Focus CPA Group, Inc. (562)281-1040

I started a sole proprietorship in September.
My business records are stored in 2 different programs and I have a file with a handful of receipts. Plus I have 3 W-2s from previous employers.
I need to have someone do my taxes and set up Quickbooks for me. Is there one type of business that can do that or do I need to talk to a tax person and a accounting person?
Of course I’m looking for the most cost effective way to accomplish this.

i want to start a new Quarter in Quickbooks so that no other quarter effects it. How do i do so? I have been looking and i cant find anything.
thanks.

I have a business degree, but no accounting degree. I want to get started in accounting, but it seems like every job I look at requires at least 3-5 years of accounting experience. So what the hell am I supposed to do before I get those first 3 years? How do you get started in accounting?

No matter what is the size of your organization, one needs to take care of all the financial affairs of your company. Whenever one starts a business, his main focus is how to make profit. When the business of any person is flourishing, then money flows enormously and one needs to keep track of all the financial records. To maintain small business accounting, it requires an efficient and dedicated person. When a business is making more and more profit, the responsibility of the accountant becomes more and more tough. He needs to keep everything in a correct order. Today, most of the small companies are opting for offshore accounting services.

Any big or small transaction of the business should be properly accounted. Whether an organization is big or small, involvement of money is always there. And to keep a track of those loss and profit, any sizes of company requires a competent accountant. An accountant needs to do many things like maintaining balance sheets, making profit and loss statements. Small business accounting also includes things like maintaining journal sheets, keeping a track of the ledger books, having a thorough check on the bank reconciliation statements and many more things. The job needs to be done with full perfection; otherwise, a minor mistake may prove fatal. Small business accounting is basically done by the in-house staff or the business owner can opt for the offshore accounting.

An accountant should be perfect in his dealings and his any minor mistake may cause heavy loss to the company. Now-a-days, small business accounting is generally done by the offshore accounting firms. Work done by an offshore accounting firm involves less risk and error free. The owner also gets to know where exactly his company stands in the present competitive market. To maintain the accounts of any small or big organization is a very tough job and so the owner always looks for an efficient person. The owner always wants that the individual give him a clear picture of the finance of his company and suggest corrective measure at the moment of crisis. Profit and loss is a part and parcel of any business but keeping a record of those things can save a company from any further loss.

There are many private firms that provide accounting services. Small business owners can get information about various private firms from the internet. They need to select a good accounting firm for them. To hire a good accounting firm will remove all the tensions of the owner. There is also particular software available in the market to take care of the small business accounting. If makes the work of the accountant easy. The accountant needs to know how this software works. When the financial picture of the company is clear crystal then only the owner can adopt new strategies. To maintain the finance of any small organization is also a very tough job and requires a responsible and dedicated person. If the accounts are maintained properly, your business will touch sky high.

The QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions package is growing. Aside from the basic QuickBooks packages, there are other QuickBooks products as well, such as QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks POS or QuickBooks Point of Sale. But as with any new technology introduced, especially in the business world which is teeming with critiques and where there is little space for error, the QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions package and its other supporting products such as QuickBooks POS are under attack of various misconceptions and myths. In order to appreciate the full benefits of the QuickBooks Enterprise system, you should first bust the myths that surround it. Here are some of the myths that hinder a lot of companies from benefiting greatly from the QuickBooks Enterprise system. 1. QuickBooks is only suitable for small businesses. This is a myth! The QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions package is custom-fit for mid-sized companies. Although it can be used for small and large companies alike, the system has exhibited optimized performance and best results when used in mid-range settings. It is perfect and is currently the number one financial management system in use in majority of companies with anywhere from 20 to 500 employees. The features and capabilities of the QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions system match the needs of these mid-sized but rapidly growing companies. 1. QuickBooks is only financial management software; you still do the work. This is a myth! QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions is not called QuickBooks Financial Management Software, and it’s not just to make the product sound better. It is called such because it is an overall business solution that can streamline the processes involved in your business, from point of sale to recordkeeping and everything in between. And you don’t have to do all the work. The QuickBooks Enterprise package can take a huge weight off your shoulders, but the system does need maintenance, upgrades, and operation. However, the best thing about the QuickBooks is that you can seek product installation services, data migration, data recovery and backup, and several other support services in using your software. You can also avail of outsourced QuickBooks Enterprise consultations and bookkeeping. These services are now widely offered by an entire network of Intuit-certified providers. 1. Your existing business applications become useless. Again, this is a myth! QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions is possibly the most hassle-free financial management software you can come across. The system easily adjusts to your existing business practices instead of requiring you to make adjustments for it. Your QuickBooks Enterprise package can easily accommodate switches from other market applications such as Sage MAS 90 or Microsoft Great Plains. And many companies have already made such switches as these applications are deemed very expensive and complicated compared to the economical and streamlined process offered by QuickBooks Enterprise. 1. QuickBooks Enterprise is not perfectly secure. For a growing mid-sized business, security becomes even more important as its status and forecasts can determine the direction of the business. In such a make or break situation, security often becomes the key difference. A lot of people carry the misconception that «a onClick=”javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview(‘/outgoing/article_exit_link’);” href=”http://qualityconsultingandbilling.com/quickbooks_enterprise.htm”»QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions«/a» is not perfectly secure. This is, however, completely untrue. In fact, QuickBooks Enterprise offers up to 115 different user permissions so you can control every bit of access allowed to your system users. These 115 user permissions are applied to various reports, bank accounts, and other financial activities of the business. QuickBooks Enterprise, therefore, is actually meticulously secure. 1. QuickBooks Enterprise is an accounting software. Again, as previously clarified, there is a reason why QuickBooks Enterprise is called a solution. It solves all your business problems by offering all-around benefits that make

Federal tax laws exempt property up to two million dollars from estate tax. They also allow a one million-dollar lifetime limit for gifting property without attracting any gift tax. However, there is a rider that the value of the gift must not exceed twelve thousand dollars to any one person during a single calendar year. Estate tax exemption is set to rise further to $3.5 million in 2009 and stands to be repealed in 2010, which will be a year free from estate taxes. Thereafter, in 2011, the Congress is expected to confirm a full repeal of estate taxes failing which, the old estate tax structure would return with an exemption limit of $1 million.
There is a supplementary provision to estate tax that is known as Marital Deduction. This allows one spouse to leave any amount of property at death to a remaining spouse without creating any estate tax liability. This provision is applicable only if the remaining spouse is a US citizen. If not, then the benefit of marital deduction can be availed only if the property of the deceased spouse is left in a QDOT or qualified domestic trust. This position has been effective since the passing of the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act (TAMRA) in 1988. Among other requirements, a qualified domestic trust needs to have at least one US trustee who is citizen of the United States or is a domestic corporation. If the value of the assets of the deceased exceeds $2 million, the QDOT needs to be a US bank.
In order to avoid soaking of a substantial portion of ones assets in estate taxes, and to let a greater share be available for the benefit of loved ones, people form bypass or family trusts. These are excellent means to lower estate taxes. Such trusts can have a character of a lifetime trust or a testamentary trust. In a lifetime trust, the property is passed on to the trust either during the lifetime of the grantor or owner of the property. In a testamentary, trust the property passes on to the trust through a will after the grantors demise.
The trust is a separate legal entity that enjoys the status of an owner. The property it holds is not recognized as part of the estate of the grantor. No estate tax can be imposed on the grantors death as the owner i.e. the trust still survives. The trust property is managed by trustees for the benefit of designated beneficiaries.
When a married couple forms a bypass trust as part of their estate plan, each leaves property up to their estate tax exemption limit (currently $2 million) to the trust. On the first death, the rest of the property of the deceased can pass on to the surviving spouse under marital deduction without paying any estate tax. The assets in the bypass trust can be made available to the surviving spouse for upkeep, health and other needs. The survivor may even be authorized to draw a certain amount of the principal every year. On the death of the surviving spouse, the trust assets would pass on to beneficiaries named in the trust deed without attracting any tax. This is because the trust was created with assets within estate tax exemption limits to which the creator of the trust was entitled. The assets of the last to die spouse would be taxed subject to the exemption limit of $2 million.
This way, the whole estate (of both the spouses) gets the additional exemption benefit of $2million of the first to die spouse also which leaves more money for their surviving children/heirs/beneficiaries.
It should be noted that if the first to die spouse does not create a bypass trust and just lets the whole property pass on to the surviving spouse through marital deduction, his/her entitlement for the $2million estate tax exemption would simply fizzle away. Fewer assets would pass on to loved ones after the death of the second spouse in this case.

The questions I have for you accountants are:
1) What type of equipment and tools qualify as and asset and should therefore be added into an asset account (Vehicles I know do, but what about power tools, computers, office equipment, tractors, trailers, etc.) How can I distinguish?
2) Do equipment purchases that appear in an asset account also need to appear in an expense account?
Basically I have been given the task of accounting for this company and I’m not an accountant. The equipment thing is boggling my mind. Please help.

Intuit has announced that it will only support QuickBooks 2010 in the Windows 7 environment – no other version of QuickBooks will be supported.

I have a small business that has been operating for a few years, but the accounting has been a nightmare partly because we never took the time to set it up right. We use Quickbooks Premiere to cut invoices, but that’s just it, we dont use it to its full potential. My question is, what accounting methods are some of you small business owners (or cpa’s) using? I am thinking of setting up a entirely new checking account just for monthly bills. Will this help with the confusion? I’m just tired of circulating money to buy more inventory and pay bills and not having the money go towards profits. If anyone can point me to the right direction or offer some advice, I would REALLY appreciate it.

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