AZ CPA October 2016
What’s New in
Technology Matt Holdsworth CFO, CrossFit, Inc. The Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants y www.ascpa.com
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AZ CPA The Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants President & CEO
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Editor
Patricia Gannon
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Greg Nelson Molly Montgomery Mike Allen Jared Van Arsdale Brenda Blunt Michael Chesin Virginia DeSanto Marcus Feder Teresa Finley Julia Miessner Mark Patton Jeffrey Quick Curtiss Smith Nancy Thomas Char Woodall
Immediate Past Chair Rob Dubberly AICPA Council Members
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Chapter Presidents Southern Chapter Northern Chapter
Cathy Poore Bethany de Alva Southwest Chapter Jennifer Sullivan North-Central Chapter Ellen Carpenter AZ CPA is published by the Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants (ASCPA) to provide information, news and trends in the profession of accounting. It is distributed 10 times a year as a regular service to members of the Society. The ASCPA, its members, board of directors and administrative staff assume no responsibility for advertisements herein. The ASCPA and the above people also assume no liability for business decisions made by readers in reference to statements and/or claims in articles or advertisements within this publication. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the ASCPA.
Arizona Society of CPAs 4801 E. Washington St., Suite 225-B Phoenix, AZ 85034-2021 Telephone (602) 252-4144 AZ Toll-Free (888) 237-0700 www.ascpa.com
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
AZ CPA Volume 32 Number 8
October 2016
Features
11
In Good Company Matt Holdsworth, CFO of CrossFit, Inc., combines work and fitness. by Patty Gannon
Is Cloud Computing Really Secure? 13
Find out what you need to do to cover your bases and your assets in the cloud. by Michael D. Peters
15
Anyone Can Create Fillable PDF Forms
Filliable PDF forms can be generated quickly and easily using your existing tools. by Karl Egnatoff
Columns & Departments
19
Chair’s Message by W. Gregory Nelson, CPA
6
Are You Backed Up? A look at affordable backup and recovery options. by Scott Reemelin
Member News
7
A Dash of SALT by James Busby, Jr., CPA
9
Management: Moving Action 23 Change into Results
Quick Quiz
25
Classifieds 26
Change Management can help move your team from point A to point B while maximizing efficiency and effectiveness.
by Carli A. Castro, CPA Arizona Society of Certified Public Accountants 4801 E. Washington St., Suite 225-B Phoenix, Arizona 85034-2021 www.ascpa.com
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ASCPA Chair’s Message
Technology and CPAs Jill Watson was known among her students at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) as one of the most responsive teaching assistants (TAs) for the online course of more than 300 students. Of the nine TAs for the class, she would often be the first to respond to student questions. She was also the TA most likely to remind students of due dates and post online questions to spark conversations. Most students envisioned Ms. Watkins as an energetic 20-something Ph.D. candidate. It was later revealed that she was actually the product of Georgia Tech’s Artificial Intelligence class. The class developed Ms. Watkins using the same IBM analytics system used
by W. Gregory Nelson, CPA CPAs are data driven. We’re inclined to create order out of chaos. The pace of innovation in technology and the effect on our profession will continue to accelerate.
on Mr. Watkins, the computer that excelled at the TV game show Jeopardy a few years ago. Students were unaware that her responsibility was to respond to many of the 10,000 messages posted by students if her algorithms reached a 97 percent confidence level for the accuracy of her response. Technological advances and information are moving at a rapid pace and have a profound effect on the accounting profession. While we increase our efficiency with tax and accounting software applications, audit sampling, and data retrieval and analysis, we’re also challenged to keep up with emerging and ever-changing technology. Words and concepts that didn’t exist a few years ago are becoming more commonplace in business discussions. Over the past several weeks some of the technology discussions in my office included the terms: blockchain technology, cloud computing, cyberattack, virtualization, big data and the internet gig economy. (I’ll admit that I Googled more than one of these terms.) Discussions about “personal computing” have been replaced by “cloud computing.” In my company, 11 of our 21 major applications have moved from in-house, server-based applications to the cloud and are now accessed through the internet. Cloud computing is revolutionizing the way data storage is bought, sold and delivered. It provides anywhere access to employees. Cloud computing, supported by Amazon Web Services, now represents $10 billion of Amazon’s annual revenue, and with a 64 percent annual growth rate, it’s the most profitable line of its businesses. CPAs are data driven. We’re inclined to create order out of chaos. The pace of innovation in technology and the effect on our profession will continue to accelerate. Fortunately, we are also learning oriented. Although we’re cautious about
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Member News change, we recognize that understanding and adapting to new technology will be critical to our individual and collective success. Luckily, we have resources and learning opportunities focused on technology provided by the ASCPA. On Dec. 7, the Society is sponsoring the Technology for Accounting Conference. You will have the opportunity to learn more about Bitcoin, blockchain, cloud computing and other emerging technology topics. I hope you will consider taking part in these interesting discussions. As members of our profession, learning opportunities abound for forward-looking technologies. With good reason, our view through our “CPA windshield” must be larger than our rear-view mirror. n
Lisa L. Daniels, CPA, KPMG, was chosen as one of the Phoenix Business Journal’s most admired leaders. Robert S. Shanley, CPA, relocated to London to join KPMG-UK as a partner in the firm’s US-Accounting and Reporting Group (USARG). The USARG handles the filing reviews for various US SEC foreign private issuer registrants and 14A offerings. Russell B. Berry, CPA, a partner with Karpinski, Berry, Adler & Company, was named a 40-Year Honorary Member of the American Institute of CPAs. Lohman Company, PLLC’s partner, Mary Clare Jordan, CPA, recently joined Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Legacy Resource Group.
Henry & Horne, LLP, has been named one of Arizona’s Most Admired Companies by Arizona Business Magazine. The firm was also listed in Inside Public Accounting’s annual Top 200 Firms list ranking 128, which is a jump from 141 in 2015. Laura S. Leopardi, CPA, was published by the American Bar Association in its Spring 2016 Issue of Family Law Quarterly co-authoring an article with Paula G. Kirby, Esq. entitled “The Challenging Phenomenon of Gray Divorces.” Adela E. Jiménez, CPA, COO & CFO of the ASCPA, was selected to participate in the inaugural class of 50 Women Can Change The World Leadership Program.
This webinar will be valuable for both mentors and mentees to ensure a successful experience. Also, hear about the ASCPA’s new Mentor Match program and how you can put this learning into action. Speaker: Carli Ann Castro, CPA
Reach New Levels of Success Through Mentoring Oct. 18 — Webinar: Noon to 1 p.m. Mentoring is an effective tool to assist people in reaching their personal and professional goals. In this webinar, learn: • How to be an effective mentor or mentee • Goal setting tips to ensure accountability • Questions and discussion topics that will be valuable for your mentoring meetings • What you can do to improve your mentor/ mentee relationship
Carli A. Castro CPA, is a professional strategy coach and consultant for 4 Seasons of Change. Castro leverages her extensive work experience in public accounting to assist professionals and their organizations to move towards a preferred state while managing change and transitions. She currently works with corporations, universities and nonprofit organizations to infuse strategic changes. Some changes include: leadership development, balanced scorecard strategies, marketing and branding, succession planning and execution, executive board development, and quality management process improvements. Castro is a CPA in Arizona and is pursuing her Ph.D. in performance psychology. She also has a Master of Science degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University.
Learn more at www.ascpa.com
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
A Dash of SALT
Changes to Arizona’s Sales Tax Deduction for Purchases of Electricity and Gas by Manufacturers This month’s state and local tax (SALT) column explains how Arizona’s sales tax deduction for purchases of electricity and gas by qualifying manufacturers is changing, and when the various changes will go into effect. Arizona provides a deduction from its state and county transaction privilege (sales) taxes for utility companies’ gross income from sales of electricity and natural gas to customers who are “principally engaged” in manufacturing or smelting operations and use at least 51 percent of the electricity and gas in such operations. Arizona municipalities may, but are not required to, provide a corresponding exemption or deduction. To date, no Arizona municipality provides a corresponding exemption or deduction. Because there are just a couple of smelters in Arizona, this article focuses on manufacturers.
Differing Interpretations of the Deduction Led to Amendments Ever since the deduction went into effect on August 1, 2014, the Arizona Department of Revenue (DOR) interpreted it in a manner that resulted in some large, well-known companies not qualifying for the deduction — even though virtually everyone in the business community felt that those companies should qualify. Accordingly, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s staff worked with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and DOR officials to come up with language to amend the statutory terms of the deduction during the 2016 legislative session. The resulting changes were enacted as HB 2676.
Changes Required by HB 2676
by James G. Busby, Jr., CPA
James G. Busby, Jr., CPA, is a state and local tax attorney at The Cavanagh Law Firm. Busby previously worked in the SALT departments at Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche. Before entering private practice, Busby was in charge of all transaction privilege (sales) tax audits at the Arizona Department of Revenue. If you have any questions, please contact the author. He can be reached at (602) 322-4146 or JBusby@CavanaghLaw.com.
“Manufacturing” was defined in the 2014 version of the deduction to mean “the performance as a business of an integrated series of operations that places tangible personal property in a form, composition or character different from that in which it was acquired and transforms it into a different product with a distinctive name, character or use. Manufacturing does not include processing, fabricating, job printing, mining, generating electricity or operating a restaurant.” Because DOR felt that some companies did not qualify for the deduction given the exclusion for processing and fabricating, HB 2676 struck those words from the exclusion. However, the bill added that publishing and packaging are excluded from the definition of manufacturing. The bill also eliminated the requirement that manufacturers must use at least 51 percent of the electricity in manufacturing operations to qualify for the deduction.
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Finally, HB 2676 eliminated the requirement that a utility business’s customer must be “principally engaged” in manufacturing to qualify for the deduction and, in its place, provided that only sales to “qualified manufacturing” businesses qualify for the deduction. To be a qualified manufacturing business, a business must satisfy at least one of the following: (1) manufacture products in Arizona of which at least 51 percent will be exported out of state for final sale, (2) derive at least 51 percent of its income from the sale of products manufactured by the business, (3) use at least 51 percent of its square footage in Arizona for manufacturing or activities directly related to manufacturing, (4) employ at least 51 percent of its Arizona workforce in manufacturing or activities directly related to manufacturing, or (5) use at least 51 percent of the value of its
assets capitalized in Arizona for manufacturing or activities directly related to manufacturing. All changes in H.B. 2676 are effective on January 1, 2017.
Additional Changes to the Deduction Two additional bills enacted during the 2016 session also change the deduction. The changes implemented SB 1505, HB 2025, and HB 2676 all have different effective dates. S.B. 1505 provides that, effective August 6, 2016, proceeds from gas transportation services provided to qualifying manufacturers are included in the deduction. Before that time, those proceeds are excluded from the deduction. The definition of “gas transportation services” did not change; it still means “the services of transporting natural gas to a natural gas customer
or to a natural gas distribution facility if the natural gas was purchased from a supplier other than the utility.” H.B. 2025 provides that, effective September 1, 2016, the deduction applies to proceeds from sales of both natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, commonly referred as propane.
Practice Tip Some businesses clearly qualify for this deduction but do not realize it is available. For others, it may not be as obvious, but they too may fall under the relatively broad language used to define manufacturing for purposes of the deduction. Either way, they probably would appreciate it if you bring this potential tax savings opportunity to their attention and help them determine whether it applies. n
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
In Good Company
A Great Fit
Matt Holdsworth, CPA, CFO of CrossFit Inc. Combines Work and Fitness When your workday might include wiring funds to Madrid for bomb-sniffing dogs, or finding out if you can do business in Iran, or trying to determine just how Brexit will affect your business, you know you don’t have the typical accounting job. Matt Holdsworth, CPA, CFO of CrossFit, Inc. and founding partner of Holdsworth Chadd Fuller CPAs PC in Prescott seems to thrive working for CrossFit with all its unique challenges. And it certainly has kept him in shape. Holdsworth was born in Flagstaff, graduated from Northern Arizona University and moved to Prescott in 2002, where he started his firm and where he and his wife are raising their five children (with another on the way). He started doing CrossFit to stay in shape and keep up with his kids. “Working as a CPA, you spend a lot of time behind a desk. You can get away with that when you are young, but in my mid-thirties I said, ‘ Wow. I’m in really bad shape.’ So coincidentally I began to work out at CrossFit about the same time I met the owner, CEO Greg Glassman, in 2007.” Glassman lived in Prescott for a short time when CrossFit was just getting started and was still relatively small. “At the time, the business was a good fit for
my accounting firm,” says Holdsworth. “I was their outsource guy for a time, and they hired an inside CFO, and then they came back to me last year and asked me to take on the CFO position.” The headquarters of CrossFit is now in Santa Cruz and they have another large office in San Diego. Holdsworth has a team of five accounting employees in Prescott, with two more data analysts in Santa Cruz. He travels to Santa Cruz once a month to meet with the team. Holdsworth said having the accounting office in Prescott is preferable to Glassman, who likes to keep the finances separate. But he claims working virtually is easy. “We use NetSuites and everything is in the Cloud,” says Holdsworth. “The company is super sophisticated in the online world. The company actually was ‘born’ online.” CrossFit started by posting workouts for free on CrossFit. com. People would go and post their times and talk about techniques and how to improve their workouts. Then they started posting videos and eventually created the licensing concept. The CrossFit licensing model is very simple. They license the CrossFit name and the individual gyms (or boxes as they are called in CrossFit language) are run separately by the individual owner. The tight-knit CrossFit community is what has led to much of their success. “The subculture of CrossFitters is unique – people who do CrossFit, they become ambassadors for the company.” “At my first meeting,” says Holdsworth, “I wore my ‘accounting clothes.’ I had a suit and tie on. One of the execs said, ‘Man, did you just come from a funeral? Why are you dressed like that?’ So I knew I had to work harder to fit into their culture,” he says. He now wears CrossFit T-shirts and shorts to work, and he works out at a CrossFit gym several times a week. “I dressed up today because I put on pants,” he laughs. When asked about the privately owned company’s worth, Holdsworth didn’t divulge the value, although in a Forbes interview, CEO Glassman said the company is worth about $4 Billion
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and made $100 million in profit in 2015. The company receives income from licensing and training fees and income from a partnership with Reebok and from the CrossFit Games, which are televised on ESPN. “We have affiliates all over the world that use the CrossFit trademark, so we spend a lot of time defending our trademark worldwide,” says Holdsworth. Most of his time is spent coordinating with other departments. “For instance, our employees fly all over the world for seminars and we wanted all of our flights job costed to each seminar so we can tell where we are making money,” says Holdsworth. “We take 60 to 70 flights per month. So we worked with VISA to actually include information that we can identify at the very beginning of the transaction so that it automatically gets captured in the job cost. That project took a bit to put together.” “We just implemented NetSuites, so for two years we were really focused on improving our financial system. We were on Quickbooks and we needed more support. We do multi currency,
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VAT compliance, we have an ecommerce store and we have to collect sales tax throughout the U.S. “The system for the most part has worked out great because NetSuites is so flexible. Now we can just add more things to it.” What is his biggest challenge? “Our brand has exploded worldwide, so trying to remain internationally compliant is definitely my biggest challenge,” he says. “You don’t want to slow down the business for compliance issues. We have people inside of countries like Iran who want to affiliate, but there is a lot of complexity around doing business with them. So we are trying to understand what the guidelines are and work with the Office of Foreign Assets Control rules.” “I will meet our subsidiary in London in a few weeks. We use an accounting firm in London, and now we are trying to figure out how Brexit will affect us. “What is cool about CrossFit is that you can go almost anywhere in the world and find a box. In the U.S., there is always one close by. We have 13,000
worldwide affiliates. There are even two in Malta!” And what about those bomb sniffing dogs? “We had a tournament in Madrid, and right beforehand we discovered that we had to have bomb-sniffing dogs at the event for security or the event would be canceled. We got this contract (in Spanish) and needed to wire funds to pay for the dogs that day. Just one interesting challenge of my day!” Holdsworth is still a partner in his accounting firm, although his two other partners and 14 employees handle most of the caseload. He is active in the Prescott community, and has served as past chair of the Prescott Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the Prescott Little League (his favorite volunteer job). He has also served on the ASCPA Board of Directors and as president of the North-Central Chapter. Besides being a CrossFit enthusiast, Holdsworth loves to mountain bike and recently completed the 62-mile Prescott Circle Trail in “one very long day.” n — Patty Gannon
Is Cloud Computing Really Secure? A Pragmatic Approach - Pt. One by Michael D. Peters
Considering Cloud Computing? So, you are making plans to move into the cloud and are considering your options offered by the plethora of providers out there but you have questions and concerns. Congratulations! The bottom line up front is yes, cloud computing can be very secure. You just need to cover your bases and your assets first. We will review some of the critical concerns you should have and hopefully guide you to a successful end result with this article. The best thing you are doing at this point is to be cautious so our task here now is to help you look before you leap. Your organization’s survival may well depend on it. When contracting with a cloud service provider, such as a data center (Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)), it is important for companies to ensure that their provider possesses the cyber security-related certifications and compliance standards that are applicable to the company’s industry. Data centers, as well as service providers (Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS)) who contract with data centers, all play a part in this cloud ecosystem and ultimately may make-or-break your business so taking a pragmatic and wellinformed approach to cloud cyber security is essential.
Black Hat Marketing You may see a wide variety of hosting certifications listed on a service providers set of credentials and assurances to its current and prospective customers that are indicators the company is taking privacy, security, confidentiality, integrity and availability seriously. For example, some service providers who use SSAE 16-compliant data centers imply that they are, somehow, SSAE 16 compliant by proxy. This is not the case; just because you use a provider who is SSAE 16 compliant does not mean that your company is SSAE compliant, and to imply such is black-hat marketing. This is of course also true of all other third-party attestation reports and certifications which may include any combination of SOC 1, SOC 2, SOC 3, FedRAMP, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and others. The bottom line here when evaluating a service provider is to request a copy of their report and review it.
Third-Party Attestations Be concerned if the vendor you are evaluating conducted the assessment
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and issued the report themselves. They may not be qualified or properly trained which makes the report meaningless. Remember that their breach may become your breach and about 60 percent of all SMB businesses are out of business post-breach. If you are unsure of how to evaluate the risks associated with your vendors, enlist the assistance of a professional proactive cyber security firm with a specialization in risk assessments. These assessments are not expensive and when considering the alternative of the costs associated with a breach which averages 5.9 Million USD, it’s just prudent planning. Anything is Possible in Contract Law
My big lesson learned in law school was that in contracts, all things are possible. As you’d expect, service p ro v i d e r s i n t e n d o n e n g a g i n g your organization in a way that is contractually advantageous to their business interests and not yours. The important thing to remember is that contracts are negotiated instruments and you should look for a few key elements when considering entrusting a cloud provider with your business. Before you engage that service provider officially in contract, there are a number of privacy, security, confidentiality, integrity and availability aspects to look for or negotiate in if they are absent. In my experience, in most cases they are missing so it’s incumbent upon you to make sure your interests are protected and represented in contract.
Right to Test Most service providers prohibit vulnerability assessment and penetration testing activities by default. Because all compliance frameworks include security testing it is impossible for these providers to be competitive without providing a means for some form of notification and approval process allowing customers to assess their hosted environments; however this almost never occurs with hosted platforms such as SaaS applications.
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Find out more about this topic at the Technology for Accounting Conference on Dec. 7 - www.ascpa.com. You should either include the right to test the platform you are considering or require that the third-party provider conduct these assessments with a reasonable frequency to be meaningful such as on a monthly basis and make the results available to you.
Security Testing Pitfalls It should be important to note that the assessment frequency is not uniformly adopted across the industry assessment frameworks. For example, the SSAE 16 only requires that quarterly based vulnerability assessments be conducted but do not require penetration testing. While software vendors are patching vulnerabilities regularly, hackers are creating system exploits every day, the industry’s lackadaisical approach to vulnerability assessments and penetration testing should be reevaluated.
Right to Be Notified A typical exclusion from service agreements you may not really think about but one that is vital to your own business continuity and disaster recovery is concerned with your right to be notified in the event a potential or actual security incident occurs to the third-party provider. By definition, a breach is the unlawful and unauthorized acquisition of personal information that compromises the security, confidentiality, or integrity of personal information. I strongly recommend that you include in your contract negotiations with your third-party service provider a 24-hour notification clause to your organization in the event that the provider suspects or is certain of a breach, incident, mishandling, leak or exposure of your data. Do not overlook those business relationships your vendor may have with other providers.
Breach Notifications While outsourcing your operations to a service provider may make a lot of business sense to you, it does not eliminate the possibility that you would be required to notify your customers, employees, shareholders or the board in the event a security breach or incident occurs. While you do get to transfer or share some of your business risks to that thirdparty provider, you are not absolved from the damage to your business completely and that risk potential could be catastrophic to your business. Catastrophic meaning your business may not survive. The majority of companies within the small- to medium-size space do not survive six months beyond a breach. Right to Access
It is typical for service providers to keep customers in the dark and sometimes this lack of transparency involving your data may persist upwards of 90 days which when you are answering to the board, insurance providers, law enforcement and executive management will seem like an unreasonable amount of time and you’d be quite justified in feeling that way. The bottom line here is that if you do not have it in contract language, it is not enforceable and it does not exist. Companies, like people, behaviorally transform when under duress which is generally not a good thing. n Michael Peters is the serial entrepreneur and innovator behind the IT Audit Machine, Policy Machine, Cybervisor, Your Personal CXO, the Security Trifecta, and the globallypopular Holistic Operational Readiness Security Evaluation (HORSE) Project. He is currently the CEO of Continuum GRC.
Anyone Can Create Fillable PDF Forms by Karl Egnatoff People in todays’ business world regularly work with the portable document format (PDF) file type. The ability these documents have to be viewed across all operating system platforms and on a variety of device types is the main reason they are so popular. PDFs are not only a viable electronic storage format, but can also serve as electronic fillable forms. Just about everyone has completed a fillable PDF document at one time or another and found the process to be easy and intuitive. Most computer users believe that the information workers who create fillable PDFs have had extensive training or are accomplished programmers. This is a misconception – most fillable PDFs are generated quickly and easily using tools built into Adobe Acrobat Standard or Acrobat Pro. In 1996, only a few short years after PDFs were introduced, the standard was altered to include the capability of adding fillable fields to documents. This expanded the formats capabilities, as it was no longer simply a document storage file type, but was also a viable data capture tool. This enhancement, along with increased security functionality and strengthened support for graphical content, make the PDF an easy-to-use replacement for paper forms. The tools available in Acrobat today that allow for the creation and manipulation of fillable forms are impressive and often underutilized. Additionally, the ability for end users to fill in forms using the free Acrobat Reader application is extremely beneficial. The capabilities to move and work with the information captured by fillable forms are also significant. PDF forms can be created from existing PDF documents, other file types, such as those generated by Microsoft Word or Excel, or from paper forms captured
via the use of a quality scanner. Once a user decides to build a fillable form, she starts by selecting the “Create Form” functionality in Acrobat. She then uses the selection screens to choose which document to use. The form creation routines will automatically add field labels, fillable fields, and design a tab stop sequence by “reading” the base document being converted. The form building engine looks for such things as underlines or strategically placed blank spaces that are aligned with certain types of punctuation in order to place fillable form components. While the automated form tools are impressive, they are not infallible. Because this is the case, Acrobat, once it has finished the form building process, leaves the user in Form Editing Mode. This allows her to add, remove or change the properties of fields with very little difficulty. Some of the properties that are alterable include the font and font size used, the size and position of each field, text and number formatting elements and field content justification settings. Users that have had a small amount of instruction, designed to teach them about the form creation features, can also add calculations to form fields to even further automate the form completion process. Calculations are only available for fields designed to capture numeric information. They are, however, extremely powerful and can utilize a number of mathematical operators as well as constant values and values entered into other form fields. Once a form, or group of forms, have been filled out and saved, the data can be moved, without the need to rekey it, into a database or spreadsheet using one of several functionalities available in Acrobat. Acrobat Standard and Pro even have a feature, designed to work in conjunction with the Adobe Document Cloud, that allows PDF developers to distribute documents (both fillable and non-fillable) to those that need them. Form end users are not required to have either of the licensed versions of Acrobat (Standard or Pro). This is because if the document is saved properly after it is created, users that
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602.631.2300 | 800.231.1363
have only the free Acrobat Reader software can complete a fillable PDF and save it so the data entered is preserved. Form creators must save documents as reader-extended fillable PDFs in order that those completing the forms have the ability to store the information they enter. One other important fact to touch on is the new subscription model that is being used by Adobe. Those that need Acrobat Standard can now pay a monthly subscription fee of $12.99; the fee for Acrobat Pro is $14.99. We should note that both products are still available under a conventional pricing model ($299 for Standard and $449 for Pro). So the next time you have a need for a form, you can make it easier on
yourself, as well as those that must complete the document, by building a fillable PDF. The capabilities that now exist in Adobe Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro make the process relatively straight-forward and easy. Creating fillable PDFs can make users and organizations more productive and will also make them appear to be more technologically savvy and professional. Fillable PDFs also make the data they capture easy to accumulate and use. n Karl Egnatoff, CPA (in South Carolina), CITP, is a member of Phoenix Beach, LLC. He is a popular instructor and will be teaching several IT seminars for the ASCPA this month. Contact: Karl@phoenixbeach.com.
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The Technology for Accounting Conference is focused on providing CPAs in all fields of accounting with the tools and skills needed to keep up to date with changes in technology. We have an amazing lineup of local and national speakers: How Bitcoin and the Blockchain will Revolutionize the Accounting Profession Doug Sleeter, The Sleeter Group Cyber Security: A Special Focus on Cloud Computing Michael Peters, Continuum GRC, Lazarus Alliance, Inc. What’s Hot in Excel Catherine Jennings, P3.World, The Focus Group Consulting, LLC Finance and IT: Working Together More Effectively Bill Richardson, Richardson Management Consulting, LLC Cyber Fraud: Scary Stories and Then Some Bob Minniti, Minniti CPA, LLC Technology for Accounting Tips & Tricks Tanya Luken, Tanya Luken, CPA, PC & Kyle Grove, CloudIT Technology Overview and Policy Environment Affecting Accounting Steve Zylstra, Arizona Technology Council Learn more at www.ascpa.com/conferences
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
2017 Arizona Tax Guide Order the only comprehensive guide on Arizona taxes Authors: Pat Derdenger, Steve Rodis and Ed Zollars
Spiral-Bound Book:
New in the 2017 Arizona Tax Guide:
• Arizona becomes the first state to conform to the new partnership examination regime enacted by Congress • Major revisions are made to Arizona charitable tax credits, expanding those that can be made after Dec. 31, as well as separating the credit for contributions to certain charitable organization from the credit for contributions to foster care organizations • Status of sales tax simplification efforts
The Arizona Tax Guide includes the following guides: • The Arizona Income Tax Guide is a comprehensive reference that highlights the differences between Arizona and Federal income tax law and provides references to the Arizona Revised Statutes for a more in-depth analysis. It highlights the differences between individual, corporate, partnership and trust taxes, includes tax tables, and is arranged in a way that facilitates research on any topic. • The Arizona Sales and Use Tax Guide is a resource for anyone preparing or filing city sales and use tax returns. The guide details the various sales and use tax rates that apply to each type of sale or product as well as the many exceptions, administrative provisions and Model Cities Tax Code provisions. • The Arizona Personal Property Tax Guide outlines the nature of the tax, reporting requirements, analysis of forms, audit and appeal procedures and small business exemptions. • The Arizona Unclaimed Property Guide covers Arizona rules that apply to unclaimed property, how to report and pay, and how to file your claim.
Pre-order by Dec. 15, 2016 and save Guides will be available for delivery mid-January 2017. Name ___________________________________________ Company ________________________________________ Address ________________________________________ City ___________________State _____ Zip ___________ Phone __________________ Fax ____________________ Email ____________________________________________
❒ CPA ❒ Attorney ❒ EA ❒ Other: ________________
Order and learn more about the guides at www.ascpa.com
Pre-Order by Dec. 15, 2016 ❒ Members of ASCPA, Phoenix Tax Workshop, State Bar of Arizona or Enrolled Agents: $85
❒ Nonmembers: $105 After Dec. 15, 2016 ❒ Members of ASCPA, Phoenix Tax Workshop, State Bar of Arizona or Enrolled Agents: $95
❒ Nonmembers: $115 Electronic PDF:
❒ Members of ASCPA, Phoenix Tax Workshop, State Bar of Arizona or Enrolled Agents: $79
❒ Nonmembers: $99 *Call (602) 252-4144, ext. 200, for special pricing on orders of five or more.
Method of Payment: ❒ Check ❒ VISA ❒ MasterCard ❒ American Express Name on Card ___________________________________ Card Number ____________________________________ Exp. Date ____________ Amount $ ________________ Signature of Cardholder__________________________
Please return this form and payment to:
Arizona Society of CPAs 4801 E. Washington St., Ste. 225-B Phoenix, AZ 85034 Fax credit card orders to: (602) 252-1511
Sales tax, standard shipping and handling prices are included.
*The ASCPA will be processing checks submitted in payment as an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) transaction. Funds may be withdrawn from your account as soon as the same day we receive your payment.
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S:9.25”
Family time or overtime. New rules around overtime laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act starting on December 1st may impact the way your business clients classify and compensate their employees. See how ADP® can help your clients make sense of wage and hour regulations, including the new overtime pay rules, so they won’t miss pizza night: adp.com/ASCPA
The ADP logo and ADP are registered trademarks of ADP, LLC. ADP A more human resource. is a service mark of ADP, LLC. Copyright © 2016 ADP, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
Are You Backed UP? A look at affordable Backup and Recovery options by Scot Reemelin The Goal of Backup and Recovery For the last three decades, the media of choice for system recovery has been backup to tape. As a business owner, you feel safe knowing that your critical data is covered by a daily, weekly and monthly backup routine that runs like clockwork. If “you’re only as good as your last backup,” the question you should ask yourself is when was the last time you did a system recovery test? Testing your recovery strategy should be a top priority. This mindset is still true today, but the backup-to-tape strategies that we once built our business continuity plans around are rapidly going away because they don’t provide the level of data protection and recoverability that they once did. Today’s best business continuity plans follow a 3-2-1 strategy. Make at least three copies of your data, using two different backup formats, with one backup location being off-site or in the cloud.
Volume Shadow Copy and Previous Versions Let’s start by talking about an easy to implement, rapid data recovery option. Today’s Microsoft operating systems support the ability to recover previous copies of your files and folders without restoring from tape. On a Microsoft file server, this is done by configuring Volume Shadow Copy. When Volume Shadow copy is configured, it performs a copy on write function to a space on the server’s data volume that enables users and network administrators to rapidly recover damaged, deleted or overwritten files. If your business is not taking advantage of this rapid recovery strategy, you’re wasting time and money loading and rewinding tapes in order to restore deleted or damaged data from tape. In fact, in the time it just took you to read this paragraph, Volume Shadow Copy could have restored my full article.
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AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
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Data Deduplication – What Is It? What is data duplication? Only the most important data compression technology to come along in recent years! The goal of block level data deduplication is to store more data with less space. This method of file system compression is done by eliminating copies of repeating data from your server’s storage volume. Microsoft Server 2012 offers data deduplication on your data storage volumes and many of the current backup programs. Some backup to cloud providers now offer backup data deduplication as well. Allow me to oversimplify for a moment and illustrate how deduplication is analogous to a box of Legos. Imagine your monthly balance sheet is represented by the blue Legos, your income statement is represented by a black Legos and your cash flow statement is represented by green Legos. You email the accounting team to let them know that the documents are ready for them to work on. Your file server’s drive storage volume is the Lego box keeping all of your colored blocks of data safe and secure. Along comes data deduplication and it dumps all of your Legos on the floor! It quickly arranges the blocks of data by color. Now, all of the copies of your monthly balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement are on the floor in color coded piles. Next, it does something amazing and tosses out all the large, eight block Legos and keeps one full blue eight block Lego that represents your monthly Balance Sheet. Data deduplication does the same to your income statement and cash flow statement by tossing out the duplicate copies of data and only saving one large eight block Lego on the file server. Now when you look back at your Lego box it contains one eight block Lego and a bunch of smaller color coded two block Lego data chunks that have replaced all the big eight block Legos. Now, when the accounting department updates the monthly balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement with their changes, data deduplication is intelligent enough to know exactly what colored Lego two
block data chunk needs changed on the file server. By eliminating the need to move around all of the eight block Legos each time a file is changed you save a ton of disk space. If you are backing up to a cloud provider you are reducing the size of the Lego blocks that are moving across your network and being uploaded, which reduces your network bandwidth, saving you time. Because your data has been deduplicated before the backup data is sent you are now only sending the cloud provider the two block Lego chunks of data that changed saving you storage space and saving you money.
Data Storage vs. Data Archiving Ready to save big? When it comes to storing data on tape or in the cloud long-term, infrequent access to data archive storage is by far cheaper than short tear easily accessed data storage. So why do so many businesses pay someone else for short-term data storage when they should be doing that part on premises? Business recovery plans (BCP) are designed to help a company recover from an office closing event. In some cases, a company may want instant access to its stored data if down time can’t be tolerated and money is not a constraint. For the rest of us, our BCP probably states some sort of plan to resume operations in an alternative location. If that’s the case, page one of the BCP play book should outline who to contact to execute the Continuation of Operation Plan and what vendors must be contacted to restore the data and set up a temporary infrastructure. Let’s face it, by the time you get that done 24 to 48 hours have passed and Google and AWS have already pulled your data out of cold storage and its ready for you to retrieve. If that’s not fast enough for you, there are other cloud backup and recovery providers that will provide you with a service level agreement that guarantees delivery of your company data on a physical hard drive shuttle that can be sent anywhere within 24 hours. By planning your backup and recovery strategy around the maximum
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tolerable downtime and the recovery time objective, you will be able to make a wise upfront investment that will save your business from making costly disaster recovery mistakes.
Arizona Federal Tax Institute Conference November 3-4 Attend one day or two days to get updated on tax issues from national and local experts. Topics Include: The Year in Review in Estate Planning; Economic Update: What Data Actually Matters • Income Tax Planning for IRAs During Life and Beyond • A Transactional Approach to Required International Information Reporting • Representing Taxpayers in Domestic and International Criminal Tax Investigations • Inversions, Admissions, Taxes • Ethics: 2015-2016 in Review • Google Research; 2016 Representation Update • How to Take Advantage of the Permanent Section 1202 Gain Exclusion • Target Partnership Allocations: • Individual Income Tax Update
Learn more and register at www.ascpa.com/conferences
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Call today for more information or to schedule a consultation.
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There are a number of affordable backup to disk hardware platforms and backup software vendors to choose from, but I’m going to save you the leg work and focus on two. The first is a one-stop hardware and software combination that is rapidly gaining recognition in the backup and recovery space provided by Synology. Synology offers a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system that you can bundle with their backup software that follows the 3-2-1 strategy outlined above. Available at CDW, the Synology DS415+NAS Server with DSM 5.2 is available for under $800. To address Steps 2 & 1 you need to add off-site data archiving to Amazon Glacier or Google Nearline. The second recommendation is CloudBerry. They have a number of great backup options and they support just about every cloud storage provider in the market today. They are a bring your own hardware solution so you use an inexpensive 4 TB Seagate, WD or Synology NAS that doesn’t come with backup software and create your own 3-2-1 backup strategy. The CloudBerry backup platform can be configured to automate your backup to disk and backup to cloud all from one interface. CloudBerry also offers one unique service. CloudBerry can backup from one cloud storage provider to another. So follow a 3-2-1 back up plan and you will be sure to be as good as your last back up. n Scot Reemelin is manager of cyber security for CBIZ.You may contact him at Sreemelin@cbiz.com or (602) 650-6257.
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Change Management: Moving Action into Results by Carli A. Castro, CPA How often to you find yourself frustrated that you simply can’t get your project done as effectively and efficiently as possible? With the budget constraints that are required in meeting the demands of our profession as CPAs, it may consistently feel like a losing battle. What’s even more aggravating is sitting down post-busy season and having those fleeting moments of personal reflection. What’s more complicated is that the one project is often simply an example of your entire book of business that went seemingly the same. All of the effort put in by you and your people didn’t translate to the bottom line that you were looking for or if it did you and your people are completely worn out. Either way, it’s time to do things differently. It’s time for change management. Change management as a basic concept is moving an individual, team or company from point A to point B, maximizing effectiveness and efficiency, while minimizing disruptions. Point A is the starting point or our present state. Point B is the end game or our desired state. The steps that take you from one point to the other is the transition or our journey. Change management as a more advance concept is a leadership tool. Such tools assist leaders in helping themselves and their people to do the right things. This tool in particular supports leaders in moving personal and team actions into results. The change management formula that is essential for all leaders to have in their toolkit is as follows:
Strategic Results = Quality of the Solution x Acceptance by the People Next, let’s dissect the formula. First, strategic results are what we are looking to accomplish. It is the direction set by the leader. A few examples may include: distinct client service, revenue growth, operational excellence, or talent development. Most often, the sought out strategic results are a combination thereof.
Secondly, the quality of the solution takes into account all processes, technologies and skills leveraged to achieve the strategic result. Solutions may be an audit program or tax software, a proprietary process used for a software implementation, or a customized training program for a specialty service offering. The more superior the quality of the solution, the more likely the strategic results will materialize. Unfortunately, even with the best solutions that money can buy, if your people don’t accept the solutions, the results are actions without results. Lastly, acceptance by your team is a part of the transition process. Inclusion of your people is best accomplished through three means: communication, learning and incentives. Each of these elements is meant to clear the path so that the team can complete the job being asked of them. Leaders should communicate with their team every step of the way to ensure clarity of the strategic results desired. The way to validate that communications are valuable to the process can be accomplished by a few simple tests. During the change management journey, the conversation should move from “why” are we doing this to “how” are we doing this. With the “how” now on the table, learning steps in. Any new skills that are required for the team to complete the transition, should be identified and proper training needs to take place. Once learning is handled, the leader must commit incentives. Incentives include binding compensation and other employee rewards directly to the strategic results. This encourages behavior changes by everyone on the team as each person has a stake in the game. Ideally, the incentives should cascade from the leader to all levels on the team. Now let’s revisit the formula by viewing it from two perspectives. In option number one, you have world class solutions at your fingertips but your team members choose not to use them. In option number two, you have good solutions but all team members use them to their fullest potential. Which option makes the most sense?
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Arizona Business Bank CoBiz Insurance CoBiz Private Client Advisors
You’re invited
FREE Foster Care Tax Credit Seminar and CPE Attend this seminar, earn CPE and learn about recent changes to the Foster Care Tax Credit. We’ll welcome legislative sponsor Kate Brophy McGee to discuss why she introduced HB 2641 to fully protect the Foster Care Tax Credit and how it works to help our kids around the state. You’ll also hear from the Department of Revenue and learn about the many tax credits available and how organizations qualify. Tuesday, November 15, 7:30 am to 9:00 am Ability360, Nina Mason Pulliam Conference Center 5025 E. Washington St., Phoenix, 85034 Continental breakfast served
RSVP
bit.ly/CoBizFosterCareEvent (URL is case sensitive)
Questions? Contact Cathy Valenzuela at 602.217.1559 or cvalenzuela@azbizbank.com. Proudly sponsored by the ASCPA and the CoBiz Financial family of companies.
Less than 5% of eligible businesses currently apply for the R&D Tax Credit
Are YOU leaving money on the table?
That’s right, the one that puts a larger investment in acceptance. Isn’t it astonishing on the impact of acceptance? Yet we continue to have a problem in our industry as most leaders are solely focused on the quality of the solution. Acceptance by the people is ignored, overlooked or dismissed at some point. Now it’s your turn to move the needle on your practice. The steps aren’t difficult, but do require your time and intention. To give each of you the start you need to begin your successful journey, answer the following questions. Step One: What strategic results do you seek for your book of business i.e. your desired state? Step Two: Where is your practice starting from or what is your present state? Step Three:What are the steps required to get from today to your end game? With these basic thoughts written down, you are ready to assemble your team to flesh out this strategy, then complete the rest of your formula, the quality of your solutions and acceptance of your people plans. Best of luck to a new approach in moving actions into results. n Carli A. Castro, CPA, is a professional strategy coach and consultant for 4 Seasons of Change. McClure is an ASCPA member and is pursuing her Ph.D. in performance psychology. She also has a Master of Science degree in leadership from Grand Canyon University. Contact her at carli4seasons@gmail.com.
Learn more about this concept from Carli A. Castro, CPA at the
(520)448-5049 | www.bedfordteam.com One South Church Ave., Suite 1200, Tucson, AZ 85701 24
AZ CPA OCTOBER 2016
Emerging Leaders Conference — Nov. 18 www.ascpa.com
AZ CPA Quick Quiz You’ve Read It, Now Get Credit Take this quiz online or submit this hard copy on AZ CPA content. Receive a score of 70% or more and earn one hour of CPE credit in specialized knowledge. It’s that easy! Fees
Members $25 Nonmembers $40
Online Access Login to www.ascpa.com and go to CPE/OnDemand CPE Quick Quiz to access links to all active quizzes. Purchase quiz and the quiz link and password will be emailed to you. Your results will be sent immediately after completing, and certificates are emailed within two business days. Hard Copy Please select one answer for each question. Fill out registration/payment information below and mail or fax to the Society office. Quiz results and certificates will be emailed to the address provided on the registration form. *This quiz will be available until Sept., 2017. Please note that users have three attempts to pass the quiz with at least a 70% score.
September 2016 Issue of AZ CPA* 1. In the Chair’s message, this type of computing represents $10 billion of Amazon’s annual revenue. m Personal computing m Private computing m Cloud computing 2. In order to be qualified as a manufacturing business per HB2676, a business must satisfy which of the following? m Must employ at least 51 percent of its overall workforce in manufacturing or activities related to manufacturing m Derive at least 51 percent of its income from the sale of products manufactured by the business m Manufacture products in Arizona of which at least 51 percent will remain in state for final sale 3. CrossFit, Inc. uses what accounting software? m QuickBooks m Workday m NetSuites
4. C FO of C ro s s f i t , I n c . Ma t t Holdsworth’s biggest challenge is: m Trademark Infringement m International Compliance m Containing Rapid Growth 5. When negotiating with a thirdparty cloud service provider, you should include what length of notification clause in case of a breach: m 24-hours m 36-hours m 12-hours
6. Why are PDFs so popular? m They are generated through Adobe Acrobat m They can contain graphics m They can be viewed across all operating system platforms and on a variety of device types 7. The Arizona Tax Guide includes the following guides except: m AZ Sales and Use Tax Guide m AZ Private Property Tax Guide m AZ Income Tax Guide 8. When Volume Shadow copy is configured it performs copy on write function to a space on the server’s data volume that: m Enables users/network administrators to recover damaged or overwritten files. m Stops users from recovering deleted or overwritten files. m Copies the data. 9. Inclusion of your team is best accomplished through what means: m Learning, force and incentives m Incentives and training m Communication, learning and incentives 10. In the basic concept of change management, point B is: m Our present state m Our desired state m Our current state
Quick Quiz Registration Name: ____________________________________________________ Email:_____________________________________________________ Telephone: _________________________________________________
Payment
m Member: $25 m Nonmember $40 Checks: Please make payable to: The Arizona Society of CPAs Credit Card:
m Visa m MasterCard m American Express
Credit Card #: _______________________________________________ Expiration Date: _____________________________________________ Name on Card. _____________________________________________ Mail to: ASCPA, 4801 E. Washington St. Suite 225-B, Phoenix, AZ 85034-2021; Fax to: (602) 324-6043; Scan and send to: ASCPACPE@ascpa.com.
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Classifieds Business Opportunities/ Practices for Sale CPA Practice for Sale — We are a small CPA practice looking for a buyer with many years of tax experience, QuickBooks expertise, and a bubbly personality ... to take on a really great group of clients. Preferably in the East Valley. Please email tempetaxlady@cox.net. Sole Practitioner Seeks Succession Plan — North Central sole practitioner, tax-oriented with some write-up, compilation and consulting. $300K+ annual revenues consisting of 25% individuals, 65% corporate, partnership, S corporations and trusts and 10% write up. Typical practice serving many long term family owned businesses and owners. Looking to explore merger/buyout in 2016 or 2017. Will transition 1-2 years. Principals only, please respond to: Centralphxcpa@ gmail.com. TUCSON CPA CONSIDERING MERGER OR OFFICE TO SHARE. — Large private office available with great views, spacious conference room and reception area. Convenient central Tucson location near Speedway and Wilmot. Reply: options4cpa@gmail.com.
Employment Andersen & Sarnowski PC — Seeking a full time staff accountant. Position requires 5 plus years’ experience in sales, payroll and income tax returns and year end write up work. Salary D.O.E. No phone calls, please. Located in Casa Grande. dancpa@cgmailbox.com. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR MORE WORK/LIFE BALANCE? We are a multidisciplinary firm with a unique approach, our clients are better served and our staff is less stressed. You must have 7+ years’ experience in preparing financial statements and tax returns for individuals, partnerships, corporations, and trusts. An ideal candidate should be comfortable meeting with clients, working independently, and managing
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multiple priorities and deadlines. Please send your resume to wealth@heritageadvisorsllc.com along with salary history. As part of your compensation package, you can expect to receive insurance, PTO, flexible hours in the summer, 401K, and great co-workers.
ing creatively in the planning process. Please send your resume to wealth@ heritageadvisorsllc.com along with salary history. As part of your compensation package, you can expect to receive insurance, PTO, flexible hours in the summer, 401K, and great co-workers.
CPA — MORTON CPAS P.C. — Professional-minded CPA with an entrepreneurial spirit and passion for tax and accounting work wanted to join a CPA firm with growth potential and an excellent reputation. At least eight years CPA firm experience required. Ongoing reward for client development and retention. We offer an excellent office atmosphere and team spirit; have regular peer reviews and CPE. People who join our team stay for the long-haul. Lacerte and QuickBooks knowledge would be beneficial. Send resume and cover letter to: tracey@ mortoncpas.com.
TAX SUPERVISOR for local 10-person Tucson CPA Firm — A minimum of five+ years of recent tax experience in public accounting and a CPA license are required. Strong technical, communication, customer service and practice development skills are highly desirable. You will review and prepare individual, partnership, trust, and corporate tax returns, research tax issues and provide tax consulting services for small to medium-sized businesses and wealthy individuals. We offer a competitive salary, flexible work schedule and comprehensive benefits package with partnership potential. Please apply by sending your resume and cover letter to cpafirm3@gmail.com.
TAX MANAGER — Cambridge Tax Advisory LLC - Individual with significant recent tax experience focusing on individual tax needed to support investment firm. Interested party will enjoy seeking tax avoidance strategies for high income taxpayers, coordinating with financial and investment planning, and some business tax as well. Medium term equity position possible. Successful candidate will enjoy client contact with high income clients from various background and industries. Charitable gift planning will also be a growing part of practice. Our firm is a close-knit boutique firm of six. Send resume and cover letter to ginger@takechargecoaching.com. CPA -—Senior Tax Reviewer — Heritage Advisors, LLC - Are you looking for more work/life balance? We are a multidisciplinary firm with a unique approach, our clients are better served and our staff is less stressed. You must have 10+ years’ experience in reviewing financial statements and tax returns for individuals, partnerships, corporations, and trusts. An ideal candidate should be comfortable meeting with clients, mentoring staff members, and think-
Seeking Full- or Part-Time Consulting or Employment/ Have MS in Taxation -— I am a CPA with over 25 years experience that retained my MS of Taxation in 1992. For the last 17+ years, I had been lucky enough to work with one highly competent CPA who unfortunately sold his practice almost 3 years ago, and I am not a member of that firm. Since then, I have sought additional part-time or full-time accounting/write up engagements or full time contracting positions during tax season I have generally been pretty fortunate with, but really simply need a more regular flow of income now. I have extensive experience. Please contact me: lynnlord65@gmail.com or (480) 497-1651. Seeking Experienced CPA or Enrolled Agent — Sterling Financial Services, LLC. Here’s what we’re seeking: Tax Accountant, 5+ years public accounting experience preparing tax returns--Individual, Corporate, LLC, Partnership, Non-Profit, Trusts; CPA or EA a must; great attitude; work-
Upcoming ASCPA Conferences ing knowledge of UltraTax a plus, but not necessary; IRS dealings; working knowledge of journal entries, bookkeeping, payroll and sales taxes; and QuickBooks. We are in a fast-paced, high-volume office in Sedona, AZ. We are a very casual office, and we set ourselves apart from our competition with the level of care and service we give to our clients. Website: www. sterlingfinancialaz.com. TAX MANAGER TUCSON OFFICE — East Tucson CPA Firm — We are looking for tax manager with 5-7 years of recent public accounting experience. Excellent opportunity for qualified candidate seeking career advancement to ownership in small firm environment. We offer competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits. Email your resume to eTucsoncpas@gmail.com.
Office Space OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE WITH GROUP OF TUCSON CPAS — Share in costs with Tucson CPA group for a receptionist, conference rooms, a comprehensive library, copier/fax/ scanner and other office services and facilities. Become part of CPAs who each own their own practices, but unite together in discussions and interpretations of tax and accounting issues through personal interaction or meetings. Options available to either lease your own office space from the group or pay a standard monthly fee to have use of the conference rooms, receptionist, mail service, copier/fax/ scanner and other services. Located in the prestigious plaza palomino. Please contact David Lotz or Randy Livingston for more details. (520) 321-1334. Website: CPATUCSON.COM.
For information about classified ads, visit www.ascpa.com and go to marketplace.
Construction Industry Conference October 19 Desert Willow Conference Center
Join us to get updates on issues in the construction accounting field. Topics include: Workforce Shortage, Needs, Reality and Retention in Construction Lease Accounting Changes – How Big is the Impact? Economic Outlook for the Construction Industry in AZ: Are the Good Times Rolling? Insurance Issues and Solutions – New or Often Overlooked You Can’t Fix Your Mental Health With Duct Tape: Suicide Prevention and Construction Technology in Construction – Panel Best Practices to Protect Your Company Regarding Government Audits and New Employment Laws
Emerging Leaders Conference November 18 Tempe Mission Palms Hear from experts on leadership topics, get a complimentary professional headshot, and enjoy a networking social after the conference. Topics include: World Domination of CPAs: What, How and Why Future Technology Trends Impacting CPAs Lead by Serving: The Personal and Professional Benefits of Volunteerism Pursuing Passion: The Art of Combining Work and Fire Career Development: Thinking Strategically to Emphasize Your Strengths Change Management: Moving Your Business from Actions to Results Economic Update
Learn more and register at www.ascpa.com/conferences
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Arizona Society of CPAs 4801 E. Washington St., Suite 225-B Phoenix, AZ 85034-2021
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Phoenix, Arizona Permit No. 952 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
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