Category: Accounting Systems

Buying another construction firm can be an attractive way to grow your company’s revenue base. A merger or an acquisition can allow you to: Add a new subcontracting specialty, Acquire an experienced labor force to reach new markets, and Deepen your penetration into the market your firm already serves. But there’s more to mergers and acquisitions than agreeing on a purchase price and signing the paperwork. For example, which employees should be made privy to the transaction? And how do… Read more ›

Court Determines that an Activity Was Engaged in for Profit Taxpayers who are in business to make a profit can generally deduct related expenses on their tax returns. If the IRS doubts a profit motive exists, it may deem an activity to be a hobby with a limited ability to deduct costs. The burden to prove there’s a profit motive is on the taxpayer. In one recent case, the IRS found a “green” home construction partnership was engaged in for… Read more ›

  The IRS continues to zero in on what it calls the “tax gap” — the amount between the taxes that are voluntarily paid and the amount the tax agency believes is actually due. To this end, the IRS has issued a series of documents to provide better understanding of the tax code. One example is specifically directed at the construction industry. The tax agency emphasizes instances where taxpayers failed to report, or under-reported, income from construction activities. This applies… Read more ›

  Financial statements are a must-have for any organization. The balance sheet reveals how much its assets and liabilities are worth based on historic costs. The income statement tells investors and lenders how profitably and efficiently the company has performed during the accounting period. The statement of cash flows details sources and uses of cash from operating, investing and financing activities. All this is relevant information for company insiders, as well as for lenders, bonding companies and other stakeholders. Whether… Read more ›

Quickbooks from Intuit has been a trusted tool for business owners and accountants alike for many years. With cloud computing ‘s prevalence increasing in today’s business world, Quickbooks Online (QBO) is more popular than ever and Intuit continues to improve the software’s powerful tools. This article looks at some recommended best practices for using QBO so that it continues to help you run your business while minimizing the stress over the financial aspect of it. 1. Accounts and Settings First,… Read more ›

Unlike many accounting systems, QuickBooks does not require you to close your books at the end of an accounting period. But is that a good thing? Most accountants would argue that it is not! At a minimum, you should update the QuickBooks closing date annually to ensure that the data will continue to match the tax return prepared by your accountant. But even when using this feature, it’s often deployed way too late in the game. Generally, when you are… Read more ›

As a business owner you have at least two goals: Find new customers, and Get paid for your products or services QuickBooks made it easier for you to see the status and dollar value of customer-related transactions with a new tool called Income Tracker. With one click (choose Income Tracker from the Customers menu), a color-coded ribbon appears at the top of the QuickBooks screen, which displays three statuses — Unbilled, Unpaid and Paid. You can also drill into the underlying data… Read more ›

QuickBooks® Online offers the business owner certain advantages such as: Those pluses are appealing but let’s dig a little deeper and see some more differences between QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. Users QuickBooks Online offers anytime, anywhere access to QuickBooks for up to 25 simultaneous users, while the desktop version offers WebEx Remote Access (or similar technology) as a solution for accessing QuickBooks from a remote location, but does not allow simultaneous access for multiple remote users. As an alternative, there… Read more ›