The number 1 reason I hear business owners leave their accountant is for lack of communication. I'm genuinely curious. What type of communication would be more effective for you as a business owner?

If mlb wants to have a salary cap for players, should their also be a cap on ticket prices for World Series games?

If you've automated your entire accounting process with AI, I'd love to see how you did it. I’m seeing posts on X saying they've replaced their accountants with AI. And I'm genuinely curious. I'm a CPA. I know a lot of accounting work can be automated, and I think that's a good thing. But when someone says they've automated everything, I want to know what that actually looks like. Because my brain goes down a whole tax nerd rabbit hole. I'm asking because I want to understand how people are actually doing it. If you've built something that works, I'd love to hear about your setup.

I'm a CPA, and I practice what I preach. Right now, we're sending out fourth-quarter tax planning organizers to all our clients, including ME. That means I'm providing my financials, paystubs, and other tax documents in the middle of the year. If I'm asking a client to do something, that means I'm doing the same thing. I believe in the process we use because I follow it too.

A restaurant owner asked me “I’m making more money. Where’s it all going?” I had this conversation recently with an owner who bought a second location last year. The first location was netting $100,000 in profit and the second location was also netting $100,000. The problem is that the second location was 4 times as big when it was originally purchased. Meaning they were expecting a profit close to $400,000. I decided to look beneath the surface and check their Point of Sale software. Turns out they had brought in 1,000 less customers this year. This is what a good CPA is for. To help you look beneath the surface.

I'm seeing a lot of X Posts about how business owners are using AI to catch mistakes on their tax returns. I'm genuinely curious what types of mistakes are being caught?

I’ve reviewed 100’s of tax returns as a CPA. The business owners with the fewest tax surprises usually do one thing differently. They talk to their CPA before they make the decision. One of my contractor clients is looking to purchase land for $40,000 and wanted to know if the land purchase helped him tax wise. I told him no. Unfortunately, the tax law does not allow a deduction for raw land purchases until you sell it. This is what good tax planning looks like. But any purchase over $15,000, you want to check with your CPA before finalizing. Have the conversation while you can still change the answer.

Before working with a new prospect, I ask to see their most recent tax returns. I ask for this is so that I can hit the ground running before we meet. Inevitably I’m going to have some tax questions for a prospect and I don’t expect them to be a tax expert. With your tax return, I can see your entity election, how much you made last year, and any tax deductions you may have missed. This way, the fun starts and we can actually give you plan before we start working together

Before I implement any type of AI in my business, I need to know the extra job it creates. AI gets sold as a plug and play solution. “Once you buy Housecall Pro, the software does the work for you.” Except when you need help with the software and you’re asking yourself now what. I am all for technological advances, but to think that AI is going to render employees useless is a fools thought.

The home service industry changed the way I think about growing my CPA firm. You need to make the phone ring with customers. My firm isn’t that much different. I truly believe we do the best tax work. But without clients, it doesn’t matter how good we are. Now my main focus is: how do we bring in more clients so that we can grow the firm. Because if you are the best at what you do, but nobody knows your name, you’re on a sinking ship.

Use AI, don’t let AI use you. I use a software called Tango that is a screen recording app. This is what I use to create tax guides, train employees, and other educational pieces. Tango works well for me because I know the content I'm producing. Where a lot of AI bros lead people wrong is saying that by using X software, you’ll make more money, have more time or any other promise. But it comes back to how well you know your craft. All the AI in the world won’t solve your problems. Having the skills and knowledge will.

One of the best compliments I hear from clients is something along the lines of: "no matter how many clients you have, please tell me you'll always be my accountant and not someone else."

The irony of a tax influencer posting on Instagram "Don't trust tiktok tax advice." I guess instagram is more trustworthy than tiktok

The most important quality in a CPA has nothing to do with taxes. It’s all about picking up the phone and responding to your clients. That’s why we proactively schedule our meetings ahead of time. Once in the summer, once in the fall, and once in the spring. The summer meeting is to see what your income is like halfway through the year to see what your tax bill will look like come next April. Then we meet in the fall to project your income again and go over any last minute strategies we can implement. Then we meet in April to make sure our I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed with your tax return. Taxes are just math. Showing up consistently is the hard part, and it's the part most firms skip.

"My highest paying clients are my favorite to work with because they're the lowest maintenance. When you invest $5,000 + into your CPA, you just let us do the work. They respond the fastest to us, give us the documents that we need, and overall are a joy to work with. And I would bet that the highest paying clients in any industry are the easiest to work with. Would you agree or disagree?