--even if they owe money. The IRS or other collection agencies are just part of the process. We represent our clients when needed and help where we can to reduce penalties. It's what we do.

I have a potential new bookkeeping client who is using another firm, who has them setup to manage their accounts payable and accounts receivable using "Bill.com." The activity is then "synchronized" with a QuickBooks file that is controlled by the other bookkeeping firm. I have no experience using Bill.com and am unsure of how to make the transition to our company. We use QuickBooks for everything. If anyone here is using Bill.com for A/P and A/R, I would appreciate your input--especially how it works with QuickBooks. Thank you.

Sounds Great. Don't you just love it. Us "cowboy tax professionals" need to be hog-tied. No doubt about it.

I just went to send my donation to Eric and to support his work on the community, but need reassurance that the credit card payment feature is secure. I don't have a paypal account and don't feel like writing a check. Just need to understand that my credit card details are secure or encrypted in some way. ooops see a typo in the topic. Moderator--can you fix please?

Ask your client to bring in the paperwork that supports the share basis on the shares sold. He may have a paystub or company docs that map it all out for you. This is like Swiss cheese. Big holes in the doc trail. Push for more and you will get it.

This tax season has been pretty grueling. I am tired and anxious to have some privacy and recharge. Honestly, I wonder why I do this work? I'm seriously thinking of selling my practice while we are at the top of our game. Anyone interested? It's great. We work 70+ hours a week. Who wouldn't love that?

Wine, dine and sunshine.

fascinating topic

Catherine, I think you might be talkin to the hand. Just sayin.

I find this very disturbing.

Not Hershey Kisses, but Wilbur Buds. Lancaster County, PA

My husband and mother-in-law work for a high-end chocolate factory. It's "all you can eat" around this office! Plus we work for a bakery/deli who drop off loads of sweets. There's really no sense to it.

I also hired a very experienced tax preparer (but new to our office) in November. She was receiving unemployment, and I did not have work for her until mid January. She was good with that, so I stopped looking. Turns out that we were just a "place holder" for her while she aggressively continued to look for full-time employment. On the third day with us, she slipped out for "lunch" (code for a hiring interview elsewhere). She was offered and accepted a job with them and waited until 5pm to give me her notice. That also happened with another hire who was on unemployment before joining us. Apparently, he had sent so many applications out, that low and behold, once he finally accept a job with us, offers continued to dribble in. I had him for one month. Competing with unemployment benefits is tough when it comes to hiring professionals. They often receive more UC benefits than our opening positions offer. For some, when they run out of UC benefits, they scramble for work and use us as "place holders" until something better comes along. It is difficult to offer health insurance, retirement plans, etc. and compete with larger companies for the good talent. Argh. This is a tough business. We must continue to adapt to the changing markets. I am determined to look for diamonds. They are out there, and I already have found a few.

I am considering creating my own basic income tax class for the public as well as Quckbooks training. Like Block maybe I can find talent who will pay me for the interview!

I made a poor hire choice this year too. I started the person in November, full time. Very nice, had all the credentials, but just couldn't deliver the quality that we need. Let him go on Feb 13. Within days, we hired another CPA who hit the ground running. He has analyzed our work flow and made some great suggestions that have really smoothed out our process. We also hired two young part-timers who are helping to scan, print and assemble our finished returns. Every now and then, in the worst moments, something great just happens. We got lucky for sure. Sometimes we need to run through the deck of cards and pull a few jokers before finding the aces.

Sometimes I use a Ouija Board.

I too have been able to ask and receive penalty relief for late filing of 1120S returns. When writing don't BS, lay out the problem, how it happened, and why they should consider penalty relief. Use other preparers examples and war stories as a way to get a handle on the situation. Then like a dog, don't let go until you exhaust every channel available for relief. Naveen Mohan--you can and will succeed here if you methodically stay on track and push through. In a few months, I'll be waiting to hear "the rest of the story." In the meantime, don't let this bump break your pace to the April 15 finish line.

Thank you everyone for checking in on this topic. The return was ready for pickup prior to him pressing me to make a change. I said I would do additional research before he picks up. Schedule A is where it stays. I guess I just needed a little backbone support.

Attorney