
	Would your business be more profitable? Would you have fewer late nights? Would you feel a greater sense of control? Would you have more time to focus on other areas of your business? Would you reach your goals faster? At Nth Degree CPAs, we can help. Read on to learn more.

WE PROVIDE an offering THAT INTEGRATES tax planning and PREParation
with accounting and CFO-LEVEL FINANCIAL GUIDANCE

We're a Seattle cpa financial consultancy firm that works with small business owners to expand their financial capabilities at all points throughout the year.

Unlike conventional accounting firms that focus on tax-prep, that have
primarily transactional relationships with their clients, and that do the bulk
of their work in the first three months of the year—we seek long-term
partnerships where we can help our accounting clients avoid financial pitfalls and
maximize profit opportunities throughout the entire year.

Our accounting services fit into three stages, each of which builds on the former.
As we tell all our clients, to make good decisions, you need good financial data.
Bad accounting leads to bad decisions.

You'll find we're much different than THE CONVENTIONAL SEATTLE CPA firm

While the accounting industry does a lot of things right, we believe the
conventional approach has some serious shortcomings:

If the majority of a CPA's work (and annual billing) is crammed into the short window before tax day, how can they possibly be responsive to you during this time? The irony that most accountants are least accessible when they're most needed is not lost on us.
How can your accountant help you grow your business if they're always looking backward?
How can a firm provide strategic financial guidance if they're only seeing a fraction of your finances?

Nth Degree was founded with the idea that there is a better way
to help businesses with their financial, accounting and bookkeeping challenges. Below are just three of the things we do differently:

	FIXED FEE CPA BILLING: We're a fixed fee accounting shop. This means we always tell you up front what a project will cost. Why take this approach? First off, when it comes to accounting billing, nobody likes surprises. Secondly, we've found that clients are reluctant to give us a call or set up a meeting when they know it will start a ticking clock. This reluctance to communicate ultimately hurts both parties. You don't get the advice you need, and we don't get the information we need to stay on top of your business challenges and opportunities.

	ONGOING PROGRAMS, NOT ONE-OFF PROJECTS: All of our client engagements are structured as annual programs, not one-off transactions. Why? Accounting clients like that we're contributing to their business all year long, that this billing approach levels out their cash flow, and that they can avoid the end-of-year panic most people associate with accounting.

	CLOSE COLLABORATION: Our accounting services are designed to serve as an extension of your business— think of us as an instant Finance Division with Fortune 100 and Big 4 accounting experience. We put a tremendous amount of emphasis on understanding your entire business and we go out of our way to communicate all of our solutions clearly (and jargon-free). To ensure that we're always up-to-speed on the changes taking place in your business, we require clients meet with us at least twice per year. How do we provide this level of service? We maintain a smaller list of clients per partner than at conventional accounting firms—and our services are more expensive—but as our clients will tell you, we're also able to deliver a far greater return on investment.

A few ways we've helped clients overcome financial hurdles & increase their profits

	Client was facing a short-term liquidity crisis. We analyzed their financials to uncover root causes and provided an action plan to immediately correct the systemic issues and manage their way out of the liquidity crisis.			We reviewed a client's books as part of a tax planning exercise and identified that the prior tax preparer was incorrectly including accounts receivable and accounts payable. We amended the tax returns and the client received over $12k in taxes back from the IRS.
	Client's books were not delivered in a timely matter by their previous bookkeeper. We implemented our proprietary paperless workflow that resulted in on-time delivery of financial statements and reduced the business owner's interaction in the accounting process by 50%.			We performed an evaluation on a client's books and determined that their outsourced bookkeeper had not reconciled several accounts for over two years. We corrected the financials and determined that income was substantially overstated and that taxes were significantly overpaid to the IRS.
	Client's business is very cyclical, which created workforce planning problems. We developed a plan to utilize contract labor that reduces the strain on the permanent employees and substantially increased profitability			Client established two financial goals: increase monthly draws by 200% and overall debt by 50% over the next twelve months. We developed a financial forecast to determine how to reach these goals and implemented a set of action steps.
	Client's workforce is compensated primarily based on commissions. We developed a solution to streamline their commission calculations model and identified calculation errors in the previous method that resulted in inconsistent payments to the workforce.			Client acquired a new business but was not receiving the appropriate financial data to assess the performance of the business. We mapped the acquired business's accounting and finance processes and developed a roadmap that results in substantial cost savings and the information necessary to assess the company's health.

A Few words from some of our many satisfied ACCOUNTING clients

1 2 3

"I am second generation of a family business and we have had four
prominent CPA firms in the last 40 years - we are loyal! However,
I have been disillusioned with the "very responsive but not a wit
proactive" approach to our business and my business goals. I have
also, through the years, hired part-time CFOs and part-time CPAs
all with varying degree of success. Nth Degree does not think
that they can do a job for a client if their only point of contact is
information presented to them at busy tax time with not the time
or the bandwidth to ask questions, etc. Sound familiar? They are
determined to present a different experience."

CEO, INSURANCE BROKERAGE

"Not only did they speed up my paperwork to get me under the
deadlines for my taxes but were very internet and tech- savvy.
They scanned in all my documents and provided me with online
copies of the returns and all my of paperwork. Did I mention
they saved me a huge pile of money?"

CEO, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY

"When I met Nth Degree, I was in a complete mess—my last
two accountants had messed up my returns or had given me bad advice
and one completely dropped the ball with an audit I was going
through with the IRS.

Fortunately Nth Degree came and saved the day—they were able
to reverse many of the mistakes made by my past accountants and
get all my personal and business tax returns in order. Despite my
tough financial situation, they were able to work with me in getting
what needed to be done turned in on time. I can not express the
gratitude and appreciation I have for Nth Degree in saving me from
a tax liability meltdown."

CEO, REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT CO.

Dan Nicholson: Founder & CEO

Dan founded Nth Degree CPAs in 2008 with the objective of building a successful practice by helping small business owners to achieve their financial goals.

A Northwest native, Dan grew up in Renton and attended Seattle University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with emphases in both Accounting and E-Commerce Information Systems.

Upon graduation, Dan was selected out of a pool of nominees from the nation's top 50 accounting programs for an exclusive fellowship with the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). As a member of the GASB team, he was responsible for managing all technical inquiries and assisted what has become Statement No. 53, "Accounting and Financial Reporting for Derivative Instruments." (For those who don't speak CPA, accountants consider setting a national standard to be a big deal).

Since then, Dan has worked in finance and accounting roles at Clark Nuber, UPS, WaMu, as well as Deloitte and Touche's Audit and Enterprise Risk Services practices where he was primarily

responsible for auditing both the financial statements and IT internal controls around the Treasury cycle at Microsoft.

Outside of work, Dan is an active participant in Seattle Rotary (Chapter No.4), and serves as President-Elect of Seattle University's Alumni Board of Governors. He bikes and runs frequently and has completed three Half-Ironman triathlon races (one to see if he could do it, and two to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society). Dan is an avid fan of both the Seahawks and Seattle University Basketball (he'd be an avid fan of the Sonics too if they were still in town...).

Dan lives in West Seattle, where he enjoys spending time with his wife and their two dogs, Meika and Payton (aka, The Glove).

NTH DEGREE IN THE NEWS

Dan was recognized in 2011 and 2012 by CPA Practice Advisor as one of their "40 Under 40".

Click to see the 2011-2013 full articles.

Nth Degree on CBS Radio

Two Minute Small Business Tips A collection of quick segments from Dan Nicholson's appearances on CBS radio (AM1090). Topics cover everything from recommended accounting tools to maintaining a healthy balance sheet to end-of-year tax planning.		Full Radio Segments (20 min) Several full length recordings from Dan's appearances on the Tina & Drew Show. These mp3 files will open in your browser.

Ready to get started? GET IN TOUCH TODAY!

Phone: 206-682-0281 / Fax: 206-319-4542 / Email: info@nthdegreecpas.com

206 1st Ave South / Suite 300 / Seattle, WA 98104

Get directions using Google Maps

Email Us

Seattle Search Engine Optimization Bellevue Federal Way

Seattle, WA CPA, Accounting and BOOKKEEPING Firm

Return to Top of Page

Home

What We Do

How We Work

Previous Engagements

Client Testimonials

Leadership

Media