I'm using a throwaway account because this post includes some personal information, but I'm a regular HN reader.
I found that an actual CPA is very helpful to me. She has an accounting degree from a top notch school and years of experience working for a Fortune 500 company. However, she wanted more control over her schedule because of her young children so she worked for me a couple days for a few hours each time. She had other clients as well, but I know very little about them since she doesn't talk about them. She has worked for me for at least ten years. I don't need her every day and she comes and goes on her own schedule.
She picks up and opens my mail, pays bills, does my business bookkeeping, works with my tax accountant at tax time, files paperwork and keeps track of contracts, investments, property taxes, franchise taxes, partnerships, trusts, charities, real estate, etc. I can trust her to handle these sort of things correctly. Now, I can always find any finance related document I'm looking for because of her.
I do trust her completely. She grew up and lives in the area and has a family that has ties to many of my social contacts. Nevertheless, I'm careful about security: I maintain control of all check signing, I'm notified electronically of all non-trivial charges and account transfers, I maintain exclusive control of all of my accounts, I own and control the computers that she uses, and require 2-factor authentication for logins to access business mail addressed to her account (I'm the administrator of the email system). She prepares deposit slips for me, but I'm the one that makes the deposits. I could let her do more, but I do all of the interactions with my financial institutions downloading statements, checking balances, setting up direct deposits and so forth. I just give her piles of pdfs to go through that I have downloaded or scanned.
Having an accountant that takes care of all of my personal and business financial affairs makes my life much easier.
I didn't start out this way; I started out with more traditional personal assistants. These were usually younger people that I trusted enough to babysit my elementary school age daughter, pick up my dry cleaning, and perhaps do some shopping for me. This was helpful, but I wouldn't have trusted them to do the things my accountant does. I've discovered that having a real accountant working for me saves much more time. I've also had a few more problems with "personal assistants" because the relationship is inherently a bit personal. One may have to deal with requests like "It's my boyfriend's birthday next month, do you think I could have a party for 25 people on your boat?"
The cost of a having a personal accountant is higher, but she does a great deal of work that I don't enjoy. Because she does some of the work that my tax accountant would have to do anyway, I end up with somewhat lower tax preparation bills.
I found that an actual CPA is very helpful to me. She has an accounting degree from a top notch school and years of experience working for a Fortune 500 company. However, she wanted more control over her schedule because of her young children so she worked for me a couple days for a few hours each time. She had other clients as well, but I know very little about them since she doesn't talk about them. She has worked for me for at least ten years. I don't need her every day and she comes and goes on her own schedule.
She picks up and opens my mail, pays bills, does my business bookkeeping, works with my tax accountant at tax time, files paperwork and keeps track of contracts, investments, property taxes, franchise taxes, partnerships, trusts, charities, real estate, etc. I can trust her to handle these sort of things correctly. Now, I can always find any finance related document I'm looking for because of her.
I do trust her completely. She grew up and lives in the area and has a family that has ties to many of my social contacts. Nevertheless, I'm careful about security: I maintain control of all check signing, I'm notified electronically of all non-trivial charges and account transfers, I maintain exclusive control of all of my accounts, I own and control the computers that she uses, and require 2-factor authentication for logins to access business mail addressed to her account (I'm the administrator of the email system). She prepares deposit slips for me, but I'm the one that makes the deposits. I could let her do more, but I do all of the interactions with my financial institutions downloading statements, checking balances, setting up direct deposits and so forth. I just give her piles of pdfs to go through that I have downloaded or scanned.
Having an accountant that takes care of all of my personal and business financial affairs makes my life much easier.
I didn't start out this way; I started out with more traditional personal assistants. These were usually younger people that I trusted enough to babysit my elementary school age daughter, pick up my dry cleaning, and perhaps do some shopping for me. This was helpful, but I wouldn't have trusted them to do the things my accountant does. I've discovered that having a real accountant working for me saves much more time. I've also had a few more problems with "personal assistants" because the relationship is inherently a bit personal. One may have to deal with requests like "It's my boyfriend's birthday next month, do you think I could have a party for 25 people on your boat?"
The cost of a having a personal accountant is higher, but she does a great deal of work that I don't enjoy. Because she does some of the work that my tax accountant would have to do anyway, I end up with somewhat lower tax preparation bills.