Archive for April, 2012

Win a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100

April 27th, 2012

Each day of the Best Practices Conferences we have 1 Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 to be given away to one lucky attendee. The ScanSnap S1100 is the perfect mobile scanner. It’s small (and light) enough to fit in your briefcase and travel with. It truly does help you become completely paperless. Rather than bringing documents, receipts, notes home from meetings, you can simply scan them and then discard them.

I was looking online for the recommended retail price and noticed the Amazon product reviews. 119 reviews with an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5. Not bad at all!

Don’t miss the Best Practices Conference happening in 18 cities across America. Over the 2 days we’ll show you how your CPA firm can achieve sustainable growth and profitability for the long term. We’ll show you proven strategies to grow your practice as well as the tools you need to drive efficiency and profitability.

FULL AGENDA & REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Plus you’ll have a chance to walk away with the ScanSnap S1100 valued at $199.

Register by May 18 and use the code EB2020 to save 25%.

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Best Practices Conference – Save 25% on your registration

April 26th, 2012

I’m excited to announce that registration for the 2012 Best Practices Conference is open. We’ll be presenting this conference in 18 cities across America and we hope to see you there.

Why is this a must attend event?

According to IBIS World Study 2011, the projected growth rate for tax and accounting services over the next five years is only 1.8 percent per year! That’s not going to work for high-growth focused firms! Best practices are critical!

Attending this conference will provide you with the tools you need to achieve sustainable growth and profitability in your CPA firm. We’ll show you how to accelerate revenue from Type 1 Services – such as traditional compliance work, and Type 2 Services – or those services that are are value added and future oriented such as Wealth Management and Business Advisory.

These are the services that clients are increasingly expecting. We’ll also look at ways to “go deep” in your areas of specialty, whether that’s industry-oriented, product-oriented or both.

A deliberate and continuous marketing program is a “must have” for firms that want to grow in a competitive market place. This conference will help you build an effective marketing machine, using the latest technologies including CRM and Social Media. During the past five years, we’ve seen enormous advances in technology. Attending will make sure that you are totally up-to-date with the technology currently being used by successful firms, including the latest on:

• Document Management

• Portals

• iPhones and iPads

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

• The Cloud

• Mobile technology

In summary, we will explore the key issues that firms are dealing with and provide appropriate options and solutions to streamline your practice.

Register by May 18 and save 25% on your registration. Use code EB2020

More information.

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The Final Tax Season Joke of the Week

April 16th, 2012

Congratulations on another tax season! Here it is the final tax season joke of the week. We hope they’ve brought some much need humor into the office.

Once upon a time there was a rancher standing at the entrance to one of his pastures, full of sheep. Suddenly, a brand new SUV screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in a Brioni suit, Cerruti shoes, Ray-Ban glasses, and an YSL tie gets out and asks the rancher, “If I guess how many sheep you have, can I have one of them?”

The rancher looks at the young man, then looks at his sheep, and says: – “OK, it’s a deal.”

The young man parks his SUV, connects his notebook and his mobile, enters a NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a database and 60 excel tables filled with algorithms, then prints a 150-pages report on his high-tech mini printer. He then turns to the rancher and says: – “You have exactly 1586 sheep here.”

The rancher says, “That’s absolutely amazing. You’re right!” The young man picks up an animal and puts it in the back of his SUV. The rancher continues, “Before you go, if I can guess your profession, can I have my animal back?”

This sounds reasonable to the young man and he says, “Sure!”

The rancher says: – “You are an Arthur Andersen consultant!”

“How did you know?” asks the young man.

“Very simple,” answers the rancher, “First you came here uninvited. Second, you gave me information I already knew. Third, you know nothing about my business. Now, can I have my dog back?”

 

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Tax Season Joke of the Week

April 9th, 2012

Three candidates are short listed for a job: an economist, a mathematician and an accountant. They’re all equally qualified and personable.

So the chairman asks each the simple question “what is two and two?

“The economist replies, “Four.”

The mathematician replies, ” Statistically, it’s somewhere between 3.999 and 4.0001.”

The accountant replies, “What would you like it to be?”

 

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Not Long Now – Some Stress Management Suggestions

April 5th, 2012

With just under 2 weeks until the filing deadline stress levels are on the rise. Hopefully you’ve identified a couple of areas for improvement next year and have made a note of them to help streamline processes for future tax season. But a deadline is a deadline and stress mounts as we approach them.

I saw this on Mark Albrecht’s blog Going with the Flow and thought I’d share.

12 tips for managing your stress this tax season
Research suggests that there are a number of small things you can do to help mitigate the stress. After 35 tax seasons, I’m more than a little familiar with the job hazards caused by our profession’s annual cram session. Here are some of my favorite tips for reducing burnout.

1.  Don’t let long hours be your excuse to eat poorly – sugary snacks can leave you feeling drained of energy. A balanced diet with healthy snacks will help keep you energized. (poor diet can contribute to stress!)

2.  Resist the urge to procrastinate. Start tough assignments in the morning when you’re freshest. Even if you have to go back to complete it later in the day, it’s often easier knowing you’ve already made progress.

3.  Take frequent, timed breaks. Set your smart phone alarm to help you keep conversations to a minimum so you can stay on track (for fun, check out one of the many fake call apps).
4.  Exercise at your desk. (can’t get to the gym? shoot for a longer routine)
5.  Get outside – take a walk, go for a drive, or ride your bike to work – and soak in that vitamin D and fresh air!
6.  Stand up and stretch (even Richard Simmons has a video for that).
7.  Get organized – reducing clutter reduces stress.
8.  Reward yourself at the end of the day or the end of the week – go skiing, hiking, dine out…
9.  Meditate or practice yoga.
10. Listen to music. Bring in an iPod, or tune to a favorite radio station online. Be courteous to your colleagues if you’re in a shared space and use earbuds.
11. Laugh…read a favorite comic, keep a joke book handy, or (if permitted) watch a short clip from a favorite comedy. Laughter helps put things in perspective. You can also check out Tax Season Jokes of the Week.
12. Go digital to improve productivity and reduce overtime!
What do you do to reduce stress?
Good luck for April 17!

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Tax Season Joke of the Week

April 2nd, 2012

Once there was a millionaire, who collected live alligators. He kept them in a pool at the back of his mansion. The millionaire also had a beautiful daughter who was single.

One day he decided to throw a huge party, and during the party he announced, “My dear guests…I have a proposition for every man here. I will give my daughter or one million dollars to the first man who can swim across this pool full of alligators and come out alive!!”

As soon as he finished, there was a huge SPLASH!! There in the pool was an accountant swimming like mad. The crowd cheered him on as he kept stroking. Finally, he made it to the other side unharmed. The millionaire was suitably impressed. He said, “That was incredible! Fantastic! I didn’t think it could be done! Now, which do you prefer, my daughter or the million dollars?”

“Look, I don’t want your daughter! And I don’t want your money! I want the idiot who pushed me in!”

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