1) You book a bookkeeping/accounting/tax diagnostic with one of our Accounting Managers. He/She will look at your current accounting, past tax returns, ask a few questions about your needs/goals, and answer any immediate questions that you might have that are “answerable”.
2) Your Accounting Manager will send you a list of immediate items you need in order to catch-up and/or get ready for me to have a tax planning discussion with me. It’s possible that if your QuickBooks it’s a mess or needs some professional clean-up work, he will propose that work as well. If Alex needs you to submit documents, he will send you a link to our portal to upload the files to.
3) Your Account Manager will also send me (Hector Garcia, CPA) a summary of the findings from your diagnostic and your conversation via e-mail and I will chime in with some pertinent/immediate advice and/or questions related to tax/corporate structure
4) After you answer the additional questions I send (if necessary), you will get a quote for Tax Return preparation for 2021 tax year. We will also send a subsequent quote for Monthly/Quarterly Bookkeeping Services and/or Quarterly Tax Advice for 2022
5) After you accept the proposal/price, we will schedule a review/strategy session (you and I) to revise the completed 2021 Financial Statements that were adjusted/revised/cleaned up by Alex so I can prepare the return based on our conversation. I will send you a link to a portal for you to upload any additional documents if needed
6) I will prepare your tax return and send it electronically for signature
7) Depending in the type of engagement, we might talk again quarterly, semi-annually, or maybe early 2022 depending on how much involvement you will need from us
Once you have agreed to pay for the $375 Diagnostic Service (explained here) this is what the next process looks like:
The initial diagnostic is $375 and it’s applicable to your final bill if you are quoted $1,000 or more for any services we offer you. Our average customer pays between $2,500 and $5,000 per year for help with their books and tax returns. Some businesses are more complex and require a lot of periodic advice from us, Those pay upwards of $60k per year for services. it all depends on your business needs.
It is not guaranteed that we can take you as a client even after you paid the diagnostic, because there are cases where we have not been compatible and/or best fit to help with the specific needs.
However, it is our commitment that the review and conversation had during the Diagnostic service renders sufficient value for you to go shop services with another firm with the best possible preparation on your part. This is the case with about 1/3 of inquiries for new clients where we decline to take the new client in OR the new clients themselves decline to work with us (because of price/value or other reasons). We find this approach the best for both parties before making a big commitment into engaging in a long term relationship; the small business owner + CPA firm relationship could be very fruitful for both parties only when is the right fit, we all have different styles and expectations towards our business relationships.
In many of those cases, potential clients end up hiring us strictly for a short-term TRAINING/CONSULTING services so they can themselves manage their books/taxes internally or with another firm that is better fit for them… We are also comfortable with this arrangement when it makes more sense.