January 26, 2025 • 37 mins
Sarah Harralson interviews Shara E. Rostamlou, CPA , about the importance of accounting for musicians and creatives. Are you at the point in your career where you need an accountant to manage your finances? How can you manage your finances on your own?
Reach out to Shara here for a free consultation:
seraccounting.com
(818) 403-5052
Reach out to Shara here for a free consultation:
seraccounting.com
(818) 403-5052
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, my name is Sarah Harrelson. You are listening to
the Mind Your Music Business podcast. I'm excited to be
interviewing the first guest of twenty twenty five for the podcast,
and today we're talking about a topic that's not often
talked about in music, but I think it's very important,
(00:26):
and so we're going to be talking about accounting, and
so I'm bringing on the founding partner and CPA at
Seer Accounting and Consulting based in LA I have with me,
Sharha Ross Stamlou.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
How are you today, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you for having me, Thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Of course, how are you, I'm good, Yeah, thank you
for being here. So, as I was telling you earlier,
a lot of listeners of this podcast are musicians or
people people who are interested in the music industry or
maybe work in the music industry. So we're really going
to be focusing this conversation today about musicians. I know
(01:11):
you work with all sorts of different clients, but I'm
sure you work with a lot of musicians to being
based in Los Angeles, So can you just start by
telling us a little bit about your background and accounting,
how you got into it, and then about the kind
of services that your company has to offer.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yes, so I got into accounting. Really in college, I
was I wanted to do engineering. I really liked playing, so.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I wanted to build planes when I was, you know,
a child.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
And then I got into college and I quickly realized that.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The engineering day to day wasn't as.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Glorious as I thought, So I kind of jumped out
of the major and started taking general classes, and then
I took an ECON class. I went to UC Santa
Barbar so they have a really good ECON program over there,
(02:18):
and so I took an ECON class and found it
really interesting because it was essentially.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Problem solving, which is kind of like what.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Engineering is and what physics is. It was just more
so geared towards economics.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So I found it really interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And after that I took an accounting class because they
had this almost like a double major, but not really
a double major.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It was kind of like a bonus thing that you
could do ECON and accounting.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
And they told me it's like a guaranteed job if
you do it straight.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Out of college.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And you know, I was never I was never too
interested in there staying school for for that long, I
kind of wanted to just do the underground and get out.
So that's what I did. I found it super interesting, and.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I mean, it's accounting.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's not as glorious as I'm sure it doesn't even.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Sound glorious, But so I did that, and.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I graduated with that and started my accounting career in.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Los Angeles working for like a big four firm.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
They call it Big four in the accounting industry, but
basically the top four firms in the world are.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Uh, you know, the main hires of college students.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
So got an internship with them and then started working
with them. And the companies that are just been young,
they're very big. It's a very you know, kind of
a big deal. I guess if you get into one
of these firms. And I got in as a auditor
basically so financial reporting auditing, basically checking and testing their
(04:06):
accounting systems to see if everything's getting recorded properly according
to the you know, gap rules and all these kinds
of regulations.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And did that for a couple of years. And as
an auditor, what you do is you're kind.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Of you're testing the accounting system and you're working with
the accounting team, and obviously it's like the client feels
like you're nagging them about you know, areas where they're
accounting isn't, you know, super tight.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So I felt like it was.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I didn't feel as rewarded in that specific niche in accounting,
so I decided to switch to tax accounting, which is
a lot of times you're kind of thinking of creative
ways to help the client and to you know, strategize
things for the client to save them money.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So I thought that would be more rewarding, which.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Is which was true at least for me.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So I switched at tax and kind of didn't look back.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I worked at a couple again, bigger firms that as
a tax accountant kind of learn my way through them,
and after a couple of years, I decided to I
kind of felt like I was capped out at the
learning thing, so I was like, Okay, the next step
(05:32):
is to kind of try to do this on my
own and you know, make it my own type of
approach to accounting. And that's kind.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Of what I do now.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I specialize in, you know, creating accounting systems that are
built around the client's goals.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's it's and I always say this.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
When I talk to clients, I say, you know, there's
no such thing as over share with me, because I
want to make the accounting system and the tax plan that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That helps you get to where you want to get.
And not everybody wants to get to the same spot, right.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Some people want to expand, some people want to you
know I better margins, some people want to hire and scale,
and all of these things require different you know, tax
plans and accounting of.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You know, strategies.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that's what we do. We work super hands on
with our clients. We're lucky enough to have a couple
of creatives on board. Also that the you know, musicians
or production companies or managers.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Or agencies that you know, find talent.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So it's super interesting. I love the you know, I
love the creative people. I like to work with, you know,
in let's say, opposite the tract that's through in our fields.
I like to work with people that are good at
what they do, and they focus on what they do
and they throw the accounting to me, right, so, and
(07:08):
we focus on what we do best over here. So
that's a very long intro.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, as you mentioned, there's a lot of different areas
within accounting. We had one episode on this podcast already
just talking about taxes for musicians, breaking down what they
can and cannot expense. But besides taxes, you have auditing
and bookkeeping, a lot of different areas that have to
(07:37):
do with managing your finances. So, for people listening in,
how does a musician or creative know when they're at
the point where they need an accountant? Is it maybe
they're at a certain financial place or maybe they just
can't handle their finances on their own.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, that's actually a very question.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I wish more people ask that question, But it's for
different people. It's different points, right. For a lot of
people it's financial kind of hurdle that you know, they
get to a point where they're making the next amount
of money and they're you know, they find themselves to
(08:21):
be profitable enough to to not worry about, you know,
not do the accounting themselves. For a lot of other people,
it's just unbearable to do the accounting rights it's just
not their thing. And for different people it usually ends
up being a mix of both. Right. So what I
do with some of my clients is if they are
(08:45):
doing their accounting, I take a look and review it
and see if there's any problems. In ninety nine percent
of time there is, and we tell them, hey, you know,
you're you're putting time into this or your team is
putting time into this and trying to do this, and
it's not even getting done right right, So it's.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Like you can save time and you can you know,
at least get.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It done right because you don't want any problems with
obviously the IRS or any of the compliance you know, organizations.
So and it especially with music, it ends up being
a little bit more complicated than then, for example, a
small retail score. So you know, there's streaming income, there's
(09:34):
different jurisdictions, there's state laws, there's local laws, there's federal
laws that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Need to be you know followed.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
So for different people, it's different reasons. But the main
thing is if the client doesn't have the confidence that
they're doing it correctly or nothing is being done some
of them, you know, sometimes then they kind of reach
out and say, hey, I need out, and that's what
we try to do and give them that peace of mind.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, and that's a good point because especially in this
day and age, creatives are receiving and producers as well,
receiving so many different statements from different places for streaming revenue,
sync revenue, all sorts of different revenue from labels, pros,
et cetera. And so if you don't know what you're
(10:26):
looking for when you receive your statements, maybe you're not
sure that you're getting what you're owed or you know
what that those royalty should be allocated to any advances,
et cetera. So I think at that point it is
important to have an accountant if you're not really sure
what you're dealing with. But like you said, I think
(10:49):
it's also important to maybe do a mix of both
where you're at least aware of the accounting that's going
on with your revenue. You know, we've seen so many
horror stories with a lot of celebrities but musicians as well,
where you know, they got to a certain point in
their career where they were making so much money and
(11:11):
had never you know, gotten to that place and music before,
and maybe had a family member managing their money instead
of an accountant, and you know, money got still in
or misplaced, and then they find out they don't have
all of this money that they had before. So yeah,
(11:32):
just even instances of that, you know, so you don't overspend,
you know where you are, what money needs to be
allocated where. That's when I think it's really important to
bring an accountant and so they can help manage your finances,
you know when you get these royalty statements every three
months or so.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, exactly, it's just to piggyback off what you said.
It's also you know, as accountants and s CPAs, we
know the tax law and you know, we know the
accounting side, but we also know, for example, a lot
of attorneys, right, we know a lot of financial advisors,
(12:13):
so we know the right people to connect you know,
our clients to if they need help with other things
such as investing maybe the money that they're getting, or
trying to think of retirement plans or you know, uh,
let's say God forbid, if they get sued, who they
should you know, talk to. So it's we also try
(12:37):
to be a resource to the client in that sense
where you know, you know, you're an artist, you're a
business owner, right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You don't have to know everything and nobody can know everything, right, It's.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Just sometimes it's difficult for people because they they manage
everything themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So it's it's and I have.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That problem too, where it's difficult to delegate something, but
once you delegated, you open up you know, a lot
of time and a lot of you know, it gives
you a lot of peace of mind knowing that the
experts are essentially dealing with these things as opposed to
you trying to figure it out and take a you know,
(13:18):
take away time and I.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Think you know nothing nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Rob's creativity like like accounting.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And then and legal work.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So preserving that too is important. So also structuring is
is important too.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And a lot of I've.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Seen this with a lot of artists or a lot
of people in the creative industry where they're doing everything
fantastic right They're they're creating something that people love and
people are either listening to or watching or supporting in
some some sort of way, and it's profitable and everything's
going great, but they're just not structured, uh in a
(13:58):
way that protects them if something goes bad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And and you know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Workum la, so a lot of things you know, do
go bad and the tendency consue and it's big in
the industry too, and then if you're not structured correctly,
you know, everything ends up being fair game, and it
could be really you know, devastating for some people and
some times. So yeah, it's all sorts of things that
(14:24):
we can help with and we try to do. And
at our firm, you know, we we have no interest
in having five thousand clients, six thousand clients, ten thousand
clients because we really care.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
About our client's goals, so we are.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
A little bit selective on who we work with. And
to reiterate something you said earlier, which is it's good
to have a mix of both where you know, the
artist or the client is kind of interested in learning
how the accounting is done and kind of learning from
themselves too.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's also super important. Right.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
We love working with people that not only care to
have their you know, things done right, but they also
want to learn, so that's always a bonus. It's so
that ends up the best you know, clients end up
with the best relationships end up being those with people
that want to learn and kind of are you know,
(15:26):
interested in doing things themselves too.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So yeah, and I think it's great for people to
be aware about their accounting and interesting and interested in learning,
but like you said, if they're not doing it one
hundred percent correctly. It's better to you know, pass that
along to an expert so they can spend their time
being utilizing that time instead of you know, taking on
(15:53):
extra work.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, there's a lot you know, in accounting.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It tough even for us EPA to.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Know everything, and we have to every two years, we
have to renew our license and there's about eighty hours
of new information that we have to you know, sit
through and listen to and digest and learn and just tool.
So and you know, tax a lot is changing every day.
So you know, maybe not every day, maybe it doesn't
(16:24):
affect people, you know, every day, but every couple of.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Years something major changes and.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
So it's i mean for a business owner, it would
be impossible, right to keep up with with all these
regulations you know, state, local, federal, payrolls, all these things
that change constantly. So yeah, I think it's super important
to have somebody that you are working with closely, that
(16:53):
you have a good relationship with, that understands.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Your business, understand where you want to go, and.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You know, and understand you because it is it does
come down to trust. So it's important to be for
it to be someone that you're able to trust and
work with on a long term. So yeah, those you know,
we're blessed enough to have a lot of those clients
and we have a number of them that are in
(17:23):
the creative industries and.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
We're helping, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
We're hoping that grows. So but again, super picky. I'm
gonna be honest, We're super super picky with who we
work with.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, and you know, we're in the middle of tax
season right now. Everyone's getting their tax forms, and especially creatives,
they're probably getting a million tax forms from a bunch
of gigs they played this past year. You know, just
like you said, every couple of years there's tax rules changing.
Oh I have to fill out this form now or
(17:58):
I can't claim this anymore. So you have to, you know,
stay in the know with what's going on with that.
And you know, like you said, you're very picky about
what clients you have. So maybe someone is an independent musician.
They're making pretty good money with what they're doing, but
maybe they're not quite at the point where they financially
(18:22):
can work with an accountant. So what are some things
they can do to start managing their own finances so
they can become as profitable as they can to eventually
work with an accountant.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, great question. So and and this usually comes up
with with most most of the.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
People that we.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, I talk to personally or the team talks to,
and we feel like they're not quite ready, you know,
for this kind of relationship with with a CPA on
a monthly or on a yearly basis. And the answer
is always, you know, we point them out in the
(19:05):
right direction to where they can manage it and at
least do it, you know, better than they were doing
it before. And it always comes down to the same
couple of things. So it's a structuring yourself correctly, right,
whether that's let's for example, let's say you are an
independent artist, you know, having some sort of corporation or
(19:30):
some sort of limited liability company where you're protected and
your personal assets are protected should something go you know
wrong and you get into a lawsuit or something along
those lines. So that's really the first in order.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Secondly, it's tracking everything right. There's a bunch of tools.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
There's a bunch of there's free tools, there's some subscription
based tools that you can use to keep track of
everything literally from royalties and money coming in to expenses,
that you have to studio costs, to marketing, to all
these things that you know a lot of times you
(20:14):
know you incur, but you may not necessarily track it
or even think of it as a deductible expense.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So my number one.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Suggestion for from tracking your income and your expenses is
quick Books online. It's super simple. You can link it
to a bank account, especially after you structure yourself correctly
and you have let's say corporation, you can link that
bank account to your to your QuickBooks and.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Back everything literally. And there might be things that are
not deductible and personal expenses, and you know, you could
throw this, throw those under.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
You know, personal expenses and make it a non deductible
for on the tax side. So and a lot of
those clients that are you know, they're like, Okay, I'm
not quite ready to commit to this, or yeah, I'm
not making enough money to be able to afford you,
or just the relationship as the right end up getting
(21:16):
us to just review these, you know, the books at
the end of the year, which we're happy to do,
and then they can send it to us or they
can send it to their you know, C C, P,
A or EA or whoever they're or you know, agent
r blog whoever they use to to father.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Taxes and like that.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
They have at least a little bit more peace of
mind knowing that, Okay, a CPA reviewed this, you know,
they pointed out the adjustments that have to make, or
maybe they even made the adjustment. So yeah, So tracking
being structured correctly, I think those are the two things.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
And and understand the you know, what.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Is personal what is business sort of expensive, so we
can this is very like it depends on the circumstance.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It depends on the client, It depends.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
On the nature of every sort of transaction. But normally
we're able to kind of help them guide themselves into
understanding which is business related expensive and which are not,
so it helps them clean up their books also.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Right, And I think even with the QuickBooks app, you
can track your miles so when you're on the road,
gigs track your miles that way. Just do what you
can with these automated automated apps to make you know
everything easier for tracking. And if you're still in the
mindset where you don't want to be a part of
(22:50):
the business, you want to be aware, but you don't
want to do it, maybe delegate it to a manager
or someone else on your team who can at least
assist you with it, so that way you can still
build your way up to being able to work with
an accountant and have them review your tracking throughout the year.
(23:12):
And I know you said you do a lot with
taxes with clients and bookkeeping. It sounded like you worked
in auditing. Does your company still work in auditing for
clients a lot?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah? So I actually started my accounting career as a
financial reporting on there where we basically would go to
big public companies and check their accounting systems and got
to see if transactions are getting recorded and processed in
(23:48):
the manner that they should.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Right now, at.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Sarah Accounting and Consulting, we're more so focused on the
tax side and the tax planning side, and the books
keeping and and on that side of the business. I
left auditing, especially financial reporting auditing, because I felt like
it was not as rewarding. And even though you are
(24:16):
working with the client and you're helping the client inn directly,
you know, fix their fix their issues, and you know,
in order to be.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Able to remain public.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
In order to be able to you know, sell stocks
right and and protect their investors. It didn't always you know,
they don't.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Always receive it that way, so it.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Was it was like indirectly rewarding.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So I switched.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I switched to tax and didn't really look back for
that reason.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Right now, I mean, we're.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
A full service firm, but we don't typically we don't
do financial audits. We do help clients with irs audits,
with assisting them representing them, you know, especially the clients
that we work with very closely.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
We have kind of two tiers of clients, right.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There are year end clients that are they do their
own bookkeeping or you know, or they don't do any bookkeeping,
and they come to us at the end of the
year and we do whatever is needed and we file taxes.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And then we have.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
What we call our platinum clients, which are essentially monthly clients.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right, so they're kind of a.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Retainer and we do everything in real time, and that
way we're able to make the adjustments in real time
as opposed to retroactively and really benefit the clients throughout
the year, helping them make the right decisions.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And you know, a.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Lot of it is accounting based, some of it is
also just business decisions. That you know, once the client
understands the text implications of that decision, it usually helps
them make the right decision in terms of cash flows
and in terms of you know, future you know, the liabilities,
whether it's the irs or however whoever it might be too.
(26:17):
So so yeah, so we've stepped away from auditing a
little bit, but we're you know, but that experience definitely
does help me because you know, now I can read
financials a lot better than I think I would have
if I didn't have to auditing. The experience and I
(26:39):
can usually pinpoint if something is wrong in the financials
a little bit quickly because I've just done it so
many times in the past. So in hindsight, great experience
and it helps me today.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
But yeah, we were.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
More so focused on, you know, the bookkeeping that they
data to day's stuff, and also the tax planning, which
is I think it's the most important thing. It's is
tax planning. But in order to do tax planning, you
need to you need to a have real financials that
are you know, inclusive of everything that's going on and
(27:19):
when you're not missing anything. And also it really helps
when everything is done in real time.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So the adjustments could be made in real time. Right.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
You might have a company that's doing super great, but
there is a you know, there's a sink somewhere some
you know, one of the activities is just not doing well,
and if you don't do the accounting in real time,
you will not be.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Able to identify that till the year is closed.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And sometimes that could be a big deal for clients
because they end up losing money.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
For twelve months as opposed to two months, three months.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Right or maybe some Sometimes a simple change can help
fix that issue. So that's why we try to focus
on clients that are super you know, willing to learn
and also concerned about accounting.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Right. They take it seriously and they.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Want to make sure that the company is healthy. But yeah, no,
no financial reporting guard.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So that's the long answer.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Okay, Yeah, and I guess it helps you guys if
you know they're doing it in real time, sending you
everything in real time. That way, you don't have to
wait until the end of the year to show results
to your clients. You can you know, call them up
in two months and say, hey, you're kind of bleeding
money in this area. We need to exactly to fix there.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Exactly. I think that.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Adds the most value, you know, and also when you
do everything in real time, there's no there's little to
no surprises at the end of the year, right there's
there's surprises if we were unaware of something that's going on.
But when we get these clients and we on board them,
we make sure, you know, to cover everything right, every
(29:15):
bank account they have, every credit they have, every vendor
they have, every customer they.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Have, every relationship they have.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
We you know, read up and understand every state they're
working in, every city they're working in. So we try
to onboard them properly. And we've you know, we've been
lucky enough to where all our clients that have been onboarded,
they've been on boarded properly, so there's really no surprises.
(29:43):
And throughout the year, we do estimate calculations, you know,
for the business for that person person that owns the business,
so they know before the year closes, if things are
going the way they're going.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You know, companies going to owe this much, uh to
the I R S.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Or they're personally going to owe this much of the
I R S or California or the you know, the
city of.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
La or wherever they based out of.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
So that really helps clients with with cash flows and
with planning, and I think it adds real value to
almost any business. Even if I had my own business
and I didn't know any accounting, I think that's the
first thing I would do, is to have someone through
the accounting. Yeah, because the surprises are you know, they're
(30:33):
not good usually if you if you wait and you know,
you do it at the end of the year. If
you're you know, operating a successful business, you know, these
surprises end up being you know, having penalties and interest
on top. So it's never good to not.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Be on top of it.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, especially if you're headed for a loss. You want
to make sure you know what's.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Going on exactly exactly, and.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You don't really work with auditing anymore. If there's an
artist that's becoming really profitable, you know, usually with major artists,
they audit every few years with their label or publisher,
which is really important because a lot of times the
label comes back and figures out there is money that
(31:21):
is owed to this artist because maybe their contract changed
and they're getting a higher royalty on an album, but
the label weighted to change it a few months later,
so they didn't get the artists didn't get paid enough.
So I think auditing is important to make up for
any lost royalties or money. But it seems like usually
(31:44):
it's major artists that do this. So would you say
that if other artists that are at a profit, they
should have someone on their team or find someone to
do auditing for them.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, I think it's you know, if it's if it's
a concern for them, right, it's usually you know, clients
bring this up, and this is all sorts of industries.
If they bring it, they you know, client might bring
this up with with the customer or a lender or
you know, if they have a loan and they say, hey,
(32:20):
I think i'm you know, i might be doing the
map here wrong, but I think I'm getting the short
end of the stake or something isn't adding up, and
we're happy to you know, go through whatever agreement it is,
you know, kind of calculated on.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Our own and tell them, hey, there's an issue.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Sometimes you know, the client might be under the impression that,
you know, they're getting screwed on something, but we go
and we run the numbers and would say no, you know,
everything checks out.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
So it's important.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I think if it's a big enough issue, it's a
big enough agreement, Let's say it's a record label deal,
you know, I would say, yeah, getting you know, and
there's consultants that do this, there's auditors that do this,
There's there are people that this is their niche that
they they can you know, audit. There's lawyers that do
(33:13):
this also, So definitely, I think building the right team
is number one. Right, It's if you have people that
are your advisors, whether that's your CPA, that's your attorney,
that's your assistant, whoever that is that you know can
figure out if something is wrong. I think it's always
going to benefit the business and it's always obviously.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Going to benefit you individually.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So definitely building the right team, whether that's an auditor,
an attorney and advisor, whatever that is a consultant. It's
very important that you know, these things cost money, and
I always tell my clients they can cost money, but
you know, usually they end up saving you a lot more.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So you know, there is a good thing.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And they said, there's there's nothing worse than the cheap accountant,
or there's nothing more expensive than the cheap accountant, right,
or I'm sure the same.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Could be said about all sorts of industries.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
So you want to work with someone that knows what
they're doing, has has the experience and can add value
and you know you can build a relationship with And
I'm you know, I always say I'm picky with clients,
and I always tell my clients to be pickyback.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So it's super important.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It's just something that especially in our industry, it's something
that builds on years of experience.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
The longer you retain the client, the more you get
to know them, the more you get to know what's
important to them. So it's all about just building that
lasting relationship because every year I think gets better, right,
So yeah, I would say definitely if it's if it's
going to be an auditor, if you if you need
(34:59):
someone to check your numbers.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Have someone for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And we're able to do that at least on the
accounting side for our clients, but there might be other
professionals needed to and like I said before, we're usually
able to point them in the right direction and introduce
them to the right people.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Absolutely, especially if you think you're missing out on some
royalties and just talking about pennies here in streaming age.
But yeah, you're you know, owed a lot of money
for release and you're not really seeing it on statements
or missing some money from a sink placement. Don't be
afraid to reach out to someone. And with that, where
(35:43):
can listeners find you if maybe they're further interested in
having a conversation or consultation with you.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, so they can find me on the world wide
web on my website and we're also on Instagram them.
Our Instagram handle is s e R Accounting and our
email address is info at seer Accounting dot com. Our
website is seer Accounting dot com. We have our number
(36:17):
there that they can reach out. There's also a free
console consultation but then that they could click for their
information and we'll schedule a consultation with them and the
consultation is free.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
We we love meeting entrepreneurs, artists, all sorts of people
in every industry and helping them, you know, if we
can and if we're the right fit, then they're the
right fit right helping them with all their accounting and
tax needs. Also, we have our industries where we focus
(36:50):
on working with on our website, so they can check
that out too, and there's a little tab about our
services and what we do with only touched on a
few today, but there's just not enough time to go
through everything, and that tends to be where they can
find all the information.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So yes, there's always so many details that go within accounting.
So yes, I'll link all your links in the liner
notes for listeners too. But Shahra, thank you so much
for being on the podcast today.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Thank you, Sarah, thanks for the time and the opportunity
Hi, my name is Sarah Harrelson. You are listening to
the Mind Your Music Business podcast. I'm excited to be
interviewing the first guest of twenty twenty five for the podcast,
and today we're talking about a topic that's not often
talked about in music, but I think it's very important,
(00:26):
and so we're going to be talking about accounting, and
so I'm bringing on the founding partner and CPA at
Seer Accounting and Consulting based in LA I have with me,
Sharha Ross Stamlou.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
How are you today, I'm good.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Thank you for having me, Thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Of course, how are you, I'm good, Yeah, thank you
for being here. So, as I was telling you earlier,
a lot of listeners of this podcast are musicians or
people people who are interested in the music industry or
maybe work in the music industry. So we're really going
to be focusing this conversation today about musicians. I know
(01:11):
you work with all sorts of different clients, but I'm
sure you work with a lot of musicians to being
based in Los Angeles, So can you just start by
telling us a little bit about your background and accounting,
how you got into it, and then about the kind
of services that your company has to offer.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yes, so I got into accounting. Really in college, I
was I wanted to do engineering. I really liked playing, so.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I wanted to build planes when I was, you know,
a child.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
And then I got into college and I quickly realized that.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The engineering day to day wasn't as.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Glorious as I thought, So I kind of jumped out
of the major and started taking general classes, and then
I took an ECON class. I went to UC Santa
Barbar so they have a really good ECON program over there,
(02:18):
and so I took an ECON class and found it
really interesting because it was essentially.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Problem solving, which is kind of like what.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Engineering is and what physics is. It was just more
so geared towards economics.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
So I found it really interesting.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
And after that I took an accounting class because they
had this almost like a double major, but not really
a double major.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It was kind of like a bonus thing that you
could do ECON and accounting.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
And they told me it's like a guaranteed job if
you do it straight.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Out of college.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And you know, I was never I was never too
interested in there staying school for for that long, I
kind of wanted to just do the underground and get out.
So that's what I did. I found it super interesting, and.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I mean, it's accounting.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's not as glorious as I'm sure it doesn't even.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Sound glorious, But so I did that, and.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
I graduated with that and started my accounting career in.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Los Angeles working for like a big four firm.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
They call it Big four in the accounting industry, but
basically the top four firms in the world are.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Uh, you know, the main hires of college students.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
So got an internship with them and then started working
with them. And the companies that are just been young,
they're very big. It's a very you know, kind of
a big deal. I guess if you get into one
of these firms. And I got in as a auditor
basically so financial reporting auditing, basically checking and testing their
(04:06):
accounting systems to see if everything's getting recorded properly according
to the you know, gap rules and all these kinds
of regulations.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And did that for a couple of years. And as
an auditor, what you do is you're kind.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Of you're testing the accounting system and you're working with
the accounting team, and obviously it's like the client feels
like you're nagging them about you know, areas where they're
accounting isn't, you know, super tight.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
So I felt like it was.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
I didn't feel as rewarded in that specific niche in accounting,
so I decided to switch to tax accounting, which is
a lot of times you're kind of thinking of creative
ways to help the client and to you know, strategize
things for the client to save them money.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
So I thought that would be more rewarding, which.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Is which was true at least for me.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
So I switched at tax and kind of didn't look back.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
I worked at a couple again, bigger firms that as
a tax accountant kind of learn my way through them,
and after a couple of years, I decided to I
kind of felt like I was capped out at the
learning thing, so I was like, Okay, the next step
(05:32):
is to kind of try to do this on my
own and you know, make it my own type of
approach to accounting. And that's kind.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Of what I do now.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I specialize in, you know, creating accounting systems that are
built around the client's goals.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
It's it's and I always say this.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
When I talk to clients, I say, you know, there's
no such thing as over share with me, because I
want to make the accounting system and the tax plan that.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That helps you get to where you want to get.
And not everybody wants to get to the same spot, right.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Some people want to expand, some people want to you
know I better margins, some people want to hire and scale,
and all of these things require different you know, tax
plans and accounting of.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You know, strategies.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So that's what we do. We work super hands on
with our clients. We're lucky enough to have a couple
of creatives on board. Also that the you know, musicians
or production companies or managers.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Or agencies that you know, find talent.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
So it's super interesting. I love the you know, I
love the creative people. I like to work with, you know,
in let's say, opposite the tract that's through in our fields.
I like to work with people that are good at
what they do, and they focus on what they do
and they throw the accounting to me, right, so, and
(07:08):
we focus on what we do best over here. So
that's a very long intro.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, as you mentioned, there's a lot of different areas
within accounting. We had one episode on this podcast already
just talking about taxes for musicians, breaking down what they
can and cannot expense. But besides taxes, you have auditing
and bookkeeping, a lot of different areas that have to
(07:37):
do with managing your finances. So, for people listening in,
how does a musician or creative know when they're at
the point where they need an accountant? Is it maybe
they're at a certain financial place or maybe they just
can't handle their finances on their own.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, that's actually a very question.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
I wish more people ask that question, But it's for
different people. It's different points, right. For a lot of
people it's financial kind of hurdle that you know, they
get to a point where they're making the next amount
of money and they're you know, they find themselves to
(08:21):
be profitable enough to to not worry about, you know,
not do the accounting themselves. For a lot of other people,
it's just unbearable to do the accounting rights it's just
not their thing. And for different people it usually ends
up being a mix of both. Right. So what I
do with some of my clients is if they are
(08:45):
doing their accounting, I take a look and review it
and see if there's any problems. In ninety nine percent
of time there is, and we tell them, hey, you know,
you're you're putting time into this or your team is
putting time into this and trying to do this, and
it's not even getting done right right, So it's.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Like you can save time and you can you know,
at least get.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
It done right because you don't want any problems with
obviously the IRS or any of the compliance you know, organizations.
So and it especially with music, it ends up being
a little bit more complicated than then, for example, a
small retail score. So you know, there's streaming income, there's
(09:34):
different jurisdictions, there's state laws, there's local laws, there's federal
laws that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Need to be you know followed.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
So for different people, it's different reasons. But the main
thing is if the client doesn't have the confidence that
they're doing it correctly or nothing is being done some
of them, you know, sometimes then they kind of reach
out and say, hey, I need out, and that's what
we try to do and give them that peace of mind.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, and that's a good point because especially in this
day and age, creatives are receiving and producers as well,
receiving so many different statements from different places for streaming revenue,
sync revenue, all sorts of different revenue from labels, pros,
et cetera. And so if you don't know what you're
(10:26):
looking for when you receive your statements, maybe you're not
sure that you're getting what you're owed or you know
what that those royalty should be allocated to any advances,
et cetera. So I think at that point it is
important to have an accountant if you're not really sure
what you're dealing with. But like you said, I think
(10:49):
it's also important to maybe do a mix of both
where you're at least aware of the accounting that's going
on with your revenue. You know, we've seen so many
horror stories with a lot of celebrities but musicians as well,
where you know, they got to a certain point in
their career where they were making so much money and
(11:11):
had never you know, gotten to that place and music before,
and maybe had a family member managing their money instead
of an accountant, and you know, money got still in
or misplaced, and then they find out they don't have
all of this money that they had before. So yeah,
(11:32):
just even instances of that, you know, so you don't overspend,
you know where you are, what money needs to be
allocated where. That's when I think it's really important to
bring an accountant and so they can help manage your finances,
you know when you get these royalty statements every three
months or so.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, exactly, it's just to piggyback off what you said.
It's also you know, as accountants and s CPAs, we
know the tax law and you know, we know the
accounting side, but we also know, for example, a lot
of attorneys, right, we know a lot of financial advisors,
(12:13):
so we know the right people to connect you know,
our clients to if they need help with other things
such as investing maybe the money that they're getting, or
trying to think of retirement plans or you know, uh,
let's say God forbid, if they get sued, who they
should you know, talk to. So it's we also try
(12:37):
to be a resource to the client in that sense
where you know, you know, you're an artist, you're a
business owner, right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You don't have to know everything and nobody can know everything, right, It's.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Just sometimes it's difficult for people because they they manage
everything themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So it's it's and I have.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
That problem too, where it's difficult to delegate something, but
once you delegated, you open up you know, a lot
of time and a lot of you know, it gives
you a lot of peace of mind knowing that the
experts are essentially dealing with these things as opposed to
you trying to figure it out and take a you know,
(13:18):
take away time and I.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Think you know nothing nothing.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Rob's creativity like like accounting.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
And then and legal work.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
So preserving that too is important. So also structuring is
is important too.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
And a lot of I've.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Seen this with a lot of artists or a lot
of people in the creative industry where they're doing everything
fantastic right They're they're creating something that people love and
people are either listening to or watching or supporting in
some some sort of way, and it's profitable and everything's
going great, but they're just not structured, uh in a
(13:58):
way that protects them if something goes bad.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And and you know.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Workum la, so a lot of things you know, do
go bad and the tendency consue and it's big in
the industry too, and then if you're not structured correctly,
you know, everything ends up being fair game, and it
could be really you know, devastating for some people and
some times. So yeah, it's all sorts of things that
(14:24):
we can help with and we try to do. And
at our firm, you know, we we have no interest
in having five thousand clients, six thousand clients, ten thousand
clients because we really care.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
About our client's goals, so we are.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
A little bit selective on who we work with. And
to reiterate something you said earlier, which is it's good
to have a mix of both where you know, the
artist or the client is kind of interested in learning
how the accounting is done and kind of learning from
themselves too.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
That's also super important. Right.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
We love working with people that not only care to
have their you know, things done right, but they also
want to learn, so that's always a bonus. It's so
that ends up the best you know, clients end up
with the best relationships end up being those with people
that want to learn and kind of are you know,
(15:26):
interested in doing things themselves too.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
So yeah, and I think it's great for people to
be aware about their accounting and interesting and interested in learning,
but like you said, if they're not doing it one
hundred percent correctly. It's better to you know, pass that
along to an expert so they can spend their time
being utilizing that time instead of you know, taking on
(15:53):
extra work.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
Yeah, there's a lot you know, in accounting.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
It tough even for us EPA to.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Know everything, and we have to every two years, we
have to renew our license and there's about eighty hours
of new information that we have to you know, sit
through and listen to and digest and learn and just tool.
So and you know, tax a lot is changing every day.
So you know, maybe not every day, maybe it doesn't
(16:24):
affect people, you know, every day, but every couple of.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Years something major changes and.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
So it's i mean for a business owner, it would
be impossible, right to keep up with with all these
regulations you know, state, local, federal, payrolls, all these things
that change constantly. So yeah, I think it's super important
to have somebody that you are working with closely, that
(16:53):
you have a good relationship with, that understands.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Your business, understand where you want to go, and.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
You know, and understand you because it is it does
come down to trust. So it's important to be for
it to be someone that you're able to trust and
work with on a long term. So yeah, those you know,
we're blessed enough to have a lot of those clients
and we have a number of them that are in
(17:23):
the creative industries and.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
We're helping, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
We're hoping that grows. So but again, super picky. I'm
gonna be honest, We're super super picky with who we
work with.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Yeah, and you know, we're in the middle of tax
season right now. Everyone's getting their tax forms, and especially creatives,
they're probably getting a million tax forms from a bunch
of gigs they played this past year. You know, just
like you said, every couple of years there's tax rules changing.
Oh I have to fill out this form now or
(17:58):
I can't claim this anymore. So you have to, you know,
stay in the know with what's going on with that.
And you know, like you said, you're very picky about
what clients you have. So maybe someone is an independent musician.
They're making pretty good money with what they're doing, but
maybe they're not quite at the point where they financially
(18:22):
can work with an accountant. So what are some things
they can do to start managing their own finances so
they can become as profitable as they can to eventually
work with an accountant.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Yeah, great question. So and and this usually comes up
with with most most of the.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
People that we.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
You know, I talk to personally or the team talks to,
and we feel like they're not quite ready, you know,
for this kind of relationship with with a CPA on
a monthly or on a yearly basis. And the answer
is always, you know, we point them out in the
(19:05):
right direction to where they can manage it and at
least do it, you know, better than they were doing
it before. And it always comes down to the same
couple of things. So it's a structuring yourself correctly, right,
whether that's let's for example, let's say you are an
independent artist, you know, having some sort of corporation or
(19:30):
some sort of limited liability company where you're protected and
your personal assets are protected should something go you know
wrong and you get into a lawsuit or something along
those lines. So that's really the first in order.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Secondly, it's tracking everything right. There's a bunch of tools.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
There's a bunch of there's free tools, there's some subscription
based tools that you can use to keep track of
everything literally from royalties and money coming in to expenses,
that you have to studio costs, to marketing, to all
these things that you know a lot of times you
(20:14):
know you incur, but you may not necessarily track it
or even think of it as a deductible expense.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So my number one.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Suggestion for from tracking your income and your expenses is
quick Books online. It's super simple. You can link it
to a bank account, especially after you structure yourself correctly
and you have let's say corporation, you can link that
bank account to your to your QuickBooks and.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Back everything literally. And there might be things that are
not deductible and personal expenses, and you know, you could
throw this, throw those under.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
You know, personal expenses and make it a non deductible
for on the tax side. So and a lot of
those clients that are you know, they're like, Okay, I'm
not quite ready to commit to this, or yeah, I'm
not making enough money to be able to afford you,
or just the relationship as the right end up getting
(21:16):
us to just review these, you know, the books at
the end of the year, which we're happy to do,
and then they can send it to us or they
can send it to their you know, C C, P,
A or EA or whoever they're or you know, agent
r blog whoever they use to to father.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Taxes and like that.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
They have at least a little bit more peace of
mind knowing that, Okay, a CPA reviewed this, you know,
they pointed out the adjustments that have to make, or
maybe they even made the adjustment. So yeah, So tracking
being structured correctly, I think those are the two things.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
And and understand the you know, what.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Is personal what is business sort of expensive, so we
can this is very like it depends on the circumstance.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It depends on the client, It depends.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
On the nature of every sort of transaction. But normally
we're able to kind of help them guide themselves into
understanding which is business related expensive and which are not,
so it helps them clean up their books also.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Right, And I think even with the QuickBooks app, you
can track your miles so when you're on the road,
gigs track your miles that way. Just do what you
can with these automated automated apps to make you know
everything easier for tracking. And if you're still in the
mindset where you don't want to be a part of
(22:50):
the business, you want to be aware, but you don't
want to do it, maybe delegate it to a manager
or someone else on your team who can at least
assist you with it, so that way you can still
build your way up to being able to work with
an accountant and have them review your tracking throughout the year.
(23:12):
And I know you said you do a lot with
taxes with clients and bookkeeping. It sounded like you worked
in auditing. Does your company still work in auditing for
clients a lot?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Yeah? So I actually started my accounting career as a
financial reporting on there where we basically would go to
big public companies and check their accounting systems and got
to see if transactions are getting recorded and processed in
(23:48):
the manner that they should.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Right now, at.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Sarah Accounting and Consulting, we're more so focused on the
tax side and the tax planning side, and the books
keeping and and on that side of the business. I
left auditing, especially financial reporting auditing, because I felt like
it was not as rewarding. And even though you are
(24:16):
working with the client and you're helping the client inn directly,
you know, fix their fix their issues, and you know,
in order to be.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Able to remain public.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
In order to be able to you know, sell stocks
right and and protect their investors. It didn't always you know,
they don't.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Always receive it that way, so it.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Was it was like indirectly rewarding.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
So I switched.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
I switched to tax and didn't really look back for
that reason.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Right now, I mean, we're.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
A full service firm, but we don't typically we don't
do financial audits. We do help clients with irs audits,
with assisting them representing them, you know, especially the clients
that we work with very closely.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
We have kind of two tiers of clients, right.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
There are year end clients that are they do their
own bookkeeping or you know, or they don't do any bookkeeping,
and they come to us at the end of the
year and we do whatever is needed and we file taxes.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
And then we have.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
What we call our platinum clients, which are essentially monthly clients.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right, so they're kind of a.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Retainer and we do everything in real time, and that
way we're able to make the adjustments in real time
as opposed to retroactively and really benefit the clients throughout
the year, helping them make the right decisions.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
And you know, a.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Lot of it is accounting based, some of it is
also just business decisions. That you know, once the client
understands the text implications of that decision, it usually helps
them make the right decision in terms of cash flows
and in terms of you know, future you know, the liabilities,
whether it's the irs or however whoever it might be too.
(26:17):
So so yeah, so we've stepped away from auditing a
little bit, but we're you know, but that experience definitely
does help me because you know, now I can read
financials a lot better than I think I would have
if I didn't have to auditing. The experience and I
(26:39):
can usually pinpoint if something is wrong in the financials
a little bit quickly because I've just done it so
many times in the past. So in hindsight, great experience
and it helps me today.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
But yeah, we were.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
More so focused on, you know, the bookkeeping that they
data to day's stuff, and also the tax planning, which
is I think it's the most important thing. It's is
tax planning. But in order to do tax planning, you
need to you need to a have real financials that
are you know, inclusive of everything that's going on and
(27:19):
when you're not missing anything. And also it really helps
when everything is done in real time.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So the adjustments could be made in real time. Right.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
You might have a company that's doing super great, but
there is a you know, there's a sink somewhere some
you know, one of the activities is just not doing well,
and if you don't do the accounting in real time,
you will not be.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Able to identify that till the year is closed.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
And sometimes that could be a big deal for clients
because they end up losing money.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
For twelve months as opposed to two months, three months.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Right or maybe some Sometimes a simple change can help
fix that issue. So that's why we try to focus
on clients that are super you know, willing to learn
and also concerned about accounting.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Right. They take it seriously and they.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Want to make sure that the company is healthy. But yeah, no,
no financial reporting guard.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
So that's the long answer.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Okay, Yeah, and I guess it helps you guys if
you know they're doing it in real time, sending you
everything in real time. That way, you don't have to
wait until the end of the year to show results
to your clients. You can you know, call them up
in two months and say, hey, you're kind of bleeding
money in this area. We need to exactly to fix there.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Exactly. I think that.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Adds the most value, you know, and also when you
do everything in real time, there's no there's little to
no surprises at the end of the year, right there's
there's surprises if we were unaware of something that's going on.
But when we get these clients and we on board them,
we make sure, you know, to cover everything right, every
(29:15):
bank account they have, every credit they have, every vendor
they have, every customer they.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Have, every relationship they have.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
We you know, read up and understand every state they're
working in, every city they're working in. So we try
to onboard them properly. And we've you know, we've been
lucky enough to where all our clients that have been onboarded,
they've been on boarded properly, so there's really no surprises.
(29:43):
And throughout the year, we do estimate calculations, you know,
for the business for that person person that owns the business,
so they know before the year closes, if things are
going the way they're going.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
You know, companies going to owe this much, uh to
the I R S.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Or they're personally going to owe this much of the
I R S or California or the you know, the
city of.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
La or wherever they based out of.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
So that really helps clients with with cash flows and
with planning, and I think it adds real value to
almost any business. Even if I had my own business
and I didn't know any accounting, I think that's the
first thing I would do, is to have someone through
the accounting. Yeah, because the surprises are you know, they're
(30:33):
not good usually if you if you wait and you know,
you do it at the end of the year. If
you're you know, operating a successful business, you know, these
surprises end up being you know, having penalties and interest
on top. So it's never good to not.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Be on top of it.
Speaker 1 (30:51):
Yeah, especially if you're headed for a loss. You want
to make sure you know what's.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Going on exactly exactly, and.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You don't really work with auditing anymore. If there's an
artist that's becoming really profitable, you know, usually with major artists,
they audit every few years with their label or publisher,
which is really important because a lot of times the
label comes back and figures out there is money that
(31:21):
is owed to this artist because maybe their contract changed
and they're getting a higher royalty on an album, but
the label weighted to change it a few months later,
so they didn't get the artists didn't get paid enough.
So I think auditing is important to make up for
any lost royalties or money. But it seems like usually
(31:44):
it's major artists that do this. So would you say
that if other artists that are at a profit, they
should have someone on their team or find someone to
do auditing for them.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, I think it's you know, if it's if it's
a concern for them, right, it's usually you know, clients
bring this up, and this is all sorts of industries.
If they bring it, they you know, client might bring
this up with with the customer or a lender or
you know, if they have a loan and they say, hey,
(32:20):
I think i'm you know, i might be doing the
map here wrong, but I think I'm getting the short
end of the stake or something isn't adding up, and
we're happy to you know, go through whatever agreement it is,
you know, kind of calculated on.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Our own and tell them, hey, there's an issue.
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Sometimes you know, the client might be under the impression that,
you know, they're getting screwed on something, but we go
and we run the numbers and would say no, you know,
everything checks out.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
So it's important.
Speaker 3 (32:51):
I think if it's a big enough issue, it's a
big enough agreement, Let's say it's a record label deal,
you know, I would say, yeah, getting you know, and
there's consultants that do this, there's auditors that do this,
There's there are people that this is their niche that
they they can you know, audit. There's lawyers that do
(33:13):
this also, So definitely, I think building the right team
is number one. Right, It's if you have people that
are your advisors, whether that's your CPA, that's your attorney,
that's your assistant, whoever that is that you know can
figure out if something is wrong. I think it's always
going to benefit the business and it's always obviously.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Going to benefit you individually.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So definitely building the right team, whether that's an auditor,
an attorney and advisor, whatever that is a consultant. It's
very important that you know, these things cost money, and
I always tell my clients they can cost money, but
you know, usually they end up saving you a lot more.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
So you know, there is a good thing.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And they said, there's there's nothing worse than the cheap accountant,
or there's nothing more expensive than the cheap accountant, right,
or I'm sure the same.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Could be said about all sorts of industries.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
So you want to work with someone that knows what
they're doing, has has the experience and can add value
and you know you can build a relationship with And
I'm you know, I always say I'm picky with clients,
and I always tell my clients to be pickyback.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
So it's super important.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
It's just something that especially in our industry, it's something
that builds on years of experience.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
The longer you retain the client, the more you get
to know them, the more you get to know what's
important to them. So it's all about just building that
lasting relationship because every year I think gets better, right,
So yeah, I would say definitely if it's if it's
going to be an auditor, if you if you need
(34:59):
someone to check your numbers.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Have someone for sure.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
And we're able to do that at least on the
accounting side for our clients, but there might be other
professionals needed to and like I said before, we're usually
able to point them in the right direction and introduce
them to the right people.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Absolutely, especially if you think you're missing out on some
royalties and just talking about pennies here in streaming age.
But yeah, you're you know, owed a lot of money
for release and you're not really seeing it on statements
or missing some money from a sink placement. Don't be
afraid to reach out to someone. And with that, where
(35:43):
can listeners find you if maybe they're further interested in
having a conversation or consultation with you.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Yeah, so they can find me on the world wide
web on my website and we're also on Instagram them.
Our Instagram handle is s e R Accounting and our
email address is info at seer Accounting dot com. Our
website is seer Accounting dot com. We have our number
(36:17):
there that they can reach out. There's also a free
console consultation but then that they could click for their
information and we'll schedule a consultation with them and the
consultation is free.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
We we love meeting entrepreneurs, artists, all sorts of people
in every industry and helping them, you know, if we
can and if we're the right fit, then they're the
right fit right helping them with all their accounting and
tax needs. Also, we have our industries where we focus
(36:50):
on working with on our website, so they can check
that out too, and there's a little tab about our
services and what we do with only touched on a
few today, but there's just not enough time to go
through everything, and that tends to be where they can
find all the information.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
So yes, there's always so many details that go within accounting.
So yes, I'll link all your links in the liner
notes for listeners too. But Shahra, thank you so much
for being on the podcast today.
Speaker 3 (37:26):
Thank you, Sarah, thanks for the time and the opportunity
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