Accounting & Bookkeeping & Small Business Forum

[mrbill0626]

Has anyone out there had any experience in "partnering" with a CPA firm to build your bookkeeping/tax business? By that I guess I mean working out a deal where you can use their office space and facilities while building a clientele of your own and maybe sharing some of the revenue with them or even taking on some extra work that they may have.

I had an interview some months ago with a local CPA who has a substantial practice, including accounting, auditing and tax work. He suggested maybe him and I could work out something along the line of such a partnership. I forget the details of our discussion but that was before I became involved with Universal Accounting and at that time I only had one accounting client and a few tax clients. Now I have one more accounting client (Hey, a 100% increase!). Anyway I told him that I had just a few clients and he suggested maybe if I could expand on that we could work something out.

Maybe I'll get back to him about it and ask him if he would be willing to buy QuickBooks software for me to use as part of a deal.

Has anyone had a such an experience and care to share it?

Thanks

Bill

[stasia2003]

mrbill0626 wrote: Has anyone out there had any experience in "partnering" with a CPA firm to build your bookkeeping/tax business? By that I guess I mean working out a deal where you can use their office space and facilities while building a clientele of your own and maybe sharing some of the revenue with them or even taking on some extra work that they may have.

I had an interview some months ago with a local CPA who has a substantial practice, including accounting, auditing and tax work. He suggested maybe him and I could work out something along the line of such a partnership. I forget the details of our discussion but that was before I became involved with Universal Accounting and at that time I only had one accounting client and a few tax clients. Now I have one more accounting client (Hey, a 100% increase!). Anyway I told him that I had just a few clients and he suggested maybe if I could expand on that we could work something out.

Maybe I'll get back to him about it and ask him if he would be willing to buy QuickBooks software for me to use as part of a deal.

Has anyone had a such an experience and care to share it?

Thanks

Bill

I gotta tell ya, I don't trust CPAs considering I'm in the process of becoming one. When you're a non-certified accountant running your own business, I would be very cautious about who I work with. If I have known a CPA for years then I would probably be a bit more comfortable. But I choose to just get my own clients and avoid CPAs all together. My thing is they may try to take your business, even if they don't succeed. Of course I'm referring to the ones who have no ethics or scruples.

[QBConsultant]

I don't partner/share offices, but I do have a great referral network with other CPAs. I don't do tax returns so I refer tax work to them. They know they can refer their clients to me for QB consulting and training and I won't steal their 'tax clients'. So, by specializing I'm able to exchange referrals with others and work in a collaborative manner with other accountants.

Michelle L. Long, CPA, MBA
Author of: Successful QuickBooks Consulting
Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor
National Trainer for Intuit Accountant Trainer/Writer Network
http://www.SuccessfulQuickBooksConsulting.com
http://www.amazon.com/Successful-QuickBooks-Consulting-Comprehensive-starting/dp/1434810690