Our goal was for Chris to spend less time on accounting and more time doing the work he loves.
Name: Chris C.
Title: Insurance Agency Owner
Location: Pacific Northwest
Team Size: Under 5 employees
Tenure: 1 year
As an Insurance Agency Owner, Chris juggles many different roles. At any given moment he could be required to be a marketing consultant, human resources representative, or accountant.
Club Capital works exclusively with insurance agents like Chris. Using our industry knowledge we were able to quickly identify opportunities and eligible tax credits - like the Employee Retention Tax Credit - which would have otherwise been missed.
Challenge: Accounting Software Led to Growing Uncertainty and Prevented Agency Growth
As a jack of all trades, Chris was comfortable with the idea of managing his own books when he began his agency in January 2021. Seen as the most cost-effective solution for his agency, Chris decided on an accounting software and began to manage his own monthly accounting.
Towards the end of the year, Chris suspected the data in the accounting software wasn’t completely accurate but wasn’t sure where to start or what information might have been recorded incorrectly. Once Chris contacted Club Capital to review his financials for accuracy, we were able to identify mistakes and make recommendations to correct the errors and maximize credits to lower his tax liability.
These are some of the common errors we found during our review:
- Forgetting to add startup expenses that get depreciated
- This helps lower taxes in year one and beyond.
- Not separating employer taxes from employee taxes.
- This may seem small but having accurate financial records that match your company's payroll filings is a requirement by the IRS
- Not classifying deductions that occur before agent commission.
- A lot of agents forget that the revenue that gets deposited into their bank account from their parent company usually has expenses taken out before it gets to them
- This inaccurately reduces their revenue reported on their financial statements
- Not properly separating and categorizing personal contributions and personal draws made from the agency.
- This can have large tax implications if any of these affect revenue or expense accounts by mistake
After walking Chris through our findings to help him recognize his mistakes, he placed his trust in Club Capital to retroactively provide accounting services for all of 2021.
Solution: Industry-Specific Tax Services for Proactive and More Efficient Results
After working with Club Capital, Chris saw the time-saving value of having a tax expert review his financials for accuracy and missed opportunities. Since Club Capital works exclusively with insurance agents, our clients benefit from their extensive knowledge and experience dealing with similar accounting situations in the industry.
Our review led to filing for eligible tax credits like the ERTC and discovering nine errors in Chris’ financials, mistakes that are commonly made by insurance agents when doing their own books.
Outcome: Simplified Financial Reports with Less Chaos and More Control
Monthly accounting for your agency can quickly become complex if you do it on your own. Having a professional take care of time-consuming tasks like taxes and monthly reporting will give you more time to focus on your agency.
By allowing Club Capital to clean up, catch up, and manage his financials, Chris has more time to spend serving his clients. Club Capital provides detailed financial reports every month to help Chris monitor the pulse of his business and quickly access his agency’s financial situation.
