Starting a CPA firm - Page 2

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  • #187798
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Has anyone had experience with starting an accounting/CPA firm? How should an aspiring entrepreneur prepare for it? What are the challenges and difficulties? Why do so many CPAs rather work for others instead of starting their own shop?

    It seems to me the number one problem with starting a CPA firm is client acquisition. My plan is to start a firm doing mostly tax work. How should I go about avoiding the pitfalls in client acquisition and what kind of personality should I have to succeed in this endeavor?

    Also, when would be a good time to market tax service? I assume it would be 5-2 months before the filing deadline, so maybe Nov-Feb and May-July?

Viewing 7 replies - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)
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  • #590592
    h0wdyus
    Member

    @amandilee

    Yes definitely it helps. Thanks for the run down. Much appreciated. So in a nutshell, what would be per year maintenance expense for your CPA firm excluding the cost of initial setup, i.e hardware, printers etc.

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    #590593
    impska
    Member

    Super helpful, Amandilee. Bookmarked this thread for future reference.

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    #590594
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    The only fixed cost I know off the top of my head is the $1,140 per year server maintenance cost, but we also have iBackup, Symantec Endpoint Protection, Microsoft 365 that we use for email, contacts, and calendars, and I believe a few other small quarterly charges for some kind of virus protection or hosting services. I can look when I get to the office tomorrow and give you a better idea then.

    Software costs us a lot more than IT maintenance, though, that's for sure. We use QuickBooks Accountant for all of our standard monthly services (financials, payroll, etc.) and we have to buy multiple licenses each year when we upgrade. My employer and I are QuickBooks ProAdvisors, which does cost a bit but comes with one license for most of the QuickBooks products they offer and the more certifications you attain the more savings you can get on multiple licenses and licenses for your clients who need them. Not that I'm all that big of a fan of QuickBooks, but it's definitely one of the cheaper products.

    For tax prep, we currently use UltraTax CS and have used Drake in the past. I believe Drake cost around $9,000 for the year we used it but we were all very unimpressed with it so we won't be going back to that software. UltraTax cost us around $20,000 for 2010 (hence the switch to Drake for 2011), but when we came back over from Drake my employer talked the Thomson Reuters rep into giving us 2013 free with our purchase of 2012. If you'd be interested in UltraTax as your tax prep software, Thomson Reuters does offering annual financing, so it is still manageable (just overpriced in general). If it wasn't cost-prohibitive to us as a smaller firm for now, we'd likely be using Creative Solutions for everything (we did when I first started right before the recession hit). My employer, being the stereotypical definition of a CPA, is a bit obsessed with saving money and having things run smoothly as cheaply as possible (without purchasing sub-standard services or products), so I'm fairly certain our use of services and software probably cost around the same as any new CPA firm startup with a few employees that doesn't want to get into anything too expensive yet.

    #590595
    h0wdyus
    Member

    @amandilee

    Awesome info. Really gives a good insight.

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    #590596
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Would it be practicable for a start up firm to paper file taxes for the first year or two to save money? Also, when advertising a start up firm by sending out newsletters of current news items, do you have to first obtain permission from the prospective recipients or can you just send them to every business/individual you are targeting without notifying them beforehand?

    #590597

    Welcome to your new temporary career of being a salesperson. I assisted another accountant while he started up his tax/bookkeeping practice (he wasn't a CPA btw). With the timing part it was funny. We had a crafty salesman and we would both call up newly formed businesses from the local county business tax receipts for the months of Sept – Dec. and asked them if they filed their return or extension? Most said “no”, at which point we'd ask: “Would you like us to help you keep the IRS off your front porch?” to which, many said yes. As a result we hit them up on preparation fees/extension fees but included the cost of quarterly write-ups for the first two quarters of the year as an added “perk” of signing on with us. Sure, we undercut their fees on the front end but made up for it in the long term as they were continuing clients moving forward.

    "If you're going through hell, keep going"
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    #590599
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    More comments would be greatly appreciated.

Viewing 7 replies - 16 through 22 (of 22 total)
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