Membership
Report
(Click here
to go to the Membership page)
We have two pending membership
applications. If there are no objections, the applicant(s)
will be invited to a meeting as a guest (not member) and asked
to complete part 2 of the membership application. If there
are no objections a week after part 2 is posted, the applicant(s)
will be invited to join the group.
Lin Schmeizer
Designlin
Sponsoring Member:
Ralph Cunningham
Part 1 of Application:
Completed
Visited Group:
Part 2 of Application:
Status: IN PROGRESS
Don Loving
Hi Fi Sales
Sponsoring Member:
Don Ellis
Part 1 of Application:
Completed
Visited Group:
Part 2 of Application:
Status: IN PROGRESS
Social Report
(Click here to go to the Social Event page)
Mike Tanner passed around a
newspaper article about Body Worlds 3,
an anatomical exhibition of real human
bodies, at the Arizona
Science Center running from January 26th-May 28th. The
cost is $16 per person. He thought it would make an
interesting MABE outing on a mid- to late Saturday afternoon
followed by dinner.
Speaker Coordinator Report
(Click here to go to the Speaker Schedule)
Program Schedule
Next week's speaker is Bill LaLonde.
Treasurer Report
A handful of members still owe
their quarterly dues. Statements have been mailed out.
21-34 (x.5), 49-20, 16-19,
17-35, 17-53, 52-31, 26-07, 26-34, 26-22, 40-32, 40-41,45-30,
10-26, 10-32, 10-45, 46-29.
This week's
leads focus...
-
John Passante
-
Roman Okonowski
-
Gary Nelson
[membersonly/archives/former_members/dreher.htm]
Mark Dreher was
today's main speaker.
The Dynamics of
the Firm
Wallace, Plese + Dreher just celebrated their 10th
anniversary. Mark started working with his
current partners in the early 80's. They met while working
at one of the largest firms in Phoenix. Mark
left in '91 and the other partners left just a few
years later.
Mark went into a new direction and ended up working
with a behavioral health care agency. It was
interesting working within a government structure.
You worked long hours for not a lot of money and it
was hard to get anything accomplished.
Because of the
various non-compete clauses, the partners could not
go into business together right away. So they
worked individually under the radar for the first
three years.
In 1997 they moved
into their current location and hired an office
assistant who is still with them today. Business
grew and they hired more staff. Their focus was to
do good work for their clients. They had an
original goal of 15 staff people. They
eventually moved into bigger suite and currently
have 28 people on staff. Their new target is
40-50 on staff.
Their firm is
focused in the area of auditing. This is an area of
the industry that many avoid but Mark's group had the
expertise. They got some good clients and
substantial business by doing this.
They also do income
tax planning, mostly with small businesses.
They have worked in a wide variety of industries
including wholesale distribution, religious and
non-profit groups, real estate, unions, restaurants,
franchises and more.
They joined an
industry association that has helped them expand and
grow even more. This group has experts in
accounting standards, technical support, help with
international issues, etc. One firm can't
possibly know everything so they pool their
knowledge. It is a great resource.
The biggest issue
they have is bringing in quality talent. Large
firms work them 90-plus hours. Wallace, Plese +
Dreher try to keep a balance.
QuickBooks
Mark Pulson, a CPA
with Mark's firm, joined the discussion to talk
about his particular area of expertise...QuickBooks.
In these times of heightened security, nothing
is safe. Airports, sporting venues, and even your
company's QuickBooks ("QB") records are all at risk.
You are not powerless in all of these situations.
Here are some simple steps that can be taken to help
secure your company's QuickBooks records against
fraud:
Are QuickBooks Passwords
Secured?
Setting up passwords is not a protection against an
outside party using your file. There are programs on
the internet that can be purchased for around $30
that will strip passwords off of QB files. These
programs are currently able to strip passwords up
through the 2006 version. It will be a matter of
months before passwords can be stripped from the
2007 version. That said, pay attention to your
logon. If you have a password and it suddenly
disappears, someone with access to your file may
have used one of these programs to access your file.
This is why it is important that the audit trail
cannot be turned off in the 2006 and 2007 versions.
Even if an intruder gains access to your file, any
of their changes should show up in the audit report.
Upgrade to QuickBooks 2006
or 2007, Review Audit Trail Regularly
QuickBooks 2006 and 2007 versions have
the audit trail always turned on. This means that
almost all activity in the file is recorded.
Previous versions had the option to turn off the
audit trail. This would allow anyone (whether they
are your employees or an intruder) with your
password to turn off the audit trail, make changes,
and then turn it back on. With the audit trail
always on, if a check is deleted, a record is left
behind of the user that modified the check and what
the check originally looked like. In 2006 and 2007
versions, reports of deleted transactions can be
found at:
Reports -> Accountant & Taxes -> Voided/Deleted
Transactions. Management should review these reports
regularly.
Setup Users
If you have multiple people working on
your file, it may reassure you to know who has done
what to the file. To do this, multiple users need to
be set up. Go to: Company -> Setup Users. You can
also take this opportunity to limit the users'
access to various areas. Be sure to use passwords.
The last person to use the QB file defaults as the
current user. Setting up passwords prevents users
from accidentally clicking through the logon screen
and logging on as the last user.
Accidental Destruction /
Modification of Records
Simple transactions such as voiding a
check or deleting a bill can modify or destroy
previous accounting periods. This will cause your QB
file to differ from the issued financials and last
years tax return. Hunting down changes in your
records will increase the accounting fees incurred
to prepare your financials and tax returns. To
prevent this, close accounting periods. All high end
accounting packages have the ability to close
accounting periods so that no changes can be made.
It is a well kept secret that QB also has this
ability. Hidden in its options (edit -> preferences
-> Accounting -> Company Preferences) is the ability
to stop the recording of transactions at any date.
When you send your records to your accountant to
prepare financial statements and/or the tax return,
go into this option and enter the closing date and
enter "password" for the password. (The closing date
for a calendar year 2006 would be 12/31/06) The
password can always be deleted on this screen, so
don't worry about forgetting it. When a user tries
to change the closed period a message will pop up
asking them for the password. It is important that a
password is used otherwise the user will likely
click through the screen that pops up and continue
entering the transaction.