My first audit, fresh out of Notre Dame, was Steak n Shake. At that time Steak n Shake was a 120 store restaurant chain in the Midwest. This was 33 years ago, just for context. I was selected by the senior auditor on the job to assist her with the audit. She chose me and…

It wasn’t mine either. “This is not my first rodeo” is a quote from one of my clients. It is a quote worth remembering. Here is the context: My client is a 50+ year old manufacturer of metal components. They supply components for large turbines, locomotives, and diesel engines. You get the picture. They are…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT Ania Kubicki ANGLES Public Relations 480-656-8388 E: b2bcfo@anglespr.com ADVICE FROM B2B CFO FEATURED IN WALL STREET JOURNAL’S COMPLETE SMALL BUSINESS GUIDEBOOK B2B CFO, the only CFO services firm featured in the book, quoted in Chapter 9 “Handling Your Company’s Finances” Phoenix, Ariz. (BUSINESS WIRE) DATE—The Wall Street Journal’s Complete Small…

Since it is tax preparation time for most of my clients, I thought a little tax story might lighten things up. True Story: Some years ago one of my clients was undergoing a routine IRS exam. There were issues involving LIFO inventory, manufacturing costs, allowable deductions and the like. Routine stuff. Now picture a long…

Years ago, as a young junior auditor I was assigned to test count the parts inventory at an Otis Elevator plant in Bloomington, Indiana. The supervisor in charge of the area was leaving for a fishing vacation as soon as I released his section. I did a few test counts and compared my counts with…

Many years ago, when I was CFO of a mid size but fast growing insurance company, we broke the payment system. It didn’t really break, it just quit. We were growing so fast that the number of payments needed to move through the system could not be physically input and spit out with a check,…

I have many years experience in the health insurance industry. Now that we have Obamacare, I thought I should share what I recommend to my clients: GET OUT OF THE HEALTH INSURANCE BUSINESS! The new health insurance reform bill mandates that employers offer coverage to all employees beginning in 3 years, if they employ more…

My first job as an accounting graduate out of Notre Dame was with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co, CPAs, one of the “Big 8” accounting firms. The firm and our local Indianapolis office audited a number of banks, small to large. One of the standard audit procedures was to perform a surprise cash count of…

This monthly article is dedicated to my friends in banking who deal with struggling small businesses that have misused short term debt. It is about debt. Short term debt. It can be a business killer. It is not that short term debt is bad. It is necessary and when used properly, a critical building block…

I just hung up the phone with a client. I had told her to print the cash flow statement for the prior month. (She uses PeachTree. Quickbooks has an embedded cash flow statement as well. So do most financial software packages). She printed it, faxed it to me and we began discussing it. Her first…