Tag Archives: webinar

NATP Offers Tax Planning for Military Personnel and Spouses Webinar

August 22, 2024 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

My cousin, Lt. Col. David Oclander, Battalion Commander, on the left.

As regular readers know, I’m a big fan of the National Association of Tax Professionals. They generally provide top-notch education, and I appreciate the fact that they do not discriminate against non-credentialed tax pros. Before I became a CPA, that was where I got most of my continuing education, because organizations like AICPA or NAEA are restricted to those with licenses. The IRS Tax Forums and web programming are more accessible, but often the quality of IRS presentation skills is pretty poor — they’re trained on compliance, not on public speaking. So when I see that NATP is hosting a class on an important topic that might not be getting enough promotion, I try to amplify it.

Today I’d love to highlight their upcoming session on August 29th: “Tax Planning for Military Personnel and Spouses“. NATP Instructor Mari Fries, EA, CFP explains that at the core of all military returns is the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and in more recent years the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (MSRRA). Understanding the impact of these acts on a military return can result in thousands of dollars of tax savings for the service member and family.

I wanted to share it because I feel like this is a topic that doesn’t get much CPE time — it’s always a page in an update where the presenter says, “and I’m sure this doesn’t apply to anyone in here,” or “if this applies to your clients you already know the details, so I won’t go into it.” The most we can usually hope for is a link to the IRS webpage on Tax Information for Members of the Military or IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces Tax Guide. (To be fair, both of these are chock-full of great info, but it’s hard to suss out on your own, even as a professional preparer.)

If you have tax clients in the military, or you’re considering a niche in this under-served area, I strongly recommend this 100-minute, 2-CPE credit class. It will also be available on-demand.

From NATP:

At the core of all military returns is the Servicemember’s Civil Relief Act (SCRA) and in more recent years the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act (MSRRA). Understanding the impact of these acts on a military return can result in thousands of dollars of tax savings for the service member and family. This webinar, through case studies, will demonstrate the impact of these two federal laws on state returns and offer the preparer the knowledge necessary to identify when the SCRA and MSRRA are not being applied accurately at the state level. Additionally, we will cover other tax benefits afforded to our military personnel such as nontaxable pay and benefits, nontaxable combat pay and its impact on IRA contributions and EITC, and automatic extensions to name a few.

In this course, the instructor will teach you to distinguish between “home of record” and “domicile”, understand the impacts of the SCRA and the MSRRA on domicile, accurately identify when the laws are not being applied appropriately at the state level, and summarize special tax provisions available to military personnel.

Mari Fries, EA, CFP provides a preview of the course and her passion for the topic in this short YouTube spot:

According to the University of Florida IFAS Extension, there are a wide range of unique issues that affect tax filing for military families, including:

Moving expenses for permanent change of station (PCS) relocations
Sale of a primary residence or “accidental landlording” following a PCS move
Travel required for Reserve duty
Tax-exempt and taxable allowances (i.e., need-specific payments in military pay)
Tax-free “combat pay” for service in designated combat zones
Certain tax-filing extensions
Legal residency rules for state income tax filing (service members and spouses)
State tax rules for taxation of military retirement benefits
The opportunity to make tax-deductible pre-tax dollar (i.e., money that has not yet been taxed) contributions to the traditional Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)

A complete description of military-specific tax rules can be found in IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces Tax Guide. The IRS website also contains military tax tips and links to resources such as MilTax, a Department of Defense and Military OneSource program that provides free tax return preparation and e-filing for service members and some veterans, with no income limit.

Cooperatives, Education, Tips

Is Open Book Management Right for Your Restaurant?

March 4, 2024 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

I first came across the concept of “Open Book” management (OBM) for restaurants back in 2009, when I purchased Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating from a local food & wine retail client of mine and we were discussing their recent adoption of this business philosophy — first popularized by Jack Stack in his excellent 1992 book, The Great Game of Business. Having lived in Ann Arbor for 10 years and attended the University of Michigan, I was of course a fan of their world market and pricey-but-delicious deli salads and sandwiches. But it wasn’t until 2012, when I took a deep dive into restaurant accounting and attended a series of seminars by the former Restaurant Seminar Institute, that I made the deeper connection between healthy financial communication and healthy small businesses. The class instructor had referenced various approaches to management, and included OBM among others on the list. A year later, I began working with local restaurant Honey Butter Fried Chicken — whose owners, as it turns out, had taken Zingerman’s OBM course and were in the process of implementing it in their fledgling project.

I spent the next few years working with them as they fine-tuned their metrics, delivery, and compensation structures, as well as trained their managers and the rest of the staff on why any of it mattered. First-hand, the benefits of this transformative approach were made apparent, and I became an eager proponent of OBM. Later, as I began to specialize in co-ops, I saw the same lessons filtered through a lens of cooperative management and policy governance that in some cases fit nicely with the OBM framework (though not always — check out this excellent Columinate article on lessons learned the hard way; an illuminating quote: “Getting the responsibility into the hands of the staff each week is an important transition in making it successful. Yet, many times, we see managers hanging on to the reporting lines for too long, which leads to disengagement and disinterest on the part of the staff. They won’t learn it or care about it until they are responsible for it”).

So imagine my delight when I read this month’s Plate online magazine and saw that my former clients are participating in a free webinar on Open Book Management — and how to determine whether it’s a fit for your restaurant! From PlateTalks: “These owners will talk about what it takes to get your books in order, how they share key data points with their teams, and what their staff has gained from the model.”

According to Zingerman’s — and this lines up with my personal experience — OBM can lead to better results: but more importantly, it lines up with the values of many small business owners. Side benefits include building commitment, better business decision-making, and teaching everyone to think like an owner.

Open Book Management isn’t something that can be implemented in a silo, however — a concept summarized well in a case study by the non-profit International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (CHRIE), “…small to medium enterprises can greatly benefit from open book management, the creation of a strong and qualitative mission statement, and a cohesive organizational culture that blends well with the external macro culture. Any one of these elements appears to be dependent upon another. For example, Zingerman’s, or any other company could have an open book management style of operation – but without a clear mission, the company would not do as well in the marketplace. Zingerman’s could have a great organizational culture, but without open book management, employees would not take ownership of their jobs, and therefore the bottom line would suffer.”

There are loads of articles and courses out there on Open Book Management — and plenty of restauranteurs who are glad to network and share their experiences. For a short introduction, I encourage you to check out Josh and Christine and their colleagues, as well as the folks at Plate, on March 5, 2024 from 1-2 pm Central. This is not a referral link — I’m just excited to get the word out, to help as many small business restaurants as I can in my time. I’ve always maintained — and as our mission goes — we believe the vibrancy and character of our neighborhood depends on thriving small businesses lending their unique vision to our communities.

If this or any other posts on the website were useful to you, and your financial situation permits it, please consider contributing to my tip jar. Ths allows me to continue to provide free accounting resources to small businesses who do not have the funds available to hire a CPA.

Education, IRS, Tips

Deciding Which Entity Structure is Best

February 9, 2024 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

If you’re a regular reader, you already know that I’m a huge fan of the National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP), for a bunch of reasons:

Fabulous and affordable education with top-notch instructors
Straightforward “how-to” resources
Practical monthly newsletter with case-studies
On-demand “pay as you go” research service
And a very fun group of folks at the annual conference!
(That last one’s a teaser for the final photo in this post.)

I’m especially indebted to NATP because when I first started doing taxes, I wasn’t a CPA yet — and spoiler alert: they don’t really teach you that much about tax preparation when studying for your CPA exams; in fact, three-quarters of the test aren’t related to taxes at all. In those early days, NATP education was the best-quality, most affordable that I could find without being a member of AICPA. (And I tried *all* the groups out, to be clear.)

Anyway, point here is that not only do you not have to be a CPA or EA to take and benefit from their classes — in fact, you don’t even have to be a tax preparer. I am a passionate proponent of teaching bookkeepers what they need to know about taxes to be better at their jobs, coordinate and communicate effectively with their clients’ tax preparers, and level-up by providing value-added advisory services to their clients.

To that end, here’s an upcoming NATP webinar that I suspect will be pretty dang useful for anyone doing client accounting work — bookkeeping, tax, advisory, CAS, and so on. You don’t even have to be a member to attend.

I get a lot of questions and see a great deal of misinformation out there about entity choice… here’s an opportunity to learn more about how to help your clients decide which entity structure is the best choice for them.

(Note: this is *not* a referral link — I’m just really excited about this education getting out there into the world. The presenter, Larry Pon, is a great guy and super-knowledgeable about all the ins-and-outs of this topic.)

From NATP:

Proficient knowledge in selecting the optimal entity structure is vital as it directly shapes a business’s tax outcomes. Strategic choices can enhance deductions, reduce liabilities and ensure regulatory compliance, contributing significantly to a business’s financial well-being and long-term success.

We know you want the best for your clients, so we want to arm you with the knowledge to do so.

As clients start new businesses, one of the major decisions to make is what entity type is best for them? Limited liability companies are by far the most commonly selected type, but did you know, the IRS doesn’t recognize LLCs as an official entity? LLCs can default to a disregarded entity or a partnership depending on the number of members they have, or they can select S or C corporation status.

Our upcoming webinar, Deciding Which Entity Structure is Best, will teach you how to:

List the different entity options
Identify the default entity options for LLCs
Summarize the pros and cons of the different entity options

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2:00 p.m. CT
Thursday, Feb. 22, 10:00 a.m. CT
Pre-order the on-demand version
Register here.

Yes, it is open to non-members! The price varies from $0 to $48 depending on membership status.

And now, the promised photo from my teaser, above — one of many crazy pics at the 2019 NATP National Tax Conference in Chicago.

Yep, that’s me! They don’t call me The Dancing Accountant for being a wallflower, that’s for sure.

Education, Site News, Tips

The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax & Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape (12/6 @ 3:30 pm ET)

December 1, 2023 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

Insightful Accountant is hosting their last Future Forward virtual conference of the year on December 5-6, and I’m delighted to be presenting an exciting topic that resonates with the theme of Niches, Trends, and Predictions for 2024.

I love this particular webinar series, as it’s a fabulous opportunity to connect with peers, get the latest industry updates, and explore best practices, new tech, and other developments in accounting. They do a nice job of speaking both to bookkeepers and tax professionals, as well as tech-related and accounting-adjacent firms. This round will comprise 2 days, 9 speakers, and 11 topics as we share our knowledge, strategies and tactics. If you’re focused on launching, transforming, or growing your business — this is for you. Plus, it’s free if you attend live ($25 fee for the recording, which is totally worth it, as they’re able to subsidize the education without your having to sit through vendor commercial plugs).

My session will be held on Day 2 December 6th at 3:30 pm Eastern, and is called “The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape“. It was written with two groups in mind — bookkeepers and tax preparers, both running their own practices — who are getting all sorts of pressure to expand into advisory services. It’s about the trend toward co-firming and other ways to work together in order to serve the clients better, add value/charge more, and develop professional relationships that will bring you more business.

I recently attended QuickBooks Connect, and it got me all riled up (again) about the confluence we’re seeing between CPA firms moving into Client Accounting & Advisory Services (CAAS) and bookkeeping firms moving into advisory services… two previously distinct worlds starting to converge. I feel like the bookkeeping and accounting practices are often dancing technology circles around tax firms — and yet CPAs still look down on them as if they were data entry robots.

It’s time to start communicating with each other!

Bookkeepers –> learn how to “speak tax” with CPAs. Own your spot at the table.

CPAs/EAs –> bookkeepers are your friends! They have the personal relationships and tech know-how that you lack!

Let’s talk about co-firming as one of the accounting trends of 2024.

1. Discover how the scope at CPA and bookkeeping firms is starting to overlap and converge, and why that’s a good thing for you and your clients.

2. Identify the potential challenges and opportunities that this new accounting landscape brings, and how to turn them to your advantage.

3. Apply strategies and techniques to partner across or within firms, to update your accounting practice and stay ahead of the curve.

Join Insightful Accountant and me at Future Forward on December 6th as we talk about what this landscape can look like.

The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape – Future Forward December 5-6 2023 by Insightful Accountant (heysummit.com)

But it’s not just me! There’s an amazing lineup of speakers and sessions:

Day 1 – Dec 5

Checking in with QuickBooks Checking + Envelopes with Alicia Katz Pollock with Royalwise Solutions, Inc.
Strategies For Niching Success with Kellie Parks from Calmwaters Cloud Accounting
Niche to an Ideal Client Roster with Debra Kilsheimer from Profit Creator
Firm of the Future: Unlocking the Power of the Vertical Niche with Gregg Bossen – Creator/President of QuickBooks® Made Easy™

Day 2 – Dec 6

5 Strategies to Maximize Firm Success Through Onboarding Mastery and Strategic Outsourcing with Vanessa Vasquez from QuickBooks en Espanol
Automate Tax Season with AI with Christine Gervais from Epiphany Group
Grow Your Practice with Highly Profitable Reporting for Multi-Entity Clients with Charles Nagel from Qvinci and William Murphy from Insightful Accountant
The Confluence of Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory: How to Thrive in the New Accounting Landscape with Nancy McClelland from the Dancing Accountant

The live event is free, the recordings will be made available for a nominal fee. Just click on this link to sign up.

See you there!

Cooperatives, Education

Fundamentals of Co-op Taxation — A “Must Watch” NSAC Webinar, 4/19/23

April 7, 2023 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

Everyone who reads my blog or works with me knows I’m a vocal proponent of the cooperative structure as a sustainable and enriching alternative to classic shareholder business models. Co-ops allow companies to distribute wealth among those that do business with it, rather than to investors just trying to make a buck. They exist to fulfill member needs, rather than to generate profit — though they can be lucrative to those involved. They also often have “collateral goals” that are in concert with the main mission, which often are focused on community engagement, social equity, and environmental issues.

However, there simply aren’t enough accountants out there who know about this model, or how to navigate some of the special treatment under Internal Revenue Code. That’s why the work that the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives is essential. They provide the education and outreach to help accountants excel in this often-misunderstood realm of society.

To that end, I want to encourage folks who might be interested in breaking into this area to attend the upcoming “Fundamentals of Cooperative Taxation” webinar coming up next Wednesday, April 19th. What better way to relax after Tax Day than by watching a webinar on an unfamiliar area of taxation, right?

I happen to know one of the presenters, Teree Castanias, personally, and let me say, she is a powerhouse of knowledge! You don’t want to miss this class. As a bonus, the webinar is FREE to NSAC members (and only $59 for non-members). Use this as an opportunity to join today and get an amazing slate of webinars delivered to the comfort of your home every month.

And while you’re in there, consider watching a recording of my recent NSAC presentation on grocery, housing, and worker co-ops, entitled “Hippie Co-ops? Expanding Your Co-op Expertise to Other Cooperative Niches“. It was a hit, if I do say so myself!

Fundamentals of Cooperative Taxation

Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Time: 01:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM MT / 10:00 AM PT
Presenters: Teree Castanias, CPA, Principal, Teresa Castanias, CPA, Brett Huston, CPA, Tax Managing Director, Associate National Director of Cooperative Tax Services, KPMG – retired
Moderator: Wayne Sine, CPA, MBA, Director of Education, National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives
Objective:
1. To operate on a cooperative basis for tax purposes, a company must meet specific tax rules in Subchapter T of the Internal Revenue Code. Attendees will understand the basic rules that must be met under Subchapter T.
2. Attendees will learn the definition of a patronage dividend and how it can be computed and distributed to members/patrons.
3. Attendees will also learn about the taxation of the member/patron, and the Form 1120-C that is used by Subchapter T cooperatives for filing its tax return.
Field of Study: Taxes
Program Level: Basic
CPE Credit: 1.5 Credit Hours
Delivery Method: Group Internet-based
Prerequisite(s): No advanced preparation or prerequisites are required for this course.

Course Description

Teree Castanias and Brett Huston, both CPAs, will present the basic rules of Subchapter T of the Internal Revenue Code and describe how those rules affect a cooperative’s tax return, Form 1120-C.

This session will be helpful for anyone who wants to know what tax rules are required for a cooperative.

Presenter and Moderator Bios

Presenter: Teree Castanias, CPA, Principal, Teresa Castanias, CPA

Teree is a CPA and has been working with cooperatives for over 40 years. She retired from KPMG in September 2009 after 32 years where she was a Tax Partner and the firm’s National Director for Cooperatives. She has worked with many types of cooperatives over the years, including large and small agricultural marketing and supply cooperatives, wholesale grocery, specialty supply, rural electric, Farm Credit agricultural lending, consumer grocery, and worker cooperatives of various types. She has assisted cooperatives from inception throughout their corporate life. Teree has been active in legislative issues affecting cooperatives, including Section 199 in 2005 and its predecessor provision, Section 199A, in 2017. Teree is active in several cooperative organizations – National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives, and recently Cooperative Professional Guild. She has been in leadership positions in NCFC and NSAC and is a frequent speaker at webinars and conferences of all of these organizations.

Teree continues to provide cooperative consulting and litigation support services to all types of cooperatives in her own firm from October 2009 to present.

Teree recently retired from the Farm Credit West board of directors upon its merger with Northwest Farm Credit Services which became AgWest Farm Credit. She also served on the board of directors of California Center for Cooperative Development in Davis, California for over 15 years. Currently she is serving as a board advisor to Wine Service Cooperative in Napa, California, and as a Finance Committee member for Davis Food Cooperative in Davis, California.

Presenter: Brett Huston, CPA, Tax Managing Director, Associate National Director of Cooperative Tax Services, KPMG – retired

Brett is a CPA located in Auburn California. He has been working with cooperatives for over 32 years. He will be retired from KPMG in February 2023 and will continue to work with cooperatives in retirement. Brett was a Tax Managing Director with KPMG and the Associate National Director of cooperative tax services for KPMG working out of the Sacramento office. He has worked with agriculture marketing, supply, rural electric, consumer and Farm credit cooperatives. He has experience in providing tax compliance and consulting services to cooperatives including consultation regarding Section 199A, patronage and nonpatronage allocations, cooperative bylaw review, and state and local cooperative issues. He is currently a tax member of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives.

Moderator: Wayne Sine, CPA, MBA, Director of Education, National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives

Wayne Sine is an experienced and highly knowledgeable professional in the field of Tax. Wayne recently retired as Tax Director from his company, Southern States Cooperative. He has extensive experience working with agricultural cooperatives and has been a long-time member of the NSAC. He is extremely active in the NSAC, serving as both past Chapter President of the Atlantic Chapter, and past Chair of the Tax Committee, and is currently serving as the NSAC Director of Education. Wayne’s career is marked by several accomplishments, and he has always been involved in many organizations, spreading his knowledge. Wayne is a member of the Legal, Tax, and Accounting (LTA) Committee for the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He is also Past Chair of both the Tax Committee of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Virginia Manufacturers Association. Wayne also served on the Tax Policy Committee at the Virginia Society of CPAs and served as past Region Vice President for the Tax Executives Institute.

Cost
Free for NSAC Members / $56.00 for Non-Members

Cooperatives, Education, Site News

The Dancing Accountant Offers Webinar On Accounting For Cooperatives

February 17, 2023 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

I’m very proud to again be partnering with the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (NSAC) to offer an entertaining and educational upcoming webinar, “Hippie Co-ops? Expanding Your Co-op Expertise to Other Cooperative Niches“, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at 2 PM ET/1 PM CT/ 12 PM MT/ 11 AM PT.

The focus of this webinar is to teach existing accountants who are already familiar with co-op accounting about the similarities and differences between the types of clients they already work with, and contrast them against a few other co-op types that are becoming more popular.

Consumer, Housing, and Worker Co-ops have been around for a long time and are experiencing a surge in popularity, but many experienced cooperative accountants know little about them. By introducing NSAC members and other accountants to unfamiliar cooperative structures, they can leverage their existing expertise in areas common to all co-ops, and build on that knowledge. We will explore these three co-op types and learn to recognize what they have in common with other co-ops, as well as explain the differences. Our goal is to help identify and create additional business opportunities for cooperative accountants to expand their scope and offerings.

The learning objectives will be:
1) Identify distinguishing characteristics of consumer, housing and worker co-ops.
2) Recognize the unique benefits and challenges of each type, as well as common industries.
3) Explore additional resources and next steps to expand scope and offerings to potential clients.

Normally the cost is $56 for the one-hour session for non-NSAC members, but they have been generous enough to allow me to offer a code to blog readers to attend at no charge. Simply visit:
https://nsacoop.memberclicks.net/022123
and enter the code $DAVIP2023$ to attend at no cost.

Hope to see you there!

Cooperatives, COVID-19 Financial Relief, Education, IRS, Tips

NSAC Offers Employee Retention Credit (ERC) Webinar Aug 23

August 15, 2022 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

Employee Retention Credits (ERC) (nsacoop.org)

My colleagues at the National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives are offering a 75-minute webinar on Tuesday, August 23 to discuss the requirements and pitfalls in claiming Employee Retention Credits (ERC). The cost is free to members and $56 to non-members.

The ERC has been in the news quite a bit lately due to aggressive tactics by non-CPA firms claiming to be able to apply for these credits on behalf of business owners. (We’ll have an upcoming blog covering that topic.) However, the rules regarding whether or not a business qualifies are complex, and best performed by a knowledgeable professional.

During this webinar, the panelists will provide an overview of the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and how to qualify for ERC including:

• Partial and full shutdowns as they apply to the ERC
• What constitutes “gross receipts”
• Safe Harbors
• Rules for Large Employers
• Unsettled matters and how the IRS is examining ERC claims

Participants are encouraged to submit questions in advance at info@nsacoop.org and during the session.

If you are an accountant or bookkeeper calculating these credits for your clients, or a business owner considering a DIY approach, please make sure you are thorough about obtaining education and resources before submitting anything to the IRS. You can expect their enforcement division to ramp up audits in the next few years.

Employee Retention Credits (ERC) (nsacoop.org)

Education, Illinois, Tips

How To Raise Capital For Your Small Business Start-Up — FREE Webinar 8/10/22

July 29, 2022 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

This excellent series of free webinars designed to help small business owners succeed in a challenging world — offered by the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) — is back with a can’t-miss Business Education Workshop Webinar on Wednesday, August 10th at 3 pm Central. All their webinars are free and open to the public, and many are offered online, which means that anyone can attend — they’re not restricted to Chicago small business owners.

I wanted to highlight this upcoming session in particular; it’s part of the SCORE Chicago Funding Webinar Series. In case you’re unfamiliar with SCORE (the Service Corps Of Retired Executives), it’s an amazing resource funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, offering education, mentorship, and tools to help people start, develop, and grow businesses. The Chicago Chapter is particularly robust and offers many opportunities for training, as well as a free suite of templates — such as business planning and financial projections.

Both SCORE and BACP offer many sessions on raising capital, which you can watch on the Chicago BACP YouTube Channel, or SCORE’s Online Webinar Library.

This webinar should be of special interest to our readers, as it’s an interview with two small business owners who will walk through the experience that they had working with SCORE to access capital through different methods of financing, in different rounds throughout the stages of their business growth. For me, hearing “how we did it” from other small business owners is not only educational, but inspiring, and I hope this upcoming webinar will offer you both angles.

Wednesday, 8/10 Webinar at 3:00 PM
How We Did It: Raising Capital for Your Business
Presented by Score Chicago
(Part of a Score Chicago Funding Webinar Series)

In this webinar, you will learn how two Chicago entrepreneurs, former SCORE Chicago clients, and founders of Tiesta Tea Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous raised 4 rounds of financing totaling over $8 million. Tiesta Tea has also used many different methods of funding including friends/family, factoring, purchase order (PO) financing, SBA loans, Angel Investors, and VC funding. Dan and Patrick will share their experiences raising capital during the different growth stages of their business.

Tiesta Tea is a company that used SCORE Chicago to get started in 2010. Dan and Patrick know first-hand how important mentorship is for aspiring entrepreneurs and established businesses seeking mentoring from SCORE to accelerate the growth and success of their businesses. The founders, Dan Klein and Patrick Tannous, started with nothing but an idea to sell tea, and fast-forward 10 years, they have sold over $54MM of their product. They sell their teas in thousands of retail stores, including Walmart, Jewel, Mariano’s, Amazon, Costco and many more.

Register for the 8/10 Webinar

Please email BACPoutreach@cityofchicago.org with any webinar questions.

Visit BACP’s YouTube for all webinars.

BACP Entrepreneur Certificate Program

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs & Consumer Protection (BACP) Entrepreneur Certificate Program is a free and optional program available to attendees of the free BACP business education workshop and webinar series.

For program details (enrollment, requirements, contact information, etc.) and to enroll go to Entrepreneur Certificate Program.

Education, Illinois, Tips

Important Changes for Chicago Businesses As Of July 1, 2022

July 7, 2022 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

Chicago’s Minimum Wage Increase, Fair Workweek Changes, and Sexual Harassment Laws Enhancements — and a Chicago Sick Pay Reminder

The City of Chicago’s fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30, so most changes tend to take effect at the beginning of the “new year”. This year is no exception — and there’s a lot that has changed. The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection (BACP) released this information recently, much of which affects small business owners in the city.

Minimum Wage Increase

The annual scheduled increase in Chicago’s minimum wage goes into effect on Friday, July 1, 2022. The Chicago minimum wage is tiered for large businesses with 21 or more employees, and small businesses with 4-20 employees. Since reaching $15 per hour in 2021, the minimum wage for larger employees increases annually according to the Consumer Price Index or 2.5%, whichever is lower. The minimum wage for small businesses continues to increase towards $15 per hour by 2023.

As of July 1, 2022, the Chicago minimum wage will be:

$15.40 for employers with 21 or more employees (including all domestic workers, regardless of the number employed)
$14.50 for employers with 4-20 employees
The minimum wage for tipped employees will be $9.24 for employers with 21 or more employees, and $8.70 for employers with 4-20 employees (employers must make up the difference between any tips received and the applicable minimum wage for non-tipped workers.)
Anyone age 24 or younger employed by, or engaged in employment coordinated by, a nonprofit organization or government agency will see a minimum wage increase to $12.00.

Employers that maintain a business facility within the City of Chicago or are required to obtain a business license to operate in the City are required to pay their employees at least the Chicago minimum wage. Additionally, any employee that works two hours or more in the City within a two-week period must also receive at least the Chicago minimum wage.

Chicago BACP recently presented a free hour-long webinar called “Employer Responsibilities Under Chicago’s Minimum Wage Ordinance”, available here.

Fair Workweek Ordinance Changes

As of July 1, 2022, scheduled enhancements to the Fair Workweek Ordinance will require:

Employers in “covered industries ” (see below) to post work schedules with at least 14 days’ notice, an increase from the previous 10 days’ notice.
Employees will need to earn less than $29.35 per hour or $56,381.85 per year to gain protection under the Fair Workweek Ordinance.
Covered industries include building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, restaurant, retail, or warehouse services.

Chicago businesses are required to post the Minimum Wage Notice and Fair Workweek Notice at their business. The notices will be available to workers and business owners in English, Spanish, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, and Korean by July 1, 2022. Employers that violate the minimum wage ordinance can be fined $500 to $1,000 per day for each offense.

Chicago BACP recently presented a free hour-long webinar called “Employer Responsibilities Under Chicago’s Fair Workweek Ordinance”, available here.

Sexual Harassment Law Updates

As of July 1, 2022, all employers in the city of Chicago must have a written policy on sexual harassment. Additionally, employers are required to display a public notice advising of the prohibition on sexual harassment where employees can see it, and there are increased training requirements. A model policy, written notice, and training templates are available by visiting Chicago.gov/SexualHarassment.

Recent updates to the law include:

Adding sexual misconduct to the definition. Sexual misconduct is defined as any behavior of a sexual nature which also involves coercion, abuse of authority, or misuse of an individual’s employment position.
Requiring all employers to have a written policy on sexual harassment. The written policy must be available in the employee’s primary language within the first calendar week of starting employment.
Requiring all employers to post a written notice on sexual harassment.
Increasing the statute of limitations from 300 to 365 days.
Create flexibility to notify a respondent up to 30 days from the time of complaint (compared to 10 days currently), to mitigate any retaliation such as denial of a reasonable accommodation request.
Requiring additional annual training for all employees including the one hour of prevention training aligned with State requirements and one hour of bystander intervention. Supervisors and managers are required to have an additional one hour of training.
Increasing the penalty for individuals or businesses that participate in discriminatory practices in the workplace including sexual harassment. The penalty is increasing from $500 – $1,000 per violation to $5,000 – $10,000.

The Chicago Commission on Human Relations (CCHR) recently presented a 20-minute video update in collaboration with BACP, available here.

Reminder: Sick Pay Responsibilities

It seems not all small business owners are aware of the responsibility to provide Chicago workers paid sick leave. It applies to any business or individual that employs at least one “employee” and has a facility within Chicago’s city limits (though Cook County now has a similar requirement). The term “employee” covers anyone who works at least 80 hours within a 120-day period (20 hours a month).
– For hourly employees, paid sick leave accrues at one-hour for every 40 hours worked. Salaried-exempt employees are presumed to have worked 40 hours/week.
– Employees are capped at accruing a total of 40 hours of sick leave each year, unless the employer opts to set a higher limit.
– Employers must permit employees to carry over half of their accrued leave, to a maximum of 20 hours of unused sick leave each year (40 for employers with 50 or more employees).
– Employers are not required to pay out any accrued but unused sick leave upon employment termination.

In an attempt to drive this point home, I recently revisited my previous blog posts on the topic, and these were the three resources that seemed most helpful, which I encourage all employers to watch/read:
1) BACP Webinar: Paid Sick Leave Overview – YouTube
2) Think Your PTO Policy Complies With the Chicago or Cook County Paid Sick Leave Ordinances? Think Again. | Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner – JDSupra
3) Paid Sick Leave Enhancements: Chicago workers are guaranteed one hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours worked. Starting August 1, 2021, the possible uses for that paid sick leave will be expanded to include caring for a family member with a closed school or place of care, compliance with public health orders, and mental and behavioral health.

In case it’s helpful, those resources were highlighted in these blog posts:
– Year-End Reminders For Chicago Businesses | The Dancing Accountant
– April 2021 FREE Small Business Webinars – City of Chicago | The Dancing Accountant
– BACP Updates | Chi Biz Strong Initiative | The Dancing Accountant

Even the least expensive version of Gusto Payroll allows for a sick pay plan, and it’s not hard to set up and track (see instructions here).

Reminder that if you sign up and run Gusto using my link, you’ll get a free trial period… and after running your first payroll you’ll receive a $100 Visa gift card! My clients instead will receive a 15% discount for the life of the plan.

And a final point: all Chicago worker protections are enforced by the BACP Office of Labor Standards (OLS). The OLS is dedicated to promoting and enforcing Chicago’s labor laws, including Minimum Wage, Paid Sick Leave, Fair Workweek, and Wage Theft Ordinance. The BACP OLS webpage offers informational materials on Chicago’s Labor Standards Laws.

Cooperatives, Education, IRS, Tips

National Society Of Accountants For Co-ops Upcoming Webinars

March 6, 2022 Nancy McClelland Leave a comment

I often write and speak about my experiences as a co-op accountant, and how challenging it was to become an expert in the field with so few resources. Things have changed a lot since back then, with the National Society of Accountants for Co-ops (NSAC), National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), and the Co-op Professionals Guild (CPG) all offering online education.

The NSAC line-up for the next few months is seriously powerhouse. For anyone in the field or looking to get into it, I strongly recommend a membership, which gets you into all of these webinars below at no extra charge. That said, if you only want to know the specifics of one topic or another, they are affordably priced at $56 each for non-members.

Note: I am not paid or given a discount to promote NSAC — I just think they’re great!