Consulting

Entity Selection, Formation or Transition 

Setting up your business for success right from the start is crucial. While it is necessary to have an attorney draft your organization documents, before that, you need to decide what your business goals are. Understanding your goals and aligning them with an optimal tax structure will save you money and reduce problems in the future. If you are looking to work for yourself, bring on outside investors, or establish a business with an unusual financing structure, we can help you determine the tax effects and pros/cons of your chosen entity type. We can assist from the start with getting your EIN, establishing tax accounts, and making business tax elections such as S-corporation elections, etc. that your business may need.

As your business evolves, you may need to reassess your entity structure to reflect your business needs. These changes can occur by legal requirement or through mergers, acquisitions, and sales of business interests. Let our experienced team help you stay ahead of the tax effects of these changes.

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Licensing and Permits 

We assist many business clients with the setup of business licenses, tax accounts and ongoing maintenance of their licenses and permits. For example, liquor license applications and vendor licenses often go hand-in-hand with the setup of tax accounts for a business’s new locations. Examples of licenses and permits we have assisted with include:  

  1. Liquor license documentation requests 

  2. Sales tax account applications 

  3. Lottery sales registrations 

  4. County vendor license applications 

  5. Federal and state identification number applications 

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Outsourced CFO or Controller

You need financial strategy, cash management, forecasting, evaluation of results, and supervision of the accounting and finance function of your business. However, you may not be ready yet to take on a full-time CFO or Controller, or you may be in between full-time hires. Our experienced professionals can fill the gap and help you seamlessly take on these critical roles with excellence and improvement.

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Business Plan, Strategy, and Execution

It’s difficult to hit your mark when the target is not identified. A well defined and continually refined business plan does just that. Our experienced professionals can work with you to identify goals, create a well-defined business plan, and integrate the plan into financial reporting to track against actual results. A plan is just a pipedream without a strategy and specific action steps to achieve those goals. Our experienced professionals can work with you to identify and implement achievable steps to reach your goals.

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Budget Creation, KPIs and Analysis

How is business going? Do you have an ongoing, automated method of tracking business performance against your business plan and budget? Do you understand your numbers and key items that are having the most impact? Smart Financials can assist in creating a system for tracking performance and evaluating the results on an ongoing basis.

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COVID-19 Relief Incentives

We keep up with all the latest Covid-19 relief incentives and have assisted our clients with their applications for loans and grants and the related forgiveness applications. Many businesses are unaware of specific programs for which they are eligible. We not only assist in identifying eligible programs, but we are hands on in the application process in organizing required documentation for submission.

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Cloud/Digital Transition Strategy and Implementation

All Smart Financials team members are highly experienced and familiar with various cloud accounting products. We are continually implementing systems for new clients every month. We can assist in evaluating which system is right for your business, as well as leading and managing the implementation to ensure a seamless transition.

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Business Restructuring and Turnaround

Smart Financials helps financially challenged companies and creditors improve business performance and implement strategies. From pandemics tochallenging market conditions and liquidity, our skilled professionals guide clients in overcoming a variety of challenges. Smart Financials provides rapid, strategic advice in the following areas: 

  1. Performance improvement 

  2. Crisis management 

  3. Forensic accounting 

  4. Solvency analyses 

  5. Interim management 

  6. Restructuring and turnaround 

  7. Bankruptcy or insolvency litigation and expert witness  

  8. Preferential Transfers and Fraudulent Conveyances 

  9. Unsecured creditor committee advisory 

  10. Trustee, examiner, and receivership services 

  11. Business valuation  

  12. Bankruptcy taxation 

  13. Transaction advisory and due diligence 

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Forensics and Investigations

Whether faced with an internal investigation, a government investigation, or an allegation of corruption, Smart Financials offers our clients the resources they need. We use extensive experience, analytical skills, and cutting-edge technology to help our clients respond quickly – with as little disruption to operations as possible. We have experience across industries and forensic disciplines. We help limit our clients’ risk exposure efficiently and cost effectively.

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Business Valuation

Determining the value of a privately-held business is necessary for a variety of purposes, such as a potential sale of a company, estate or succession planning, a departing shareholder, litigation, or the creation of an employee stock ownership plan (“ESOP”) or a buy-sell agreement. Placing a value on a privately owned company can be a technical and complex process, particularly for smaller companies in niche industries. Smart Financials has the resources, experience, and reputation necessary for an adequate evaluation of your businesses indication of value.

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Business Succession

What’s next? The value of a business is only as good as its value to the next owner. Have you heard the saying, “You have to get out while the gettin’ is good”? Many owners continue without a succession plan. One primary reason is that they are too busy running the business to have time to plan for succession. It is important to remember that the lack of a succession plan can have a dramatic effect on the eventual value of the business. Smart Financials can work with owners to identify potential succession options, evaluate each, and assist in implementing the overall plan.

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Cloud Accounting Software

Smart Financials is a cloud accounting partner-provider for various accounting systems. Our scale across multiple clients allows us to provide excellent cloud accounting subscriptions for our clients at a much lower rate than what you can achieve with a direct subscription of your own. Contact us to help you evaluate the right product for you and related pricing.

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Internal Control Analysis

Internal controls are a major part of financial reporting. Do you have the appropriate systems and controls in place to prevent material misstatementsdue to errors or fraud? Are assets appropriately safeguarded? Are critical accounting processes and incompatible duties appropriately segregated? Smart Financials has experienced CPAs on staff with audit backgrounds necessary to evaluated your overall system of internal controls and provide necessary recommendations for improvement.

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Staff Training

Staff training and supervision in the financial and accounting department is critical and requires seasoned professionals. A well-run accounting function, including the right team that is focused and well-trained, can have a significant impact on the entire organization. Is your accounting team adequately supervised and trained with ongoing evaluation? If not, Smart Financials can work alongside of owners and senior management to ensure that the finance and accounting departments are functioning at a high level.

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Process Design or Re-engineering

Accounting and financial reporting functions are only as good as the policies and procedures they deploy. Changes in business operations often requires changes in the related accounting processes. Smart Financials can help you evaluate the related accounting needs of any business change, including critical internal controls needed to prevent material misstatements in financial reporting.

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Competitive Bidding and Negotiation

Competition drives prices down. Routine competitive bids on major cost components can have a major impact on the bottom line. Yet, you may not have the time or resources to formulate requests for proposal (RFP), and manage the RFP process including all the related communication and follow-up with potential vendors. Allow the professionals at Smart Financials manage the process for you to achieve results with a high return on your investment.

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Carve Out Financial Statements

When business segments or divisions are going to be sold or spun-off, sometimes it is necessary to “carve out” the related financial statement components from combined reporting. This requires asking the right questions to determine that all the related items are identified and appropriately calculated. Smart Financials can efficiently assist you in creating carve-out financial statements in accordance with appropriate accounting standards.

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Margin and Pricing Analysis

How well do you know your product/service costs in order to price appropriately? Have you appropriately identified your fixed and variable cost components, and are they evaluated on an ongoing basis? The professionals at Smart Financials can help you perform a margin analysis and break-even analysis to ensure maximum profit potential is achieved.

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Financing Sourcing (private equity or small business loans)

Through the connections we’ve made with funding sources for hundreds of clients, Smart Financials can assist you with obtaining financing for your business, whether through traditional debt financing, venture capital, or other creative equity or debt strategies.

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Pre-audit Assistance and Accounting Clean-up/Catch-up

Audits are costly to begin with, much less the added joy and cost associated with not being adequately prepared for one. If you require an annual financial statement audit, Smart Financials has experienced audit professionals that can assist you with preparing necessary reports, summaries, and documentation to prepare for it. We can help your accounting department leverage their time required before and during an audit.

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Cash Management

Liquidity is critical for most companies. It is a key component of a company's financial stability, and cash flows can be time consuming to manage. Smart Financials can help your business manage payment obligations to maximize liquidity and working capital, meet payment deadlines, and maintain stability in accordance with the priorities set by ownership and executive management.

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Tax Services

See our Tax Services page for more details.

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Tax Controversy Assistance and representation, including letters, notices, and audits from the IRS and other authorities

See our Tax Services page for more details.

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