How Felecia Dixson and Larry Gray free up more time for client consulting

By FELECIA DIXSON AND LARRY GRAY, ALFERMANN & GRAY CO. CPA's, LLC

"We are very passionate about what we do," says Felecia Dixson, EA. She and her partner, Larry Gray, CPA, of Alfermann & Gray Co. CPA's, LLC, are dedicated to their clients and their profession. Alfermann & Gray provides consulting services for other CPA firms, as well as performing standard CPA functions like bookkeeping and taxes.

Larry teaches for the IRS and the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP), and conducts the Fall Tax Update for Missouri CPAs — around 1500 of them yearly. Felecia teaches for NATP and conducts training sessions on Microsoft Office Accounting, Microsoft Office and Vista, along with other accounting and tax software. When Microsoft is on the road, Felecia provides technical support in demos of Microsoft Office Accounting and its integration with the Microsoft Office Suite and other external software.

Felecia and Larry are also enthusiastic Microsoft Office Accounting users and are seeing consistent success with their clients who use Office Accounting. They are both Certified Microsoft Office Accountant Consultants.

Here are some their favorite Office Accounting features:

Chart of Accounts Gathers Scattered Accounts Together

Office Accounting functions off a chart of accounts, Larry says, "and we use it to get new Office Accounting users started on the fly." A client who doesn't use a chart of accounts will often create an account, say for a certain supply, and then create additional accounts for that same supply — on the job, in the office, at home. "It's a constant battle to figure out where the account is," Larry says.

Larry and Felecia employ Office Accounting to set up a chart of accounts for a new client who's just going into business. They give the client a list with a number for each supply, repair, purchase, and so forth to insure proper use of expense classifications. The chart of accounts feature improves clients' learning curve and compliance, Larry says.

Two Words: Hard Close

As a former auditor, Larry applauds the fact that Office Accounting does a hard close. A client who uses other accounting software may be able to go back and make changes to prior periods after the financials or the tax return has been completed. But making changes in prior periods can create a reconciliation problem when the software moves the balance forward to the next month. The accountant then spends most of his time going back to the last month or last year to figure out what happened.

Felecia tells the following horror story. She had a client who used another accounting software package, and the mother-in-law did a great job with the books. Then the daughter-in-law took over the books and decided — after tax returns had been completed — that an invoice was incorrectly posted by $80K. She went back into the previous year and changed the invoice, creating a considerable adjustment problem that resulted in the financial statement being wrong by $80k in each year.

Accurate tax planning, for instance when someone retires, depends on reliable information about the current revenue stream, Felecia says, and that reliability weakens when a user can change the past.

Problem solved: In Office Accounting, users must make changes in the current month as a journal entry. Their accountants can pick up the change in the current month — no more detective work or shenanigans, Larry says. A hard close also leaves an audit trail, which reduces training time if the bookkeeper leaves.

New Business Owners Make Great Office Accounting Clients

Felecia and Larry have found their new business clients, many of whom have been accustomed to single-entry systems, particularly open to using Office Accounting.

Their clients who use Office Accounting range from a very large real estate rental client with 35 different pieces of property to a woman who makes handbags. The real estate rental client has a different company in Office Accounting for each property and thus is able to track income and expenses for each, Felecia explains. When the firm does the company's taxes, "we already have the profit and loss figures," she says. The handbag manufacturer makes her wares from scratch, and she uses Office Accounting for inventory control and job costs.

Independent professionals like doctors are also excellent candidates for Office Accounting, Felecia says. They are cash basis, so they only worry about their deposits, not billing.

Higher Level Work And Happy Clients

Larry and Felecia find that Office Accounting users have a faster learning curve because the software looks like familiar Microsoft products. Office Accounting users also enjoy a direct line to technical support. Their clients ask them not how to use the software but how to input data into it. For instance, "How do I get Office Accounting to do this inventory control — what's the journal entry to make it happen?"

Bottom line: Felecia and Larry are freed up from technical problem solving and fixing basic accounting errors to do the work they're passionate about, consulting and advising. "We charge more and increase client retention, because our clients are getting what they want," Felecia concludes.

Alfermann Gray CPA's offers a program called "3D Integration". While most software has been integrated in some fashion, the people and processes that go along with the software often have not. Alfermann Gray provides the third leg of the Integration by showing businesses such as CPA's, Engineers, Architects, Attorneys, Doctors and so forth how to integrate their people and processes with their software, creating more billable time and better quality of life.

Should you want any additional information about Alfermann Gray's program or other consulting services, visit their website at www.agccpa.com

Or call them:

Felecia Dixson or Larry Gray
AGC-Alfermann Gray & Co CPS's LLC
P O Box HH
Rolla, MO 65402

573-364-1700 - Voice

Or email:

Felecia@agccpa.com
Larry@agccpa.com

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Microsoft.