For some of you, online banking might sound risky, intimidating and possibly time-consuming.  For some of my bookkeeping clients it sounded just the same.  But one client in particular took the plunge and decided to try it out with really great results so I thought I would share part of their story with you.

This particular client used to have me come to their office every other week to pay bills and do data entry including reconciling the bank accounts.  I would say the average cost to them was about $230 per month for these services, including the travel time charge and time I spent filing the receipts, invoices, and other paperwork.  I was happy to work for them providing this service but I had an idea that I thought would save them money and save me time.  I proposed working from my home instead, which meant accessing their online banking and also accessing their computer remotely using a program called LogMeIn.

My client was very receptive to the idea, especially because I thought it could save them money within a few months, even though they had reservations.  I use the online bill pay service for most everything, and download the bank statements from the website.  I access the computer with the Quickbooks file when the computer is free and do the data entry, reconciliation, and generate reports at that time.

Here are some of the main benefits to this arrangement in my experience: 
- No stamps or envelopes required - saves money and if you don't have stamps or envelopes you can still get your bill payments sent out.
- Once you get all the vendors and payees set up (if you have consistent payees), it takes only minutes to pay many bills at one time.
- You can schedule payments to be sent on a certain date and also schedule reoccurring payments on a cycle so they are not forgotten.
- Most services give you a summary you can download or, with larger banks, the option to download the data directly to your Quickbooks file or at least in a format that you can import to your file.
- I am able to work quickly, without waiting to schedule an appointment to meet them in their office.  In most cases if they fax or e-mail me bills to pay I can get them processed in the same day.

So in the end, this client is saving about $100 a month!  We have not experienced any issues with security.  This arrangement is working out well for both of us and the bills are getting paid faster than before.  I am spending less time traveling as well, which means more time with my family.  It's a win-win in my book.

Whew!  Tax season is over around here for my clients.  Time to start getting the 2012 books in order to be ready in 2013.  Sometimes I just want to take a break from doing our bookkeeping work (my husband and I both own small businesses) and relax for a few weeks... or longer...!  But I know doing that will only result in frustration next tax season because I got behind on my reconciling and data entry.  

Spring/summer is also the best time to shop for a new CPA or tax preparer.  June and July are perfect times to interview and begin working with a new tax professional so that you have established a relationship with them and have good communication throughout the year.  It's such a nightmare to try and interview and find a tax preparer during the tax season rush!  You will be so thankful that you did the preparation now instead of waiting until next new year.

The best way I have found to come up with a list of potential tax professionals is to ask family, friends and business contacts about who they use to prepare their taxes.  If you are a small business, ask another small business owner that you know if they are comfortable with their tax preparer and see if you think their style and/or personality will mesh well with yours.  Next, meet in person!!  Sometimes you will immediately hit it off with someone and sometimes the communication is awkward and you wonder if they really understand the issues that your business or personal taxes deal with.  Be honest and don't only interview one professional.  

Good luck if you are on the search for a new CPA or tax preparer!  Don't wait until next year to start the process or you might miss out on a great opportunity to find a great professional to help you.

Using a service called Log Me In, I successfully performed a one hour support session with a client today.  From my home.  In my sweatpants.  And I had access to her Quickbooks file on my home computer screen.  It was great - I could see exactly what she was seeing, making communication over the phone about her Quickbooks questions very easy.  She had a few questions about reconciling and I was able to show her features she can use by taking control of her mouse pointer and locating them and showing her how to use them.  

​To try it out at 33% off, click here!

This remote access capability is definitely a game-changer for me and a definite service to my clients.  If you have a question, I can talk to you over the phone and see what you are looking at instantly instead of making an appointment and waiting a few days or even a week to address and solve the issue.  If you have tax time Quickbooks questions, let me know and maybe we can use this new tool to answer them!

Hi there, I am going to offer you some insight on 5 things that you can do now and every month in order to save yourself time and frustration later! All of this will also help you stay prepared in case you are ever audited by the IRS or the state, or the employment department. ALSO if your computer ever crashes (which I see happen more often than I would like) you have a paper trail for everything when you go to reenter your transactions. Some of this may sound pretty old school in this age of digital everything but you still HAVE TO HAVE A PAPER TRAIL!

1) Make copies of every check you receive or save the stub that was attached to a printed check. This will PROVE where your income is coming from and what it is for. I always try to make make copies of handwritten checks, and tear off and save the stubs when we receive payment for invoices or other payments. If the payment is related to an invoice, I attach the check copy or pay stub to the invoice. 

2) Use Quickbooks or other financial software to keep track of your income and expenses related to your business. Quickbooks has many advantages over using simple spreadsheets or doing your accounting by hand. One advantage is built-in safeguards for things like double entering transactions, or missing expenses to write off. As long as you are reconciling your accounts monthly, this is the best way I know of to keep these thing from happening. Quickbooks warns you if you are entering a check number in twice and it warns you about discrepancies in your accounts when reconciling. If you need help getting started with Quickbooks, let me know and we can talk about the best plan for you.

3) Write on your receipts what the expense was for. If you have a receipt from a restaurant, write the reason you are assigning it as a business expense. Sometimes my clients write on the back, "meal with web designer to discuss plans to expand website". Or "lunch for my employees". Or if it's an office expense, make sure the items are clearly labeled or understandable (sometimes there is just a SKU number and not a description of the item). If not, write out what they were. Again, in case of an audit, this would be EXTREMELY helpful information to have. And if you do it now, you won't have to play catch-up later!

4) Use a business credit or debit card for all your business expenses. Train yourself to separate your personal and business purchases. Using a business debit card EXCLUSIVELY for business purchases can make it much easier to identify them later.  If the situation calls for it, I go the office store and make two separate purchases; one with my personal debit or credit card and one with my business debit or credit card. Later when you go to reconcile your accounts it is easier to clearly see your business expenses if you don't have to weed out the personal items from the receipt or transaction. If you happen to lose that receipt, it acts as a backup method of recording a purely business expense. (Meaning you don't have to rack your brain for the amount of personal and amount of business expenses was actually in that transaction). This takes some self-discipline but it will be worth it in the end!! 

5) Hire a professional, or at least do some consultation to help you establish a system that works for you and will better prepare you to prepare your taxes. Many people I have worked for actually saved money because instead of handing their accountant a mess of receipts and statements, they had all their financial information organized and their accountant didn't have to do any legwork for their tax returns. Bookkeeping, especially simple straightforward bookkeeping can be very affordable!

I hope these tips are helpful to you and can save you time and frustration in the long run. Feel free to leave comments or questions.