A Tale of Two Accountants

I've been doing my own taxes since my very first after-school job at 15. I remember the days when filing that 1040EZ form took 10 minutes and resulted in a nice refund.

Then came full time jobs, itemized deductions, and Schedule C forms, so I moved over to TurboTax for my more complicated tax filings.

Last year, ever-increasing complications with my taxes along with a desire to delegate the stresses in my life had me searching for a good accountant. I found a firm that had a lot of experience in filing business taxes, and counted many local businesses as their clients. Let's call them The Firm. They were quite thorough. But they were stuffy. A little dry. Dare I say boring?

So when it came time to make Erin a partner in the business last summer, I shopped around for a new accountant. I found someone I liked--let's caller her The Other Accountant, and then proceeded to write a post entitled HELP! My Accountant Has ADD!

The Other Accountant was very friendly, a little kooky, and insanely upbeat. She even told me that she thought she might have ADD! She wasn't as knowledgeable as The Firm, and had to look up a couple of thing. But we got along fabulously, and I thought she would be a better match for me and the business.

Man, was I wrong.

In January, The Firm sent a large envelope in the mail. It contained a 20-page questionnaire, along with  a list of all the documents we would need to file our personal and business taxes for 2007. And, there was a postage-paid envelope included in the packet. They made it as easy as possible--answer these simple questions, gather these documents, mail everything to us in this envelope, and we'll get to work! Talk about ADD-friendly!!

I heard nothing from The Other Accountant.

While I technically didn't need to meet with The Firm this year, I scheduled an appointment because this was the first year that we were filing as an S-Corp, as opposed to a single member LLC, and I had questions.

First, I was a little embarrassed when I had to explain to The Firm that The Other Accountant filed some papers for us. "We cheated on you," I told the Managing Partner. "And we learned our lesson." Thankfully, he laughed. Little did I know that there was even more lesson to learn.

When The Firm looked at the papers The Other Accountant filed, they immediately saw that she had filed the papers incorrectly. She filed us as a multi-member LLC, not as an S-corp. Needless to say, I was pissed.

The Firm then proceeded to explain that they didn't think we should file as an S-corp for various reasons. Of course, we had this discussion with The Other Accountant last summer, who was obviously in over her head in this matter. I felt a little stupid but, hey, how the hell was I to know? I'm not a CPA!

Everything is being straightened out now, by The Firm, of course. And I have learned a very important lesson: Accounting is not like coaching.  When choosing a coach, personality plays a large role. When choosing an accountant, knowledge and experience trump personality. Boring accountants in suits  will save you time and money in the long run...at least in my case, anyway!

Only 13 days left til April 15! Have YOU filed your taxes yet? :)

Comments

[Jared Goralnick]

Well MY accountant isn't BORING! But she IS very methodical. So you're right there.

I do a lot of (productivity) training sessions to professional service firms...and whenever I lead groups of accountants they nearly all check off each exercise, with their pen, right after they've completed it. Lawyers don't do that. Only a few engineers do. Creatives don't. Just accountants--I don't know if they were taught this, but I guess it's just in their nature.

So yeah, accountants are a little different. It'd be nice if they have good bedside manner...but that's not the most important part. Good call, Jennifer!

[Madrisa]

Our last accountant had ADD and it was horrible! When he handed back documents relating to my small business, we also received some papers belonging to another company, including the PAYROLL details! He also made lots of mistakes. And to top it all off, he sort of threatened us that he could do a bogus filing that would get us into a lot of trouble if we left him.

This is the point where I learned that he wasn't a real CA (CPA in the US), but just a guy with a B.Admin doing accounting -- so he wasn't accountable to any professional organization.

Now I look for an accountant with Attention Surplus Disorder!

Madrisa

[John M]

There are good accountants with ADD. Successful ADD accountants are good at dealing with the accounting chaos that many small businesses have. Usually the good accountants have systems and people in place to help them deal with organization and the more tedious parts of their job. When dealing with tax and legal issues experience and knowledge trump personalty.

[Paul Copcutt - Square Peg]

Jen

The key as you learned is first and foremost finding someone (what ever the professional service) who reaches the minimum competent level required to do waht you want them to do.

Then the personal brand kicks in - and its the diffentitors of that personal brand that make us pick one over another.

Your case in point. You picked The Other Accountant - as you said- very friendly, a little kooky, and insanely upbeat. She even told me that she thought she might have ADD! ........we got along fabulously, and I thought she would be a better match for me and the business.

If she had been as effective and efficinet as The Firm you would still be with her. Now The Firms managing partner also has some personal brand traits that are appealing to you - appreciated honesty (when you told them you heated), had a sense a humour, told you straight - and they delivered on the technical side.

It's the rational attributes (those things you are expected to have) that get you in the game - its the emotional ones that make people pick you.

Just my toonies worth