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Use QuickBooks Online to Streamline Accounting

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quickbooks online assistanceIf you dread every minute of the time you spend on accounting, you should know how QuickBooks Online can change your outlook.

Our CPA firm is well versed in QuickBooks and moving more clients to the online version.

We have a great team of experts who can help set up and train your team to utilize  the online version to the fullest.  Our focus and goal is to make your accounting system streamlined so you can focus on running your business.

We also help you review the numbers and feel confident in where you stand at any given moment.

How long would it take you to determine:

  • What your total expenses for this quarter are?
  • Whether or not your business is profitable as of today?
  • How much you’ve sold every month this year?
  • Which invoices are overdue?

If you’re using QuickBooks Online, you can get answers to all those questions—and more—in the time it takes you to sign on to the website.

That’s not an exaggeration. The first thing QuickBooks Online displays is what’s called its Dashboard. This is the site’s home page, which contains an array of charts and account balances that provide a quick overview of your finances. Click on an element here—say, a checking account balance—and you’ll be able to drill down and see the details behind it (in this case, an online account register). Click on the Expense graph, and a transaction report opens.

Your First Hours with QBO

QuickBooks Online is not one-size-fits-all. Its setup tools help you customize it to meet your own company’s needs.

QuickBooks Online works like other online productivity applications you may have used. It uses toolbars and buttons for navigation, drop-down lists and blank fields for data entry, and clickable links to open new related screens to trigger actions. Which is to say, the site is easy to use once you understand its structure.

We can walk you through the early steps that are required, which involves tasks like: Using the provided setup tools to customize the site. Connecting QuickBooks Online to your bank and credit card company websites so you can work with transactions.

Creating records for your customers, vendors, and the products and services you sell (you’ll be able to add new ones as your business grows). Learning about QuickBooks Online’s pre-built reports. Familiarizing yourself with the site’s workflow. Making the transition from your current accounting system.

How You’ll Benefit

Once you’re comfortable using QuickBooks Online, you’ll discover what millions of small businesses have already learned, that the site helps you:

Get paid faster. You can sign up with a payment processor to accept credit cards and direct bank withdrawals, which can speed up your customers’ responses to invoices. You’ll also be able to accept payments when you’re out of the office on your mobile devices.

Minimize errors. Once you enter data, QuickBooks Online remembers it. No more duplicate data entry that can cause costly mistakes.

Find any detail in seconds. QuickBooks Online has powerful search tools that allow you to find what you’re looking for quickly.

Better service customers. Because your customer profiles include transaction histories, you’ll be able to deal with questions and problems quickly and accurately.

Bill time as well as invoice products. QuickBooks Online supports sales of time-based services with capable time-tracking tools.

Improve your customers’ and vendors’ perception of you. Your business associates will know that you’re using state-of-the-art technology by the forms you share and the customer service you provide.

Save money and time. It does take some time to make the transition to QuickBooks Online. But you’ll quickly make that up with the hours you’ll save on accounting tasks, and be able to concentrate on tasks that improve your bottom line.

Be prepared to grow. Because all of your financial data is organized and easily accessible, you’ll be able to quickly generate reports that help you plan for a more profitable future. Banks and investors will need some of these if you decide to seek financing.

Mobile Access

Although you may do the bulk of your accounting work on your desktop or laptop, you’ll have access to many of the site’s features on your smartphone. Your home page displays both an abbreviated version of your browser-based dashboard and a list of recent transactions.

You can view, edit, and build new customer, vendor, and product or service records. Snap a photo of a receipt to document an expense and look up or create invoices, estimates, and sales receipts. Record payments, view critical reports, and add notes. Of course, your mobile data is always synchronized with the site itself.

This also enables your CPA to login remotely and assist with questions or make adjustments instantly.

QuickBooks Online lets you do much of your accounting work when you’re away from the office with its mobile app.

Happy to Help

QuickBooks Online was designed for small businesspeople, not accountants.

But it includes features that are best used in conjunction with our consulting services, like advanced reports, payroll, and the Chart of Accounts. In fact, the site makes it easy for us to have access to your data so we have the ability to monitor and troubleshoot.

We’ve helped countless sole proprietors and small businesses move their accounting operations to QuickBooks Online, and we’ve seen the difference it’s made in their productivity as well as their attitude toward financial management. Contact us, and we’ll be happy to do the same for you.

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Still doing your accounting manually? You’re spending unnecessary hours and experiencing needless frustration. Talk to us about QuickBooks Online.

Did you know you can do much of your accounting work and accept customer payments on your smartphone? Let us introduce you to QuickBooks Online.

Are you often away from the office? QuickBooks Online lets you handle accounting tasks from anywhere there’s an internet connection. We can tell you how.

Does your manual accounting system make it hard to keep track of customers and inventory? QuickBooks Online can organize and manage both. Contact us today to learn how our team at BGMF can help you make your accounting and reporting more efficient.

Do This if Selling a Business

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selling a businessDo your plans for the future include selling your small business? For the best chance of a successful outcome, you’d be smart to start preparing for the sale well in advance.

For What It’s Worth

After you’ve built your business from the ground up, being objective about its value can be difficult. If you know what other companies like yours have sold for recently, that may give you a rough idea of what price your business might bring. For a clearer idea, consider having a professional business valuation done.

BGMF CPAs can provide guidance on valuing your business and can recommend resources to assist in the process so you maximize your gains (and minimize taxes) from the sale.

Give some thought, in a broad sense, to the type of buyer who would be ideal. Perhaps a key person who currently works for your company? A competitor? Someone who just wants to buy a good business and run it but isn’t a current employee or competitor? An investor who wants to make a profit but isn’t interested in the day-to-day operations of the company? The sales price you can realistically expect to receive will depend in part on the type of buyer you are targeting.

At this point, you’ll also want to think about your future participation in the business after it is sold. Consider the role you’d be willing and able to play, if any, during the transition to new ownership.

Make It Attractive

Before putting your company on the market, you’ll want to focus on its profitability. Taking steps to enhance the bottom line — even if it means paying more income taxes — may allow you to command a higher price for the business.

On the asset side, now is the time to identify any equipment, furniture, fixtures, or machinery that is no longer useful and consider selling or otherwise disposing of these items. That way, you’ll be able to present a leaner business to potential buyers.

It’s What You Keep

Selling your company for a fair price is important, but so is securing all available tax advantages. Will you be structuring the sale as an asset sale or will you be selling your company stock? Each has different tax implications. With smart planning, you’ll be in a better position not only to command top dollar for your company, but also to minimize taxes on the sale.

Our firm has been involved in the buy and sell side of businesses and can assist you in the process. Contact our firm today to schedule a time to discuss the process involved in buying or selling a business.

Why You Need a Business Continuity Plan

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business continuity against disasterWhat if disaster strikes your business? An estimated 25% of businesses don’t reopen after a major disaster strikes.1 Having a business continuity plan can help improve your odds of recovering.

Here in the Midwest we have recently been stricken with some major weather including flooding, a multitude of tornadoes and other factors outside our control that have the potential to devastate a community including the businesses.

As auditors, part of our process is to analyze risk exposure within a Company. This includes having a plan in place in case of a disaster that would cripple the business if proper steps were not implemented in a timely fashion.

Business continuity plans can be simple and efficient or complex and costly depending on the type of organization.  Below we provide an overview of how a continuity plan works and why there should be one in place.

The Basic Plan

The strategy behind a business continuity (or disaster recovery) plan is straightforward: Identify the various risks that could disrupt your business, look at how each operation could be affected, and identify appropriate recovery actions.

Make sure you have a list of employees ready with phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency family contacts for communication purposes. If any of your employees can work from home, include that information in your personnel list. You’ll need a similar list of customers, suppliers, and other vendors. Social networking tools may be especially helpful for keeping in touch during and after a disaster.

Risk Protection

Having the proper insurance is key to protecting your business — at all times. In addition to property and casualty insurance, most small businesses carry disability, key-person life insurance, and business interruption insurance. And make sure your buy-sell agreement is up to date, including the life insurance policies that fund it. Meet with your financial professional for a complete review.

Maintaining Operations

If your building has to be evacuated or destroyed, you’ll need an alternative site. Talk with other business owners in your vicinity about locating and equipping a facility that can be shared in case of an emergency. You may be able to limit physical damage by taking some preemptive steps (e.g., having a generator and a pump on hand).

This aspect is critical to ensure you continue to operate or get back up and running quickly.  There are different tiers of disaster recover that can be utilized as part of your business continuity plan.

You’ll want to analyze the business impact to identify functions and resources that are time-sensitive. You will review what critical business functions must be recovered and what steps to take. You should consider having a continuity team in place to help devise and manage this plan. Finally, ensure the team is well-trained and worked through all procedures.

Protecting Data

A disaster could damage or destroy your computer equipment and wipe out your data, so take precautions. This could include a natural disaster or a malicious attack on your organization to get into secure data. Invest in surge protectors and arrange for secure storage by transmitting data to a remote server or backing up daily to storage media that can be kept off site.  With today’s technology, work with your IT consultants to plan around protecting your data in the most efficient way possible.

Protecting Your Business

If you think your business is too small to need a plan or that it will take too long to create one, just think about how much you stand to lose by not having one. Meet with your BGMF CPA for a full review and begin mapping out a plan that makes sense for your situation and budget.

Source/Disclaimer:

1Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, www.sba.gov/content/disaster-planning.

Time to Check Your Withholding

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check tax withholdingIn light of the tax law changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, it may be an appropriate time for taxpayers to review their withholding.

Changes to the tax rates and brackets, the removal of personal exemptions and certain other deductions, the new limit on the deduction for state and local taxes, and various other modifications may have a significant impact on personal income tax liabilities.

BGMF CPAs offers tax planning services to clients to properly strategize and save in taxes.  Like many taxpayers found out during tax filing season, their withholding was lower than expected, resulting in lower refunds or a tax bill. At a minimum we recommend reviewing your withholding to ensure you’re not surprised next tax filing season.

The IRS offers workers the opportunity to perform a quick “paycheck checkup” to make sure they have the right amount of tax withheld from their paychecks. The IRS Withholding Calculator can be found at http://irs.gov/individuals/irs-withholding-calculator.

Getting it right is important since you could face an unexpected tax bill or penalty at tax time next year if you have too little tax withheld. Or, if you have too much tax withheld, you may be eligible for a tax refund. Many people see a large tax refund as a plus — but in reality a large tax refund is effectively an interest-free loan of taxpayer money to the IRS. A better approach may be to have less tax withheld up front and receive more in your paycheck. That way, the extra money would be available to save or invest, pay down debt, or spend as you see fit.

The withholding calculator can help you figure out if you need to give your employer a new Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. Your results from the calculator can be used to help you fill out the form and adjust your income tax withholding.  If you prefer not to calculate this yourself we’re glad to help. Please contact us today to start that conversation.

Steps to Take

The key is to plan ahead. Before you access the calculator and start entering data, the IRS suggests that you:

  • Have your most recent pay stubs within reach.
  • Have a copy of your most recent income tax return available. A copy of your completed Form 1040 can assist you in estimating your 2019 income and identifying other items that may affect your tax.

The IRS cautions that the calculator’s results will only be as accurate as the information you enter. If there is a change to your circumstances during the year, you will have to use the calculator again to ensure that your withholding is still correct.

Moreover, the IRS withholding calculator may not work for those with more complex tax situations. Taxpayers who owe self-employment tax, alternative minimum tax, the tax on unearned income of dependents, or certain other taxes, and those with long-term capital gain or qualified dividends should use the instructions in Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

If you have questions about your withholding or would like assistance with analyzing your tax situation, consult with your tax advisor.  We’re available all year around to answer your questions.

Tax Deductions When Traveling for Business and Pleasure

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business travel and taxBusiness owners who travel out of town on business sometimes like to extend their trips and take a little time to relax and see the sights. When a trip is partly for business and partly for pleasure, various expenses may still be deductible.

Domestic Travel

A self-employed individual whose trip is primarily for business may deduct the full cost of the travel itself (such as airfare or train fare) even though some of the trip is devoted to personal activities.1 Additionally, various other expenses allocable to business, such as lodging and 50% of meal costs incurred on the business days, are deductible.

There needs to be a legitimate business purpose for each person taking the trip for there to be a write-off.  For example, if your spouse or kids travel with you, the cost of their travel may not be deductible if they are not involved in the business.

In addition, you may have to allocate a portion of the trip when both business and personal activities are intertwined.How do you maximize your deductions when traveling? Easy! Turn more days into business days. Consider getting your spouse and kids involved and find ways to conduct business-related matters.  Ultimately, you’ll have to demonstrate how the activities performed helped your business.

If a trip is primarily for personal reasons, the entire cost of the travel is a nondeductible personal expense. However, expenses incurred while at the destination that are directly related to the taxpayer’s business may be deducted.

For example, if you travel to Disney with your family and set up a couple of lunch meetings with clients in the area, the cost of the meals could be deductible as a business expense. The trip to Disney would be non-deductible.

Foreign Travel

The deductibility rules for combined business/pleasure trips outside of the U.S. are a little more complicated in some respects. Even if the primary purpose of the trip is business, the cost of the travel itself generally has to be allocated, and only the business portion is deductible. However, no allocation has to be made — and the full travel cost is deductible — if:

  • The trip lasts for no more than seven consecutive days (excluding the day of departure but including the day of return); or
  • Personal days total less than 25% of the total days spent on the trip (including both the day of departure and the day of return); or
  • The taxpayer can establish that the opportunity to take a personal vacation was not a major consideration for the trip.
  • For these purposes, business days include days when business is conducted for only part of the day, days spent traveling to and from a business destination, and weekend days or holidays that fall between two business days.

As this brief overview suggests, with smart planning, self-employed business owners can maximize their write-offs for combined business/pleasure travel.

Contact us today to discuss how we can help you maximize your deductions and limit your tax liability with proper planning.

Source/Disclaimer:

1Under The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, employees may no longer deduct unreimbursed employee business expenses as a miscellaneous deduction, effective with the 2018 tax year.

10 Things to Know About an LLC

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Whenever we meet with clients who want to start a business or invest in real estate, the discussion of what type of entity to select is always part of the discussion. The LLC has become a very popular entity for businesses for many reasons including protection, tax planning, flexibility and other reasons we won’t cover in this post.

An LLC may not always be the right choice for entity selection, but that is something we discuss during those consultations.  Below we share some insights to help you decide if an LLC is the right way to go for your business.

You probably know of several businesses whose formal names end with the acronym LLC. And you probably also know that LLC stands for limited liability company. Here are 10 things you may not know.

  1. An LLC generally protects its owners from personal liability for business obligations in much the same way a corporation does, but an LLC is not a corporate entity.1
  2. Like a corporation, an LLC can do business in multiple states, although an LLC must be organized in a specific state.
  3. The owners of an LLC are called members. There is no limit on the number of members an LLC can have, and members don’t necessarily have to be individuals. Members’ management roles are typically spelled out in an operating agreement.
  4. Upon formation of an LLC, the members contribute cash, property, or services to the LLC in exchange for LLC shares or units.
  5. An LLC may borrow money in its own name and is responsible for repayment of the debt.
  6. An LLC is usually treated as a partnership for federal income tax purposes if there are two or more members. If there is a sole member, it is considered a disregarded entity for tax purposes.

    (The remaining four points assume partnership treatment.)

  7. Like partners, LLC members are not considered employees of the company. However, an LLC can have non-member employees.
  8. LLC members are taxed directly on company income. The LLC itself doesn’t pay federal income taxes.
  9. If an LLC has a loss, its members generally can deduct their share of the loss on their own tax returns.
  10. For tax purposes, an LLC’s income and losses are divided among its members according to the terms of their agreement. Tax allocations must correspond to economic allocations of profit and loss.

An LLC is but one structure you might consider using for a business venture. The input of a professional may be helpful in determining which type of arrangement will best meet your objectives.

BGMF CPAs can help guide you through the entity selection process as part of your planning and strategy to start and operate your business or real estate venture. There are some great tax planning strategies that can be utilized through the LLC that can also be discussed.  Talk with one of our advisors today.

Source/Disclaimer:

1Each state has its own laws governing LLCs. Consult with an attorney before establishing an LLC.