You Should Know About These Serious Tax Problems

You don’t want to run into trouble with the IRS. Here’s what will happen if you do.
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There are a number of serious tax problems you can fall victim to out there, and each one has different solutions.The IRS takes these seriously and if you simply ignore them, the consequences get increasingly harsh over time. These consequences include:

• The IRS can take up to 80% of your paychecks until the debt is paid.
• Penalties can grow to 25% and beyond on the original tax.
• Interest will add up every day until paid.
• Tax liens filed against you can stop you from buying a house or borrowing money.
• Your bank accounts, retirement plan accounts can get levied by the IRS.
• Civil penalties can be levied if you are an owner or officer of a business that does not pay their payroll taxes.

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If you don’t take action now, your problems will only get worse.

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Once you get a notice of taxes due, they usually have some penalties and interest already calculated, but this is just the beginning. If you don’t take action now, your problems with the IRS will only get worse! In my next few posts, I will discuss each of the common tax problems and how to deal with them so stay tuned. If you know you have tax problems, you should protect yourself by hiring a qualified tax problem specialist. We have experience in strategies in negotiating with the IRS to get you the lowest amount that you have to pay. If you know someone with a tax problem, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Should You Rethink Your Position on the Cloud?

You are already on the cloud (whether you know it or not),
so how can you use it to improve your business?

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Check out our FREE tax resource library

I’ve run into many business owners who say that they don’t want to put their accounting on the cloud. They don’t trust the cloud. They are afraid of being hacked. Some people even say, “I don’t want any part of the cloud!”

Well, I have some news for you: you are already on the cloud.

If you have a utility bill, a bank account, credit score, or do anything online, then you are already on the cloud. I cannot tell you that the cloud cannot be hacked because just about everything can be hacked. However, the point is that the cloud and the companies that support the cloud spend your annual budget hundreds of times over to protect the cloud and their clients.

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You are on the cloud already,
whether you like it or not.

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In other words, the security on the cloud is of a much higher grade than anything you have on your business or on your desktop computer. We all operate on the cloud. The only way to completely escape the cloud is to get off the grid completely and go live in a cave somewhere.

The train has already left the station, so how can you use the cloud to improve your business? We will help you explore what the cloud can do for you.

The cloud is the business of the present and the business of the future. We all need to utilize it to the maximum degree. Just give me a call or send me an email and I would be happy to help you do just that.

Let Us Help You With the Parts of Your Business You Don't Love

Many entrepreneurs find something they love and turn it into a business, but eventually wind up running a business instead of focusing on the thing they loved in the first place. Here's how we can help get you back to doing what you love.

We work closely with many small businesses and find that people have become entrepreneurs by circumstance. After all, not many children say that they want to be an entrepreneur when they grow up.

So how does one become an entrepreneur?

Most of us started working just to make a living. Many of us worked a lot of different jobs because we didn't enjoy what we were doing to make a living, but then we finally found something we really enjoyed—and it paid.

We weren't always the best at these things, but we stuck with them and got better. Before we knew it, we were pretty good at something. Then, we became recognized by the people we worked with as being pretty good. We made progress in pay grade and other areas, and really set out on a career.

Somewhere along the line, however, we found ourselves getting frustrated at the people we worked for. Maybe we didn't like the way they ran their business or how they treated their employees. At some point, we reached a point where we thought, "You know what? I can do this better than these bozos that I'm working for." That's when many of us entrepreneurs decided to go into business for ourselves.

Then, we scraped up a little bit of cash, a ton of courage and opened our own businesses. Sure enough, many of us found that we could do it better than the bozos we used to work for. We expanded our businesses to the point where we needed to hire employees, buy equipment, and do other things to stay on a successful path.

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Running your business isn't always the same
as doing the thing you loved in the first place.

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At that point, many of us realized that we were no longer doing what we liked—we were running a business.

Running a painting contractor business is not the same as being a painter. Running a plumbing business is not the same as being a plumber. Eventually, we found that the business forced us to get involved with things we didn't know very much about and weren't very good at, and we spent more and more time away from the things we really like doing.

That's where I can help.

Accounting is generally one of those things that entrepreneurs generally don't like to do. As a recovering accountant, I certainly know how that works. That's why we encourage entrepreneurs to hire people who actually enjoy the parts of the business that you don't like or don't have expertise in. It frees you up to go back to doing what you like best: taking care of your customers, making sure your crews do things right, and doing a good job for your business.

We perform all the services that help you grow to your full potential, and we can do that remotely with online technology and the cloud. We don't have to take up your time and space. We've even approached business on the basis of eliminating their offices completely!

If you have any questions at all about how we can help you grow and increase your business, don't hesitate to call or email us today. We'd love to help!

Where Is All Your Cash?

If you only study your profit and loss statement, you aren't getting
the full picture of your business finances.

“My financial statements show I’m making money, but I don’t have any cash.” We hear this statement all the time from entrepreneurs like yourself. Most assume they should just drastically cut expenses and they’ll be OK. Here’s what you should do instead.

If all you are looking at is the income and expense portions of your financial statement, you are only seeing part of the picture. Your financial statement consists of two parts, the profit and loss and a balance sheet of assets, liabilities, and equity.

The profit and loss portion reports your income and expenses, which all flows into the balance sheet. The balance sheet tracks the changes in the assets, liabilities, and equity. These two separate documents arithmetically prove each other by being in balance. Each is useless without the other. To see the entire picture of your business, you must be able to read and understand both.

Now, where does the cash go? The answer is revealed by the balance sheet. Let’s say that last month you made a profit of $49,000 but your cash went down by $35,000 and you’re feeling broke. What happened?

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We want you to understand
your company’s full financial picture.

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Well, the inventory went up by $18,000, you bought a piece of equipment for $13,000 in cash, your receivables went up by $26,000, and your payables went down by $27,000. This is where the cash went. The activity is revealed to you in the balance sheet if you read it or hidden in there if you don’t. That’s where the cash goes to hide.

We aim to teach you how to read the complete financial report on your business. We can also help prepare a simple supplementary piece called “The source and use of cash statement,” which highlights the cash activity for you.

This is just one of the reasons why you need much more than just bookkeeping from an accountant to protect and maximize your business’s performance. You need a qualified, experienced accountant on your team. You worked too hard to not hire the best, you deserve it.

If you have any questions for us at all, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

How Do You Know If Your Business Is Healthy?

As you will see today, measuring the health of your business is not much different
than measuring your own personal health.

Is your business healthy? How can you determine if it is or not?

The process mimics how you determine your own personal health. When you see your own personal physician for your annual checkup, they start with some basic information. In the medical field, these are called “vital signs.” Your blood pressure, body temperature, height, weight, etc., are captured before the doctor even sees you. The doctor then listens to your heart and lung palpitations and asks you how you feel. Based on this simple process, the doctor determines whether further tests are necessary.

Your business has vital signs that can be measured and monitored, as well. They aren’t physical signs, though—they’re accounting signs produced as a part of the accounting process. Naturally, you have to have accurate and up-to-date information to determine the relative health of your business.

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Your business has vital signs
that can be measured, too.

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If we were the ones screening your business through this process, we would then look at some basic measurements. If there are symptoms of underlying issues, we can initiate further tests to identify and treat them. We’d then quickly compare your business ratios to those of your industry and identify areas in need of improvement. We have years and years of experience to propose and implement strategies to make your business healthier.

Our goal is to put you in a position to maximize the potential of your business as well as your own personal development. You’ve worked relentlessly to get to where you are, but hard work can’t be the only strategy you employ to take your business to the next level and beyond. We will help you determine other strategies to reach and exceed your dreams.

If you have any questions about determining the health of your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I’d be happy to help!

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Accounting?

Have you heard about cloud accounting? It utilizes online servers for your accounting needs so you don't have to worry about expensive equipment or constant software upgrades.

I want to take a moment today to tell you about cloud accounting.

We CPAs are involved in varied areas of accounting and tax. One of my specialties happens to be income tax and tax problems. I also specialize in accounting and consulting for small business, which some may refer to as bookkeeping and consulting. Today, I wanted to introduce some things to you in the area of cloud accounting.

Cloud accounting is similar to traditional, desktop-based accounting solutions, except for the fact that it uses Internet servers to host the programs and data rather than your in-house machines and software. Most of the services are provided very inexpensively as software or as a service, rather than requiring a large up-front investment.

You also don’t have to worry about maintaining expensive equipment and constant software upgrades. You can access your programs and data on almost any device, including your iPhone, Android, iPad, or computer. As long as you have a good high-speed internet connection, you can work on cloud accounting programs without the expense of the latest and greatest hardware.

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With cloud accounting, you don't have
to maintain any expensive equipment
or constantly upgrade software.

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The companies who now provide cloud accounting services to small companies include Intuit Quickbooks, Xero, NetSuite, Freshbooks, and more. All the good cloud accounting services are secure and have a high level of protection. Here are some of the many benefits of cloud accounting:

• Safe storage of financial data; you don’t have to worry about backups.
• These programs offer many automated processes that link your bank and loan accounts to the software. This saves a huge amount of time in data entry as some of the account coding can become automatic. Your bank accounts are also reconciled very quickly, saving more time.
• The software can size with your company, starting out very inexpensively with modest increases for additional features, adjusting to the growing needs of your company.
• Your data can be synced between your cloud accounting software, add-on software, and other vendor offerings to help your business run more efficiently.
• Multi-user issues are simplified with access for all your users from anywhere.
• Cloud applications are more reliable than a local application on your computer. You never have to worry about backups or hardware upgrades.
• Access is secure, usually with multi-level security requirements.

If you are interested in learning more about the growing cloud accounting revolution, please give me a call or send me an email soon. I'd be happy to help you.

What Can the 21st Century Office Do for You?

As technology advances at a rapid rate, your business needs to be able to move more data than paper. 21st Century Office can help you accomplish this. Our Sales Manager, Stan Newton, covers this in our latest video.

Who remembers Y2K? You know, the predicted ruination of the power grid? A lot of people were concerned about this, but when the clock passed midnight on Dec. 31st, 1999, nothing much happened. A new millennium began, and technology advanced into the 21st century quietly.

Since that memorable non-event, technology has exploded. There has been more growth in computer capabilities in the last 10 years than the last 50 years of the 20th century. Your car has more computing capacity than the lunar module that landed on the moon in 1969. You can make bank deposits on your phone without ever having to actually step foot inside the bank. Can you keep up with this technological advance in your business office, or are you still stuck in the 20th century?

The 21st century game is limited to two elements: paper and data. If you move more paper than data, you lose. This means you need to focus on data. Accounting and bookkeeping are the historical data of what happens in your business numerically. The challenge has always been to record this historically in as close to real time as you can economically. The information is most useful when recorded as a current event. Some people settle for information that is months or even years behind. To deal with the challenges of the 21st century, you must be on top of your business at all times.

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If you move more paper than data, you lose.

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What if you could remove 80% to 90% of the paper that you move around in your office? What if you could outsource your bookkeeping that would eliminate the necessity of having an in-house bookkeeper in your office? This is what the 21st century office looks like. What if you could scan your documents to a portal in the cloud and be able to retrieve them electronically without keeping any copies? What if your outsourced bookkeeping department right here in Tucson could access the documents in the portal, record them in your accounting system, and do it for less than it currently costs you?

Accelerated accounting has the technology to do this for you and provide you with current and accurate financial statements on a timely basis. We also have the expertise and decades of experience as chief financial officers to help you understand and use your financial statement to accelerate the growth of your business.

Here’s what the 21st Century Office does:

• Pays its bills electronically. No checks.
• Pays its employees electronically by direct deposit or debit card.
• Collects money from its customers mostly by credit card or debit card.
• Stores its accounting records on the cloud electronically.
• Strives to use a minimal amount of paper.
• Records useful and timely information for the business owner.

If you have any questions about transitioning your office into the 21st century or using 21st Century Office, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to speaking with you!