Scott is an Accountant and a Principal with Fiorita, Kornhaas & Company, P.C. Located in Danbury, CT, Scott and his team specialize in tax preparation and general accounting for both individuals and small businesses in the region. Scott tells us the “x factor” that makes accountants successful is their ability to communicate complex financial matters to to their clients, especially those with little-to-no experience in finance.
Transcript
Scott Fawcett, I'm principle at the accounting firm of Fiorita Kornhass & Company. Well we do our firm especially, we do primarily tax returns and financial statements for small local businesses. We do about a thousand tax returns, personal tax returns. We do probably four or five hundred business tax returns, partnerships, S corporations. We do financial statements, audits. Well what will happen is they'll bring their stuff in or we'll go to the client. Our firm, especially, we really encourage the client contact. People think accountants, they're gonna be, oh they're gonna be in a cubicle. You never have to talk to anybody. Well in a small firm, especially that's not the case. We really encourage our accountants to go out to the client. You've gotta have that client contact. So say I'm going out to a client now, I'm getting their information, I'm meeting with the bookkeepers, the controllers, the owners of the company. Again, the smaller companies that you're working with, that's a lot of face time with the owners of the company. There's multiple tax seasons, if you will. Through January 31, we do a lot of payroll tax returns, 1099s that people get, sales tax returns. Those are all due by January 31. So there's a big crunch to get that done very quickly. And then, March 15 is another deadline. S corporations, partnerships are due March 15. So we have to have a lot of, those are the bigger clients, a lot of meetings, so you got to of course, get the work done in time, to get a meeting scheduled, hoping the client's not on vacation or away or busy themselves. And then of course is April 15, is the personal tax deadline, as well as what they call C corporations. So there are basically three different types of filing deadlines that we have to deal with. We're always advising clients on how to, they understand their business, a lot of them they may be plumbers, carpenters, whatever they might be. They can do their business but a lot of them don't understand their financials. So we'll assist them in cash flow analysis, we'll help them get bank loans. We work with a lot of local banks and obviously it's very difficult to grow a business if you don't have financing behind it. So a lot of times, that's what we're, one of our firm's strengths is, is that interaction with the bank and community as well.
Download transcript