Your accountant hopes you find someone else to talk to...

I have that on good authority. I hosted a panel on adding value at the IPBC conference last month, and that was Jeff MacFarlane's message. Jeff is a CA from Medicine Hat. Jeff hopes bookkeepers will step up to act as go-between between him and his clients. Why? He loves the technical work, and people interaction takes away from his ability to focus on the technical stuff that he loves. There's only so many hours in the day. There are exceptions though. Not everyone feels that way, or do they?

Accountants want your work, the technical work that is, but they really, secretly wish you'd find someone else to tell your story to, and to ask your questions, and definitely, they want you to show up organized already. They figure most questions could or should be answered by someone else, for example your bookkeeper. But what if you don't have anyone to ask? Can you at least organize your information to minimize the time it would take to communicate everything the accountant or other professional needs to know?

Take me for example, I love the client interview process.  In fact, if you don't agree to the initial three hour interview along with your significant other, which by the way, you pay for, I won't even consider you as a client. The thought of planning to spend three hours with you, I love that part of what I do, more than doing the work even, but it horrifies accountants like Jeff. Intake and the exit interviews should be no more than ten minutes on either end, less, if possible. That shocks me, but then I'm me, not them...and I'm looking for what they haven't thought to tell me that could bite.

So I've come up with a way to help out accountants like Jeff, and other professionals, like lawyers, notaries, etc. to cut down on the amount of time have to spend with you, and if you take over someone else's finances, like your parents, or a sibling or a friend down the street, this is a great way to gather the information you'll need to convey to the professionals you'll hire. 

At a legal workshop I attended in January we were advised of new rules in BC for assumption of Power of Attorney. The lawyer or notary has to advise you of what accounts, assets and liabilities you are to be responsible for when you assume the role. So you'd need what I've created, not just for the accountant, but for the Lawyer, Notary, Power of Attorney, Representative or the Executor of your Last Will and Testament.

That's why I've written it all down, the questions to answer. In part, it's because I need to give my husband something to work with if I'm no longer competent or dead and he has to hire a new accountant. His only other alternative is to hang out at CGA conventions to find a new wife. Recently CGA BC required me to advise them of who my husband's 'Assisting Accountant' will be. I need to hire such a person ahead of time, or CGA BC has declared they will step in should something happen to me, and my husband will have to pay someone he may not know to deal with my business affairs, and file my tax returns. Dead or wounded accountants need accountants to wrap up their affairs. It's complicated.

So, I used Microsoft Word, which has a fillable forms functionality. You may wonder why there's pages in the book about who you know. Everyone has neighbours or relatives who snoop. Now you have a way to communicate about who not to talk to, as well as who to include.

To develop this little booklet, I paid someone over $300 to create the forms in both 2003 and 2007 versions of Word. I can even convert it from a Word file easily into a "Pages" file for an Apple computer or an iPAD.

I know you're thinking about what to give your clients, your family, your accountant, Power of Attorney, Executor, lawyer, notary for Christmas or whatever your annual celebration may be.  Last year, several clients, one of them was my cousin, and a bookkeeper purchased multiple copies to gift to their family and to clients. That's where I got this idea from.

So if you're shopping early for Christmas, I've got the perfect solution, purchase a one time license to distribute up to 1000 copies for $10.00. Yes, that's a penny per copy for those who need a calculator.  (I did...)

Click here as this offer is only good until midnight on November 3 2012. (that's when the clock falls back...)

This item is not included in the bundle price of $250 for everything else in my shopping cart, which also expires midnight November 3.