Wake Up Call

Tracking our personal expenses in QuickBooks has definately been a wake up call. It's great to know how much you've spent so far each month and where you are spending. It makes it a lot easier to create a budget and to see where you are overspending.

I think everyone should use some type of software or tracking program for their expenses. Some banks offer online tracking of expense types. There is also mint.com, which is a free online service that connects to your online bank accounts and allows you to easily track your spending.

So take charge of your finances. You know you need to.

Personal Finances in a Tough Economy

With the rapidly dwindling economy and the scarcity of dollars, my husband and I recently decided to keep better track of our personal finances. We decided the best way to do that was using QuickBooks software.

Step 1: We set up a company for our personal accounts.
Step 2: We entered in our bank accounts including opening balances for our selected start date.
Step 3: We each enter our own bank & cash transactions on a weekly basis.

Now we can see exactly how much we are spending and where we are spending it. This will make it much easier to target those areas we are over spending and begin budgeting our money.

Once we have a couple months of data in we will be able to develop a budget.

The best part is you can use all the fun reports, graphs and pie charts that QuickBooks offers to see where you stand at any point in time.

Sales Tax on Internet Sales

The Supreme Court has backed state sales tax on Internet sales. New Mexico had imposed its gross receipts tax on Dell Computer’s Internet sales in the state, even though Dell had no physical presence in the state other than a third-party service tech under contract. State courts found for the state, and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. Sales taxes on Web sales face more challenges, but the tax should not be ignored. [Dell Marketing LP v. Taxation and Revenue Dept. of the State of New Mexico, No. 26,843, N.M. Ct. App. 2008]

>Tax Day 2009!!

Your tax deadline is 11:59pm tonight! Don't forget to file your taxes or file for an extension!!

Business Mileage

When keeping a mileage record for reimbursement of business mileage be sure to indicate in your journal what the purpose was for each trip. It is not enough to just mark it as 'business'. If you are audited the IRS will not accept that as well documented.
In other words if you are, for example, showing a client a property - indicated that including client name and the location of the property.
It's always better to over document than not provide enough information.

California Sales Tax

California companies take heed! The sales tax will be increasing to 8.75% effective April 1st, 2009. This is supposed to be a "temporary" increase through 2011. We'll see how temporary that is.
Remember to change your records so that you'll be all set when it comes time to submit your payments to the State Board of Equalization.

The Dreaded Tax Crunch

April 15th is rapidly approaching. Do you have your receipts and bank statements ready to go? Did you plan ahead this year and use accounting software to make your tax prep easier?

If you are running your own business, no matter how small, it really pays to organize your accounting using financial software such as QuickBooks. You may think you don't have time to do it yourself and that may very well be true. But can you afford not to do it?

Hiring a freelance bookkeeping professional can save you money in the long run. It is much more cost effective to have a professional bookkeeper keep your books up to date then to pay your Certified Public Accountant to straighten out your bookkeeping while he/she is doing your taxes.

If you are all set for 2008 taxes, think ahead for 2009 and be prepared!