HOUSTON BUSINESS REVIEW

Getting the Most from Your CPA, The Fourth in a Series
By Gary Cooper

GARY N. COOPER, C.P.A., C.V.A., is managing partner of Cooper, Bergman & Company, L.L.P., certified public accountants which was formed in 1991, assisting small businesses and individuals with accounting, consulting and income tax planning and compliance. Services provided include medical practice consulting, business valuation, assistance with buy/sell transactions, development and implementation of policies and procedures, accounting services and tax compliance and planning. The Company has offices in Plano and Houston, Texas.

If you are using your CPA as a mere bean counter you are not getting the most of your money or that important relationship. Your CPA should have the knowledge, skills, and background to help in business financial services, estate planning, management consulting, financial planning services, and small business services. In the next several weeks we will review each of these areas and how you can make the most of that CPA relationship. If you don’t feel your CPA fulfills these objectives, feel free to contact me.

Management Consulting – CPAs should play a vital role in assisting businesses make better use of their resources and increase effectiveness and bottom line results.  Some of the services that should be performed for you are as follows:

1. Determining if your entity structures are appropriate for liability purposes and to minimize the payment of State and Federal taxes.
2. Consult with the IT professionals as information systems are being set up that specifically meet your company’s needs.
3. Assist with the budgeting and forecasting process to facilitate management’s future decisions and analyze your existing plans and recommend changes more tailored to management’s business direction.
4. Analyze your existing operations and make recommendations to increase efficiency and effectiveness and also make recommendations for structure changes and job functionalities.
5. Assist with instituting a corporate planning process to control your current operations, manage risk, establish attainable goals, ultimately that should increase cash flow and market share.
6. Assist with establishing plans that should allow your business to improve the use of its resources, increase efficiency, and create a more effective process.
7. Assist with establishing an info structure to allow for compliance with government regulations.

Next week I will review financial planning services.