Referral Program for Bookkeepers
Welcome to our Payroll, Tax Preparation/Planning and Tax Resolution Referral Program
We have noticed that a number of bookkeepers prefer to concentrate on being the best at their craft. At the same time, their clients need a variety of services including Tax Preparation/Planning, Payroll and IRS/State Representation. To increase client retention, ease of planning and communication and improve our respective specializations, we propose that we work together, in a matter that would benefit both of us.
Referral Benefits for Bookkeeper
- A Percentage Referral Fee of 10% of annual fees collected as long as the client remains a client of Legacy Tax & Resolution Services, LLC
- A contractual guarantee to never take your client
- Assistance with promotion and marketing - articles for distribution to your clients are provided, assistance with live webinars, and any other educational promotional materials we can come up with
- Improved communication between the tax preparer and the bookkeeping process.
- A great working relationship with a CPAs and EAs who have in-depth knowledge of your software and your clients.
- The ability to offer a one-stop shop for all of your clients.
Referral Benefits for Legacy Tax & Resolution Services
- Practice and accounting consistency - we work together to develop our client services, so clients get a consistent product, therefore achieving valuable time savings
- Knowledgeable, growth-oriented partners
- An expanded client base to produce economies of scale
- Marketing partners to deliver more value to more clients and prospective clients.
The Services
Tax Preparation
We've got your clients handled for April. We can also do tax projections towards the end of the tax year to let the clients know how much they are going to have to put aside to cover their upcoming tax bill or to make estimated payments.
Tax Planning
Most tax return preparers do not take an active stance towards planning for taxes. With a proper tax plan in place, I have saved clients from $8,232-60,350! This is a separate engagement from tax preparation and can not only provide extra revenue but is an excellent way to show your clients how much you care about their financial well-being.
Tax Resolution
Sometimes we get the messy clients - you know who I mean. They haven't done their books for the last three years and neither have they filed their tax returns. Now the IRS is calling, and they are trying to get their act together. We can work together to get them compliant and negotiate with the IRS. We can save them tens of thousands of dollars!
The Process
Appointment Tracking
Appointments are scheduled by your clients through a separate Calendly link specific to your company. You may refer your client with an introductory email either using that link. The link and link information will populate a google sheet shared by us when a prospect creates an appointment.
Legacy Tax & Resolution Services will interview the client. If the client chooses to move forward, Legacy's standard policy is to invoice for 1/2 of the estimated fees upfront. Immediately following the interview and any collection of fees, the google sheet will be updated with the notes from the meeting, the total price quoted, the initial fees collected, and the estimated date of the deliverable. You may invoice Legacy for any initial fees collected at this time. Please allow 30 days for payment (especially in the heat of tax season).
Client Tracking and Sharing
For clients that move forward, Legacy Tax & Resolution Services will include a clause in a signed engagement letter by the client allowing for the sharing of financial information between our firms. An additional google drive folder under the folder shared by our firms will be created specific to the client. The engagement letter will be uploaded there. A request will be sent to you to add me as a user to their cloud accounting file so that I may pull reports. If the accounting is not finalized for the year, please let me know at that time and when it can be expected to be completed.
Preparation and Working Together
- Tax & Resolution Services will prepare the deliverables for the client. If any material inconsistencies are noted, these items will be brought up first to the bookkeeper, so they may be addressed to the client by them. Immaterial AJE's will be noted and a full AJE report will be placed in the shared file. AJE's will not be made in the client's books by Tax & Resolution Services. A copy of the final tax return will be uploaded to the shared folder.
Final Payment
Legacy Tax & Resolution Services will issue the final invoice after completion and delivery of the service. Delivery date will be noted on the google sheet. When collected, a collected date will be shown, and the final amount may be invoiced.
The Questions
Q: Why don't you just white label the service so that I can offer the service "through" my company with you as a contractor?
A: It is set up as a referral structure for liability and discretionary purposes. If we were to set up a contractor relationship, you would have to either increase your E&O insurance to cover the liability created (so now we are both spending more on insurance) and it does subject you to liability should any lawsuit happen for anything that Legacy Tax & Resolution Service did. While it's not likely to happen, it is best if you are as protected as possible. It also affords us much more in the way of discretion in how we choose to do business with each other and creates more of a partnership than an employer/employee contractor/subcontractor relationship.
Q: How do I ensure that you won't try to take my clients?
A: 1) Our primary purpose in founding this relationship is to provide bookkeepers with an opportunity to compete with full-service firms. While we maintain separate firms that may offer bookkeeping services, they are a very small facet of business and are an ancillary service, not an intentionally marketed service. Just like your expertise is bookkeeping, we'd like to limit our activities to the services we are best at - primarily tax preparation/planning, payroll and Tax Resolution. 2) Our desire is to have great relationships with the people we work with and we will do anything necessary to maintain your confidence and trust in us. 3) We have a clause built into the referral agreement which gives you recourse should a client somehow trick us into performing any bookkeeping service for them.
The How to Begin
If you've gotten this far, we assume you may be interested in talking further to see if this affiliation is a good fit for you. We know you don't want to refer your clients to just anyone, and we completely understand that - we don't want to work with just anyone either. We think it would be great if we had a conversation and came up with a plan together about how we might be able to move forward to make this work. Let's set up a quick conference call to discuss how this might work. Just click on the button below to schedule a time that works best for you to talk.
Click Here for a Time to Talk!
What to expect: If we find some common ground and decide to try working together, I have this referral agreement that we can tailor to our specific circumstances. We will sign, keep a copy each, and get to work! You will be provided a landing page with your logo and affiliate Calendly link. We will talk strategy on marketing and agree on what can be the biggest help with what you are currently doing or want to do.