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Quickbooks

Tax Season Made Easy: How QuickBooks Services Can Simplify Your Business Tax Preparation

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As tax season approaches in January 2024, businesses are gearing up for the annual task of organizing financial records, ensuring compliance with tax regulations, and preparing for filing. This process can be daunting and time-consuming. However, with the right tools and services, tax preparation can be streamlined and stress-free. 

QuickBooks, a popular accounting software, offers a range of services that can simplify your business tax preparation. *** The following are ways of leveraging QuickBooks that can make tax season a breeze for your business.

  1. Seamless recordkeeping. One of the primary challenges during tax season is gathering and organizing financial records. QuickBooks acts as a centralized platform for all your financial transactions, providing a seamless recordkeeping system. With features for expense tracking, income categorization, and automatic transaction updates, QuickBooks ensures that your financial data is organized and easily accessible when needed for tax preparation.
  2. Automated data entry. Manually entering data is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. QuickBooks automates the data entry process, minimizing the risk of mistakes and ensuring accuracy in your financial records. This not only saves time but also provides a reliable foundation for your tax filings.
  3. Real-time financial reporting. QuickBooks offers real-time financial reporting, allowing you to generate up-to-the-minute financial statements. This feature is particularly beneficial during tax season when accurate and current financial information is crucial. With QuickBooks, you can quickly generate profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and other reports needed for tax filings.
  4. Simplified expense tracking. Tracking business expenses is a critical aspect of tax preparation. QuickBooks simplifies expense tracking by allowing you to categorize and tag expenses as they occur. Whether it’s a business meal, office supplies, or travel expenses, QuickBooks makes it easy to track and report deductible expenses come tax season.
  5. Integration with financial institutions. QuickBooks can be seamlessly integrated with your business bank accounts and credit cards. This integration ensures that all financial transactions are automatically imported into the software, eliminating the need for manual data entry. This not only saves time but also reduces the likelihood of overlooking important transactions.
  6. Tax categories and deductions. QuickBooks comes equipped with predefined tax categories, making it easier to assign expenses to the correct deduction categories. This ensures that you take advantage of all eligible tax deductions, maximizing your potential tax savings. The software also allows you to customize categories to align with the specific needs of your business.
  7. Payroll management. QuickBooks simplifies payroll processing by automating calculations for taxes, deductions, and contributions. This reduces the risk of payroll errors and ensures that your business remains compliant with tax regulations.
  8. Easy invoicing and revenue tracking. QuickBooks facilitates easy invoicing and revenue tracking, allowing you to monitor income streams and reconcile revenue with your financial records. This functionality streamlines the process of determining your taxable income.
  9. Collaboration and accessibility. QuickBooks is designed for collaboration, allowing multiple users, including your accountant or tax professional, to access the system simultaneously. This collaborative approach ensures that everyone involved in the tax preparation process has access to the latest financial data, making the overall process more efficient and accurate.
  10. Preparation for quarterly estimates. For businesses that pay quarterly estimated taxes, QuickBooks simplifies the process of calculating and preparing these payments. The software can provide estimates based on your financial data, making it easier to plan and budget for quarterly tax obligations.
  11. Integration with tax software. QuickBooks can seamlessly integrate with popular tax preparation software, further streamlining the tax filing process. This integration allows for the direct transfer of financial data from QuickBooks to your tax software, reducing the need for manual data entry and minimizing the risk of errors.
  12. Regular updates for compliance. Tax laws and regulations are subject to change, and staying compliant requires businesses to stay informed. QuickBooks provides regular updates to ensure that the software complies with the latest tax regulations. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties during tax season.

Tax season doesn’t have to be a source of stress for your business. By leveraging the capabilities of QuickBooks, you can simplify and streamline your tax preparation process. QuickBooks is one software that can help your business with keeping your books organized. Organized and accessible financial records help make tax season a seamless and efficient experience for your business.

AK Burton, PC specializes in preparing small business tax returns. Whether it’s tax planning, preparing tax returns, issuing financial statements, drafting a lender letter or whatever else your business needs, we can help you along the way. Call us at (301) 365-1974 for a consultation. 

We serve Bethesda, Rockville, and Montgomery County. MD area.

*** For more information visit the QuickBooks website.   

 

 

 

 

Quickbooks, Small Business Accounting

How to Organize Your Small Business Accounting Using QuickBooks Services

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Tax Season ended at midnight on Tuesday, April 18, 2023. Tax Day is such a stressful time for citizens, businesses, and accountants. This year was no different though. When the numbers come out, there will probably be an increase in filing extensions by people and businesses.

Now that the smoke has cleared, business owners may want to consider using our QuickBooks services to do their accounting and tax preparation. QuickBooks is an accounting software developed by Intuit. QuickBooks is mainly for small and medium-sized businesses. The cloud-based software can accept business payments, manage and pay bills, and do payroll.

QuickBooks can be used to organize your small business accounting. Here are some steps to get started:

  1. Set up your company: Start by setting up your company in QuickBooks. This includes entering your company information, such as your business name, address, and tax ID number.
  2. Add your bank and credit card accounts: Connect your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks. This will allow you to automatically import transactions into QuickBooks, making it easier to keep track of your finances.
  3. Categorize your transactions: Once you have imported your transactions into QuickBooks, you will need to categorize them. This involves assigning each transaction to the appropriate account, such as income or expenses.
  4. Set up your chart of accounts: Your chart of accounts is a list of all the accounts you use in your business. This includes income accounts, expense accounts, and asset accounts. Setting up your chart of accounts is an important step in organizing your accounting.
  5. Create invoices and track payments: QuickBooks allows you to create and send invoices to your customers. You can also use QuickBooks to track payments and send reminders for overdue payments.
  6. Run financial reports: QuickBooks offers a variety of financial reports, such as profit and loss statements and balance sheets. These reports can help you understand the financial health of your business and make informed decisions.
  7. Get professional help: If you’re not familiar with accounting or QuickBooks, consider hiring a professional to help you get started. A certified accountant can help you set up QuickBooks and maintain your accounting records, so you can focus on running your business.

QuickBooks guides and assists you to organize your small business accounting. Using QuickBooks can save you time and help you make informed financial decisions for your business. Millions of business owners use QuickBooks as a daily part of their accounting. 

It takes time to learn and integrate into your business. However, with training and experience, many small and medium-sized business owners have come to depend on it. If you are considering QuickBooks to do your accounting, consult an accountant to get started. 

AK Burton, PC offers QuickBooks services for our clients. We can train you in QuickBooks and help you use it to run your business. Call us at (301) 365-1974 for a consultation. 

We serve Bethesda, Rockville, and Montgomery County. MD area.

*** For more information visit the QuickBooks website.   

 

Quickbooks, Small Business Accounting

Five QuickBooks Small Business Hacks You Need to Know

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Small business accounting and bookkeeping is a necessary part of the business. The software has made small business accounting and bookkeeping easier and more convenient. Affordably-priced software ranging from Wave Accounting to Xeno help business owners easily run billing, payroll, invoicing, and inventory.

There is a wide range of small business accounting software. As a small business owner who doesn’t even have time to spare for accounting and bookkeeping, how do you decide which software is best for your company? One potential software is Quickbooks Online. It’s a cloud-based accounting solution where records are kept online, protected by security, easily accessible, and regularly updated. *** 

If you are considering Quickbooks Online for your business or are using it now, here are some highlights of features that you should know:

  1. Connect your bank account(s) to it: Quickbooks Online allows you to connect your bank account once and it will then download all your bank transactions from the last 90 days. Additionally, it lets you connect multiple checking accounts, savings accounts, and credit cards. It will also auto-suggest categories and functions. The algorithms are quite amazing. 
  2. Don’t have to back up your data: As QuickBooks Online is all web-based, you keep all the data in the cloud. All information you store on QuickBooks Online is stored in the cloud. Data can be accessed at any time from your laptops and devices. 
  3. Invoice clients in CBO: Quickbooks Online can do all client invoicing. Gone are paper billing and sealing envelopes. It lets you design invoices with your business brand on it. Invoices can be automated and it will mark invoices that have been paid. Recurring invoices can be sent out, too, thorough the automated invoicing function. 
  4. User Interface Is Intuitive: QuickBooks was created for the non-savvy, non-accountant business owner or employee. So, it is much easier to use based on the easy interface. It has a brief and easily-understood tutorial. This five-minute guide shows users how to import and categorize transactions. A menu shows how to navigate between the Banking, Reports, Sales and Expenses functions. Reviewers consistently complement the design as it is not all pushed into a small space.
  5. Many users can use it at the same time: Quickbooks Online has several packages which allows multiple users to have full access and use of the data. Additionally, if you want to save money, the username and password can be shared with other employees. However, if there is restricted data, such as payroll, it can be protected and accessed only approved individuals. 

These are just a few of the features available with Quickbooks Online. As with any small business accounting software you choose, the software might be designed to be simple and easy to navigate but somehow a wrench gets thrown into the books!

If this happens, the staff at A.K. Burton, PC is here to help. We specialize in small business tax preparation and provide a wide range of services to our clients including getting that wrench out of your books. If you need help straightening out your QuickBooks online, please call us at (301) 365-1974 for a consultation. Our office is open! We serve Bethesda, Rockville, and Montgomery County. MD area.

*** For more information about Quickbooks Online, visit their website.

Accounting

New Quickbooks Services Upgrades in 2018

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Just when you thought it was safe to figure that you have Quickbooks down, they change it again. Changes, however, can be a good thing and Quickbooks upgrades for 2018 are more than good-they are stellar.

In fact, the Quickbooks upgrades will make your accounting life for your business a bit easier, even for those erstwhile accountants who begrudgingly do it on a monthly basis (or less).

Here are a number of the Quickbooks Services Upgrades in 2018:

  1. Cash accurate toggle on reports: You will be able to get quicker assessment and management using the 1-clickthat changes from cash based accounting and accrual based accounting on a per-report basis. All in just one click!
  2. Merge vendors: This is so much easier now as you can go from manual duplicate vendor look-up, to leveraging QB search. Then, sort sort tools to identify vendors that need to be merged. You now can merge four vendors at a timeinstead of just You can also move account information from duplicate vendors under the master vendor account option.
  3. Portable bar code scanner: It enables the choosing process which improves accuracy. It also allows users to track thestatus of inventory movements. You have three options: Sent for Pick, Pick in progress, and Picked/Partially Picked. The efficiency of this upgrade is quite incredible, too.
  4. Payroll liability reminder: Penalties are a killer. You can void them by identifying alerts on QBDT home page. Then you can create an automated reminder display on the payroll setup. This version also has new alerts displayed on the homepagea week before the
  5. Past due stamp/payroll badge reminder: Payments arrive faster when you use the past due stamp tool to tag past due open invoices.Past due stamp labels are added on the PDF This option can be turned off.
  6. Secure web mail: Yes, your work is even more secure now! Oauth 2.0, the new security standard in emails, is now available.

These are just a few of the upgrades to the Quickbooks accounting and bookkeeping system, but we are impressed. We highly recommend if for your small business. It truly has all the tools you need to do your work efficiently.

A.K. Burton, PC, which serves the Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, MD area, works with Quickbooks every day and can provide all the Quickbooks Services you and your small business needs. Contact us at (301) 365-1974 for more information or email us at info@cpa-maryland.com.

Accounting, Accounting Management, Client Services

Five Ways to Better Treat Your Small Business Accounting Clients

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No matter how long you have been in the accounting business, recruiting, maintaining and retaining clients is difficult, even with the best of them.

The reasons are long: they are offended by a mistake; they are offered a larger menu of services for a better price; a firm opens closer to their business; a partner they worked with leaves your firm…well, you get the idea. Some reasons small business accounting clients leave are out of your hands. Yet, many others are within your control and can be mitigated if done properly.

clients meeting A K Burton

Customer service is not an art. However, it’s just smart practice not to take your clients for granted. So, here are Five Ways You Can Treat Your Small Business Accounting Clients Better, so they thrive and you do, too:

  1. Develop a list of services your client could use: Currently, your clients may have only one service. But, could they benefit from estate planning, tax preparation or Quickbooks services? Also determine what they may not need like tax preparation or a financial advisor. Have a “Client Needs List” with checks and “x’s” on each service you offer. Then send a list to the client of what you can recommend to them with an offer to make an appointment at their convenience. While some may be skeptical that it is a sales tool (which it is, but only partly), most clients will appreciate that you have inquired and may gladly set up a meeting to discuss their small business accounting needs.
  2. Create and focus on your “Accounting Niche”: Your accounting firm may have a large number of services but which one do your do the best? Do an inventory of your firm and find out where you excel. That service should be the one you market the most to your clients. Once you have determined it, do a survey of your clients. You may even want to do a SWOT Analysis (Strength/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) which will give you an objective report on everything. Once you have determined your strongest service, market it.
  3. Cultivate your referral sources: Your accounting firm is probably getting referrals from insurance agents, attorneys, bankers, realtors and other financially-related industries. Network often with these resources. Find out if your accounting firm can relate to their clients. Make improvements if you can. (Send them referrals, too. They will remember.)
  4. Inventory and grade your present clients: Develop an “A-F” grading system for your clients. Look at your entire client base and see if they meet the grade. Determine if any clients are bringing down your firm and are, in fact, a loss or drain on your resources. You will also see who your “star” clients are and who may need more attention than you have been giving them. (Your firm can get a free accounting client grading tool at this link: http://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/PrivateCompaniesPracticeSection/QualityServicesDelivery/KeepingUp/Pages/invigorate-the-focus.aspx.)
  5. Say “Goodbye” to the difficult clients: We all have that difficult client or two on the books who has a tepid relationship with us. Sometimes, in the long run, they are worth keeping. However, in many case, those difficult clients are a massive drain on time and money for your firm. They actually may be taking your time away from your other clients. It becomes necessary for your firm and clients, to let them go. This is not an easy thing to do. It is quite agonizing. But everyone, including the fired clients, benefits. Determine which accounting clients meet the “let-go” criteria and begin the process. You will not regret it.

Retaining clients in these austere, post-recession days requires some homework and time, but it can be done. Follow these steps and see your firm grow.

A.K. Burton, PC cares about all of our clients, whether business or personal. Our experienced and licensed staff can help you, your family and your business make smart tax and investment decisions (https://cpa-maryland.com/services/small-business-services/). Call us at (301) 365-1974 for more information or email us at info@cpa-maryland.com.