201709.20
8

How to Review Tax Returns original By Edward Mendlowitz, CPA, ABV, PFS, and Andrew D. Mendlowitz

How to Review Tax Returns The No-Hassle Super-Simplified Seven-Step Tax Return Review System. With illustrative examples, step-by-step guidance, and practice-ready checklists. Reviewers are not born complete and ready to go, they must be developed. Part of the problem has been that there has been no information or training specifically for reviewers, until now. Learn how to speed workflows, eliminate bottlenecks, find and train the best person for the job, distinguish between content and issues reviews, and identify specific trouble spots. Produce better returns, smarter staffers, happier clients, and more profit. “Reviewing tax returns is a key part of tax preparation. It also is an area vulnerable to major bottlenecks and…

201709.11
0

Art of Accounting: Staff evaluations with and without time sheets | Edward Mendlowitz

By Edward Mendlowitz Published September 04 2017, 4:24pm EDT I have seen firms that use time sheets provide staff evaluations based on total chargeable hours, the ratio of chargeable hours to total hours, realization based on their time charges and sometimes collections per hour they charged. This is then compared to other staff at similar levels to determine “performance.” Alternatively I know firms that do not use time sheets and use the following measures to evaluate their staff. Look this over, compare to the time sheet evaluation methods and decide which you think is more appropriate: Type of and range of clients worked on; Gross fees collected from clients worked…

201708.18
1

Chief Value Officer: Accountants Can Save The Planet | The CPA Journal

By  Edward Mendlowitz, CPA/PFS, ABV News & Views, Featured, July 2017 Issue | August 2017 This short book addresses the very important topic of how to save the planet, and it presents the ways in which progress on that goal is compatible with businesses creating value for themselves. The book also highlights the importance of companies issuing financial reports not as financial statements, but as a method of reporting their value measurement and creation, using an integrated approach to include capitals beyond just the financial. Author Mervyn King also suggests that the most appropriate people to lead the charge are accountants, specifically Chief Financial Officers, who King says should be renamed Chief…

201708.14
1

Vincent J. Love – The Authors Respond Response to Howard Levy

By  Vincent J. Love, CPA/CFF, CFE and Thomas R. Manisero, JD July 2017 Issue, Letters to the Editor | August 2017 We would like to thank Howard Levy for his complimentary and complementary letter on our article. We initially included most of the “plain paper” financial statement’s history in our article including quotes from the standards, but it was properly edited out for length. We are very grateful for your addressing it. While we fully agree that there is no requirement in the standard for the CPA to understand the client’s business, structure, accounting system, and environment, we believe that to prepare the statement, the CPA should have some—but clearly not…

201707.27
1

Art of Accounting: First-time partner, part 2 | Accounting Today

By Edward Mendlowitz Published July 24 2017, 1:11pm EDT You may or may not feel different the first day you wake up as a partner, but you will be different. People’s perceptions of you will have changed. You will now be a partner and as such an owner, a prestigious person within the profession and someone whose voice will speak with greater authority. Your clients will view you as someone who can represent the firm and bind the firm with mere utterances floating from your mouth—or in some cases from an unaware emotion or distempered facial expression. Your presence will also generate more excitement and authority. Your previous co-workers will…

201707.12
1

Introducing the NYSSCPA’ s New 501(c)(3): The Moynihan Scholarship Fund | CPA Journal

By  Joanne S. Barry, CAE July 2017 Issue, Publisher’s Column, Featured July 2017 In 2015, the NYSSCPA leadership established the Moynihan Fund as a way to recognize the contributions of recently deceased past president David J. Moynihan. The fund would be composed of the two education-based initiatives that since their inception have been programs of the Society’s Foundation for Accounting Education: Career Opportunities in the Accounting Profession (COAP), a five-day college readiness program established in 1987 by NYSSCPA President Bert N. Mitchell that sought to increase racial diversity within the profession, and the Foundation’s scholarship fund. Dave was a fierce advocate of both programs. The challenge became raising money for this newly…

201706.16
1

Amanda Wilkie – At AICPA Engage, blockchain is on the brain | Accounting Today

By Ranica Arrowsmith Published June 16 2017 Amanda Wilkie, chief information officer at WithumSmith+Brown, went one step further and told attendees that blockchain would “change the world” — especially the accounting world.  She recalled PCMag’s claim that 2017 would be the “year of the smart contract.” Blockchain was a favored subject during the 2017 AICPA Engage conference held this year in Las Vegas. Sessions on the technology were well attended, with attendees clearly interested in learning how the technology would affect the future of the accounting profession. Blockchain technology is essentially a distributed ledger platform that contains, transmits and stores data in such a way that makes transactional activity extremely…

201705.31
1

Sal Collemi – Speaker: Professional Skepticism Can, Must Be Cultivated | The Trusted Professional

By: Chris Gaetano Published Date:  May 23, 2017 Salvatore A. Collemi, a CPA with years of external auditing experience under his belt, told his audience at the Forensic Accounting and Litigation Service Conference on May 23 that professional skepticism is severely lacking in today’s business environment, but that it can be cultivated, and must be if we expect the audit to be worth anything. Collemi said he understood that some auditors might be hesitant to press too hard against what management is telling them, particularly if the company has been a client for years, but he stressed that being skeptical is part of the fundamental skill set of what makes…

201705.22
1

Plain Paper Financial Statements

By Vincent J. Love and Thomas R. Manisero This article explores the history and current risks for CPAs who offer services relating to “plain paper” financials. The profession was “burnt” once in 1136 Tenants’ Corp. v. Max Rothenberg & Co.; will commercial interests lead to cases being brought against CPAs if they perform “preparation services only” on financial data that later is proven to be materially misstated? Plain Paper Financial Statements

201704.06
1

Art of Accounting: I never file an extension if I can get the return done | Accounting Today

By Edward Mendlowitz Published: April 03 2017 When I started my practice I tried to extend as many clients as I could. I figured this would ease tax season and spread the work out throughout the year. I found out this is not workable—for me. Now, we do whatever we can to get a return completed so it can be filed on time. While I address many issues, there are many legitimate reasons for extending returns and these are not what I am talking about here. My experience is the returns that were extended, no matter what our intentions, were not done until they had to get done. The reality…