Category Archives: Financial Management

YOUR S CORPORATION – A CHECK-UP

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In my experience, a lot of people don’t pay enough attention to their Subchapter S Corporations until tax time, when it’s sometimes too late to correct errors or oversights.

You formed the S Corp because of the benefits you would get from it, so it would be a shame to operate it in such a sloppy way that you could miss out on some of those benefits. Please take a moment to be sure you are following these guidelines, and make any necessary changes before the end of the year.

Reasons for forming an S Corp generally include:

  • Reducing payroll taxes on a portion of your income
  • Retirement contributions in excess of the limits on IRAs and 401(k) plans
  • Deduction of health insurance costs
  • Limited liability

I will discuss these items briefly below, then move on to some other relevant thoughts.

W-2s and Payroll Taxes

Generally speaking, your S Corp does not pay tax, but rather the income “passes through” to your personal tax return. This pass-through income is taxed at your regular rates, but it is not subject to the federal and state payroll taxes you would pay if you were an employee.

It is important to note that a shareholder of an S Corp is not self-employed, but is actually an employee of the company. As such, you are required to pay yourself a reasonable salary, a term that is not clearly defined, but is intended to prevent shareholders from entirely avoiding Social Security, Medicare and other payroll taxes. One way to look at it is that you should pay yourself what it would cost to hire someone to do your job.

Your salary is treated as a deduction by the company, so you aren’t taxed twice. You pay payroll taxes on your salary, but you don’t pay payroll taxes on the remainder of the S Corp’s income after deducting your salary. That’s one of the benefits of an S Corp.

Action required:  Pay yourself a salary, and issue a W-2 at the end of the year. I suggest you use a payroll service to be sure you are in full compliance with the complex rules and regulations surrounding payroll. Do this before the end of the year.

Retirement Contributions

As an S Corp owner, you have a choice of retirement plans that you can establish. One of the most popular plans is a Simplified Employee Pension, or SEP. An advantage of a SEP plan is that the company can contribute a percentage of your salary, up to a maximum contribution of $54,000. This is substantially higher than the limits for IRAs and 401(k) plans. Do be aware, though, that you also have to offer the plan to your other eligible employees, and contribute the same percentage on their behalf. This is a specialized and complex area, so you should speak with a knowledgeable professional on the subject.

It is important to note again that as an S Corp shareholder, you are not self-employed, but rather an employee of the company. The retirement plan must be created in the name of the company, not yourself, and the contributions are made by the company. Contributions are deductible from the company’s income of course.

Action required: You can establish a SEP retirement plan any time during the year, or up to the date when the company’s tax return is due (even if you file for an extension). Other types of retirement plans may have different rules, so be sure to investigate before the end of the year.

Health Insurance

As an S Corp shareholder, you can deduct health insurance costs for yourself and your family directly on your tax return. But there is a special process for doing so, and it is important that you follow it. The company must pay for your health insurance. It is acceptable to have the insurance in your own name and make the payments yourself, but you need to have the company reimburse you, and deduct the expense.

Health insurance paid by the company is considered compensation to you, and must be added to your salary on your W-2 at the end of the year. You will not pay payroll tax on this amount, but it must be included in gross earnings. You then deduct the amount directly on your personal tax return.

It seems a bit convoluted, but those are the rules.

Action required:  Be sure to have the company reimburse you for medical insurance payments before the end of the year, and be sure to instruct your payroll service to include it on your W-2. If the payroll service gives you trouble, ask to speak to a supervisor… they do this for thousands of people every year.

Limited Liability

To ensure that your S Corp offers limited liability you need to be disciplined in the way you operate it. Without going into depth, you need to establish that it is a separate entity, and not just an extension of your own personal finances. That includes keeping a separate bank account and credit cards, maintaining careful accounting records and keeping up to date with your state’s filing requirements.

Action required: Check that you are following the appropriate discipline to ensure your company is a separate entity.

Estimated Tax Payments

We are required to make payments during the year of the amount of tax we estimate owing for the whole year. This is easy for the salary you pay yourself, because you are expected to withhold and pay federal and state tax from each paycheck.

The issue here is the tax you expect to pay on the company’s earnings that pass through to your personal return. Depending on your situation, these amounts can be substantial, and to add insult to injury, there are penalties for underpayment of estimated tax.

Action required:  Speak with your tax professional at least once during the year, to be sure you are making appropriate estimated tax payments.

State and Local Tax Registration

Many cities have tax filing requirements, and it can be annoying and expensive if you haven’t met their requirements. Los Angeles, for example, assesses tax on income above a specified level, but also has a requirement to register for a business license and renew it every year.

If you are operating outside the state in which you registered the company, you need to check on filing requirements. California, for example, is very aggressive about finding and taxing out-of-state businesses that do business there.

Action required: Learn the filing requirements, and follow them. They will find you if you don’t.

Auto Expense and Home Office

The S Corp can own a car, and deduct any allowable business expenses, but you may find it easier to keep the car in your own name, and submit for reimbursement any business mileage, documenting the locations, distances and business purpose of each trip. You would complete form 2106 on your personal return, and deduct the reimbursement. I often find it convenient and preferable to use the IRS standard mileage rate where eligible – it’s 53.5 cents per mile in 2017.

Similarly, assuming you meet the rigorous and very specific requirements, you can deduct an expense for the business use of your home office. Again, submit expense reports for reimbursement, detailing the square footage of your office space and the total size of your home, in addition to specific allocated costs such as rent, mortgage, utilities, etc.

Action required: Submit detailed expense reports, and have the company reimburse you. Do this before the end of the year.

An S Corporation can be a very useful business format, but there are rules that need to be followed to ensure you get all the appropriate benefits. And remember that an S Corp is not necessarily the best entity for you, depending on your situation and your objectives.

As always, speak to a tax professional before acting… and after!

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Buying a House … Residence vs Rental Property

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A common question my clients ask is “Should I buy a house?” A logical extension of the question is “Should I live in the house, or would I be better off renting it out?”

Actually, the question is more often phrased “What are the tax benefits of buying a house?” This can result in a barrage of technical information that doesn’t answer the real question.

THE TAX STUFF

Let’s get the technical tax stuff out of the way:

–  The interest portion of your mortgage payment and your property taxes are tax deductible
–  If you rent out the property, you can also deduct operating expenses like repairs, utilities and management fees
–  If you rent out the property, you can also deduct depreciation. The house itself is depreciated over 27.5 years. Improvements, furnishings and appliances are depreciated at faster rates
–  If you live in the house for more than 2 years, you don’t have to pay tax on the first $250,000 of capital appreciation – the exemption is $500,000 if you’re married and file a joint return
–  If you make under $100,000 you can deduct rental losses on your tax return. But if you make between $100,000 and $150,000, the deduction phases out to zero. The good news is you can deduct the disallowed losses when you sell the house
–  If you rent the property, your gain on sale is taxed at capital gains rates, which are lower than regular rates. Depreciation you deducted is recaptured at regular rates
–  If you pay Alternative Minimum Tax, all bets are off…but if you live in the house, your mortgage interest is a deduction for AMT purposes

There’s the barrage of information. Do you know what you want to do now? I don’t think so.

WHAT YOU”RE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH

Living in your house accomplishes three main objectives:

– You stop paying rent to somebody else
– Tax deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes make your monthly payments more affordable
– With a relatively small down payment, you get the benefit of the full amount of any gain on sale. It’s not unusual to make a gain as big as your down payment. That’s a 100% return on your investment – and $250,000 or $500,000 of the gain is tax-free

When you rent out your house, the objective is to bring in enough rental income to cover your cash payments for mortgage, property tax and operating expenses. Depreciation doesn’t affect your cash flow, but it can be used to create losses for tax purposes if you are in an income range to benefit from the deduction. I’m sure there are places where you can generate positive cash flow from a rental home, while paying no tax because of the depreciation deduction. A few years ago I worked with a Midwest homebuilder where we marketed houses for exactly that business model, but I now live in Southern California, and positive cash flow is only a dream.

Your income mostly comes from the gain you make when you sell the house. This gain is taxable, but it’s taxed at a lower rate than your regular income.

The downside of renting out your house is that you still have to live somewhere. Any profit you make will be reduced by the rent you pay. If you already own your home, of course, that’s not an issue.

RESIDENCE OR RENTAL – WHICH IS BETTER?

Here’s an example that compares the results of living in your home and renting it out.

I made a number of assumptions as the starting point. I’m sure you can poke holes in some of them, but bear with me.

– You are currently paying rent of $2,500 a month
– You have $150,000 for a down payment
– You buy a house for $600,000 and sell it 5 years later for $700,000
– You take a $450,000 mortgage at 4.0% interest, and pay 2.0% a year for property taxes
– You can rent the house to tenants for $3,600 a month
– Operating costs are $3,600 a year for your residence, and $5,000 for the rental
– Your selling costs are 6% when you sell the house
– Your regular tax rate is 30%

Option 1 – Don’t Buy the House

If you don’t buy the house, you continue to pay $2,500 a month in rent. After 5 years, you have spent $150,000. End of story.

Option 2 – Live in the House

Your mortgage payment is $2,170 a month, and your taxes are another $1,000. You’re now paying for repairs and maintenance, but the tax benefit of the interest and tax deduction means you’re only paying about $200 a month more than when you were renting.

You make $100,000 in profit when you sell the house (less $42,000 in closing costs) but you don’t pay tax on the gain. You also get your down payment back, plus you paid off $43,000 on your mortgage.

Over all, your total cost after 5 years is $63,000. This compares with $150,000 you would have spent on rent. Congratulations – by buying the house you saved $87,000.

Option 3 – Rent the House

You rent the house out for $3,600 a month, which is pretty much exactly the amount you pay out for mortgage payments, property taxes and operating costs. You get a tax deduction of $16,000 a year for depreciation, but if you make more than $150,000 it just adds to your deferred loss.

You make the same $100,000 profit when you sell the house. This is taxable at capital gains rates, but the $42,000 closing costs are deductible. As above, you get back your down payment and the $43,000 you paid down on your mortgage.

Your after-tax income from the rental property is $82,000. Nice, really nice. You’ve made a pretax return on investment of 11% a year. Compare that with the return on other investments.

BUT… not so fast.

You still have to live somewhere while you’re renting out the house. Right? Assuming you continue to pay $2,500 a month in rent, that turns your rental profit into a net cash cost of $68,000. The good news is that you’re still miles ahead of where you would have been if you hadn’t bought the house at all, and only about $5,000 behind using the house as your residence.

Do you think you could increase the rent on the house over 5 years? That would make the results of renting vs living in the house about the same, wouldn’t it?

CONCLUSION

Sorry, I’m not giving you a conclusion. This was just one example, and your situation is almost certainly going to be different. My assumptions are just assumptions, and you would have to do a careful analysis of the facts before you move forward.

There are a lot of subjective issues as well. Do you want the headache of being a landlord? And what about unforeseen problems like bad or unreliable tenants? But what about the upside gain if rents keep climbing the way they are in Los Angeles these days?

I would be happy to discuss your specific situation, and run my model with assumptions that apply to you.

The Quick Fix? … Or the Whole Enchilada?

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Managers need information; that’s one of the laws of nature. The uses of information are endless, and managers constantly come up with new needs for reports, analyses and procedures. But information comes at a cost. The cost may be easy to calculate, as in the case of development hours required, or it may be an opportunity cost trade-off with the company’s other priorities.

Weighing Priorities

Whenever you have a need for information, here are the questions you’ll be asked:

1. How badly do you need it?
2. How soon do you need it?
3. If we can’t give you everything you need, what can you live with?
4. What are the projected cost savings or revenue increases?
5. What is the cost of getting the information?

Large organizations have developed sophisticated processes to allocate information resources among competing priorities, often involving some sort of ROI analysis. People do tend to exaggerate, though, so the objectivity and precision of the process comes under suspicion. Smaller companies, in my experience, tend to admit that they use more subjective methods to evaluate priorities.

The result is pretty much the same, though. Unless you have a critical need, such as compliance with a new accounting policy, a new line of business or an actual system breakdown…

You’re going to have to wait. Maybe forever.

The Quick Fix

The alternative to waiting for an exciting new series of reports and procedures, reconciled, actionable and fully integrated with all existing systems is the Quick Fix. This may be a compromise resulting from the answer to Question 3 above, or you may have to take matters into your own hands.

The Quick Fix is usually inexpensive, fast and gives you most of what you need. It can be a viable alternative to waiting for an entire new application to emerge from the murky dungeons of the development process. Or it can get you started on a new initiative without waiting for months, even years, to get the Whole Enchilada.

The Quick Fix isn’t always the right answer, though. Here are some situations I’ve observed over the years.

A Retailer

As CFO of a retailer, we received systems support from the specialty stores division of the internationally known parent company. The problem was that the specialty stores division was a shoe company, and we were a fashion apparel company. Many important issues needed to be resolved to customize the systems so our merchandisers could conduct business. So it was no surprise that when the accountants had a serious problem calculating Gross Profit and Inventory, we were sent to the back of the line, and told to wait.

For a small fee, we hired a programmer to develop a custom report that not only gave us reliable Gross Profit and Inventory results, but also provided the merchandisers with a clear picture of their operating results. It only took an hour or two a month to update the program, so the Quick Fix became a satisfactory permanent solution.

Some years later, a senior executive of the parent company saw our report, and ordered it installed in all the other operating companies. The systems development people jumped on it, and rolled it out to the entire company with great fanfare. But we just shrugged our shoulders… there was no need for the Whole Enchilada.

Real Estate Services

A real estate services company had passed the level of revenues that required them to change their tax accounting from the cash method to the accrual method. They recently asked me to help them make the transition.

The company had grown rapidly, but was still using Quick Books as its accounting system. It was certainly time for an upgrade, and the accounting conversion made it a perfect time to make the change. The only problem was that it would take months of time, and a substantial cash investment to research, purchase and install a new accounting package, and to integrate it with the business operations system. Meanwhile, the tax filing deadline was coming up fast.

My first suggestion was the Quick Fix. I suggested they continue using the methods the accounting staff were used to, and just make journal entries at the end of each month to adjust to accrual accounting. The CEO, however, wanted a deeper change, including a daily reconciliation to the output of their highly sophisticated operating system.

The situation clearly called for the Whole Enchilada, but timing was such that we needed a transitional Quick Fix to meet reporting requirements, and to fill in the gaps while we studied a fully integrated system overhaul.

I reviewed the business operating system, and found it to be sufficiently reliable to use its output as the source of accounting entries. The problem was that there were no accounting cutoffs or similar checks and balances for reconciliation, so I worked with the programmers to develop daily reports that verified the integrity of the data.

As a result of the project, management realized they needed to increase the sophistication of their financial department, and hired an experienced controller. I’m looking forward to hearing how they ultimately proceed.

A Homebuilder

A homebuilder had developed an elaborate and sophisticated construction management system, and its reporting mechanism was tied to an accounting package. Oddly enough, they also continued to maintain the original general ledger system that dated back to the 1970s. The problem was that the two systems generated very different information, and the senior managers each had favorite reports that didn’t agree with those used by other managers. Massive amounts of time were wasted in meetings, and one vice president spent most of his time reconciling the divergent reports. Needless to say, accounting was a nightmare.

The CEO had been instrumental in developing both systems, and was unwilling to see the need for change. The Quick Fix was practiced on a daily basis, but by the time the results were available, it was often too late to act on the information. An irreverent senior executive used an automotive metaphor, suggesting that when you opened the hood, the engine was run by squirrels on a treadmill.

The situation was crying out for the Whole Enchilada, and the Quick Fix just wasn’t working. Yes, the company went bankrupt.

A Land Developer

When I arrived for my first day as CFO of a land developer, I asked the controller for the most recent financial statements. “What do you mean?” she asked. That was the first sign of trouble. I soon learned that we had land on the books that we didn’t own, just as we owned land that wasn’t on the books. It was the same thing with loans and other assets and liabilities. In an organization with over 60 different companies, each with its own separate equity and debt financing, this was intolerable.

There was no Quick Fix to be found, so we shortly purchased a well-known industry-specific accounting package, and herded the numbers into their proper places.

The Whole Enchilada was the only option.

How does your company weigh the costs and benefits of implementing the Quick Fix or the Whole Enchilada?

Losing Perspective

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The story is that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out immediately. If you put it into a pot of cool water, however, then turn on the heat, the frog won’t notice the temperature change, and will eventually die when it gets too hot. Who knows if it’s true, but it’s a great metaphor, and we see it happening everywhere.

It’s easy to lose perspective.

We Are the Best

I worked on the conversion of a newly-acquired retailer’s systems to those of the acquiring parent company. Although the new system was much more sophisticated and comprehensive, fundamental accounting controls were missing, and it was so difficult to acquire, verify or reconcile certain information that we had lingering doubts over its overall integrity.

The parent company had a unique corporate culture based on the belief that they were the best – had the best stores, the best products, the best people, the best systems, etc. – and there was no room for discussion of improvements. The corporate controller explained to me that the systems were terrible before he joined the company, but they were great now. He listed examples of how bad they used to be, and every one of the deficiencies still existed… but they were the best.

Years later, there was an accounting scandal that hinged, among many other things, on the system’s inability to properly account for cost of goods sold.

They refused to look at their systems with a critical eye, and they lost perspective.

Director’s Cut

A well-known filmmaker invited me to see his new film while it was still a work in progress. He had been editing it for weeks, and was ready to show a rough version of the finished product. It was a demanding film, with dense dialog requiring concentration, and a limited budget for production values, and I was drained by the end of the screening. I looked at my watch several times during the film, so I was very aware of the fact that it was well over 2 hours long.

Called on for comments, I sincerely praised the film for its merits – a respected film critic eventually included it in his annual “Top Ten” list – but I felt the length of the film undermined its overall success. Surprised, the filmmaker responded: “You should have seen it when it was 4 hours long.” I attended the screening of the final film, and still found it much too long.

Art is subjective, of course, but I believe he lost perspective.

Competing Systems

A homebuilder developed an elaborate and advanced construction management system, and its reporting mechanism was tied to an accounting package. For reasons lost in history, they also continued to customize the primary general ledger system that had been in use since the 1970s. The result was that there were two very complex systems, but the reported results were often materially different.

Each member of the management team had his own favorite reports from both systems, and every meeting started with an argument over whose report was correct. One member of senior management knew how to reconcile the results, and he spent more than half his time doing so. By the time the reports were reconciled, the meetings were often over. Important business issues were never addressed, and the managers made their decisions based on different information.

This was one of the first issues I raised when asked for my observations on the company and its operations. The CEO, early in his career, personally directed the customization of the ledger system, and he wouldn’t listen to any criticism. He and his managers had developed the construction system, and were so proud of it that they invited homebuilders from around the country to show it off. There wasn’t going to be any discussion of problems there, either. When I tried to address the gap between the systems, the response was: “It’s great now – up until 6 months ago, all the computer terminals had green screens.” I hadn’t seen a monochrome screen in over 20 years.

The company went bankrupt. They had lost perspective.

Hey, What’re You Gonna Do?

Another retailer was very dependent on its highly complex systems. The nature of the business is that there is a high rate of turnover among line managers, and the corporate training systems placed more emphasis on sales and marketing than on administration. Unfortunately, the systems, while comprehensive, were not user-friendly, and there were constant problems requiring many long telephone calls to explain and resolve issues.

There was constant finger-pointing and redirection. A manager would direct associates to call the technical support hotline, only to be directed to the regional office, who might then send it back to the original manager. Certain employees became known for their ability to resolve certain types of problems, and everyone had a favorite go-to fixer.

Frustration abounded, but there was no feeling at the field level that there was anything fundamentally wrong with the systems. The company had been in existence for a long time. There was no problem with customer service, but the amount of employee time wasted by awkward systems was huge. When I asked why nobody complained up the corporate ladder, they just shrugged and said it wouldn’t do any good.

They had lost perspective.

That’s How it Should Be

In a construction company, it was highly unusual for accounting reports to tie out to the general ledger. It was a constant problem, and drove me crazy, because I could never trust that I was working with reliable information. We were involved in huge projects and equally huge financings, and acting on wrong information could have major consequences.

The CFO and IT director had been with the company for many years, and together had implemented most of the systems in use at the time. They knew them so well that they could tell me how to do elaborate reconciliations of the reports, which would often involve writing special programs. Their default question would typically be: “What do you need that for?” This exercise turned up problems with the original reports often enough that we had the battle many times.

When I pressed the CFO to set up a task force to streamline and clean up the accounting systems, he would argue that the systems were good, and that the reports actually shouldn’t tie out. “That’s how we designed them.”

They had lost perspective.

Does your CFO encourage taking a fresh look at long-established systems and methods?

Cap Rate … What is it?

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For every commercial real estate opportunity, someone is going to tell you the Cap Rate. We all know that the Cap Rate, when divided into Net Operating Income (NOI) gives you the purchase price. We also know that the Cap Rate roughly represents the return for one year on a commercial real estate investment. But does that mean it’s the right rate for you?

It’s useful to break down the Cap Rate between the mortgage component and the equity component. Here’s an example:

What We Know

The things we know (or should know) when we’re contemplating a real estate purchase include:

Net Operating Income (NOI) – $1,000,000 annually. Remember that a property’s NOI does not include debt service – principal or interest payments. This isn’t the time for a lengthy discussion, but be sure to do your due diligence to prevent unpleasant surprises.

Mortgage rate – 5.0%

Mortgage term – 25 years

Loan to value ratio (LTV) – 75% of purchase price

Mortgage Component – Calculate the Mortgage Constant

The mortgage constant is the annual payment, or debt service, expressed as a fraction of the total mortgage. From the bank’s point of view, this is the Cap Rate on their investment in the loan.

In this example, the annual payment on a $100,000 mortgage (any amount will give the same result) at 5.0% amortized over 25 years is $7,015.08. This is the portion of NOI that goes to make debt payments.

Annual debt service of $7,015.08 is 7.0158% of the $100,000 mortgage in this example, so the mortgage constant is .0701508

Equity Component – Calculate the Equity Constant

How much do you want to make on your equity investment? Let’s say you’re looking for a 15% cash on cash return.

Your return is 15% of your equity investment, so the equity constant is .15.

Calculate the Cap Rate

Mortgage component of the Cap Rate:

Mortgage constant (.0701508) x LTV (75%) = 5.26%

Equity portion of the Cap Rate:

Equity constant (.15) x Equity contribution (25%) = 3.75%

Cap Rate:
Mortgage component (5.26%) + Equity component (3.75%) = 9.01%

Calculate the Purchase Price

Net Operating Income ($1,000,000) ÷ Cap Rate (9.01%) = $11,097,165

If you pay more than $11,095,165 for the property, you won’t make your target return. This may limit you to certain types of property investments, so you may want to adjust your expectations. If you are willing to accept a 12% return on your equity investment in this example, your Cap Rate would drop to 8.26%, and you could pay $12,104,617 for the property.

Capital Appreciation

Of course, 101 other questions arise when you are contemplating this sort of decision. Foremost among them is how you view capital appreciation. With a 75% mortgage, if the property value increases by 1% a year, you gain 4% on your invested funds. If you build appreciation and/or rent increases into your projections, you can pay a lot more for the same property and still make your target return. That’s how high quality properties can sell at a 4% or 5% cap rate.

Do you know who to call to discuss Cap Rates?

Thinking About Year-End? … You Should Be

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Year-end is almost upon us again. Now is the time to get your house in order – it will take a huge amount of stress off the closing process a couple of months from now.

Being truly ready for the auditors can save audit time and fees, reduce stress on your staff during the audit, and maybe make your financials available for lenders and investors a little earlier. Equally importantly, audit-readiness is a good indication that your accounting department is organized and up to date. How many other ways do you really have to determine that? Here are a few things you should consider:

Preparation of Financial Statements

Do the auditors historically require that you make embarrassing changes to the financials? What has been done to avoid that this year?

–          Does your accounting department prepare the financials, including notes?

–          Have you questioned any balances or accounts that seem surprising or unusual?

–          Did you do anything different this year? Are you sure it is accounted for correctly? Now is the time to sort that out, not during the audit.

–          Have any changes in accounting rules affected your business? Are there any changes not yet required that you could implement early?

Reconciliations

Reconciliations provide explanations for changes in Balance Sheet and P&L accounts, and your accounting department should be able to show them to you every month.

–          Do you know exactly what is in every balance sheet account?

–          Can you explain every change in the balance sheet?

–          Have expenses been calculated consistently every month?

–          Can you show how cost of goods sold affected inventory every month?

If you can say yes to all of these items, updating to year-end should be a piece of cake.

Updated Estimates

Where your monthly accruals and amortization calculations are based on volume or other estimates, have they been updated to be sure the year-end balances are correct? Again, a 2 month update at the end of the year is a lot easier than doing it for the entire year.

Variance Analysis

Has there been a thorough analysis documenting all significant P&L and Balance Sheet variances from last year? Are the explanations reasonable, and the underlying facts correct?

Documentation of Procedures

–          Are the fundamental internal control procedures properly documented?

–          The auditors typically make recommendations for improvements in procedures and controls if they find any deficiencies. Were last year’s recommendations fully implemented?

–          Have changes in staffing or procedures resulted in changes to the control environment? Now is the time to correct them.

Not sure if you’re going to be ready for year-end? Do you know who to call?

A Part-Time CFO

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At certain stages of growth, many companies find themselves in the awkward situation of needing the services of an experienced CFO, but feel they can’t afford to hire one.

Yes, a good CFO with the depth of knowledge and experience you need can come at a steep price. And – no offense intended – there may not even be enough to keep a good CFO challenged and interested on a full-time basis at this stage of the company’s growth. So what are the options?

The Options

Try to hire a CFO who may or may not find the job satisfying and lucrative enough to stick around for a while.

Hire a slightly stronger accountant at a slightly higher salary, and hope that he or she can rise to the challenge of a job far beyond his or her education and experience level.

Redirect your attention away from running and growing your business to focus on the CFO role yourself.

Ignore the financial needs of the company, and hope for the best.

Divide up the CFO role and ask your other executives to take care of it in their spare time.

OR…

Hire a part-time CFO at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CFO.

What Will a CFO Do for You?

In collaboration with you and your management team, an experienced CFO will quickly assess the company’s finance, accounting and control needs, and lay them out in order of priority. Areas that he or she will be considering include:

Project the future needs of the company based on achievable growth plans – resources, facilities, and the associated costs.

Identify and quantify financing needs to achieve the business plan – both short term and long term.

Develop relationships with financing sources – debt and equity – that are important to the company’s ability to operate and grow today, as well as to support long term growth and development.

Evaluate and make recommendations regarding the strength of the existing accounting staff.

Evaluate and make recommendations on accounting and information systems.

Oversee the preparation of financial statements, ensuring that the best professionals are chosen to provide auditing, tax and other outside services.

Lead the preparation of operating budgets to keep the company on track to achieve its short term goals.

Introduce the management disciplines and internal control structure necessary for the next level of growth.

Advise on the most appropriate methods and rates of growth – including acquisitions.

Conduct due diligence on acquisitions, and satisfy due diligence requirements of investors and lenders.

Lead programs and efforts to contain and reduce costs while still fostering growth.

Strategize on potential exit strategies – sale of the business for example – and help attract investors and buyers.

What to Look For

The more experience a CFO brings to the table, the more widely that experience is likely to vary among the candidates you speak with. All the more reason to have an idea of the qualities that are most important to you and your business. Here are a few thoughts:

Do you feel comfortable talking to the CFO? We all work better with people we like and trust.

Does the CFO seem to find your business interesting? Of course you find it interesting, but you can’t just assume that others do too.

Is a CPA important? Yes, it probably is. It demonstrates a minimum intellectual standard and level of accounting knowledge, and like the top business schools, the top accounting firms tend (with clear exceptions) to attract the best talent.

Does the CFO have a wide variety of experience in which he or she had to show resourcefulness and flexibility, as well as the willingness to learn on the job? How has he or she performed in situations similar to those likely to arise in your company? References come in handy here.

Has the CFO worked with companies similar in size to yours? I can tell you that working for a Fortune 100 company is very different from the environment of an owner-operated entrepreneurial venture. If you are planning to grow rapidly, does the CFO have rapid growth experience?

How about industry experience? Unless you are in a wildly specialized business like banking or insurance, industry experience is probably not critical. CFOs and CPAs are famous for their transferrable skills, and should be expected to learn your business quickly. On the other hand, some businesses like real estate have a steep learning curve, and some prior experience can make a big difference.

Why would a CFO want a part-time position? If this is a temporary move while he or she is looking for a full-time job, it doesn’t have much long-term potential. On the other hand, there are plenty of financial executives who like the flexibility of a part-time situation, and who enjoy working with a variety of interesting clients, each with its own challenges and rewards.

As the company grows in size and complexity, would the CFO potentially be interested in turning a part-time arrangement into a full-time position?

Do you know who to call to discuss hiring a part-time CFO?

Overhead… Who Cares?

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You probably couldn’t stop your accountants from allocating overhead to your operating profit centers, even if you tried. I’m not a business historian, but somewhere along the line, accountants everywhere became convinced that allocating overhead to operating unit P&Ls results in a better understanding of profitability. That may or may not be true, but let’s not use an accounting concept for making business decisions.

What is Overhead?

Overhead has a different meaning in every company, and its calculation varies widely. Generally speaking, though, it is considered to be the cost of running a head office, including centralized costs such as executive salaries, office rent, computer systems, etc. When the accountants allocate overhead, it is often in the form of a percentage of gross revenue. If a company has a division that contributes 10% profit, and another that contributes 8%, a 4% overhead allocation would reduce these results to 6% and 4%.

In this example, it would appear that the first division is 50% more profitable than the second, and management might be tempted to allocate resources accordingly. But its contribution margin is only 25% higher, so the result could be misleading.

If you can’t tell if your operations generate enough profit to cover overhead, you might consider looking for a different occupation. For the record, I’m sure many intelligent people disagree with me.

Don’t include Overhead in your business decisions

In my experience, many accountants don’t really appreciate that accounting conventions have no place in business decision-making, and operating executives often don’t feel confident enough to challenge the accountants on their own turf. Some things to remember:

Overhead is just an accounting concept
Overhead does not affect cash flow
Overhead allocations do not affect total company profitability
Overhead is calculated differently in every company

I have seen some dysfunctional results arise from trying to shoe-horn an accounting concept into business decisions.

A Retailer

A retailer had several stores that were not only losing money, but had a negative cash flow. That is, their operating loss was greater than their depreciation and amortization. The stores clearly needed to be closed to stop the damage.

The CEO, however, had done his math. If he closed the failing stores, the overhead allocated to those stores would have to be redistributed to the remaining stores, reducing their accounting profit after overhead. The CEO could not be persuaded that closing the losing stores would improve the company’s total profitability.

The failing stores continued to lose cash flow, and the overhead was allocated to all stores… until the CEO was replaced.

A Homebuilder

A homebuilder had a target IRR for new community construction projects. IRR is a measure of cash flow that calculates the return realized on a cash investment. The CFO, an accountant by training, insisted that all cash flow projections include a 3% charge for overhead, despite the fact that overhead has nothing to do with the incremental cash flow generated by a new construction project. He argued that when the project was under way, overhead would be allocated for accounting purposes, so the pro formas should reflect that. The pro formas then became just a forecast of the accounting records, and IRR, the real reason for making the investment, was calculated incorrectly.

At least the pro formas were conservative as a result of this allocation, but the company probably missed out on some good opportunities whose IRR projections fell below the hurdle rate. As it happened, the company’s actual overhead was not even 3% at all.

Another Retailer

Some retailers charge the cost of their distribution centers directly to expense, in the manner of unallocated overhead, while others include it in the cost of their merchandise, charging it directly to operations.

In a year when earnings were tight, I was encouraged as division CFO to find ways to increase reported profit, so I capitalized the distribution center costs. This resulted in a large transfer of costs from expense to inventory, substantially increasing reported earnings. The parent company paid senior management large bonuses that year, regardless of the fact that nearly all our profit came from an accounting change.

Although we reported more profit, the actual economic impact on the company was a negative cash flow in the amount of the bonuses that were paid. Was the accounting technically correct? Yes. Was it the most appropriate accounting under the circumstances? Maybe not. Would I do it again? … Well, I did like that bonus.

A Land Developer

When a land developer sold finished and partially finished lots to homebuilders, they did a land residual calculation to arrive at the asking price. That is, they estimated all the builder’s costs and revenues, and priced the lots so the builder could achieve a specified percentage profit margin. But one of the costs included in the analysis was 3% – again 3% – for overhead. If they didn’t include the overhead, they could have started with a higher asking price, and maybe sold the lots for a higher price.

Does your CFO take a practical view of Overhead?

ROI versus IRR … In a Nutshell

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Both the CEO and the CFO of a large company told me that ROI and IRR are the same thing.  They’re not. Interestingly, both executives’ annual bonus was determined by how their ROI compared with other companies in the industry.

I worked for a big company that required a 16% after-tax IRR on new investments. As it happened, the company’s ROI was typically in the 16% range. The Director of Financial Planning told the operating teams that achieving a 16% IRR automatically resulted in a 16% ROI… But he was wrong. It was just a coincidence.

Another company required an 18% pre-tax IRR on new investments, and for several years reported an ROI of about 18%. That was also a coincidence.

ROI and IRR are very different calculations, and are used for very different purposes.

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is a measure of how effectively a company is utilizing its capital investment.  It measures the company’s profit during a fixed period of time, usually one year, divided by its average assets.

Calculating ROI

Pretax Profit Before Interest  /  Average Total Assets, excluding Capitalized Interest  (-)  Average Non- Interest Bearing Liabilities

Taxes and interest are excluded from the calculation in order to compare the performance of different companies more effectively. A company with a low tax rate, or a highly leveraged company will have very different result from those of a company that has higher taxes or operates with low debt levels, so this calculation removes those variables. Other calculations, such as Return on Equity (ROE) evaluate performance on a more comprehensive basis.

Non-interest bearing liabilities include items like accounts payable and accrued liabilities, which are effectively free financing, so the corresponding assets aren’t really considered to be an investment.

How Useful is ROI?

ROI is a widely used calculation, but we must remember that it measures only one year’s performance, so it can swing widely from year to year if earnings are volatile. This may not be a bad thing in cyclical businesses, in which all companies experience the same environment.

In my opinion, ROI is most useful in established companies that are not growing or contracting at a rapid rate. The book value of a young company or a growing company’s assets is likely to be relatively high, as they invest in future earnings, and haven’t charged off extensive depreciation and amortization.

Conversely, there is an old joke that the best way to increase your ROI is to go out of business, because your investment is declining as you sell off assets, while you still report income from the sale of those assets.

Similar Calculations

There are plenty of slightly different calculations such as Return on Net Assets (RONA), Return on Capital (ROC) and Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) that can be argued to be more representative of a particular company’s performance, but they all have the same basic objective.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

IRR calculates the compound rate of interest earned over the life of a specific investment, using not only the dollar amounts, but also the timing of cash expenditures and cash receipts.  Because it uses the concept of the “time value of money,” IRR is used to compare investment opportunities that have very different cash flows.

Calculating IRR

IRR is based on the concept of Net Present Value (NPV). NPV says that one dollar today is worth exactly one dollar. A promise to receive one dollar a year from now, however, is worth less than a dollar, because you’ve missed the opportunity to earn income on that dollar for a year. If you could earn 10% (the Discount Rate) on your investment, next year’s dollar would be worth only 90.9 cents today ($1.00 divided by 110%).  On the bright side, a future expense is also worth less today.

IRR is the Discount Rate at which the NPV of a series of cash flows is zero. That is, the interest rate earned over the life of an investment after the initial investment has been repaid.

Typically, interest and taxes are also excluded from the IRR calculation for comparison purposes, but of course, you will want to see the net leveraged IRR too.

How Useful is IRR?

If you have $1 million cash to invest, should you invest in the project that requires the entire investment up front, then pays nothing for 3 years, when it returns $1.5 million? Or should you go for the one that requires a $500,000 investment in each of the first two years, and then pays $350,000 a year for the next 5 years? There are obviously a lot of other factors to consider, but IRR will tell you which one pays a higher return.

Similarities Between ROI and IRR

None… ROI and IRR are entirely different calculations.

Does your CFO explain and discuss financial metrics with your management team?

How Much is Enough?

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How do you decide which projects to invest in? Some companies look at the expected profit as a percentage of expected revenue. This approach, however, does not take into account the size of the investment, how long your money is tied up, or the risk of the investment.

Many companies look at their expected Internal Rate of Return, or IRR. This is a measure of the cash flow of the investment over its expected life, and gives the annual percentage return on the actual cash invested. Some companies informally call this their Return on Investment, although ROI is technically a different measure.

Companies in different industries have their own criteria for a minimum acceptable IRR. Retailers, for example, often look for a 16% return after tax, while homebuilders might look for 18% before tax. The differences are based on the risk involved in the investment. Profit projections are less reliable for a new retail store than for building houses in an established development – under normal circumstances, of course. Retailers also expect their investment to last at least 10 years, while a housing development can often be completed in 2 or 3 years. A lot of things can change in 10 years.

What is the appropriate IRR target for your investments?