ProConnect™ Tax Customer Council Member Profile: Andrea Parness, CPA, CTC

Andrea Parness, CPA, CTC, is owner of A Parness Company CPA, a niche CPA firm in Belle Harbor, Queens, N.Y. She has written several articles as well a white paper with related videos on bundled pricing for the Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Pro Center, and also serves on the Intuit ProConnect Tax Customer Council. We caught up with Andrea to find out more about her practice, background and a few other interesting details.

ProConnect: Tell us about your practice.

Andrea Parness: A Parness Company CPA was a traditional accounting firm until we started using technology to create better systems and processes for ourselves and our clients. We identified areas we felt would benefit from a better process, and tested it in our firm and with a handful of clients. Once we perfected the system, we introduced it to the rest of our clients.

We started with a payroll portal and found this saves company owners time, eliminates penalties, and enables them to be compliant with federal and state laws. Next came a document portal and document management system that enabled us, and our business and personal tax clients, to share sensitive data efficiently and safely. We then began working in QuickBooks® Online Accountant, and created a training and conversion process. Holding virtual meetings has allowed us to work together with our clients on business plans and hold interactive strategic planning meetings. We’re able to show, rather than tell, our clients about their business results and new tax laws.

ProConnect: Why is the ProConnect Tax Customer Council important to the profession?

AP: It’s a great place to share ideas about the software we use and the way we run our practices with other like-minded professionals. The Council provides us access to our lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and enables us to influence software design for the products we rely on.

ProConnect: What’s your favorite part of being on the Council?

AP: The personal relationships I have made.

ProConnect: What kind of Intuit software do you use?

AP: In addition to QuickBooks® Online Accountant, we use ProConnect ProSeries® and QuickBooks Desktop.

ProConnect: What are your goals for your practice this year?

AP: We want to design and implement proactive strategic tax plans under the new tax law for our clients and those referred through my networks.

ProConnect: What was your very first job?

AP: I was a babysitter before high school, but because I graduated six months early, my real first job before starting college was as a ski instructor at a hotel in New York’s Catskill Mountains. This led to a job as a waitress in that hotel dining room, which paid for my annual Vermont ski house share, skis and lift tickets during college.

ProConnect: Who is your favorite author?

AP: No one in particular, but I love reading all types of books on my Kindle.

ProConnect: If you were stranded on a desert island with access to just one kind of technology, what would it be, and why would you want it?

AP: It would be a solar powered satellite-linked communication device, if one exists; this way, I could call for help – and while waiting, I could record my thoughts and observations.

ProConnect: How can tax professionals keep up with all the changes in tax laws and regulations?

AP: Reading, reading, reading, and then discussing what they’ve read. And, of course through accounting network groups, online research, webinars and seminars.

ProConnect: Thanks, Andrea!