Tax Prep & Planning

While a computer software program may help find deductions, there’s no substitute for the quality of service and advice you’ll receive from an experienced tax professional.

Here are a few of the benefits you’ll reap when using our service:

  • We’ll prepare all of the appropriate forms and record all figures and calculations accurately.

  • We’ll make sure that you receive all of the deductions and credits to which you are entitled.

  • We’ll file your return electronically to speed delivery of refunds.

  • We’ll work with you to adjust your payroll withholding to make sure you send the right amount to each tax authority – no more, no less.

  • We’ll show you how to adjust your finances to take advantage of tax benefits on future returns.

Are you a sole proprietor? Have you been so focused on your business that you haven’t paid close attention to your books? No worries! We'll tidy things up and prepare your Schedule C as part of your personal income tax return. Then we'll help you set up an easy system to keep your books current going forward.

Strategies

  • Splitting income among several family members or legal entities to take advantage of lower income tax brackets

  • Shifting income or expenses from one year to another when it can yield a lower tax rate

  • Deferring or eliminating tax liability through use of tax-advantaged investment vehicles

  • Tracking all expenses eligible for itemized deduction

  • Taking advantage of tax credits

  • Adjustment of payroll withholding

Tax Problems

Even if you have not been targeted for an IRS Audit, you may be aware of problems that will catch up with you eventually. Common examples include:

  • Missed tax filings for one or more years

  • Insufficient funds to pay the tax liability when due

  • Failure to remit payroll taxes

We’ll work with you to review your prior tax years and make sure that all of your tax filings have been submitted accurately. If you don’t know what’s included in your tax record, we’ll help you get copies from the tax authorities without raising any "red flags." We'll assess your tax liability and the associated interest and penalties. Then, we’ll work with you on an approach to negotiation.

It is far better to face your problems than to wait for them to land on your doorstep. We’re here to help in any way we can.

Resolution Strategies

  • Settle your tax debt for less than the full amount owed if the tax authority deems your offer to be the most they might collect within a reasonable time period.

  • Payment Plan to resolve debt. This approach protects you from asset seizure to settle your obligations. It may be possible to secure relief on penalties and/or compound interest.

  • The IRS provides Innocent Spouse Relief when for an aggrieved party when his or her spouse or former spouse failed to report income, reported income improperly, or claimed improper deductions or credit.

  • If circumstances do not lend themselves to a negotiated settlement, then it may be necessary to seek protection through a Bankruptcy filing.

Small Business Accounting

Businesses of all shapes and sizes depend on accurate, insightful financial information to manage their day-to-day operations, capitalize on opportunities, and sustain profitability. We lend our expert support to meet your accounting needs so that you can focus your time and energy on building a strong business.

We’ll create and maintain a chart of accounts to capture all of your financial transactions, provide the right information to manage your business, and prepare federal, state, and local tax returns. Through periodic internal audits, we’ll identify and resolve discrepancies (e.g., double billings, unrecorded payments) to ensure that you have a complete and accurate picture of your financial position.

While a clean set of books is a key objective for every accountant, it’s also important to match the accounting records with the monthly bank statements. Our bank reconciliation services ensure that every deposit and withdrawal aligns with entries into your accounting records. This assessment enables us to identify lost deposits, lost checks, unauthorized transactions, and inappropriate bank fees. It triggers investigation into any fraudulent activity (identity theft, forgery, embezzlement, etc.), and expedites restitution. And it gives you a clearer picture of your cash position for addressing planned outlays and investments.

We can prepare a complete set of financial statements to help you assess the health of your business. This package includes:

  • A Balance Sheet that gives you a snapshot of your overall financial condition at month, quarter, and/or year end

  • An Income Statement (a.k.a. Profit and Loss Statement) that summarizes revenues, expenses, and net profits so you can assess the operating performance of your business

  • A Comparison of Actual Performance to Budget so you can identify trouble spots in your revenue stream or spending patterns

  • A Cash Flow Statement that shows how changes in your Balance Sheet and Income Statement affect your available cash

  • Estimated tax liabilities

Our analysis of your financial statements helps you frame strategic initiatives (e.g., business expansion, acquisition) as well as tactical plans (e.g., accounts receivable and accounts payable management). Professionally prepared financial statements are also an essential resource when dealing with creditors (e.g., vendors, banks) and investors.

When you use our professional accounting services, you get more than a collection of records and reports. You get the benefit of our skills, experience, and expertise. We’re happy to invest the time to make sure that you understand and utilize all of the information we provide. Call us whenever you have a question or concern.

Managing the employee payroll is not a simple matter of calculating the amounts due, writing checks, and handing them out. There’s a host of government reporting and recording keeping requirements that comes with the job. And there are adverse consequences if you get it wrong.

There are 5 good reasons for outsourcing this function:

  • You’ll save money by letting the experts attend to the task efficiency and accurately.

  • You’ll avoid penalties associated with payroll tax calculation errors or missed filing deadlines.

  • We’ll handle employee questions and concerns, and research any issues they uncover.

  • You’ll receive comprehensive reporting to help manage your business and attend to any special requirements.

  • You’ll gain valuable time to focus on running your business.

We offer three payroll service options to meet the needs of different business owners and non-profit clients. All three services include:

  • Vacation, sick, and personal day accruals and tracking

  • IRS and State tax reporting plus Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) deposits

  • Monthly, quarterly, and annual payroll tax reports

  • New hire file creation and reporting

  • W-2, W-3, and 1099 preparation

The service option you choose defines how payments are processed:

  • Comprehensive Payroll Processing Service:We manage the secure check processing and direct deposits

  • After-the-Fact Payroll Service: You process all of the payments, and we post your payroll records and information into our data system and handle all of the other payroll functions.

  • Online Payroll Processing: We provide access to our payroll system to enable you to enter employee hours and earnings. You print the payroll checks on your printer, and we process the direct deposits.

We can also provide ad hoc services, such as:

  • Worker's Compensation Audits

  • Unemployment Claims

  • Social Security Audits

  • Child Support Audits

  • Federal and State registration

Virtual CFO

As your business prospers, a part-time Chief Financial Officer can help you develop financial plans to support business strategy, provide oversight of your accounting and administrative functions, and establish safeguards to mitigate risk. Our seasoned professionals fulfill your needs at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.

Your Virtual CFO translates your business strategy and operating plans into detailed financial forecasts (Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Cash Flow Statements, Department Budgets) by month over the planning horizon. These forecasts expose capital, staffing, facilities, and equipment requirements for which actions plans must be developed. They also contemplate tax strategies to minimize liabilities while making provisions for quarterly payments. Once plans are set, your Virtual CFO helps you establish performance benchmarks and provides the means to track progress (actuals vs. forecast). Expert counsel helps you minimize the impact of variances as well as initiate corrective action. Moreover, profitability analysis by service or product line can suggest opportunities to refocus sales effort or highlight the need to improve margins through repricing and/or cost containment.

Your Virtual CFO has the ability to provide oversight of all aspects of your company’s financial affairs. This includes:

  • Establishing strong internal controls to ensure accurate transaction processing while minimizing exposure to fraud and theft
  • Training and managing the accounting and payroll staff – whether in-house, through our firm, or via a third party service
  • Providing financial reports and performance benchmarks within 15 days of month end closing
  • Identifying sources to meet capital and operating requirements and taking the lead to negotiate favorable terms
  • Building a cash reserve appropriate to your business model, anticipated growth, and market outlook
  • Maximizing the return on invested funds by identifying appropriate investment opportunities and managing relationships within the investment community
  • Reviewing and approve all tax filings with federal, state, and local agencies as well as any required Securities and Exchange Commission filings

Your Virtual CFO can be responsible for understanding and mitigating key elements of your company’s risk profile. In addition to developing internal controls, this function includes, but is not limited to:

  • Ensuring the company complies with all legal and regulatory requirements
  • Establishing recordkeeping policies and procedures that meet the requirements of financial institutions, auditors, and government agencies
  • Maintaining appropriate insurance coverage
  • Monitoring open legal issues affecting the company
  • Managing relations with external auditors and investigating their findings and recommendations

QuickBooks

Set-Up & Conversion

Although QuickBooks is very easy to use, it takes a bit of expertise and foresight to design the system for maximum benefit and effective control. Moreover, a new system set-up or conversion presents the opportunity to address long-standing gaps, inefficiencies, and annoyances. You don’t do it often, so you might as well do it right!

Although we tailor each engagement to each client’s needs, here is a list of QuickBooks Set-Up services that we offer:

  • Enter transactions since the start date using tools to import multiple transaction types and large quantities of data

  • Assess accounting and reporting requirements

  • Establish hardware and software specifications

  • Install the accounting software

  • Design and implement the chart of accounts, loading balances as of the start date

  • Record outstanding accounts receivables and payables

  • Enter ending statement bank balances and outstanding checks, deposits

  • Compare trial balances from the old and new systems to ensure that all data was transferred correctly

Tune-up & Training

A QuickBooks Tune-Up is a great way to prepare for tax time, an important meeting, or a periodic review of your business strategy. In a few short hours, your QuickBooks professional can review transactions, clean up stray entries, balance the general ledger to subsidiary ledgers, and adjust the chart of accounts to reflect changes in your business model. A Tune-Up can help you make better decisions, minimize the ill-effects of undetected errors, and keep money flowing in the right direction,

Whether you’ve engaged us to help with your implementation or you simply need a refresher course on the system, we can provide training on using QuickBooks to manage your business. We conduct sessions at your location and adapt the course content to your set-up and business issues.[No need to spend time on capabilities that you won’t use!] We’ll spend as much or as little time as you need on each topic, and respond to any questions and concerns.

Advisory Services

We offer value added services that help you structure and manage your business to its best advantage. We help new businesses get off the ground and provide objective assessments of existing ones. We help you establish policies and procedures to protect vital assets and perform audits to ensure the integrity of your records. You reap the benefit of increased efficiency, control, and insight.

We provide objective assessments of business interests by helping you identify and analyze the relevant factors that drive value. We examine:

  • The strength and stability of the customer base and the associated revenue stream

  • Prospects for growth given the available market and competitive positioning

  • The overall financial health of the business

  • Valuations for comparable entities

The results inform your decision making as you buy or sell business interests, forge partnerships, negotiate with third parties for debt or equity financing, navigate martial separation, or settle estates. Our professionals can serve as advisors during due diligence and provide expert testimony in legal proceedings.

Are you thinking of joining the ranks of small business owners? Along with a great idea and strong sense of the market you’ll serve, you’ll need a business and financial advisor who can help your dream take flight while keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground.

We can help you:

  • Develop or refine your business plan with the associated pro forma financial statements (Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flow) and budget

  • Select a business structure that suits your needs by considering tax advantages, legal exposure, ease of operation, and portability

  • Develop partnership agreements, as needed, to avoid financial and/or emotional trauma downstream

  • Prepare and file all required state and local licenses and permits.

  • Make application for your Federal Employer Identification Number.

  • Identify start-up capital needs and available resources to address them

  • Examine your borrowing power and provide coaching on how to cultivate a mutually beneficial banking relationship

  • Identify your business insurance needs

  • Select the right accounting software and establish the appropriate chart of accounts

  • Establish billing and collection procedures to maximize your cash flow

  • Establish procedures to monitor and control costs

  • Provide payroll and payroll tax filing when and if you hire employees

We’re eager to get your business off to a good start.

We help you establish appropriate internal controls to ensure proper handling of resources and guard against employee theft. Some best practices include:

  • Segregating duties across multiple individuals to minimize exposure to error and inappropriate behavior

  • Establishing lines of authority and the associated processes for transaction approval

  • Assigning responsibility for periodic review and reconciliation of financial records by someone who was not involved in executing transactions or preparing statements

  • Scheduling periodic manual counts of equipment, inventory, and other tangible property to ensure alignment with the accounting records

  • Documenting policies and procedures as guideposts for your employees’ day-to-day activities

  • Training employees on their respective job duties and establishing appropriate levels of ongoing supervision

  • Reviewing operations to ascertain whether results are consistent with established goals, objectives, and protocols

Meet the Team

Our relationships with clients extend beyond financial recordkeeping and reporting. We understand the dynamics that affect their personal and professional lives. We listen to their goals and dreams. We work collaboratively to develop plans that transform ambitions into reality.

Cecil Hartwick

PARTNER

Cecil is originally from Au Gres, MI and graduated in 1971 with a degree in accountancy from Michigan State University. After working for several small accounting firms Cecil helped found Hartwick, Wesolek & Garant in the early 1980’s. Specializing in tax and accounting for the medical/dental professions, Cecil helped build the firm to its current stature. When not in the office he prefers to be hunting, fishing, or spending time with his family in the Upper Peninsula.

Dan Garant

PARTNER

Dan grew up in Alpena, MI and joined Hartwick, Wesolek & Garant in the early 1980’s after graduating with a degree in accountancy from Ferris State University. Specializing in tax and accounting for the medical/dental professions, Dan helped build the firm to its current stature. When not in the office he prefers to be hunting, fishing, spending time at his cottage in Alpena, or babysitting the 6 (and counting!) grandkids.

Matt Garant

PARTNER

Matt grew up in Saginaw, MI and graduated with a degree in accountancy from Western Michigan University. After working for 10 years in public accounting in Michigan City, Indiana he moved back home to join Hartwick, Garant & Garant. He is a licensed CPA. In addition to his tax and accounting experience, Matt enjoys working with and helping non-profit organizations. When away from the office he enjoys hunting, fishing, and spending time with his wife and four children.

Industries Served

Associations • Attorneys • Consultants • Contractors • Dentists • eCommerce • Landlords • Physicians • Retail Stores • Restaurants • Schools • Social Service Agencies

Contact Us

Let's discuss your situation so that we may understand your objectives and determine whether we have the ability to provide service and value.

Call (989) 249-6640