David French & Associates, PLLC

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner of a bookkeeping company called HWB Services.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with David French & Associates, PLLC?

Before working with David (Principal), I didn’t have a CPA to recommend to my clients. They either had to go out and find one themselves or would ask me for recommendations. I partnered with David to offer that complete service to my clients.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement? 

David acts as the CPA for my clients. Whereas I’m the bookkeeper, David uses my clients’ books to do their tax returns. I also do the books for his clients when needed. It’s a good partnership. 

Nowadays, everything is digital, so we’re able to take on work from all over the US. I send PDF scans of my client’s financial statements to David’s team so that they can prepare the tax return. Once that’s finished, they send a copy to my client and signs a digital Form 8879.

What is the team composition? 

David is my main point of contact, but I also talk to their receptionist a lot. She takes my information, puts it into their system, and assigns the task to a tax preparer. If the preparer has a question, they’ll contact me for more details.

How did you come to work with David French & Associates, PLLC?

I’d worked with David while we were at the same CPA firm 10 years ago. After about four years, David left to start his own firm. I later started my own bookkeeping company and needed to find a CPA, so we decided to partner up.

There was a good cohesion between us because I already knew how he worked — the things he does or doesn’t do and his general attitude. It just made sense.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve done about $20,000. We have a billing agreement between us based on the service. If I have a client that does a tax return through David’s firm, I’ll bill my client for David’s fee, collect my percentage, then remit the fee to David. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since he started his company in October 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

My clients rave about David because he understands how to talk to people. Tax accountants can be frustrating to work with because they can get robotic and say terms that most people aren’t familiar with. 

David is different because he’s easy to talk to. When a client is faced with a notice, he knows how to respond to it. He’ll be stern when talking to the IRS but becomes a softy when talking with anyone else.

How did David French & Associates, PLLC perform from a project management standpoint?

David is a good guy to have on your team because he genuinely knows tax. If you’re not in the accounting world, it can be hard to know the difference between a good accountant and a bad one because there’s a lack of general knowledge about goes into taxes.

However, I know how David operates. I’m not taking a leap of faith when I turn a client over to him for services. He just knows what to do.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Like I said, David understands how to communicate with my clients. He’s very upfront and easy to talk to, and my clients really like him.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you’re considering working with David, you need to consider how other CPAs talk about your taxes and compare them to the strategies that David comes up with. He excels at looking at a situation, developing a plan to handle it, and then following it to a T.