Rodman & Rodman, P.C.

Consistency – The cornerstone of the brand experience

by Kevin Hart, Principal – Hart-Boillot Advertising & Marketing – Newton, MA

Branding

The words “brand” or “branding” leave most folks scratching their heads. In a nutshell, the term brand denotes the perception(s) held by an individual or a demographic group about your company, product, service or you. “Branding” are the activities you undertake to ensure that individuals acquire and maintain the perception you’d like them to have. For instance, you may want your company to be thought of as professional, courteous and offering a good product at a good price. Or, you may wish to be seen as exclusive, high quality and high priced. Appropriate and consistent branding activities, in conjunction with your company’s regular work, will yield the desired perception with your target audiences.

I hope that makes sense to you. My wife read that paragraph and still had questions. If you find yourself confused or curious, email me and I’ll try to help: khart@hartboillot.com

At Hart-Boillot, we help many companies build their brands, using many strategies and activities. I’m asked frequently how best to build a strong brand. Consistency is the cornerstone of any brand development.

-        Use your logo consistently – color, size, position, quality

-        Develop a consistent tone for your messaging – inspirational, serious, humorous

-        Place ads consistently – same size, position, art direction, frequency

-        Don’t change your story – tell it over and over again, the same way each time

-        Treat your customers and your employees consistently

-        Deliver your product or service consistently

Consistency can overcome the impressions created by unsophisticated graphics, unpolished messaging and boring story telling. Be consistent and you’ve got a fighting chance at having people experience and believe what you hope they will. Be inconsistent, and they won’t even know what you do.

Hart-Boillot can be found on the web at http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=e7ql8ecab.0.n4se4ecab.sipjyxbab.752&ts=S0278&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hartboillot.com%2F or by calling 781-893-0053

Rodman helps build a future for families in need

Habitat

On September 17th, the team of Rodman & Rodman joined Habitat for Humanity’s fight to eliminate homelessness and poverty housing across the world.  Founded in 1976, Habitat is a non-profit organization operating in 90 countries including all 50 states.  Their goal is simple – to give low income families the opportunity and dignity of owning a home.

Many people have the misconception that Habitat is a “give away” program.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  The whole program is based on the caring and generosity of people who donate their time, building materials, money, and energy to build a house from the ground up.  Homeowners are selected by a Habitat family selection committee based on their level of need.  Once chosen, the home is sold to the family at no profit and with a no interest mortgage usually lasting between 7-30 years.  The money paid by the family goes into erecting another home for another deserving family.  Homeowners are also required to put in hundreds of hours of their own labor to help build their house.  The Rodman team (pictured above) worked on a home located in Braintree, MA.  We completed several key tasks including erecting walls and support for the outside of the house.  We had an excellent time stepping away from calculators and taxes and picking up hammers and saws, all for a great cause!

To find out how you can help please contact:
Elisabeth Garner
South Shore Habitat for Humanity
resourcedev@sshabitat.org
(781) 843-9080  x13

Direct  Mail Advertising

by Lynn L’Heureux- Administrative Services Team – Rodman & Rodman
direct mail
* Unless you stay in bed with the covers pulled up over your head, your day is constantly bombarded with businesses trying to push their products and services on you.  Just driving to work confronts you with several sales pitches – ads on the radio, billboards and store signs along the street, the clever slogan on the truck driving next to you, and so forth.  The Internet has opened a whole new ball game with regard to advertising and many feel discouraged trying to compete with this medium. With all of this going on, the question arises – Does direct mail advertising still work? The short answer is ‘yes.’ For small business in particular, a well conceived direct mail campaign has a lot of advantages over the myriad of other alternatives. Those advantages include:
* Targetability: You can choose the customer you want to reach in the market of your choice.  If you find the response rate in a particular market is not working, you can change your focus very quickly.
* Personability:  It is a more intimate experience for the customer because your marketing piece can address them by name and you can craft the message to appeal to their specific needs and interests.
* Measurability:  It is not a guessing game if your marketing campaign is effective.  You can track the response rate accurately and change your plan according to these results.
* Tangibility & Predictability:  You are using a predictable vehicle to deliver your message – the U.S. postal service – and you can be certain that people will see your mail piece.  They can also refer to the material as often as needed.
* Cost Effective: You can adjust the quantity and complexity of your campaign to accommodate your ever changing marketing budget.  Your advertising budget is better utilized because you are targeting the niche markets you want to reach.  As with targetability, unresponsive leads can be deleted from your mailing list quickly and easily.
* Timeliness:  Designing, printing, and mailing can be completed according to your marketing plan.  Printers handle large volumes of pieces and can usually give your company an accurate time frame for when your printing job will be completed.  If you choose not to use a designer for your pieces and you are rushing to meet a deadline, you can design a simple piece without all the fancy text and frills.  If done right, even though the piece is simple, you can still convey your message effectively.

Roger Homan, co-owner of United Coupons, has an insider’s point of view about why direct mail still works:  “The features and benefits of our company are a return on investment. All clients need to know whatever they are going to invest into their marketing, they need a tangible return, others need targeted areas saturated, shelf life for their ad, cost effectiveness or just exposure.  Whatever the clients’ immediate needs are, direct mail can be the solution.  A client may want a high end brochure, pamphlet or flyer. This can all be handled with a solo mailing program. Trying to reach new consumers who just moved into the neighborhood?  United Coupons has recently started a direct mail New Movers Program.” Direct mail providers such as United Coupons have become much more sophisticated in helping you reach your targeted audience. For many small businesses, direct mail still may be the best route to go!

For further information, feel free to contact Roger Homan of United Coupons at:
617-698-5651
homanent@comcast.net
Understanding Financial Statements Seminar Set  For Tuesday, October 16th
invite

Understanding and Analyzing My Financial Statements
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Rodman & Rodman Offices
Complimentary Breakfast

The balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows are basic financial statements. They tell the story in numbers as to how the business did and where it stands.

Larry Rice, Director of Strategic Consulting will walk you through these statements, unlocking the mystery surrounding your financials and show you what really matters. There is a wealth of information in your statements. You just have to know where it is and how to use it. Larry will provide you the valuable insight that will make your financials valuable tools for you.

Don’t get trapped into thinking that your profit (or loss) line is all that matters. About 68% of all small business failures result from poor financial management. Good financial management means having timely, meaningful financials that you understand and can use to help you run your business. For anyone who has struggled to find the meaning in their numbers, this is an event that you won’t want to miss.

There is no cost or obligation to attend.  This program is provided as an educational opportunity for the clients and friends of Rodman & Rodman. We encourage you to attend and participate. Please contact Jen Reading at 617.965.5959 to register.  You may also reach Jen by email at jen@rodmancpa.com.
Rodman & Rodman Adds Three To The Team!

JennSarahLeah

Rodman & Rodman is proud to announce the recent addition of three new members to its team:

Sarah Dwyer – Business Services Team

Sarah (middle) joined the Rodman & Rodman team in September of 2007.  She graduated in May of 2007 from Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI with a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting.  Along with her studies in accounting, she was also a three year starter on the varsity basketball team at Roger Williams.  While in college, she spent two summers doing a full-time internship in the corporate accounting department at Liberty Mutual in Boston.  Her future plans are to pursue a Master’s degree and CPA certification.

Sarah is from Providence, RI and chose to come to Boston to follow in her sister’s footsteps as an accounting professional in the Boston area.  In her free time she enjoys spending time with friends and family, especially her nephew. Being from the Ocean State, she spends most of her summer at the beach. She also enjoys playing basketball and cheering on the Boston teams, particularly Tom Brady and the Patriots.

Leah Schlegelmilch – Business Services Team

Leah (right) joined the Rodman & Rodman Team in September of 2007. She will be a graduate of Fitchburg State College as of December 2007 receiving a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with a concentration in both accounting and management.  She looks forward to becoming a certified public accountant in the near future.

Leah is a Massachusetts native and one of few people who look forward to those brutal cold New England winters.  In her free time Leah is an avid reader, a bit of a political guru, and enjoys most anything outdoors.  She also loves dancing, snowboarding, and traveling.

Jennifer Marini – Administrative Services Team

Jenn (left) joined the Rodman & Rodman Team in August of 2007 and is likely to be the first voice you hear when you call the office or the first person you’ll meet if you come in for a visit. Jenn is a native of Waltham and graduated from Westfield State College in 2004 with a liberal arts degree. Part of attaining her degree included a semester working for Walt Disney World in Orlando in the attractions.

Jenn considers herself to be a huge Boston sports fan. In her free time she likes to play soccer and enjoys spending time with her fiancé, family and friends and is now planning her wedding for October, 2008!

The warm weather is upon us and New England is alive with the sounds of the vacation season.

Even though summer is in full swing, and yes we do take vacations too, we remain busy here at Rodman & Rodman serving our clients in a variety of ways. In this months issue, we have asked two guest writers to share their expertise on the issues of SBA loans and sales strategy.  We hope you enjoy our July offering.

As always, your feedback is requested and appreciated. Let us know how we’re doing. If there is a topic or issue you’d like covered, let us know and we will do our best to accommodate.

On with The Rodman Report!

In This Issue
SBA Loans
Stop Cold Calling
QuickBooks Tips
Fall Seminar Series
Join our Mailing List!
The Rodman Report Archive
Upcoming Events
Our Website
SBA 504 Loans – An Attractive Financing Alternative
by Robert Leonard – Business Services Team – Rodman & Rodman
SBA

Small and medium-sized businesses often require a finance resource in order to take the necessary steps toward growth.  Businesses  are often hampered by a lack of sufficient capital to fund growth through its own means or conventional sources.  In addition, the rising cost of money can leave uncertainty as to a company’s fixed costs over a long period of time.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s 504 program provides a unique opportunity for small businesses looking to finance fixed assets, such as machinery, equipment, real estate and improvements.  These loans include such advantages as a low down payment (10%), longer repayment terms, and a fixed interest rate that is typically lower than the market’s.  Eligible companies include any for-profit company with a net worth of $7.5  million or less and an average net profit of less than $2.5 million over the last 2 fiscal years.  The size of these loans ranges from $250,000 and up.

Typically, these loans are structured as follows:

·       10% down due from the borrower (although there are opportunities to obtain financing with 0% down).

·       50% financed by a conventional bank.

·       40% financed through a CDC (Certified Development Corporation) who creates a SBA guaranteed, and subordinated, debenture.

The structure of these loans makes loaning money much more attractive to any bank, due to the bank’s low loan-to-value ratio, and the obvious security of the SBA guarantee on 40% of the total financed funds.

At Rodman & Rodman we have had the opportunity to work with New England Certified, a CDC Company who provides such loans, in addition to solving many other financing issues businesses typically run into.  They are currently the only company offering a premium 504 loan program, with additional benefits available on borrowings of $750,000 and up.  New England Certified is headquartered in Wakefield, MA, doing business throughout the New England area.  If you are interested in this loan program, please call or email your main contact at Rodman & Rodman, or Robert Leonard (bob@rodmancpa.com) to arrange a meeting with NE Certified.  If you would like to contact NE Certified directly, feel free to call Liz Trifone at 781-928-1100, extension 102, or email her at etrifone@newengland504.com.

Why Make Cold Calls If You Don’t Have To?

by Scott Robbins – Next Level, Inc.
cold call

As the Managing Director of Small & Emerging Firms for a sales advisory firm, I tend to do a lot of work with the owners and presidents of, well you guessed it, small & emerging companies.  There are clearly many challenges that someone who runs a small to medium sized company faces including wearing way too many hats.  That being said, whether they are a professional services firm or an actual sales-driven organization (and everywhere in between), filling the pipeline with consistent, real opportunities is an ongoing challenge.  The best way to do that is by building a rock-solid referral building system.  The days of “build it and they will come” are long gone.  Sure if you do a good job, eventually you may get some calls inquiring about your products or services, but the question is: Are you building a referral system and being proactive in getting fruitful introductions and referrals consistently?

May I suggest that you think about this…

Most people in business hate cold calls, but unfortunately they have to make some version of them. If salespeople/business owners see cold calling as the only way to get business, most of those same salespeople will eventually get out of the business and business owners will eventually go out of business. Cold calling is a killer. Think about it: you are calling on people who would rather not see you or talk to you. And if they do talk to you, they want the information first, fast and free. They might not even be nice about it. This is not to say you should stop making cold calls! However, you should develop a prospecting system that gives you at least five different ways to obtain business besides cold calling. Build a referral and introduction system so that cold calls are not forever!

Scott Robbins is the Managing Director of Small & Emerging Firms at Next Level, Inc., an affiliate of the Sandler Sales Institute. Scott’s focus is helping companies with challenges as they relate to sales in these three areas:  People, Process and Pipeline. Scott can be reached at 508-553-8844 or by email at srobbins@nextlevelinc.com. Rodman & Rodman has referred several of our clients to Next Level over the years with excellent results. Rodman & Rodman is also a client and has been for ten years.

More Tips For QuickBooks

by Kathy Parker – Business Services Team – Rodman & Rodman

QuickBooksI am back again this month with some more QuickBooks tricks, time-savers and hopefully some worthwhile advice regarding your use of QuickBooks. If you have come up with a shortcut or special trick or tip you’d like to share with our readers, please email me at kathy@rodmancpa.com and I will be happy to post it in a future newsletter and am thrilled to give you all the credit. We have literally hundreds of users of QuickBooks who receive this newsletter, so any input from you is greatly appreciated. So here are some tips for this month:

* Closing all those windows: Often when I get going in a bunch of different areas in QuickBooks, I find myself with a dozen open windows. Going to each window and closing it was a pain until I remembered that there is a quick Windows-based remedy: Simply click on Window up on the menu bar and then click on “Close all” and voila! All the windows close up in one shot and your screen is uncluttered again.
* Calculator shortcut: For those of you who need the calculator when working in a register, you can just tap the = key and the calculator will pop up for you to help you breakdown split transactions or for any variety of reasons.
* Using the history button: The history button is a neat little thing that shows you all the transactions related to the one you are viewing. For example, if you are viewing a vendors invoice, you simply click on the history button, and if the invoice has been paid, all of the payment details will be reflected on the screen.  So when a given transaction has a bit of a story attached to it, I find that by clicking the history button, I can quickly get a picture of the entire story at one time.
* Make “finding” quicker: The “find” function is a nice QuickBooks function that helps you locate a transaction that you have lost somewhere in QuickBooks (by mis-dating, wrong amount, etc.). I encourage you to make the find function move quicker by including as much as you know about the transaction, including the amount, date and transaction type. Obviously, you may not know one of these and that is the problem, but put in as much information as you do know to avoid a long wait. Another way to find something you are specifically looking for that is contained in a large report is to export the report to Excel and use the <ctl>+F  function which is the Excel function for finding data and I often find it searches better than QuickBooks can for what I am looking for.

See you next time with some more QuickBooks tips!

Fall Seminar Series Schedule Set

invite
We have finalized plans for the Fall seminar series. We are excited to have some excellent guest speakers and topics.  All of our seminars are free to any client or friend of Rodman & Rodman. Each seminar will begin at 7:30 a.m. and will conclude at 9 a.m. We also will provide breakfast. These seminars are no charge and are presented to assist our clients in running their businesses more profitably and more enjoyably. Here is the schedule:

* Tuesday, September 18th – Surviving The Cost Of College
* Tuesday, October 16th – Understanding & Analyzing My Financial Statements
* Thursday, November 15th – Sales / Business Development 101 – You May Be Surprised!
* Thursday, December 13th – 16 Ways To Improve The Value of a Business

In order to attend any seminar, you must reigister by call Jen Reading at Rodman & Rodman. Jen can be reached at 617.965.5959 or by email at jen@rodmancpa.com. We suggest early registration as attendance is strictly limited.

New Tax Law Highlights

The President just signed into law the Small Business & Work Opportunity Act of 2007. Though not as expansive as recent tax laws, there are some key provisions that we’d like our clients and friends to be aware of:

* The most publicized change is the increase to the federal minimum wage, which will gradually increase from $5.15 to $7.25 over the next three years.
* The Section 179 election that permits small businesses to expense up to $100,000 of purchases of qualifying property has been increased to $125,000 effective for 2007. The phaseout level has also been increased, from $450,000 to $500,000.
* The 2006 law that taxes children under 18 who have more than $1,700 in unearned income at the parent’s tax rate has been expanded further to include all children under 19, and under 24 if a full-time student. This provision seriously curtails the movement of income producing assets to children as a tax minimization strategy.
* Other changes include the expansion of certain work opportunity tax credits, simplification of taxation of unincorporated family businesses and the extension of many Gulf Opportunity Zone relief provisions.

Please give us a call if you have questions about the possible impact of these changes on your income tax situation.

More QuickBooks Shortcuts

by Kathy Parker

Last month I shared some keyboard shortcuts for entering and working with dates in QuickBooks.Using date shortcuts is an easy way to save time, especially when you have a lot of data to enter at one time. This month, I will give you some other keyboard shortcuts that I think you will find to be most helpful. I find these shortcuts to be particularly helpful for those who work with QuickBooks on a laptop computer.

The first two I’d like to share are for when you are working in any of the various registers that exist in QuickBooks. I find that often I need to get to the first or last entry in a given register. To do this quickly press:
Home, Home, Home  and you will go the first entry in the register. As you might have guessed:
End, End, End  will take you to the last entry in the register

If you want to edit a transaction  already entered:
<ctl> + e  and you are in edit mode for the selected transaction

Often when I am entering transactions, I realize I made a mistake of some sort in a previous field. To move backward without having to use the mouse:
<shift> + <tab>  and you will move back one field. Keep tapping the tab key to continue moving back one field.

The last keyboard shortcut can quickly give you important information about your company file:
<ctl> + 1  and you will get a lot of useful information about your QuickBooks version, the software license and number of licenses, status of audit trail, and other useful information.

For those who like to use the keyboard, I have found that the functions above along with the date shortcuts I gave you last month are the shortcuts that are easiest and more effective. See you next month with more QuickBooks tricks and tips!

Having A Great Business Culture

by Larry Rice

culture
Perhaps the toughest part of building a sensational business is creating and maintaining a great business culture. What do I mean by that? Your “culture” is what it feels like to be a customer of, or an employee of your business. You may be able to tell me the steps a customer goes through to buy your product or service, but can you tell me what the customer “experiences” when they buy? Do they feel good about it? Are they impressed by how they were dealt with? It is the culture of your business that gets the raving fans who shop again and again with you. It is the culture of your business that gets you the most referrals.

First an analogy, then an example.  Think about a particular dance. The steps to the dance are the processes in your business. You have to get them right, obviously to succeed. They need to be the right steps done in the right sequence. But what makes a great dancer? It isn’t repeating the correct steps over and over. It is the flair, the movement the dancer puts into those steps that makes you want to watch them more. It is how they make you feel that causes you to tell others about them. In business, your culture is that flair, that feeling that your business emits that draws people to it in wonderful ways. It works the same way with obtaining and retaining good employees. If you create a positive, fun, challenging, competitive and dynamic workplace, you will keep the employees around that you want. When your workplace culture is great, the work done by those people is…great.

Sadly, there aren’t a lot of companies that are easily identified as having a wonderful culture. The one that comes to mind is Nordstrom. If you have shopped in a Nordstrom, you undoubtedly saw a culture different, and better than any large retail store you’ve been to. The culture of Nordstrom is focused entirely on exceeding the needs of the customer.

In smaller businesses the culture is likely going to be a reflection of the owner, especially if the owner is on site most of the time. If you are that owner, it is up to you to define what sort of culture your business has. Put yourself in your customers’ and your employees’ shoes and ask yourself: “Is this a great place to buy from? Is this a wonderful place to work?” If the answer is anything but a resounding “Yes!” you my friend have work to do. Your business will never reach its true potential unless your culture is outstanding.  Start today!
That wraps up this month’s edition of The Rodman Report. We appreciate any feedback or ideas that you may have for future articles. We would also greatly appreciate it if you would pass on The Rodman Report to those whom you think may benefit from it. Click the link at the bottom of the newsletter to do so. Until next month…

Regards,

The Team at Rodman & Rodman

Dear Larry,

After a brief two month hiatus while we focused on completing our clients’ tax returns, The Rodman Report is back with some useful information and ideas that we hope you find helpful.

In this month’s issue we have articles on the following:

* Learn about the self-directed IRA. Investing in real estate is possible under the guise of an IRA . Guest columnist Joe Mendola will provide some useful guidance.
* Another guest columnist, Stan Ezekial, will review the basics of 529 college savings plans that are becoming increasingly popular as a vehicle to help save for college costs that are increasing at an alarming rate.
* Kathy Parker, Rodman & Rodman Software Coordinator, has some excellent QuickBooks shortcuts to share with you.
* Lastly, Larry Rice, our Director of Strategic Consulting shares a few of his favorite quotations.

We hope you find something of use in this edition of The Rodman Report. We’d once again greatly appreciate it if you forwarded this newsletter to your colleagues and friends. Click the link at the bottom of this email and you can do it in a flash. See you next time.

Best Regards From The Team At Rodman & Rodman

Self-Directed IRAs

Joseph Mendola, Senior VP – NAI Norwood Group

Owning real estate in an IRA is possible… IRA

Most people know that they can invest in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds through an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). What many are unaware of is that one can invest in other types of assets if their IRA is set up to be truly self-directed. By self-directed I mean that one can invest in just about every investment asset class except for insurance products, collectibles and precious gems. This also allows an IRA investor the opportunity to invest in real estate and other high yielding investments, not just securities.

In order to invest in other high yielding assets one needs to have those IRA assets held with a custodian that specializes in doing the paperwork and compliance work necessary to have a successful self-directed IRA. There are number of prominent custodians in the U.S. that specialize in custodial work for self-directed IRAs. Here are a few of these custodians: Pensco Trust Company, Entrust, Sterling Trust Company, American Church Trust Company and Fiserv Investment Support Services.

What are the better types of investments that would be most advantageous for a self-directed IRA? Investments that have high cash flow, short-term appreciation and little tax shelter would be best for a self-directed IRA. These types of investments would include options on real property, notes secured by real estate at a discounted rate, pre-construction purchase of resort or high demand housing projects, real estate tax certificates, real estate investments that have high cash flow and low tax deferral components like a self storage facility.

Assuming you meet the AGI and other requirements, this discussion regarding self-directed IRAs can be extended to Roth IRAs as well. The advantage to the Roth IRA is the avoidance of tax at withdrawal.

A self-directed IRA should only be considered by those who understand completely the types of investments that may be chosen to be held. Growing savings for retirement may be enhanced by those who understand the risks. As always, be sure to keep your tax advisor (such as Rodman & Rodman) informed of your plans. The tax rules surrounding IRAs are complex, so communication between yourself, your investment advisor and your tax advisor is essential.

Joe Mendola, CCIM, is a Senior Vice-President at NAI Norwood Group, a commercial real estate services firm in Bedford, NH where he has been for over 25 years. Joe can reached by phone at 603-668-7000 or by email at joe@nainorwoodgroup.com

529 College Savings Plans

by Stan Ezekial, The College Planning Group

A tool in overcoming the rising cost of college… 529 Plans

Are you concerned about how you are going to pay for your child’s college education? Have you set aside any money for your child’s college education? If you haven’t you should be. The cost of a state college today is about $19,000 per year. The cost of a medium range private college is about $35,000 per year. The cost of some elite private colleges is over $50,000 per year. These costs are increasing at the rate of 6% per year. Multiply that by 4 years, if you are lucky, times the number of children. The numbers are staggering. So what is a parent to do? Set up a college savings plan. The most popular today is the 529 college savings plan. Almost every state has one and each plan has different rules and regulations. You are not limited to using your state’s 529 plan. You should find one that fits your needs.

529 college savings plans allow choosing any qualified educational institution (unlike prepaid plans that are generally intended for public colleges and universities or for specific colleges). States contract with an investment firm or mutual fund company to market and manage their program. Most plans encourage out-of-state residents to participate. Families choosing which state’s plan is best for them should check the availability and amount of any tax breaks that may be given by their own state for 529 investments. Other factors may be more important than state tax. Considerations include sales charges, account maintenance fees, quality of investment management, choices of investments, and convenience of automatic withdrawals.

Choosing a 529 plan is not an easy task. There are various plans to choose from, each one a little different than the other. You have to know what you want to accomplish with the plan. When the child is due to enter college will be a factor in determining what plan to invest in. College costs are increasing at a rate that is twice the rate of inflation. If this continues, the cost of college will double in ten years. If a student is in the first grade today they will expect to graduate high school in the year 2018. The projected cost for UMass Amherst is $39,700. The projected cost for Harvard is $93,500 annually. Parents who plan earliest stand the best chance of overcoming the high cost of higher education. 529 plans provide an excellent vehicle to help overcome this rising burden.

Stan Ezekial is a Principal with The College Planning Group (CPG). CPG assists parents and students with the complexities associated with obtaining the resources necessary to fund a college education. Experts in the financial aid process, CPG assists its clients in assuring that the student receives all the financial aid he or she is qualified for. Stan can be reached at (781)828-1114 or by email at stan@thecollegeplanninggroup.com.
The College Planning Group Website…

QuickBooks Shortcuts

by Kathy Parker, CPA

Using the keyboard to work more quickly with dates… QuickBooks

QuickBooks has some excellent short cuts available using the keyboard. This month, I will focus on keyboard shortcuts involving the date field. Below is a list of letters or symbols that when typed while the cursor is in the date field can dramatically shorten the amount of time you spend typing in date information. Here is the list:

* y – First day of displayed calendar year
* r – Last day of displayed calendar year
* m – First day of displayed month
* h – Last day of displayed month
* t – Today
* w – First day of displayed week
* k – Last day of displayed week
* + – Next day
* – - Previous day

Try these shortcuts out. The more you use them and get comfortable, you will find your efficiency in entering data will increase, along with accuracy.

My Favorite Business Quotes

by Larry Rice CPA

They said it best…

Words are just that, words, right? Maybe, but sometimes a person puts a thought out there that resonates. It stays with you and in some cases helps guide you in your life. I thought it might be fun to give you a list of five of my favorite quotes that apply to business. Not surprisingly, some of these quotes serve people in their everyday life as well. My hope is that this list inspires you to think about the things you have read or heard that have special meaning to you. I encourage you to find a way to make them a part of your life. Write them down and place them where you will see them often. Frame it if it really matters. With all the clutter in this world, sometimes having a defining thought or statement to look at when you really need it can make all the difference. In any event, here are five of my favorite business quotes:

1. It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude. – Zig Ziglar
2. Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world. – Joel Barker
3. Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Accordingly a genius is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework. – Thomas Edison
4. Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right things. – Warren Bennis
5. A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. – Emo Phillips

February is the shortest month of the year, and we are in the midst of our hectic tax season. We won’t let that deter us from bringing you another edition of The Rodman Report.

In this month’s issue we’ll have articles on the following:

* Not all meals are 50% deductible. Learn which meals do not have such a limitation. Make sure you take the full deductions you are entitled to. This article will help.
* A guest columnist, Dr. Scott Chapman, will give you some tips on dealing with, and hopefully relieving the back pain that small business owners often face with their work demands.
* Larry Rice, Director of Strategic Consulting, will show you how to very inexpensively give the gift of awesome customer service!
* An update on some new things we have added to our website.

We hope you enjoy this issue of The Rodman Report. We’d greatly appreciate it if you forwarded this newsletter to your colleagues and friends. Click the link at the bottom of this email and you can do it in a flash. See you next time.

Best Regards From The Team At Rodman & Rodman

You Can Deduct 100% of Certain Meals

Karl Schramek CPA MST

What meals are fully deductible? Read on… dining
Meals are considered a legitimate business expense if they are directly related or associated with the active conduct of a trade or business. You must have a valid business purpose to deduct the cost of any meals. Once you have met that initial test, the question becomes one of “how much is deductible?” Most assume that any meals are only 50% deductible. In the case of the usual meal with a customer or client to discuss business, this is the case. It is also true when you have meals on a business trip, at a convention, or meal reimbursements for employees which are calculated using a per diem rate.

However there are a number of instances where you can deduct 100% of your meal costs. Here are some examples:

* Meal and food expenses for a company party.
* Office snacks such as coffee, soft drinks, bottled water and donuts provided to employees on premises may qualify as a 100% deductible de minimis fringe benefit.
* Obviously if food cost is part of your cost of goods sold (restaurants and food service organizations), that cost is 100% deductible.
* Food given to the public for free as part of an advertising or promotional campaign (not allowed if admittance to the event is restricted or “invitation only”).
* Meals reported as non-cash compensation (included on W-2).
* Meals provided on your work premises to more than half the employees for the convenience of the employer. This is typically the case when an employer provides meals to employees who are working overtime (late and weekends), or for being on call.

I recommend that you create separate general ledger accounts for these expenses. One for the 50% deductible meals and one for the 100% deductible meals.

Don’t forget to have the appropriate documentation supporting your business meals, regardless of deductibility.

Back Pain and Your Bottom Line

by Scott Chapman, DC, DABCO

Some tips to help you manage that pain… back pain

Back pain, and specifically pain in the lower back, is a common problem for busy entrepreneurs. Pain typically reduces activity level and, in the workplace, productivity. In fact, low back pain is a costly problem and employers know this well. When your work lifestyle requires long hours at the desk or on the road, back pain can be an unwelcome companion. Most back pain is due to chronic postural stress to the spinal tissues. The muscles, ligaments, joints and discs of the spinal column are capable of producing significant ache. Poor postural alignment during standing and sitting is a common culprit. If you notice that your back pain is worse with standing, sitting or driving, the following recommendations can be helpful. Position: Standing Action: Slowly side bend to the left and right and then backwards for 10 repetitions. Walk around the office for 5 minutes every hour. Position: Sitting and Driving Action: Gently rock your pelvis forward and backward and avoid slumping forward. Lower backs prefer frequent changes in position and doing so at least every 20 minutes is good advice for an aching back. Also, many studies point to spinal stabilization exercise, stretching of the hip muscles and good old fashion walking as being good medicine for the ailing lower spine. If you have tried to manage a chronically painful back on your own but your pain problem persists, seek professional help from a spine care specialist.

Dr. Chapman is a client of Rodman & Rodman and his practice, Norwell Spine & Sports, is located in Norwell on the South Shore. Dr. Chapman is a Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist with more than 15 years of experience in assisting people in the relief of pain, whether from injuries or other health issues. He can be reached via email at DrChapman@NorwellSpineandSports.com

The Norwell Spine and Sports Website…

Give The Gift of Customer Service Training
by Larry Rice CPA

An inexpensive way to educate your team on customer service… raving fans
Who in your company interacts with your customers? Think about it. Not just in person, but those who may speak with them on the phone when they call, those who send them invoices, or may be the person to resolve a billing problem via email. There are probably more people than you realize. Pessimistically, there could be things being said or done that is upsetting your best customers, and you don’t even know about it! Optimistically, you also have allot of opportunities to wow and impress your customers repeatedly throughout a transaction. I prefer to think optimistically, but how do you ensure that those customers are being wowed? Let me give you an easy first step: Give the gift of outstanding customer service to your team. Give them Raving Fans.

Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard is a business book, but before your eyes glaze over, it isn’t your typical business book. Raving Fans is a parable, it’s a business lesson, specifically a customer service lesson, told as a story. At about 130 pages, the story can be read in a couple of hours at most. It was the book that set off my career as a strategic consultant. In it’s simplicity, it tells the reader how to have a customer-centric business in a very powerful way.

Read it yourself first, and then give a new copy of the book to everyone who works with your customers in your organization. Meet afterwards and see if it sets off some creative thoughts and ideas about how you can create raving fans in your business. The book is a cheap investment for what could be huge results! It changed my life, see if it changes yours.

I am providing you a link below to where you can buy it at Amazon.com. To be clear, there is nothing in it for me if you buy, other than knowing you’ve made a wise decision to get the book.
To pick up a copy at Amazon.com, click here…
Website Updates – Newsletters Archived
by Larry Rice CPA           More information available resources
Our website has been recently updated. On our “Resources” page, you will now find archived copies of The Rodman Report, which we will be updating monthly to include the latest issue. So if you accidentally deleted or moved our newsletter and cannot find it, please go to our website and you’ll find every edition archived.

Also in our Resources section, you’ll find copies of every issue of “Successes and Strategies”, my monthly print newsletter which discusses strategies to help you improve and grow your business.

We also have a link to an excellent document retention guide created by the Massachusetts Society of CPAs that you can download.

You can also get access to our extensive online tax guide which has great planning ideas and information to assist you in minimizing your tax bill.

You may want to keep the Rodman & Rodman website among your list of favorites. We will keep the site updated and add new content to help keep our clients and friends informed.

Welcome to 2007! The holidays are behind us and a new year lies before us. We look to 2007 with great anticipation and optimism. The prevailing mood here and with many of the clients we are speaking with is one that senses 2007 is going to be a great year.

We are going to try to get 2007 off to a running start. This month, we have news about how you can earn a refund of taxes you have been paying on your phone bill, some new tips to increase your effectiveness with QuickBooks, some ideas to make your new year’s resolutions more meaningful and more.
Thank you again for reading the Rodman Report. Your feedback is always welcome! Let us know how we can make this resource even more valuable.

All the best from the team at Rodman & Rodman, P.C.

Get a refund of your phone excise taxes!

Karl Schramek CPA MST

Here is how… refund

The IRS recently stopped collecting the Federal Excise Tax (FET) on long- distance telephone, bundled service plans and most cellular phone services effective August, 2006. The FET rate was 3% of the charges billed for these services. The FET will continue to be applied to local-only service. Both individuals and companies will be eligible to file a refund on FET charges billed and/or paid from March, 2003 through July, 2006. Individuals and companies will claim these refunds on their 2006 Federal Income Tax returns filed in 2007. Interest will be paid on these refunds.

How Do You Claim this Refund?

Individuals have the following two options:

Option 1: (Actual Amount) Calculate the FET paid from your 41 monthly telephone bills from March, 2003 through July, 2006. Report the FET paid on IRS Form 8913 summarized quarterly and segregated between FET paid for long-distance & bundled services, and compute interest due on the tax refund.

Option 2: (Standard Refund) There is standard refund available based on the number of exemptions claimed on your 2006 federal income tax return as follows: $30 for one exemption, $40 for two exemptions, $50 for three exemptions, & $60 for 4 or more exemptions. Form 8913 is not required for taxpayers electing this option.

FYI: If you know anyone who is entitled to this FET refund but in not otherwise required to file and federal tax return, the IRS has issued Form 1040EZ-T specifically for these circumstances.

Businesses have the following two options:

Option 1: (Actual Amount) Calculate the FET paid from your 41 monthly telephone bills from March, 2003 through July, 2006. Report the FET paid on IRS Form 8913 summarized quarterly and segregated between FET paid for long-distance & bundled services, and compute interest due on the tax refund.

Option 2: (Estimation Method) Businesses and tax-exempt organizations (including certain businesses reported on schedule C, C-EZ, E, F or Form 4835) can calculate their refund by comparing two telephone bills from this year to determine the percentage of their telephone expenses qualifying for this refund. The bills they should use are the bill with a statement date in April, 2006 and the bill with a statement date in September, 2006. They must first figure the telephone tax as a percentage of their April, 2006 telephone bills (which included the excise tax for both local and long-distance service) and their September, 2006 telephone bills (which only included the tax on local service). The difference between these two percentages should be multiplied by the telephone expenses incurred during the months March, 2003 through July, 2006 (reported quarterly on Form 8913) to determine the amount of their refunds. For taxpayers using the estimation method, the refund is capped at 2 percent of the total telephone expenses for businesses with 250 or fewer employees. The refund is capped at 1 percent for those with more than 250 employees.

FYI: Businesses with gross receipts for the tax year of $25,000 or less may not use the Estimation Method. An individual taxpayer may not combine the Standard Refund with a credit for Actual Amounts related to business telephone expenses. Individual taxpayers claiming a refund FET paid for multiple businesses (such as more than one schedule C and/or E, etc.) should file only one Form 8913 reporting the telephone expenses and FET for all businesses in total. Individual taxpayers may use the Estimation Method if the combined gross receipts from all the businesses reported on their Form 8913 is greater than $25,000.

Virtually all of our clients and friends are entitled to some form of refund, but you will have to follow the above steps to receive yours. Please drop me a line at karl@rodmancpa.com or give me a call if you have any questions.

Are you updating your QuickBooks?

by Kathy Parker CPA

Make updating a habit! QuickBooks

Now that everyone has upgraded to QuickBooks 2007 (hint hint), there is an important housekeeping task that you should not forget: Updating your QuickBooks for the latest software updates, fixes, patches and security risk prevention. QuickBooks makes this pretty simple. By clicking “Help” on the toolbar, one of your choices is to “Update QuickBooks”. All you do is follow the prompts and you will be done in a very brief amount of time. You have the choice when updating QuickBooks to turn on automatic updates, which is a nice feature. My only concern is that many clients ignore the notification that updates are available, largely because it seems inconvenient at the time to do the updating. Due to the nature of some of the updates, I strongly recommend that you simply invest the few moments to accept the updates as they appear from QuickBooks. Though you may have to restart your computer, my experience has shown that the benefits far outweigh the cost of time.

One effective method used by many clients is to schedule a time and a day to perform updates regularly. Make this no less frequent than weekly. You can always check to see which updated version of QuickBooks you are on by pressing F2. Many of the updates are fixes to problems reported to QuickBooks by users like yourself. You may find that a problem you have been having is addressed in a given update, so please don’t hesitate to assure you have the latest software downloaded.
Email me at kathy@rodmancpa.com if you have any questions.

Put It In Writing

by Larry Rice CPA

Want to get more accomplished in 2007? Write it down!

Do you have New Years Resolutions for your business? There is a simple way to accomplish a lot more of them in 2007 than you did in past years: Write it down. If you do so, you just improved your chances of achieving your goals significantly. It is simply human nature at work. When we write things down, we tend to remember them better, and act on what we have written down more consistently. Here are my suggested steps to help with achieving your business resolutions for 2007:

1. Write it down – As I said above, get that resolution in writing.
2. Put it where you can see it – Make multiple copies of your resolutions and put them where you can see them from your desk, to your home, even stick a copy in your wallet. The constant reminders will help nudge you.
3. Share your list with someone close to you – A huge step in making resolutions happen is to have someone to hold you accountable for your goals. Don’t let the person you choose be someone who will take it easy on you. Plan to meet with them a couple of times during the year for the express purpose of checking on your progress. If possible, set up the meetings now for the rest of the year.

This year can be a breakout year for you, and it starts with planning to have that great year and living up to your plan. Good luck!

Do You Have Events That Require a Speaker?

by Larry Rice CPA

We can help if your business/industry group/civic organization needs a speaker… speaker

Often we find that our clients are involved in a variety of organizations related to their business. This could be in the form of an industry trade organization, a chamber of commerce, a networking group or some other civic organization. When these groups meet, often they invite speakers from the outside who can deliver speeches to those in attendance on subjects that are of importance to that group. Often these groups struggle to get speakers who are a good fit.
We’d like to help. I have over 15 years of speaking experience talking to small business owners and their employees on a variety of subjects. I have a number of fixed subjects that I can speak on, and often I can tailor my speech to issues that are affecting a given industry. John McGovern, one of the principals at Rodman & Rodman and a business valuation specialist, often speaks to groups about valuing their business and how to seek out qualified buyers. Both John and myself encourage questions and input from our audience.

I will be happy to discuss your needs with you. Please feel free to give me a call at 617.965.5959 or you can email me at larry@rodmancpa.com. Also, see the link below for more information about our speaker programs.

Information and Ideas You Can Use

Winter and tax season are upon us. We won’t be fooled by the mild weather, however, and get too confident of an easy winter. This is New England after all.

This month, we have a variety of articles including how to save some tax dollars while being environmentally conscious, exciting new developments with QuickBooks and some ideas for benchmarking yourself to your competition.

We hope you enjoy a safe and happy holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in 2007.
All the best from the Team at Rodman & Rodman.

Last Minute Reminders For 2006

As the end of the year approaches, we wish to remind you of a few things that may help you save some money on your taxes and make the processing of your taxes in early 2007 a bit easier:

* 4th Quarter Tax Estimates Are Due – Typically they are due on January 15th, 2007 for individuals but in some cases your state estimate may be paid in December to gain a tax deduction. The payment of your state tax estimate in December could create AMT consequences so please call us to make sure you are taking the best route with your tax payments.
* Taxable Fringes in W-2s – Many of our clients are required to include certain fringe benefits in the W-2s of their employees. If you use a payroll service, a deadline usually exists to get this information in so it can be included on the W-2. Don’t delay!
* Tax Organizer in Early January – Keep an eye out for our tax organizer which gets mailed out in early January. Also, in early January, you will begin receiving important tax documents which assist us in completing your tax returns. Think now about how you will accumulate and organize that information. Tax preparation is more accurate and more efficient when a complete set of documents is secured and submitted to us. Thank you in advance for your attention to this.

QuickBooks 2007 and Google Team Up

by Kathy Parker CPA

Two Giants Integrate QuickBooks

One of the more interesting features in QuickBooks 2007 has been the new partnership formed with Internet search engine giant Google. How will Google be used in conjunction with QuickBooks? Here is a summary of the more important ways:

* Google Maps – QuickBooks users will now be able to create and manage a listing for their business on Google Maps. Effectively, your location is getting a high-tech yellow pages listing.
* Integration with Google AdWords – This will allow QuickBooks users the opportunity to identify search terms related to their products or services and create ads that will show up when shoppers search on Google for those products and services. QuickBooks users get a $50 credit to start.
* Inventory Information – Through the QuickBooks Product Listing Service, inventory information about your products and services can be transferred to Google Base, giving your customers access to valuable inventory information.

The word from QuickBooks is that this is only the beginning of their relationship with Google. I will keep you updated on future improvements and changes that result from this very interesting development.
Email me at kathy@rodmancpa.com if you have any questions.

How Do I Stack Up?

by Larry Rice CPA

Measuring Yourself Against Your Competition benchmark

I often hear from clients this question: “How am I doing, you know, compared to other people in my business?” I am glad that question gets asked. An important part of evaluating performance of a given business is to benchmark that business against similar businesses. Here are three ways to benchmark your business.

1. 1. Participate in industry associations – These associations often provide valuable information about how the high performers in a given industry do it. Join and participate!
2. Visit the competition – Though you may not be a welcome guest on a direct competitors premises, if you know of a high performer in your industry in another city/state, often they welcome visitors in to see “how they do it.” What an opportunity worth jumping for.
3. Measure your financial performance against competitors – Industry data can be tough to get sometimes but can be valuable. I may be able to help. I have access to industry data for hundreds of small businesses. Call or email me at larry@rodmancpa.com and I’ll obtain your industry benchmarks for you.

Considering a Hybrid Vehicle? Tax Credits Abound!

by Karl Schramek CPA MST

Tax Tips hybrid

Hybrid vehicles are becoming more prominent in America. Congress passed legislation in 2005 which provides a tax credit for purchasing a new hybrid vehicle. The amount of the credit depends upon a number of factors including weight and fuel efficiency improvements among others. The credit ranges from as small as $250 for a GMC Silverado to as much as $2,600 for a Ford Escape. Significant credits also exist for lean- burn technology vehicles and electric and fuel-cell powered vehicles. These vehicles are often more expensive so you should consider the additional expense of purchasing the cars in understanding the true value of the credit to you.

One note of caution: The credits begin phasing out for a given manufacturer once it has sold 60,000 energy-efficient vehicles to dealers. In the case of Toyota Motor Sales, this plateau was reached during the calendar quarter ended June 30, 2006. The credit on Toyotas (and Lexus’) therefore has been reduced to 50% of the full credit through March 31, 2007. After that the credit is reduced to 25% of the full credit through September 30, 2007 and for energy-efficient Toyotas and Lexus’ purchased on or after October 1, 2007, no credit is allowable. Please contact me should you have further questions regarding these credits. I can be reached by phone or by email at karl@rodmancpa.com

Home Office Deduction – Do I Qualify?

Your home may be a great place to get a significant tax deduction. If you qualify, you may deduct a portion of your homeowners insurance, home repairs, and utilities equal to the percentage of space the office occupies. Homeowners may deduct depreciation for the portion of the home used for business, while renters deduct a portion of their rent. These deductions cannot exceed the income from the business, but excess deductions may be carried forward.
Qualifying for this deduction, however, is not easy. To qualify to claim expenses for business use of your home, you must use part of your home:

* Exclusively and regularly as your principal place of business, or
* Exclusively and regularly as a place where you meet or deal with patients, clients, or customers in the normal course of your trade or business.

Please note that any personal use of the business area of the house will make you ineligible for the deduction.
If you are an employee and use a part of your home for business, you must meet the tests discussed above plus:

* Your business use must be for the convenience of your employer, and
* You cannot rent any part of your home to your employer and use that rented portion to perform services as an employee for that employer.

For example, if you recently had a child and are now telecommuting as your means of employment, that would not qualify you to deduct your home office expenses because the use of a home office is for your convenience, not your employer’s.

Please call us if you think you may qualify for this deduction, or if you are currently deducting a home office but have questions. Below is a link to the IRS publication which discusses the home office deduction in great detail.

For the IRS Publication on the home-office deduction…

Rodman Seminar: Awesome Customer Service – 11/9

invite

The Rodman Fall Seminar series continues on Thursday, November 9th. The topic for the seminar is Towards Awesome Customer Service. The presentation will be led by Larry Rice, Director of Strategic Consulting at Rodman & Rodman. Wowing customers is the way to a profitable business by making your customers more loyal and much more likely to tell everyone they know about you. Larry will show you how to do it with easy-to-implement strategies. This event should not be missed! The seminar runs from 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. and includes networking and a continental breakfast. The event is no cost. Please feel free to bring a friend or colleague. Space is extremely limited. To reserve a spot, please call Jen Reading of Rodman & Rodman at 617.965.5959. Click here to email Jen directly.

For further information…

3 Tips To Avoid Employee Fraud

fraudSmall business often spends a lot of time and money investing in technology to prevent their customers from stealing their goods. What gets overlooked far too often is a much more potentially damaging crime – employee fraud. Employee fraud costs small businesses billions each year. Because it is an “inside job”, the fraud often costs the business astronomically more than any theft a customer can perpetrate. It is not uncommon for a single incident of employee fraud to cost over $100,000. Most of these crimes are created by accounting personnel who steal the money through the manipulation of the books of the company.
The causes are typically:

* Owners or management who are unfamiliar with or uninterested in the accounting area of their business,
* Trust for the handling of cash and the accounting for cash is in the same person, and
* The person in the position is one considered “trusted and therefore is unsupervised.”

Statistics show that the average length of service of an employee committing fraud is 10-15 years. We’re not suggesting you never trust your employees again. What we are suggesting is that you implement a few simple procedures, that will help prevent many of these crimes from occurring. Most employee theft is not planned, but a crime of opportunity. They did it because it was easy to do. The following 3 tips make it not so easy, and thus the incentive to commit fraud is taken away:

1. Open your mail – Do not allow anyone access to it before you have opened it. Signs of fraud often occur through the mail via vendor collection letters, customer questions regarding their accounts, etc. Follow up on any mail that seems unusual in nature.
2. Open and review your bank statement and checks – We often suggest that the bank mail the monthly statement directly to the owner’s home. You should review that statement and ask questions. Even if you don’t find anything suspicious, the fact you are asking about bank transactions goes a long way toward preventing fraud behavior.
3. Make it easy for your employees to notify you via anonymous tip – The most common way a fraud is uncovered is by an anonymous employee tip. Communicate with your employees and make it very easy for them to tell you about suspicious behavior without having to be responsible directly for the information.

Check out our new website!

Our website has been remodeled and is now open for business! We’re still putting in some finishing touches (please check back for new photos of our team), but the entire site has been redesigned and streamlined with our clients in mind. You’ll find information about the full breadth of the services we offer, an extensive online tax guide, directions to our office, past issues of our Successes & Strategies newsletter, updated profiles of our growing team of professionals and much more. As always, we appreciate our clients’ feedback. Please drop us a line or give us a call with any suggestions or ideas you have that will make our website a greater resource for you.

If Your Company or Organization Needs A Speaker
Join our mailing list!
email: info@rodmancpa.com
phone: 617.965.5959
web: http://www.rodmancpa.com

Greetings and welcome to the second issue of The Rodman Report. In this issue, we’ve got some valuable news and information for our clients and friends. We now have an excellent resource for our clients who have questions regarding document retention. Our QuickBooks clients will get some valuable advice from Kathy Parker regarding the question of when a business should upgrade to the latest version of QuickBooks. Also, please check out the information regarding our Fall Seminar Series which is free and continues on October 17th. Lastly, Karl Schramek, our tax manager provides an interesting strategy that could help our clients and friends with young adult children to save for retirement while earning the child a substantial tax credit in the process.

We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter.
All the best from the Team at Rodman & Rodman

How Long Do I Need to Keep My Records?

Document Retention Resource For Clients
We’re often asked by our clients how long they need to keep their accounting and tax records. The answer we have to give is “it depends.” What it depends on are the documents in question. While it is suggested that tax returns be retained permanently, other less critical records can be disposed of at certain points in the future safely. This can get very confusing as the periods of retention widely vary from document to document.

Fortunately, the Massachusetts Society of CPAs, Inc. has put together an excellent document retention guide. It does not constitute legal authority but it does a nice job of organizing and giving guidance on the retention period of most of the documents that a business may have. Please review the guidelines, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact one of the Team at Rodman & Rodman.

When Should I Upgrade my Quickbooks?

Knowing when can save you some serious headaches.

You’ll notice in the title that I have ignored the question of whether you should upgrade your QuickBooks or not. You absolutely should upgrade your version of QuickBooks regularly. Hopefully, you’ll stay current but you should try to stay no more than one year behind the current version. At Rodman & Rodman we only support 2 years of QuickBooks programs. It would be impossible for us to support our clients on multiple versions of the software. The confusion between the differing capabilities between the different versions is challenging enough when it is 2 years. So assuming you ARE going to upgrade, when should that be?

Like any program, QuickBooks releases new versions, and they have bugs. Though the program is tested extensively before being released, Intuit cannot possibly anticipate every use, or for that matter misuse, of the product. Patches are commonplace for a period of time. It is for that reason that we recommend you wait two months before ordering or picking up your upgrade to 2007. This would mean waiting until approximately mid-December, 2006. There are some exciting changes coming with the 2007 version, including the integration of Google in some interesting ways. Just be patient. Let Intuit get the bugs out first. Email me at kathy@rodmancpa.com if you have any questions.

Rodman Fall Seminar Series Continues October 17th

Free Seminar – Ten Commitments To Win More Business
Rodman & Rodman is excited to present part 2 of the Fall Seminar Series. This seminar will provide our clients and friends specific and simple steps to to generate more sales and stronger referrals that lead to sales. The seminar is titled “Ten Commitments To Win More Business”. The seminar will be led by Jim Ayraud, President and CEO of Next Level, Inc. Jim will be providing a no-nonsense, straight- talk presentation aimed at improving your sales effectiveness and performance. The event begins with a continental breakfast at 7:30a.m. The presentation begins promptly at 8:00a.m. and will conclude at 9:00a.m. This event will be held in the Rodman & Rodman conference room.

Next Level, Inc. is a Franklin, Massachusetts-based sales and strategy firm. Many of the team members here at Rodman & Rodman have received sales training from Jim and his team and give it our highest recommendation. This is an event you do not want to miss! You must reserve a seat by calling Jen Reading at Rodman & Rodman. Space is extremely limited so call today!

Retirement Credit: Opportunity For Parents of Young Adults

by Karl Schramek CPA MST
Tax Tips 1040

The federal government has been promoting through legislation in recent years incentives for people to save for their retirement. I want to focus on an opportunity that one such incentive provides: The Credit for Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions. This credit was intended to encourage low-income taxpayers to contribute to their retirement. Unfortunately most low income people can not afford to consider retirement. However, for those of you who intend to provide financial assistance to your adult children this credit may provide an interesting opportunity. This credit is based on a varying percentage of the retirement contribution. The maximum credit is $1,000. The retirement contributions can be made to IRAs, Roth IRAs. SIMPLE plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and others. The credit phases out entirely for adjusted gross income in excess of $25,000 if filing single and $50,000 if filing married joint. As an example, let’s say your recent college graduate son has taken a job as a social worker in an impoverished part of the country with an annual salary of $15,000. If he were to contribute $1,600 to an IRA, Roth IRA, etc. he could be entitled to an $800 credit, offsetting almost all of his tax liability. He effectively would have received a 50% return on investment (in the form of a refund or reduced tax liability) from this retirement contribution.
Please note that the contribution cannot be made on behalf of full-time students or any individual for whom the parents are claiming a dependency deduction on their tax return as well as any individual who is not 18 years of age by the close of the tax year in which the contribution is made.

If you are a parent of a young adult who you think may benefit from this strategy, please feel free to give me a call or email me at karl@rodmancpa.com. and we’ll determine if this strategy would be effective.

Contact Information

email: info@rodmancpa.com

phone: 617.965.5959

web: http://www.rodmancpa.com

Welcome to the 1st edition of The Rodman Report! The entire team at Rodman & Rodman CPAs hopes that you’ll find the information contained here helpful for you. The intent of the Rodman Report will be to make you aware of news and information that we think will benefit you, our clients and friends. Included will be breaking tax issues, tips and news that we think deserves special attention. We’ll make you aware of any special events we are having. You’ll see below in this issue that in September we begin our Fall Seminar Series. It is free  and will cover a variety of relevant and important issues to small business owners and individuals. From our Accounting IT Software Services division we’ll have the latest news and tips for QuickBooks and Microsoft Small Business users. From our Strategic Services division we’ll have tips, thoughts and ideas on how to run your businesses more profitably. In all cases, we’ll try to make this newsletter a useful tool for you to use to help you in your daily challenges in small business.

Sweeping Pension Changes!

Federal Government Passes Comprehensive Law
pension pic

The President recently signed into law the most sweeping pension legislation in 30 years. We are still absorbing The Pension Protection Act of 2006 but here are some of the highlights:

* A two year window (2006 & 2007) where IRA distributions can be directed to a qualified charity, free of tax.
* After 2007, taxpayers can make direct rollovers from qualified plans to Roth IRAs
* Makes permanent a number of the recent retirement plan and IRA liberalizations that were set to sunset after 2010
* Allows nonspouse designated beneficiaries to make rollovers of inherited amounts in qualified plans or IRAs to their own IRAs

In addition, the Act puts forth a number of charitable reforms which will tighten the rules on record-keeping and on deducting contributions of clothing and household items. We will be discussing these changes with our clients as year-end approaches.

For further information…

Free Seminar – September 28th!

The Rodman Fall Series Kicks Off
Invited

Rodman & Rodman is proud to present the Fall Seminar Series which kicks off on September 28th, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. The subject will be Protecting Your Small Business. Two significant threats exist for small businesses today. The first is fraud via employees. Billions are lost each year from employee theft of one type or another. Larry Rice, Director of Strategic Consulting at Rodman & Rodman will provide some practical advice to help prevent this problem from occurring to you. The second threat to small business is one that has leapt to the forefront of issues confronting small businesses in the computer age. The threat to your computer data. Through viruses, power loss, hacking and spamming, someone doesn’t have to be within the confines of your walls to wreak havoc upon you and your business. Peter Root of Symantec, the makers of the industry-leading Norton line of products will be on hand to help you steer clear of this growing threat. The seminar will begin at 7:30 am with a continental breakfast followed by the seminar at 8:00 am which will conclude promptly at 9:00 am. There will be time available to ask questions, assuring that you will get the most out of the material provided. The seminar will be held in the Rodman & Rodman conference room. Seating is strictly limited. Please contact Jen Reading at Rodman & Rodman to register. Don’t wait! Call today!

Business Strategies For Entrepreneurs by Larry Rice

Capital Equipment Financing – Simplified!
equipment

A question I am asked often relates to the purchase of capital assets. Capital assets would include things like a building, machinery and equipment, furniture, automobiles etc. Essentially we’re speaking about depreciable assets who have a lifetime that well exceeds one year.

The question I am asked is “Should I pay cash or finance? If I finance the purchase, over what period of time should I spread the payments out?”

There is a pretty simple rule of thumb: Finance capital purchases over the period of time, when possible, that you expect the capital asset to be useful to the business. The idea is that to best manage your cash flow, now and for the future, you should make every effort to match the cash inflows (revenue) that an asset produces over a period that is similar to the outflows (payments) that you make.

If you pay cash for a capital asset, you may run into a cash crunch at some point in the future and find yourself in deep trouble. You’ll own the capital asset free and clear all right, but without cash, you may not have a business to use it in.

On the other hand, if you have a capital asset that has long since been scrapped but you are still paying for, you eventually will run into a similar and dangerous cash shortage. It is on this same theory that running credit card debt up to finance food, clothing, etc. is going to get you, as an individual, in trouble.

I can appreciate some business owner’s unwillingness to carry debt, but when it comes to the major assets in your business, you are much smarter to pay for those assets over the time those assets are useful. If you find yourself paying for long-since-gone assets, you need to reevaluate your spending decisions.

Feel free to drop me a line at larry@rodmancpa.com if you have any questions.

All the best,
Larry