She hosts a FREE educational webinar series called Webinar Wednesdays.

Here’s the link to my guest spot:

QuickBooks for Online Retailers Webinar

                          

Registration for QuickBooks Bootcamp CLOSES at midnight EST Monday, September 6!

GO HERE to register!

                          

Here’s the information for QuickBooks Bootcamp, which begins on September 8th!

                          

What is a 1099?

1099′s are forms that take the place of W-2′s for independent contractors and individuals who perform services for businesses; and are not corporations or LLC’s taxed as corporations.  For example, I received 1099′s from my clients at the end of last year for accounting services I performed for them.

What are the current rules?

Currently, every business is required to send a 1099 to any individual or business owner who is not a corporation (or an LLC taxed as a corporation), and performs more than $600 worth of SERVICES (not products) during the tax year for that business.

Usually, you’ll see 1099′s going to independent contractors on construction projects, accountants, bookkeepers, cleaning people, etc.

1099′s are also required for your Landlord if you rent office space, and any attorney fees you pay during the year.

Healthcare Legislation changes the rules

In the current legislation, Section 9006 of the healthcare bill requires the following beginning January 1, 2012:

1. ALL businesses will have to file 1099s to ALL service providers
2. Also, 1099′s will have to be filed for ALL product sales
3. It won’t matter whether the service or product provider is a corporation or not
4. The $600 threshold still stands

What does this mean?

This means that, as a business owner, for EVERYONE you pay money to for ANY reason:

1. You have to keep their tax identification number on file (so get the number AS SOON as you start doing business with them) and keep records for each individual vendor to see if the cross the $600 threshold during the year
2. You will have to be sending 1099′s to places like AT&T for the phone services, Walmart and Target for supplies, Office Max for equipment, your webhosting company, graphics design person, business coaches, computer software companies, utility company, etc……..

To me, this means A LOT more paperwork for me and my clients.

QuickBooks can help…

QuickBooks can help with this mess…so it’s more important than ever to get your bookkeeping setup properly!  I will be discussing 1099′s in QuickBooks as part of my FREE webinar coming on Wednesday, August 25 from 4:00-5:30 pm EST.  Click here for more information and the signup.

We’ll have to wait and see what happens after the IRS issues its regulations on the new law, and the public hearings are held; but it’s NEVER too late to get the proper bookkeeping system in place to be prepared!  Contact me today if you’d like help with keeping track of your 1099 vendors.

                          

Of course, my number one suggestion for all my clients is to start using QuickBooks properly.  That’s why I put together a FREE webinar for next week titled, “No More QuickBooks Fear”.

During this webinar, we will discuss common questions like:

1. How can QuickBooks help my business?
2. What version of QuickBooks should I buy?
3. How do I know what tax issues to be aware of for my business?
4. What are the 1099 laws and how can QuickBooks help?  (be aware that 1099 laws are changing with new legislation due to the Health Care legislation)
5. How can I use QuickBooks to reconcile my Paypal account?

And, much more.

I will be taking viewers on a “under the hood” journey in QuickBooks to show them what QuickBooks looks like, and which areas may be pertinent to their businesses.  There will be Q&A time at the end for those on the live call.  ALL registrants get a link to the replay just in case there’s a schedule conflict.

Please consider joining me at 4:00 EST Wednesday, August 25th.  Here’s the link.

                          

Here is the one tip that helps when there is an error during the automatic updating process:

Go to this link. Make sure you pick the product you need to update.

The screen will look like this:

From here, it’s easy….just hit update, and download the file. (It’ll be a qbwebpatch.exe file)

Once the file is downloaded, click on it and Run the update. You will have to restart your computer after the update file completes the process.

To check if your Quickbooks file is up-to-date with the latest version, hit F2. The top line of the product information screen will show your Version and latest release:

                          

We’ve been collecting business stories that provide real, teachable moments for other business owners.  The premise of the book is that you can learn from others’ business mistakes before you make them yourself!

We’ve had some really powerful stories submitted for the book.  (If you want to submit a story for our book, check out this stupid stories link.)

Here’s a story that was submitted recently that talks about a mistake I suspect occurs frequently. Read for yourself and decide if you’re trying to skimp on your expenses by saving money doing your own payroll:

My year in business was accidental, and chaotic. At the end of the year I had to figure out payroll – I’d just been cutting checks when (and if) I could. I had QuickBooks, but didn’t want to pay the extra $200 or so for the payroll module. I decided to figure out the calculations myself.

Having no experience with payroll other than receiving paychecks, this was a bad idea. I spent an ENTIRE WEEKEND trying to sort out the IRS rules and regulations and make the calculations. It was upsetting, and ultimately I did it wrong, underpaid and got fined down the road.

The next year I forked over the $200 for the payroll module. Life became so much easier.  I have never been tempted to D-I-Y on something I know nothing about again.

Lesson From the Story:

Choose your battles when it comes to early-stage expenses and DIY. There’s a point where trying to save money costs money.

If you are stressed out over payroll issues, please checkout my payroll services. I can make your life less stressful so you can focus on what you’re good at!

                          

A client recently emailed in a question about how to enter loan payments in Quickbooks. Here’s a 4 minute video that explains the process.

                          

Kathy asked a question at my last Payroll workshop about how to create bonus checks that are for a set amount. In this short video, I show you how to use the “enter net/calculate gross” function in the Quickbooks payroll module.

                          

This short video will demonstrate how to prepare a sales graph by sales rep in Quickbooks. And, since Quickbooks has some limited functionality for this particular graph, I give a brief demonstration on how to export the report to excel and prepare a graph there.