At Cray Kaiser, trust is more than a core value—it’s the foundation of every client relationship. We believe trust is earned through consistent dedication, transparency, and a deep understanding of our clients’ needs. This commitment to building trust is reflected in our work, and as our 2024 NPS score reveals, it continues to resonate with those we serve. Our clients’ trust in us is an honor and a driving force behind the high levels of satisfaction and loyalty we’re proud to see year after year.

NPS Demystified
For anyone unfamiliar with it, Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a standardized metric used across industries to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. How does it work? Customers are asked one straightforward question: “On a scale from 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our business to a friend or colleague?”

From the responses, customers fall into one of three groups:

• Promoters (scores 9-10): Your raving fans!
• Passives (scores 7-8): Happy, but not necessarily vocal about it.
• Detractors (scores 0-6): Those with concerns about your offerings
  

The formula to derive the NPS is as straightforward as the question itself—subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters.

To give some context: A score above zero is already good, surpassing 50 is deemed excellent, and anything beyond 80 is simply incredible.

Cray Kaiser: Continuing to Set New Industry Standards in 2024

Just as your numbers tell the story of your business, ours tell the story of our commitment to excellence. This year, we’re proud to have achieved an NPS score of 91, far surpassing the accounting industry’s average of 41. But our success doesn’t stop there—our score also outpaces market leaders like Costco, Amazon, and Netflix.

For us, it’s more than just a number—it’s a powerful affirmation that our clients trust and genuinely value the service we provide.

Your Trusted Advisors

At Cray Kaiser, our success hinges on your success. In 2024 and beyond, our commitment remains steadfast: prioritizing your needs, delivering impeccable accuracy in our numbers, and providing unmatched people skills. We’re here to support your growth, navigate challenges, and celebrate every milestone with you. We look forward to another year of achieving success together!

We are pleased to announce Deanna Salo, Managing Principal at Cray Kaiser has been named a 2024 Chicago Titan 100. The Titan 100 program recognizes Chicago’s Top 100 CEO’s & C-level executives. They are the area’s most accomplished business leaders in their industry using criteria that includes demonstrating exceptional leadership, vision, and passion. Collectively, the 2024 Chicago Titan 100 and their companies employ upwards of 325,000 individuals and generate over 42 Billion dollars in annual revenues.

“The Titan 100 are visionary leaders that inspire the Chicago business community. These preeminent leaders have built a distinguished reputation that is unrivaled and preeminent in their field. We are humbled to recognize the Titan 100 for their efforts to shape the future of the Chicago business community” says Jaime Zawmon, President of Titan CEO.

Deanna has been a CK Principal since 2001 and a Managing Principal since 2021. She executes assurance, strategic and tax planning services across the client portfolio. For closely-held and family-owned businesses, she focuses on the value she can bring to the family and owners. For nonprofit clients, she instills best practices in budgeting, governance issues and audit compliance procedures. Using her technical and creative talents, Deanna also performs M&A engagements for the buyer and seller sides.

 When asked her thoughts about becoming a 2024 Chicago Titan 100, Deanna responded, “Success is not just about achieving personal goals; the Cray Kaiser way is to inspire and uplift others along the way. As a Chicago Titan 100 recipient, I believe in the power of collaboration, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. Together, we can shape the future and leave a lasting impact on our community and beyond.”  

DuPage County received approximately $15,000,000 in federal funds made available through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Those funds have been approved for use in the Reinvest DuPage Grant Program beginning Monday, June 28, 2021.  The grant program will be administered by the nonprofit economic development group, Choose DuPage.

Who is Eligible?

The grant program is available to small businesses, non-profit organizations, and certain independent contractors. The grant awards can be up to $50,000 for small businesses and non-profits, and $15,000 for certain independent contractors. The disbursement of the grant funds will be based upon eligible expenses such as operating costs consisting of payroll, rents, and utilities as well as a determination of revenue decline due to COVID-19. Key eligibility components are as follows:

• The business would need to be in operation as of January 1, 2019.
• Businesses, non-profits, and independent contractors must be located in DuPage County. Merely serving DuPage County would not qualify you for the grant.
• Annual gross revenue for business and non-profits must be less than $20 million. Independent contractors must have annual gross income of less than $250,000 and derive at least 50% of the gross income from 1099 work.
• Revenue decline due to COVID-19 is measured as the period of January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2019 in comparison to January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. Please note it is a FULL year to year comparison. In computing the revenue decline you will need to include certain COVID-19 funding received such as EIDL advances, Paycheck Program Loans, etc. as revenue for the appropriate year.

What Documentation May Be Required?

In applying for the grant funds certain documentation will need to be provided such as:

• Full copies of tax returns for 2019 and 2020 (e.g., Forms 1120, 1120S, 1065 and 1040).
• Proof of eligible operating expenses (e.g., payroll, rent, and utilities). In the case of independent contractors, you will need to provide documentation of business use related to certain expenses such as utilities as these may have a component of personal use that must be excluded.
• Proof of revenue decline. It is recommended that financial statements from an accounting system such as QuickBooks be provided. Certain excel spreadsheets may be declined.
• Proof of good standing with Secretary of State or county. Valid business licenses may be used if those are required in the business.
• Completed Form W-9.

How to Apply?

You will need to complete an application online at www.choosedupage.com. The application will request a description of how your business was impacted by COVID-19 as well as information such as number of employees, NAICS/industry codes, and other business demographics. During the online application process, you will be required to disclose other COVID-19 funding received. As your application moves throughout the process, the documentation noted in the previous section will be requested.

It is recommended that any questions you have for the agency during the application process be directed to reliefgrant@choosedupage.com. Phone inquiries may not be responded to.

When Does the Grant Program Expire?

The grant program will accept completed applications on a first-come, first-served basis as long as funding is available. Once it is determined that there are more applications than funding, the agency will stop accepting new applications. 

Cray Kaiser is available to guide you through the grant application process. Please reach out to us for additional assistance.

Cray Kaiser has decades of experience in audits, including specialized audits for nonprofits and employee benefit plans. And today, we’re excited to announce the addition of another specialization: transnational audits.

Working with Russell Bedford, our firm underwent a strict AQC process to ensure the quality of our audit practice. From this certification process, it was determined that CK:

• Performs audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the U.S. (a close substitute of International Standards on Auditing)
• Has audit quality controls in accordance with ISQC 1
• Has received a positive report from an external audit inspection

We are incredibly proud of our audit team for completing this rigorous certification process over the course of the last few months. As a result of the Approved Transnational Audit Firm certification, we are now able to perform audits for organizations across the globe through Russell Bedford. We look forward to offering our services and extending the CK family internationally.

To learn more about Cray Kaiser’s audit services, please click here. If you’d like assistance with an audit you can contact us at 630-953-4900.

We are proud to announce our membership with Russell Bedford International (RBI), a global network of independent firms of accountants, auditors, tax advisers and business consultants. Ranked amongst the world’s leading accounting and audit networks, RBI is represented by over 1,000 partners, 9,000 staff members and 350 offices in almost 110 countries worldwide. RBI is a member of the IFAC Forum of Firms and a member of the European Group of International Accounting Networks and Associations.

Cray Kaiser is excited to join this expanding network and will leverage the new opportunities that our membership will yield to support our business goals. “As a highly ambitious firm, our association with a leading global brand is exactly the type of support we were looking for.” said James K. Scherzinger, partner at Cray, Kaiser Ltd. “For our team, maintaining our high-touch, personal approach while offering our clients access to comprehensive global services is a key benefit of our membership. We are already seeing results by building relationships with other members around the globe.”

RBI is also happy to have Cray Kaiser join their esteemed network. “I am delighted to welcome Cray, Kaiser as our latest member in North America, a move which comes following significant network development efforts in the region,” said Stephen Hamlet CEO at RBI. “Having met two of Cray, Kaiser’s partners at recent Russell Bedford events, I was struck by the enthusiasm of the partners and their eagerness for firm development, which we intend to support them with through their network membership. Cray, Kaiser is the perfect fit for our ambitious international network, I look forward to seeing the firm flourish among our other high-achieving members and to continuing to develop the network in North America as we seek to recruit new members in more states, strengthening our position in the region.”

To learn more about Russell Bedford International, please click here.

On June 21, 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court held that states can assert nexus for sales and use tax purposes without requiring a seller’s physical presence in the state. While you may have heard about the Wayfair case in the news, have you thought about what this may mean for your business?

Before Wayfair There Was Quill

Prior to the Wayfair case, mail, phone, or internet retailers of tangible goods used the Quill case for protection from the burden of collecting sales tax. According to Quill, the protection from sales tax burdens was possible because these retailers did not have a physical presence in the form of an office, storefront, warehouse, or merely having an employee solicit the sale of goods in that state. Therefore, without stepping foot in a given state, sales in that state could be made without charging sales tax. That meant it was up to the purchaser to pay use tax on the sale.

Wayfair Case Changes Everything!

With the Wayfair case, everything changes. Here’s what happened:

• The state of South Dakota sued Wayfair, one of the largest online retailers of home goods.
• Because South Dakota doesn’t have an income tax, sales tax makes up about 60% of the state’s funds each year. Given that online buyers’ compliance with self-assessing use tax is low, the state was losing significant funds from the reduced sales tax collections from items sold online.
• To try to counteract the loss of revenue, South Dakota enacted a law in 2016 requiring out of state sellers that annually delivered more than $100,000 of goods or services or engaged in 200 or more separate transactions for the delivery of goods or services into the state to collect sales tax in South Dakota.
• The requirement applied whether the retailer had a physical presence or not. This new law was brought before the Supreme Court and South Dakota was victorious in having the new rules apply.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the decision, reasoned that modern e-commerce no longer aligns with the Quill case. Essentially, the Quill case is outdated with the large amount of commerce that is conducted via the internet. The Wayfair decision essentially overturns the Quill case and physical presence is no longer a requirement for states to assert sales tax collection requirements.

What This Means For You

The Wayfair case will now allow all states to set their own laws in connection with interstate online sales. In fact, 31 states already have some form of laws in place. Effective October 1, 2018, retailers making sales of tangible personal property to Illinois purchasers will have to collect sales tax once Illinois sales reach $100,000 in outside sales or 200 transactions.

It is thought that the $100,000 in sales or over 200 transactions as determined in South Dakota may be the standard to determine economic sales tax nexus in other states. As noted above, this is the new standard for Illinois. If you are a retailer exceeding these numbers in states in which you don’t have physical presence, you may now have a sales tax collection and filing requirement moving forward. Congress may decide to move ahead with legislation on this issue to provide a national standard for online sales and use tax collection. We will keep you informed of future changes.

Cray Kaiser is here to help. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like guidance on a specific state’s current stance on sales tax nexus.