Founders – Get Huge Tax Breaks by acting now!
Founders - check out our tips below that can save your Startup thousands of dollars in Income Taxes, Payroll Taxes, Sales Taxes, and foreign taxes. R&D Tax Credits: Did you know that if your startup conducts R&D activities it can qualify for up to $500,000 in...
Best Startup-Friendly Banks
The partnerships your startup makes early on can make or break you. That includes financial partners beyond investors. When you choose a bank, you lock yourself into a specific set of options: the specific services and products that each bank provides. Yes, you can...
MRR vs. ARR: What’s The Difference and Why Does It Matter?
Since most startups operate at a loss in their early years, it might feel like there’s no way to get a handle on areas where you are seeing revenue growth. Fortunately, even while you’re operating on a shoestring, you can tap into two metrics to visualize where your...
What are Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)? Organic vs. Paid
In an ideal world, your startup’s product or service would be so wow-worthy that people would be falling over themselves to buy it. And you might have some cases of that. But it’s no way to build a business. If it was, sales and marketing departments wouldn’t exist. ...
What is a Fractional CFO?
A lot of pieces make up a successful startup: a great idea, an innovative team, willing investors — the list goes on. But at the end of the day, there’s one key component that can make or break everything else: your finances. The way your organization manages its...
The 5 Most Important Metrics for Startups to Track
Startup founders risk information overload. As you grow your team, you’ll probably get reports and updates on how various facets of your startup are faring. It’s a lot to take in. You might even reach a point where you start to miss the forest for the trees. It’s...
What is an 83(b) election?
As a founder, you get one of the biggest perks through equity in your company. In your early days, you probably aren’t raking in a huge salary or taking sizable owner draws. But you can still be padding your pockets through your shares in your company. While these...
Converting From an LLC to a C-corp: Tax Implications to Consider
Plenty of small businesses operate as a limited liability company (LLC) when they first set up shop. In fact, a big portion of LLCs operate as single-member companies with a sole owner. This sounds appealing in the beginning because LLCs are easy to establish, and...
What is a 409A Valuation?
Once your startup goes public, any and everyone can see what you’re worth. But when you’re private, you still want to have a way to know where you’re valued. Fortunately, you don’t have to fly blindly here. You can get a 409A valuation. This valuation, which you...
Accrual-Based (GAAP) Accounting and Its importance for Tech Companies
Accounting can be more complicated than you expect. Even if you feel completely comfortable monitoring your personal finances, once you found a startup, there’s more to consider. Specifically, companies have to factor in accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable...
PEO vs. Payroll Company: What Should My Tech Company Choose?
When your startup is in its early stages, it makes sense to outsource. You might hire a fractional CFO, and you’ll likely hire an accounting firm. You may also want to explore outsourcing a lot of the key functions of a human resources (HR) department. Fortunately,...
Best Practices for Your Tech Company’s Expense Policy
When you’re an agile startup, allowing your employees to expense items and ask for reimbursement can give you a level of flexibility that you probably need. But it can also add a layer of complexity that you probably don’t need. That’s especially true if you don’t...
The Truth About Being a Tech Company Service Provider
As a CPA, I’ve been working with technology companies since 2010. It started out as something I did on the side, but it turned into a full-time business in late 2013. The tech industry is a unique animal, and I’ve learned a lot over the last decade. As I’ve been...
Tax Benefits for Founders: Qualifying Small Business Stock (QSBS)
As a founder, you’re probably going to issue yourself a significant number of shares in your company. The goal there, of course, is to make some (ideally, a large amount) of money down the road. But the amount you’ll be able to pocket hinges on how you handle your...
Startups – What’s your burn rate?
It might be time to update the old adage. Maybe it’s not cash that’s king, but cash flow. One study conducted by U.S. Bank concluded that 82% of business failures can be chalked up to bad cash management. When your startup’s in its early days, it probably isn’t...
Founders – Bookkeeping vs. Accounting: What’s the Difference?
When it comes to differentiating bookkeepers from accountants, a lot of startup founders primarily focus on when to hire them. For example, you might hire a bookkeeper on an ongoing basis, but only work with an accountant during tax filing season. The trick, though,...
The Best Bookkeeping Tips for Tech Startups
When you’re in the early days of your startup, a lot comes down to money. So much of your focus has to go toward finding the funding you need to get your idea off the ground. After all the work you put into finding investors, securing grants, or forging other paths...
Do You Need Bookkeeping as a Pre-Revenue Startup Company?
If your startup is in its early stages, your plate probably feels overly full. With so much to do to get your idea off the ground, fund your growth, and scale your operations, it’s easy to push things that can wait to the back burner. The thing is: bookkeeping isn’t...
Best Startup-Friendly Banks
The partnerships your startup makes early on can make or break you. That includes financial partners beyond investors. When you choose a bank, you lock yourself into a specific set of options: the specific services and products that each bank provides. Yes, you can...
What are Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)? Organic vs. Paid
In an ideal world, your startup’s product or service would be so wow-worthy that people would be falling over themselves to buy it. And you might have some cases of that. But it’s no way to build a business. If it was, sales and marketing departments wouldn’t exist. ...
What is an 83(b) election?
As a founder, you get one of the biggest perks through equity in your company. In your early days, you probably aren’t raking in a huge salary or taking sizable owner draws. But you can still be padding your pockets through your shares in your company. While these...
Converting From an LLC to a C-corp: Tax Implications to Consider
Plenty of small businesses operate as a limited liability company (LLC) when they first set up shop. In fact, a big portion of LLCs operate as single-member companies with a sole owner. This sounds appealing in the beginning because LLCs are easy to establish, and...
What is a Cap Table? How Does It Impact My Financials?
When you first launched your startup, it was probably exclusively yours and your co-founder(s). But as you fundraise, you give up equity in exchange for the money you need. To make it easy to keep a clear eye on what’s going on with any shareholder’s equity, including...
Creating Your Financial Policies and Procedures Manual
When you think about things you need to build for your startup, it’s probably a long list. And you might be hesitant to add anything to it. But there are a couple of areas where putting in some extra work now pays off in spades down the road. A Financial Policies and...
Gusto vs. Justworks: A Closer Look
Building a business has changed — and in a way that can make your life easier. Thanks to the latest software tools, it’s getting simpler to do things that used to be a huge time suck, like filing payroll and tracking employee work hours. Before you can start wielding...
PEO vs. Payroll Company: What Should My Tech Company Choose?
When your startup is in its early stages, it makes sense to outsource. You might hire a fractional CFO, and you’ll likely hire an accounting firm. You may also want to explore outsourcing a lot of the key functions of a human resources (HR) department. Fortunately,...
Best Practices for Your Tech Company’s Expense Policy
When you’re an agile startup, allowing your employees to expense items and ask for reimbursement can give you a level of flexibility that you probably need. But it can also add a layer of complexity that you probably don’t need. That’s especially true if you don’t...
What is a Fractional CFO?
A lot of pieces make up a successful startup: a great idea, an innovative team, willing investors — the list goes on. But at the end of the day, there’s one key component that can make or break everything else: your finances. The way your organization manages its...
The 5 Most Important Metrics for Startups to Track
Startup founders risk information overload. As you grow your team, you’ll probably get reports and updates on how various facets of your startup are faring. It’s a lot to take in. You might even reach a point where you start to miss the forest for the trees. It’s...
What is a 409A Valuation?
Once your startup goes public, any and everyone can see what you’re worth. But when you’re private, you still want to have a way to know where you’re valued. Fortunately, you don’t have to fly blindly here. You can get a 409A valuation. This valuation, which you...
Accrual-Based (GAAP) Accounting and Its importance for Tech Companies
Accounting can be more complicated than you expect. Even if you feel completely comfortable monitoring your personal finances, once you found a startup, there’s more to consider. Specifically, companies have to factor in accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable...
Congrats you raised your Series A – Make your next hire- A FULL-TIME CFO!
With a Series A fundraise we see typical raise sizes in the range of $10M+. Being a good financial steward for that amount of money as a founder is a lot of responsibility and for that reason, I would encourage any Founder at this stage to make your next C-Suite hire...
Budgeting and Forecasting Tips for Your Tech Company
Running a tech company requires you to keep a lot of plates spinning. You might not feel like you have time for financial planning and analysis (FP&A) — but you need to make time. Without proper budgeting and forecasting in place, you’re flying blind. You need a...
What do VC’s look for in early-stage founders?
By: Kacie Goff Funding-wise, things generally get easier as your business grows and gains traction. It’s getting the funding you need to finance the early stages of your company that’s the trick. And that’s precisely what prevents a lot of good ideas from becoming...
Remote Work Benefits
https://youtu.be/bnT00cxOPek A remote workforce can deliver a whole host of benefits to employers, from reduced overhead to the ability to tap into a broader (and potentially more skilled) employee pool. It can also help boost employee satisfaction and support...
2022 ShayCPA Quickbooks ProAdvisor Update
When it comes to picking an accounting system for your technology company, Quickbooks is a great place to start. ShayCPA’s team is Quickbooks Online Advanced Certified. What does that mean? Advanced Certification for the Quickbooks Online System requires our team to...
The Truth About Being a Tech Company Service Provider
As a CPA, I’ve been working with technology companies since 2010. It started out as something I did on the side, but it turned into a full-time business in late 2013. The tech industry is a unique animal, and I’ve learned a lot over the last decade. As I’ve been...
Meet Our Staff: Megan Mahlstadt
In case you missed it, we’ve been using our blog page to introduce you to our ShayCPA team members. As we continue growing, it gives us an excellent opportunity to make sure you know the people who might be answering your email or phone call. Plus, it’s a chance to...
Meet Our Staff: Elias Bardis
As our ShayCPA team grows, we've had the opportunity to bring some fantastic talent onboard. Elias is no exception. We'd like to give you the chance to get to know him a little better in our latest edition of the Meet Our Staff feature. Elias joined us at the very...
Meet Our Staff: Grace Tsou
Lots of kids dread going to math class — but Grace has always been different. She’s had what she calls an “amicable relationship” with numbers since her youth. That made her a perfect fit for a career in accounting. As our longest-tenured staff accountant here at...
Meet Our Staff: Nina Lopez-Ortiz
Here at ShayCPA, we strive to deliver a personalized experience. We know that finances are a source of stress for a lot of tech startup founders, and we want to help alleviate that with our dedicated expertise and our friendly approach. With that in mind, we want to...
The ShayCPA team are Quickbooks ProAdvisor Certified
When it comes to picking an accounting system for your technology company Quickbooks is a great place to start. ShayCPA’s team is Quickbooks Online Advanced Certified. What does that mean? Advanced Certification for the Quickbooks Online System requires our team to...
Our Team is Bill.com Certified
Let SHAY CPA P.C. help your startup with its A/P and A/R process. Each of our accounting staff members is certified in using Bill.com which helps set up a process for payments. This is great for companies that need a simple process for bill-pay/receivables management,...
Akshay Shrimanker awarded Forty Under 40 award by the NYSSCPA
The Forty Under 40 award recognizes NYSSCPA (New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants) members who demonstrated leadership in their organization, made significant professional achievements in the past year and have gone “above and beyond” in giving back...
What is a 409A Valuation?
Once your startup goes public, any and everyone can see what you’re worth. But when you’re private, you still want to have a way to know where you’re valued. Fortunately, you don’t have to fly blindly here. You can get a 409A valuation. This valuation, which you...
Tax Benefits for Founders: Qualifying Small Business Stock (QSBS)
As a founder, you’re probably going to issue yourself a significant number of shares in your company. The goal there, of course, is to make some (ideally, a large amount) of money down the road. But the amount you’ll be able to pocket hinges on how you handle your...
Does Your Startup Need a Technical Founder?
When you’re building a startup, you know that the people you gather around you matter more than almost anything else. If you’re launching a tech company and you don’t have a programming background yourself, that becomes particularly important. That’s why a lot of...
How to Create an Executive Summary That Will Wow Investors
When your startup is in its seed stage, you face a catch-22. On the one hand, you need investors to power your growth. But, on the other hand, you need to grow to have something tangible to show investors why it’s worth betting on you. Fortunately, you can lean on an...
The Right Finance Stack for Seed-Stage Tech Companies
When you’re building a tech company, putting the right pieces in place early makes a huge difference. That means hiring the right team, establishing the right processes, and building the right tech stack. That last bit rings particularly true when it comes to your...
Founders – Get Huge Tax Breaks by acting now!
Founders - check out our tips below that can save your Startup thousands of dollars in Income Taxes, Payroll Taxes, Sales Taxes, and foreign taxes. R&D Tax Credits: Did you know that if your startup conducts R&D activities it can qualify for up to $500,000 in...
Best Startup-Friendly Banks
The partnerships your startup makes early on can make or break you. That includes financial partners beyond investors. When you choose a bank, you lock yourself into a specific set of options: the specific services and products that each bank provides. Yes, you can...
The 5 Most Important Metrics for Startups to Track
Startup founders risk information overload. As you grow your team, you’ll probably get reports and updates on how various facets of your startup are faring. It’s a lot to take in. You might even reach a point where you start to miss the forest for the trees. It’s...
What is an 83(b) election?
As a founder, you get one of the biggest perks through equity in your company. In your early days, you probably aren’t raking in a huge salary or taking sizable owner draws. But you can still be padding your pockets through your shares in your company. While these...
Converting From an LLC to a C-corp: Tax Implications to Consider
Plenty of small businesses operate as a limited liability company (LLC) when they first set up shop. In fact, a big portion of LLCs operate as single-member companies with a sole owner. This sounds appealing in the beginning because LLCs are easy to establish, and...
What is a Cap Table? How Does It Impact My Financials?
When you first launched your startup, it was probably exclusively yours and your co-founder(s). But as you fundraise, you give up equity in exchange for the money you need. To make it easy to keep a clear eye on what’s going on with any shareholder’s equity, including...
Creating Your Financial Policies and Procedures Manual
When you think about things you need to build for your startup, it’s probably a long list. And you might be hesitant to add anything to it. But there are a couple of areas where putting in some extra work now pays off in spades down the road. A Financial Policies and...
Startup Guide to California Franchise Tax and R&D Tax Credit
When you open a business in California, there’s one agency with which you need to get familiar pretty fast: the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB). You might even want to bookmark that page. As you establish your business in the Golden State, you’re going to be...
Brex vs. Ramp – What’s Best for Your Tech Company?
If you’re looking for a solution to power your startup’s fintech stack, we’ve got good news. Relatively new players in the game bring streamlined options paired with better insights to help power your growth. You might have heard of two of the leaders: Ramp and Brex....
Founders – Get Huge Tax Breaks by acting now!
Founders - check out our tips below that can save your Startup thousands of dollars in Income Taxes, Payroll Taxes, Sales Taxes, and foreign taxes. R&D Tax Credits: Did you know that if your startup conducts R&D activities it can qualify for up to $500,000 in...
What is an 83(b) election?
As a founder, you get one of the biggest perks through equity in your company. In your early days, you probably aren’t raking in a huge salary or taking sizable owner draws. But you can still be padding your pockets through your shares in your company. While these...
Converting From an LLC to a C-corp: Tax Implications to Consider
Plenty of small businesses operate as a limited liability company (LLC) when they first set up shop. In fact, a big portion of LLCs operate as single-member companies with a sole owner. This sounds appealing in the beginning because LLCs are easy to establish, and...
Startup Guide to California Franchise Tax and R&D Tax Credit
When you open a business in California, there’s one agency with which you need to get familiar pretty fast: the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB). You might even want to bookmark that page. As you establish your business in the Golden State, you’re going to be...
Tax Benefits for Founders: Qualifying Small Business Stock (QSBS)
As a founder, you’re probably going to issue yourself a significant number of shares in your company. The goal there, of course, is to make some (ideally, a large amount) of money down the road. But the amount you’ll be able to pocket hinges on how you handle your...
Tax Deductions for Startups
By Kacie Goff As you work to scale your startup, the old adage rings true: cash is king. The more cash you can have on hand, the easier it is to build your best product and launch into new opportunities. And tax deductions give you an excellent way to maximize your...
Tech Company Tax Tips – by Akshay Shrimanker, CPA
Getting ready for tax season isn’t most people’s idea of fun. Here at ShayCPA, we think that’s most likely because it often comes with unexpected, unwelcome surprises. As a result, a lot of people feel tension at the mere mention of the word “taxes.” But it doesn’t...
Get Your Tech Company’s Books Ready for Tax Time in 6 Steps
By Kacie Goff With 2021 behind us, your startup is probably launching into 2022 goal-setting and strategic planning. But 2021 isn’t put to bed just yet. You still need to get all of your taxes squared away. Prepping for doing your taxes isn’t most founders’ idea of a...
DELAWARE ANNUAL FILING-2022
The Delaware Annual Filing is due on March 1st, just 3 weeks away. So make sure to be on the lookout for an email from your registered agent in Delaware. You can sometimes use their portal to file an entire annual report. You will need your file number, which you can...