Catherine

Joel -- Just spent some time with your spreadsheet and compared my rates to the listed ones. It was really interesting. For the most part I'm on the higher side of the listed forms, but lots of the subordinate/auxiliary forms others charge for I don't charge for. But what really caught my eye were the corporate and partnership rates (only two listed). Wow, are they LOW for around here!! I charge way -under- what most folks around here charge for 1120-s and 1065, and my rates are way -higher- than the ones you list. For example, and accounting-only client of mine, a partnership, gets their 1065 done by the CPA who referred them to me for accounting work, and he charges about $1200 a year. I charge my partnerships around $550 - $600 -- but your spreadsheet shows $260 to $399 for a 1065. The partnerships I have would -not- be worth it to me at $400. Catherine

Every now and then I get asked (on the phone, by price-shoppers) if my rates are negotiable. My standard answer is, "Absolutely! -- Upwards only." That usually shuts them up real quick. If they don't hang up right then and there, the caller will frequently become a good client. Catherine

Thanks, Joel, for the spreadsheet. I'm going to take a good look at it later. I charge by form and discount as needed. Can't justify charging $50 for a Sch D when there's only one item on it, or one carryforward loss amount. Also discount for good clients, long-term, neatness/completeness of paperwork submitted to me (less work!), senior, military, family (mainly college-age kids of clients). I don't discount (nor do I give referral coupons to) PITA clients (they send more PITA folks; not what I want). Catherine

Thank you, KC, and good luck to all on the forum who enter!

I love the Engrish site; my daughter's violin teacher has a poster from them and it is just hysterically funny.

Have a VERY :bday:

Have a VERY :bday:

Have a VERY :bday:

Have a VERY :bday:

Have a VERY :bday:

Sounds great! I'll be checking that out right away. Thanks, KC!

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

I was at a client's office; one of the workers came in from an errand and told us to put the radio on. The client had worked in the twin towers up until just a few years earlier. I remember agonizing over whether to go grab my girls out of school -- the principal's office said they were not allowing ANY TV or radio in the building that day. So I had some time to figure out what I was going to tell them. "To the shores of Tripoli" -- there was a hiatus for quite a while, but starting up again with the first attack on the towers in 1993, there have been attacks on U.S. interests every few years, culminating in 9/11. Don't for a minute think they wouldn't do it again tomorrow if they could manage it.

Hope you have a VERY dinner!

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

Hi folks -- tried this on another forum and got nothing; folks mainly seemed slap-happy with the long weekend coming up (at that time). Here's one that I'd like advice on how to handle. The way the client has done this in past years has been a convoluted, confusing morass, but weren't ready to have someone else look at it. They've now asked me to take a look and see if anything can be done to make this clearer/easier. There may simply be no good way to do it in QuickBooks, and I've found nothing in the Intuit forums that would help. Let's see if I can explain the situation clearly. My client sells consulting services and proprietary software to companies in the US and around the world. The company has a "sister company" (for lack of a better term; they work together but are separate entities) in the UK. To keep them separate, I'll use Company A (American) and Company B (British). Each company has its' own QB files which are -not- shared. A sells products and services to US companies; issues invoices and gets paid. B does the same but to non-US companies. When B sells a product/service (for which they send invoices to and receive payments from their customers), they "buy" this product from A at half-price. They also "bill" A for services rendered to complete the sale and supply the product. These two transactions roughly cancel each other out in terms of magnitude. B also bills A for work done for US customers (A does almost no work for non-US customers). This would really be easier if I could put up my little chart with boxes and arrows. Sigh. A gets no cash from sales to B. B gets no cash from A for services/products sold. There are cash transactions when services are rendered by B for A's customers - invoices are sent by B and paid by A. There are also corrections for currency fluctuations (sometimes over a year goes by before the dust settles). All the non-US sales are tracked in Excel and eventually all is accounted for and any payments due (which can be in either direction) are made. Both A and B have then been using general journal entries, customer/vendor duos, and other awkward techniques to keep track in QB. One result for A is a long list of pseudo-"bills to pay" that show up on A/P and pseudo-"invoices due" that show up on A/R. An additional fillip is that the folks at B don't like to do accounting so their spreadsheets are usually a couple months out of date at least. And the folks at A go nuts with the spreadsheet so they delay in trying to figure out what B has done. Does anyone have any ideas on how I can approach this? We can start with whatever other information folks need in order to make sense of it. I know my head was spinning when A was trying to explain what they were doing. And QB's awkward handling of multi-currency transactions isn't going to help matters. Hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend. Catherine

May you have a VERY :bday:

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

Hope you have a VERY :bday:

May you have a VERY :bday:

Have a VERY :bday:

Congratulations Deb!!!! Now raise your rates! :lol:

I don't use proseries myself, but have used it at the office of a colleague whom I have helped on many an occasion. Proseries always drove me nuts with its' worksheet-based format, especially with the odd numbering scheme. Drake's worksheets are much more logical -- they follow the number of the form. I could never navigate in proseries without lots of effort and frustration. ATX by comparison is a breeze to navigate -- start on the form and use the jump-to bunnies to get wherever you need to go. The tabs for different forms/schedules can be put on the side (like in proseries) or on top, as you prefer. And ATX is less money for more forms and a complete package -- no buying separate licenses for business, for fiduciary, for each state, etc. Hope this helps.