5 Ways to Get Organized for Tax Season

     This is a great, simple list to help you get started on organizing for tax season!  You may think you have lots of time between then and now, but once January hits, that's when your time starts flying.  This offers great advice on how to work with your accountant (hint #3) as well as plan ahead for your business by looking back.



5 Ways to Get Organized for Tax Season
Start getting organized now in order to minimize the headache of filing.

Tax season officially runs from January 1 through April 15. But calendar deadlines are deceptive. Face it: Tax preparation is a 12-month activity requiring discipline, organization and data, according to accountants and professional organizers.

Fortunately, it’s never too late or too early to set up a system for tracking tax records, receipts and other paper work. Here are five tips for organizing your taxes.

1. Mental exercise: Tax preparation begins with mental preparation. “The first place to organize is our minds,” said Rivka Gerecht Caroline, a professional organizer with So Be Organized. Make a tax date by marking your calendar with specific times for starting the process. Build momentum by establishing a schedule for organizing records.

If you feel overwhelmed, break the process down into small steps, said Standolyn Robertson, past president of the National Association of Professional Organizers and owner of Things In Place. And remember to book time for a mental vacation, with reserved space for a hobby, sports event or a spa date as a reward for completing the process. This tax incentive will help you override procrastination, Caroline said.

2. Set up a system: Tax records can be collected in a variety of files, ranging from a shoe box to one of several electronic filing systems, Robertson said. Whether you select low-tech or high-tech tax preparation tools, it’s important to maintain a system for storing receipts and other paperwork.

“At the first of every year, set up a large envelope or folder titled with the ‘current year’ and start accumulating tax-related income and expense information during the year as you go along,” said Carol Sokolow, a certified public accountant based in Miami. Key documents include receipts and credit card slips for business expenses, major purchases, charitable donations and other notable transactions.

“Then at tax time throw all year-end statements in the same envelope or folder. You will be ready to prepare the return or meet with your tax preparer. Organizing will not be such a daunting task at tax time,” Sokolow said.

3. Do your homework: Get the most out of tax consultation sessions by doing your own grunt work. “You should use your accountant to prepare your taxes, not organize your paper work,” Robertson said. To make the process painless, she recommends sorting through receipts and other paper work while watching television or listening to music.

[Visit the U.S. News My Money blog for the best money advice from around the web.]

4. Review the past: Use past tax returns as guides for the current tax season. “Last year’s taxes can be a checklist of what to look for this year,” Robertson said. If you hire a tax professional or a bookkeeper, request a checklist or a packet of tax preparation tips. There are also several places online where you can download tax preparation checklists.

5. Check your credit score: Prepare for a tax refund or a tax bill by requesting a copy of your credit report. A review of your credit history will help you set priorities for paying down debt and improving your credit score, said John Branham, a spokesman for TransUnion Interactive, a credit report service. “Understanding their credit situation now can help consumers create a plan to best use their refund or prepare to pay their tax bill,” Branham said.

Sharon Harvey-Rosenberg is a member of Wise Bread’s top personal finance blog network. She is the author of "Frugal Duchess: How to Live Well and Save Money” and a contributing author to ”10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget.”

To view the original article visit USNews.com.

NOTICE: Not Official Government Form, Possible Email Phishing

Recently I have been made aware of an email going around asking for personal information that is NOT an official government document.  It is a 2016 Annual Records Solicitation Form, you may receive it if you are on certain mailing lists such as the Virginia Council for Corporations email list.  I quickly got an email warning me of the validity of this email.  If you aren't sure whether or not the email forms you received are official or not, be sure to check with your accountant!  Here is an example below of a form you may receive:

Accounting Software for Your Growing Business

     It’s a great feeling to see your business grow!  It’s a not-so-great feeling trying to DIY the accounting for all that growth.  So, you got by with Excel at first, great work!  It’s good practice, and now you know what more you need from the accounting software you’re about to purchase!  You want to consider ease of use, “advanced” functionality, and the capability of the software to grow along with your business.  Buying cheaper software isn’t worth your time if you and your staff will have to re-learn a new program every six months to a year.  You also don’t want to waste money on a product with bells and whistles that you’ll never need.  Ultimately, a good resource to use when looking for accounting software is….your accountant!  They can help you decipher the options and are familiar with how fast you're growing and what your needs might be in the future.

     This article by Jacob Grana on Tech Radar really makes some points to start thinking about when you’re ready to buy new software for bookkeeping.  It gives you an outline of what tools accounting software can provide you with to make tasks more efficient.  It’s a great read for anyone who is newly looking or dissatisfied with their current software!


Small Business Accounting Software: everything you need to know

It's finally here. The problem you've dreamed of having. The problem your jealous business school friends, your nay-saying family, and your competitors wish you didn't have. The problem your mentor calls "good."

Your small business has become too successful to continue accounting with Excel.

Congratulations on your problem. You need accounting software.

Choosing the right software isn't easy, especially for a small business. Accounting software is like marriage: it (usually) lasts forever. So it has to be a match for your business not only today, but in sickness and in health, and most importantly, as your business grows older.

Here are 4 tips to help you find "the one" accounting software your small business needs.

Accounting software
1. Look in the proverbial mirror and make a list

Arguably the most important, if mundane, tip is list your small business's accounting needs. Most owners have a general idea of what they want, but if you want to minimize cost then a specific list is key. Otherwise you end up paying for features you don't need.

Not sure where to start? First, pick the low-hanging fruit.

Take all the functions you are already doing with Excel/graph paper/post-it notes and put them at the top of your list. Things like invoices, inventory, and income and expense tracking. Then ask yourself who accesses, or will need to access, this information. (Sales staff, the bookkeeper, the accountant?) Check off the number of seats your new accounting software will need to support.

Now your list has its basic framework. And if you're a very small business who just needs the "basic framework" then stop here. Software like Wave or Zoho Books is probably the best fit for you.

But if not, it's time to determine what "advanced" features you'll need out of your accounting software. Use these three questions as a guideline:

What functions will help save time on employee management? What functions will help save time on customer relations? What applications and processes will the accounting software need to integrate with?

Let's go question by question.

Employee Management

Payroll, sick, personal and vacation day tracking are the most common employee management tasks a small business handles. Small businesses with significant head-counts should research dedicated human resources management tools and/or payroll processing services for these tasks, but for very small businesses, an add-on to their accounting software, like Deputy or Intuit QuickBooks Payroll, might be all that's needed.

Base your decision on the value such time-saving will generate for your business. Could the time spent on employee management be instead used to generate more revenue? If so, tasks like payroll should go on your list.

Customer Relations

Customers will take note of your sales and delivery strategy, but they will remember forever how you present your bill. How you manage your accounting procedures says a lot about how you manage your customers.

Your new accounting software must maintain the goodwill you've worked so hard to build with your customers – and help you get paid faster too.

Do you want to generate invoices for customers right at the point-of-sale, wherever that may be? Then the phone-and-tablet functionality of FreshBooks might go on your list. Do customers want to pay without having to fill out repeat paperwork? Credit card processing with a program like Sage Payment Solutions should be explored. Are paper invoices getting lost in the mail? Consider an add-on like automatic recurring payments with InvoiceSherpa.

Evaluate each stage of your accounts receivable process, from purchase order to bank deposit, to see where software can clean up any inefficiencies. Cash flow is a top priority for a small business. You want accounting software to speed up payment, not slow it down.

Integration

Consider the applications you're already using to run your business. How would new accounting software integrate with those applications?

Maybe you're a retailer that needs its point-of-sale system to instantly give sales and inventory updates to accounting (Try Xero. It integrates with a ton of third party apps.) Maybe you're a direct sales organization that needs customer invoices to post directly into your CRM. (Yendo could be the all-in-one program you're looking for.) Or maybe you're any business that just wants its old Excel files to load without wingdings infiltrating the spreadsheets. (The industry giant, Intuit QuickBooks, loves Excel – it should be everyone's first demo.)

Whatever you are, save yourself the pulled-hairs and check compatibility before you make a decision.

2. Consult with professionals

Sure, you ignored the warnings from your parents when you married your long-time sweetheart, but with a software marriage, you can't afford to ignore those with experience.

If you have a bookkeeper, ask them for a recommendation. At the very least make sure your accounting staff is proficient with your software choice. After all, it's your money going to waste when your bookkeeper spends their workday googling "QuickBooks tutorial help!!!" instead of sending invoices.

Get your IT staff involved too. If you're going to keep accounting data storage and security in-house, your servers will have to be up to the task.

Accounting software
The most obvious, and critical, consultation is with your accountant or CPA firm. They are not only experienced with many of the platforms you're looking into, they are also deeply familiar with your business.

Ultimately you'll want a program your accountant is comfortable using. Why make the professional who's trying to keep you out of IRS hell miserable? Make sure they endorse your choice. If this isn't an aphorism, it should be: if you're accountant isn't happy, you're not happy.

A side-note: you may want to give your accountant year-round access to your software so they can head off any tax-angina. If so, online or cloud-ready capabilities are something you'll want to put on your software wish list.

3. Demo, demo, and demo again

You have your list and your professional recommendations. Now you need to get your feet wet – but in the shallow end of the pool. It's time to demo products.

Most products on the market offer free trials, and a couple of hours spent clicking around is incredibly useful. Use this time to check how intuitive the interface is, how well it jives with your work habits and task flow. Remember, you're getting married. You don't just want fancy features, you want to be able to talk to it on an average Thursday afternoon too.

Don't dismiss a curated demo. Yes, you'll probably have to listen to a sales rep point out features as breathlessly as a kindergartner with a new macaroni necklace. Put up with it so you can ask questions about everything on your list.

Support is often overlooked when choosing software, but as a small business you're more likely than most to need it. Ask if the vendor offers product training. Ask about the hours and breadth of their tech support. And don't forget to ask how much all that support costs.

If your small business has limited, or even non-existent IT, ask the vendor how your data is backed up and how they keep it safe. And how easy it is to recover all your files if your systems are damaged by an act of God (or man – or office cat.)

Most importantly, inquire about the product's scalability. Do you really want to go through this matching process again when you grow from small to medium to (fingers crossed) enterprise? Good software should grow with you.

4. Don't overbuy

This one's quick and dirty: remember all that time you spent on your list? Honor that effort and stick to your guns. Suspect anything that sparkles. The program that does what's on your list is the best program. As a small business, cost is key - you only want to pay for what you're going to use today. If the program is scalable (and it should be) then its bells and whistles will be there for you when you're ready.

Age-less pro-tip: Garbage In, Garbage Out

You did it. You made your list, you asked your accountant, you hounded a few sales reps and you didn't overbuy. Congratulations again. This time on your software marriage.

Want to stay out of divorce court? Develop good data-entry habits. Your new accounting software, for all its power, won't fix sloppy data-entry. Neither time nor money will be saved when you need a secret decoder ring to figure out your chart of accounts.

Hey, you can always stick with Excel.

For the full article by Jacob Grana on techradar.pro, click here.