TAX2613. How To Align Your Bookkeeper and Tax Accountant for Financial Success

It’s no secret that the relationship between bookkeepers and CPAs is often tense – but does it need to be that way?

Instead of throwing the financial statements "over the wall”, let’s create common ground by collaborating throughout the year. We’ll learn to leverage technology and build systems to share information at the time it’s most actionable – rather than only at tax-time, when the pressure’s on and it’s too late to address certain types of issues. Highly-skilled and educated bookkeepers can go a long way toward solving the pipeline crisis as well as closing the tax gap.

Be inspired to establish a workflow that effectively communicates a) who is responsible for what; b) whether or not a task is complete; and c) where the source documents can be found. This process (whether internally at a CAS practice or between firms) can replace the proverbial wall between practitioners with a workflow accessible to everyone.

Who wins when we tear down the wall? CPAs, Bookkeepers, and most of all – our clients.

Learning Objectives:

• Address the most common pain-points between bookkeepers and tax pros to minimize common accounting issues, such as: posting into prior periods, negative Balance Sheet items, W-2 and 1099 information return reconciliations, and personal expenses hidden in the Profit & Loss.
• Learn tips & tricks for establishing effective workflows, processes and communication between tax professionals and bookkeepers.
• Explore strategies for involving the client as a participant on the accounting team.
• Develop solutions for the CPA pipeline by involving non-traditional talent to alleviate the tax pro workload; better understand what bookkeepers and CAS practitioners don’t already know (and why) and how you can help level up their skills.