CPA Financial Advisory Services

It is that time of year to complete year end planning for your organization. The fourth quarter for most firms is always the best time to implement these changes to obtain the goals desired at the onset of the year. Listed below is a listing of topics to be considered at year end to determine if you are satisfied with the prior three quarters of results or desire change in results: 1) Reconcile accounts (e.g., bank accounts, A/R, A/P, partner basis, etc.), 2) Review financial reports, 3) Analyze cash flow, 4) Review PY tax returns and pro-forma CY tax returns then accrue liability, 5) Reflect on the prior three quarters and review 2023 goals, 6) Identify goals not obtained and reasoning behind any shortcomings, 7) Consider further staffing needs and identify incentives available, 8) Draft 2024 goals and strategy, 9) Review 3Q23 budget to actuals and draft 2024 budget, then 10) Evaluate and improve leadership. Area such as these can greatly improve the firm's chances of success when...

I was asked this morning how do I track my real estate license education.  A s a real estate broker, I track my continuing education (CE) credits through a combination of an Excel spreadsheet, CE vendor tracking of the courses completed and the state’s commission website of licensure.   The Excel spreadsheet I use is centered around license expiration date and each state’s required training subjects.   Subjects such as license law or ethics training are imposed to ensure real estate licensees are appropriately trained in subjects to protect certain classes of the public.   I arrived at this system of tracking CE’s during the pandemic when I could not attend in person trainings.   During this time, I had the opportunity to research different CE vendors who had various topic options I was interested in.   One vendor for example, The CE Shop, offered multiple state CE’s where some of the credits I completed were compatible with the other states I am licensed...

Nea rly 1.5 million taxpayers across the nation have unclaimed refunds for tax year 2019 but face a July 17th deadline to submit their tax return. The COVID Pandemic, which resulted in the Nation being shut down during the 2019 tax filing deadline resulted in outstanding tax returns being forgotten.  For 2019, t he average median refund outstanding is $893. As mentioned in IRS Issue Number IR-2023-79 , the IRS has done a state-by-state calculation to display how many taxpayers are potentially eligible for the unclaimed refunds.  The top 10 states who have refunds outstanding are listed as follows: No. State Individuals Avg. Refund Potential Refund 1 Texas 135,300 $924 $142,235,200 2 California 144,700 $856 $141,780,000 3 Florida 89,300 $893 $89,530,400 4 ...