Does my CPA have to be local?
In the ultra-connected world we live in, our advisors can be all over. We don’t need to have our financial representative down the street, an insurance agent a few floors up or an accountant toiling away in the back room.
With the increased work from anywhere capacity that the cloud brings to businesses, productivity isn’t limited to just face to face contact. As a centrally located Belleville, IL CPA, my clients aren’t limited to just those who can stop by my office. Using tools to work together from anywhere, my clients are from all over, we can work on taxes in the cloud, virtual accounting, and make business decisions online with GoToMeeting.
The question to ask yourself isn’t whether you need a local CPA, it’s whether your CPA is equipped and savvy enough to work from afar. If you have the internet (and you clearly do, because you are here reading this) you have the capacity to have a virtual CPA. If you are in New York City, Chicago, or LA, do you really want to pay local high prices for bookkeeping and tax service? Would you be willing to Skype with your CPA to save money by having a highly qualified CPA based in a lower cost region? Many of the available accounting software suites available to small businesses now offer online/cloud solutions. Xero, FreshBooks and QuickBooks Online are just a few.
If you are reading this and saying to yourself, “I’m not ready for a cloud accountant” or “Those software suites are too immature to handle the specific demands of my industry”, don’t worry! Cloud based accounting software is just one way to have an off site accountant. Through file transfers, GoToMyPC, email, etc. you can build a company that has advisers off premise, but available to you using a software package you are comfortable with.
While nothing is ever perfect, there are systems and checklists to put into place in order to have constant contact and ensure that you are getting the information you need from your CPA in a timely manner and that your CPA is getting the necessary information from you as well!
Comments (1)
To all real estate owners, small or large, it is not worth it to do your taxes yourself unless you really educate yourself. I have a new client who has one rental property. They had their property under contract for sale before contacting me, not realizing that they would have a tax bill of $20K. They had not been depreciating their property so $8K of that was 1250 depreciation recapture that they never benefited from. They are able to do a 1031 exchange and defer the gain and corresponding tax but the service of a CPA over the 10 years they rented the property would be much cheaper than the tax mistakes made. You are probably not "saving" money by doing it yourself.
Jered Souder, over 7 years ago