Accounting Powered by Chocolate

QuickBooks on SALE at Sam's Club - Ends 1/29

2012-01-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Sam's Club is offering QuickBooks Pro and Premier at discounted prices through 1/29. If you're not a member, you can sign-in as a guest and pay 10% more - still less expensive than anywhere else right now.

QuickBooks Pro is $99.73

QuiclBooks Premier is $199.73

For any business that does want to do 1099s

2012-01-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

The IRS has included two new questions on all business forms, including Schedule C, Schedule F, and Schedule E as well as Forms 1065, 1120 and 1120-S.
The questions are:
(1) "Did you make any payments that would require you to file Form(s) 1099?", and
(2) "If 'Yes,' did you or will you file all required Forms 1099?"
Please be advised that if your tax return includes activities reported on any of the schedules listed above then these questions must be answered "Yes" or "No".

Changes to IRS Reporting Regulations for 1099-Misc Tax Year 2011

2012-01-09T14:05:00.001-08:00

Have you paid 1099 contractors or vendors in the past year using payment forms other than cash or check? If so, you need to be aware that the IRS has issued new reporting regulations for tax year 2011 1099-MISC form. These regulations will exclude payment types such as credit cards, debit cards, and those from third party payment networks, like PayPal, from the 1099-MISC form that will instead be reported on the new third party form 1099-K.

For more information on the new regulations and how they impact your business or your clients' businesses, http://www.payroll.com/1099_em.

To help comply with the new regulations using QuickBooks 2009, 2010 or 2011 there are some options to choose from:

1. In tax year 2011, if you only paid a few 1099 vendors with credit cards, debit cards, or third party payment networks, like PayPal, we suggest the manual option.

Manually find and exclude the appropriate payments for:
QuickBooks for Windows
QuickBooks for Mac

2. In tax year 2011, if you paid more than a few 1099 vendors with credit cards, debit cards, or third-party payment networks, like PayPal, we suggest purchasing the QuickBooks 1099 Assistant or upgrading to QuickBooks 2012 to access the updated 1099 Wizard.

Purchase the QuickBooks 1099 Assistant (a downloadable app) to help identify and exclude the appropriate payments from your QuickBooks 1099-MISC forms; the Assistant will supplement the existing QuickBooks 1099 printing and filing features. To find out more about the QuickBooks 1099 Assistant and how to purchase it for $0.99 go to:
QuickBooks for Windows (2009, 2010 and 2011)
QuickBooks for Mac (2010-2011 only)

Note: If you are a QuickBooks ProAdvisor® a free download will be available for you later today or early next week on your ProAdvisor member website. For more information about timing and placement, please check out this blog article.

OR

3. Upgrade to QuickBooks 2012 which has, among many other features, an updated 6-step 1099 Wizard that will help identify and exclude the appropriate payments from your QuickBooks 1099-MISC forms. For more information on the updated 1099 Wizard, click here for QuickBooks for Windows or here for QuickBooks for Mac

To purchase QuickBooks or if you have other questions contact Alpha Accounting.

Alpha Accounting at the Accounting Solutions Conference

2011-11-30T17:47:00.000-08:00

Leslie and David Hamm
With Doug Sleeter after the 2011 Accounting Solutions Conference
Always learning new things

Quick and Dirty Log-In Troubleshooting

2011-11-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

If you cannot log in to your workstation as usual:

First, check your keyboard to make sure that CAPS LOCK is not turned on.

If you are using a domain account, make sure that the correct domain for your account is selected on the pull-down menu.

Clear your user name and password fields using the backspace key to make sure there aren't any extra spaces or characters, and enter your username and password slowly and carefully.

If you are still unable to log in, have someone else attempt to log in to your computer with a different account. If possible, have someone with an administrator account attempt to log in.

If a second account is also unable to log in, have someone who is logged in to a workstation verify network connectivity using the steps prescribed in our Quick and Dirty Network Troubleshooting. Loss of network connectivity will prevent your account from authenticating properly.

If the computer has been running for a long time, then often times the best fix is turning the computer off and leaving it off for 10 minutes.

If these steps don't correct the problem, you may need further assistance. Contact your network administrator, or give us a call - We're happy to help!

Contact Alpha Accounting for Network Troubleshooting

Quick and Dirty Network Troubleshooting

2011-11-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

Can you get to the Internet?
Can you get to the network drive or local server?

If these answer to both of these questions is YES, then you probably don't have a network problem, and should investigate other possibilities.

If these answer to both of these questions is NO, shut your computer down and leave it powered off for a few minutes, then power it on and test your connection again.

If you can reach the network drive or local server but cannot connect to the internet, you may have an internet outage in your area.

If you can reach the internet but cannot connect to the network drive or local server, you may have a problem with your local network.

Next, have a friend perform the same tests from another workstation.

If another workstation is able to connect then the problem is most likley localized to your computer.

If both computers can reach the internet but not the network drive or local server, you should contact your network administrator. They may need to reboot the server. This is typically a last resort, and is usually the sort of thing that can get you fired if you try to do it yourself.

If none of the workstations on your local network can reach the internet or the network drive, power off the cable/dsl modem and router. Wait a few minutes and then turn the modem on. Wait a few more minutes before powering up the router.

If all of the workstations still cannot reach the internet, you may have an network outage in your area and should check with your internet provider.

If all of your workstations still cannot reach the internet OR the network drive/local server, there may be a hardware issue with your modem or router, and you should notify your network administrator.

FAQ: You own two companies, so how do you handle when your customer pays the wrong company ?

2011-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Question:
What is the simplest/best way to handle:
Invoice to customer under Company 1
Customer writes check to Company 2

Answer:

Go directly to the Make Deposit window (do not make an invoice) in Company 2 and enter the deposit.
In the From Account column choose the account in the chart of accounts labeled something like Due To/From Company 1 (if you don’t have one set one up – it should be an “other current asset”or “other current liability”), use the memo section to explain the deposit.
Then in Company 1 receive the payment against the invoice and when you get to the make deposit window enter the same type account labeled due/to from Company 2 on the second line with a negative amount to zero out the deposit.
Then if you actually move the money later; treat that like you would any transfer between companies – Using the Due To/From Accounts.

What does having a TWAIN compatible scanner mean?

2011-11-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

The design of TWAIN began in January, 1991. The TWAIN group originally launched in 1992 by several members of the imaging industry, with the intention of standardizing communication between image handling software and hardware.

Review of the original TWAIN Developer's Toolkit occurred from April, 1991 through January, 1992.
The word TWAIN is not an official acronym; however, it is widely known as "Technology Without An Interesting Name." The official website notes that "[this name] continues to haunt the standard.”
The word TWAIN is from Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West" — "...and never the twain shall meet..." — reflecting the difficulty at the time of connecting scanners and personal computers.

We have surely come a long way…

FREE QuickBooks Enterprise Seminar

2011-11-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

FREE QuickBooks Enterprise Breakfast Seminar

Learn about the new features of
2012 QuickBook Enterprise
at a FREE Breakfast Seminar

Join Alpha Accounting at the Morrisville Chamber on November 29th at 8:30 am for a complimentary breakfast and all the greatest updates to 2012 QuickBooks Enterprise.

RSVP to 919.217.5215 #0

FAQ: Processing Cash Receipt from Non-Client

2011-10-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

Question:
How do I process the cash receipt for a check that is not from a client? This check is from our sublet renter for the reimbursement of their rent which we pay the landlord.

Answer:
You will go directly to the make deposit screen and put the sublet renter name in the received from name field , then select the rent expense account in the from account field and then the amount paid in the total column.

If you are adding in a deposit along with customer payments, just select the customer payments and then add the line for the other payment.

FAQ: Separating Services and Reimbursement for Independent Contractors

2011-10-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

Question:
We have some 1099 employees who will get paid for services but will also be reimbursed for expenses. The only items that should go towards a 1099 is the compensation for their services. How can we work this to make sure the expenses are not included in their 1099 at year end? Do I have to set up 2 separate accounts for the same person or is there something we can do and be able to use the same account for both compensation and reimbursement?

Answer:
First off, they are not employees, they are independent contractors. They receive no benefits. They don't receive a regular "paycheck" or have a regular "payday", they must fall under the independent contractor rules.

Both Federal and State have rules about independent contractors. Although the rules are the same for both they differ slightly in how they are enforced. I would recommend looking at the federal rules as they are easier to understand.

NC Rules for Independent Contractors – apply to employers under 25 employees.

Federal Rules for Independent Contractors – apply to employers with over 25 employees.

Here is an easy way to be sure you have an independent contractor.
Ask this question:
Can they send someone else in their place to do the work required?
(In other words can one of their employees/ partners or contractors with the same expertise do the project in their place, if not you may have an employment situation instead of an independent contractor.)

Now to the answer:
How you track the amounts separately in QuickBooks.
When they submit their invoices for their services, you should code the services to one account that is mapped to a 1099 category and the expense reimbursements to another account that is not mapped to a 1099 category. You may have to set up sub accounts for this in your chart of accounts, but the other important thing is to map the accounts in preferences. To track 1099s both the account and the vendor must be marked as eligible. Most users miss this side of the equation.

FAQ: Learning to Use QuickBooks

2011-10-19T06:25:00.000-07:00

QUESTION: Is there a tutorial or manual available to review? I'd like to become a little familiar with some of the terminology and concepts before starting using QuickBooks.

ANSWER: There is the QuickBooks New User Resource Center which offers a ton of great tips for first time users. Additionally, I would recommend opening a sample company and playing around with the software before you begin inputting data.

Once you have a sample file open you can access video tutorials

New Features of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0

2011-10-03T19:36:00.000-07:00

Intuit has released QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0 and there are a ton of new and improved features. Check them out...

NEW! Calendar View. Integrated calendar feature lets you easily view timely information, including invoice and billing dates and other scheduled tasks. Improved To-Do List captures your most relevant dates and displays them in the Calendar View. Past due transactions are automatically flagged.

This is a global view not unique to the user.

IMPROVED! Excel Integration Refresh. Save formatting and save time. Now when you export your QuickBooks reports to Excel, simply refresh your previously saved worksheet and your formats will be applied to the new report. QuickBooks remembers your Excel formats so you can work seamlessly.

Awesome new feature

IMPROVED! Memorized Transactions. Let QuickBooks do your most frequent and time-consuming tasks for you. In addition to automatically executing recurring transactions like weekly and monthly bills and invoices, you can now easily select which transactions to run and which to postpone. Includes new bi-monthly option.

Great way to do repetitive tasks I really like the bi-monthly option.

NEW! Document Center (formerly Attached Documents, now a NEW feature). Get organized by scanning and attaching receipts, estimates and other important business documents to your QuickBooks records with drag and drop ease. The new QuickBooks Document Center lets you store files locally on your hard drive. A major advantage at tax time.

You control where your documents are stored. ALSO, now its Free…..

NEW! Lead Center. QuickBooks helps you create and manage your valuable business leads. The new QuickBooks Lead Center also easily imports and tracks your existing leads. When a lead becomes a customer, move all the lead information to the Customer Center with a single click.

A good start, Really like the ability to track multiple contacts- now we need to be able to move the multiple contacts to the customer center.

NEW! Batched Invoices for Time and Expenses. Now you can invoice multiple customers for time and expenses in one convenient batch. Create a single invoice for customers who share regularly scheduled expenses and QuickBooks will process them, no additional reentry needed.

EFFICENCY MAXIMIZED!

NEW! Batched Time Sheets. Now you can process multiple vendor and employee time sheets in one convenient batch. Create a single time sheet for employees and vendors who share the same work hours, and QuickBooks will process them all with no additional reentry.

Great for those who have crews.

NEW! Popular Reports. QuickBooks gives you access to report templates created by other QuickBooks users in your industry. Search by popularity, user rating and industry. Choose the template you like and QuickBooks will populate the report with your business data in one click.

Check them out add your own, be a part of the report community.

NEW! Inventory Center. Easily find and locate inventory tasks by accessing your inventory items and reports all in one place with QuickBooks Inventory Center. Now add a notes field or image to each item for quick identification. (note: image capabilities available in ES only)

Great new way to look up an item and its history…

QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Advanced Inventory
NEW! Serial number or lot tracking - conveniently track serial numbers and lot numbers right inside QuickBooks.

THIS IS AN EITHER OR NOT BOTH

Enter serial numbers and lots at the time of purchase, transfer, or sale - this means no additional data entry is required for reliable tracking.  
You can track defective lots through assemblies and subassemblies , in stock on shelves, and customer purchases with new reports.

NEW! FIFO Inventory Costing - Now you have the flexibility to work in FIFO costing in addition to average costing for tracking inventory. Easily switch between costing methods whenever you want.

BE CAREFUL THIS CAN GET YOU IN LOADS OF TROUBLE> good option for new businesses.

Track inventory in multiple locations - Track inventory through multiple warehouses, trucks or piles, transfer items from one location to another, and get detailed reports by location.

Not new, but great for multiple locations.

Enterprise Solutions 12.0 is perfect if you're starting to out grow Premier or if you need the ability to further customize your reports.

Learn more about QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0
Contact Alpha Accounting

Try it Out FREE for 30 days

Raleigh, NC ranked #1 City in the U.S.

2011-09-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Businessweek.com ranked Raleigh, North Carolina the best city to live.

What makes Raleigh the best city?
Research Triangle Park
Top Colleges
867 Restaurants
110 Bars
51 Museums
A Thriving Social Scene
Good Schools
12,521 park acres
NHL's Carolina Hurricans
College Ports
30,000-sq-ft State Farmers Market
Population of 400,000 in a span of about 144 square miles
just to name a few...

But to those of us that live here this is really no surprise.

How Small Businesses Use and Lose Time

2011-09-21T06:23:00.001-07:00

via: How Small Businesses Use and Lose Time [INFOGRAPHIC]

QuickBooks 2011 One-Day Sale

2011-09-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

For a limited time, save 20% or more when you purchase select QuickBooks 2011.

Because of the recent release of QuickBooks 2012 you can now get a great deal on 2011 products.

QuickBooks Pro for Windows - ~~$229.95~~ NOW $149.99

QuickBooks Premier - ~~$399.95~~ NOW $199.99

BUY NOW

Improve network performance by correcting mismatched NIC settings

2011-08-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

Network interface card (NIC) settings can affect network performance.

A network connection integrated on the motherboard can slow your transfer rate. A NIC has a separate processor to perform the network operations, whereas an integrated connection uses the CPU.
NICs can slow the transfer rate if you have duplex mismatches. A duplex mismatch occurs when one NIC is set to a specific speed and duplex and is connected to a NIC with different settings. This mismatch severely hinders the network bandwidth, reducing it to only a few millions of bits per second (Mb/s).

Detailed Instructions
To avoid this issue, you must set all NICs to autodetect. To view and edit your NIC settings:

Click the Microsoft Windows Start button, select Settings > Control Panel. (In some versions of Windows, you do not need to select Settings before selecting Control Panel.)
Double-click System and select the Hardware tab.
Click Device Manager.
Click the + next to Network adapters to expand the list.
Right-click the NIC and select Properties.
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Property, select the Speed & Duplex option (the option may be called Link Speed or something similar).
Click the Value drop-down arrow and select Auto.
Click OK and close the window.

From Intuit Support

IRS Increases Standard Mileage Rate to 55.5 Cents per Mile

2011-07-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final six months of 2011. Taxpayers may use the optional standard rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business and other purposes.

Read More Here

New FUTA Rate

2011-07-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

FUTA Surtax to Expire on June 30, 2011
The temporary 0.2% federal unemployment tax (FUTA) surtax expires on June 30, 2011.
The surtax is part of the 6.2% gross unemployment tax rate for employers, assessed on the first $7,000 of wages paid annually to each employee. The gross rate represents a permanent rate of 6.0% and a temporary surtax of 0.2%.
The FUTA tax rate will also be reduced for employers who are entitled to the maximum credit of 5.4%. This reduction applies to employers who pay their state unemployment taxes in full, on time, and on the same wages that are subject to FUTA tax, provided the state is not determined to be a credit reduction state.
Effective July 1, 2011, the following changes will take place:

The FUTA tax rate will decrease from 6.2% to 6.0%.
The FUTA tax rate after the maximum credit will decrease from 0.8% to 0.6%.

Intuit QuickBooks Payroll is supporting these changes in Payroll Update 21112. It is critical that you download the Payroll Update as soon as it is released.

QuickBooks Deal at BJ's Wholesale

2011-05-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

QuickBooks Premier 2011 Edition for Windows

Originally: $279.99
Instant Savingins: $80.00
Your Price: $199.00

QuickBooks Pro 2011 Edition for Windows

Originally: $179.99
Instant Savings: $80.00
Your Price: $99.99

IRS Issues Interim Guidance on Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Coverage on Form W-2

2011-04-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

A new IRS notice provides interim guidance to employers on the W-2 reporting rules for employer-sponsored health insurance coverage [IR 2011-31; Notice 2011-28, 2011-16 IRB].

Background. Code Sec. 6051(a)(14), which was added to the Internal Revenue Code by §9002 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Health Care Act, P.L. 111-148), generally provides that the “aggregate cost” of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage must be reported on employee W-2s beginning with the 2011 tax year. For this purpose, “aggregate cost” is determined under rules similar to the rules in Code Sec. 4980B(f)(4) that refer to the definition of “applicable premium” with respect to COBRA continuation coverage. The information is to be reported in Box 12 of Form W-2, using code “DD.”

In October 2010, the IRS announced that it will not require employers to include the “aggregate cost” of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage on employee W-2s for the 2011 tax year (filed in 2012). Reporting this information on 2011 W-2 forms is optional [Notice 2010-69, 2010-44 IRB 576; IR 2010-103].

The New Guidance

Some of the key points in the new guidance are as follows:

New W-2 reporting requirement has no tax ramifications. The IRS is emphasizing that this new W-2 reporting requirement has no tax ramifications. The purpose of the reporting requirement is to provide useful and comparable consumer information to employees on the cost of their health care coverage. The new reporting requirement does not cause excludable employer-provided health care coverage to become taxable.

Additional relief for small employers. Small employers (those filing fewer than 250 W-2 forms in the prior year) are not required to report the cost of health coverage on any forms required to be furnished to employees prior to January 2014. For example, if an employer files fewer than 250 2011 W-2 forms, it will not be subject to the W-2 reporting requirements for 2012 W-2 forms furnished to employees in January 2013. This transition relief will continue to apply until the issuance of further IRS guidance.

Other than noted above, all employers that provide health insurance coverage are generally subject to the W-2 reporting requirements, including federal, state, and local governmental entities, as well as churches and other religious groups.

Questions and Answers (Q&As)

Notice 2011-28, 2011-16 IRB, includes 31 Q&As on the interim guidance that are divided into the following topics: (1) in general; (2) employers subject to the reporting requirement; (3) method of reporting on Form W-2; (4) aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage; (5) cost of coverage required to be included in the aggregate reportable cost; (6) methods of calculating the cost of coverage; and (7) other issues relating to calculating the cost of coverage.

There are Q&As on terminated employees (Q&A 6), workers who are employees of multiple related employers (Q&A 7), and successor employers (Q&A 8). Q&A 9 notes that an employer is not required to issue a W-2 form that includes the aggregate reportable cost of health care coverage to an individual to whom the employer is not otherwise required to issue a W-2 form, such as a retiree or other former employee receiving no compensation that needs to be reported on Form W-2. Q&A 10 states that the total of the aggregate reportable health care costs attributable to an employer's employees is not required to be reported on Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements.

Aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage. Q&A 11 says that the “aggregate cost” of “applicable employer-sponsored coverage” is the total cost of coverage under all applicable employer-sponsored coverage. The “applicable employer-sponsored coverage” is defined in Q&A 12. It means, with respect to any employee, coverage under any group health plan made available to the employee by an employer that is excludable from the employee's gross income under Code Sec. 106, or would be so excludable if it were employer-provided coverage (within the meaning of Code Sec. 106), with certain exceptions. Q&A 14 notes that the aggregate reportable cost generally includes both the portion of the cost paid by the employer and the portion of the cost paid by the employee, regardless of whether the employee paid for that cost through pre-tax or after-tax contributions. The aggregate reportable cost includes any portion of the cost that is includible in an employee's gross income (see Q&A 15). For example, it includes the cost of health coverage provided to an adult child who is age 28. The fair market value of this coverage is included in the income and the wages of the employee.

The cost of the following employer-sponsored health care coverage does not have to be reported on Form W-2: (a) coverage only for accident or disability income insurance; (b) coverage issued as a supplement to liability insurance; (c) worker's compensation insurance; (d) automobile medical payment insurance; (e) credit-only insurance; and (f) other similar insurance coverage.

The following amounts are not included in aggregate cost for W-2 reporting purposes: (a) amounts contributed to an Archer MSA; (b) amounts contributed to a health savings account; and (c) the amount of any salary reduction election to a flexible spending arrangement (Q&A 16). The cost of coverage under a health reimbursement arrangement does not have to be included in the aggregate reportable cost on Form W-2 (Q&A 18).

Methods of calculating the cost of coverage. An employer may calculate the reportable cost under a plan using the COBRA applicable premium method (see Q&A 25). Alternatively, an employer that is determining the cost of coverage for an employee covered by the employer's insured plan may calculate the reportable cost using the premium charged method (see Q&A 26), and an employer that subsidizes the cost of coverage or that determines the cost of coverage for a year by applying the cost of coverage in a prior year may calculate the reportable cost using the modified COBRA premium method (see Q&A 27). Employers that charge employees a composite rate (the same premium for different types of coverage under a plan, for example, a premium for self-only coverage versus family coverage) should see Q&A 28.

Effective date. The guidance generally is effective beginning with 2012 W-2 forms (filed in January 2013). Employers are not required to report the cost of health coverage on any forms required to be furnished to employees prior to January 2013. However, any employers that choose to report earlier (on the 2011 W-2 forms furnished to employees in January 2012) may use the new notice for guidance regarding that voluntary earlier reporting. If future IRS guidance applies the W-2 reporting requirements to: (i) additional employers or categories of employers; (ii) additional types of coverage; or (iii) otherwise expands the reporting requirements, the guidance will only apply prospectively and will not apply to any calendar year beginning within six months of the date that the guidance is issued.

Employer feedback. The IRS is accepting comments for 90 days on all aspects of the interim guidance and the reporting requirements in Code Sec. 6051(a)(14), including areas that should be addressed in proposed and final regulations or other future guidance. Comments are requested on how future guidance could further reduce the burden of compliance with the reporting requirements while still providing useful and comparable consumer information to employees on the cost of their health care coverage. In addition, the IRS is requesting comments on any challenges employers may face in implementing the reporting requirements for 2012 W-2 forms, and how further guidance could address those challenges, including through the issuance of additional transition relief.

Senate Approves Repeal of Unpopular New 1099 Information Reporting Requirements

2011-04-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Senate has passed H.R. 4, the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayment Act of 2011, by a vote of 87-12, without amendments. The House had previously passed the bill.

The bill would repeal new corporate information reporting requirements that were scheduled to go into effect in 2012. The new information reporting requirements were included in Sec. 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, P.L. 111-148). Under current law, payments to corporations, except those made for medical or health care services, are not required to be reported on an information return. Since passage of the PPACA, businesses have raised concerns about the expense and effort required to comply with the expanded information reporting requirements.

The bill now goes to the White House. The President is expected to sign the bill. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney issued a statement on April 5 which said that the Obama Administration is pleased that “Congress has acted to correct a flaw that placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses” and that “eliminating the 1099 reporting requirement is the right thing to do.”

Free IRS Webinar

2011-03-25T05:51:00.000-07:00

Easy, Low Cost Ways to Start Your Small Business Retirement Plan

When: April 7, 2011
2 p.m. Eastern
1 p.m. Central
noon Mountain
11 a.m. Pacific
Presented by:
Mark F. O’Donnell, Director, Customer Education and Outreach, TEGE
Naomi Lehr, Tax Law Specialist, TEGE
David N. Levine, Benefits Attorney and Member of the Advisory Committee on Tax Exempt & Government Entities (ACT)

Wondering which retirement plan will work for your small business? Watch this FREE webinar to learn about:
·         Low-cost retirement plans
·         Low-maintenance alternatives to traditional 401(k)s
·         Points to consider in choosing the right plan for your business
·         Types of advisors who can help you set up and operate your plan
·         How to avoid plan mistakes
·         How the IRS can help correct mistakes in your plan

This webinar is for:
·         Small businesses and sole practitioners
·         Tax professionals working with small business
·         Enrolled Retirement Plan Agents
·         Enrolled Agents
http://www.visualwebcaster.com/IRS/76865/reg.asp?id=76865

FREE QuickBooks Seminar

2011-03-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

What Every Business Owner Should Know

Morrisville Chamber of Commerce
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
9:00 am-12:00 pm

Join us to learn how QuickBooks can be an effective business tool.

The session includes 
   •   Some basic accounting principles.
   •   The features of QuickBooks and all the different versions of the software.
   •   How to set up QuickBooks.
   •   How to record transactions.
   •   Why using QuickBooks for your payroll can be the best way to get the reports you need.
   •   Reports - explanation of financial reports.
   •   10 Common Mistakes - and how to avoid them. 

This course is taught by Leslie Hamm, president of Alpha Accounting, QuickBooks Advanced Certified Professional Advisor, Professional Instructor, Intuit Solution Provider and Member, Accountant and Advisor Customer Council of Intuit, Inc. 2007-2009.

Questions? Contact Adrienne Clark at (919) 463-7157 or aclark@morrisvillenc.com. Or register online.

Changing the Font Size in Registers, Forms, & Lists (Easier to Read)

2011-02-21T06:39:00.000-08:00

You may wish to change the font size in QuickBooks in order to have better visibility in the program. Unfortunately, there is no preference to change within the program to adjust font size for better readability. However, you can change a settings file outside of QuickBooks to accomplish this.

Read the QuickBooks Support Article: Change the Font Size in Registers, Forms and Lists

Lactation Expenses as Medical Expenses

2011-02-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

The Internal Revenue Service has concluded that breast pumps and supplies that
assist lactation are medical care under § 213(d) of the Internal Revenue Code because,
like obstetric care, they are for the purpose of affecting a structure or function of the
body of the lactating woman. Therefore, if the remaining requirements of § 213(a) are
met (for example, the taxpayer’s total medical expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted
gross income), expenses paid for breast pumps and supplies that assist lactation are
deductible medical expenses. Amounts reimbursed for these expenses under flexible
spending arrangements, Archer medical savings accounts, health reimbursement
arrangements, or health savings accounts are not income to the taxpayer.
The Service will revise Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses, to include this
information.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For additional information concerning this announcement, contact Amy S. Wei of the
Office of Associate Chief Counsel (Income Tax and Accounting) at (202) 622-7900 (not
a toll-free call).

Q&A: Retained Earnings with the New Year

2011-02-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

Here is a question I recieved from a QuickBooks user last week.
Question:
I noticed this morning that the Retained Earnings made a big jump from Dec. to Jan.
Can you help me figure out why?

My Answer :
First we have to understand what we are talking about in accounting, retained earnings refers to the portion of net income which is retained by the corporation ( company) rather than distributed to its owners as dividends (or distributions) - Wikipedia
The retained earnings number is always the total of undistributed earnings from the beginning of the business until the last fiscal year end, and since you were looking at January that means that last fiscal year end income is added to the 2009 retained earnings number since Jan is a new fiscal year.
Long story short the software is doing exactly what is suppose to be doing. QuickBooks rolls the Net Income into retained earnings when you change the date on the report to a new fiscal year. Does QuickBooks actually make a closing entry – not really….it will not be moved to retained earnings if you go back and look at last year, the balance is still in net income…it is funny that way..

Who are You? And Where is your Number?

2011-01-28T08:18:00.000-08:00

For every business person it is critical that you make sure you have your contact information in your email signature. It is very possible that the person receiving your email actually knows more than one Mary or John. For business contacts that do not use a business email or fail to secure a domain for their business it makes your business appear less professional in presentation. In the age of smart phones it is super simple for the recipient of your email to click on your phone number in your email to return your call or save your contact information for future contacts.

For 2011 let’s use the resources we have to make life more efficient. Add your contact information in your email signature – It is simple – If you use Outlook – go to Tools then Options- Then click on mail format tab and “whala”- there it is email signatures. You can add your logo, phone number, tag line – have fun with it but please tell us who you are and what your number is…other email systems are just as easy to set up.
Tell us who you are and how to get back in touch with you…….and see if it helps you get a faster response.

Intuit POS Rebate

2011-01-21T14:31:00.001-08:00

Intuit® QuickBooks® Point of Sale Merchant Service Special Offer Through January, QuickBooks Point of Sale customers that are approved for an Intuit Payment Solutions will get a $500 rebate.1 Use this rebate to: Upgrade your software Purchase new hardware Offset any termination fees from your current provider Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. consumer purchases is made with a payment card. The average credit card sale is more than 4 times the size of a cash sale.2 Now you can make it easy for customers to pay you immediately for goods or services and accept credit cards and debit cards using your Point of Sale software. Call us today to learn more about Merchant Service. Expires1/31/2011 1. Cancelled or closed accounts do not qualify. Approved merchants are paid via Automated Clearing House. Fulfillment takes 4 weeks. Point of Sales customers that are declined receive a $500 gift card. 2. Source: Visa Internal Study, December 2008.		919-217-2515 Your Business Our Solutions

© 2011 Intuit, Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit and QuickBooks are registered trademarks of Intuit, Inc.

QuickBook Pro 2011 - Great Deal

2011-01-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

QuickBooks Pro 2011 is on sale for $99.73 from 1/19-2/6 at Sam's Club.
Lowest price I've seen this year!

*$99.73 after $75 Instant Savings*

QuickBooks for Mac Seminar - Durham, NC

2010-11-12T13:47:00.001-08:00

December 1st at 11 am-12:30pm
SouthPoint Mall Apple Store

Learn about the New 2011 QuickBooks for Mac
Increased productivity, new security features and improvements to make using QuickBooks a great choice for Mac users.
Bring your questions.

Two Special Offers for QuickBooks Users

2010-11-12T13:46:00.001-08:00

TWO VERY SPECIAL OFFERS
Complete an application for a QuickBooks Intuit Payment Solutions Merchant account and receive a $150 AMEX gift card and your merchant fees are waived for two months.

FOR POS customers
A special offer for QuickBooks Point of Sale customers that apply for an Intuit Payment Solutions account - it's a win-win! Point of Sales customers that are approved for an IPS account receive a $500 ACH merchant rebate. -Cancelled or closed accounts do not qualify. Approved merchants are paid via ACH. Fulfillment takes 4 weeks. Point of Sale customers that are declined receive a $500 gift card.

Offers Expire 11/30/10

Contact Leslie Hamm at Alpha Accounting to get your application going.
lhamm@AAeasy.com
919-217-2515 #0

Problem Restoring QuickBooks Backups–Read Only Files (Quick Tip)

2010-11-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

Posted By Charlie On October 26, 2010

When you are restoring a backup copy of a QuickBooks file you often want to restore it in the same place that it existed before. Sometimes QuickBooks will refuse to replace the existing copy – saying that the file is set to read-only. This may be frustrating, but it usually is a simple thing to get around.

You do have backups of your Company file, right? Most businesses don’t do an adequate job – please review my article on backing up QuickBooks data for a discussion on how to create a good backup plan.

There are a lot of reasons why you may need to restore a backup copy on top of an existing file. You may have a corrupted file and have to go back to an older version. Perhaps you were testing a new procedure and you want to restore your file to the state it was in before the test. The problem is, in many situations QuickBooks will set the existing file to “read only” status and show you an error message when you try to restore the file in the same place.

One simple solution is to just save the file in a different location, OR with a different name. I don’t like that, though, because now you have TWO copies of your company file, and it is easy to get them confused. You don’t want to post transactions to the wrong file!

If you are familiar with Windows and know how to find a file and change the status with Windows Explorer, it isn’t hard to change the status of this file. However, it is a bit of a hassle to do this. In addition, most users of QuickBooks are focused on running their business, rather than being a computer technician. So here is a simple process that isn’t TOO technical…

When you choose to restore a backup, QuickBooks will open the Save Company File As window. Locate the company file you are replacing, then right-click on the file name. This will open a menu.

Select the Delete option from this menu, which will delete the existing file. Then you can click on the Save button to save the file in this location.

I find that this is much simpler than going to Windows Explorer.

QuickBooks - Estimates, Invoicing and Job Costing Seminar

2010-10-22T05:12:00.001-07:00

WhenNovember 2, 2010
9:00 - 12:00 pm

Where
HBA of Raleigh-Wake Co.
5580 Centerview Dr. #115
Raleigh, NC 27606

This 3-hour seminar will give you a detailed review of job cost accounting using QuickBooks.
Included in the course:

Some basic accounting principles
Setting up QuickBooks properly for job costs
Creating your estimates the right way
Using QuickBooks for your payroll
Answering the question: Why not all money received is income?
Explaining financial reports, Job Cost reports

Cost
HBA members: $15
Non-members: $25
Snacks and drinks provided

For more information, contact Judy (919) 232-5882

Know Your Numbers FREE Seminar at Wake Tech- North Campus

2010-09-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

Explore the 10 numbers every small business owner must know to be successful. Every real professional knows the practice and performance levels required to win. Small business owners will calculate the value of these numbers for their business. Presented by the Women’s Business Center of N.C. For more information, email entrepreneurship@waketech.edu or visit http://smallbusinesscenter.waketech.edu.
Thursday 6:45-9 p.m. 10/14
NORTH CAMPUS BD310

QuickBooks and 64 bit Office 2010 now fixed.

2010-09-09T07:08:00.001-07:00

Intuit recently released a new update for QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Simple Start 2010 and Enterprise 10.0 and wanted to let you know it's now available. And as always it's free of charge. This latest update includes technology improvements addressing how QuickBooks works with 64 bit Microsoft Office 2010 applications like e-mailing and exporting reports to Excel or Word. This update also includes fixes addressing a few bugs known to cause QuickBooks to crash when performing certain tasks.

QuickBooks Payroll users will also find several updates, including one specifically addressing a problem with the paycheck prints order.

If you've enabled the QuickBooks Automatic Updates feature, QuickBooks will prompt you to install this new update as it normally does the next time you launch it. Or if you prefer to manually download these updates you can find them along with additional help at www.quickbooks.com/productupdates.

Get Organized - WIN an Office Makeover

2010-08-30T06:24:00.000-07:00

The kids are back in school, vacation is over and now you are back to business. If during the summer you let some things in your business get messy, cluttered, or just disorganized let us help.

Win: Alpha Accounting is offering one(1) lucky winner a free 3 hour session with professional organizer Allison Perkins, of reclaim. Allison can reorganize your supply closet, your merchandise displays, your office, your storeroom - you choose.

How to Enter: Send a video(2 minutes or less) or email (100 words or less) explaining, "Why I really need a makeover?" to contest@aaeasy.com or upload your video to http://www.qbeasy.com/links Be sure to include before photos.

Contest Ends Sept 22nd. Winner will be notified via email and announced on the Alpha Accounting website, Facebook page and blog. The winner will also be featured in the newsletter.
Business must be located in the Greater Triangle Area of NC.

3 More NC Counties to Raise Sales Tax Rates.

2010-08-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

To receive an alert about NC tax updates you can sign up for these alerts

Questions about the information provided in this message can be directed to the Taxpayer Assistance and Collection Center toll-free at 1-877-252-3052 or by mail to the Taxpayer Assistance Division, North Carolina Department of Revenue, Post Office Box 25000, Raleigh, North Carolina 27640-0001.

The Sales and Use Tax Division has added an Important Notice: Additional 0.25% Local Sales and Use Tax (08-10). Effective October 1, 2010, New Hanover, Onslow, and Wilkes Counties local sales and use rate will increase to 2.25%.

The notice is located at the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

The Sales and Use Tax Division has added an Important Notice: Additional 0.25% Local Sales and Use Tax Correction (08-10). This notice addresses a correction regarding lease and rental payments billed on or after July 1, 2010 in conjunction with a lease or rental agreement entered into prior to July 1, 2010 for a definite stipulated period of time in Hertford, Lee, Randolph, and Rowan Counties.

QuickBooks and Office 2010 – only compatible on 32 bit.

2010-08-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Office 2010 is not currently supported by QuickBooks products and services. QuickBooks System Requirements are pretty clear - they support up to Office 2007... (you can access them in the Help inside QuickBooks, or on the Support site by searching on the same topic). Here is a link to Intuit support FAQ about Office 2010 and QuickBooks. This includes a work around to those who are having trouble e-mailing with Office 2010. As new information and solutions are available, this FAQ will be updated to reflect that. Many of us have already purchased and installed Office 2010. As the FAQ states, Intuit does not currently support Office 2010 on any version of QuickBooks. People have been able to successfully use it though, when installed as a 32-bit program. That is the way we have it installed and it is working just fine.

Learn More

IRS FREE WEBINARE – HIRE ACT _ JULY 8th

2010-07-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

Meeting: Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act Webinar
Date(s): July 8, 2010
Time: 2:00 p.m. (EST); 1:00 p.m. (CST); 12:00 p.m. (MST); 11:00 p.m. (PST)
Location: Your home or office
Contact: Internal Revenue Service Webinar; E-mail: nationalphoneforum@irs.gov
Event Information: This FREE webinar is for:

Tax professionals
Attorneys
Payroll professionals
Industry partners
Small businesses

Learn about:

The HIRE Act payroll tax exemption and retention income tax credit for employers who hire previously unemployed workers
Who qualifies as an eligible individual for each benefit
What businesses may claim each benefit
How business can claim those HIRE benefits

Earn Continuing Professional Education credit:

Enrolled agents receive one CPE credit for participating for a minimum of 50 minutes from the start of the webinar
Other tax professionals may receive credit if the webinar meets your organizations or states CPE requirements
To receive credit, you must attend the event offered on July 8, 2010.
You must also register for the webinar using your e-mail address, and use the same e-mail address to log in to attend. This will confirm your attendance and generate your Certificate of Completion.
Groups will not receive individual certificates as attendance cannot be verified.
*Only July 8, 2010 participants will receive certificates. If you do not need a certificate to obtain CPE credit, you may choose to view the archived version of the webinar after July 8, 2010.
Look for your Certificate of Completion by e-mail approximately one week after the webinar. If you have met all requirements, you will receive your certificate automatically.

To register for this event, visit the Internal Revenue Service Webinar Registration Web site.

If you experience difficulty viewing the event, please use the e-mail option on the event page or call (866) 956-4770. The event will be archived for later viewing, approximately two weeks after the date of the event, on the new IRS Video Portal .
Sponsored by: IRS Small Business/Self Employed Division; Communications, Liaison and Disclosure

IRS examining QuickBooks Users Data Base

2010-07-05T04:47:00.000-07:00

The National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP) has learned that IRS agents are being instructed to obtain a copy of the taxpayer’s data base for examinations for any taxpayer who uses QuickBooks. This will not be done in all examinations, only for those that the IRS agent deems necessary based on the judgment of the agent. If the taxpayer refuses to provide the database and the revenue agent (RA) or manager determines it is necessary, a Summons to obtain the information would be issued. The agents would look at only the information for the year under audit unless they decided to expand the examination to prior years, then information for those years would be reviewed.

The IRS has purchased 1,500 to 2,000 licenses from Intuit and will have one agent trained and licensed per group to assist others in the examination of taxpayers who use QuickBooks. You may not have heard of this yet, but as the software finds its way into RA groups and more agents are trained in its use, we could definitely be seeing a trend in the way exams are conducted since so many small businesses use QuickBooks.
By Dwayne Briscoe, Owner at Bookkeeping-Results, LLC

New Rules Regarding Credit Card Information

2010-06-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Effective July 1, 2010, all merchants accepting credit cards using QuickBooks 2010 must adhere to new, stricter password protection requirements. To comply with these password protection requirements going into effect this summer, anyone using Merchant Service-enabled QuickBooks files must download an upcoming June 2010 update. Without this update, you will not be able to open any company files that do not have "Customer Credit Card Protection" enabled.

These new requirements are designed to better protect sensitive credit card data and affect both users and administrators of merchant service-enabled QuickBooks 2010 company files. To meet the new requirements, both users and administrators will need to create a 'complex password' for access to QuickBooks. A 'complex password' must contain at least 7 characters and include at least one number and one uppercase letter. The password also needs to be changed every 90 days.

Next month, a QuickBooks 2010 update will be available for download that will enable you to meet these new password protection requirements. The update lets you easily create a complex password so you can continue to open your merchant-service enabled company files.

What happens if you don't download the QuickBooks 2010 update? If you use QuickBooks 2010 to process credit card payments, you'll need to install the update in order to be in compliance with the new payment industry standards. That's why it's important you download the new QuickBooks 2010 update being released in early June.

Learn more about the new password protection requirements.

Health-Care Bill Surprise: 1099 Nightmare

2010-06-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

A clause buried in the bill requires more tax forms—and small business will bear the brunt
By John Tozzi

Anyone who makes it to page 737 of the massive health-care bill approved by Congress in March will find a three-paragraph section that has nothing to do with hospitals, doctors, or drugs. The provision, inserted by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee to help offset the cost of the bill, requires companies to report to the IRS payments of more than $600 a year to any vendor. The intent is noble: to capture $2 billion or more a year in taxes on income that currently goes unreported by contractors and small businesses.
Business advocates fear it could generate a flood of paperwork. While the provision affects all companies, small businesses will be slammed the hardest because they often lack the compliance departments and legions of accountants that corporations retain on staff.
Today, businesses must file 1099-MISC forms only for freelancers and other service providers that aren't incorporated. The form is meant to make sure these workers pay taxes that the business would withhold if they were regular employees. The new rule, set to take effect in 2012, will expand such reporting to include payments to companies, and for goods as well as services. That means businesses will need to get tax ID numbers and file forms for almost all suppliers—and track all their small expenses to see which vendors meet the threshold. Spend $600 on cell-phone service, at FedEx, or fueling up at the local gas station? Better get their tax ID number. Buy new computers? File a 1099. "It's going to be a compliance nightmare," says Rob Seltzer, an accountant in Beverly Hills, Calif. He figures he would go from filing two 1099s to 15.
Seltzer is on the low end. The IRS says about 85 million 1099-MISC forms are filed each year, and that could jump significantly under the new law. The National Small Business Assn. estimates that the average company will have to file 95 of the forms under the measure, up from fewer than 20 today.
Representative Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), with the support of small business advocates, has introduced a bill to roll back the provision. He says it imposes extra costs on business owners who pay their taxes to help the government catch those who don't. "This paperwork burden is only justifiable if you assume that nearly all businesses are cheaters," says Lungren. The bill would force "every single businessperson to become an IRS agent."
The bottom line: A provision of the new health-care bill requires companies to file tax forms for almost every supplier—a big burden on small businesses.

Stealth IRS changes mean millions of new tax forms

2010-06-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

By Neil deMause, contributing writer May 21, 2010: 1:51 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The massive expansion of requirements for businesses to file 1099 tax forms that was hidden in the 2,409-page health reform bill took many by surprise when it came to light last month. But it's just one piece of a years-long legislative stealth campaign to create ways for the federal government to track down unreported income.
The result: A blizzard of new tax forms that the Internal Revenue Service will begin rolling out next year.
"It was actually something that we were following back under the Bush administration under the 2008 budget -- we started to see these kinds of rumblings about the 'tax gap' and whether or not businesses were paying their fair share," says Tom Henschke, president of the Pennsylvania-based SMC Business Councils, which was one of the first organizations to call attention to the health care amendment when it was introduced last fall. "So two administrations can claim credit for this."
The first tax-reporting expansion was buried in a different bill, the Housing Assistance Tax Act introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and signed into law by President George W. Bush in July 2008. Best known for its first-time homebuyers' credit, the bill also created a new addition to the family of 1099 tax forms: the 1099-K.
The 1099 is a catch-all series of IRS documents used to report non-wage income from a variety of sources like contract work, dividends, earned interest and pension distributions. The new 1099-K aims to shine a light on a currently hard-to-track payment stream: credit cards. Starting in 2011, financial firms that process credit or debit card payments will be required to send their clients, and the IRS, an annual form documenting the year's transactions.
The rule comes with a floor to weed out the most casual retailers: The 1099-K is only required when a merchant has at least 200 payment transactions a year totaling more than $20,000. But it applies to all payment processors, including Paypal, Amazon.com, and others that service very small businesses.
The goal of the new regulations is to catch income that is going unreported to the IRS. The federal government loses an estimated $300 billion each year from the "tax gap" between what individuals and businesses owe and what they actually pay.
"Better information reporting helps the tax system work better by ensuring that everyone pays what they owe," IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman explained last year as his agency unveiled the 1099-K. "The new law gives us an important new tool for closing the tax gap and also provides business taxpayers better documentation to compute and report their income and expenses."
For companies that currently report all their credit card and Paypal sales to the IRS, the 1099-K requirement will have little impact. All the paperwork will be done by the bank or payment processing service, and business owners will simply receive a form at the end of the year listing their total receipts.
The 1099 changes attached to the health care reform bill are another kettle of fish. These massively expand the requirements for filing the "1099-Misc" form, which companies use for recording payments to freelance workers and other individual service providers. Until now, payments to corporations have been exempt from 1099 rules, as have payments for the purchase of goods.
Starting in 2012, that changes. All business payments or purchases that exceed $600 in a calendar year will need to be accompanied by a 1099 filing. That means obtaining the taxpayer ID number of the individual or corporation you're making the payment to -- even if it's a giant retailer like Staples or Best Buy -- at the time of the transaction, or else facing IRS penalties.
In essence, the 1099-Misc is having its role changed from a form for tracking off-payroll employment to one that must accompany virtually any sizeable business transaction.
"Just with business travel it would include hotels, rental cars," Henschke says. "Phone service: 1099. Computer service: 1099. Whoever does your postage meter: 1099. You do a little advertising, Yellow Pages: 1099. Your landlord: 1099. You might as well just keep them in your pocket and hand them out as you go around every day."

QuickBooks Deal at Amazon - Today Only

2010-04-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

Today only, save up to 50% on the QuickBooks Premier lineup at Amazon and QuickBooks Pro 3-User. Special prices are valid on April 7, 2010, while supplies last.

Learn More

Two New Tax Benefits Aid Employers Who Hire and Retain Unemployed Workers

2010-03-23T07:24:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — Two new tax benefits are now available to employers hiring workers who were previously unemployed or only working part time. These provisions are part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act enacted into law today.

Employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011) may qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive, in effect exempting them from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. This reduced tax withholding will have no effect on the employee’s future Social Security benefits, and employers would still need to withhold the employee’s 6.2-percent share of Social Security taxes, as well as income taxes. The employer and employee’s shares of Medicare taxes would also still apply to these wages.

In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns.

“These tax breaks offer a much-needed boost to employers willing to expand their payrolls, and businesses and nonprofits should keep these benefits in mind as they plan for the year ahead,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

The two tax benefits are especially helpful to employers who are adding positions to their payrolls. New hires filling existing positions also qualify but only if the workers they are replacing left voluntarily or for cause. Family members and other relatives do not qualify.

In addition, the new law requires that the employer get a statement from each eligible new hire certifying that he or she was unemployed during the 60 days before beginning work or, alternatively, worked fewer than a total of 40 hours for someone else during the 60-day period. The IRS is currently developing a form employees can use to make the required statement.

Businesses, agricultural employers, tax-exempt organizations and public colleges and universities all qualify to claim the payroll tax benefit for eligible newly-hired employees. Household employers cannot claim this new tax benefit.

Employers claim the payroll tax benefit on the federal employment tax return they file, usually quarterly, with the IRS. Eligible employers will be able to claim the new tax incentive on their revised employment tax form for the second quarter of 2010. Revised forms and further details on these two new tax provisions will be posted on IRS.gov during the next few weeks.

IRS to start auditing companies for employment tax violations

2010-03-22T07:11:00.001-07:00

Starting in March, 6,000 random companies will begin receiving notices that they will be audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over employment taxes. Agents will be especially looking for Form 1099 independent contractors that should really be classified as employees. The IRS will conduct the audits based on Form 941 and will work backwards from there targeting companies of all shapes and sizes — and in all industries. Since no company can truly avoid or decrease their chances of being audited, the best protection is to ensure your workers are correctly classified under the latest interpretation of the rules.

QuickBooks SUPER Pricing - good until Feb 28th.

2010-02-22T06:20:00.000-08:00

QuickBooks is on Sale at Costco.com (online Sale only)

Pro - 84.99
Premier - 189.99
Pro & enhanced payroll for 1-3 employees - $1169.99

Free Shipping
Costco Membership is required.
Limit 2 per membership

This is a great deal so act fast!

QuickBooks 2009 R11 Update: Fixes PDF Printer Problems with 64 Bit Systems

2010-02-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

Intuit has released the R11 update of QuickBooks 2009 to manual update today (a date has not been officially announced for automatic update). This release contains an anxiously awaited fix to the faulty PDF driver for 64 bit systems, as well as some other important fixes.

Read more from Practical QuickBooks.

You can download the update from the Intuit Support web site at http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/productupdates.aspx

Setting Goals

2010-01-07T10:28:00.000-08:00

Goal setting is how you win. Once you've made your resolutions, they will drive you forward. The goals will motivate you to seek activities that will help you succeed. It's not always fun, but those exercises bring you closer to your goal and make you a winner.

If you want to actually achieve your goals this year, then consider the following:

Be specific.
When setting goals, be specific in what you want to achieve. Vagueness will only cause you to feel overwhelmed, and you will just give up.
Make your goals measureable.
In order to know if you achieved the goal, it must be measurable. For example, if you want to lose weight, don't simply write down "lose weight" as a goal. How much weight do you want to lose? Or don't just write "spend more time with family." How much time do you want to spend with your family every night?
Are they your goals?
Only you can set your own goals. If your spouse, co-worker or friend sets a goal for you, you're not going to achieve it. Taking ownership will give you more incentive to meet your goal.
Set a time limit.
Setting a time frame will help you set realistic goals. For example, if you want to save more money, list how much money a month you want to put into your savings account.
Put them in writing.
Putting your goals in writing will make you much more likely to achieve them. Write down your goals and review them often. This will give you motivation to make them a reality.

This is the process to succeed. Successful people reassess their lives and then start living intentionally, in writing, on paper, on purpose. Make your resolutions a reality in 2010.

Dave Ramsey

R9 Update to QuickBooks 2009 Versions

2009-12-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE R9 Update to QuickBooks 2009 Versions
On December 1, 2009 QuickBooks released a software update R9 for QuickBooks 2009 products.
This update is very unique, it is not be backwards compatible, unlike most of the recent updates this one requires all users of the file to update to continue to work.

Particularly UNIQUE is the requirements for Network Installations::
NOTE the Database Server Manager has to be updated as well and the “client” workstations and this is NOT Automatic. You have to open the Database Server manager and then click the updates tab and manually download the update for the database server manager. YOU MAY HAVE TO GET your IT person Involved since you will have to be on the server to download and install this update. After the updates to the software are all downloaded then the data file must be updated and in the process QuickBooks will require a backup be made.

If you do not complete the steps correctly you will not be able to open the QuickBooks file.

Because this update is not be backwards compatible with earlier releases of QuickBooks 2009, once a single person has updated then everyone will need to update to continue to work. The QuickBooks 2009 R9 includes a patch to the underlying QuickBooks database that further improves data stability in significant ways. Specifically, QuickBooks 2009 R9 will take advantage of a new Sybase SA10 patch. While QuickBooks is already remarkably stable, Intuit estimates this patch will remove many remaining data issues in whole or in part. The update will also improve speed of execution for heavy users, as well as improve performance in selected reports. Beyond the database updates, the release addresses a large number of specific issues. You can find those notes and the manual update at the QuickBooks Updates site.

FYI there are special instructions for Linux servers.

God is your co-pilot – and stuff that piggy bank

2009-11-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

Editor’s note Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa . This article first appeared at TechCrunch.

DURHAM, N.C. - When pitching to VCs, entrepreneurs hype the heck out of their ideas, years of experience and management teams. But I’ve never heard of anyone touting their luck or connection to God.

After reading the posts on TechCrunch, one could easily get the impression that God doesn’t play much of role in Silicon Valley. But ask any successful entrepreneur in private what made them successful, and you might just hear a different story.

In a research project my team just completed, the majority of 549 company founders told us that their most important success factor, after “experience” and “management team," was “good fortune." Many respondents wrote in comments stressing the extreme importance of faith and God.

You didn’t think that successful entrepreneurs were this pious did you? Neither did I. After all, what did God have to do with Google aside from Jeff Jarvis stealing his book title from fans of Jesus and their much copied meme? Did God build the Internet? Did he build the microchip? I’ve never been religious myself and have always believed that with hard work and determination, you can surmount just about any obstacles. But I also learned the hard way that you can do everything right and fail. Sometimes you do just about everything wrong and make it big. My belief: success is 51% luck and 49% execution. You need to execute with precision, but a little luck goes a long way.

It is always good to have God on your side. So it was interesting and illuminating (pun intended) to see what other entrepreneurs thought about this.

To collect and collate precisely that type data, I and several colleagues (with the support of the Kauffman Foundation) researched the backgrounds, motivation and success factors of company founders in several high growth industries including aerospace and defense, computer and electronics, health care, and services. Our earlier paper titled Anatomy of an Entrepreneur revealed that these founders typically came from middle-class backgrounds, have parents who are less educated than they are, and tend to be married with children when they launch their first company. Most had always wanted to start their own companies. They were driven by a desire to build wealth, commercialize business idea they had and to stop working for others.

For a new paper, titled Making of a Successful Entrepreneur , we analyzed the factors which made these company founders successful. Nearly all (96%) said that prior work experience was an important factor in their success and 58% ranked this as extremely important. The vast majority (88%) said that previous success and failures were important. But lessons from failures were judged as extremely important by more respondents than lessons from success. That’s right, those that had experienced failure valued it more highly than their successes.

Management teams were ranked as important by 82%. The next highest ranked factor was good fortune, with 73% ranking this as important, and 22% ranking this as extremely important. When asked what other factors played a role in their success, many who responded stressed the extreme importance of faith and God. It wasn’t just those with names from one religion who said this. Rather, it seems that Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims alike share the same beliefs. Yes, these people were on a Mission from God – or, at the very least, they strongly felt that their faith fed the entrepreneurial drive and the intangibles required to succeed in the brutal endeavor of making something from nothing, of birthing a company.

Another surprising bit of wisdom we got from these entrepreneurs was this. The Lord may be their co-pilot but their most trusted banker was the same guy they saw in the mirror every morning. Anyone who follows TechCrunch probably assumes that the vast majority of successful technology startups receive some sort of outside capital and that, in fact, the outside capital plays a key role in allowing these startups to get off the ground. But our sample of entrepreneurs told us that personal savings was the primary source of funding.

And this was not by a small margin. Roughly 70% of our respondents used personal savings to fund their first businesses. Even the serial entrepreneurs who probably could have tapped venture capital preferred to keep control of their own funding sources by bootstrapping. In second, third or fourth startups, over half of all entrepreneurs relied on personal savings to underwrite their launch.

My academic colleagues don’t like to hear this, but company founders didn’t rank university education as highly as other factors. Yes, 70 percent said their university education was important and Ivy-League graduates valued this more, with 86 percent indicating this was important. But only 20 percent of all entrepreneurs and 18 percent of Ivy-League graduates ranked university education as extremely important, however. And the alum networks which are supposed to be really valuable for business contacts, weren’t ranked that highly. Only 19% of the entrepreneurs believed that university or alumni networks were important for their business. Even the Ivy grads didn’t think that their legendary networks were so important: only 29% ranked their legendary networks ranked these as important, and of these only 10.5% said these were extremely or very important.

Hardly any of the company founders ranked state or local government assistance as important. But those from the Midwest and Southwest put a slightly higher premium on this assistance than others, with 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively, ranking it as important. Entrepreneurs from New England put the lowest premium on it, with only 1 percent ranking it as important, followed by the West and South, both with 4 percent. That seems logical, since high-growth startup mechanisms are most developed and the communities to support them most mature in the West and Northeast.

All told, even a skeptic like me was extremely surprised at how much these entrepreneurs valued things that no amount of money could buy – thriftiness (personal savings), faith (belief in the supreme being and oneself), and self-selected networks (friends and weak social ties). The moral of all this, I guess, is luck may be critical but self is essential to the successful startup.

Article re-posted from From Local Tech Wire
Written By Vivek Wadhwa, special to LTW

Why you need to use Current I-9 forms

2009-11-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's latest estimate on the number of illegal immigrants in the country is anywhere from 12 million to 20 million, with a suspected 350,000 in North Carolina.

The Bush administration tried to reduce that number by trying to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new strategy under the Obama administration that now also goes after an illegal immigrant's employer and its managers.
"Under the Bush administration, it was more of a big-bang worksite raid, arrest illegal aliens, hit the news," said Bernhard Mueller, a labor and employment attorney with the Ogletree Deakins law firm in Raleigh.

Worksite raids across the country led to thousands of illegal immigrants being detained in recent years. In August 2007, for example, ICE agents raided a meat packing plant in Bladen County and charged 28 people with identity theft for assuming identities of real U.S. citizens to falsify citizenship and seek employment. Last year, six people were detained after a raid on a Raleigh restaurant. Mueller says the new strategy is a wake-up call to employers. "It's not a pretty picture for them. They ought to be concerned," he said. ICE has launched a new initiative to audit hiring records and I-9s -- the form every new hire fills out to verify identity and employment eligibility – of current and past employees. Last year, 503 companies nationwide received inspection notices. This year, Homeland Security notified 652 companies in one day. "It is one of those things causing indigestion among the employment community," said George Ports with Capital Associated Industries Inc., an employer association in North Carolina with approximately 1,000 members.

This week, it offered a seminar to address I-9 compliance because of the Homeland Security audits.
"It's a concern of employers, especially if they have a high percentage of Latinos," Ports said.
Immigration officials have said they are looking for companies that knowingly hired illegal workers. But Mueller says, that's not necessarily the case. "The government is trying to show – wrongfully, I believe, or rightfully in some cases – that the company, in fact, knows or should have known, and that's a dangerous standard (that it) should have known."He says industries known to hire low-skill, low-pay labor, such as the housing industry, are among those being targeted.

Lisa Martin, who represents the North Carolina Homebuilders Association, says she hopes the process is systematic and fair."We support the enforcement of immigration laws," Martin said. "They need to be targeting people that are willingly evading the law or are just not in compliance, knowingly."
As jobs have dried up during the recession, thousands of Latinos in North Carolina have returned to their home countries. Homeland Security believes that, by stopping companies from hiring illegal workers, it gets to the root of the immigration problem. Tony Asion, director of the statewide advocacy group El Pueblo, says he's already hearing of unintended consequences. "What (companies) do is deny the job (to a Latino), and it could very well be to a legal U.S.-born Latino who is here," he said. Having represented many clients who were recently audited, Mueller offers this advice: "Get your house in order. Conduct internal reviews of all your I-9 forms. He adds that if an employer did not know someone was illegal, but ignored the warning signs, the penalty could be jail time and a fine. Audits that turn up I-9 forms that are not completely or accurately filled out could cost employers up to $1,100 per form.

Article Written by Bruce Mildwurf
News and Observer

Moving Files from an old PC to a new PC.

2009-11-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

Q. I want to copy files directly from an old PC to my newer PC. Is there a way to connect the two in such a way that I can copy (or drag and drop) files from a Windows 98 OS to a Windows XP Professional OS?
J.H., Raleigh

There are several options, depending on how old the systems are and what tools are available, says Joe Vohwinkel, president of Agave Partners Consulting, a Raleigh IT services firm. Using Windows 98 certainly suggests an old system, he said, which may limit the options.

If both systems have USB ports, Vohwinkel's current favorite method is a special USB-to-USB cable that lets you copy between the systems as if you were moving files on the hard drive. You can shop for them at usbcable.com; click on "Data Transfer" on the left for these types of cables. They run $30 to $40.

If the computers are networked, you can set up file sharing and copy the files across the network. This is pretty straightforward between Windows 98 and XP.

If USB ports and networks aren't an option, Windows' File and Settings Transfer Wizard is designed for moving files between systems. It can be a bit confusing to use and may take a couple of attempts to get it working, Vohwinkel said.

The utility can be installed from the Windows CD or downloaded from Microsoft's Web site.
Depending on the number of files, the utility really needs a network connection between the two computers, Vohwinkel said, but you also can transfer data on CDs. You can learn more about this process on Microsoft's support page: support.microsoft.com/ kb/306186 .

Microsoft releases Windows 7 Thursday, and while it's getting good reviews, from all accounts it's going to be a real headache to install on an existing Windows XP computer while keeping all of your files and settings intact.

Microsoft suggests that the best route for XP users is to buy a new Windows 7 computer and transfer all of your files over directly. (Adding it to a Vista computer, on the other hand, should be a fairly easy upgrade.)

But Laplink, the market leader in PC migration, is offering an alternative. It touts its PCmover utility as the only software with the ability to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 on the same computer, without requiring you to back up your data externally and wipe your hard drive clean.

PCmover Home, which moves all of your selected programs, files and settings from your old operating system to the new one, incorporates the "Upgrade Assistant" feature and costs about $40. You also can purchase a standalone version of Upgrade Assistant for $15 through Thursday or $30 after that. The software is available for download at laplink.com.

If you'd prefer to have help in the process, support.com is offering an online migration service utilizing Laplink's software. The remote service, available starting Thursday, is $49 if purchased with a subscription (starting at $19.99 a month) or $149 otherwise.

Finally, if you do choose to buy a new computer running Windows 7, you can follow Vohwinkel's first suggestion above and try the Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7, a USB cable designed specifically for the Windows Easy Transfer Utility in the new operating system. It's $23 at Amazon.com.

Article written by BY ANNE KRISHNAN
The News and Observer

Go Green: Store Documents Electronically

2009-11-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

The new QuickBooks 2010 Pro allows you to electronically attach your documents to QuickBooks transactions. The tool is designed to streamline filing and enhance organization, but any form of electronic storage also has a tremendous environmental benefit. This feature allows you to store documents like receipts, contracts, statements (e.g. from vendors) and attach (i.e. create links) to the documents in QuickBooks transactions. You can also add links to customer, vendor and employee list records. QuickBooks stores all documents online - allowing you to maximize your internal server resources and providing greater protection over document loss for you due to computer errors, weather damage or theft.

Go Green: Use QuickBooks Remote Access

2009-11-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

QuickBooks Remote Access – powered by WebEx – allows you (or anyone with the proper login information) to connect to your QuickBooks data from any web-enabled PC. You can use this technology to reduce travel time for time you, your employees and your business consultants.

For example, you can:

Access key management reports that you need in order to work from home in the evenings, weekends and holidays when you wouldn’t normally travel to the office.
Allow your accounting professional (e.g. CPA, ProAdvisor, bookkeeper, etc.) to access your QuickBooks data to analyze the condition of your accounting information, to process key reports, to perform bookkeeping responsibilities like bank reconciliations or even to prepare the company’s payroll forms electronically. Note: the performance of QuickBooks Remote Access is comparable to other notable remote desktop applications. However, due to the slightly longer response time of these types of utilities it may not be the best option for processing numerous transactions in QuickBooks (e.g. entering detailed Invoices or Bills). Tip: When you need to enter large amounts of data from a remote location, consider using Windows Remote Desktop or Windows Terminal Services. Contact your IT professional for more information about these options.
Transfer large files (e.g. QuickBooks Backups or Portable Company Files) to and from remote locations. Since very large files are difficult to email, you can use this electronic transfer option as an alternative to shipping a flash drive or other removable media storage device.

For more information about QuickBooks Remote Access go to www.QuickBooks.com and search for “Other Products & Services.”

Tax Planning Appointments with Your CPA are Critical this Year

2009-11-18T05:56:00.000-08:00

As a business owner you need to have at least one tax planning appointment with your CPA near year end, and this year it is more important than ever. Several factors will need to be considered, if you live and work in North Carolina, we have a new income tax (2-3% surcharge) that will affect many owners . Cash basis taxpayers may have roll over effect from prior year’s earnings and lower current expenses. We also need to consider the potential error in the current federal withholding tables for the 2009 stimulus tax break. Read more from CNN, Stimulus surprise: 15 million may owe IRS. Set up your tax planning appointment, NOW!

Go Green: Go Paperless with Payroll

2009-11-17T07:31:00.000-08:00

Payroll processing, filing and form preparation can cause extremely high paper use and can cause other environmental footprints like using mail delivery for paychecks, employee W2s and for payroll forms. QuickBooks has several in product tools that can reduce the entire payroll process to a paperless filing and electronic delivery system.

Using Electronic Timecards and Timesheets
The beginning of the payroll process is the submission of an employee’s time – for hourly employees. If you need to track specific hours to specific jobs or to provide the accountability of a timecard system you have two options:

TimeTracker
TimeTracker is an online timesheet application – designed by Intuit – that allows your employees to enter the time worked for each day of the week, to enter a note about what time they worked, to select the service item associated with the work performed and to allocate each time entry to a customer or job. This tool is especially helpful for a professional service company or contracted labor service that needs to bill the time worked to specific clients/customers. However, even if you do not need to bill a customer for the specific hours worked, you can still download the time into QuickBooks to create paychecks for each employee. For more information select the Employees menu, select Time Activities and then select Let Your Employees Enter Time. Additional fees apply, but a 30 day free trial is currently available.

Corrigo TimeCard for Intuit Payroll
This product is designed by Corrigo in partnership with Intuit. This tool has all of the same time tracking abilities as TimeTracker, but adds the accountability of a traditional timecard machine. This is a perfect paperless option if you need employees to log start and stop times using employee ID cards. Go to www.corrigo.com for more information about this product.

Paying Employees with Direct Deposit
You can setup direct deposit for selected employees using any edition of QuickBooks (SimpleStart and above) with any payroll service (Basic Payroll and above). Open the Edit Employee window, select “Payroll and Compensation Info” and then click Direct Deposit. Enter information for up to two bank accounts on the window shown below. Per transaction fees apply. For more information go to www.quickbooks.com/payroll.

When you submit paychecks using Direct Deposit you will still need to provide check stub information to each employee – for each paycheck. You can send paystubs to each employee electronically as Adobe Acrobat files and you can do so directly within QuickBooks. Select the File drop down menu, select Send Forms and then choose Paystubs on the Send Forms window. To increase security, you send electronic paystubs using Intuit’s secure email service. As a result, there is no Acrobat copy of the paystubs stored in the user’s Outlook data file or on any hard drive on your network.

Broader Environmental Perspective: Using direct deposit reduces the check stock you purchase (less paper), the shipping process to deliver the check stock to you (less carbon emissions), the need for your employees to travel to their banks to deposit the checks (less carbon emissions) and the need for the bank to provide printed receipts for each deposit made (less paper).

Filing and Submitting Payroll Forms Electronically
QuickBooks allows you to electronically file payroll forms like the quarterly Form 941 and the annual Form 940. You can file almost all state payroll forms directly from QuickBooks as well. To use this feature you must have QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll or Enhanced Payroll for Accountants. You can also save copies of these forms in Adobe Acrobat or display the forms at any time for future reference. This feature reduces the paper you use to print the government and to file copies of each form. You also reduce the negative environmental footprint involved in mailing the forms to each government agency.

Paying Payroll Liabilities Electronically
QuickBooks allows you to submit payments to the IRS and almost all state revenue agencies electronically – directly from QuickBooks. To use this feature you must have QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll or Enhanced Payroll for Accountants. As with direct deposit, the reduction in the use of printed checks has a multi-faced positive impact on the environment. See the note above for all possible environmental footprints involved in the use of printed check stock.

Note: All of the paperless options above are also available using Assisted Payroll. With Assisted Payroll you process payroll using QuickBooks, with the complete ability to edit paycheck detail as you would normally do using Basic or Enhanced Payroll Services. However, after you prepare the paychecks, you click a single button to send the payroll data to Intuit, and Intuit manages the direct deposits, payroll tax payments, and quarterly/annual payroll forms – Federal and all 50 states.

Go Green: Use a Paperless Filing System

2009-11-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

Filing accounting reports and copies of sales and purchase forms is important to every business. Keeping accurate, thorough files is essential to running your business effectively.

A few examples include:

Filing monthly accounting reports like the Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss and General Ledger
Filing copies of customer invoices with associated payment information
Filing copies of vendor bills with associated payment information
Copies of sales tax returns, payroll tax returns/forms and income tax returns

About Paperless Office Concept
To save paper (and office space) it is best to shift to an electronic storage method for as much of your filing as possible. There are numerous paperless filing guides you can find online. The paperless office concept as a “philosophy to work with minimal paper and convert all forms of documentation to a digital form. The ideal is driven by a number of motivators including productivity gains, cost savings, the need to quickly share information and the positive impact on the environment.” All of these benefits are powerful motivators, but within the context of this article, the paperless office has a tremendously powerful benefit on the environment – especially as more and more businesses adopt the philosophy.

Consider the environmental impact of not only the paper you use and the paper that your customers and vendors/suppliers use but also the carbon-emitting resources and fossil fuel consumption involved in moving business documents from one party to another – or between multiple locations owned by your company.

General Paper-Saving Tip – Electronic Faxing: The business word is growing more and more independent of faxing technology. However, there are times when faxing is advantageous or even essential when transferring copies of documents and reports. Use To reduce paper use for both the sender and receiver, use an electronic faxing service. An electronic faxing service routes incoming faxes to one or more email addresses so there is no use of paper or ink/toner on your part. You can also use electronic faxing services to send faxes directly from your desktop (e.g. a printed QuickBooks invoice or a Microsoft Word letter to a customer or vendor).

There are several tools that allow you to easily adapt QuickBooks information to a paperless environment.

File Reports as Excel Files
With the report displayed, click the Export button and export the report to a Microsoft Excel workbook. Then, you can save the workbook to any hard drive on your local network. If you prefer, you can even export reports to existing Excel workbooks. For example, you can have a single Excel workbook called Profit & Loss and then create new sheets each time you export a monthly Profit & Loss report to Excel.

Save the Report as an Adobe Acrobat File
With the report displayed select the File drop down menu and then select Save as PDF. You can then browse to a folder where you want to store the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file for future reference.

General Paperless Tip: When you work with electronically stored documents and reports, it is best to use two monitors at your workstation. On one monitor show QuickBooks (or whatever application you would normally display on the screen) and on the second monitor display the electronically stored document (source document).

Tip: Enhance Document Storage with a Third Party Application: There are several applications designed to work with QuickBooks that enhance your ability to efficiently store paperless source documents and reports. Go to www.marketplace.intuit.com for more information.

QuickBooks Users Meet-Up

2009-11-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

Now you can attend a FREE QuickBooks User Meet-up without leaving your computer. I host a once a month meet-up for an hour via GoTo Meeting. Anyone can attend the meeting. You can even decide to attend at the last minute.
We share information related to QuickBooks Accounting Software, Business Start up and general business hot topics.

Win an Office Max Gift Card from Alpha Accounting

2009-10-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

To celebrate Alpha Accounting joining the social media world we are giving away a $50 gift card to Office Max to (1) one lucky subscriber.

HOW TO WIN

Follow or Subscribe to the Accounting Powered by Chocolate blog and then leave a comment on this blog.
(Follow in Google Friend Connect, Subscribe via Email or RSS feed.)

RULES
- Contest will close at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 4th, 2009! Any entries after this time will be deleted!
- Contest open to N.C. residents only.
- Please leave an email address if your comment is from an anonymous account or your entry will be disqualified.

A winner will be chosen at random using random.org. The winner will be contacted and have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address or another winner will be chosen.

Turn It Around - Business Success Story

2009-10-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

I believe that with the proper guidance a struggling business can turned around and become profitable. Here is a great story of how a Small Business can be turned around from a bad situation, with the help of knowledgeable mentors and a simple tool, QuickBooks. When QuickBooks is set up properly a business can track sales and profits by product or product line and gain valuable financial information to make decisions to change the direction of their operations.

Employees' Abuse of Internet May Create Liabilities

2009-10-26T12:19:00.000-07:00

There is a growing concern about the prevalence of child pornography on the Internet and as an employer you may be held liable for employees who view this material using company computers.

Seven states, including North Carolina require information technology workers to report the discovery of child pornography to law enforcement officials. Failure to report such information could result in a fine or jail time. The discovery of any child pornography should be immediately reported to law enforcement officials and the Cyber Tip Line at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where submissions are kept anonymous. Employers can be held liable for negligent supervision or retention of such incidents in addition to failure to act if they discover an individual has been viewing pornography and do nothing.

A company policy banning any illegal internet use as well as inappropriate use of company computers should be implemented and closely followed. An Internet usage policy that is not followed is almost as bad as having no policy at all.

There is also software available to prevent access to these sites, including programs that recognize keywords.

If you encounter any situations I would suggest contacting an employment attorney immediately.

Go Green - Send and Process Documents Electronically

2009-10-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Send and Process Documents Electronically
Most editions of QuickBooks include numerous tools that allow you to share and file your company’s reports and sales forms electronically.

Email Forms to Your Vendors and Customers
The following forms are designed to be sent as a pdf. attachment in an email:

Estimates
Sales Orders
Inoices
Credit Memos
Statements
Purchase Orders

All that is required for your customer to view these reports is the current edition of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Setting User and Company Preferences for Sending Forms

Step 1 - From the Edit drop down menu select Preferences and then select Send Form.
Step 2 - On the My Preferences tab, choose if you want to send the form using Microsoft Outlook or using the QuickBooks Email service.

Outlook vs. Quickbooks Email
Outlook - If you choose to send the forms using Microsoft Outlook you have better control over the formatting, you can attach additional documents to the email before you send and you can maintain a record of the email in your Sent Items folder within Outlook. However, if you send numerous forms electronically on a regular basis you will need to regularly archive your sent items folder to keep the size of your Outlook file manageable. Alternatively you can setup company preferences to blind copy a designated email address (e.g. a special billing email address) and use that email account to store the forms you sent and the people to whom you sent them.
QuickBooks Email - If you choose to send the forms using the QuickBooks email service you will not store a copy on your computer (e.g. in the Outlook sent items folder). However, you can still setup Company email preferences to automatically blind copy an administrative email address and store the sent forms using that email address – as stated above. This option also allows you to send forms without Outlook installed or configured on the local computer - with only an Internet connection. There is no fee for this service.

Step 3 - Click the Company Preferences tab to set the default email message the customer/vendor will receive when you send the form. Notice below that you use these preferences to set the default email message for emailed reports and pay stubs as well. See the sections below for more information about emailing these documents. When you are done, click OK to save your changes and to close the preferences window.

Go Green with Intuit - Introduction

2009-10-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

More and more businesses are beginning to make strides toward sustainable industry. In addition to obvious environmental benefits "going green" can save your company money.

Intuit officially went green in August 2007 with their biggest efforts geared toward reducing waste. In designing their products they've implements tools to help users like you go green. Over the next few days we'll explore a few ways that your business can utilize these "green" tools to not only reduce waste but save you money.

Quicken Free Rent Contest

2009-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how it would feel to have an extra $2,500 in your pocket? Quicken will help one lucky winner find out by paying one month’s rent for December 2009. The Quicken Free Rent Twitter Sweepstakes begins Oct. 15, 2009 at www.quickenfreerent.com.
Full contest rules, terms and conditions, and entry methods will be available when the contest launches on Oct 15th and ends Nov 13.

Follow Intuit Payroll in Social Media

2009-10-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

To help keep users informed of small business issues that affect hiring and payroll processing, Intuit Payroll now has a team blog: www.IntuitPayrollBlog.com . Get up-to-date news in the payroll world, payroll trends, and all the latest happenings regarding Intuit Payroll.

Also, Intuit Payroll is now on Twitter - get real-time news and information on our Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/IntuitPayroll.

Are You Using the Correct I- 9 form?

2009-10-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Are you using the correct I- 9 form?
You should be using the form with an 8/31/2012 expiration date.
To download a free copy of the current I-9.

Keep in mind, the I-9 is a legal document that needs to be completed properly. In the event of an audit, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services will issue fines for forms with incomplete information including missing N/A in the maiden name box for a male employees.

QuickBooks and MAC Become Better Friends

2009-10-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

I have long been an advocate of QuickBooks for Mac. I'm constantly nagging the Intuit folks about the need to meet our clients using MAC, MAC, MAC. Finally, we're making some real headway. In Late October, Intuit will be releasing the 2010 edition of QuickBooks for Mac with many great upgrades you'll want to check out.

Some of the benefits MAC users can to look forward to:

Intuit QuickBooks Payroll for Mac: an integrated add-on payroll service
Easily view customized at-a-glance reports and graphs, such as year-over-year expense and income comparisons.
Process Credit Card Transactions: Save time and money by processing card transactions with Intuit Merchant Service for QuickBooks for Mac, an integrated add-on service for an additional fee.

Intuit QuickBooks 2010 for Mac is designed to work on Intel-based Macs (running Mac OS 10.5.7, 10.6, or later)

If you're a MAC user you'll want to check out the 2010 edition.