Is It Time to Adjust Your Pricing In QuickBooks?

Posted by Bruce Mc on Nov 23, 2010 in Accounting, Bookeeping, Information, QuickBooks | 0 comments

Changing the prices of your company’s services and inventory items can solve one of two problems, depending on why you’re looking for a solution. Say your materials suppliers have upped their prices. You may choose to increase your affected products to maintain your profit margin. Or maybe an item or service has not been moving well. A drop in price might trigger improved sales.

Those examples, of course, are simplifications of what needs to be a thoughtful, studied process. They’re critical business decisions that should be made with the guidance from your trusted ProAdvisor. We’re not experts in just QuickBooks – we also understand the flow of profit and loss, and we can be valuable allies in your battle for continued growth.

We’ll explore the tools that QuickBooks offers to help simplify price changes once your decisions have been made. They’re not overly difficult to use, but we want to ensure your intentions are carried out accurately. And there are related inventory issues that may be impacted by your modifications.

Adjust Your Pricing In QuickBooks

First Steps

First, make sure that QuickBooks is set up to accommodate price levels. Click Edit | Preferences and select Sales & Customers in the left vertical pane. Then click the Company Preferences tab. You’ll see the window shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Before attempting price level changes, be sure the Use price levels box is checked. If it’s not already checked, click on the box next to Use price levels. Then click OK.

Multiple Options

QuickBooks offers options related to item price changes. You can simply alter the cost of one item, or you can modify several at once. Your adjustments can be in the form of either percentages or fixed amounts.

There are two ways to get to the price-changing window. You can click the Customers menu, then Change Item Prices. Or you can select the Items & Services icon from the home page. If you do the latter, simply open the Activities menu at the bottom of the screen and select Change Item Prices to see a window similar to the one shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The Change Item Prices window displays lists of your products.

By opening the drop-down list below Item Type, you can select the desired type of product: Service, Inventory Part, Inventory Assembly, Non-Inventory Part, or Other Charges.

Targeting Your Changes

Once you’ve selected the right type, click in the column next to the item(s) you want to change. A check mark will appear. If you want to increase or decrease the prices of all of them, click next to Mark All at the bottom of the screen, as pictured in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Click the box next to Mark All if you want to change the prices of all entries.

Based on your discussions with us, you should now know how you want to adjust the selected price(s). You may have just decided on a new price, in which case you can simply enter it in the New Price column.

Here’s an alternative. In the box to the right of Adjust price of marked items by (amount or %), enter either an individual number to increase by that amount, or a number with a % sign after it to up it by that percentage. To decrease the cost, enter a negative number.

The next step is a little trickier. If you simply want to alter the price of an entry based on its current sales price, leave the Current Price option showing in the next box. But if you want to change it based on its Unit Cost, you’ll have to consult us or do some digging to learn what that is.

If you want the resulting numbers to be rounded up, click the arrow next to Round up to nearest. When you’re satisfied with your work, click Adjust to see your changes reflected in the New Price column. Make any desired modifications, then click OK.

One Exception

Of course, no existing transactions will be altered. But if any of your newly priced items or services occur in memorized transactions, you’ll have to edit them. Go to Lists | Memorized Transaction List. Highlight the affected transaction, then right-click and delete it. Enter a new transaction and memorize it again. If you know only that transaction will be affected, you can select Edit Memorized Transaction instead of deleting it.

Don’t know where all of those items occur? Go to Edit | Find to locate them as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: You can easily find items in memorized transactions using the Find tool.

Making price changes in QuickBooks – even global ones – isn’t terribly difficult, but it involves a business decision that’s best made in conjunction with us. It can lead to increased profitability no matter which direction you go, as long as you take into account the issues and potential outcomes involved.

QuickBooks’ Educational Tools

Posted by Bruce Mc on Oct 21, 2010 in Bookeeping, QuickBooks | 0 comments

When you first cracked your copy of QuickBooks, you likely wanted to dive in and start generating invoices. Fortunately, QuickBooks is so intuitive that you were able to do just that. And its help system is so robust that you were able to get procedural questions answered quickly and easily.

However, there’s a lot to be said for backing up a bit and taking advantage of the myriad educational tools that QuickBooks offers. Even if you’ve been using the program for months, you may want to explore them. You’ll not only save time with the help system, but you may find better ways of performing tasks.

Learn by Watching

The QuickBooks Learning Center, one of the first things you saw when you installed the program, is always available by clicking Help | Learning Center Tutorials. It consists of numerous multimedia tutorials and links to additional help. As shown in Figure 1, the tutorials are worth a look before you take on a thorny topic like Payroll.

Figure 1: QuickBooks’ myriad tutorials help you absorb the basics of processes like Payroll.

Though you can use QuickBooks’ functions entirely from the menus, the program’s home page is built to guide you through core accounting processes. If you’re very new to QuickBooks and/or accounting, you can use the Coach function to better understand the flow. Click on Show Coach Tips in the vertical pane to the right of the main screen.

As shown in Figure 2, you’ll see a small “i” next to some icons. Click on one, like the one next to Purchase Orders. Related icons light up, and numbers representing their logical order appear next to them. Mouse over one of the icons to read a brief description of the function. When you’re done, click Hide Coach Tips to make them disappear.

Figure 2: QuickBooks’ Coach tool lays out the workflow for primary accounting processes.

Other Support Options

No matter how much you study and prepare, you may still run into situations where you need an expert’s hand. We can be a real resource here as we have the expertise to walk you through installation and setup, processes that are critical to your effective ongoing relationship with QuickBooks. And we can also pitch in when you’re facing other daunting accounting hurdles.

Another option for expert help is Intuit. The company offers a support plan that may or may not be in your budget, but it’s certainly something to consider if you anticipate having frequent questions. The best value is the Annual Support Plan ($349 for first year; $299 thereafter). You get 24×7 phone support, data backup and recovery services, and learning tools only available with the Support Plan.

Intuit also hosts an in-depth online support presence. Click Help | Support to get to the main page as shown in Figure 3. Installation, troubleshooting (with guides to error messages), company and data file management, general procedures – they’re all covered there. You can search the support database or browse by topic. These and other resources are available within QuickBooks’ embedded browser (you must have Internet access to reach it, as with many other features of the program – click Help | Internet Connection Setup if you’re not already set up).

Figure 3: Intuit’s online support for QuickBooks can help when you’re stumped.

Interactive Help

If you haven’t yet visited QuickBooks’ interactive forum, it’s time to head over! Click on the Live Community tab at the top of the far right vertical pane if it’s not already displayed (that pane toggles between Live Community and Help). As shown in Figure 4, you can enter questions here and get answers from other users and/or Intuit pros.

Figure 4: Community interaction is included in the QuickBooks palette of help tools. Live Community features questions from users and accompanying answers from users and Intuit pros.

For the expanded Intuit community, click on the Visit the Intuit Community link at the bottom of the Live Community pane.

Of course, don’t forget the core of QuickBooks’ help scheme: the Help pane. You can get a lot of your questions answered here. This pane constantly changes to display content relative to the current screen. This content provides explanations of concepts as well as step-by-step instructions.

So don’t throw up your hands in defeat when you’re having trouble. Remember how much help is available from Intuit, QuickBooks itself, or even myself. My web site has an extensive amount of QuickBooks information for you too.

My Monthly updated newsletter provides you with QuickBooks help and also provides articles to help you achieve your financial goals. Sign up now.

10 Reasons Why You Should Use QuickBooks

Posted by Bruce Mc on Oct 19, 2010 in Bookeeping, QuickBooks | 0 comments

Why You Should Use QuickBooks

QuickBooks is the ideal business accounting software for small to mid-sized business owners. I have been recommending it for over 13 years and use it myself. Below are the reasons why you should use QuickBooks:

QuickBooks Organizes your Files and Makes Tax Time Easy – Save up to 20% Now + Free Shipping.

Reads from last week

Posted by Bruce Mc on Sep 12, 2010 in Week in review | 0 comments

NEVER FORGET!

10 Things Grads Should Know About Retirement Planning - 

Brought to my attention via email from the author, this is great information for people who are just getting started. Too many people in their 20s simply don’t know the first thing about retirement planning or smart spending, and it’s because they’re too focused on earning money now to think about what they’ll need later. If you’re in that boat, don’t worry: it’s not too late to change course. With a few tips, you’ll be able to start planning for the day when you won’t have to work anymore.

(Planning For Retirement, Improving Your Retirement, Retirement calculators.)

Homebuyer tax credit payback chaos? – “You all do remember that when it was created, the so-called credit was really just an interest-free federal loan, don’t you? And loans, despite what some homeowners think, must be paid back.

But I’ll guarantee that this coming tax-filing season, affected taxpayers and the IRS are going to be spending a lot more time making sure that the first-time homebuyer credit repayment rules are met.”

Not exactly last week but a missed post that needs mention:

10 Ways To Get Out Of Debt Starting Now – Debt is as American as apple pie. It is estimated that 80% of Americans live with debt and that includes $8 trillion in home mortgage debt.  Many of us go to work every day simply to pay for products or services that we’ve already received. We can’t help our children with college, fund our retirements, participate in charitable giving, or simply go on that dream vacation we’ve always dreamed of.

Sometimes a Little Boost Is All You Need

Homebuyer Tax “Surprise” Just a Figment of the Media’s Imagination –  they shouldn’t be. They knew exactly what they were getting into. They may not have liked it after the fact but they can’t say they didn’t know. Time is coming that the first round to start paying back is getting near.

Social Media’s Not For You. Or Is It? It should be if you plan on growing your business. Ignoring social media is a mistake for any business that earns revenue from customers, has competitors, or isn’t the Kleenex of your category.  If you’re questioning whether your business should engage in social media, consider these three questions:

1. Is your business built on relationships?
2. Do you have competitors?
3. Does everybody you want to do business with already know your name?

Report: U.S. taxes overly confusing – There may be no surprise that the federal income tax is confusing but a new report done at President Obama’s request is detailing just how confusing and contradictory it is.

3% or 48%?

Obama Proposes Tax Breaks for Business: Too Little, Too Late? – Where were you on December 1, 2007? It’s one of those dates that you’re likely not to remember. But according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, that’s about when the recession really started. If you believe that we’re still in a recession (and most economists seem to), that makes 34 months.

How to cut down your own business costs by hiring virtual assistants -

Snubbed Again! And a Sincere Apology – I don’t get it. I didn’t make Accounting Today’s top 100 most influential people a-g-a-i-n. I mean, they don’t appear to think that my stay home tax practice or my quirky blog posts are influential enough to name. But I guess I should have been tipped off when I wasn’t contacted to supply a cute pic or provide a snappy bio.

E*Trade Online Brokerage Account Review

Tax Relief FAQ: What Should a Business Owner Do In Regards to Delinquent Payroll Deposits or Past Due Employment Taxes? – The best thing you can do is to stay current on your employment taxes from this point forward and seek immediate tax help.

Life Insurance

Online Payment Agreement – You don’t need a tax lawyer if you owe the federal government (IRS) $25,000 or less in income tax, penalties and interest. Instead, you can access an online payment agreement.

Are Your Tax Dollars Supporting the Ghostbusters?

H&R Block Records Lower Losses – The nation’s largest tax preparer, H&R Block Inc. reported lower losses by 2% for its first quarter in the fiscal year ended July 31, 2010. In the midst of a flurry of cost cutting measures, the Kansas City, Missouri based tax preparer posted a net loss of $130.7 million.

QuickBooks billing tips, tricks, workarounds – Tracking client retainers

EA, CPA or Tax Attorney?

Expert Tax Help FAQ: Can the IRS Get Personal When It Comes to Payroll Taxes? – The sure answer is “YES”

What your IRA can learn about paying tax from Cornell University

If At First It Doesn’t Work, Try, Try, Try Again – Not much is worse than a failed attempt at a resolving a problem being offered as a solution to the very problem it failed to resolve. True, one ought not give up after one unsuccessful try, but is there not some limit to the pursuit of futility?

Financial Mistakes You’d Make All Over Again – My favorite post this week.

SOME FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT THE FEDERAL TAX SYSTEM – Here are some interesting facts and figures concerning our current tax system that were included in the “Report on Tax Reform Options” recently issued by the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board

The Strangest Tax Write-Offs…Ever!

A “PTIN Facebook” for registered tax preparers? – As part of the new preparer registration process, the IRS should make it easy for taxpayers to confirm the identity and PTIN registration credentials of their tax preparers.

Should taxpayers be enforcing the new preparer regulations?

Surviving Spouse IRA Trap

When you hear people say things like “I’m in the 35% income tax bracket,” what are they really saying? Are they truly paying out 35 cents on every dollar they earn just in federal income tax? And what do people mean by the “marriage penalty?” When you’re looking at how to calculate income tax, it’s important to remember that we have several tax brackets in the U.S. Here’s how they break down How to Calculate Federal Income Tax.

IRS Patrol: New Form 8941 -IRS Releases Form to Help Small Businesses Claim New Health Care Tax Credit

Now is the Time to Use an Income Tax Estimator – This is the time to calculate what you’re going to owe and make adjustments in your payroll withholding and estimated tax payments. You know you’ve estimated right when you don’t pay much or get much back in a refund.

How Do You React to Financial Emergencies?

Get ready for FSA changes: IRS issues regs for 2011 OTC drug reimbursements – If you have a flexible spending account, or plan to sign up for one in the workplace benefits enrollment season that will soon be here, remember that medical flexible spending accounts face a change in 2011.

More Common Errors in QuickBooks

Posted by Bruce Mc on Sep 7, 2010 in Bookeeping, Opinions, QuickBooks | 0 comments

Account for outstanding bank account transactions.

If you’re having a problem reconciling your latest bank statement, the problem might be with outstanding bank account transactions.

If there was any lag time between the date of your statement and your start date in QuickBooks, make sure that you also entered any checks or deposits that happened in between.

For example,

 if your QuickBooks start date were 01/01/09, you’d use the ending balance on your December 2008 bank statement as your opening bank account balance. Let’s say the end date of that statement was December 20th, which means that all the deposits and payments you made from December 21st until December 31st are “outstanding,” or accounted for in your bank statement’s balance, but not in QuickBooks. To fix the problem in this example, you’d go back to your January 2009 bank statement, and enter into QuickBooks all the transactions that occurred between December 21st and 31st.

Pay bills in two steps.

For most users, paying bills in QuickBooks is a two-step process. (If you don’t track your accounts payable, it’ll be just one step.) First, when you receive a bill, enter it into the Enter Bills window (in the Vendor navigator and menu), so you can track how much money you owe. Second, when you’re ready to pay bills, indicate which one you want to pay using the Pay Bills window (also in the Vendor navigator and menu).

From the Pay Bills window, you can tell QuickBooks that you want to pay by check, and to put it into your print queue.

If you don’t track your accounts payable, you can reduce your steps to one, and simply use the Write Checks and Enter Credit Card Charges windows to pay your bills. Either way you choose to pay your  bills, just be consistent!

Don’t deposit your money twice.

Many users group their payments to deposit them all at once through the “Undeposited Funds” account. A mistake that some users make is that they also enter each payment as a single deposit. The result is two deposits for one payment.

When you use the Sales Receipt or Receive Payments forms to track money coming in to your business, you have the option to put payment into the “Undeposited Funds” account, which is like a cash drawer where you keep checks and currency in between trips to the bank. If you select this option on either form, QuickBooks won’t recognize the money into your bank account until you tell it that you’ve actually taken your money to the bank.

When you do go to the bank, tell QuickBooks by using the Make Deposits window, and select the payments you’ve just deposited. Do not enter a separate deposit into your bank account register to show this money.

Indicate when you owe sales tax.

If the amount of sales tax you owe appears to be incorrect, check to make sure you’ve set up your preferences correctly, telling QuickBooks when you owe sales tax. You may owe sales tax on an accrual basis, or when you make a sale, even if you haven’t received payment yet. Or, you may owe sales tax on a cash basis, or when you actually receive money from your customer.

To verify your sales tax is set up correctly, follow these steps:

• From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
• On the left side of the window, click the Sales Tax icon.
• Select the Company Preferences tab.
• Under Owe Sales Tax, select either “As of invoice date,” or “Upon receipt of payment.”

I highly recommend you choose Upon receipt of payment even if you are reporting on an accurral basis.

Don’t enter a credit card charge and a bill for the same expense.

If you charge a purchase and enter it into QuickBooks through the Enter Credit Card Charge window, don’t enter it again as a bill (in the Enter Bills window). If you do, it’ll look like you owe twice as much money as you actually do.

Pay your payroll taxes with the Pay Liabilities window.

When you create paychecks for your employees, use the Pay Liabilities window to pay your payroll taxes. Don’t use the Write Checks window.

When you run payroll, QuickBooks keeps a tally of how much payroll tax you owe, and records it in your Payroll Liabilities account. When you use the Pay Liabilities window to pay your payroll taxes, QuickBooks will decrease the balance of the liability account accordingly.

( Hint )  In the Memo of your payroll liability checks list the through date and then the tax form. Be consistent and it will be much easier to find any problems should they occur.

“03/01/2010 – 03/31/2010   941″  or  “06/30/2010  940 FUTA 2nd Qtr”

Use Sub-Items and Sub-Accounts.

If an account or item has sub accounts or items, don’t assign your transactions to the parent item or account if you can help it. Always use the sub- items and accounts to increase your knowledge of your business. Sub-accounts and sub-items will show up on your QuickBooks reports as separate items, but will still be grouped together and sub-totaled.

For example,

when entering professional fees, assign the bill from your accountant to the Accounting sub-account of the Professional Fees main account, and the bill from your lawyer to the Legal Fees sub-account. When you pull reports -  and when you send your company file to your accountant at tax time  -  you’ll have a total amount you spent on Professional Fees, with sub-totals listed for both Accounting and Legal Fees.

Associate Inventory Items with the Right Accounts.

If you keep inventory, make sure that you assign your inventory items to all the right accounts. Each inventory type item should have three:

• Inventory Asset account,
• Cost of Goods Sold, and
• a Sales account

When you tell QuickBooks that you have inventory, it automatically sets up an Inventory Asset account (to track the current value of you inventory) and a Cost of Goods Sold account (to track how much you paid for your inventory items). You must set up sales income accounts to track the income you make from selling your inventory items.

Here’s how to check yours:

1. From the List menu, select Reports, and then Items. QuickBooks will display your Item list, detailing each one’s name, description, type, posting account, and price.
2. Verify that each inventory item is associated with all three accounts – Cost of Goods Sold, Inventory Asset, and an Income Account

Be Careful with Reconciliation Adjustments.

QuickBooks won’t usually make reconciliation adjustments automatically. However, if you’re out of balance in the Reconciliation screen and you select Reconcile Now, QuickBooks will make the adjustment, and post the positive or negative amount to the Opening Bal Equity account.

Don’t let QuickBooks do this! The right thing to do with small differences you find when reconciling is to enter a check or a deposit for the amount, using the bank statement date for the transaction date and put it to an appropriate account based upon your best guess of where the difference arose. You can then mark that transaction as cleared and proceed with reconciling.

Your Opening Balance Equity account is a clearing account, and should always display a $0 balance. If it doesn’t, your QuickBooks was not set up properly. You can check for these adjustments by looking at the account’s transaction detail:

• From the List menu, select Chart of Accounts.
• Double-click your Opening Balance Equity account.

If there are transactions in the account not related to your beginning balances, reclassify them!

Paying Loans

Entering a Bill for the Monthly payment instead of adding and asset and a liability

When creating loan payments we often enter the monthly loan amount as a Bill.

Here is how you should process loan payments: Set up a Fixed Asset with sub accounts for the Cost and Accumulated Depreciation. Then, set up a liability account with the loan balance. Go to Banking> Loan Manager>Set Up New Loan. Follow the directions, then click the ‘Set up payment’ option to have QuickBooks document the monthly payment.

Don’t Try to Do it All Yourself.

QuickBooks is easy to use, but it will be even easier and give you more peace of mind if you work with a QuickBooks Pro Advisor or your CPA. Setting up your QuickBooks correctly is critical to getting the most out of your QuickBooks program. The HELP topics are also a great resource. Questions? 

Paying Loans

Entering a Bill for the Monthly payment instead of adding and asset and a liability

When creating loan payments we often enter the monthly loan amount as a Bill.

Here is how you should process loan payments:

• Set up a Fixed Asset with sub accounts for the Cost and Accumulated Depreciation.
• Then, set up a liability account with the loan balance.
• Go to Banking> Loan Manager>Set Up New Loan.
• Follow the directions, then click the ‘Set up payment’ option to have QuickBooks document the monthly payment.

I’ll be writing a post on this shortly

Don’t Try to Do it All Yourself.

QuickBooks is easy to use, but it will be even easier and give you more peace of mind if you work with with a professional experieanced with QuickBooks. Setting up your QuickBooks correctly is critical to getting the most out of your QuickBooks program.

The HELP topics are also a great resource.

Have more Questions? 

Reads From Last Week

Posted by Bruce Mc on Aug 29, 2010 in Information, Opinions, Week in review | 0 comments

I am back on the racks over at Alltop. Thank you everyone for helping get there.

What is it?

Alltop is sort of a “digital magazine rack of the Internet. To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points” the site provides categorized selections of links to blogs and other web resources that make it easy to scan a lot of information on a particular subject. For example the Taxes page lists many tax blogs with links to the most recent posts. Alltop is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to research, or just keep up on, well, stuff. If you have ever been to a real magazine rack you know.

Anyway, I am very excited to have been added once again. Very Exciting times. . .

And so it begins

THE REPORT ON TAX REFORM OPTIONS – In a meeting yesterday afternoon (Friday, August 27th) the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) released its report, summarized their concerns, and voted to send the report to President Obama for review.

Paul Volcker has the President’s ear on tax reform…but will he listen?

Obama tax reform panel report released

10 Year Treasury Bond at Lows.. What Does it Mean?

Another great source of collected blogs BlogRoll Beans from Cafétax

Let the Charitable Mud-Slinging Begin!

The Internet is the Best, and Worst, Thing That Happened to Tax Planning and Preparation –  the Internet has a long memory – as in, forever. So, things posted in 2004 might have been true then, but no longer are true. But that doesn’t stop search engines from pulling old articles and others from posting the articles on their website in an attempt to boost Google search rankings.

My favorite news this week, What You Can Learn From Roni Deutch’s $34 Million Fraud Lawsuit.

Read more about Roni Deutch’s $34,000,000 Lawsuit:
Brown Seeks $34 Million from TV’s Tax Lady Roni Deutch: Official News Release
TV Tax Lady Roni Deutch Facing Legal Troubles
Tax Lady Roni Deutch Sued for “Heartless Scam”
Roni Deutch Sued by California AG
‘Tax Lady’ Accused of Unladylike Behavior

Pennies on the Dollar- Not!

Unladylike Behavior or Election Year Politics?

California Sues Roni Deutch for “Heartless” Pennies on the Dollar Tax Scheme

Here’s what she had to say, Tax Lady: California lawsuit ‘election year politics’

The TaxProf has more.

The Internet, Virtual Meetings, and Taxation

Feel like an egg?

Tax Relief for Innocent Spouses – You Must Act Swiftly to File Your Claim with the IRS – In recent tax relief news, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the IRS can continue to apply the two-year deadline for taxpayers looking to file for “innocent spouse” relief. Basically, this treasury ruling upholds that taxpayers claiming innocent spouse tax relief must make their claims within 2 years of the IRS’s commencement of collection action.

What is meant by an “innocent spouse”?

Tax and the City: Philly Tax Takes on a Life of Its Own

A Tax on Blog Writing or on Blog Business?

Philadelphia Demands License Fee and Taxes from Bloggers
All in all, I’d rather not be in Philadelphia

Click here for more information on Alltop. Or go to their home page at Alltop.com to start checking out your favorite information.

Reads from Last Week

Posted by Bruce Mc on Jul 25, 2010 in Information, Opinions, Week in review | 0 comments

Five Critical Facts About Business Growth is a video blog post from Chad over at Bordeaux and Bordeaux in Charlotte North Carolina. I haven’t posted much from his blog but that’s because I am to lazy to watch so I can’t really say if they are worth watching or not. However I did watch this one and every business owner needs to watch this one. He discusses the following five facts about business growth:

1. There is no such thing as a mature business or market.
2. Not all growth is good growth.  Some growth can be disastrous for your Company.
3. Growth is a mentality – created by the leaders within a Company
4. Balance growth is the key to long-term prosperity.
5. Growing your business is much less risky than NOT growing your business.

If the rest of his video posts are like this I have been missing some things. Keep up the great work my friend.

Unfortunately, most young adults find themselves on their own when entering the “real world” without guidance about money and how to manage it. 7 Things About Money I Wish I Knew in My 20s is a great post.

IRS Presents: Five Facts about the Making Work Pay Tax Credit

Are you opening a new business this summer? The IRS has many resources available for individuals that are opening a new business. Here are six tax tips the IRS wants new business owners to know. IRS Presents: Six Tax Tips for New Business Owners.

Have you ever wondered how banks can offer higher than average interest rates on savings or checking accounts? Banks are in the business of making money, even if that means taking a loss sometimes. While that might sound counter-intuitive, it often works out well in the long run. So, How Do Banks Make Money by Offering High Interest Rates?

During the NATP annual conference my friend RDF ran some really great reruns. If you missed them please visit The Wondering Tax Pro

• TILL DIVORCE DO US PART – PART I
• TILL DIVORCE DO US PART – PART IV
• TILL DIVORCE DO US PART – PART III
• TILL DIVORCE DO US PART – PART II
• PAY THE SALES TAX AND AVOID THE DIVORCE LAWYER 

Your 2011 tax burden

Are you ready for a Roth?

Don’t fall for health care tax rumors

How To Prepare for Tax Increases Next Year In this Sluggish Economy

Am I Saving Enough Money For Retirement and How Much You Should Be Putting Away in 401K or IRA Accounts

LLC vs S Corp

Tax Relief FAQ: You Received a CP-504 Notice From the IRS for Back Taxes You Owe – What Does This Mean?

Back Taxes Aren’t Your Only Problem When Concealing Income from the IRS

This Month’s Runner Up for the Strangest Tax Form

Is extreme remodeling a charitable contribution?

Recording Fixed Assets

“Tax Cuts Will Expire” – Geithner

Me, me, me. It’s all about me.

What the Heck is Basis, Anyway?

Don’t Get Too Anxious to Stuff Just Anything into Your IRA

How Would the Expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Tax Cuts Affect Individual Taxpayers? With just a week left before Congress leaves town for the August recess, the fate of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts is up in the air.

Last week I wrote About The Three Most Common Payroll Tax Mistakes and I shared one of my reasons and thought process as to why I have started writing about non-tax stuff. Truth is as the non-tax stuff goes, the bookkeeping is very important for your taxes. The IRS even tells you in Publication 583 (1/2007), Starting a Business and Keeping Records “Except in a few cases, the law does not require any specific kind of records. You can choose any recordkeeping system suited to your business that clearly shows your income and expenses.” As I read the second sentence or even interrupt it, the IRS is saying to you (business owners), it doesn’t matter if you use QuickBooks, Peachtree, or even Microsoft Office Accounting (before it was discontinued), but you need something “that clearly shows your income and expenses.”  I promote QuickBooks because it is in my opinion, with over 12 years as a self-employed tax accountant, that QuickBooks is the best suited for those who keep their own books.