William Simi, Author at Checkbox Accounting

08May 2014 by William Simi

Principle 11: Board Diversity

Business Advisory, FREE Business Tools: Learn the Secrets, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

In order to obtain board diversity, the board of an organization should include members with diverse backgrounds (including, but not limited to, ethnic, racial and gender perspectives), experience, and organizational and financial skills necessary to advance the organization’s mission. A board should have a variety of skills, expertise, backgrounds, and perspectives in order to make informed decisions. Boards of charitable organizations generally focus on including members with expertise in budget and financial management, investments, personnel, fundraising, public relations, and marketing. Every board should have expertise in budgeting and financial management. The board must ensure that all financial matters of the organization are conducted legally, ethically and in accordance with proper accounting rules, therefore making an effort to ensure that at least one member has financial literacy. Some organizations seek to…

25Apr 2014 by William Simi

Principle 9: Successful Board Meetings

Business Advisory, Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

Every charitable organization’s board should have board meetings on a regular basis in order to conduct its business and successfully fulfill its duties. -In order to conduct a board meeting that will not be tedious yet successful, try to start off your meeting with an ice breaker to have members feel comfortable as well as more engaged and interested. -The number of meetings held should be determined by the needs of the organization. -Many charitable organizations find it prudent to meet at least three times a year to fulfill basic governance and oversight responsibilities but organizations with widely dispersed board membership will hold only one or two meetings each year. -Regular meetings provide the chief venue for board members to: -Review the organizations financial situation and program activities -Establish and…

26Mar 2014 by William Simi

IRS Tax Fraud Alerts

Business Advisory, Tax

IRS Wants You to Know About Schemes, Scams and Cons "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!" Don't become a victim to any scheme that offers instant wealth or exemption from your obligation as a United States citizen to file tax returns and/or pay taxes. Some of these schemes can literally cost you your life savings. Others can result in your prosecution and imprisonment if you knowingly participate in them. Abusive Return Preparer Taxpayers should be very careful when choosing a tax preparer. While most preparers provide excellent service to their clients, a few unscrupulous return preparers file false and fraudulent tax returns and ultimately defraud their clients. It is important to know that even if someone else prepares your return, you are ultimately responsible for…

12Mar 2014 by William Simi

Principle 5: Document Retention and Destruction

Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

A charitable organization should establish and implement policies and procedures to protect and preserve the organization’s important documents and business records. CORE CONCEPTS -The boards should clearly note and realize the clear difference between document destruction during an investigation vs. document purging as a normal day to day management duty. -It is important to have a schedule for document retention as a necessary tool to guarantee the retention of documents needed for any legal or business purposes. -The board should know how an official investigation is determined and how to be sure that the organization follows the laws. -An organized and efficient filing system is important for all organizations. LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES -In Sarbaines—Oxyley Act of 2004 in Section 802 for the document and destruction clause applies to nonprofit…

22Feb 2014 by William Simi

Beware of bogus IRS e-mails

Tax

The IRS is warning taxpayers and practitioners about potential e-mail scammers who claim to be the IRS. Scammers use the IRS name or logo to make the message appear authentic so you will respond to it. In reality, it’s a scam attempting to trick you into revealing your personal and financial information. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by e-mail or social media channels to request personal or financial information. Never share confidential information via e-mail with someone alleging to be the IRS. If you receive a suspicious e-mail claiming to be from the IRS, or directing you to an IRS site, do not reply, do not open any attachments, and do not click on any links. For more information on these scams and what to watch for,…

02Feb 2014 by William Simi

Top Facilitation Training – Managing the Focused Conversation

Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

My partner and I recently participated in the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA), Technology of Participation (ToP) training in Sacramento. It was an intensive but well-spent two days learning the ToP methodologies and processes for conducting group sessions in participatory decision making and consensus building. These methods have been tested through twenty-five years of experience and experimentation with groups all over the world and are now being widely used by leaders in for-profit businesses, not-for-profit organizations, local community groups and governmental agencies with great success. I like the method not only because it provides us with a very workable and, at the same time flexible framework, for the conducting the kind of consulting projects our firm does but because it appeals to my accountant’s sense of orderliness, symmetry and simple…

02Feb 2014 by William Simi

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – What Is It?

Business Advisory

Our guest blogger this week is Chad Nelson, President of Champion Online Marketing. Chad has some valuable insights to offer on the subject of search engine optimization and what it means for the business owner. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is an often used term but one that many or most people don’t fully understand. On an almost daily basis I get asked, “What is SEO?” Before diving into the definition of “SEO” it is best if we take a quick look at the normal process involved when someone searches for a product or service on the Internet. When a potential customer is looking for a local company to purchase a product or service they typically type in the word or words (called keywords) they are looking for into a search…

24Jan 2014 by William Simi

Principle 1: Laws and Regulations for Non Profit Organizations

Non Profit Principles: Steering You in the Right Direction

A charitable organization must comply with all applicable federal laws and regulations, as well as applicable laws and regulations of the states and the local jurisdictions in which it is based and operates. If the organization conducts programs outside of the United States, it must also abide by applicable international laws, regulations and conventions that are legally binding on the United States. The board must be familiar with the hierarchy of laws and the legal framework within which the organizations functions. Making certain that the governing body of your organization is aware of new and updated laws is crucial. Laws are often advanced or added annually; therefore those individuals need to be aware of all legalities pertaining to the organization. LEGAL AND COMPLIANCE ISSUES -Non-profits are covered under federal, state,…

18Jan 2014 by William Simi

The 3 Bottom Lines – Mastering Business Fundamentals

Business Advisory

The name of our Blog has raised some questions from readers. What do we mean by the “3 Bottom Lines”? We’d like to take credit for the concept but we can’t. It was first articulated in an excellent little book by Chuck Kremer and Ron Rizzuto called Managing by the Numbers, A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Using Your Company’s Financial Statements. In their book, the authors use a focus on the three essential metrics of profitability, operating cash flow and return on assets or equity to frame their discussion about how business owners can use their financial statements proactively to evaluate business performance and make important strategic decisions about the future. Most people are familiar with the concept of Net Profit as a means of measuring business success and,…

07Jan 2014 by William Simi

Donors Beware – Don’t Fall for Charity Scams Following Disasters

Not For Profit

The IRS warns consumers not to fall for bogus charity scams. They often occur in the wake of major disasters like the recent tornadoes in the Midwest or the typhoon in the Philippines. Thieves play on the goodwill of people who want to help disaster victims. They pose as a real charity in order to steal money or get private information to commit identity theft. The scams use different tactics. Offering charity relief, criminals often: -Claim to be with real charities to gain public trust. -Use names similar to legitimate charities. -Use email to steer people to bogus websites that often look like real charity sites. -Contact people by phone or email to get them to ‘donate’ money or give their financial information. The IRS offers the following tips to…

Author: William Simi