Your Financial
Business Matters

Our experience with the taxation of United States companies doing business abroad, residents working abroad, and foreign corporations doing business in the United States (or foreign citizens working in the United States) has provided us with an extensive base of knowledge in the area of international taxation. Our lead Tax Partner has extensive experience in international tax compliance as well as the corresponding state returns.

Business transactions and transitions are complicated affairs, and whether you're buying, selling, or considering a potential merger, Ascent | CPA can provide professional know-how to help you successfully structure and negotiate the deal. Ascent | CPA employs careful analysis and due diligence to determine a fair asking price, pinpoint the most favorable tax structures, evaluate financial and cash flow impact, and assess compatible business functions and tactics. Expanding or contracting your business is a huge undertaking. With our expert advice, you can make the right business decisions for your business for optimum success.

No one can predict the future perfectly, but we can all benefit from planning for it. Ascent | CPA combines expertise and experience with a gained understanding of your business to produce financial projections that can help you manage your business plan and spending. Forecasting for the future is imperative to your company's success. We make it a point to keep current with market trends and updates so that your business can be prepared for what is to come. Depending on your needs, our work can range from top-level reports to detailed financial models.

Choosing and administering benefit plans for your employees is often a complex process. Ascent | CPA can help you develop, implement, and administer your benefit, retirement, and profit-sharing plans with an eye toward rewarding your employees and reaching your company's financial and business goals. We can also help maximize tax advantages in implementing these plans. As your business grows, your business and your employees will be rewarded for the hard work that contributed to the success of your business.

Your business entity has a large impact on your taxes and other liabilities. From your company's inception through its growth and development, Ascent | CPA can advise you on choosing an entity type and later restructuring if advantageous. With our knowledge and expertise, you will always be receiving the most advantageous entity type for the functions your business performs.

Whether your needs are corporate or personal, Ascent | CPA's professionals can assist you in sorting out the different options available for debt management and financing that will lower your payments and/or reduce the total amount of interest paid. Re-balancing your debts can also result in tax deduction savings. Even if you are able to handle the payments and the amounts of your current debts, our expertise may be able to save you money and/or lower your payments.

The range of needs for valuing businesses continues to widen, and Ascent | CPA can provide in-depth analysis to help you identify and analyze the factors that drive the value of your company or one in which you have an interest. Uses for this service include estate planning and compliance, buying and selling businesses, divorce matters, family limited partnerships and ESOPs. There are so many factors that contribute to the perceived value of a business. Our expert help can help you evaluate entities that you have an interest in and guide you towards making business decisions that you feel confident with.

Good cash management can improve a company's liquidity, reduce costs, and increase profitability. Ascent | CPA can help you maintain optimal cash flow levels by tracking sources and uses, forecasting, and budgeting accordingly. To a business entity, cash flow is something that can make or break the business' ability to survive. We can help you analyze your spending, re-balance your budget and/or debts for an optimal cash flow to support your business' success. This balance plan would be revisited if and when there were any major changes in your business structure to ensure that you are operating at an optimal level. With our help and guidance, you will always be on top of your finances and ready for the future.

Ascent | CPA's payroll services can help you reduce the time spent on administration through developing and implementing a computerized payroll system that will facilitate processing, timely payment and preparation of tax returns.

As technologies rapidly advance, companies increasingly need to update their computer systems. Ascent | CPA can audit your system competencies and gauge upgrade needs as well as provide support in choosing and implementing new hardware or network systems. As experts in this field, we can put your computer problems at bay as well as improve your computer system's performance taking into consideration any budget you may have.

Professional representation can be vital during an audit, and our experience with tax authorities enables us to guide clients in their dealings with federal and state agencies. If you have been chosen for an audit, the professional representation you can find with our firm can put many of your worries at bay. We are ready and willing to answer any and all questions the IRS may be asking of you.

Accurate record-keeping is essential to a successful business yet can also be complicated and time consuming. Ascent | CPA can help you with the organization and day-to-day tasks of bookkeeping so that you can focus on your core business.

QuickBooks can provide useful and timely information in the form of financial statements, reports and graphs. However, it can only provide this information if you purchase the right product and then install, setup and use it properly. We don't just help you use the software, we help you use it more efficiently and more effectively.

Ascent | CPA offers the following solutions to help meet your QuickBooks needs:

Personal Training

We train you personally! Either one-on-one or several individuals within your organization at your company's location.

Installation

We install QuickBooks on your stand alone computer or in a network environment, in either single- or multi-user mode.

Setup

We assist new QuickBooks users with initial setup including: EasyStep Interview, Preferences, Lists, Customers, Vendors, Employees, Banking and Reports. We also help experienced users manage their businesses more effectively by improving their current setup. Many users experience problems and lack the ability to generate and track important information as a result of inadequate setup.

Support

Our QuickBooks support service can assist you with any installation, setup or operation assistance you might need. In addition, our support is not limited just to the software part of it, but we can also provide accounting and payroll assistance.

Review

Our QuickBooks review service helps companies that have the human resources to perform daily accounting and payroll tasks, but need an accounting and payroll expert to review your transactions, accounts and reports. This review ensures that you receive timely, relevant and reliable financial information. We also inform you of any corrections, adjustments or reclassifications necessary to ensure that the financial information you receive reflects the correct financial condition of your business. Reviews may be conducted at any time, but monthly reviews provide you with up-to-date information and feedback about your business.

‍

Ascent | CPA litigation support and forensic accounting services can be employed in a wide range of situations, including commercial litigation, financial investigations, business valuations, business and marital dissolutions, and bankruptcies. These services can involve quantification of economic loss or damages, analysis of financial records, and fraud and theft investigation. Financial and personal records are often vast and confusing to sort through. With our professional training in this matter, we can make sense of these records and transactions and get to your bottom line.

‍

Ascent | CPA's goal is to help you reach your financial goals and maintain financial independence through a comfortable retirement. We can guide you through tough decision-making processes such as asset allocation, investment performance monitoring, college education funding, retirement plans, insurance, and tax, estate, and business succession planning. Whether you are developing an investment strategy or evaluating current investments, Ascent | CPA can ensure that your portfolio will take into account tax implications for an advantageous after-tax return. The road to retirement is a long one and we can help you to take the proper steps to reach your goals.

Effective estate and trust planning can ensure financial security for loved ones. For businesses, it can maintain a smooth succession of ownership. Ascent | CPA's role is to help you navigate the complex and shifting tax laws to facilitate the transfer of assets and minimize the tax liability of your beneficiaries. Everyone should have a well-thought-out plan as to how to distribute the assets left in one's estate so as to avoid complications and to be sure that the individual’s wishes are followed. Having your taxes and estate thoroughly and carefully planned will ensure that your loved ones don't have any complications to deal with during a time of loss.

At Ascent | CPA, we guide our clients through a full range of tax planning and preparation decisions with strategies that minimize your tax liabilities, maximize your cash flow and keep you on track to your financial goals. Our expertise, experience, analysis and thorough research allow us to optimize financial opportunities to be found in existing as well as recently altered tax laws.

We are knowledgeable and up to date on the tax laws and can make sense of your receipts, bills and notices.

From start-ups to established enterprises, businesses rely on accurate and insightful financial information in order to maintain profitability and capitalize on new opportunities. Ascent | CPA's accounting services steer you closer to these goals with accurate record-keeping and reporting as well as support on financial issues such as initial accounting system setup, cost-containment, tax planning, investments, and employee benefit and profit-sharing plans.

These services include but are not limited to:

• General ledger and financial statement preparation
• Bookkeeping (Monthly, quarterly, or annual)
• Accounting system setup and support
• Payroll processing
• Cash flow budgeting and forecasting
• Personal financial statements
• Employee benefit and profit-sharing plans
• Corporate tax planning and return preparation
• Litigation support

At Ascent | CPA, we focus on building close client relationships that add long-term value. This includes assuring the solidity of financial records, evaluating financial procedures and working to produce strategies that help our clients face the myriad challenges of business planning and execution. Our clients benefit from objective analysis to assist in controlling costs, increasing efficiency, and implementing new technologies and procedures that take advantage of changes in the marketplace, accounting standards, and tax law. Our assurance services will improve information quality or its context, meaning more success for your business.

These services include but are not limited to:

• Audits, reviews, and compilations
• Entity selection and restructuring
• Accounting software selection, implementation, and support
• Business valuations
• Financial projections and forecasts
• Debt and finances advising
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Transaction structuring and negotiations
• Business succession

Ascent | CPA's financial statement services comprise all three levels of assurance depending on your company's needs.

Audits

Audits offer the highest level of assurance to third parties, and include in-depth examination and confirmation of account balances, inventories, and selected transactions. We perform audits for you to remove errors, ascertaining the validity and reliability of your information.

Reviews

Reviews provide limited assurance to outside interests and involve inquiries and analytical procedures that confirm financial statement matters and identify any items requiring further analysis. We perform reviews to ensure the integrity of your data.

Compilations

Compilations are usually requested for internal purposes and are based upon information provided by a company's management. They do not offer assurance but may involve some adjustment to accounting records.

In addition to the above, we also offer a full suite of internal audit advisory services such as design & implementation of internal controls, outsourced operating effectiveness testing of controls, financial model reviews and stress testing, and general business advisory to improve your internal processes.

‍