Wow, today is January 18, 2011 and April 18th is coming up soon. Why do I say April 18th is tax day? This year the IRS has made April 18th the filing deadline. Well to many procrastinators your jumping up and down right? But not so fast.

Start preparing now for this deadline and get your paperwork together. The three days basically falls on a weekend and most tax preparers, bookkeeper and Quickbooks Proadvisors don’t usually like to work on clients file on a stresss filled weekend.

How does Quickbooks bookkeeping help you.

If you were to call our office and say ” I have these 4 shoe boxes filled with my 2010 accounting stuff can you help?” Well certainly, if yo call us well before April 01 and depending on various other factors. One being how well are you organized? 2) Have the other tax years been filed and do you have a copy of those tax returns?

If you are well organized and willing to be helpful with the gathering of all of your documents most tax preparers /bookkeepers are more than will to do the best they can in helping you reach your tax deadline.

Accounting / bookkeeping in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

One of the common we’re asked is: “Can you help someone outside of  Wisconsin with our bookkeeping, Accounting and Tax preparation needs? The answer is yes… Truthfully it doesn’t matter what state you are in to have this service performed.

What does matter is if the firm you called has the staff, knowledge, and experience to achieve that customers goals with the bookkeeping and tax preparation needs.

Had a client call with a great question that I hadn’t come upon as yet.

Will Intuits Turbo Tax work with Sage’s Peachtree accounting software system. The easy answer is no. After much research and a few phone learned that there is no way in uploading or transferring data from Peachtree to Turbo Tax.

So what should the client alternately do? Roll the data from Peachtree into in Quickbooks Pro 2011 (or similar version) and then you can roll it into Turbo Tax. Now there is a conversion tool which will help bookkeepers and accountants make the transfer much easier. The second issue you may come across is the if you have special accounts in your chart of accountants that QB may not immediately recognize. Get in touch with the Full Circle staff for more information

For more detailed informaiton visit http://www.wisconsinquickbooks.com/ for more up-to-date information on peachtree integration.

We hope to have some of the hottest topics frequently asked about the Intuit Quickbooks software.

One of the newest and most in demand is the steps needed for lost passwords in Quickbooks. This video explain

what is all needed.

QuickBooks Shortcut Keys

Although I was never a big beliver in these short Cut keystrokes. Once I stated using them I relized that truly are very helpful and you will too. I took one of these per day and used it. Soon enough I realized that I can move around and enter data so much faster. Give it a try. 

Although there is a Mac version, I will speak about the Windows version in general. Quickbooks came out the version  called Simple Start which will give you the basics, to get your business running. Simple start can print checks, log bills, watch your sales history, print invoices and even accept credit cards if you want to.

Quickbooks Pro

This is truly the version that you want. It is a step up from Simple Start. But there are some key features that makes life in bookkeeping and accounting alot more easier. Pro version allows creating purchase orders Estimating, and advanced features like tracking costs for assembled products for manufacturers or retailers etc.

Quickbooks Premier Edition

This version has great business planning tools and comes ready for Accountants, notprofit organizations, retailers and contractors. So this is truly a specialty version. The ability to make a great business plan and perform some forecasting with this version can’t be overstated.

Another bonus, is that it works really good with Intuit Payroll and Credit/Debit card processing.

Small Businesses will like these highlight of Quickbooks:

• Credit Card processing
• Point of sale interface
• Invoice Manager
• Customer Manager
• Remote access
• Online Banking ability
• Billing solutions
• Bill Pay services

Many small businesses just starting out are trying to figure out how to finance there next chapter in there business life. New start-up companies are always thinking of marketing and advertising funds and how to obtain them.

In today’s social media life, that we now have, entrepreneurs to often forget that they have several tools at there finger tips. Sites such as Facebook, Linked-in, Myspace, Youtube etc are all basically free. Most people forget that they can have a personal page and a commercial page. Some family or small businesses have one of each. Nothing wrong with keeping the two sites separate, that’s for sure.

Small Businesses need grants nowadays-Very few if any federal grants are available to individuals, family and small businesses. The federal government does, however, award grants to state and local governments to help them with economic development, and these are the grants you might be able to take advantage of in assisting a small business. With this being said, consultants recommend that they contact there local government first to see whats available.

Some states provide grants for expanding child care centers; creating energy efficient technology; and developing marketing campaigns for tourism. Among the business financing resources listed above, you might find a suitable grant. These grants are not necessarily free money, and usually require the recipient to match funds or combine the grant with other forms of financing such as a loan. As the economic recovery “continues” the Small Business Administration claims that business grants/loans should be come more plentiful.

So do you research carefully and slowly. Be ready for a long wait and tons of paperwork, of course. If you havn’t had experience with grant/loan applications you should probably ask for help and make sure that your accounting software (i.e. Quickbooks) is up to date with accurate data.

As of June 2011 Grants have really dropped off on the Governments web sites. But you should check with your local and especially your State to s

In the United States only about 3% of all companies provide the majority of revenue and job growth. They were referred to as high impact companies. They went further to say it took an average of 17 years to become a high impact company.

What was disturbing was that after 4 four years 75% are no longer high impact!

There are several reasons for this, but most all come back to leadership issues. A small business finds a profitable niche and the founder is hands- on. It grows quickly and adds people without clear vision and adequate processes. The business grows beyond it’s ability to execute. For the record in m coaching business small business is any organization with less that 500 employees.

Numerous sources state the following is fact:

• Over 50% of small businesses do not have a documented strategy or business plan.

• Only 10% of businesses execute their strategy.

• 75% of business improvement initiatives fail due to lack of sustainability.

• 85% of leadership teams spend less than one hour per month on strategy.

• On average 95% of employees are unaware if or don’t understand the company’s strategy.

All of these factors can be traced directly to leadership. While external factors certainly impact business my advice to clients is to take care of the things they have direct control over and they will be in a much stronger position and have more options in dealing with the external issues that they have limited control over.

One of the most common things I run into on a regular basis is management so busy with fighting fires and hand holding poor processes that they tell me they simply don’t have time to develop a strategy. It is hard to convince them that having a solid foundation with a thorough S.L.O.T. analysis would go a long way in identifying root causes of current problems and inadequate processes. It is also a great forum to develop a team approach to strategy, vision, and problem solving.

The planning process is also useful in developing leadership qualities within the management team, as well as identifying potential weaknesses within the management structure.

Successful businesses develop management teams that function together to empower employees to innovate and solve problems. Unsuccessful companies
often don’t progress beyond the point of a top down management style that becomes less and less effective with growth.

Give us a call to explore of we can be of assistance in explore your business growth potential (414) 350-0024 or comment below.

Simple Start by Quickbooks

Ok, So Quickbooks offers a “simple start” version. The version is great for the paid version but for the “free” version certainly lacks luster. Simple start 2010 “free” is one of “trial” versions that folks sometimes seek only because they are new to the Quickbooks family. In some cases the version will get you by, but one limiting factor remains.

When you aqcuire the “free” simple start version; It only allow up to 20 customer and vendor contacts to track. 20 sure isn’t a whole lot when you think about it. Not to say, that you can’t upgrade to a regular Simple start version. But the Regular simple start runs around $100 and to truly bring QuickBooks into a small business I would advise go directly into Quickbooks Pro. For $160.00 you just can beat it.

Welcome to Full Circle Accounting!

(414) 350-0024

A Note from the owner:
I’m extraordinarily committed to helping you. Small business owners are truly struggleing in todays economic climate. My goal, to unlock your potential, thereby creating the business of your dreams. We offer hourly and project consulting fees designed to save your company money while achieving your goals and working within your monthly budget.

For all your Accounting and Bookkeeping needs.

Full Circle Accounting specializes with the needs of accounting for small business and business development, consulting.

We are Quickbooks advisers/trainers in Milwaukee Wisconsin and assist all 50 States.

With over 15 years of business experience, we are fully prepared to assist with your accounting needs no matter how complex. Our accounting division can provide one-on-one Quickbooks consulting or training. We can even provide virtual training or on-site, your choice. We offer all our clients 100 % confidentiality.

 
Quickbooks can be friendly, but a difficult program to use. Certainly, at times you will need help in either with the maintenance of the Quickbooks Software or set up. As your business grows, so should your knowledge and use of your Quickbooks. If you are (or want to) intergrated with Tax software or payroll, it is exemtreley important that your system(s) are stabile. Call our staff for a review of your system. View our other pages, for areas that may be of interest to you or your company. Call or email to discuss your areas of need with a consultant, we’re here to help.