Practice Management

Accounting firm J.H. Cohn said it plans to combine practices with Good Swartz Brown & Berns, a firm based in Woodland Hills, Calif.

The Treasury Department said it plans to start sending out more tax rebate checks as soon as it finishes mailing checks for regular tax refunds.

The American Institute of CPAs' Private Companies Practice Section and the Texas Society of CPAs have begun their fifth annual survey of management policies at small and midsized CPA firms.

Somerset CPAs has launched a video blog on YouTube to provide businesses with advice on growth.

Under new regulations, taxpayers must consent to the disclosure or use of their tax information by return preparers. Stiff penalties can be imposed on the preparer who makes unauthorized disclosures.

Wayne R. Pinnell has been leading Haskell & White as the firm continues to expand its mergers and acquisitions practice.

Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has written to Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman asking him to fix problems her constituents have reported with receiving the wrong amount on their tax rebates.

The Internal Revenue Service said that it would mail out approximately 350,000 additional economic stimulus payments starting in early July, after discovering that some tax returns did not capture the information needed to generate the $300-per-child payments.

CPAs spend many hours studying accounting and tax rules and become very knowledgeable, with CPE insuring that they are fully conversant with any changes. In the very large firms, the training and education offered has a very interesting mix, as a good deal of it doesn’t deal with technical knowledge but on the softer skills that can actually contribute more to the success of the individual and the firm. This is readily apparent in the structured way mentoring is conducted in these larger firms. Mentors are trained, mentoring processes and procedures are established, the details of the mentoring program are communicated, and staff members participate in a prescribed manner. And why do larger firms spend so much time and money on mentoring? They see the success in the performance of those who complete the program, and are very happy with the ROI. Because of the limited resources of small firms, ROI on spending is extremely important and gets very close scrutiny. The problem is, in new areas like mentoring small firms, because of their lack of familiarity, often overspend and don’t get a good ROI. Small firms therefore need to be creative. I recently came across Mentoring Process for CPA/CAs--Third Edition, by Rex Gatto, that can be helpful in that regard. There is a roadmap to creating structured processes quickly, tools and tips for mentors, and advice for mentees on getting the most from mentoring. The book doesn’t pull any punches, such as when it is pointed out that the mentees’ best role is that of the listener, and warns mentors not to be sidetracked by the mentee who is an analyzer (overanalyzes facts), a whiner (complainer), a rejecter (not me!), a victim (poor me!) or a controller (talks too much). Equally important, the book tells mentees what they should look for when selecting a mentor. “When choosing a mentor, a mentor should be someone:

What’s the first thing to know when considering membership in a professional services firm association?It’s not just about writing a check.