darren

As im sure many of you will deal with accountant regulary I would like to here your thoughts on acountants. When i first set up as an affiliate marketer i didnt think that I would make enough money to worry about an accountant but i did. Because already had a long standing relationship with an accountant from previous venture i staed with him.

The problems started when I treid explaining affiliate marketing to him, it proved to be a concept he couldnt grasp and more problems grew from this, have any of you found that you have had problems accountants who failed to understand your business?

Avix

Just say it is the online equivalent of a commision based sales rep with purely performance based pay. It is quite a simple concept, I have understood it since I was about 12.

__________________

darren

I tried relating it to as many things as i could, the problems he was having was the contracts that are given by merchants and the fact that have next to non quarantees to people like myself.

stevo

Find a new accoutant.
There are some out there who deal with Internet business's, e-commerce etc.

They are all familiar with how it works.
You're certainly not the only one doing this kind of work, so perhaps ask someone who does similar things in your local area for an Accountant recommendation.

Super Mod

There are a lot of accountants who don't know too much about Internet business. These are usually old and established accountants who can barely run a computer themselves. I would suggest looking for a new accountant that had knowledge of Internet business and computers.

Smith

This can be tricky. A lot of the "old school" accountants don't know much about Internet business and what the rules are. They should, but they just don't. Try looking for a larger firm that may have a few specialists in Internet business that are able to help you. You should ask around before settling on one accountant over another.

Tim

More and more accountants are popping up who deal with e-commerce etc.
It's such a big industry now that accountants would be silly to ignore it.
The ones who service internet business clients are the ones who will reap the benefits.

You will find one, just ask around.

borsaid

Just don't use H&R Block. I always hear from the pro's in the field that it's a cracker jack operation. . . and their recent oops! kind of makes you want to wait and see if they can get their own taxes right before tackling yours.

Josie

Maybe my business just isn't big enough, but I find using Quickbooks during the year and then a tax program for taxes takes care of my accounting needs. It does require some discipline because you have to keep your "books" up to date or else you're faced with quite a mess to sort out before tax time.

Even depreciation and capital losses/gains are covered with ease by the better tax programs out there now. Plus you can deduct the cost of such software, just as you can deduct the accountant's fees.

My experience with accountants is somewhat limited, but having watched my parents business through the years, it seems that, like anything, there are great ones out there and lousy ones too. I think you have to research them and discover how computer-saavy they are if you are strictly dealing with income from computer-related sources, even if your regular accountant is great but doesn't know much about computers.

I'm sure there must be accountants who have specializations in computer-related businesses, since it is becoming such a huge phenomenon.

Max

Josie, what tax program do you use?

__________________
Max - NBT Advisor