The Bonadio Group, a Top 100 Firm based in Pittsford, New York, is helping its business clients with outsourcing and nonprofit clients with technology to help them deal with rampant inflation this year.
Cheryl Prout, a partner at the firm, sees clients coming in for assistance with their taxes, financial statements, bookkeeping, planning and consulting.
"We tend to specialize a little bit more in the smaller businesses, which aren't always small," she said. "They just need handholding and a more dedicated team of people who understand tax because it all goes hand in hand. When you don't have your own accounting staff internally, we take the place of that and offer that financial and tax advice that they need and pull it all together."
Along with inflation, clients have been struggling the past few years with the effects of the pandemic and supply chain issues.
"Over the last couple of years there have been all sorts of ups and downs, with the COVID issues, the tax benefits that are out there, how to tap into all the benefits that both the federal and the state governments have put into play, how to best keep in business and do the right things," said Prout. "There were so many cutbacks and things that they needed to do to preserve cash in order to sustain themselves through all of that. Now, as things are pretty much back at a normal pace for the most part, there's inflation. That's the part that's hurting a lot of businesses right now because things haven't caught up completely."
Business clients have been trying to entice their employees back to the workplace as well as fill all their job openings.
"Without a doubt, that's something I hear from every single client, that they're just struggling with getting people to work and hiring people and they have vacancies," said Prout. "But then there's also the increased costs of keeping people on staff, so they're all struggling with the rightsizing of what they're able to charge to their own customers, and then still be able to make a decent profit, because of the increased costs. We all know that shipping has increased dramatically because of the increases in gas, so they're constantly trying to balance all of that."
Clients at nonprofit organizations are facing their own challenges, trying to predict whether donors will cut back on giving this year. "In the nonprofit world, there are a lot of concerns over where we're headed from an economic perspective," said Jennifer Arbore, a partner at the Bonadio Group. "Most of the clients that we work with right now are heading into budget season, so they're taking things like the CPI numbers and trying to apply them to what is on the horizon and what is 2023 going to look like. Not only are there increasing costs, but the concern from the nonprofit side is really the donors, and what's the ability for a donor to continue to give if their personal situation can change. Individuals who were once interested in multiyear giving are now very concerned about doing annual giving only, so strategies relative to fundraising are changing."
She often helps nonprofit clients with the technology side. "My role here is I work with nonprofits from an outsourced accounting capacity, which includes working with them to leverage technology in order to help them expand and grow their mission," said Arbore. "Oftentimes organizations don't realize how important the accounting software is. People are always so focused; they think of the programs and mission, but they don't necessarily see how the accounting piece ties into that. But with the utilization of the appropriate type of technology, leveraging the metrics and outcomes of performance data really provides support for their story, because you can show impact and accountability, and then they can focus on success by being able to measure those metrics. It takes the accounting side and ties it into the mission side as well."
Accountants are helping both businesses and nonprofits year round, especially now with planning ahead in case of a recession next year. "We can provide a lot of value outside the traditional duties of actual tax filings that could help a business or an individual," said Prout. "If they're looking to sell the business and get the best value out of that and pay the least amount of tax and different ways of structuring that, without the input of a professional in that respect, you could be leaving money on the table. A meeting midway through the year or quarterly could provide a lot more benefit to somebody rather than just waiting until they're ready to file a tax return."
