MANAGE YOUR PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FEES - YOU'RE IN CONTROL! At Cobb, Stees & Company, LLP, our primary goal is to help you chart your course for financial success.  For many clients this starts with managing your expenses so that you can apply your funds to gaining control and direction in your business and personal finances.  We can give you a lot more bang for your buck if your money is spent on tax minimization planning rather than cleaning up your records before we can begin work on your tax return. With this goal in mind, our team offers these suggestions on what you can do, in advance of your appointment with us, to help us keep your costs down so we can focus on helping you grow your business or implement tax minimization strategies.   ·    Be sure that everything is posted into your books prior to sending them to us. ·    Summarize as much information as reasonably possible. ·    Completely fill out your personal tax return organizer. ·    Consult with us before you take on a large project or sign a large contract or purchase or finance a large asset. ·    Pay all invoices by their due date to avoid service charges. ·    Schedule a tax planning appointment one to two months before your year-end.  This can help us determine if changes in the tax laws or changes to your personal/business circumstances impact you and how to minimize, or eliminate, their effect on your tax liability for the year.   In some cases, you may not be interested in doing some of these things.  That's OK.  We can perform these tasks for you or, if you prefer, we are happy to refer outside services to you that will help with these tasks in a more cost effective manner than we are able to provide.  For instance, we can identify payroll service companies to prepare your payroll etc.   Although most clients choose a Fixed Price Agreement for our services, we realize that there are occasions that clients prefer to pay by an hourly rate.  As always, our goal is to meet our clients' needs, whether the service is for a one-time project or for any of our many services.   The standard hourly billing rates for COBB, STEES & COMPANY, LLP effective January 30, 2006, are as follows:    Service Level  Maximum Rate     Admin $85.00 per hour     Bookkeepers $95.00 per hour     Accountants $175.00 per hour     Principals $250.00 per hour (Additional Premium is charged for all Rush Jobs.)  RETURN TO TOP  RETURN TO "HOW WE HELP YOU"