Aligning Business IT With Business Strategy
Business owners and CFOs are experiencing a crackdown on tax liability nonpayments. Cash is tight everywhere, and agencies will only increase collection and enforcement efforts – especially when it involves a public trust. Whether it is sales tax or payroll tax, noncompliance can mean a whole lot more than just fines and penalties.
via Arrest for Sales Tax Evasion in Tennessee | TaxRates.com.
With the economy being sluggish and, in some regions, stalled and even worse, a lot of businesses both large and small are feeling the crunch. Cash isn’t coming easily for anyone, and the cost of running the business and employing workers just keeps going up even if revenues don’t. Managing cash flow is important when there is cash to manage, but keeping it all going when there isn’t much coming in takes real skill and planning.   Knowing where to cut or limit expenses is essential, but knowing what NOT to forgo when paying the bills can be just as critical if not more so. You don’t pay the light bill, maybe the lights to out. You don’t pay payroll taxes, maybe you go to jail.
A recent article on CFO.com discusses the findings where, in cases where payroll taxes were unpaid by the business, specific individuals were held directly and personally responsible for the liability. And the liability is not contained solely within the walls of the C-level; it may extend to any and all individuals considered to be responsible.  Those who control the purse strings, making the daily decisions on what to and what not to pay, are the folks being identified as responsible for the failure to pay whether they were able to come up with the funds or not.
Responsible individuals, according to the penalty, may include corporate officers, directors, shareholders, bookkeepers and even third parties, such as CPAs, or corporate counsel. In exceptional cases, responsible individuals can have criminal tax liability for failure to pay payroll taxes.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1p9wf)To be fair, insufficient funds may seem like a logical reason for not paying payroll taxes. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in another case, United States v. Easterday, 564 F.3d 1004 (9th Cir. 2009), determined that Easterday could be convicted of a crime even though he may have been able to prove that his company didn’t have enough funds to pay the payroll taxes.
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1p9wf)
Accounting professionals working with businesses and acting as the Trusted Advisor can help their clients avoid facing this type of decision and risk by helping them to monitor and actively manage their businesses more closely – at an operational as well as financial level. Rather than relying upon a current bank account balance or after-the-fact financial reporting to provide the information for making decisions each day, business owners need continuous, real time, actionable data to help them keep the business going forward, and to help keep them out of trouble.
With better information, trend analysis and a little forecasting, accounting services and consultative advice from a trusted accounting professional does not simply help the business stay in business, it could help prevent the business owner, CFO or controller from having to wear an unfashionable orange jumpsuit and shackles.
Make Sense?
J
You’re an accounting, bookkeeping or business professional and have been working with QuickBooks desktop software for years. Your processes and methods for using QuickBooks to manage client accounting have been developed over time, and have been refined to the point where you are able to maximize your efforts and efficiently handle all your customer requirements.  Sure, there have been changes in the software over the years, and many of them have proven to be helpful. But sometimes you have to wonder what they were thinking when they changed the interface for 2013.
Initially I thought it was the grumbling of a few people who simply resist change, some admittedly so. But then the grumbling got louder, and started to come from folks I would expect to hear only “happy rainbows and sunshine” from when it comes to QuickBooks. The new interface, they say, “sucks”.
So what’s the issue? What did Intuit do with QuickBooks 2013 desktop editions that has inflamed so many devoted users? One ProAdvisor puts it this way: “Basically no real enhancements at all, just the interface and relocation of options”. In short, QuickBooks desktop editions now look a bit more like QuickBooks Online Edition, and “there’s extra stuff in the navigation – Intuit stuff“.
I understand Intuit’s motivations for making the desktop and online editions appearance more similar. After all, the benefit of the QuickBooks product line is that you can start with an entry-level edition and move up the product line to more features and functionality without converting to and learning entirely new software. Since the online edition of QuickBooks is positioned as the entry-level product for some businesses, it makes sense to continue that same look for the user as they upgrade to richer desktop editions. Unfortunately for many accounting and bookkeeping professionals, this means giving up on some of the usability you’ve come to expect (like being able to fit all the necessary information on the screen, and having easy-to-read menus, or not seeing a lot of unusable space on the screen, or even being able to suppress Intuit in-product offers).
Many companies have successfully increased their revenue potential by adding offers for services via links in the software interface, which is much more acceptable now that people have adopted web technologies and are familiar with the “hyperlink” concept. Building additional value (and revenue streams) in the solution makes sense from a business perspective, which is why you see so many software companies moving in this direction. Software solutions and services can interconnect seamlessly and transparently via the web, so we should all expect to see software makers engage their customers in as many ways and with as many products and services as possible. For Intuit, this means being positioned to take advantage of, initially, their partner network of interconnected solutions and, later, their own direct offerings in each area.
Software developers like Intuit DO listen to their users and market influencers, as they value your continued patronage. They have come to learn, however, that devoted (or invested) users will accept change eventually – even more so when there is a chance to use the change to generate business opportunity. QuickBooks accountants and trainers rely on change in order to keep their clients coming back for more.
The real target is the new user – the business not already adopted into the product – and it is primarily for this new user that the interface changes were made and in-product advertisements targeted to.
In the case of Intuit’s interface selection for QuickBooks 2013 desktop editions, it might seem like there’s “no enhancement, just the interface change”. I would suggest, however, that the interface change IS the enhancement Intuit elected to deliver – enhancement of the acceptance of the online edition and connected services.
Make Sense?
J
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You’re a professional services provider, perhaps an accountant. Your client is a growing business, and they came to you to prepare the corporate tax return. After several years of faithfully performing this service for your client, you send them the annual email reminding them to bring in the information to get this year’s return completed. When they don’t respond, you call them. And find out that the tax return was completed by another accountant this year, the accountant who took over the bookkeeping. “But we could have done that for you, too”, you say. But now it’s too late, and the client has a different accountant. Consider it an opportunity lost, along with the client.
Is this something you run in to fairly frequently, losing clients to others who provide substantially the same services as you do? It happens to the best of firms, and the secret to keeping it from happening is to be sticky – delivering the services which securely attach the client to your firm – and provide the ongoing value that your business clients can’t do without.
The first place to create stickiness is in your service offering. One-time or annual projects (like tax returns and audits) don’t keep you in front of your client often enough for them to think of you daily, and daily (or at least frequently) is how often you want them to think of you. As the business owner faces daily decisions, do they consider calling you for advice or insight? If not, then you probably aren’t delivering the value, or the sticky service, which will tie your practice to the client for the long-term.  Daily bookkeeping, or helping the client keep their books in order, is a valuable service that most small businesses need. While your firm may not be realty interested in performing or supporting the business bookkeeping, it is important to recognize that this level of work allows the firm to be more intimately involved with client business processes, providing a great deal more insight and understanding into client operations than through an annual tax interview. By attaching your firm to the daily activities of helping to account for business activities, you elevate your position from an occasional service provider to a consultant whose advice is sought after on a regular basis. You are now in a position to understand better what areas of business may need focus and attention, and have placed yourself as a trusted advisor who can help determine the best course of action in any given situation.
The other, critical element to being sticky is to make sure your clients know what you can do for them. Don’t assume that each of your clients knows what service or value you can offer them (you know what happens when you assume, right?). You have to tell them; spell it out and thoroughly communicate the variety of ways your firm can help them. Just because you’re an accountant, you should not assume the client will ask you to help them with various business issues. Often, a business owner will face a challenge and not know who to turn to. Seeking out the assistance of specialty consultants is a standard approach, as is turning to IT contractors, software consultants, attorneys, or other service providers. Why not you?  Did they know you were available to help with this?  If they didn’t call you, then they probably didn’t think this was a service you provide.
Accounting professionals serving business clients must not only make their range of services known, but should also actually ask for the additional business from those clients. Only through consistent exploration and value building, asking the client if services offered might be valuable to them and demonstrating how those services have benefitted others, will the firm begin to make the impact necessary to keep the client coming back, and coming back for more.
When the client comes back for more, you know you’re getting sticky. That’s a good thing.
Make Sense?
J
There are lots of reasons why businesses are adopting cloud and Internet technologies in great number, and supporting mobile workers is one of the big ones. In order for traveling sales people or workers in remote offices to have access to business applications and data, many organizations are turning to hosted and cloud solutions to centralize systems and make enterprise-wide access easier to deliver and manage.
What many businesses are just now realizing, however, is that allowing individuals to use their own mobile devices to access corporate data is exposing the enterprise to new (and often unknown) risk with each and every device and app that gets used.
Many CIOs and IT managers are failing to address the vulnerabilities introduced through the proliferation of tablets and smartphones in the business. Some enterprises initially embraced the concept of “bring your own device” [BYOD], as it tended to encourage users to work from home or while on the road, increasing employee productivity and keeping workers more “attached” to their jobs – all without the business having to pay for the device.
With growing numbers of reported “rogue apps” and apps that secretly collect and pass data, the potential benefits of allowing workers to use their own devices is rapidly being overshadowed by the risks involved.
Earlier this year, Apple, Facebook, Yelp and several other firms were sued for privacy-infringing apps that, among other things, pillaged users’ address books. …but what if the app uploads a sales representatives’ contact list and the developer then sells it to a competitor? That’s a new type of data leakage that most organizations aren’t ready for.
http://www.cio.com/article/716368/Free_Mobile_Apps_Put_Your_BYOD_Strategies_at_Risk Â
Phones, in particular, have not traditionally been viewed by most business owners as a primary platform for information theft or damage – other than when an employee uses one to tell someone something they shouldn’t. But in terms of intrusion, data theft, application hacking and things like that… not so much.
Phones that most folks carry around now are actually computers with a great deal of processing and storage capacity, and as such are just as capable of running bad programs and being vulnerable to attack as their more obvious portable computer counterparts. Perhaps they are even more vulnerable because of the “connected” nature of the device, because by its very nature it is geared towards communication of information, not just processing it.
It’s not that hackers and developers of exploits (or just bad code) are necessarily focusing on stealing your business data (well, OK, a lot of them are). Maybe someone just got lucky one day, when they first realized that the employee phone was the “camel’s nose under the tent” which would get them inside, far enough to deliver access to confidential corporate information and data someone would pay for. People tend to be the weakest element in the security chain, and exploiting vulnerabilities under the guise of “making things easier” for the user has been a highly successful approach (would you like to sign in with your Facebook account?).
..because attacks that target employees may well end up targeting the employer as well, even if the employer wasn’t the original target.
Whether it is intentional or not, the risk is very present, and every business and enterprise has a responsibility to recognize the vulnerabilities introduced with mobile device use and to do what it can to mitigate that risk. It is also important to recognize that the risk is not a purely personal one, either.
Since the information held by most businesses also includes the information of others – customers, vendors, partners, etc. – it is essential that the business not expose itself to unnecessary problems (litigation, fines or penalties, or simply lost opportunity) caused by accidental leakage of confidential information belonging to 3rd parties.
For some businesses, the best answer may be to only allow use of devices the business provides, along with clearly written use policies and guidelines. This approach allows the organization to determine which applications may be installed and to dictate how the device is to be used for business needs.
There are even solutions available which can assist businesses in managing the expenses related to mobile devices in the enterprise, addressing not only security and privacy concerns but also helping to optimize expenditures on mobile devices by monitoring contracts and usage, identifying underused agreements or overage charges, or even identifying contracts still in force which should have been cancelled.
For many businesses, however, allowing users to continue accessing business resources with their personal devices may be desirable for a variety of reasons, cost being only one of them. If this is the case (as it is most often in small and growing businesses), it is important to make certain that users understand what is and is not appropriate device use, and to inform users on the policies relating to apps which may or may not be allowed and why.
Make sense?
J
Most businesses accept that they have “customers”, people who pay for the products and/or services that the business provides. However, the customer many businesses fail to recognize is the “internal” customer – the consumer of services delivered internally to the organization. These customers, most frequently recognized as co-workers and team members, depend upon the services delivered to them in order to do their jobs for the company. This dependency represents the value of the service, and every organization has a need to get as much value as possible for the cost they expend for these services. When the business approaches these internally delivered services as profit centers rather than pure cost centers, the impact to the business could highly beneficial as the application of resources gets focused on building strategic benefit for the company and not simply on supporting status quo.
Calling a part of the business a profit center doesn’t mean it’s going to sell services externally for money. Rather, it means that the activities of the department can have a direct and meaningful impact to business profitability, and are participants in the development and facilitation of business strategy. Profit centers can come in many flavors in a business, and may be identified as managers and owners reflect on areas of the business where changing conditions may introduce business risk. Risk often translates to opportunity at some level.
A fairly obvious example of this is in the placement of IT departments and services within an organization. If information technology is viewed purely as a cost-center and a “necessary evil” of doing business, it is more likely that IT services will have a perceived higher cost and lower level of value, as the technology is not considered a player in business strategy. When technology is leveraged more directly to realize the strategic vision of the business, and is applied in ways which assist in delivering higher levels of service at a reduced cost while providing a means for market differentiation, the positive impacts in efficiency and profitability can be great.
A not-so-obvious example of a cost center which could be re-oriented towards increasing strategic positioning while making a positive improvement in internal service delivery (resulting in increases in performance and profitability) is the area of sales tax compliance. Particularly with the emerging complexities introduced with cloud and Internet services, and with the lack of standards being the only consistency across the country, sales tax compliance is becoming a significant consideration and risk factor for businesses seeking to adopt cloud services and SaaS application solutions.
“Don’t just think of the tax department as a compliance shop,” says Waterfield. “It should also be considered a profit center. If given the proper resources, and access to information, it can provide the company the ability to become competitive in the marketplace either from assistance in calculating the proper price point or reducing overall tax expense on purchases.”
CFO.com (http://s.tt/1n56t)
Unless the tax compliance department is a direct participant in the consideration and adoption of cloud IT and other services, the business could end up with a significant liability and risk exposure that was not expected or allowed for. Rather than finding this out after the fact, reviewing these types of potential impacts should be part of that same process which considered the adoption of the solution in the first place.
Accounting and tax professionals can find additional value to deliver to their existing and prospective clients by placing focus on these very important aspects of operating and managing a business. As technology and globalization introduce more, and more complicated, issues relating to sales taxes and reporting compliance (which even the smallest of businesses must address) accounting and tax professionals should help their clients meet these changing requirements by offering proactive consultative guidance and support.
Make sense?
J
Read more about Should you be paying sales tax on your cloud solution?
Read more about Cloud FAQs for CFOs: CFO.com
