veryone knows the universal presence of QuickBooks in the small to medium business sector. This presence is not marketing hype. QuickBooks boasts over 4.5 million users and QuickBooks enjoys over 90% market share for the small business sector and an ever increasing market share among emerging businesses with 1 to 5 million dollars in annual sales.

These numbers alone speak to the incredible opportunity for accounting professionals to use QuickBooks consulting as a way to develop new client relationships – relationships that will potentially lead to new tax and business consulting engagements.

Rather than convince you of the QuickBooks consulting opportunity, in this article I will address a primary challenge inherent in QuickBooks consulting: the need to distinguish yourself from the tens of thousands of other firms playing in the same space.

1. Become an Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor. Many firms join the ProAdvisor program for the software and other benefits the program provides but, they never leverage the program to create professional distinction. Ironically, we have found some of these firms offer very high QuickBooks expertise with years of QuickBooks consulting experience, but have never taken the time (or had the inclination) to take the certification exams. Regardless of your current skill level and your reputation among your existing clients, to reach new businesses through QuickBooks consulting, you must certify on QuickBooks. When you are certified on three consecutive versions of QuickBooks you should become an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor. By doing so, you will increase your profile from 1 out of about 60,000 firms to 1 out of less than 5,000 firms nationwide.
2. Get Published. Many high profile accounting technology sites have an open submission policy for technical articles. Write articles, submit them to sites. Also, self-publish the articles on your own site, on blogs, and through social networking platforms to establish yourself as both a QuickBooks expert and an author of QuickBooks technical material. You can also expand this strategy to include a larger Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy that will set your firm apart from the masses.
3. Become a QuickBooks Trainer. The web offers numerous opportunities for you to establish yourself as a QuickBooks trainer – with a national audience! Some ways to broaden your visibility include: writing short Webinars, promoting them through social media, and recording brief training segments on QuickBooks micro-topics to post on YouTube (which is second only to Google in daily search activity). Then, when you have some experience conducting web training, assem- ble a catalog of your training offerings and send those to the hosts of accounting technology shows like mine, Scaling New Heights, or shows conducted by your state CPA society.
4. Join Professional Networks Targeted to ProAdvisors. Organizations like my National Advisor Network, The Sleeter Group’s QuickBooks Consultant’s Network and Michelle Long’s Successful QuickBooks Consulting LinkedIn Group provide you with opportunities to network with other Pro-Advisors. Though the members of these types of groups are competitors, an attitude of reciprocal growth triumphs, helping you to grow professionally and will also give you the opportunity to help other ProAdvisors to grow. You can accomplish this by posting articles, participating in forums, or even by providing mentorship services to ProAdvisors who have recently joined the program.
5. Become an Expert on at Least One Product that Integrates with QuickBooks. Many of the leading QuickBooks- integrated products have reseller programs with fewer than 100 members. In some cases the developer intentionally limits the number of resellers to a very select and highly motivated group of less than 30 nationwide. Establishing yourself as an expert on one of these products will empower you to leverage your relationships with other ProAdvisors (who do not consult on the product) and to create additional consulting opportunities. Finally, becoming an expert on one of the many products designed for larger businesses such as, Method (www.methodintegration.com) or Fishbowl Inventory (www.fishbowlinventory.com), will allow you to reach a higher tier of QuickBooks users – typically those with over one million dollars in annual sales.

• Integrated Software Systems — Time is money, so firm leaders continuously search for ways to improve ef- ficiency. Fully integrated software suites support seamless data transfer between products and virtually eliminate manual re-keying of data. Integration with suites also expands to other popular applications, such as Microsoft Office products and many new and cool SaaS applications. With true product integration, firms can standardize workflow from start to finish.
• Automated, Paperless Workflow — Many firms are combining integrated suites with web-based innovations, like client portals and automated tax document workflow apps, to achieve completely digital processes. Best practices such as scanning upfront and using leading tax document automation tools to electronically organize and bookmark client source documents are among the hottest of paperless workflow conversations.
• Client Accounting Online — Creating a convenient and efficient way to conduct business with clients is at the forefront of discussion as well. Firms are dedicating time to creating a strategy around client accounting online. As such, portals, hosted client accounting apps, and cloud-based document management and bill payment solu- tions are getting a lot of attention. A great deal of time is spent discussing strategy and the best-of-breed cloud technologies that can support a true online client accounting system.
• Practice Management — At the heart of many conversations is how to use advanced practice management software to keep information efficiently flowing through the firm. Leading practice management software is reviewed in detail—offering participants a first-hand look at how to use practice management software as an “information hub”—with all firm data flowing through custom dashboards to track workflow, client project status, staff capacity, and other mission-critical data.
• Technology Updates — Tax and accounting applications continue to evolve. And with the acceleration of pure cloud-based applications bein launched to the profession, there is a lot to keep up with. Onsite networking events allow participants to constantly stay apprised of what’s available and the best options for their firms.

Your Appearance
Your avatar picture shouldn’t be a logo. We don’t meet logos at parties, do we? You can include a logo, but make it you.
Unless you are a fictional character, more often than not, your avatar should be you. Amazing Simpson-like renditions of you are interesting for about four hours.

Your Facebook profile picture does not have to be of you, but it often means that others might not accept your friend request. It feels creepy friending a four year old kid (avatar).

Your picture can be you from 10 or 15 years ago, but that first face to face meeting is going to be jarring. It doesn’t take a lot of work to take a decent picture. Why use those “me cut out from posing with someone while I have red eyes” photos?

Friending
You’re not obligated to follow/friend anyone. No matter what. Not even your mother. (I follow my mother, by the way). If you decide to unfollow someone, don’t make a big stink and announce why. Just leave. It’s okay to let the competition follow you. It’s okay to follow the competition. Famous people don’t always want to follow back. I’m looking at you, Justin Bieber! You can set your own rules on Facebook. I’m in the process of moving everyone to a fan page and just keeping VERY close family and friends.

Disclosure
If you’re writing about a client, add (client) to the tweet/post/update. If you’re selling me something with an affiliate link, disclose that in the tweet/post/ update. If there’s a material reason (or perception of such) that you want me to take an action or click a link, tell me. Tell me once in the post, and once again on a disclosure page. I use part of my about page for disclosures. Make sure your audience comfortably knows your motives, and everything goes better.

Your Conversation
Commenting about other people’s stuff and promoting other people’s stuff is very nice. Retweeting people’s praise of you comes off as jerky. Just thank them. If you retweet something interesting, always give credit for who found it first. Facebook wall comment streams can get long. Don’t grumble. If you’re along for the ride, it’ll end some day. Promote others more often than you promote yourself. My long-standing measure is 12:1. (If it doesn’t work at first, it’s because maybe you’re not sincere in your promoting of others). Listening is important and commenting is important. Be the #1 commenter on your blog. (See next one) It’s okay to NOT comment back for every single comment you receive. It’s nice when you can respond, but don’t litter the comments with a bunch of “Thanks, Judy.” People know you care, if you’re doing it right. If you are talking about someone in a blog post, link to them. Steve Garfield is a pro at this. If you’re really nice, you’ll think about link text and help them even more by linking to Internet video expert Steve Garfield. Make sense? Links do matter to Google and to the people you care about. When you can, give them a link.

Promoting
Promote as if you’re at a cocktail party. It’s not the same as your email blast list. Promote others, and it’s much more likely people will help promote you when it’s your turn. Leave room for retweets. Writing 139 characters won’t get you anywhere. Promoting on Facebook is MUCH nicer on my wall than in my private messages. It’s probably okay to promote something 4x a day on a social network, so that you hit all the time zones appropriately. In the last hour, you can always give it a couple more pushes, but that’s about it. Direct messaging people for promotion help is often annoying. It happens much more than you know. Your cause isn’t always our cause. If we don’t want to help, don’t badger. Things where you have to get 1,000 tweets to raise money are litter on Twitter. Things to get 1,000 “likes” on Facebook are fine. (Remember, however, that a “like” gives your demographic data to the thing that you’ve liked, plus permission for that page to message you privately.)

Content Production
You can post as often as you want on your blog. It’s your blog. Monthly will probably fade from our memory. Weekly could work. Daily is my favorite. Some people post many times a day. It’s up to you. You can tweet as often as you want, but people unfollow “noisy” tweeters (I get unfollowed often). You can update Facebook often, and if you’re running pages, you might want to update 3-4 times a day, I’m starting to observe. Depending on your blog’s purpose, be wary of over-selling. (I ran into this personally.) Make sure you’re still providing great community value. If you find great content from other places, use it only after you understand whether you have permission to do so, and under the terms that the people have set. If you’re linking and sharing someone else’s blog post (which is good to do), it’s also wonderful when you add something to it. Add some commentary. Add a thought or two as to why it matters to your community. If someone’s work inspires your own post, it’s a nice thing to “hat tip” them with a link to the post that inspired you, somewhere in the post (usually down at the bottom). If you go a long time between blog updates, don’t write a “sorry I haven’t written lately” post. No one cares. Just publish something good.

Sharing is Caring
Every blog I know has a share/like/tweet/ stumble button at the bottom or somewhere. They’re there for a reason. If you like the article, pushing those buttons is a “tip jar” for the artist. Push it. It doesn’t take long. If you’re reading in Google Reader, sharing is as simple as “[SHIFT] S” and that goes to everyone who reads your shared items. Tell the blogger when you love something they’ve done. People’s #1 complaint to me when they’re starting out blogging is that they lack any feedback. It’d take you 30 seconds to do, and would change a person’s perspective for a whole day. Comments in Twitter are temporary moments in a stream. Comments on the blog post itself are forever, in the best (and worst) of ways. The web thrives on links and social sharing. The more YOU do to participate, the more people will create material for free for you to enjoy.

Your mileage will vary
For every idea above, there’s an exception. For every idea above, there’s a great reason to do the opposite. If you’re doing it differently than above, you’re not wrong. You’re doing it your way. Okay, I lied: you’re doing it wrong. I look forward to your thoughts, disagreements, counter-posts, additional thoughts, sharing, and more.

Microsoft Exchange has long dominated the email game but Google came along and changed it. Our hosts, Kim and Brian discuss the benefits of moving to Google.

Video Transcript

Welcome to My Office Today, I’m Brian and I’m Kim, today we’ll be discussing email and Google Apps. Since the early 1990′s, email has been a staple in business. For many businesses having their own company-branded email meant setting up a Microsoft Exchange server. Exchange has been around forever and remains to be a solid workhorse. Although its success has come with many of its downfalls / it remains to be the standard. For a time, Exchange was the only option for corporate email / because every online vendor was a poorly secured AOL or Yahoo email account / which made it difficult to manage and scale.

But in 2004, a new web-based email vendor emerged called Gmail. Only known for their search engine, Google shocked the industry with their simplistic views and incredible spam filtering. Then in 2009 Google released Google Apps, which included most of the products Google offered. But now it worked under the umbrella of your domain name. This allowed you to take your email, calendar, contacts, documents, chat, and much more to Google. Effectively, allowing you to eliminate your Exchange server entirely. This was the beginning of massive change for business.

Google brought a product to the market that had not been done effectively before. It integrated with everything. Every mobile phone, smartphone, computer, and server could be connected. Now with Google Apps / you can log in once and have access to your email, calendar, documents, and contacts / whether they are individual or firm-wide.

According to Telegraph Media Group, the average employee became 2.8 times more effective after switching to Google. Praised for their spam protection, Google estimates that for a firm of 10, they could put the 279 hours employees normally spend dealing with spam, to better use.

With 99.99% uptime, you don’t have to worry about maintaining your own server in-house. With Google, the average firm will experience more reliable access to emails / with no planned downtime. Along with the uptime, Google provides 24/7 phone and email support for critical issues / so you’ll never be left on your own.

Security is always a concern when considering an email solution, let alone moving your solution to a web-based vendor. You can be confident that Google is SAS70 Type II compliant. Their security is unmatched, allowing for up to 10 years of archival storage to maintain compliance. A special feature also allows owners to prevent certain emails from being deleted, should litigation become a concern or issue. Google even prevents employees from sending confidential information and spreading jokes and videos.

Recently, Google released a new feature / which allows firms who currently have a Microsoft Exchange server solution / to use Google Apps for Business as a  fail-over solution. So should your Exchange server / experience corruption or fail / your employees can immediately log into Google and be working as if nothing happened. Their email is synchronized as it is received while the server is working properly. This feature should be enough to sway many owners to consider this as a form of redundancy and disaster recovery.

There are two different versions of Google Apps: one that is free and one that costs $50/user. The free version is ad-supported and does not with come additional features, such as extra storage, Microsoft Outlook interoperability, Exchange synchronization, select security features, or support. If you’re serious about switching or implementing a redundancy solution, then you should be paying for the Business edition. I think every owner should look at this decision very closely.

Join us next time where I’ll discuss running your office on the go. For information about integrating Google into Practice Management, head to their website at officetoolspro.com. I’m Brian and I’m Kim, thanks for watching My Office Today.

What does it take to have a thriving firm? While creating a thriving firm is not all that difficult, it does require a fundamental shift in our thinking. If we continue to view our role and relationship with clients in the same old way, a thriving firm is unlikely. Becoming a thriving firm requires going beyond thinking about “what” we do or “how” we do it, to develop a deeper understanding of “why” we do what we do.

Everyone knows “what” accounting firms do, so most firms attempt to differentiate themselves by “how” they do it. Claims such as “better audits, more experienced tax people” and so on, are com- mon. It’s only when we address the “why” of what we do that the transformation into a thriving firm can occur. If you think your “why” is to provide clients with financial statements and tax returns, you are likely to remain in the struggling majority.

Thriving firms have a different “why.” Their reason for existence is to help clients improve their businesses and enjoy a better life. I’m not talking about a clever marketing slogan or campaign, or an inspiring firm mission that gets tucked in a drawer. I’m talking about firms that are actively committed to making a difference to their clients businesses, and their lives.

When firms decide to move into this possibility, amazing things begin to happen. They find new ways to help clients. For example, a thriving firm will take the time to understand the business and personal goals of its clients, including quality of life issues. Firm professionals see themselves as advisors, not just technicians. Rather than handing a financial statement to a client, they’ll conduct industry comparisons and discuss possible areas of improvement with clients. In such firms, leaders are aligned around a common vision and the team is engaged in making it happen.

When clients know their success is important to a firm, when they feel the difference, a strong and lasting emotional connection is formed. Such firms grow, as they naturally attract great clients who value working with a firm committed to their success.

When a firm’s “why” becomes helping clients win, it creates the context, or space within which the transformation to a thriving firm can occur. This context shift precedes action, so the “what” do to and “how” to do it naturally follow. A thriving firm becomes the natural result. Thriving firms are living examples of the abundance principle in action. “To the degree we help others win, we win.”

Hosts Brian and Kim discuss better business integration software. Many companies have spent years and countless dollars (for hardware, software, development, and consulting services) developing solutions that solve individual business problems. It’s not uncommon to find many different applications running within a small office.

Video Transcript

Welcome to My Office Today, I’m Brian and I’m Kim. Today we’ll be discussing integrated technologies. Many companies have spent years and countless dollars (for hardware, software, development, and consulting services) developing solutions that solve individual business problems. It’s not uncommon to find many different applications running within a small office. In most cases, those applications continue to be vital to the operation of your business. The problem with multiple applications is the pure redundancy of data in each program. It then becomes an even larger task to manually duplicate and update information in each of these programs. These valuable applications, therefore, have limited interoperability and inter-application communications capabilities. This makes it difficult to leverage them to add new business value, such as offering new revenue opportunities, or reducing costs. This process wastes countless hours on data entry instead of billing time.

Sometimes there is absolutely no way to consolidate programs into one single program, because of industry specific applications. We often hear about companies carrying out procedures in an archaic fashion because “that’s how our computer systems work.” But there are options available to synchronize data between these applications. Practice Management Software acts as the central hub of all information, and the robust integration tools enable your office to painlessly share contact information between other programs. Allowing for endless integrations, this software eliminates duplicate entry points and makes the task of data duplication more seamless. Some of the benefits to an integrated solution include reduced cost of manual data reentry and report generation, more efficiency with your staff, eliminating the cost of storing and managing redundant data, boosting customer retention, lowering ongoing system administration expenses, and simplifying business processes via workflow.

Practice Management 2011 has several standard integrations that help you, like printing address labels from your Dymo Label printer, getting directions to a client’s location, or finding out more information about the client from various social networks. Many popular tax programs also integrate your data from your tax software and sync it with your existing contacts. Any changes to a contacts’ information can be sent from Practice Management to your tax software. You can also transfer spouse, dependents, partners and other related records. If you have other software applications that can import data, you can export information to a Microsoft Excel file and import or export without much effort. Simply match up each cell with the fields on the contacts tab and import the contact’s name, address, phone number and more. In addition, Laser App, a widely accepted forms tool for Financial Planners, is integrated as well. Laser App provides over 10,000 fund forms in fillable PDF format. Just simply press a button and populate all forms with the selected client’s information.

Utilize all of the workflow benefits, including billing and tracking A/R, in Practice Management, taking advantage of incredible reporting and metrics. Then export invoices and payments to Quickbooks. Integrate Microsoft Outlook calendars, contacts and tasks from Practice Management 2011 schedules, contacts and tasks. Sync all information in real-time. Then bring in Outlook email for review, reading and storing those messages in the document management system. Another powerful integration to consider / is a client portal. A good client portal will not need any extra software installed, only an internet browser. There’s no longer a need to email “Confidential Information” through the internet. The full power of portals are found in document transfer, email campaigns, project status, messaging and invoice payment.

Join us next time where we’ll discuss moving your email to Google. For more information about Practice Management, head to their website at officetoolspro.com. I’m Kim and I’m Brian, thanks for watching My Office Today.

Workflow has been an integral part of our firms for years and our hosts Kim and Brian discuss how to better move work throughout the office. There has been old traditional ways to move work which included folders, notes, call messages; all were too easy to lose. A new form of workflow has emerged through software, it has transformed the way we work and how productive our staff can truly be.

Did you miss our last video? Check it out here.

have consulted with hundreds of firms over the last fifteen years about setting up billing software and practice management software. While each firm has its unique needs, one thing is clear: owners want to earn a good living for what they do.

There are entrepreneurs, leaving the comfort of a secure job and paycheck to brave the ownership world of hard work and risk. To do this they have to be able to charge top dollar yet remain competitive with the market price for accounting services. This takes persistence since markets are always in flux, causing periodic review, analysis and adjustments of fees. Determining the right fee is becoming more difficult with clients considering online tax and payroll services. Many businesses are taking their accounting in-house using QuickBooks, Peachtree or other software and less firm accounting services. This is challenging firms to review fee levels and workflow processes, thus demanding changes to remain competitive and profitable.

There are questions owners need to consider, regarding fee structures and firm productivity that should be reviewed periodically. How do we charge enough but not too much? Are we utilizing staff effectively? Are current workflow procedures adequate? How do we measure productivity and profitability on a client or staff basis? What software can help us? These questions are entirely different from what other business owners face. Most businesses can sell products at market price, measure their fixed costs and report profitability, even charging a market hourly fee for services. What is unique about CPAs, Enrolled Agents and other accounting professionals, is that we charge for expertise and experience along with the time spent on a client’s work. So how do we charge optimum fees without over charging?

There is only one proven way to be sure. Firms must institute methods to accurately Practice Management software.

Even with the right software I had to convince accountants that if we tracked hours each day as we managed workflow, firms would capture more time and be more productive. This is a win-win proposition! Of course, tell that to accounting professionals, they would need to see the proof in the numbers. I have seen firm after firm where 20-40% more time was captured if keyed throughout the day. Studies tell us that if we estimate our time on a periodic basis, as opposed to doing it throughout the day, we capture more time, ergo our fees go up. If we recap time later or estimate, we will underestimate and undervalue what we do for clients. This is especially true with our staff, 45 minutes turns into 30 minutes, 2 1/2 hours turns into 2 hours. With inaccurate time, how can we really know how much time staff is spending on client work? Too much or too little is a disaster waiting to happen. Profits go down, expenses go up and clients leave to find lower fees. None of this is good and our neighboring accountants are becoming more efficient, charging less, and winning the business success battle. I think it’s time to “go to the mattresses!” Our goal should be to become the best at what we do and charge what we are worth.

The flip side to this equation is that fees are tied to staff performance. Efficiencies and productivity are important to measure since they directly relate to what a client is willing to pay. Is work being done on time, accurately and for the right amount? Are we getting work done as promised? Are we spending too much time with one client over another? Without time-based productivity reporting we will never have a goal for our staff to attain. Inevitably, our fees are a guessing game and we are just hoping at the end of the year we’ll show a profit. In order to attain the profitability we desire from our business, we must manage with more direction and purpose.

How do we charge the right fee? It starts with the software I mentioned earlier, Practice Management. Imagine tracking time while updating workflow. When you finish a task whether it’s a phone call, reviewing a tax return or creating a document, you can be prompted to enter your time or use timers as a part of your workflow. Any task cumulates the actual time your staff spends on a client or task. This is fully reportable and visible onscreen so we can make fee decisions now and in the future. We can know when a client receives a $700 tax return, that we didn’t give it away because we had $900 in real time. We can see exactly how much time was spent, by which staff member and evaluate whether we have a resource, staff, or client problem to solve. If we charge for specific staff expertise we will see this in a billing utilization report. The Practice Management software from Office Tools Professional does all of this tracking and reporting with little effort. As a result, there are no more excuses about tracking time and workflow!

The reality is, I’ve never seen a firm where improvements can’t be made. Sure, many would prefer I leave this alone but the truth is, I get paid to help firms improve. I was talking to a firm recently that went from twelve staff to nine and from $1.4 million in revenue to nearly $2 million due to improved efficiencies, new software, and revised procedures. They improved their effectiveness in serving clients with less total hours. This included branded website portals, practice management software and many other simple changes. Sometimes bringing in an outsider can bring perspective. That’s what we do!

It is easy for accountants to become so caught up in the day-to-day activities of the business, that dealing with the overall management of the business is overlooked. I encourage firms to take a hard look at exactly how much time they are spending on clients work and decide if they are charging the right amount and if they are efficient with their time. This is the only way we can know we are charging what we are worth, earning a good living, and bringing value to our firms.

Our hosts Kim and Brian discuss what social networks are out there and what you should be talking about. Share information that connects with your followers, both personal and professional. There’s strategy and ways to interact with your customers and potential clients.

Did you miss our last video? Check it out here.

Many of my clients are quick to tell you the IRS is unfair, unreasonable, and just plain evil. They see the IRS as vengeful, delighting in making good citizen’s miserable. Most of them believe the IRS does not live in the real world and that IRS personnel have never had a real job, or had to worry about getting a paycheck. Those that are in business are certain no IRS person has ever had to sweat out making a weekly payroll for employees.

My clients may be overly emotional: from murderous to suicidal, defiant to compliant, and combative to submissive and I want as many of them as I can get! They pay in advance, appreciate everything I do for them, and are lifetime-loyal. They refer with evangelical passion despite paying fees that are well above average. So, why wouldn’t I want more of them?

Leading management consultants and gurus always extol the virtues of specialization. They advise finding a unique niche where you can concentrate your efforts. The objective is to become the recognized expert in a particular area. Real wealth can be earned by practicing in an area an inch wide and a mile deep.

While practitioners may agree with guru’s reasoning, they still need to deal with the reality of making it happen. Having a college education and earning a professional license often turns out to be less rewarding than anticipated. Passing of the Law Bar Exam, the CPA Exam, or the Enrolled Agent Exam turns out to be only the starting point to achieve professional success. Every area of specialization has barriers to entry, the most important of which, is gaining the necessary skill set to call you an expert.

When considering a specialization, it makes sense to investigate enough areas to determine the type of work you enjoy. If you lack passion for what you’re doing, you’ll never achieve the level of success you would by having it. You should also look at the population density in an area of specialization. Some specialties are overcrowded to the point that they can hardly be called a specialty any longer. For example, some practitioners specialize in financial planning. Yet, there are untold numbers of insurance agents and investment brokers who also call themselves financial planners.

Litigation support, business valuation, and forensic accounting are among the many areas of specialization. Having developed expertise in some of these areas, I have learned that there are certain problems inherent with many of them. For example, payment for services in litigation support may depend on settlement of a legal case, which could take years. Nonetheless, pursuit of a specialization is worthwhile. Once you’ve achieved expert status, you can command premium fees, and employ the skills of others to leverage your knowledge.

If you’re looking for an area to specialize in and want to avoid some of the drawbacks in other areas, I suggest Tax Problem Resolution. You may have stuck your toe in the water when forced into it by having a client under IRS audit or by having a friend begging for help. Tax Problem Resolution includes services like: non-filer representation, solutions to resolve unpaid tax liabilities, audit representation, negotiated settlements with IRS, and IRS Appeals Division representation. When my firm began specializing in Tax Problem Resolution there was scant information and training available. There was no coherent professional group of Tax Problem Resolution practitioners. Formation of the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers (ASTPS) and development of numerous professional courses has filled that void.

Today, you can join ASTPS, a non-profit professional organization solely dedicated to Tax Problem Resolution practitioners. ASTPS schedules Boot Camp presentations throughout the country designed to get new practitioners up to speed quickly. In addition to the Boot Camps, ASTPS conducts two Advanced and one Super-Advanced Tax Problem Resolution seminars annually. Boot Camp seminars are two days of intensive learning and the Advanced and Super-Advanced seminars are three days, featuring the country’s leading Tax Problem Resolution practitioners.

The advantages in Tax Problem Resolution services include: premium paid-in-advance fees, flexible scheduling, a short learning curve built on present knowledge, specialized software to improve efficiency, and rapid access to IRS information. Your opponent’s rules and restrictions are at your disposal and are searchable.

Tax return preparers meet with clients just once a year to prepare one tax return. Once the mandated filing season ends, there are a few extension returns to be done and the preparation business is dormant until the next filing season. Tax Problem Resolution practitioners meet with clients throughout the year and often one client represents multiple tax returns to be prepared.

Tax Problem Resolution services include various programs to deal with unpaid taxes such as: Installment Agreements, Partial-Pay Installment Agreements, Penalty Abatement Requests, Innocent Spouse Relief, Offers in Compromise, Audit Reconsideration, and Discharge of Taxes in Bankruptcy. These programs generally provide a means to resolve tax debt and afford a second chance at resolution through the appeals process.

The addition of Tax Problem Resolution services to the professional practice can be started easily and build up slowly, or can be started aggressively and build up rapidly through marketing.

Consider specializing in Tax problem Resolution for a more lucrative, sustainable profession.