24Feb 2011 by Denise Duplinski

Credit for Small Employer Health Insurance Premiums

From Our Guest Bloggers, IRS Information
On March 30, 2010, President Obama signed the Health Care Reconciliation Act which added a tax credit for employee health insurance expenses of small employers for taxable years beginning in 2010 through taxable years beginning in 2013. The tax credit is available if: (1) the employer has fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) (2) the average annual wages per FTE  is less than $50,000, and (3) the employer maintains a “qualifying arrangement” The credit is fully available to an employer with 10 FTEs and average annual wages of $25,000. The credit phases out pro rata so that an employer with 25 FTEs with average annual wages of $50,000 is not entitled. Number of Employees for the Taxable Year The number of FTEs is determined by counting employees who perform…
Read More
23Feb 2011 by Nancy Smyth

Looking for Guest Bloggers

From Our Guest Bloggers, The "Sunburst" Website
We would like to invite our subscribers to write a guest blog article that we will post on our blog.? We know a lot of our subscribers are experts in their own fields and have tips and best practices that everyone could benefit from. What to Write About? We are looking for articles that provide valuable information to the business professionals that subscribe to our blog.? The post could pertain to business lessons you’ve learned that would be valuable for others to hear about, tips for handling certain situations more effectively, compliance issues to avoid or anything that would help business owners run their companies more efficiently.? The articles don’t have to be geared towards payroll or construction, but should relate to using QuickBooks, owning, operating or managing a business.…
Read More
16Feb 2011 by Ben Smyth

Backup – Times 3

Be A Better Bookkeeper, From Our Guest Bloggers, General QuickBooks News, QuickBooks Setup & Cleanup
Everybody says it, but most people don’t really understand it until they need to restore some data they don’t have saved.  Only then does it sink in for most people.  Not that I’ve never lost anything, but when your job in college was rotating 9-track tapes to offsite locations for 20 hours a week for a bank, backup has been ingrained to my genes for longer than I can think.  One of the reasons DEC was my favorite operating system is that every time you saved your work, a copy was made, so unless you purged your old files, you could see the state of your work as it progressed and recover to any point in time you wanted.  Still to this day Windows hasn’t completely duplicated this built in…
Read More
10Feb 2011 by Randal DeHart

The Contractor And The Black Box

From Our Guest Bloggers
A contractor's work is tangible; it's seen, touched, heard, smelled, and judged good or bad. Bookkeeping is intangible. Paperwork given to The "Keeper of the Books” is input into the “Black Box” and reports come out, eventually, someday. Ideally, these reports tell contractors how much money they made or lost and where it all went. If the reports from Black Box match the bank’s records, the suppliers unpaid bills, and money their customers owe them then the Black Box has value. However, in most cases Black Box reports do not agree with everyone else’s records the contractor becomes angry and distrustful because he is not in control of the Black Box. The Keeper of the Books is in control of the Black Box and the reports it can generate which…
Read More