Taxes

get an accountant. i have them do all of my bookkeeping as well. my banker was impressed with all of the awesome detailed reports i have now and gave me a line of credit.
 
+1 all of the above.

Great idea too, Marlinspiker, on using those Quickbooks for loans and proof that you are using due diligence in your accounting practices.

I got into the business to do treework. I subcontract as many of the undesirable elements of owning a business as possible.

You might even get some business out of it!
 
just got a bookkeeper/CPA and cant believe how much lighter I feel with that off my shoulders. Quickbooks online allows me to look at stuff wherever I am.
 
I looked into quickbooks online but it was hard to convert my current QB as I am on Mac and the online is based on a windows format. I gave up after my computer was stuck in some netherworld between mac/windows and i nearly lost all my data. However I'm hoping that this will be available for mac in the near future. Having all of your data available in the field is priceless. Im researching cloud computing as a possible solution.
 
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get an accountant. i have them do all of my bookkeeping as well. my banker was impressed with all of the awesome detailed reports i have now and gave me a line of credit.

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Yep - well said.

My accountant (and banker) are impressed with my details too. My wife tells me I am anal. Just good...

p.s. - just paid off my RG50 stump grinder! Bank loan for $10k slmost 2 years ago. I paid $12.5K for a nice used machine (worth 16 to 18k) and the bank helped me with the loan. Good deal
 

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Since the title is just one word... "Taxes," I'll add a couple of thoughts.

Be prepared to always pay more taxes.

Find ways to reduce your tax burden: For example, reduce or eliminate over-time hours is one way. This year, we were highly productive, but between my guys, they totaled about 340 hours of over-time (and the year isn't over yet). Not only is the actual payroll expensive, but the taxes add up too.
 
Jody, sounds like you're trying to avoid some pitfalls of business ownership, and make it easier.

A bit off topic, since you can only say accountant/ cpa so many times, and to follow up on reducing burdens associated with payroll and taxes...

I pay semi-monthly, not biweekly. Employees get paid on the 5th and 20th. That allows them to always have time to get to the bank, deposit their check, and have money for their rent on the first of the month, dependably.

Keeps it simple that timesheets are always due on the 1st and 15th, every month.

I pay my bookkeeper for 24 payroll processings per year, rather than 26 that would occur with biweekly payments.

Helps avoid additional costs from the BKeeper having to deal with the cash advance on payroll when biweekly payroll (every other Friday) falls on the first couple days of the month, and they didn't budget as well as they could have.

Saves a little, avoids some headaches of remembering timesheets/ paydays that fall on everchanging dates.
 
I made about the biggest mistake you could make with taxes. I did nothing for a couple years. Well when you finally decide to clean em up they want it all NOW, in Canada anyway. I had a best season to date and I'm sitting here broke. My off season is 6 months here too.

A rich client told me pay your taxes first, don't let it pile up. I was so scared of business taxes I kind of wanted go through the problems at the start and learn the proccess. Better owing tens of thousands rather than hundreds of thousands if I get bigger. Now I know. Business taxes are a subject they skipped in arb school, and I couldn't find a resource for the information. So I'm learning the hard way.

I suppose there's bigger mistakes like tax fraud or gross misconduct. I'm learning about those too. Just in case. I'm learning those the easy way though.
 
I do my own payroll. I have an excel program to calculate Medicare, SS, Fed W/H, etc. At the end of each month, I give payslips to accountant, and they figure up my 942 tax burden. I like to say tax burden...:)

I also give (each month) - bank statements, check registar, list of 'checks recieved' from each job, reciepts from purchases. Then accountant plugs into (quickbooks?) program and prints me out the details - gross, net, expense breakdown, etc. I have a nice folder for each year showing profit/loss, etc. All looks tight.

For this service, I pay $210 per month. End of year big tax (biz and personal) is a thousand bucks.

Accountant also manages all vehicle depreciation, etc. I can call him and get odd advice and other small favors. For this small extras, I trim his fruit trees. Keep it simple. He has got my back.

p.s. - don't tell these guys about cash (bad word). they do not need to know about it, give it to your wife - she will make it disappear.
 
As soon as I got my back taxes bill I set up a direct deposit payment thing through my bank. What a coincidence at the same time the bank offers me a special offer loan of the same amount owed. Luckily I opened the letter after the deadline expired or I would of bit. Those banks are sooo helpful.
 
Im thinking of getting quickbooks online plus quickbooks payroll. Anyone using this and what do you think of it. Im very disorganized and think this would help me out a lot but want some feedback first
 
Quickbooks is great but I would recommend subbing out your payroll. Its complicated and you could run afoul of the local laws fairly easily. There are tons of companies that do payroll. We only pay like 40 bucks every two weeks through Paychex and its worth the piece of mind.
 
I think my boss/dad is going back to paychex, but i was wondering if quickbooks payroll would work for us. So you would just recommend quickbooks online? Anyone else have some input?
 
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