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Who Owes You? 5 QuickBooks Online Reports That Can Tell You Fast

May 19, 2020 by admin

Keep a constant watch on your accounts receivable to improve cash flow.

Quick: How many of your invoices are unpaid? Have any of your customers gone over 30 days past due? Did you bill all of the time and expenses for that project you just completed for a customer?

If you’re doing your accounting manually, there’s simply no way to get that information quickly. Depending on your bookkeeping system, you may not be able to get it at all.

QuickBooks Online has more than one solution for this problem. You see the first one every time you log in. The Dashboard contains a graphic in the upper left corner that tells you how many invoices are overdue and unpaid. Click on the colored bar labeled OVERDUE, and you’ll see a list of invoices with the unpaid ones right at the top.

You can tell at a glance how much of your money is tied up in unpaid invoices.

While this is important information for you to have as you start your workday, it doesn’t tell the whole story. To get that, you’ll need to access some of QuickBooks Online’s reports – five of them in particular. Click Reports in the left vertical pane, and then scroll down to the heading labeled Who owes you.

These reports are listed in two columns. Each has the outline of a star next to it. Click on the star, and the report will be added to the Favorites list at the top of the page. Click on the three vertical dots next to it, and you’ll be able to Customize the report. And as you hover over the title, you’ll see a small, circled question mark. Click on this to get a brief description of the report.

There are several reports in this list that can provide insight into where your outstanding revenue is. We recommend you run five of them at least once a week – more frequently if your business sells large quantities of products and/or services. The suggested are:

Accounts receivable aging detail

This report provides a list of invoices that are overdue, along with aging information. There are several columns in the report, but you’ll want to pay special attention to the last one: OPEN BALANCE.

Tip: If you have many customers or simply a high volume of unpaid invoices, you might consider running the Accounts receivable aging summary instead.

Changing the Content

Before you run the report, you should explore the customization tools provided for it. They won’t be the same for every report, but you can start to get an idea of what can be done. Hover over the report title and click Customize. A panel like the one pictured below will slide out of the right side of the screen.

QuickBooks Online provides deep customization tools for reports.

You can see some of your customization options in the image above. Beyond these, you can also work with filters and headers/footers. When you’re satisfied with your changes, click Run report.

If you want to run a report with its default settings, just click on the report title in the list to display it. You’ll have access to limited customization from there.

Four other reports you should be generating regularly are:

Customer Balance Summary: Shows you how much each customer owes your business
Open Invoices: Lists invoices for which there has been no payment
Unbilled Charges: Just what it sounds like: tells you who hasn’t been invoiced yet for billable charges
Unbilled Time: Lists all billable time not yet invoiced

We don’t expect you’ll have any trouble understanding reports like these; they’re fairly self-explanatory. QuickBooks Online offers many other reports, the standard financial reports that need to be generated monthly or quarterly, like Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, and Statement of Cash Flows. You’ll absolutely need these should you apply for a loan or need to supply in-depth financials for any other reason. We can help you analyze them to get a comprehensive, detailed picture of your company’s fiscal health.

4 Areas to Consider When Transitioning Employees to Working From Home

April 15, 2020 by admin

For businesses that haven’t traditionally embraced remote employees, it may be difficult to get up to full speed with the current turn of events. To make the inevitable transition less overwhelming, we assembled a handy checklist of actions to consider while adjusting to the new workplace reality.

Organization

Access your staff members and/or roles that are able to work remotely, those that can’t work remotely, and those where remote work may be possible with some modifications.
Conduct an employee survey to determine the availability of computers that can be used for working remotely, as well as availability to high-speed internet access.
Create company guidelines covering remote employees, including inappropriate use of company assets and security guidelines.
Develop and conduct work-at-home- training for using remote access, remote tools, and best practices.
Select a video-conferencing platform for services, such as Zoom, Cisco WebEx, or Go To Meeting.
Develop a communications plan to involve remote employees in the daily activities of the organization.

Security

Create and implement a company security policy that applies to remote employees, including actions such as locking computers when not in use.
Implement two-factor authentication for highly-sensitive portals.
If needed, confirm all remote employees have access to and can use a business-grade VPN, and that you have enough licenses for all employees working remotely.

Staff

Institute a transparency policy with your staff and communicate frequently.
Check in on your staff, daily if possible, to confirm they are comfortable with working from home. Find and address any problems they may be experiencing.
Make certain each staff member has reliable voice communications, even if this results in adding a business-quality voice over IP service.
Don’t attempt to micro-manage your staff. Remember their working conditions at home won’t be ideal, and they will need to work out their own work patterns and schedules.
Create a phone number and email address where staff members can communicate their concerns about the firm, working at home, or even the status of COVID-19.

Infrastructure

Ensure that you have ample bandwidth coming in to your company to handle all of the new remote traffic.
Make sure you have backups of your services so your staff is able to keep working in the event extra traffic causes your primary service to go down.

You may need to adjust or expand this list to match the specific needs of your firm and the conditions affecting your organization. Use this list to get you started and to help guide you through the process.

Call Scott H. Miller Company, PC at 480-945-6158 today and set up an appointment for a free initial consultation to discuss your business goals.

Reap the Benefits of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit

March 18, 2020 by admin

Business people colleagues shaking hands meting Planning Strategy Analysis Concept The Work Opportunity Tax Credit gives employers tax benefits for hiring people who fall within certain qualifying categories. This can be a big boon to companies and employers! Click through to learn the ins and outs.

In December 2015, an extension to the Work Opportunity Tax Credit was signed in law. It helps match employers with qualifying candidates, such as veterans, and provides a tax incentive for continued employment. What do you need to know about WOTC and how it can affect you and your business? Here are some basics.

Qualifying veterans. To qualify for WOTC, the new employee must be a veteran who received SNAP (food stamp) benefits for a designated period of time, or a disabled or unemployed vet. For more details about these categories, the length of time to qualify for eligibility and more, review the WOTC page at the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration website.
Nonveteran qualifying candidates. There are also WOTC programs available for individuals who have not served in the United States military. To qualify, an individual must be a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipient, a SNAP recipient, a resident of a qualifying community such as Rural Renewal Counties, an ex-felon or a Supplemental Security Income recipient. The official website can provide more on these target groups.
Nonqualifying candidates. Besides individuals not listed among the target groups, there are certain individuals who are specifically disqualified from the WOTC programs. These include relatives or dependents, majority owners of the business and former employees of the company.
Tax credit extension period. The WOTC program was renewed as part of the vote that avoided a government shutdown at the end of 2015. This included retroactively renewing the program from Jan. 1, 2015; a five-year extension through December 2019; and a new target group of long-term unemployed individuals.

Do you want to know whether your company can qualify for the WOTC program?

Find out how we can decrease your Federal and State taxes. Call us today at 480-945-6158 to learn more or request a consultation through our website now and we’ll contact you.

What To Do When You Get an Audit Notification

February 24, 2020 by admin

Businessman being depressed by accounting You’ve opened the mail and your heart sinks. Your business just received an audit notification from the IRS. Click through to learn how to keep your cool and prepare for what happens next.

You may be surprised to learn that not every audit notification you receive will be legitimate. So, first, make sure you received an official audit notification. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will notify you either by letter or by a phone call followed by a letter. The IRS does not notify taxpayers about audits through email, so if you do get an email saying you’ve been selected for an audit, it’s probably fraudulent. If you’ve determined that you’re definitely getting audited, your next step is to learn what’s involved.

What Exactly Is an Audit?

According to the IRS, an audit is “a review/examination of an organization’s or individual’s accounts and financial information to ensure information is being reported correctly, according to the tax laws, to verify the amount of tax reported is substantially correct.”

That’s it. It’s an audit — not an arrest and not a trial — so don’t panic. Contrary to popular belief, an audit doesn’t automatically mean you made a mistake. Yes, an inconsistency can trigger an audit if there’s a discrepancy between what’s on a tax form and what you actually reported. But the IRS may choose to audit a taxpayer based on random selection or a statistical formula. Also, an audit may be less intrusive than you feared. For example, it may be entirely through the mail, although in some cases, it may be at an office or the taxpayer’s home or place of business. And not all audits result in your owing money. In fact, your audit may lead to no changes at all.

Both businesses and individuals may be audited (even sole proprietorships), and there may be some differences in how they are handled. One thing that virtually all audits have in common, however, is access to records. The IRS is going to want to check some of your records, and maybe a lot of them. Did you deduct business expenses? Make some substantial charitable contributions? You’ll need to show the IRS some receipts. The good news is that in many cases the IRS accepts electronic records.

What Happens Next?

There is no typical length of time for an IRS audit, but if you have your records handy and cooperate fully and quickly, you increase your chances that it will be as brief and painless as possible. Ultimately, the IRS may determine that you owe more money. At this point, you can pay it or you can appeal. The audit doesn’t have to be the end of the road. There is a substantial appeal process and a long and expensive court trial may not even be necessary.

The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to go it alone! Your accountant can work with you throughout the audit process, including any appeals. The key factor is to call us as soon as you receive the notification about your audit. We’re ready to work through the details and help you gather any records you may need.

Find out why small businesses and individuals in the Scottsdale area trust Scott H. Miller Company, PC for tax services. Request a consultation online now or call us at 480-945-6158 to learn more.