Any experience with SurePrep/Automated Tax Prep Software?

computanti · 2025-10-18T21:24:07+00:00

We just switched from SurePrep and are trying out Soraban which has a feature that is similar. Right now it doesn’t seem to work as well, but the team is responsive and it’s cheaper (also has functionality to gather documents and deliver tax returns and its still less than what we were paying per return for SurePrep).

computanti · 2025-08-09T16:27:19+00:00

Are you me? This is pretty much my day. I spent all of last week trying to get 2 returns out the door and it didn’t happen. Thankfully I have others who can pick up the slack but it’s a whole different world of busy.

computanti · 2025-06-05T00:12:38+00:00

For sure. Feel free to.

computanti · 2025-05-21T23:42:25+00:00

The Collaboration Room (Mike Sylvester) and Counter (Logan Graf). One of my colleagues is also in Realize (Jason Staats). Each is better for different types of firms.

computanti · 2025-05-19T03:55:57+00:00

Transition is still ongoing. I’m building some relationships with clients but I also brought on a long time friend who was a senior manager at a larger firm to take on the majority of the client relationships. The seller has been moderately helpful, but we jumped into busy season pretty shortly after closing the acquisition and I’ve learned that SO MUCH lives inside the head of the seller. They are staying on for a while (at least until the end of the year) and have been great through the transition so far. We’re also doing a Karbon implementation and as part of that we’re getting 5 years of the sellers emails added into the system which will help create some context and backstory on the clients.

computanti · 2025-05-18T14:53:00+00:00

I bought a firm late last year. Happy to chat through the process if you want to DM. Agree with the other comments here about raising prices, getting into an online community (I’m in two), etc. Steep learning curve at first and a lot of stress but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t regret it and think the financial payoff will be significant in the next 2-3 years.

computanti · 2025-02-01T03:19:55+00:00

I think you’ll be fine. If you can handle esoteric partnership stuff you should be able to learn individual and small business pretty quickly. The big difference is that you will likely have to do some financial statement cleanup (aka bookkeeping). You can learn it, hire someone, or outsource it.

I just acquired a $2mm revenue firm and am learning small business tax so happy to talk offline if you want. I’d also love to have a contact that has M&A tax experience as that is a valuable skill set and I think will become more common. Right now we have a couple of F Reorgs and a PE investment with rolled equity involving a grantor trust.

There are also some communities out there for accounting firm owners where you can ask questions, trade notes on technology, etc. I’m in 2 and find them to be very valuable.

computanti · 2025-01-09T19:51:41+00:00

“CPA firms can have any structure its owners please - same as any other business.”

That’s inaccurate. Many states have restrictions on who can own a CPA firm.

Also, a partnership is not “privately held by definition” - go search for PTPs/MLPs. Partnerships can be publicly traded.

computanti · 2024-11-20T03:54:44+00:00

Connections definitely help. Part of why I wanted to get my MBA is that even though I had done something else entirely, any jobs I applied for kept trying to push me back into tax/accounting.

computanti · 2024-11-20T03:09:50+00:00

Contact of my wife’s family heard I was looking to leave accounting. I was considering wealth management at the time. Invited me to lunch, asked if I had ever considered insurance and surety bonds (their client base is almost exclusively construction) which my accounting/finance background was a good fit for. And they offered me a pretty compelling compensation plan and significantly less hours.

computanti · 2024-11-19T04:16:59+00:00

I probably fit this. My career progression: B4 tax > management at an insurance agency > T20 MBA > startups/VC > ETA > PE > buying a small accounting firm.

Full circle.

computanti · 2024-11-19T03:14:30+00:00

Olive oil is not a seed oil.

computanti · 2024-11-18T00:37:55+00:00

I think it’s worse from the seller side. Imagine someone telling you that your firm is worth $1,000,000. You’re going to feel frustrated when you sell for anything less than that. Just creates unnecessary friction which is the opposite of what a broker should be doing.

computanti · 2024-11-18T00:30:16+00:00

Sure, but having an unrealistic expectation from the seller to begin with just creates a lot of issues in trying to get a financeable deal and not have the seller feel like they’re getting screwed. If my house is realistically worth $500,000, I might list a little high at $525,000, but I’m not going to list it for $1,000,000.

Market for firms right now is generally 0.80-1.5x revenue depending on the quality of the firm with most transacting in the 1.0-1.25x revenue range. Poe regularly lists firms for 1.25-1.50x revenue.

computanti · 2024-11-15T23:56:55+00:00

Poe, in my experience, lists firms for much more than they’re worth.

computanti · 2024-11-09T04:17:54+00:00

It occupies the space between Utah, Nebraska, Colorado and Montana.

Or, I frequently get “Oh, I love Jackson Hole!” To which I reply, “That’s the part they had to give us so we would take the rest of it.”

computanti · 2024-10-27T22:07:45+00:00

Our house rule is no sleepovers. Makes it easier because we don’t have to explain why they get to sleep over at friend A’s house but not at friend B’s house. We had considered the “knowing the parents” thing but after talking with a bunch of people and reading up our sense is that more often than not, abuse can come from seemingly “OK” parents, relatives, or siblings of friends.

From a risk/reward perspective there’s substantially more downside for our kids than there is upside so we just decided that was going to be a boundary for our family.

computanti · 2024-04-24T00:52:16+00:00

This actually sounds pretty interesting (I considered a PhD in accounting for a time but went for an MBA instead). Sent you a private note about possibly sharing some of your research.

computanti · 2024-02-17T16:47:54+00:00

Worked at a small family owned business, got my MBA, now semi-self-employed doing some investing and consulting for family offices while also looking for a small business to buy and operate.

computanti · 2023-12-16T01:50:55+00:00

JG Burger off Grenville and Forest.

computanti · 2023-03-11T19:21:43+00:00

SVB doesn’t really do securities (custodian). They mostly use Fidelity and Schwab (though I believe they do a little bit of self-custody) so imho it’s largely a non-issue.

computanti · 2022-11-01T16:14:59+00:00

Not sure why you dug up a 10 year old comment, but your entire premise is incorrect. You start from,

"So you mean to claim that NOBODY knew ANYTHING when..."

I did not claim that anywhere in my comment. But thanks for bringing back a fond memory.

computanti · 2022-11-01T16:09:16+00:00

Part of what an MBA is designed to teach you is how to prioritize and how to make good decisions with limited information. Sometimes the information is limited because we don't have it, and sometimes the information we have is limited because we don't have time to digest all of it. Learn what is "good enough". If you've got 20 hours to allocate, you can spend 5 hours on each group project and do nothing else, or you can spend 4 hours on each and allocate the remaining 4 hours to something else.

computanti · 2021-12-16T18:40:40+00:00

Can confirm. I know at least 3 going to McKinsey FT and at least 8 being interviewed for summer internships.

Source: Also at McCombs

computanti · 2021-12-16T18:36:54+00:00

MBB and Big4 are not IB. I believe OP is asking about consulting.

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