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As I've been talking with people, I keep hearing the same thing. Value. I want value for my money. They need to meet Michael and the FLEX SWOT* accounting team.

Am I biased? No. They have proven over and over again that they have one goal in mind. To provide the best value and return for those who use their services. I consider them the best offensive line in the business.

Tax season is here, and I keep seeing ads touting using software to do your taxes - that that will give you the best and easiest return. I make a living testing and breaking software and showing how inadequate it can be. Verifying that the software matches current medical, financial, insurance, and manufacturing standards. Ask me if I trust software. I don't. I trust the human interpretation of the software after it’s been verified against standards and triple checked. You need BOTH. Because we all know that offense, not just defense, wins the game.

A few years back I ran a quality check against using software vs. using a human. After testing Taxcut, H&R Block, and Turbo Tax individual and small business software packages as a possible solution for doing taxes for my business, and then having the same review done by three other accounting firms, I discovered a simple point. Human won, hands down. The software missed the nuances of the use case scenarios that I threw against them. The human interaction caught the refunds that the software would not allow, but that tax law allowed. How did I know? The Accounting Human confirmed that for me, and we ran side-by-side comparative analysis. Then I took it a step forward. Who is better - a CPA or a tax preparer? Final analysis, the CPA. Why? QUALITY. The CPA went through years of education and had experience at the corporate and small business level. They stay up on changing laws. More importantly, I found that cops make the best CPAs. Why? They know the difference between bending and staying purely black and white. Numbers and data don't lie, but having the stones to stick to the ethical interpretation of whether it was better for the client or not - that is who I want doing my taxes. Not software that is buggy or a firm that says, "You can do this...but maybe not next year." I'm willing to pay for the quality and assurance guarantee - that what I am getting for a return is honestly what I am owed. I want guidance as an individual and a business to understand how my financial decisions impact on the long haul view of life. We believed in this so much that we added accounting to FLEX -- because we wanted that constant control and oversight on all aspects of what we do here. Internal audit at all levels.

I want Michael and his SWOT team. I want the guy who knows how to stand up for what is right. I want the CPA expert witness for a Forensic Accounting case that makes the lawyer sweat because he knows he is in trouble because the analysis provided by the FLEX SWOT accounting team is honest, accurate, and ethical. That Michael, as a former police officer, won't waver knowing he and his team have the mountain of research to validate their opinion.

*A SWOT panel is a team of experts who can identify the Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats to a project/initiative.  

-Shannan De Witt, FLEX CEO