Submit the intake form
You describe your practice, your entity and what you want to cover. Two or three sentences is enough, the point is that the session starts already knowing the shape of your question.
One-time expert guidance
One question, one straight answer
Not every problem needs an engagement. Sometimes you need thirty focused minutes with a CPA who has seen your exact situation forty times, so you can stop reading contradictory forum threads and make the decision.
Starting at $75, paid before scheduling
Tue–Thu, 11 AM – 2 PM ET
With Safietou D. Russell, CPA, EA, MST
When this is the right call
Paying for thirty minutes is usually cheaper than guessing for six months
Practice owners rarely stall on a decision because they are careless. They stall because the free advice available to them contradicts itself, and hiring a firm feels like a large commitment to answer one question.
A consultation exists for that gap. You bring one thing (should I elect S-corp status, is my contractor really a contractor, do I need to register in this second state, what do I do with this IRS letter, why is my QuickBooks telling me I made more than my bank account did) and you leave with a considered answer from a Certified Public Accountant who is also an Enrolled Agent with a Master's in Taxation.
No package is implied. No follow-up sequence starts. If the answer is that you need ongoing help, you will be told that plainly, and if it is that you need an attorney or a financial advisor instead, you will be told that too.
One-time guidance
One session, sized to the question you actually have
Consultations start at $75. What you pay depends on how many moving parts your question has, which is something we would rather assess than ask you to guess at.
Paid session
Business & Tax Consultation
Starting at $75length set to fit the question
Tell us what you are trying to decide on the intake form. You will hear back with the session length the question actually needs and a payment link, so you are not guessing at how long to book before anyone has seen the problem.
- Entity structure, tax questions and systems, answered by a CPA who is also an Enrolled Agent
- Bookkeeping advisory available as its own session
- Direct time with Safietou D. Russell, not a junior associate
- A written summary of what was decided, so the answer outlives the call
Intake, payment, scheduling
How a consultation is booked
Consultations are not booked straight into a calendar. There is a short review step first, and it exists to protect the value of your session.
Your request is reviewed
Safietou reads it and confirms the session length that fits. If your question genuinely needs more than one session, or belongs with an attorney or a financial advisor, you are told before you pay rather than after.
Payment link
Once the fit is confirmed you receive a payment link for the agreed session. Prices are fixed and published, so there is nothing to negotiate and no invoice to wait for.
Scheduling link
After payment, you will receive a scheduling link, usually within one to two business days. Consultations are available Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM ET.
The office is open Monday to Friday and closed Saturday and Sunday. Sessions are held by video or phone, SDR Consulting is a virtual firm serving all 50 states, so there is nowhere to drive to.
Come prepared
Thirty minutes is plenty, if you don't spend ten of them looking for a number
You are paying for expertise, not for background reading. The more of this you have to hand, the more of the session goes on answers.
- Your entity type and state. Sole proprietor, LLC, PLLC, S corporation, and where it is registered. If you are not sure, say so; that is itself useful information.
- Roughly what your practice earns and profits. Not audited figures, a working number for revenue and profit is enough to make advice specific rather than generic.
- Your most recent tax return, if the question touches tax at all. Open on your screen, ready to share.
- Any letter or notice you received, in full. Notices have deadlines and the specific notice number changes the answer.
- Who you pay and how. Employees, contractors, yourself, and whether payroll is running.
- Your questions written down, in priority order. If time runs short you want the important one answered, not the one you happened to remember first.
- Somewhere quiet, with a way to take notes. A great deal gets said in thirty minutes.
Scope, honestly
What one session can and cannot do
Being clear about this in advance is the difference between a session that felt worth it and one that did not.
What we can cover
- Entity and structure questions, which to form, whether to change, what an S-corp election would mean in principle for a practice like yours.
- Deduction and write-off questions, including the ones specific to mental health practices and what documentation makes them stick.
- Worker classification, walking through a specific clinician relationship and what it looks like.
- Understanding an IRS notice and what your realistic options are.
- Quarterly estimates, how they are calculated and what yours should roughly be.
- Bookkeeping setup and interpretation, chart of accounts, QuickBooks Online configuration, reading your own reports.
- Scoping bigger work, deciding whether you need clean-up, a full S-corp analysis or an ongoing package, and what each would involve.
What needs more than a session
- Preparing or filing a return. Tax preparation is delivered inside a package, not bought by the hour.
- A full S corporation analysis. That is a modeling exercise producing a written report, see the S Corp Strategy Report, starting at $2,497.
- Rebuilding your books. Clean-up is project work and is quoted separately after an assessment.
- Representing you before the IRS. We can explain a notice; acting on it on your behalf is a separate engagement.
- Legal advice. Operating agreements, partnership terms, employment contracts and licensure belong with an attorney.
- Investment advice. We advise on the tax treatment of retirement plans; we do not select or manage investments.
Questions, answered
Consultations, specifically
Why is there an intake form before I can pay?
So the session is spent answering rather than gathering. The intake describes your situation and what you want to cover, and it is reviewed before a payment link is issued. It also means you find out in advance if your question needs more than a single session, or belongs with an attorney or a financial advisor, rather than discovering that after you have paid for thirty minutes.
When are consultations held?
Consultations are available Tuesday through Thursday, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM ET. Office and phone hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM Eastern Time. Once payment is received you get a scheduling link, usually within one to two business days, and choose a slot that works for you. Sessions are held by video or phone.
Can you review my tax return or my books during the session?
A session can absolutely be used to walk through a return or a set of books and discuss what you are looking at, that is often the most valuable use of an hour. What it cannot be is a full technical review. Reading a return line by line, rebuilding a chart of accounts or reconstructing months of transactions is project work, not conversation. If that is what you need, the consultation is a good place to scope it and get a quote.
What is the refund policy?
Consultation fees are paid by invoice link before the session is scheduled. Refunds are available up to two business days after payment, provided the session has not taken place and is not within 24 hours of the scheduled time. Requests go to email Email Us with your name and the reason; approved refunds are processed within five to seven business days to the original payment method.