taxdetective-Sandusky-Register

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.

November 9th 2012 11:30 am to 1:10 pm Pacific Time

How can you qualify to attend?  Be one of the first - the first ??? you ask

One of the first 20 people to purchase my bundle of products for $250 and you'll qualify to attend a 95-100 minute workshop on report writing. Warning, you'd better purchase soon, as there's already one person on that list...it's now 6 pm October 27th...and last time I made this offer the workshop wasn't recorded for sale, and neither will this one, as that's the only way I can get people talking is to promise not to record the session. Otherwise everyone clams up. Yes, you get to ask questions in real time and no one is going to record you.  You can sign in anonymously if you like as your name does show up on the list of attendees.  Be Betty Boop if you like. They don't see your email, but if you want points for PD, you'll need to use your real name so I can verify you attended after and send you a certificate.

(The entire bundle of products retail individually for about $950 - check it out yourself, visit my shopping cart and click on every single thing in the store except the online meetings for Boot Camp and CGA's Only monthly meetings...)

I've listed everything if you don't want to bother with the pain of auditing my shopping cart.

It's taken me two years to assemble these training videos and other materials with the help of IPBC www.ipbc.ca who sponsored and hosted these workshops, and who consider me a Partner as a result.

I've posted the sample data files that accompany many of these products in my Links but you really need to watch the recorded webinars along with the sample files to really understand what it is I'm doing.  I've been told that what I've done is to answer When and Why we do record keeping, not just HOW to use the software. I like to think that I've shown you how to incorporate internal controls into QuickBooks so that you use the software safely and effectively to minimize the risk of creating a mess that requires fixing.

See my partner page if you're a member to get 50% off and yes, you still qualify to attend on November 9th...

Just click right here review the list to see what's all included in the bundle...

Have you ever wondered how you compare to others in your field?

For accountants and bookkeepers, you might find this interesting and useful if you are attempting to switch to value pricing per Ron Baker's presentations at the IPBC conference and at the CGA BC practitioners symposium in June 2012

Click here for link to section where you'll find the info

Click here for the details

thanks for the find Ralph! @stencocga

I was just speaking with John Charbonneau, a local mortgage broker. He's always coming up with cool ways to communicate about what he does and how he helps people.  Sometimes he interviews other people to help them get their message out about how they help people too. 

I always find his email marketing techniques interesting. Today he asked me to give him five questions he could ask me about how I help people. We're going to make a five minute video next week. What an interesting exercise this is already. If I asked you how you help people what would you say? Here are my answers. 

I help people to
1) learn how to take control of and plan financial matters, both personal and business
2) organize paperwork, personal and business
3) learn how personal tax credits can be documented to make a claim that reduces tax payable
4) estimate and calculate tax payable
4) figure out how the rules apply to them

Ways I help people include:

1) Providing information, for free. There's all kinds of free information on my website. It's everywhere. Under Links, My Projects, Publications...  For example, under My Projects, you'll find a student workbook about how to use TurboTax Online for free, anonymously for example that teachers can use in the classroom. I'm passionate about people's rights about the rules, and sometimes that means just getting the word out there that there's something they should know is important to me.

2) Selling products, videos, and e-books and spreadsheets, found in my shopping cart. I've been recording webinars for www.ipbc.ca for the past three years and many of these webinars were recorded for sale. IPBC gets a percentage of sales and I'm listed as a Partner on their website.

3) Online coaching or education, for example, my Boot-Camp next Tuesday Oct 30 at 11:30 am PST, using www.GoToMeeting.com you or a group, up to 25 people from anywhere, even mobile on their mobile device with an APP, view my computer screen and talk using VoIP. (Buy a headset with a mic for noise cancellation so everyone isn't listening to you rattle paper or your dog bark, and try it free for 30 days so you'll be comfortable before someone asks you to attend a meeting with them)

If you signed up for BootCamp during October and want to attend the October 30th session again, let me know and I'll send you an invitation.

If you missed it, there's a repeat session on Tuesday October 30.

The topic is personal tax credits, with a focus on infirmity as the new top up Family Caregiver Amount of $2,000 for five of the credits requires documentation of infirmity.

Infirmity is not disability. Disability isn't infirmity. Sometimes you may considered to be a person with a disability and infirm.

Click here for more info about BootCamp

and remember if you are an IPBC member, you'll find that BootCamp qualifies for 10% off on my IPBC Partner Page - please log in as a member to utilize the discounts.

CRA has rules about when you can't turn a blind eye... and if you are keeping records, this should be fair warning...      click here: Civil Penalties IC 01

I'd love to find that court case I read a few years ago now, where the judge is berating the husband because the husband is blaming his wife for not keeping the business records properly. If anyone knows which case that is, I'd love to have the name/date or if you can find it in www.canlii.org send me the link @ eileen@taxdetective.ca

It used to be that you could just hire anyone who knew keyboarding, hand them a pile of paper and say, here, enter these into the books.  You could provide a few instructions about what category to use, and there would only be a few categories.  Life was pretty simple. Those days are gone.  Every time I turn around, on my TaxDetective forum for members of www.ipbc.ca, a member wants to know how to deal with something new and different.  Last week it was Holdbacks, this week it's Banked Over-Time. Or it's coupons, gift certificates, discount codes... and always, there's the law, not just tax, all the laws.

Today's bookkeeper has to be pretty sophisticated and street wise. They almost need a law degree to record transactions because they have to interpret transactions in light of laws like Income Tax, Payroll, Trusts, Estates, the Public Trustee Act, Excise Tax, WorkSafe, Employment Standards, Import/Export rules plus they have to contend with accounting rules set out in the CICA Handbook.

What's cool is that today, most of those laws are online. More and more of them are available at www.canlii.org and if you haven't been there recently, review the laws and read some court cases, from various courts.

Record keeping for income taxes can at times be the subject of court cases, at the Tax Court level, and sometimes they go to Appeals and on to the Supreme Court. 

This case I can't find, the one with the husband who hired his wife, who knew nothing about keeping records and then blamed her in a court in this land. The judge didn't buy it.  He told that owner/manager to hire appropriately qualified persons to handle the record keeping and told him that it wasn't the wife's fault and that it was totally inappropriate of him to require his wife to provide this service. I wonder how the wife fared after the trial. I often think of her and wonder.

Today's bookkeeper is very special. Many bookkeepers have studied accounting, and tax, and are often just a few courses shy of a designation when life gets in the way and they start a business instead of completing their designation.

If you hire a bookkeeper, make sure you treat them well! They deserve your respect, support and admiration. It isn't easy keeping it all straight and on the up and up.

1. Change the Default Accrual box from Sick to BOT and record the beginning hours of BOT in each employee's Accrual for BOT.
2. Edit the Payroll Item: BOT Hourly Rate to point to a new liability account BOT Payable
3. Create another Payroll Item for Overtime Hours and post the overtime hours to this Item on the time sheet..
4. Make an entry to post the accrual for BOT Payable by employee in the register to increase the opening liability account for each employee, recording it to Opening Bal Equity or expensing it, if it wasn't previously set up as a liability.
5. Edit the pay cheque to reduce the gross pay by posting negative hours to the BOT Hourly Rate item directly on the paycheque. This will adjust all of the withholding amounts on that pay cheque.
6. Pay the BOT later by recording hours to be paid to BOT Hourly Wage Item either on a time sheet or directly to the subsequent pay cheque to increase the amount paid and reduce the BOT Payable. The correct amount of withholdings should appear.