In December 2017 the U.S. passed a comprehensive tax reform package focused on supporting U.S. investments and the repatriation of foreign profits. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) lowered the corporate federal tax rate from 35 to 21 percent and made significant changes as to how foreign generated income would be taxed going forward. The TCJA enacted a “territorial” tax system and at the same time introduced provisions aimed to prevent U.S. companies from shifting profits...
By Louann Cassano
Feel like your accountant is speaking another language? We won’t make you feel that way. Here are some common accounting terms to help you sound like an accounting pro:
The Balance Sheet is the financial statement that includes your assets, liabilities and equity. Assets always equal Liabilities plus Equity.
Income Statement (also known as the P&L) is the financial statement that includes your sales and expenses. The expenses are subtracted from sales to arrive...
By Lisa Calick, Carolyn Hall, Floriana Allen, and Laura Melville
The end of the year can be busy for many companies. While December brings holiday parties and end-of-year celebrations, business owners should be mindful to make sure their HR and payroll departments are on top of timely actions in order to ensure a smooth transition into the New Year. This checklist will help you get a jumpstart on your year-end planning.
Human Resources
Review your employees’ data to make sure...
Its intentions are good, but the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) can have a negative effect on non-profit organizations in at least a couple ways. We’ll take a look at how one of the new provisions of the TCJA complicates the provision of what might be a much-needed benefit for some of your employees.
Disallowed Benefits
The IRS explains the tax code change, known as section 512(a)(7), under the heading “Increase in unrelated business taxable income by disallowed fringe.” This...
By Carolyn Hall, CPA, MBA
Business owners with an entrepreneurial spirit welcome growth without necessarily focusing on the bottom line. MSO and DSO professionals who own and operate medical and dental service organizations that are experiencing patient gains and revenue growth can often lose sight of the details that go into back-end processes.
Your accounting system can be your first and most visible sign of trouble. When billing is slow or error-filled, processes are broken, locations...
By Carolyn Hall, CPA, MBA
Updated 7/29/2019. In my last blog post, we covered how a business process review is a great tool to determine what processes can be improved upon in your medical service organization (MSO) or dental service organization (DSO). One of the most common outcomes of a BPR is a company elects to onboard an outsourced accounting firm.
With this post, let’s explore the value-added benefits of such a relationship.
An outsourced accounting firm with experience in...
Is your wallet stuffed with business receipts that you just don’t have time to organize? Do you dread preparing expense reports? Does your bookkeeper spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down those tiny pieces of paper and explanations from salespeople in far-flung regions? How often do your employees feel cheated out of reimbursement because they lost proof of valid expenditures?
In other words, is your business still being held hostage to the dreaded paper receipt? It needn’t...
The last thing your company or organization wants is unreliable financial statements. Your partners, investors, lenders and especially your company’s bottom line depend on numbers from your accounting department that you can comprehend and trust.
To minimize the potential for errors, make sure that the following criteria are met when reporting your numbers:
Balance Sheet
Asset accounts should have debit balances and liability accounts should have credit balances.
As long as your...
By Angelique Zitz, CPA
One of the most common causes of chronic problems in accounting departments is having the wrong people on board – or the right people in the wrong positions. In other words, things can go terribly wrong when the education, work experiences and career trajectories of your personnel do not match up with your expectations.
With that in mind, here are some of the ideal minimum requirements for business process optimization you should look for under most circumstances...
By Diana Miller, CPA
The Importance of Annual Budgets for Nonprofit Organizations
Sometimes the importance of writing and maintaining realistic annual budgets is not always understood -but it’s imperative for a number of reasons. For one thing, the document might find more interested readers than you suspect.
Who Cares?
Let’s start with your co-workers. Staffers need to know when funds will be available, or whether belt-tightening might soon begin (or continue). Your budget will...
