2020 - 2 FEB BUZZ

THE BUZZ

MESSAGE FROM OUR MANAGING PARTNER

Team I am very proud to announce our official inclusion on Accounting Today’s Top 100 list of accounting firms, coming in at #98 from #101 last year. We were also ranked #19 on the publication's list of Top Mid-Atlantic firms. This is a tremendous accomplishment and important strategic growth goal for our firm. Surely, it is also a testament to the work and talents of every Sax team member.

I wish to thank you all for your efforts so far this busy season. I'm receiving great reports of team members rising to the occasion and going above and beyond to get jobs done for our clients, as we can see from the Great Cards issued this month. This is the time we can best demonstrate why we are our clients’ number one advisor, and set ourselves apart from our competition.

On behalf of all Sax Partners, please extend our gratitude to your families and significant others for your time away and focused mindset on the tasks at hand. We truly appreciate your dedication and sacrifices to this firm and our work, and we value your time and your exceptional talents.

Please also remember to live out our Aspirational Statement, even when times get busy. Knowledge transfer within the organization is a top priority of Sax, and should be an everyday commitment of our team.

Thank you again for your continued hard work!

Joseph A. Damiano

Read our 2019-2020 Year in Review Here

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT RECENT WINS - Feb. 1-Feb. 29

TOTAL WINS YTD

TOTAL RECURRING WINS YTD

$1,155,500

$959,000

NEW CLIENT WINS

ENGAGEMENT TEAM

1. The Scully Group, LLC 2. Yellow Cake PLC

Ermal Luzaj & Ivonne Rayo Stephen Ehrenberg & Joseph Damiano

3. Commercial Realty Group 4. Threat Modeler Software Inc.

Stu Berger & George Livanos Joshua Chananie & Frank Centrella

5. Alessandra LaVecchia v Mario LaVecchia

Megan Sartor

6. Gujja - Yalamanchili

Megan Sartor

7. SHI International Corp.

8. The Cirqle 9. MBC Contractors Inc. 10. Venus Power-Com Supply, LLC 11. Morris Fairmont Associates Urban Renewal 12. Faith Endowment 13. East Mountain Oz Fund 14. Trylon Wire & Metal Works, Inc.

George Livanos Chris Gaffney & Vicki Hochman Ermal Luzaj Ermal Luzaj Jenn Moroz & Jason Borofsky Thomas Kopnicky & Todd Polyniak Michael Benguigui & Stu Berger Larry Gradzki & Michael Benguigui

HUMAN RESOURCES

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to the newest members of our Sax family.

Adam Carcione

IT Intern | Clifton | 2.10.2020

Suketa Shah

Admin Temp | NYC | 2.20.2020

CJ Kaminsky

Admin Intern | NYC | 2.24.20

Craig Cassano Gladys Lombos Leslie Nash

Tax Director | Clifton | 2.25.20 Account Service Associate | Clifton | 3.1.20 Stat Typist / Proofreader | Clifton | 3.11.20

The following employees are no longer with the firm. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.

Rachael Langlais Sequoya Hill

Stat Typist | Clifton | 2.26.20 Admin Temp | Clifton | 1.13.20

Great Cards Ella Valdes deserves a Great Card. She is a hard worker, always positive and is willing to do what it takes to get the job done. She is managing her own heavy work load and is training the first year associates on the job. That is knowledge transfer!

She is a rising star and a great asset to our team.

Elena Klarberg deserves a Great Card. She has stepped up into a manger role on numerous engagements and is killing it! She is training staff, supervising engagements, doing her own and reviewing other’s work. And clients LOVE her. Sax just brought in a brand new client and she is running that job as manager as well. She is doing what it takes to fit it into her already full schedule. Elena is such a valuable asset to this firm.

Agata Majdanska deserves a Great Card. She has been such a great addition to our team. She is doing a great job and working hard to get her work done while training first year staff. We are so proud to see her be successful and helping others all at the same time.

Great Cards Jessica Vidal deserves a Great Card. She has gone above and beyond on a client that transitioned in a new CFO and Jessica has been dedicated to getting the work done. She earned this for sure.

John Beckerle & Kevin Sohr deserve Great Cards. Our client (Tops diner) presented us with a NJ sales tax review/analysis for a new diner they are building scheduled to open in 2021. John & Kevin were assigned to review a contract with over 450 line items to determine what amounts were eligible to be treated as capital improvements not subject to sales tax as opposed to items that would be subject to sales tax. Upon meeting with our client to review our preliminary schedules and to garner their input into determining items that permanently inherently affixed to the property, the owners of the diner exclaimed “Good job!” to both John & Kevin and one owner stated, “I never say that to anyone.”

Great Cards Breana Maher deserves a Great Card. She is doing a great job and working extra late nights to get jobs done. Her focus is on completing tasks vs. meeting weekly hourly requirements. She doesn’t want jobs to get pushed if they can be completed.

Breana deserves a great card for keeping on top of her assignments and for all her hard work and dedication.

Lisa Meyers deserves a Great Card for going above and beyond in all that she does. She has really helped to sort out GFR issues among countless other things that aid in the productivity of the firm.

John King deserves a Great Card for the extra effort he put in to making sure time sensitive work got done for an upcoming client by working past midnight to complete it. This was on top of the other jobs he was assigned to and already working late hours on. John’s commitment to client service and his diligence in exceeding expectations is exemplary and personifies the Sax commitment to excellence.

He is a valued member of the Sax team.

ANNOUNCEMENTS | REMINDERS

Congratulations to Gregg Munn on his new baby!

Cortland Marvin was born on February 12 at 9:16am weighing 7lbs, 14oz and 19.5 inches long.

Congratulations to Michelle Van Soest on her new baby!

Anthony Michael was born January 18 at 6:02 am, weighing 4lbs, 13oz and 17.52 inches long. He graduated from the NICU on March 5th.

Congratulations to Lisa Mela on passing her CPA exams!

We're excited to announce a company-wide financial wellness initiative through Alerus, our retirement plan provider.

The stress from financial worries impacts all of us. It affects our personal lives at home and productivity at work. While you might know Alerus as just a retirement plan provider, they're a full-service financial institution that is built to help you with all of your finances. They've been working for years to answer the challenges of financial stress.

As a participant in our company retirement plan, you now have access to MY ALERUS. You can log in today at https://myalerus.com/.

MY ALERUS is a new digital tool designed to give you a truer, more complete picture of your financial health. Additionally, it provides tools you can use to feel more secure and self-assured when it comes to your money.

To track and take control of all of your financials, just log in, import your accounts, set your goals, and start your personal path to financial confidence.

Here are some helpful resources to understand the new Alerus tools: Overview Video

Financial Wellness Video

Demo Video

K: DRIVE & PROPERLY STORING DOCUMENTS

As we complete our work during this busy season, please be diligent in storing electronic documents in their correct location, whether GFR or Caseware.

The K: drive location is only intended as a temporary file storage location. Over the years, the K: drive has become a long term storage location and we never revisit many of the files to remove them.

This busy season, let’s get the current year documents into the applications they belong - GFR or Caseware.

A MESSAGE FROM HR

As COVID-19, more commonly referred to as coronavirus, continues to spread around the world, the health of our people is of the utmost importance to Sax. The best way to prevent the spread of any illness is to practice good health hygiene practices, such as these: Avoid contact with sick people.

Wash hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 seconds— scrubbing the front and back of your hands, fingers and under each nail. If soap and water is not available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol.

Stay home if you or a family member are sick—do not come into the office or report to a client site. If you are well enough to work, you may work remotely from home. If you are too sick to work, you should take PTO. Do not travel if you are sick. This is especially important as symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to other respiratory illnesses, and airlines and airports are screening and/or taking heightened precautions, including potential segregation or quarantine, for travelers who are displaying symptoms of respiratory illness.

If you take public transportation or are in any crowded location, follow local guidelines and wash or sanitize your hands according to the instructions in point #2 after your travel or event is complete.

If you become sick, seek medical care immediately. It is advisable to call your doctor, emergency room or urgent care center before you arrive and tell the doctor about your symptoms and any recent travel.

To keep our offices healthy: We recommend frequent cleaning and wiping down of surfaces at the beginning and end of each day—to help prevent the spread of germs.

Clorox wipes are available.

Client service: It is critical that we maintain a high level of service to our clients during this time, as well as following good practices to help keep their workplaces healthy.

Individuals who are working onsite at a client should follow the health hygiene practices and tips for keeping offices safe and healthy that are outlined above, as well as any additional precautions required by the client.

If there is any anticipated impact to deadlines, please communicate early and often with the client.

Travel: We continue to monitor guidance from the CDC, World Health Organization (WHO), and other applicable government agencies as it relates to travel, trade, quarantine and screening. Currently we are recommending: Do not travel if you are sick If you have personally traveled or have family in your home that has traveled internationally you should adhere to a 14-day quarantine (or the most current CDC guidance) and contact Sharon Bleibtreu.

At this time there are no travel restrictions in place within the U.S.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to HR. Thank you for helping keep Sax and our clients safe and healthy.

A MESSAGE FROM IT

To best manage all the technology support requests that Sax has, please create your IT ticket by emailing:

support@saxtechnology.com This ensures your IT request is properly handled and categorized based on severity. Thank you for your continued cooperation. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Ransomware can and will cripple our Firm if we are compromised. During this busy tax season, it's very important that we do not fall for email scams and phishing messages that reach our inbox.

Upon receipt of any messages that look phony, please discard the email immediately. If you are unsure or skeptical, chances are that the message is bogus and should be deleted. Our system can only intercept known spam methodologies and scammers are using techniques to circumvent these systems.

If you feel you need a refresher on this phishing topic, please email support@saxtechnology.com and we can resend you a short online curriculum to get you up to speed.

CALL FOR COMMITTEE MEMBERS!

With our new office move happening in 2020, now is our chance to start fresh with efficiencies and protocols that benefit our company and decrease our firm's carbon footprint.

Do you have an interest in conceptualizing and implementing new ideas and strategies that can help make a positive change at Sax and our environment?

Email the Green Committee at gogreen@saxllp.com to join the intiative!

Our Mission To educate and support our employees and our community in acting in an environmentally responsible manner by promoting waste reduction, recycling, and purchasing sustainable products in the workplace. Our aim is to develop goals, policies and practices to improve the well-being of our environment, and to be the bridge between new ideas that benefit our environment and their practical implementation.

Our Vision To create an inherent mindset within our firm to act in a more environmentally responsible manner by creating sustainable habits that conserve natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint.

ANYTHING TO ADD? Email marketing@saxllp.com