The March Bottom Line Bulletin is Available!

Check out the KOS "Bottom Line Bulletin" Newsletter if you haven't already!  This month we are featuring an article by Partner, Alan Kalfen entitled "Prevent Banking Blunders" and also an article by Senior Accountant, Diana Spatoulas entitled "The Path to a Medical Nest Egg: A Health Savings Account." As always there is a section on news around KOS featuring many of our own being appointed to different CPAAI Association Committees.

You can view our newsletter on our website at http://www.koscpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/March-2016-Newsletter.pdf

If you would like to receive an email notification of our monthly newsletter, please contact Kristin Kentra, Marketing Director at kkentra@koscpa.com to get on our list!

Experimentation in Business

The one thing that every business is assured of is that things change.  Whether it’s a change in your team, your customers or your market, as business owners, we are constantly working hard to adapt to these changes and capitalize on the opportunities that change can bring.

While working with many business owners, we find that what worked to make their organization successful in the past, may not be the optimal solution for them in the future. In order to continue to be a successful enterprise in today’s market, our systems, our cultures, and our leadership styles need to be adjusted and adapted.

To meet the challenges of today’s changes, our organizations need to adapt in such a way that require not only innovative thinking, but also require the willingness to experiment with trying something new. When you embark on experimenting with new ideas for change in your business, there are some key points to keep in mind:

• Brainstorm with your team what specific change you can make and the impact it would have on the organization.
• Answer the question: What results do we want to see with the change?
• Gather data related to the change you want to make and ask relevant questions.
• Evaluate how you will measure the change.
• Decide which change will be made, execute a plan, and set a time frame for the team to meet to evaluate the change.
• Determine whether the change was effective and whether it should be kept, modified or discarded.
• Try again until you get the results you were looking for.

At KOS we are currently engaged in an experiment for changing the dress code policy in 2016. Our goal is to help our team members be more comfortable while working the long hours of our busy season. We decided to extend our casual dress wear policy from Friday only, to all business work days. We agreed that we would try this experiment for six months. After six months, we will get feedback from the team regarding the effectiveness of the change, and determine whether to make the change permanent, modify it, or try something else. 

Every experiment for change will be not successful. Sometimes an experiment will fail and we have to try something else. When those failures happen, we need to do a careful review of the results and work towards a better solution.

Thinking of trying an experiment for change in your business? Have you tried an experiment and it didn’t work? Feel free to reach out to your contact at KOS, we will be happy to discuss how we can help your business experiments be a success.

KOS Partner Geoff Harlow - Smart Money, Brilliant CPA

Congratulations to KOS Partner, Geoff Harlow, who can be seen on the Illinois CPA Society's tax tips series, "Smart Money, Brilliant CPA."  The goal of these tips is to give viewers financial planning advice for all areas of their lives.

Topics that Geoff spoke on included: "What Medical Expenses are Tax Deductible?" and "Which Education Tax Credits are Best for Me?"

To view the video and gain helpful insight please click on the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOGkBl54Dfo&index=5&list=PLaHkcFDCc9c18pOoqlrvzRYvs_d8QAmnu

As always, if you have any questions or need additional advice, please contact your KOS Advisor.

Did you know? Check it out!

Did you know that the Illinois State Treasurer is safeguarding more than $2 billion in recovered cash and property? Some if it could be yours! 1 in 4 Illinois adults discovers property to claim when they search the Illinois Treasurer’s I-Cash database.

You might have cash from an old bank account, uncashed paychecks, unclaimed insurance benefits, or other recovered property. You never know what you might find.

Simply go to http://bit.ly/icashshare to search your name. If there’s a match, you can start your claim process right away.

Good Luck!

KOS Implements New Company Policy

KOS has developed a Personnel Committee whose primary goal is to discuss personnel-related issues, policies and procedures and other performance and talent management issues with the goal of making KOS the best possible workplace.

First order of business has been to recognize changing workplace trends in the industry and create a more comfortable and enjoyable workplace. All employees working in the office and not meeting with clients will be able to wear jeans Monday through Friday..

“Our philosophy has always been on delivering the best client experience and we want our professionals to always remain dynamic and engaged,” states Managing Partner Jeff Arnol. “We recognize that workplace trends are changing and we want to make sure our employees understand that we are staying current on these developments,” Human Resource Director Julie Jesso adds, “The new policy has already been put into effect and well received.”

For more information on KOS, visit www.koscpa.com.

Changes to Key Sections of the Illinois Unemployment Act

In December 2015 legislation was signed into Illinois law which changed key sections of the Illinois Unemployment Act.  These changes to Illinois law have taken effect on 1/3/2016 and add some clarification to the existing rules about terminating employees for misconduct.

Prior to this legislation when terminating an employee for misconduct, employers found it difficult to substantiate misconduct when terminating a poor employee due to the definition of misconduct provided by the state.  For purposes of the state misconduct was defined as “the deliberate and willful violation of a reasonable rule or policy of the employing unit, governing the individuals behavior in performance of his work, provided such violation has harmed the employing unit of other employees or has been repeated by the individual employee despite a warning or other explicit instruction from the employing unit.”

Many times when an employee was terminated due to true misconduct, the state would award unemployment benefits to the employee because the employer has the burden of proof to prove misconduct by the employee based on the law in Illinois.  When an employer would fail to prove misconduct in the termination of an employee, the state would award unemployment benefits to the employee, which would result in a higher tax bill for the employer for the next three years.  Employers were left frustrated not only from having to deal with a poor employee, but needing to pay higher unemployment taxes.

The legislation enacted on 1/3/2016 does not change the definition of misconduct but does add eight specific instances to help better define the term misconduct when representing your company in front of the IDES:

• Falsification of an employment application or other documentation provided to an employer.
• Failure to maintain licenses, registrations, certifications reasonable required by the employer, or those that the individual is required to possess by law.
• Knowing, repeated violation of the attendance policies of the employer that are in compliance with State and Federal law.
• Damaging the employers property through conduct that is grossly negligent.
• Refusal to obey an employer’s reasonable and lawful instruction, unless the refusal is due to the lack of ability, skill or training for the individual that would result in an unsafe act.
• Consuming alcohol or illegal or non-prescribed prescription drugs, or using an impairing substance in an off-label manner on the employers premises during working hours in violation of the employer’s policies.
• Reporting to work under the influence of alcohol, illegal, non-prescribed or impairing substance.
• Grossly negligent conduct endangering the safety of individuals and co-workers.

With this expanded definition of misconduct employers can now be represented in front of the IDES and  better protect themselves from paying higher taxes resulting from an employee’s misconduct and relieve some of the frustration generated by a bad hire.

Please contact your KOS representative about any questions you may have about working with the IDES or how unemployment taxes affect your business.

KOS 2016 Economic Outlook Breakfast - Another Successful Event!

Thank you to all the attendees of the 2016 Economic Outlook Breakfast last Thursday, January 14th at the Chicago Botanic Garden.  This was the fifth year that KOS has hosted this event and we had another wonderful turnout.  It is always so great to see many of our clients and friends in one room.  A special thank you to our fantastic speakers this year: Beata Kirr of AllianceBernstein L.P., Wade Lewis of The Wade Street Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Spencer Klein of MB Financial Bank NA. 

We look forward to continuing this event and other events throughout the year.  We are always welcome to any suggestions for topics or event ideas as we constantly look to serve our clients in the best possible way.  Please contact Kristin Kentra at 847-580-4100 or kkentra@koscpa.com concerning any KOS special events.