• Reviews Business Plans
• Business Planning
• Forecasts and Projections
• Tax Returns
• Financial Statements
• Government Contractors
• Capital Formation
• Service Fax Form

Reviews Business Plans

Shaw & Sullivan, P.C. reviews Business Plans for entrepreneurs to assist them in creating business plans that uniquely present their opportunity in a powerful, articulate document. Business plans vary greatly depending on the opportunity being presented and the natural source of the expected capital. Each business plan needs to be crafted to articulate a specific life cycle of the business including an appropriate exit strategy for each particular provider of capital.

Shaw & Sullivan, P. C. accepts business plans for review. Since our review is on a non-fee basis, we are only able to review a limited number of business plans. We evaluate the plans before we decide to do a full review. The evaluation is designed to select those plans that have been the most thought out and those opportunities that appear to have the best possibility for success. If we evaluate your plan, but do not select it for full review, we will be more than happy to share with you the reasons for our decision. If you would like your business plan considered for review please contact Dean Shaw via E-mail using the address dean@shawcpa.com to determine our ability (due to time constraints) and desire to do so.

Forecasts and Projections

Shaw & Sullivan, P.C. prepares Forecasts and Projections for entrepreneurs to use in their business plans and loan requests. Many investors and providers of capital, both equity and debt, require a forecast or a projection prepared by the businesses outside CPA firm.

Business Planning

Shaw & Sullivan, P.C. provides creative and innovative business planning to increase your competitive advantage in your respective industry. We don't pretend to know your business better than you do, but we guarantee you will be duly impressed with our creativeness in solving business problems and our ability to recognize opportunities to improve your business. As part of our providing traditional accounting services to our clients we learn a great deal about an organization. We translate what we learn into recommendations that increase the company's focus of its resources to those areas that "drive" the business.

Income Tax Returns

We at Shaw & Sullivan believe that preparing a tax return is part "art", part "science". That is because presentation of the financial information is based on the facts and circumstances and everyone will present them just a little bit differently. We believe that presenting the information "in just exactly the right manner" can dramatically reduce your chance of being audited even though all the information presented is absolutely correct. Sometimes the presentation is so subtle that you yourself don't even realize the "soft" message that is being conveyed.

It is our goal at Shaw & Sullivan to obtain for you the lowest legal tax possible. We will do everything we can to that end because we are your professional tax advisors, not the I.R.S. And while we aggressively attack the Internal Revenue Code our returns stand up to the ultimate test, the scrutiny of the I.R.S. When there is a "gray" area of the tax law we will explain the situation to you so you can help make the decision on what course of action to take.

In addition, we are very proactive when it comes to tax planning. We always try to call each of our clients prior to the end of their tax year to inquire as to whether any planning needs to be done. And when we prepare your current year we always try to give you some suggestions on ways to reduce your tax for the upcoming year.

Tax planning allows taxpayers to control, to some degree, the tax they will pay on their income tax returns. For the most part tax planning activities generate a significant return on investment. For those individual clients who also own businesses a unique opportunity exists to balance the tax paid between the two taxpayers for maximum tax savings. We work hard to achieve the maximum balance.

Following is a list of some of the tax services we provide:

• Corporate income tax returns
  
• Individual income tax returns
  
• Income tax planning
  
• Partnership income tax returns
  
• Fiduciary income tax return
  
• Representation before the IRS
  

Financial Statements

Financial statements present the financial picture of a business or other type of organization. The balance sheet is a snapshot of the financial position of the organization on any particular day. The income statement is a motion picture of the organization for a period of time, say a month, a quarter or a year. We at Shaw & Sullivan provide services related to financial statements. These services involve a variety of levels of service, primarily; audit, review and compilation.

• Audited financial statements represent the highest level of service CPA's provide with regards to financial statements. Basically "auditing" financial information means "the testing of the underlying records and documentary evidence supporting transactions and testing the existence of assets and liabilities through direct confirmation with third parties". These tests are performed in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards with the goal for the CPA to "express an opinion" that the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with "generally accepted accounting principles".
  
• Reviewed financial statements are less in scope than an audited financial statement. Presenting financial statements as "reviewed" financial statements involves primarily testing internal control and extensive ratio analysis of the financial statements. The financial information is presented in accordance with "generally accepted accounting principles", as well.
  
• Compiled financial statements involves the least amount of work on the part of the CPA. Presenting financial statements as compiled financial statements means accepting the content of client prepared financial statements without all the confirmations and analysis involved in audits and reviews. But, the CPA must still make sure that the financial statements are presented in accordance with "generally accepted accounting principles".

In addition to the services related above, we, as Certified Public Accountants, are allowed to issue special reports in situations where the presentation of a complete financial statement is not needed or warranted. These special purpose reports are designed to give the client and third part users of financial information exactly what they need without the client incurring the extra cost to "audit" a complete financial statement.

Governmental Contractors

Shaw & Sullivan, P.C. provides services to Governmental Contractors. These services include designing information and accounting systems designed for governmental reporting.

Shaw & Sullivan, P.C. acts as agent for GCAS a governmental contracting software package. The reports generated by this general ledger software package meet the specifications set by the government.

Capital Formation

Each business has capital needs. We at Shaw & Sulllivan, P.C. assist with the planning and procurement of some capital requirements. In some cases it may be the simple introduction to a key capital source with whom the firm maintains a relationship. In other situations it may be an introduction to individuals who are looking to make direct investments in exciting opportunities at a local level. Or it may be an introduction to a banking relationship that can provide traditional financing to take the business to the next level.

The firm maintains many relationships with businesses and individuals in the capital formation business segment. The firm hosts the Business Growth Roundtable, a discussion group of providers of capital and specialists in the merger and acquisition arena. The firm relies on these resources to assist our clients.