"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff | QuickBooks for Contractors blog

13Mar 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Quick is a fantasy!

Quick is a fantasy! When was the last time that you stopped for a quick cup of coffee, took the dog for a quick walk, or ran a quick errand? The definition of "quick" is occurring in a short time; happening or done rapidly - Wiktionary. But seriously, when was the last time that you did something that was "quick"? I mean really done something that only took you a short amount of time to accomplish? Personally, I think "quick" is a fantasy that we all live in or believe in. Is it because we have lost our concept of time? Or is it because that we live in such a fast paced world and have so much on our plates that we feel we should be able to complete…

12Feb 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Pardon the mess on the QuickBooks for Contractors blog

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff

If you are arriving here between February 12 and quite possibly right up until the 18th - I apologize for the disarray. I'm working on rebranding and revamping our blog and it's just gotten to the point that I need to work on the "real thing" and not locally on my computer in a test environment. I have to admit, it's quite a challenge to optimize your website for mobile devices --- when you don't own one! Where we live we have no cell phone coverage.....that's right I said NO cell phone coverage --just repeating this in case you think it could be a typo :-) so I don't have a smart phone. Thankfully, I've had the help of a couple of really wonderful folks who will pull up the…

01Jan 2013 by Nancy Smyth

Happy New Year!

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day. - Edith Lovejoy Pierce Welcome to 2013! Many people make New Year's resolutions, goals or plans to change things in or about their personal lives that they don't like or just feel aren't working. We all need to stop and make this sort of assessment. One area that we often forget about in this assessment is our professional lives - and really we shouldn't, as our professional life does take up a great deal of our time. As a business owner or an employee about to embark upon a New Year, now is a good time to pause…

29Nov 2012 by Shannon Tucker

What Are DB File Fragments and Why Do I Get Them in My QuickBooks File?

"Stuff" No One Ever Told Me About..., From Our Guest Bloggers

Whenever you press the F2 key in QuickBooks, a window pops up that tells you a lot of things about your company data file. One of the numbers you see is “DB File Fragments”. What’s that? [caption id="attachment_3718" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image courtesy of nuttakit / https://www.freedigitalphotos.net/"][/caption] DB file fragment is basically a measurement of how much your company file changes. It reflects how much and how often QuickBooks messes with it. This is not something peculiar to QuickBooks files. With any file in Windows, as changes to the file happen on the hard drive, Windows sometimes keeps segments of data together, and sometimes Windows will assign segments of data somewhere else on the drive. That “somewhere else”, in QuickBooks, is a DB file fragment. When you restore a portable copy,…

20Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth

QuickBooks 2013 – Where Have the Colors Gone?

"Stuff" that drives me insane, QuickBooks 2013 - What's New?

QuickBooks 2013 has an entirely new look and I have to admit there are many things about the product redesign that I really like, however, the biggest issue that I have with the redesign is the fact that Intuit has removed the ability to change the color scheme of the software. Where oh where can my QuickBooks colors be, Intuit took them away from me…….ya, I know that sounds like a really bad rendition of an old song that went like this – “Where oh where can my baby be, the lord took her away from me, she’s gone to heaven I’ve got to be good so I can see my baby when I leave this world”. Color is an important part of our daily lives. Did you know that…

18Sep 2012 by Nancy Smyth

EEOC Reports & Government Funded Construction Projects – Q & A

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Construction News, The "Sunburst" Website

EEOC Reports are just another compliance requirement that must be met when you perform work on government funded/prevailing wage jobs - in addition to the submission of a weekly certified payroll report. In this Q & A we'll discuss your obligations, what types of forms you might need to file, and when you have to file them. What is the EEOC and what do they do? The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. What is an EEOC Report? An EEOC Report is really nothing more than than a report that includes how many employees you…

03Aug 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 7/27-8/2/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week It’s been an insanely busy week here and I didn’t get to spend as much time on the internet surfing and reading as I normally do - but here's what I found that was interesting. Accounting & Taxes ARTICLE: What to Look for in a Construction CPA https://t.co/UXOu0CU5 -> A gallery of previous ABBO (Accountants,…

27Jul 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 7/20/2012 – 7/26/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week It's been an insanely busy week here and I didn't get to spend as much time on the internet surfing and reading as I normally do. Accounting & Taxes Why was my voice not Heard by The AICPA? https://t.co/I5J9NqCw -> Doom Awaits the Student Loan Defaulters https://t.co/Ce3JEqGu via @bruce_taxguy -> An IRS Audit..and They Require…

20Jul 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 7/13-7/19/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week. (Technorati claim token 3JSYVT43VAMQ). Accounting & Taxes Oregon Tax Scam Could Have Been Much Bigger| AccountingWeb | https://t.co/ZcFla7kn -> Do you need to file a tax return https://t.co/K0JwKyt3 via @bruce_taxguy -> Senate Republicans Vote Down Small-Business Tax Breaks : The World :: American Express OPEN Forum https://t.co/muNkjKLj via @OpenForum -> Should You Get an…

16Jul 2012 by Nancy Smyth

The First Summer Harvest

From the Yard

Hi, HAPPY Summer! I realize that I haven't been as good about blogging lately as I normally am. I have a lot on my plate and I thought I would share what I've been up to - just in case you've been wondering where I am. My vegetable garden is incredible this year and canning season has started already - it's about 3-4 weeks early this year. Thursday afternoon, after work, I went down to check things out and discovered that many of the beets needed to be picked and turned into pickled beets. Right click to enlarge image Right click to enlarge image Friday afternoon, I took off early and headed for the garden. I picked about half of the row which resulted in filling a 20 gallon cooler…

29Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 6/22/2012-6/28/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week. Accounting & Taxes DOD spends $21 million a year on late payment penalties https://t.co/WcHSn7fq -> IRS Faces Uncertainty on Affordable Care Act https://t.co/mEKyHM7T -> The Helping Hand of the Student Loan Assistance https://t.co/s68YcMnf via @bruce_taxguy -> Joshua Wilson CPA: BASIC GIFT TAX FACTS: ANSWERS TO SOME COMMON GIFT TAX QUESTIONS » Gift taxes are https://t.co/LiOaWAjz…

26Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Yards & Gardens Are Like Children

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff

Yards and gardens are like children - they require pretty much constant attention. They don't care if you should be testing a product release, working, attending or hosting a webinar, or attending a various number of on-line social media functions. The only difference between a yard or garden and children is that the yard or garden doesn't keep you up all night because it's crying! Our yard, which I just love, requires a LOT of attention this time of year. The lawn (all 3 1/2 acres) of it needs mowing about every 4-5 days. Right click to enlarge Sunday, among other things we had to put up a fence around our blueberries - so the birds don't get them all! Right click to enlarge While the flower gardens are…

22Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 6/15/2012-6/21/2012

Be A Better Bookkeeper, Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Construction News, IRS Information, News You Can Use, Payroll Tips, QuickBooks Corner, Social Media, Webinars & Training

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week. Accounting & Taxes A letter from a Bookkeeper https://t.co/nr0twsHi via @bruce_taxguy -> How I answered the letter https://t.co/WIa8lzll via @bruce_taxguy -> IRS "repair regulations" can be overly complex https://t.co/O9Ix29KR -> Is Remortgaging Equity Release Debt a Good Option? https://t.co/TRNXJ9Ue via @bruce_taxguy -> 3 Strategies to Help You Conquer Your Debt https://t.co/aLTQtJQX via @bruce_taxguy ->…

16Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use 6/8-6/14/2012

News You Can Use

Weekly wrap-up of news and information from around the web – there’s so much information out there that it’s difficult (at best) to keep up! I’ve added a WordPress plug-in that grabs information from my Twitter stream to help me (and hopefully you as well) keep up with everything. Look for the Weekly Wrap-Up: News You Can Use every Friday. I’ll try to be consistent and organize the information into the same categories each week. Accounting & Taxes ARTICLE: What to Look for in a Construction CPA https://t.co/UXOu0CU5 -> Planning Your Accounts Receivable Collections https://t.co/HtxlaiHg -> How the IRS Feels About Employer Provided Cell Phones https://t.co/NQ7wvv2q -> eBooks, Webinars & Videos eBook: Learn About AIA Billing & How To Fill Out an AIA G-702/G-703 https://t.co/Hc3jyNIn -> eBook: Payroll Mistakes. It's…

12Jun 2012 by Nancy Smyth

Worker’s Comp Increases 45% in California, Beginning 7/1/2012

Certified Payroll/Prevailing Wage, Construction News, Payroll Tips, Webinars & Training

California Worker's Compensation Insurance premiums will increase by 45% over last year for renewals after July 1, 2012 according to The Worker's Comp Executive. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones went against a unified front of labor and employer representatives siding with the insurance industry and the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) in approving a 8.3% increase mid-year rate hike for California employers. Added to the 37% rate increase he approved for January, July and later renewals are facing an average rate increase of 45.3% over last year at the same time. Worker’s Comp and payroll taxes take a huge bite out of a contractors profit when working on Public Works construction projects – especially if the contractor is paying the full fringe benefit rate of the prevailing wage…

Category: “Maad” Rants & Other Stuff