Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Confessions from the Home Office. And I have a great guest today. It's somebody you may not want to always go talk to because it's talking about taxes or bookkeeping or anything. But I'm at Matt Green this year. He's local here in the Greenville area and he knows his stuff. He owns Ledger Medial Accounting. And you've been in business what, about four. A little over four years now?
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yep. Been in business about four years now.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm glad you could be here. And I want everybody to know, how did you get here? You didn't start in accounting, so I want to hear your story.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: I did not start in accounting by any means. I.
Coming out of high school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to pursue music. And I did it.
I. Me and a guy, we knew we were going to start a band. We did. Never could find a drummer. I was a guitar player. I was like, this is the short version. I was like, I learned to play drums and I did. We wound up playing gigs for a few years. Moved to Nashville, did all that.
Moved to Nashville in February or March 2003 with zero kids. Met my wife and moved back here with three kids in February 2009.
And I could have gone the studio route as far as music goes. I just. Not a very healthy environment with kids and everything. So I moved back here and me and my wife were talking, you know, it's about our future. And I just blurted out, I was like, I'll just go back to school and be an accountant. And.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: That was in May of 2012. That August I started classes. I got my bachelor's, my mba, enrolled agents license, all that.
Worked for a CPA firm for about five years. Went out on my own and was kind of up and running like November 2020 and here I am.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Was that a tough time to go into business with the whole Covid shutdown, or do you feel like it was a good time to go into business?
[00:02:04] Speaker B: For me, it was good because I was able to network virtually. And I think just the mindset from the beginning of. Of building my firm virtually.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: I know where I used to work, they still print paper tax returns. We do not think like that at all. Right.
We. So I mean, we have clients from Washington state to the Virgin Islands, New York, Texas, California, everywhere. Really, I can't think of. So I built it that way. And I would just zoom in and networking groups and then just ask them to have one to ones and.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Just kind of worked it that way, it was actually pretty efficient.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like if you're consistent and steady with things, it just all starts coming in, you know, especially if you do a good job. So I was looking at your LinkedIn profile and I saw that you were the taxpayer empathizer and the small business quarterback. I want to hear more about that.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Well, taxpayer empathizer, I do care.
I. It hurts me when someone doesn't really understand why they owe taxes. It's not a fun conversation. Have to have them all the time. But the small business quarterback thing, I guess if you watch the first Rocky where they say, how did he come up with the Italian Stallion? He said, I did when I was eating dinner.
So I was.
I kind of got. Like I said, I worked at a CPA firm. I had like less than two years experience, really. I got turned into a management role. And I remember I inherited some monthly clients and I met with one of them and his financial advisor and his wife. He has baby with him, his attorney. And they're all looking at me like I know everything. I mean, you got an attorney, been attorney for 20, 30 years and finance advisor 10, 15 years. So it kind of hit me that these people think I know everything. And I figured I better figure out pretty quick. So that's why I don't. I don't claim that I feel like I am. My job is to maybe feed someone to people and to understand what I can and can't do. I mean, I'm actually writing a book called Quarterback youk Business. So I'm really just trying. Trying to brand the whole thing, I guess.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: No, that's great.
So do you work with a lot of estate planning attorneys?
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Actually, that's the one thing we don't do a lot of. I do know some. We do file estate and trust returns. I'd say only a handful, but yes, we can do that.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Okay, that's great.
Tell us a few things that you feel like business owners need to know about money. I mean, I've met people over the years where they're in business and the next time you talk to them, a year later they're not. And a lot of it was they spent everything that came in. So I want to kind of hear your top two or three tips that you have.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: My top two or three tips would be, I would say not.
Wouldn't say, don't have an emotional attachment to cash. I would say just be aware that you do and there's nothing you can do about it. I mean, if you. If you start a business, there's a chance that you go out and in a couple months you make more money than you've made in a year and a half in your job prior. It happens. But another thing would be there's two sides to the equation of like being a successful business. Money in and money out. Most people can get one half of that, right? But this, the other half. I literally have a client went from 0 to 1.5 million a month in his 20s and had to file bankruptcy because he just. You. It's just hard to grasp I'm bringing in this amount of money. Am I really making money? So you really need to know if you're making money and you could be running up debt, you could be cash, could you could have be paying your bills. Doesn't mean you're really making money. I mean, I've seen people go for years, they, they make a lot more money than they ever have, but they're not, they're not getting any of it. And then when they do, they're not structured properly. They, they own, they owe taxes. So another thing would be just keep it as simple as possible.
The people, there's such an, like, I go on a, you know, AI Google, whatever and say, say, how do I start a business? You get an influx of information there. How should I structure my business?
The first thing you need to do, if you're unsure is set up an llc, get an ein, get a business account, use it just for business. I cannot tell you that is like 90% of the battle. And some people just cannot do that. And they never will do that. I mean, like, you never know when you got to get rid of somebody. You're like, you know, we'll work with you, but you got to stop co mingling. A year goes by, you're like, we just can't do it anymore. We can't make any sense out of this. You're never going to make sense out of it. We can't help you. So that would be three big things that I would say.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: That's all really good advice. I think another big thing that people struggle with is hiring the right person. So I know when it comes to money and hiring and all that, I'm sure you've seen all types of scenarios.
What's your advice?
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Well, I would say ask around for referrals. Obviously you can go to Indeed or ZipRecruiter and actually I can't remember which one I use, but I do have two really good people. Finally, now that I found from one of those, and there's Some people whose resume look as good or better than them, that didn't work out. So I have a referral.
If you can get a referral from someone or check their references, but you got to be quick to get rid of someone. I've learned that the hard way. I've strung somebody out because I liked them, and maybe I kept them around too long. But one thing I've really learned the hard way is you've got to have a process in place for training them and make sure they clearly understand their job. Walking in the door. It's not like it's hard to see because you've been doing it for a while, that maybe there's one little or two little steps in there that they. That just makes it so confusing as to what they're actually supposed to be doing.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: Right.
I had lunch with a friend today and we were talking about that, about. They had a. They have a. A boss who just brought somebody in and didn't really give them a job description, and then they were baffled while they quit, you know, and about how you just. You have to get everything ironed out. I think that's one of the hardest things about being in business is having the right people that you really feel like you can trust.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: So no. So that's good. What about tax tips? I mean, it's going to be January before we blink, and it's going to be time to get ready to do taxes again. What are some things that people can do to make it easier?
Anything like that? That would be great to know.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Well, the quick answer would be use a tax return checklist. We require one.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: But I imagine, I mean, we have one that our software generates and we kind of tweak it a little bit, but I imagine you could just go online and find one. But that kind of helps, you know, no stone is unturned. If it's got. If it's got 1099, 1098, or W2 on it, you probably need it. And just put it somewhere and just don't, don't overthink the play. If your accountant or task repair asks for something, just give it to them. Don't think, well, I think they might need this or that enough. We'll tell you what, the exact form we need, and if you don't have it, you know, we'll walk you through what may help. But don't. Don't try to think what.
Don't try to think what we might need. Just give us what we ask for.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: And I'm sure this is on your checklist. But the healthcare marketplace forms, that's always a big one that I always hear people lose it and then they don't have it when they're filing their taxes. Like, when that comes in, you need to, like, seal it up and put it where you can see it.
So what, besides going through the checklist, what do you think is the best way to work with a tax preparer?
[00:10:01] Speaker B: I think the understanding what you're actually hiring them to do and understanding your engagement with that person, I think that's the most complicated thing or most difficult in my profession as far as being able to help people. And people getting help from accountant is really understanding what you're paying them to do and what they're supposed to do. And I would say if you're fire. If you, if you're paying them to do their taxes, do your taxes and they do your taxes, they communicate, they do it properly, they charge a reasonable fee, then they've done their job. Like, we get clients all the time, and I'm sure it goes around, around in a circle with everybody that I just want more from my account. I want more. And I'm like, well, what did you do? What did you hire them to do? They say, I hired them to prepare our taxes. Like, what did they prepare your taxes? They're like, yeah, but I just want more tax planning. I say, yeah, we can help with that. But, you know, we charge for that. We don't mind. You know, we're pretty reasonable about sitting down with someone. But we. I cannot. Or we cannot sit down with you for an hour in March to figure out what may have happened the year before.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: I'm happy to have a quick conversation. Zoom call. You can come in. We talk in person in November. Now's a good time. July, August is a good time. So I would say just make sure that you're not trying to figure everything out in. During tax time would be my advice.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: So if people want to come months before or even once or twice the year before, like, while things are going on, that's probably the best thing. That way there's not big surprises.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:11:36] Speaker A: Has there been any changes with tax code? So next year, are there any big surprises coming up or is it about the same?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: There's nothing drastically changing.
I think at the end of. I think with Trump being in office, you know, there's the Tax Cuts and Jobs act that's supposed to end at the end of next year, which did have some drastic changes, but I assume that's probably going to get Extended now. So there's, you know, the standard deduction went up a little bit. Tax brackets switched a little bit. There's nothing drastic. You still got the electric vehicle credits the same.
Nothing, Nothing really, really that people should be aware of.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: So the one thing that I know is coming up that a lot of people haven't even heard about are the BOI filings. With that deadline coming up. Will you explain kind of what that is, who needs to do it and how. How they can get that in before the deadline?
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not really a tax thing is. It's more of like it's the fence in the financial crimes department. So I feel like, like I did mine as soon as I heard about it.
The quick answer is you need to do it. If you think you might need to do it, you probably need to do it. I noticed that the website's down day. I don't know what's going on with that, but it takes five or 10 minutes. The rule is if you've got 20% ownership or substantial control over an organization, which, like I say, if you think you do, you probably do. If you got an LLC lingering, you need to shut it down or, or file a report for it. It's free. You upload, your license takes five minutes. I mean, I don't, I don't see the big deal. I have a few people with some pushback on that, that. But if you're doing the right thing, I mean, nothing's gonna happen. But if you have like a business prior to this year, then you have till the end of this year to file it. But if you have one that was put in place this year, you have 30 days, and it's supposedly 500 days, some dollars a day. I mean, do I really think they're going to enforce that? I mean, if it's like a mafia guy and they're trying to come up with something, maybe they will. But I mean, if. If you're somebody at the grocery store and you'd set up an LLC six years ago, I don't think somebody would show up and handcuff you and take you to jail and tell them you.
So I'm not freaking out about it, but I mean, if you think you need to do it, just do it. We. We send out an email out to everyone in our system that is like, hey, this is where. This is what's going on. It's really easy to do it yourself. And that's kind of what we're saying. Just do it yourself. We don't really Want that liability, but we'll do it for 115 bucks per business.
And that's.
And we don't mind doing it. I don't think that's. That's a problem. So.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Well, it's peace of mind, you know, it's taken care of. Don't have to worry about it.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Well, is there anything else you want anybody to know about your services or how to find you or any of that?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: You can find us anywhere at Ledger Media on all social media. Ledger media.com youm know, we do a little bit of everything. We don't. We don't necessarily offer payroll. We partner with someone that does that, but we. We can do bookkeeping.
When Covid hit, everybody quit working and they. Everybody became like social media. They did bookkeeping. All the bookkeepers call themselves cfo, but everybody thinks they have a. They have to have a bookkeeper to do their bookkeeping. But that's not necessarily true. I mean, there's another part to that other than just data entry, which is, you know, really creating financial statements and, you know, showing them their financial health and helping them understand their profitability, Helping them know if they're getting. Going to get killed with taxes.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: And so we do bookkeeping. We're probably just as much as somebody that has bookkeeping in their LinkedIn profile. And we do taxes for everyone, just about. If you, if you've got just a W2, you can stick that in Turbo tax, probably no problem. But we try to stay away from extensive foreign stuff. But anything in between, we can probably help you.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: That's great. It's always good to have somebody to bounce things off of during the year and make sure that the tax liability is small as possible.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yep. So, yeah, we do that. We register LLCs, tax planning, we do all of that. We just don't do any money laundering or computer hacking, but anything loosely related to accounting we can probably help.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: But you might know a guy. No, I'm just.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we outsource all that. We just get a commission for deferral.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: There you go. There you go. Oh, that's good. Well, thank you so much. I'll put all your contact information, your links in the show notes for this episode. And so if anybody wants to reach out to Matt, like he said, he's virtual, so you don't have to be right here in the upstate of South Carolina to work with him. And everybody I know that works with him says he's great. So I think you should definitely give him a call if you need somebody.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: Cool. I appreciate it.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: Well, great. Well, thank you so much. And that's it for this episode of Confessions in the Home Office. And I'll see you next week.
