Mary Annette Warren CPA, CGMA

10/18/2023

Beautiful Wilson Peak mountain in Colorado 🇺🇸

10/18/2023

San Juan Mountains, Colorado yesterday evening.

10/18/2023

Incredible view of Dallas Divide in Colorado 😍

10/18/2022

Sunset Through A Wave, USA

10/31/2017

Filling another accounting need for small business!

Intuit plans to integrate this feature into QuickBooks Online making it easy for its retail customers to accurately track and file sales tax returns on-time, every time.

10/02/2017

Scam attempt -

Last week I was scanning my spam folder and ran across an email from SCC Equipment purportedly in Osaka, Japan, looking for an agent to handle their USA branch outsource and oversight functions. The email was a bit vague, but intriguing, so I asked that they provide a description of the services to be performed so that I could be sure I had the resources required and could draft an appropriate engagement letter. They replied that initially I would be their agent, as in a fiduciary relationship, responsible for providing an address and business location, financial statements, advice on tax matters and accounts receivable and payable. Later, under a separate engagement, I would prepare a plan to minimize tax. They claimed to have several design patents and gave me an estimate of monthly receivables.

Before I accept new clients, I go through a due diligence process to determine if they are who they say they are and of course, I wouldn’t be blogging this if they were.

I visited their website and found their list of patents. I noticed that the patents were Chinese and checked the State Intellectual Property Office of the P.R.C. and found those patents belonged to an entirely different company in China. I also noted that they were utility patents, not design patents. Then I brought up the Chinese company’s website and found SCC had cloned it, changing only the contact information. Even the picture of the staff was the same. Next I checked a listing of manufacturing companies in Osaka and found SCC was not listed. Finally, and I probably should have done this first, I checked to see where their website originated and why it was filtered to spam. Usually there are key words in the subject line that will direct messages to spam, but other times it may be that the IP address has been blacklisted. That was the case here and it originated in Florida.

My last correspondence to them requested an explanation of my findings and I received an automated response that the contact was out of the office for the next week. I doubt that I will receive further correspondence from them. The next thing I considered was why would they approach me with this. My best guess is that this was a ruse to eventually gain access my accounts or to use me to gain access to assets and then leave me holding the bag. Neither one is good.

10/27/2016

Start your free trial today! QuickBooks is as mobile as you and your small business are.

10/01/2016

FEI & SIM ALLIANCE MORNING MEETING - October 26th @7:30am *This event will also be live streamed for those unable to attend in person. The link for the live stream will be emailed to all registered attendees just prior to the meeting starting even if you selected Attend in person at checkout.* Guest...