Money Saving Tip When Mailing Accounting Paperwork

I’ve learned a few tricks I want to share about saving money when mailing paperwork to clients.

Especially at year-end I mail paperwork often. Here are my  tricks.

First is to always use a Priority Mail Box, as pictured here. It's not only faster but safer. I've never had a Priority Mail package lost.

Next, is to save money by using the Priority Mail box that does NOT say “Flat Rate” to save money. These boxes are harder to find so when I do find them, I stock up for the year. 

Top Picture Box One: This box Priority Mail Flat Rate costs $18.40. See how it says "Flat Rate" on the box? That's your clue that you'll pay more. 

Bottom Picture Box Two. (The picture that does not exist here because I cannot find one online) Seems as if the post office seems to want to keep a secret. It is different from Box One in one important way. It does NOT say "Flat Rate". It says nothing. Look for a blank area. That means it's by weight only. By weight has never cost me or the client more than $12.80, often closer to $10. If you’re mailing accounting paperwork, use the Priority box that's by weight only to save money. 

What does this box hold for this cost difference? A whole box full of paperwork. I put the papework in  file folders, then into accordian folders, with clips...whatever it takes to make a nice presentation. And usually a sheet of bubble wrap so it doesn't slide around noisily. I want it to travel through the post office inconspiciously so it gets there safely, which is always has so far. Thanks USA Post Office ! 

Radically Simple Accounting & Small Projects

After sitting at a computer for work, I love getting outdoors and doing landscaping in my free time. Mostly I am transforming my own small yard/garden but I also volunteer to improve my church and the Issaquah post office landscaping. 

After this year's Woodinville Garden Tour, I came away both disappointed enough in my own real estate/garden situation to cry at my next therapy session and inspired enough to get back to work on the yard/garden I do have to finish this summer's project. 

Every week I visit the library to pick up this week's books on hold that have finally come in. This week I am enjoying the perfect book titled, "Big Dreams, Small Garden". The book is about.... wait for it...."creating the garden you love when you can't afford the one you want". Synchronicity?

Books are important. It's important to me that I wrote a book in my area of expertise titled, "Radically Simple Accounting". Out of blue I’ll get an email from a reader about how much they appreciate my book, and how it helps them. I don’t have the budget to promote my book the way I’d like so the number of readers is small, as are my number of reviews. However, the reviews are mostly 5-star positive on the print book, 4-star positive on the audiobook. Readers say that it's a book worth reading or listening to.

It was important to me to contribute to the world of accounting just as it was important to her to contribute to the world of gardening. And I'm grateful for both. 

Is QuickBooks Desktop being Discontinued?

There is a rumor going around that QuickBooks Desktop is being discontinued. The rumor is that if you want to stay with QuickBooks you have to move to QuickBooks Online. 

This is 100% not true. QuickBooks Desktop has a huge following so you don’t have to worry about it going away. 

If you prefer QuickBooks Desktop but want remote access capability, you can get it by getting your QuickBooks hosted. To explain what hosting is, and where you can purchase that service I've included information and a link in my free white paper titled, Remote Access Options For QuickBooks. 

To get to the white paper, go to my website -> Public Relations -> Free Download. I’ll put a live link here: Remote Access Options for QuickBooks

I personally prefer QuickBooks Enterprise (Desktop) software but support both versions. Clients who have been with Quickbooks Desktop for years are staying with it. Newer clients to QuickBooks tend to go with QuickBooks Online so I know and support both. 

New Year - Time for New Filing System

New Years is when I make time to setup new file folders for the year--for both myself and all the clients I do regular work for. That requires a bunch of printing labels for manilla folders. I save the label templates so it's fast from year to year. 

I also start pulling my paperwork to go into a plastic tub for storage. (I only keep current year's paperwork in my desk drawer files). First, I burn (shred) the 4^th year’s paperwork to create an empty tub as the IRS only requires me to keep 3 years of paperwork. Clients’ paperwork I don’t return to them until they do their taxes, as there are sometimes questions from the tax preparer. I don't have to do this on New Year's but it's become a tradition with me because it's fastest if I have new file folders ready for the new paperwork that's to come in. 

Also, there is the mental preparation. The hardest part of a job is getting started. I perhaps enjoy filing more than most but only because I recognize its value. If I have to do it a little here and a little there, forget it. The emotional units it takes to get motivated are more than the task is worth. In the old days, I was not motivated to make nice labels at all because I thought it was busy work, not necessary. But professionals I respected did make them so which was right? Which was faster? After years of scientific research, I discovered that nice labels and a pretty filing system was faster because I never mis-filed and could always find paperwork immediately. So, when I start a new job and clients see me making labels and setting up a nice filing system, and they think I’m wasting my time and their money, they’re mistaken. I'm making them more profitable. 

So now it's this thing I commit to doing during the downtime of New Year's long weekend. If I do it all of mine and all of my clients in one day with some nice music in the background I can get into a groove and it all gets done beautifully. 

Clients who have massively disorganized filing systems asked my advice. I encouraged them to set aside an entire day for this task. If they have employees, a corporate-wide official day of paperwork client up and organization is a brilliant way to go. We discovered that if they commit one whole day to files (nothing but paperwork) they can create a whole new level of organization that they find easy to maintain. Creating a company-wide day for paperwork only is a winning strategy. If you're like me, you'll make it around New Year's. 

Easy Bounced Check Processing QuickBooks

This is the easiest way to process a bounced (NSF) check in QuickBooks. It works for all QuickBooks: desktop, enterprise and online because it takes into account what's happening business-wise, correct accounting, and how the sofware works. The numbered steps are what you do. The rest is context. 

1. Enter original Invoice

2. Enter Original Receive Payment

The bank informs you that the check bounced. There it is: Item returned undeposited, and a bank fee, often $12. Figure out who's checked bounced. You need to know which customer/client?

3. Enter an expense using the customers name. Post the expense to "Accounts Recievable". 

It'll show up on your Open Invoice report. You'll be able to reconcile your bank account. 

4. Go to the Original payment for the original invoice, and uncheck the payment against the invoice. Leave the payment as a credit. 

That invoice is now unpaid, which is correct. They still owe you for the original invoice. 

5. If you want to pass a fee onto your customer at this point, create a line iten in the Line Item List (Products Items List in QB Online). Your Item name might be "Bounced Check". Your descriptoin might be "Charge for NSF check processing". Your amount is what you want but $35 is the most businesess charge. 

6. Go into the original invoice, and add that line item, and charge. Some of my client's don't charge for this so they won't have steps 5 and 6. 

The customer gives you a new check/payment. 

6. Do a new Receive payment for the new check. Apply the new check to the original invoice by clicking that it's going to pay off the original invoice. 

Now in your open invoice report, you'll see the original payment and the expense. They balance to zero. To clear these 2 line items off your report, apply the original payment to the expense. 

7. Go into Receive Payment window (as if you're doing a new transaction) and enter the customer in question. That'll pull up both the original payment and the expense. You can click those off against each other so they no longer show up on the open invoice report. 

This is natural because you're following the linear steps that happen in the real world. No one likes having a bounced check, especially your customer/client, so be nice about it. This is what it means to have a successful business. 

The Winter of our Discontent

That line, "the winter of our discontent" keeps coming to me. It feels appropriate for what I expect for this coming winter. After all the stresses we've been through these last few years, businesses without good accounting may go down. Without great accounting, so much money is being lost that very few businesses can thrive, let alone survive hardships. When a business fails, it adversely affects the owner, their family, staff, vendors, customers, and the entire community. Before a new beginning, there is a "winter of our discontent". What's most important when losing financially is to hold onto your self esteem and goodness.  

For those of us who have great financial reports to review, it may be still be a difficult winter. This is the winter to invest in the improvement of your financial reports if ever there was one. 

Steinbeck used it as the title of a book I'm listening to now. The story is about a charactor who's father lost the family fortune. He is now an adult working a menial job. He's a good person with good values who's not bothered by his current financial situation. His wife and eveyrone around him are however. He gives up his integrity and plans to become a criminal to "get ahead'. Luckily, a couple of good people intervene, interupt his crime, and gift him with wealth. Their reasoning is because he's a good person. "Keep the light" is how it's worded. Most important during hardship is to "keep the light". 

WA State Salestax in QuickBooks Online is Broken

This is not a how-to or training blog. I’m assuming the reader knows how WA State Salestax works; that WA B&O is the state business income tax; and how to file both for one business at least.

If that’s not what this blog is about, then what is it about? It’s about the following:

1.     How I know Salestax Reporting is broken in QuickBooks Online.

2.     Why it’s Not likely to get fixed anytime soon.

3.     And lastly, What Can We Do About It?

1.     How I Know it's Broken:

a). The Salestax Liability Report is the one to run. It should match the P&L total for the same period, same basis. A recent QB Online construction-business client had $520k in sales on her cash P&L. On her cash Salestax Liability Report for the same period she had only $360 in sales total. Her invoices were done correctly.

On QB Desktop the P&L and Salestax Liability Report match exactly or within 1%. I debugged that 1% difference once. It was how the software processed the payment/invoice dates. Took me hours to clean up and the discrepancy would show up on a past or future report. Just always go with the Salestax Liability Report all the time. Print a hardcopy of that report. Staple it to the back of the State Return which you print out. In case of an audit, this proves you filed correctly and with the best intent. 

b). The client imagined that all of her out of state sales were on the P&L but excluded from the Salestax Liability Report. That explained the difference. However, all of the out of state sales should have been totaled in the line item “no salestax” at the bottom of the report. There was a value in that field on her report.

Non-taxable sales for WA B&O taxable customers (everyone located in the state of WA) should be totaled in the non-tax column across from the city where the customer is located in WA State. 

I clicked on the value in the “non-taxable” line item. It should have been all out-of-state sales. What information went where didn't follow any format I could see. 

c). Another mistake was that the various cities total was greater than the state total. Technically this can’t happen as each invoice has only one state and one city. 

Some cities were duplicated with different tax rates. The client exported the Salestax Liability Report to Excel and deleted what she decided were the “wrong” cities line item.  She then massaged the numbers in the “right” cities so that that city total = state total. That was a good start. 

What she did in reporting the difference between Sales Tax Liablity Report and P&L (same basis, same time) as out-of-state sales is also a good idea...given you're working with what you're working with. You'll see why below.

However, no one using QB Online who needs the Salestax Liability Report to be correct can defend their numbers in case of an audit.

 

2.     Why It's Not Likely to Get Fixed Anytime Soon:

Various features of the Salestax Liability Report have been buggy in QB Online for a long time now. This doesn’t seem to be a priority if the report is broken now.

When users had access to the city tax rate fields, I, as a user, could clean them up a bit. Now users are locked out. Intuit exclusively has control of the various cities and salestax rates for the state of WA.

This is the NEW salestax module so Intuit thinks they’re moving in the right direction.

I called to report the bug. I have Advanced VIP tech support. The tech was awesome in many ways except he did not believe me.

He repeated that no one else was complaining. I've often been the first to report a bug. Of course, he didn’t know that.

Then he said that he would have to work with me by remote access in that particular client’s database in order to verify the bug. What that means in tech language is that only after hours of exhausting every possibility of proving me wrong would he send this bug report up to Senior Tech Support. I don’t have hours to donate, period. And I don’t want to donate hours when my past efforts have been fruitless.  

I asked if he was sure no one had reported anything? For one thing, I’ve reported problems before. Where they not there? Could he research this again?

He finally admitted he had one bug report. “Crazy thing. One has to click on the non-tax field inside the invoice a 2^nd time for it to register on the Salestax Liability Report as a non-taxable sale. I think he may have said for out of state customers”. At this point I was losing interest.  

If that’s true, that could explain why the P&L was higher, just like the client imagined. But imagine fixing that bug for invoices for $500K in sales? Imagine going into each invoice to ‘click on this one field again”, then back to your Salestax Liability Report to make sure it was now registering? And then doing it again if it didn't register. Is that not a major bug that should be fixed asap?

Plus, even if one did that perfectly it would only improve the Salestax Liability Report in QB Online, not fix it all the way. 

What Can we Do About it?

a). 50% of my clients use QB Online. The new 50%. Clients who have been in QB Desktop for many years don’t switch. The get their QB Desktop version hosted for remote access.

The Salestax Liability Report works perfectly in QB Desktop. 

When a client asks me to recommend which software they should use, if salestax reporting is important in their business, I morally have to recommend QB Desktop. 

Which is a crying shame since sometimes they have compelling reasons to go with QB Online. But 10% salestax on $520K is $52K, and that’s not pocket change. In addition, the business has to pay WA State taxes on state sales. Then there is the threat of an audit. 

b). If anyone has time, please do report your Salestax Lability Report problems. Why not let Intuit dial into your computer and help you debug it? Once they realize they can’t fix it, they should send the bug up to Senior Tech Support to fix. You won’t hear back from Senior Tech Support, but you’ll have done your good deed for the day. 

Lastly, does the Salestax Liability Report in your QB Online version work perfectly? Do you have various WA state customers with and without saletax, and out of state customers too? Does it work perfectly for your business? I would love to hear that it does. Love to!

Why did you get a 1099 from Venmo or Cash App?

A brand-new law requires mobile payment processors like Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Paypal, eBay, and many more to send the IRS and you a 1099 if you get sent $600 and over for “goods and services” via that mobile processor. These mobile processors are called TPSO’s. Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Paypal, eBay and more are all TPSO's. 

This brand new law is part of the “American Rescue Plan”. 

Here is a brief history of 1099 reporting that I've watched happen:

*** In the 1980's the IRS stepped up 1099 reporting so that businesses had to report on total yearly payments to service vendors. The goal was to reduce welfare payments by tracking down Dads who weren't paying child support. 

*** In 2001, the Patriot Act greatly expanded 1099 reporting requirements. It also allowed the IRS to collect data on all credit card transactions, so they are no longer included in 1099 reporting. 

***Now, in 2002, the government is requring TPSO's to report on all money you've recieved in a year that's over $600 from one source and may be income. This new law marks a sharp departure from previous collection efforts, in a misguided way. If you care about civil rights, read on. 

Personal Money Reported as Busines Income

TPSO's are used more frequently for personal expenses. A young man told me that he received a 1099 for money he and his wife pass back and forth to each other using Cash.app. To clarify, he'll be getting a 1099 for grocery money. The government doesn't know if it's income or not, so they'll collect everything. The problem with this is that it's a legal matter if you don't declare your income, and the burden of proof is on you. 

Double Declaring Busines Income

The other problem with this new law is that if a client  does pay you with Venmo, that client is already rquired to send a 1099 to you. That means you'll get 2 1099's for the same income. Like I said before, all credit card transactions are already exempt from 1099 reporting but Venmo, Cash app, etc take money out of your checking account. It is litterally impossible to prove you only got paid once. 

Why this should be made illegal now

Consider how the governments mistakes with issuing 1099's could ruin your life. 

This is how the IRS audits. If you fail to declare income, the IRS has forever to come after you. And the penalty for not declariing income can be prison. If in 10 (or 15) years, the government audits you for Cash.app money you received and you don't have the records to prove that it was your ex-wife sending you money for groceries, the IRS can put you into prison. If your client sent you a 1099 for income via Venmo, so that income was double declared is that client going to stand up for you with the IRS by opening their books to the IRS? 

 

If the IRS thinks you've declared expenses that aren't legitimate, they have 3 years to audit you. The burden of proof is on you to prove that the expense is an acceptable write-off. That's why businesses keep records for 4 years--in case of an audit. If you can't prove it, you have to pay that expense, plus penatlies and interest. 

Putting you in prison for not declaring your income could become a huge civil rights issue in the future. If you believe the government won't ever exercise that power, then they don't need the right to exercise that power. 

How our goverment could meet their objective in a positive way

This law was passed because the government needs money. Ask anyone who works for the IRS (or writes a book about working at the IRS) and you will learn that the best way to get more tax revenue is to give the IRS the budget and management to hire hire-level sophistocated auditors who specifically target high income tax evaders--the whales. These are hard cases to solve but once solved are very profitable for the government. The cost of giving the IRS the money for this kind of auditing is far cheaper too. Funding the IRS to go after the whales who are cheating on their taxes will bring in lots of money. 

On the other hand, this law is going to fail to bring in more money because massive data collection is very expensive. Massive data collection of mostly unsable data is a net loss. So will we taxpayers be covering their losses the IRS 's losses with yet more taxes?

What can you do? 

First of all, please contact your federal congressional representatives and senators to complain about this new bill. Another law planned was to require "every" bank transaction over $600 reported to the IRS. It did not pass because so many people complained. Complaining works, especially if you complain in a proactive way. 

Ask for a repeal of the law that changed tax reporting requirements for TPSO's as part of the American Rescue Plan. 

 

Second, if you're using TPSO's to pay someone choose, “gifts, donations, or reimbursements”. Do not  select “services or products” unless you are sending the money for professional services or retail products. Someone told me that Cash.app does not offer that choice. What else can you do to protect yourself? 

QuickBooks Desktop 2021 -- Buy NOW - Sunset Later

Intuit Corp is moving from their current policy of allowing people who purchase their software to receive support and active linked in accounts for 3 years (all of which is necessary to use QuickBooks effectively) to a new model where everyone has to purchase new software every single year. 

I study every year's improvements to pass the certification tests and advise clients, and year after year almost none of the changes impact client's enough to even warrant a conversation. Certainly, the changes don't warrant an extra $300 - $1200 yearly expense & the additional time it takes to make the purchase and install the software. Every three years, yes, everyone needs updated software. Every year, no, it's a waste of time & money.

Basically, past the first few years of software development in the early 90's, Intuit has always been more interested in marketing than quality.

If you want to save money, make sure you're up to date with QuickBooks Desktop 2021 now!

Because that way you'll have 3 years before you have to buy new software every single year. When I googled, "QuickBooks sunset software" I received this response: 

“Until May 31, 2021, QuickBooks provides customer support and add-on services for Pro, Premier, and Enterprise Solutions 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. However, if you are still using a 2018 version of QuickBooks, your business may be affected on May 31st."

QuickBooks Desktop 2021 lasts to May 2024

QuickBooks Desktop 2020 lasts to May 2023

QuickBooks Desktop 2019 lasts to May 2022

Go to the products webpage Save on QuickBooks Products

to buy QuickBooks 2021 from Amazon.com. You can also buy software directly from Intuit.com or email me for a reseller. Thanks, readers! 

QuickBooks Online Simple Start Chart of Accounts Disaster

I just visited a new client with a new QuickBooks Online Simple Start subscription. His chart of accounts was a disaster. Way too many accounts for starters, and the software to modify or delete them was not what it "should" be. 

Using my accountant's access to his QuickBooks, with my higher level version of QB Online, I at least had good software to DELETE OVER 100 ACCOUNTS! Thanks a lot Intuit. 

On top of that one can't just go "delete" because QB Online never deletes an account. I have to rename the account so that the client won't be tempted to use it. I'm showing you here that I renamed over 100 accounts. 

All the accounts included were so ridiculous I could not believe it. Even Intuit Corporate does not want a chart of accounts anywhere near the length of one they gave this unsuspecting customer. What is the problem with the QB Online team that they would release this nonsense? It's as if you buy your first house, without being warned that it will be full of garbage for you to dispose of before you can move any of your stuff into there. Surprise! 

Your Chart of accounts should be small and tight. If I end the year with only $10 posted to one account, I don't need that account any longer. I'll move the $10 to another account because with fewer accounts the financial report is easier to understand and analyze. It's art as well as science. 

For everything you want to know about creating an awesome chart of accounts, please read or listen to my book, "Radically Simple Accounting". 

If DIY is not your style, or you want more help, I'll be happy to work with you to fix the chart of accounts you have now, or create a new one for your business.

What Your CPA Isn't Telling You

Some CPA’s when I suggest that my clients take deductions they haven’t been taking; you would think I was asking the CPA to take money out of their own pocket, when in fact, it’s the clients legal right to take all deductions they're entitled to by the IRS. 

Luckily for small business owners everywhere in the USA, a CPA named Mark J. Kohler wrote this book. Also an attorney, Mark J. Kohler wants to make sure you know ways you as a small business owner can pay less in taxes this year…and in the future. It can be upsetting to find out that you could have saved a ton of money but didn’t because no one told you how. So don’t waste any time in getting this information. Here are some ways:

•     Hire me, I’ll tell you.

•   Watch Mark J Kohler YouTube videos (search inside YouTube on his name)

•  Read one or more of his books. “What your CPA isn’t Telling You”, “The Business Owner’s Guide to Financial Freedom: What Wall Street Isn’t Telling you”, “The Tax and Legal Playbook: Game-changing Solutions to your Small-Business Questions”, “How to Pay Zero Taxes – 2020 – 2021, Your Guide to Every Tax Break the IRS Allows”.

•  Go to his website, https://markjkohler.com/ and learn more about what his company offers including self-directing IRA's. 

It’s heart-warming to discover that there is someone who knows way more than I do, and wants to help my clients the same way I do. 

 

 

Book Review: From Monk to Money Manager

This may be the best personal financial book written. It’s definitely the best personal finance book I’ve ever read. I’m a consultant CFO and the author of an accounting book, "Radically Simple Accounting". On my website I share a free reading list of nearly 100 books on money with simple reviews. 

Everyone---no matter how much they know financially---will learn something from this book; just as I did. 

I insist my 2 adult children read (or listen) to this book too, even though they are doing way better financially than I was at their age and are financially successsful by anyone's standards. We all have blind spots and more to learn. 

In a world full of money hype and distorted views, I find his explanations clear and level-headed. There were times I litterally cheered because he's so trustworthy. 

ROI stands for Return on Investment. The price of this book and time it takes to read it could help you save or make thousands of dollars—an excellent ROI. Let me know what you get out of this book?

QB Advanced Online 2021 Certification

What's new in QB Online for 2021 certification update is a turning point in my opinion of QB Online. 

I used to strenuously caution prospects about starting out with QB Online over QB Desktop becuase of the bugs. For example, the entire salestax module in QB Online is difficult to setup properly, use correctly in invoices, and forget the salestax liablity report for cash. As if all small businesses use the accrual system when cash tends to be more favorable tax wise. Or how about retainers/ advance payments that don't post correctly in QB Online? These are core features for accounting software. 

But learning about all the new cool QB Online features, like bill pay directly through the bank, tagging, and financial reporting charts...awesome charts.... QB Online just got cool enough to almost balance out it's accounting problems. Almost. 

QuickBooks Desktop 2021 Certification

I'm so grateful to be a consultant/accountant on my own terms so that I am not required financially to crank out client work all day/every day, but can take the time to study and learn. I just passed my QuickBooks Desktop 2021 feature improvements exam, so I'm up to date on new features that may be of interest to you. 

New features in QuickBooks Desktop 2021 means that the software is alive and well for those who erroneously believe that Intuit is discontinuing this product in favor of QB Online. Even the QB Desktop for the Mac version has some new 2021 updates worthwhile. 

If you want to use QB Desktop but need remote access one option is to have the software hosted. For more information on options please check out my free white paper on, "Remote Access for QuickBooks". Go to the "PR" menu (for Public Relations) and download it from there. Right now I'm only recommending Swizznet Hosting so please share your success stories with other hosts?

Learning is one of the best parts of life!

Using your iPhone (Android) with QuickBooks for Invoicing Customers

I'm researching this now for clients and here is where I'm at as of now.

 

QB Desktop: Intuit used to have a mobile app for QB Enterprise (all the desktop products) in 2018, but they pulled that in favor of the App store app for QB Online only. I'm looking at the QB Desktop Apps section another poster pointed to and there is an app called Invoice Tracker that syncs with desktop, not by Intuit, but by a 3rd party. I have not tried it myself. 

 

QB Desktop Hosted: This is when you pay someone to host your QuickBooks Desktop software so as many users as you pay for can get anywhere, anytime access, the way one would with online, only with the advantage of the better quality QB Desktop software (including Enterprise). One client uses a host that we access using RDC (remote data connection). I can get access on my PC and my Mac, but does that lend itself to access by an iPhone? Another client is using a host that uses Citrix. I can access that one directly through Chrome, but does Citrix work well with the iPhone and Safari? When researching a host if iPhone (Android) invoicing is important, I would make that a primary question, and test it before committing everyone in accounting to that host?

 

QB Online. This is the product Intuit wants to sell because of the profit margins. When one goes to the App store and see QB Accountant, this connects with QB Online. I was at a client's last week for whom it was a big deal and he was super happy with how it worked. But then in my opinion QB Online is overpriced, slow, and buggy software so it's a trade off. For example, that same client has been overpaying salestax because the salestax feature & reports don't work for love or money. 

 

I'm still looking for better information? Once I get it, I will update this blog article with better information and add it to my white paper on "Remote Access Options for QuickBooks". If you have anything to add or recommend, please do. This is an important topic. 

Business Analysis for Employees, Benefits & HR

The payroll service I often refer to is named Gusto. They just added a certification program for accountants to learn about Employees, Benefits, and HR. Took me quite a few days of studying because there was so much to learn and integrate into my practice. 

As a small business financial analyst I'm used to thinking about how to relate the financial reports to the businesses clients are running and have conversations with them about how to get what they want. This Payroll training taught me how to do this same process with staffing, benefits and HR. 

It's brilliant of Gusto. Even though they spent a fortune developing the course material, by teaching accountants how to use Gusto for payroll, the services Gusto offers and when to refer a situation to Gusto, the company will get a return on their investment by needing less tech support for accountants. Accountants in turn train customers. If you go with Gusto, you'll quickly learn that they are committed to going all out with tech support, which is great for customers, but it still it costs. If they can think of a less expensive way to get that information across, it's going to be a win for their business. 

I think this new certification is a win/win/win situation for Gusto, me, and my clients. 

If you're interested in learning more about Gusto, login using this link;

https://gusto.com/partners/invite/qc-computing-llc

This link says I referred you. There is no cost to you (until you actually run payroll) but you will receive invaluable advantages if you decide to go with them. It's so frustrating when clients want the advantages but they didn't use my link and Gusto won't compromise, so use this link please. 

Intuit Introduces a new SMB Bank called QuickBooks Cash

Intuit, the corporation that publishes QuickBooks Accounting Software, is adding "a Bank" to their collection of products and services. They're calling it QuickBooks Cash. 

Naturally it ties in with QuickBooks Payments, Intuit Merchant Services, Payroll, and QuickBooks Online. 

Right now they're offering awesome features: 

Zero account opening, maintenance, overdraft or other recurring fees.

Free ACH transfers.

Free instant deposit for select customers. 

1% interest. 

Debit card with your company name. 

FDIC insured for $250K. 

It's only for QuickBooks Online users, so apply from within QB Online.

Even with this awesome bank account feature, I still recommend QuickBooks Desktop for a variety of reasons, critically so if you collect and pay salestax in the state of WA. 

I'm Advanced Certified Pro-Advisor, QuickBooks Online AND QuickBooks Desktop and happily support both, actually ALL of Intuit's products and services, including all QuickBooks Products. Feel free to ask me about any QuickBooks help your small business may want?

Payroll Protection Loan Forgiveness

Payroll Protection Loans have been a godsend for clients businesses. They were stressed out about money before this loan came through. 

All of my applications were successful. Last week I attended an online seminar in what's required to have the loan forgiven, so it becomes a grant.

You have exactly 2 months to the day from the time the money was deposited to "use" the money, so being proactive is key. 

I decided to track the money coming in as income, using the class feature in QB so that I can produce a Payroll Loan P&L for the bank. If you don't pay income taxes on the loan/grant, you also can't deduct related expenses. Since I hope to have 100% of the loan forgiven, there is no advantage to classifying it as something other than income. 

Whatever is not forgiven, you'll have 3 years to pay it back at 1% interest, which is better than most loans.

This is how it pays to have me as your accountant. Unlike business owners I think about this stuff all the time. Plus, I spend loads of time doing research, attending seminars, talking to other business owners who have the same problems, and making sure I'm in the know, so you can make your business more profitable. 

We've got this Issaquah - Response to Shut down.

Issaquah's YouTube channel is great if you want to see what's going on in town. The video guy, Tim Smith, made it fun to participate in the "We've Got This, Issaquah" video compilation about small business resilience in the face of a pandemic and shut down.

I'm the last person featured. Check it out! 

We are a small business nation

. 

There are over 30.2 million small businesses in the USA. As of 2018, 99.9% of US businesses are small businesses. Currently, small businesses employ more than 47.5% of the private workforce in the US and account for 1.9 million new jobs in 2017. That's not counting the 10.5% (or over 3 million) micro business who don't have any employees but support the owner. Small businesses remain a vital part of the USA's economic landscape. 

Written on the blackboard of the Courtyard Cafe in Port Townsend, WA, The Courtyard Cafe

"When you buy from a Mom and Pop business, you are not buying a CEO a third vacation home.

You are helping a Mom and Dad pay rent and put food on the table.

You are helping a girl get photography lessons and a boy get a baseball glove. 

Our customers are our shareholders and the ones we strive to make happy.

Thank you for supporting our small family business."