Do you struggle with multiple software applications, a pile of client documents, and a jumble of takeoff notes to put your cost segregation reports together?
Performing a cost segregation study is inherently complex and convoluted: every job has it’s own eccentricities which must be considered to make sure that a client’s cash-flow strategy is built on a solid foundation.
So how do you go about standardizing your cost segregation workflow to reduce redundancy, enhance precision, increase efficiency, and create high quality reports consistently and at a speed that not only sustains but grows your business?
Let’s start by establishing what makes a report high quality? According to the Audit Techniques Guide we have:
- Engineering-based, Detailed Takeoff
- Suggested Data Sources
- Clear and Transparent Labeling/Numbering System for Takeoff
- Clear Reasoning for Segregation of Personal/Real Property into Respective Depreciable Asset Classifications
How do you include these elements into your reports, consistently and efficiently?
Let’s take each element separately,
Engineering-based, Detailed Takeoff:
Properly document the property on-site, draw information from client interviews, property photos, and relevant data sources on the internet like GIS Maps and Google Earth.
Suggested Data Sources:
The IRS Audit Techniques Guide explicitly mentions two cost sources, RS Means and Marshall & Swift. Of the two, RS Means is by far the most complete.
Clear and Transparent Labeling/Numbering System for Takeoff:
Labeling and numbering of takeoffs to help illuminate your choice of asset classification within the report.
Clear Reasoning for Segregation of Personal/Real Property into the Respective Depreciable Asset Classifications:
The special sauce of any cost segregation report, what gets qualified, what doesn’t, why, and what is the recommended depreciable life of each asset according to the relevant depreciation method?
Now that we’ve outlined the significance of each element, let’s take a look at what kind of system can efficiently and precisely receive the detail of the engineering-based takeoff method, is set up to use the IRS Audit Techniques Guide recommended data sources, includes a transparent labeling/numbering system, and implements clear reasoning for asset segregation/qualification.
How can you increase precision, efficiency, quality, and speed simultaneously? In a nutshell, custom software.
Every Cost Seg provider is currently using some type(s) of software to complete their projects but in order to include all of the benefits discussed above, the software solution needs to address the needs of the cost segregation professional directly.
Custom-designed software for the Cost Segregation professional has traditionally been hard to come by, until now.
The SegStream Cost Seg workflow was built to complement the knowledge of accounting and specialty tax professionals, eliminating trade-offs between quality and consistency, and precision and velocity.
SegStream brings the Cost Seg workflow into a single piece of software, where everything from takeoff to data entry to report generation can be optimized, continuously and rapidly.
The entire business world is being eaten by software and Cost Segregation will not be spared. This is a new world, in which custom software is the driving force of quality and business innovation in every industry, and your business can’t afford to get left behind.
SegStream is the first software developed by Cost Segregation engineers for accounting and specialty tax professionals. Read further if you’d like to know more or Contact Us for a demonstration of how SegStream can increase everything from your employee morale to your profit margin.
I have known Mike (Morris) for over 30 years – and if you learned from Mike then you learned from one of the very best in our industry. I have been doing studies since 1980 – having had George Hamilton as my Mentor – and now my best friend. You may not know me, but I have been around for a long time doing these studies and involved in every facet of cost segregation and IRS examinations and technical write-ups for our industry. Your presentation is very impressive, very knowledgeable, and professional – you really know your “stuff” as Hamilton used to say. I would like to hear more about your program.