If you’re looking for a firm that will focus on your individual needs, and always treat you like a client who matters, look no further. Our firm is large enough to offer a full range of professional services, but small enough to give you the individual attention that you deserve.
We will thoroughly and conscientiously study your personal situation, and tailor our advice to your specific needs.
Business Consulting
As a true business partner, we are available to help you deal with any business problem or opportunity. We stand ready to engage in business consulting projects to help you make the right decisions for the future of your business. Whether you face questions related to expanding, selling or restructuring your business, we have the necessary business acumen and analytical capabilities to help you make the right decisions.
Business Entity Selection
The business entity—LLP, LLC, sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, etc.— that you select for your business has enormous financial and tax implications. It is important that you make the right decision. We can explain each choice and its implications. As your business grows and changes, the type of business entity you choose may need to change also.
Estate & Trust Tax Preparation
Estate matters affect everyone. By taking proactive steps today, you can ease the way for your heirs during a very difficult time. We can work with your legal counsel to help you to structure your estate and trusts to minimize taxes and ensure the smooth transition to your heirs. We are available to handle all estate and trust tax-related matters.
Financial Analysis
When a business is able to undertake strong financial analysis, it opens up new opportunities to improve management, planning and decision making. Financial analysis provides the numbers to support, reject or contemplate a course of action. Prospective analysis can show how situations may evolve under various scenarios, providing a new dimension to decision making. We are ready to provide this type of financial analysis to support the continue prosperity of your business.
Financial Statements
Financial statements are an important tool for management decision making. Financial statements also represent your business to lenders, partners, potential buyers and other interested parties. We will work closely with your key personnel to develop and finalize accurate and timely financial statements.
IRS Representation
An IRS audit can be an intimidating and complex process. If you or your business face an IRS audit, we can bring to bear years of experience in dealing with tax matters and IRS audit procedures to ensure that you are properly represented when dealing with the IRS and other tax authorities.
Payroll Services
Constantly changing federal, state and local laws and tax regulations make payroll management an ongoing challenge for business owners. Our payroll services professionals are well versed on these laws and regulations. We can proactively alert you to material changes that will affect your business and your employees while also keeping payroll running smoothly no matter how large your business and your employee population become.
QuickBooks Setup and Training
Although QuickBooks is designed for the layman to understand, the initial setup and installation must be done correctly in order for future information to be accurate.
All information necessary to setup manual accounting records is also necessary to setup and install QuickBooks on your desktop. This task is even more complicated if you switch from manual accounting operations to QuickBooks in the middle of the year.
Which accounting method will you use? What chart of accounts do you need for your business? How do you handle beginning balances?
An expert can easily answer all of these questions and complete the initial Setup and Installation in a timely manner. In addition, your accounting employees receive training on the accounting software to enhance their performance.
How much does it cost? We first want to find out a little more about your business and your accounting records before we quote you an exact price. Rest assured that we work with many small business owners and our rates are designed to fit the budgets of our clients.
As with any accounting software program, installation and training take time – time taken away from managing your business. Here’s a short list of the services we provide during your QuickBooks setup:
- Study and evaluate your software and accounting needs.
- Recommend software and hardware requirements.
- Install software, design and set up chart of accounts and entire accounting package including payroll, accounts receivable, inventory, accounts payable, etc.
- Determination of your QuickBooks starting date
- Loading your chart of account and balances as of that starting date
- Preparation of a list of the items that you sell to your customers. This list includes services, inventory parts, non-inventory parts, other charges and sales taxes
- Entering your outstanding accounts receivable and accounts payable details as of your starting date
- Entering your ending statement bank balances and outstanding checks & deposits in transit as of your starting date
- Printing a trial balance as of your starting date and comparing it to your trial balance from your old system
- Entering your transactions since your starting dates into QuickBooks
- Train client or client staff in use of software to meet their accounting, management and tax needs.
Ongoing Services:
- Follow up training to ensure the client is “on the right track”.
- Monthly, quarterly or annual review of client QuickBooks data to assist in tax preparation and management reports.
Retirement Planning
Retirement planning is critical in these uncertain times. Whether you are developing a retirement plan for yourself or choosing a retirement plan to offer to your employees, we can help you evaluate the available options. Our focus is on helping you to make the choice that is most appropriate for your own financial situation. If you are choosing a retirement plan for your business, we will base our recommendations on the unique characteristics of your business and your employee population, as well as the legal and compliance issues related to each type of plan.
Small Business Bookkeeping
You have more important things to do than to “keep the books.” So, let FTMS take care of the books for you, and then you can get back to the job of running your business & generating profits!
Our accounting packages include all the day-to-day services you expect:
- Reconciling your bank account
- Generating your income statement
- Generating your balance sheet
- Maintaining your general ledger
- Remaining available for your ongoing questions
These tasks form the solid foundation of any small business accounting system. And of course, you can customize by supplementing your services with bill paying, customer invoice processing, payroll processing, tax planning, tax preparation, or any of our other services.
This is all great, but our real value comes from helping you use “the books” to make smart business decisions.
William Edwards Deming, who is often described as the “father” of management consulting, described what he called the “wisdom pyramid” to illustrate how to make decisions. Here’s how it works:
- We start with data from your business.
- We assemble that data into information.
- Together, we interpret and analyze that information to produce the knowledge you need to make informed decisions.
- Ultimately, we gain experience from applying information to create wisdom.
Does that sound like the sort of value you want for your business? If so, call us at (916) 773-1200 to discover why we do more than just “keep the books”.
Tax Planning
Tax planning is the real key to beating the IRS — legally. We go beyond tax compliance. We proactively recommend plain-English concepts and strategies to maximize your after-tax income.
We’re constantly working to enhance our mastery of the current tax law, complex tax code, and new tax regulations by attending frequent tax seminars.
Our clients pay the least tax allowable by law because we continually look for ways to minimize your taxes throughout the year — not just on April 15.
“Most Enrolled Agents and CPAs do a fine job of filing tax returns – getting the right numbers in the right boxes on the right forms. But that’s not nearly enough. The real secret to managing taxes is planning. Rick Lagomarsino is a member of an elite group of fewer than 50 tax preparers nationwide that are dedicated to tax planning to save clients money.”
– Edward A. Lyon, JD, TaxCoach Software, LLC
We recommend Tax Saving Strategies to help you:
- grow and preserve assets by keeping Uncle Sam out of your pockets.
- defer income so you can keep your money now and pay less taxes later.
- reduce taxes on your income so you keep more of what you make.
- reduce taxes on your estate so your family keeps more of what you’ve made.
- reduce taxes on your gifts so you can give more.
- reduce taxes on your investments so you can grow your wealth faster.
- reduce taxes on your retirement distributions so you can retire in style.
Has your current Enrolled Agent or CPA discussed these strategies with you?
- Splitting income between family members or legal entities in order to get more of the income taxed in a lower bracket.
- Shifting income or expenses from one year to another in order to have them fall where it will be taxed at a lower rate.
- Deferring taxes through certain investment choices such as pension plans, contributions and other similar plans.
- Choosing appropriate investments to produce income that is tax exempt from either federal or state or both taxing entities.
- Finding tax deductions by structuring your money to pay for things you enjoy, such as a vacation home.
Remember, we work for you — not for the IRS. A lot of our clients save many times the fee in reduced tax liability through careful planning and legitimate tax strategies.
Tax Preparation
Preparing your own tax return can leave you with more questions than answers. Even the US Government’s General Accounting Office found that most taxpayers (77% of 71 million taxpayers) believe they benefit from using a professional tax preparer.
Like it or not, today’s tax laws are so complicated that filing even a simple return can be confusing. It’s just too easy to overlook deductions and credits you deserve. Even if you use an “accountant in a box” computer program, there’s no substitute for an experienced tax professional’s help.
Here’s what you get with our service:
- We check and recheck your tax return to identify potential IRS “red flags” and limit IRS contacts.
- We file your return electronically to get any refund quicker.
- We help you adjust your payroll withholding to get more money back each paycheck. (Why give the IRS an interest free loan for up to 16 months?)
- We show you potential deductions that most accountants overlook that you can use to pay less tax.
Call us at (916) 773-1200 to schedule your free Tax Analysis, we’ll find the mistakes and missed opportunities that can cost you thousands, and then show you how proactive planning can rescue those wasted dollars.
I guarantee you’ll leave with new information, or I’ll give $50 to your favorite charity. So call today!