Should I dump my CPA ?

[Carlos Guzman]

Hello Everyone,

Piggybacking on another post about CPA recs, I wanted to share my experience with my current CPA and get feedback 

My CPA does not disclose up front what costs would be associated with meetings, advice and document preparation. I have asked them to please disclose approximate costs upfront, but they have been elusive on the subject, stating: "All costs are associated with the project". Coming from construction I am used to vendors being upfront with costs every step of the way.

I expected this high price outfit to advise me on strategy and how to properly manage my rental income to maximize tax efficiency. So far I have not heard of any actionable advice (Other than you can expense your mileage or save receipts from lunch meetings).

Am I asking too much of my CPA ?

Is it standard procedure to receive a bill at the end of the month for "templates" and "phone meetings" I did not know where to be billed ?

Please, feel free to share your stories or any recommendations you may have.

Thank You.

[Natalie Kolodij]

Dump em. 

Although yes, pricing is very much determined by each situation, how clean the information is, ect.....They should absolutely be able to give you a ball-park about costs up front. 

It's not comparable to construction where we can just say- yep...new  sink this will cost $200. I've had someone call and say oh I just have one rental, I keep my quickbooks my self, it's all good to go. Then I get those quickbooks. And a bunch of the "clean work" they've done is incorrect, or they have a bunch of personal expenses listed in there- and what should have taken me 1 hour takes 3 instead. So although we can give an estimate based on what YOU tell us up front- you're not an accountant right? haha that's what we're for. So you may not know that something isn't correctly recorded ect. So there is some element of needing to see once you get into it. 

The CPA should have no problem calling you up front and saying "Hey Carlos, we just got into this and it does need quite a bit of clean up- it's going to take closer to 3 hours instead of 1 hour" 

A lot of standard CPAs although they know real estate, don't specialize in it deeply enough to provide in depth strategy. 

@Brandon Hall on here actually has a really nice structure where you're fees are basically fixed- so that this doesn't happen. I'd give him a chat and see if his services would work for you.