Category: Uncategorized

Preface: Kind words are like honey–sweet to the taste and good for your health. Proverbs 16:24 “Good New Translation”

I Can’t Believe He Just Wrote That

By Jacob M. Dietz, CPA

Preface: “Am I being careful enough with what I write to ensure that my implicit tone and meaning cannot be misunderstood?” Dr. Rob Skacel in Tailing Mulligan

Imagine Elmer’s business just entered the world of email. He and the team are excited about the whole new realm of opportunities and possibilities it opens to them. Now Elmer can document in writing what he wants others to do. It will be right there, in black and white. From now on, his team’s communication will be effective, clear, and mutually upbuilding. Right?

Although email does have some great capabilities, beware of the pitfalls that come with emails.

The Dumb Mistake

Elmer showed up at work Monday morning ready to fire off his first email. Elmer struggled with spelling, but he planned to rely on spell checker to get his emails right.

But that was 15 years ago when Elmer flunked his spelling tests consistently. He looked forward to typing emails that would automatically fix his spelling errors.

In school he dreaded spelling class. He received a 100% in spelling class one time. But it only lasted a minute. The teacher handed him the test, with a great big blue 100% splashed across the top and absolutely no red ink. Elmer was overjoyed. As he started to descend from cloud 9, he looked closer at the spelling test and realized the teacher mistakenly handed him the test of his cousin, Elam. Elmer pointed out the mistake. Dejectedly, he saw the red 60% on the test his teacher handed him with his name on it.

But that was 15 years ago when Elmer flunked his spelling tests consistently. He looked forward to typing emails that would automatically fix his spelling errors.

He needed a subcontractor to bring a dump truck to the jobsite that day, so he fired off an email to Eli, a subcontractor.

“hay eli I need your dumb truck today. Can you please drive it to the job down from your shop? Tanks elmer”

Spell checker showed no problems, and Elmer hit “send.”

Eli showed up for work that morning. While still rubbing sleep from his eyes, he saw the email from Elmer. Eli’s blood pressure rose when he read the email. “I can’t believe he just wrote that,” muttered Eli. Eli realized that his truck wasn’t the newest truck on the road, but he thought it could do a good job. It certainly wasn’t a dumb truck.

He quickly responded with his own email.

“Elmer, if you think that of my truck, then you can find someone else to help you. I prefer to work with contractors that appreciate me and my equipment.”

Elmer was confused. He liked Eli’s truck, and still hadn’t noticed that he inadvertently misspelled “dump” as “dumb.”

 Eli was taken aback. He thought Elmer was insulting him based on the email, but now, based on the nonverbal cues, Eli could tell Elmer liked him.

The Accidental Accusation

Elmer, while speaking on the phone with a customer, typed back.

“I do appreciate you liE. I don’t know why you think I don’t.

Eli was so frustrated, he decided to give up on email and walk the 500 feet down the road to Elmer’s shop. He opened the door to Elmer’s office. Immediately Elmer jumped up, smiled, stuck out his hand for a handshake, and said, “Hi Eli!”

Eli was taken aback. He thought Elmer was insulting him based on the email, but now, based on the nonverbal cues, Eli could tell Elmer liked him.

Eli asked why Elmer insulted his truck by calling it dumb. Elmer gasped “what do you mean? I never called your truck dumb!”

The Truth is Revealed

Eli told him to pull up the email. Elmer was dumbfounded when he found the word “dumb” in his email. I’m so sorry, he said, I meant to say “dump” truck.

Eli continued. “Then you had to accuse me of lying in your second email. I have never told you a lie for the 10 years we have known each other.”

Elmer was shocked when he pulled up the email. He now saw he had misspelled “Eli” as “liE.”

“Eli, I owe you an apology. Those misspellings were not what I intended to communicate. I was wondering if you could bring your dump truck to the job site. Thanks for stopping by this morning so we could hash out this miscommunication.”

Eli promptly forgave Elmer. The two shook hands, and later that day Eli’s dump truck was working away at the job site.

The Future of Communication

Eli and Elmer continue to use email to share information about jobs. They love the convenience of sending email and the ability to look back and see information that they would have forgotten if it had been delivered verbally. After the “dumb” truck email, however, they share a greater appreciation for the pitfalls of email. If an email seems insulting or unusual, they quickly meet face to face or call each other to find what is really intended.

Preface: Whatever your line of business services, to ensure your business is managed effectively, you need Bob Cratchit’s math skills to calculate your  costs accurately as frequently as every month.

Why Hourly Job Costing Analysis?

Donald J. Sauder, CPA | CVA   (2015)

Do know your hourly job costs? Maybe you need an Excel document from Bob Cratchit ? Costs count, and accurate hourly job costing is a easy component when analyzing if your business is making a profit on an hourly basis.

If you have a team of service technicians who service computer networks, how do you know how much to bid on a new server install or client network upgrade? How do you calculate what to charge per service hour? If one technician works on three projects in a day, how do you begin to calculate your cost for upgrading a hard drive, repairing a server power supply, and resolving malware concerns?

So when you calculate costs of your technician wages at $40 per hour, you can see that your true cost for your business per billable tech hour is closer to $114 per hour to upgrade the hard drive, repair the server power supply, and resolve malware concerns.

With thanks to Bob Cratchit, here is a simplified method to figure hourly costs for your projects. For example, your service technicians costs $40 per hour including employee benefits, employer taxes, and perks. If a hard drive upgrade takes 3 hours, your cost is $40 x 3 = $120 for labor. So what should you charge? Let’s say you have five technicians who work a combined 420 billable hours per month. Your cost for employee wages is approximately $1,600 per week (40 hours x $40 per hour), and $6,400 for the month ($1,600 x 4 = $6,400 per technician, per month). Overhead for the five technicians is $175,000 a year in rent, utilities, office supplies, advertising, office staff, and sales reps. Your fixed cost for the service technicians’ salaries plus overhead is approximately $575,000 per year. At 420 hours per month average your five technicians would work 5,040 hours a year. $575,000/5040 = $114 per hour of labor costs per hour to break even. For an 8% net profit margin, you should charge at least $123 per hour ($123 x 5040 = $619,920 of yearly sales).

So when you calculate costs of your technician wages at $40 per hour, you can see that your true cost for your business per billable tech hour is closer to $114 per hour to upgrade the hard drive, repair the server power supply, and resolve malware concerns.

If you didn’t accurately figure the cost of your operating expenses in the above example, and billed $95 per hour, your business would have a loss of $96,200 for the year based on the 5,040 billable hours. However, if you can optimize efficiency from you technicians and have only 4 technicians working 1,260 billable hours per year (vs. five technicians working 1,080 billable hours individually) you could decrease service wages $76,800, and decrease operating expenses and service wages to $482,200 per year to an average of $95 per hour.

Perhaps you have a good sales rep and have five efficient techs working 1,500 billable hours per year, which would be 7,500 billable hours yearly. With an overhead cost of $175,000 and technician wages of $384,000 your total costs of $575,000 would result in a cost of $77 per tech hour at 7,500 billable hours. So if you billed $95 per hour you would net $18 per technician hour, or $135,000 with five billable service technicians.

In summary, accurate costing is key to profitability in any service businesses be it plumbing, cleaning, electric, snow plowing or mowing yards. If you are unsure or need your confidence boosted when calculating cost, contact your trusted advisor.

Whatever your line of business services, to ensure your business team’s costs are managed effectively, you likely need Bob Cratchit’s math skills to calculate your updated hourly costs accurately as frequently as every month.

 

Preface: The Traction EOS Process™ provides a proven way to successful manage your business. The entrepreneurial operating systems (EOS) incorporates EOS Tools in the right order to best strengthen each key component of your business. One of those key tools is the Clarity Break. Try it. Scheduling your “vacation hour” monthly will likely be more challenging than you think. Read about it here….

EOS-Clarity-Break

Preface: Bitcoin is as much a speculative asset as a medium of exchange in today’s economy. While the Federal Reserve has no governance over the BitCoin exchange as such, as a digital cryptocurrency, its exchange value rises and falls on marketplace whims and traders.

Bitcoins in Business

Credit: Donald J. Sauder, CPA | CVA

You’re Invited to an Exclusive Building Your “Dream Team” Workshop

October 3, 2019

Develop Your People, Build a Positive Corporate Culture And Take Your Business To The Next Level

As leaders, we want our organizations to be high-performing, and in order for that to be a reality, our people need to perform at a high-level. When our people perform at a high-level, and they do it together, your organization will have your own “Dream Team”.

This workshop is for business leaders that aspire for their organizations to perform better, and in the process, produce better results. This workshop will address important questions:

 Join us on October 3, when Steve Erb, of True Edge Performance Solutions, will walk us through the following:

•  How can we make the positive changes to Build Our Dream Team and take our organizations to the next level?

• Company Culture -> Why does it matter? How can I impact?

• We’ll work toward evaluating your organization and identifying positive culture development strategies

• Your Greatest Asset -> How can I develop my team? What tools can I use to assist?

• We’ll work on processes and tools to help you build your “Dream Team” • Recognition -> Why is this so hard?

• We’ll work on recognition strategies that will enable sustainable change

Develop Your People, Build a Positive Corporate Culture And Take Your Business To The Next Level

As a workshop, you will develop and clarify your “Next Steps” for your business after each session; and you will have the opportunity to learn from others in a collaborative environment in the process.

Register Here: Building Your Dream Team Workshop

(A buffet breakfast is included.)

For more information, please contact:

Presenter: Steve Erb, MBA

True Edge Performance Solutions

SErb@TrueEdgeLLC.com

717-509-9177, ext. 106

“Grow With Traction” – An EOS (Work)shop to help you achieve your vision!

If you are the owner, leader or manager of an entrepreneurial organization who wants to see your business consistently run better and grow faster, Brian White and EOS can help you and your team simplify, clarify and achieve your vision.

Even the most successful entrepreneurs occasionally find running a business more challenging than they expected. Many work longer hours and get less return on their investment of time and money than they would like. Most entrepreneurs regularly grapple with one or more of the following challenges:

• Lack of control – over time, the market, or the company
• People – don’t listen, understand or follow-through
• Profit – there’s not enough of it
• Growth – is okay, but they just can’t seem to break through to the next level
• Magic Pills – Lots of remedies and quick fixes have come and gone, but the wheels are still spinning

If these problems seem all too familiar, you’re not alone. It doesn’t have to be that way. For over 15 years, Brian has been helping entrepreneurs and their leadership teams succeed. In this interactive workshop, Brian will introduce you to the Six Key Components™ of successful businesses. He’ll arm you with a set of simple, practical tools you and your leadership team can begin using right away to get more done and realize better results.

Read More Details on Eventbrite:

Clarify | Simplify | Achieve your Vision

Companies who should attend:

• A company that has 10+ people
• A company that is more afraid of the status quo than making change
• A company who is self-implementing EOS (read Traction, Get A Grip, have been implementing with no facilitator and/or downloaded some EOS tools)
• Companies who want to get to the next level (would like to see what EOS is and get some tools)

Brian is excited to share his expertise to help you run a better business.

Preface: Researching and developing can be hard work, and proper documentation can be hard work too. When applicable, hopefully, the research and development projects yield improvements to your products or processes, and the documentation yields a tax credit.

Tax Credit for Research or Development (Segment II of II)

Credit: Jacob M. Dietz, CPA

Sufficiently document in the records what the original problem was to solve, the steps in the process, and what was finally created. The IRS wants documentation, although it does not specify in exactly how to document. This article gives some ideas. Consider grouping records by project for recordkeeping. Examples of this documentation could be: notes from meetings, drawings, blue prints, notes of tests, etc.

There are some exclusions for activities. Below is a partial list of the excluded activities that do not qualify for the credit:

1. Research after the product is being produced commercially
2. Adapting a product for a specific customer
3. Duplicating (reverse engineering)
4. Studies and surveys
5. Funded by others.

If the project is not a qualifying project, then do not include expenses for that project for a research credit.

If, however, the project does qualify, then make sure you have substantiated by documentation how it qualified, and then track the expenses and indicate how they are qualifying expenses.

For each period, track how many hours of each employee was for each activity. Keep records that show the employee name, the employee hours, the day, and the activity

Track and Document Expenditures

Labor

Labor is likely a significant amount of the research expense. Carefully substantiate labor costs. For each period, track how many hours of each employee was for each activity. Keep records that show the employee name, the employee hours, the day, and the activity. Also, indicate what the employee did for the project. For example, was the employee creating drawings, or sawing, or testing, etc. Include labor for the actual research, and first-line management supervision of those employees.

At the end of the project, be prepared to substantiate how many hours each employee put into the project. At the end of the year, be prepared to substantiate the ratio of qualified research hours to nonqualified hours for each employee.

 If you are buying supplies, and you know they will all be used for research and development, code them immediately to that research and development supplies account.

Supplies

Track the supplies that are used in research and development. Consider creating a separate general ledger account, and record your supplies expense in that account. If you are buying supplies, and you know they will all be used for research and development, code them immediately to that research and development supplies account.

Alternatively, some supplies that you buy may be used for both qualified research expenses, as well as other expenses. In this situation, consider keeping a usage log that tracks how many of each supply is used in a specific project. Every month, this log can be entered in your books and records, and the expense can be taken from the account that the supply was originally purchased in and moved to the research and development supplies expense account.

If you have multiple projects, then try to document which project consumed the supplies.

If using the usage log to move expenses from their original expense account to a research and development supplies account, document how the price per each is computed. For example, perhaps it is pulled periodically from a catalog or an invoice.

Save documentation that shows how the supplies are being used. For example, suppose that you are using metal to create a piece, and subjecting it to tests to see if it will break. Try to have some documentation that would indicate why all this metal is being used, such as notes from the tests or some other substantiation. If you have multiple projects, then try to document which project consumed the supplies.

Subcontract Labor

If subcontractors are paid to do any research, consider creating a separate general ledger account for subcontractor research expense. Keep copies of the contract on file. It should be clearly documented how they fit into the overall project. There are various qualifications for the subcontract expense to qualify. Here are some of them:

1. The work is of a nature that would qualify if it were performed in-house by an employee.
2. There should be an agreement with the subcontractor before the subcontracted work was accomplished.
3. The agreement should explain that the work is being done for your company
4. The agreement should indicate that you must pay for the research even if the project fails
5. The agreement should indicate that your company should own the rights, although not necessarily exclusively, to the research being subcontracted.

Before taking the tax credit, however, consider if you have qualifying activities and qualifying expenses. Also, make sure you have documentation to prove them.

If your business is spending significant money to research and develop, smile and consider the tax credit. Before taking the tax credit, however, consider if you have qualifying activities and qualifying expenses. Also, make sure you have documentation to prove them. Researching and developing can be hard work, and proper documentation can be hard work. Hopefully, the research and development yields improvements to your products or processes, and the documentation yields a tax credit. Taking the credit can be complex, so consult with your tax advisor if you are interested in applying to your business research or development activities.

 

Preface: If your business is spending significant money to research or develop, smile and consider the research or development tax credit. Before taking the tax credit, however,  consult with appropriate tax counsel.

Tax Credit for Research or Development

By Jacob M. Dietz, CPA

The IRS allows a tax credit for increasing research or development activities. If you are a business owner spending on research and development, then you may have felt pain watching money flow out the door to develop a product before you can even sell the product.

If you find yourself grimacing as you pay to research or develop, consider if the research credit will put a smile on your face with a tax credit.

Furthermore, you may even doubt if the product you are researching and developing will ever succeed. If you find yourself grimacing as you pay to research or develop, consider if the research credit will put a smile on your face with a tax credit.

Different industries can qualify for the research credit, and manufacturing is a prime industry for this credit. For example, suppose you are a small equipment manufacturer. You want to create a much larger version of your current equipment, but when you do that the axle tends to break. You therefore try a larger diameter for the axle, but then another part of the machine hits the axle. Then you try a second material for the axle, but one of your shop machines has trouble with it. Too much of the second material gets destroyed in the manufacturing process. Next you try a third material, which works well. Does that scenario sound familiar? If so, keep reading.

Another industry that can qualify is construction. Suppose a construction company wants to move into the energy efficient market. They may incur some qualifying research and development costs along the way.

If you are interested in this credit:

1. Determine if you have qualifying activities
2. If yes, then track your qualifying expenses and
3. Document both your qualifying activities and your qualifying expenses.

What type of activities qualify?

Not all expenses qualify. For an expense to qualify, it must be a qualifying expense of a qualifying activity. Also, you should document how the activity qualifies.

Make sure the tax documentation for a project indicates what uncertainty is trying to be researched and overcome.

In determining which activities qualify for the credit, check for these qualifications:

1. There should be uncertainty to overcome. For example, perhaps the project is to make a larger piece of equipment, but it is uncertain how to make an axle to withstand the additional stress. Make sure the documentation for a project indicates what uncertainty is trying to be researched and overcome.
2. The research should be technological in nature. If it relies on engineering or some type of physical science, that helps. The documentation that shows what the problem is may make it clear that it is technological, and that physical science or engineering should help. For example, maybe the research is to make something stronger, more powerful, larger, etc. Maybe the research is to make a new kind of equipment. This type of research would rely on physical science, and possibly engineering.
3. There should be a process of experimentation, in which the company strives to solve a problem. The problem should somehow relate to quality, reliability or similar features and not merely be cosmetic. Ideally, there should be records indicating what the problem is, and what steps are being taken to improve it. If one attempt at improving ends up failing, that can be documented. Documenting a failure in the process helps to demonstrate that experimentation occurred.
4. The research and development should be to either create an improve a new product, invention, technique etc.

To be continued….

Preface: Now you have a financial target, and now you know when you “don’t have enough (working capital or equity).” We omit the “when you have too much” because that’s usually not the problem.

Surviving a Debt Euroclydon (Segment VI)

Credit: Donald J. Sauder, CPA | CVA

Typically, as an entrepreneur builds equity with profitable earnings, liabilities decrease as they are paid-off, and investment increases. Therefore, the measurements and grades improve with time. Startup business ventures should appreciate that their most substantial risk is liquidity, i.e., measured as working capital.

Diligent financial managers will measure this monthly, and possible graph the trends on comparable actual working capital to the 100% level

The above working capital tool is advisedly applicable to businesses in almost every industry. Diligent financial managers will measure this monthly, and possible graph the trends on comparable actual working capital to the 100% level.

Preparing for a Debt Euroclydon can begin with two easy tools. Tool one is working on optimizing the analytical ratio of equity to total assets or total liabilities and equity.  Tool two is tracking trends with working capital levels and grades. These are quantitative financials to bring a mathematical approach to what some advisors say is too much…debt, payables, etc. Now you have a target, and now you know when you “don’t have enough (working capital or equity).” We omit the “when you have too much” because that’s usually not the problem.

…..while financial tools and weather forecasts may be helpful, always keep the following (Questions) top of mind, because that’s what your financials reflect.

If your business has all the necessary financial reporting to begin these steps towards diligent financial preparedness, then your also advised starting to be your own business “financial weatherman.” You can achieve this following these two easy tools. If you don’t know where to start, then all you need to do is ask for help.

Above all, when preparing for any business risks or pressures, i.e., a Debt Euroclydon, while financial tools and weather forecasts may be helpful, always keep the following questions top of mind, because that’s what your financials reflect.

1)    What is our enterprises’ purpose?
a.     Are we achieving that purpose effectively?
2)    What is our enterprises’ vision?
a.    Are we working successfully towards the vision?
3)    What are our enterprises’ core values?
a.    Do we commendably exemplify those values?
4)    What is our enterprise core focus?
a.    What do our customers appreciate most about our core focus?
5)    What does our business contribute to the community?
a.    Are our products or services, adding the most exceptional         value possible?

Finally, many business successes and opportunity are a matter of “time and chance.” They are not necessarily indications of superior strength, wisdom, understanding, or skill, so as an entrepreneur give thanks daily, and live with gratitude.

Preface: Numerous business owners have an intuitive feeling on working capital levels, but quantifiably grading working capital provides an understandable and mathematical measurement where your business is at now, and where your business working capital could and should be.

Surviving a Debt Euroclydon (Segment V)

Credit: Donald J. Sauder, CPA |CVA

Measuring working capital is the second easy tool to help maintain a well-oiled enterprise. Working capital is a balance sheet calculation, or current assets minus current liabilities equals your business working capital. Working capital measures the operational liquidity level of a business.

So what are currents assets? They are often your cash and equivalents accounts, accounts receivable, vendor prepayments, and inventory. Assets that are easily convertible into cash with a year. Current liabilities are often your accounts payable, credit cards, line of credit, tax liabilities, accrued expenses, customer prepayments, and deposits, and don’t forget the current portions of debt.

To precisely measure an enterprise’s working capital, it is necessary to have accurate accounting with appropriate accountant oversight for proper classifications of both current and noncurrent assets and liabilities.

The current ratio applies for the same financial numbers as working capital, yet instead of subtracting current liabilities from current assets, the current ratio divides current assets by current liabilities. Typically, a current ratio should be higher than two and likely two and a half, to be solidly established from an analytical measurement metric.

….the working capital grading tool is to help clients measure optimal working capital levels, i.e., how much is enough when discussing working capital? Let’s call it the working capital grade. It requires analysis of both the balance sheet and profit and loss statement.

Working capital measurement is an analytical approach to monitor a business’ capacity to continue operations with sufficient cash flows and to pay operating expenses and satisfy current liabilities cash uses.

Sauder and Stoltzfus, as an entrepreneurs CPA firm, has developed a working capital grading tool to help clients measure optimal working capital levels, i.e., how much is enough when discussing working capital? Let’s call it the working capital grade. It requires analysis of both the balance sheet and profit and loss statement.

Tracking the working capital balance from consecutive period to period will provide a data map, but you need to know, “Do you have enough yet?”

Working capital seems easy enough to calculate. You look at your financial statements and subtract current liabilities from current assets. If you should have the financial accuracy to calculate the balance, the numbers independently, do not provide much analytical guidance. Tracking the balance from consecutive period to period will provide a data map, but you need to know, “Do you have enough yet?”

Numerous business owners have an intuitive feeling on working capital levels, but quantifiably grading working capital provides understandable and mathematical measurement where your business is at now, and where your business working capital could and should be.

Here’s how we grade working capital. You can do math or follow along with current assets minus current liabilities as the formula.) Let’s say the cash $5,000 + accounts receivables $45,000+ inventory $70,000 is $120,000. Now subtracting accounts payable $30,000 + accrued wages $15,000 + current portion of debt $25,000 is $70,000. Now the working capital calculation is $120,000 – $70,000 = $50,000.

In our example, the working capital was $50,000, so the business is not yet solidly positioned or fully prepared for a debt Euroclydon.

Next, we compare that working capital level of the balance sheet to the profit and loss statement, measuring both direct labor expenses, and operational or general and administrative costs on a quarterly basis, e.g., what do you pay indirect labor expense or general and administrative expense, on average, every three months? This example can include multiplying a year of data with .25 for 1/4th of the annual costs or merely looking at quarterly data. This number is an estimate only, like a professor grading essay papers, the difference between the grade of a B+ or A is discretionary.

Now following with a business that has a direct labor expense in cost of sales of $300,000 per year, you would multiply the twelve-month fiscal year number by 0.25; that calculates to $75,000 per quarterly 300,000 * 0.25). If your operating expenses or general and administrative expenses are $250,000 for the twelve-month fiscal year, then you would multiply that balance by 0.25 to arrive at a calculated $62,5000 ($250,000* 0.25).

The greater of those two numbers is your optimized working capital. That is the $75,000 or $62,500. The greater is the direct labor of $75,000. Do you make the grade? Your business is solidly pillared if you have the greater of these two numbers in the working capital formula, i.e., $75,000.

In our example, the working capital was $50,000, so the business is not yet solidly positioned or fully prepared for a debt Euroclydon. If you have working capital above the calculation, your business can take on additional risk to safely develop the expansion of operational activity, as long as you continue to maintain or monitor appropriate working capital levels in your business.

In the above-calculated working capital scenario, the $50,000 of working capital measurement divided by $75,000 is a 66% ($50,000 balance sheet working capital / $75,000 profit and loss measurement)  Making the grade? Yes, it’s that simple.

The working capital grading tool works like this:
1.    35% equals one month of working capital
2.    70% equals two months of working capital
3.    100% equals three months of working capital.
4.    You can score well above 100% in a firmly positioned business, and you’re ready for the debt Euroclydon.

If your business working capital grade is below 15% to 25%, your business likely needs immediate help from an expert financial advisor. On the other hand, the $25,000 increase required from $50,000 to achieve $75,000 can be obtained with steady additional earnings and profits retained in the business, i.e., you can earn your way out of the problem, or maybe a long-term amortization of say a line of credit, i.e., reducing current liabilities.

To be continued.