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Small Business Tax Calendar for May 2008
A list of upcoming dates and actions for accountants, bookkeepers and small business owners to be aware of follows:
Adding Customer Jobs in QuickBooks
If you do multiple jobs for the same customer, then you should consider using Customer Jobs in QuickBooks. Read Using Customer Jobs in QuickBooks for a description of customer jobs and reasons to use them. Instructions for adding jobs to customers follow.
Editing Customers in QuickBooks
Editing customers and customer jobs in QuickBooks is very simple. First, open the Customer Center by clicking on the Customer Center icon in QuickBooks.
Using Customer Jobs in QuickBooks
If you do project-based work for your customers, then you will probably want to use customer jobs. Using job tracking allows you to analyze your financial performance by job and job type. You can easily figure out both how much money you made on a specific job and how much money you make on certain types of jobs. Customer jobs in QuickBooks are connected to customers. Therefore, you have to have a customer before you can have a customer job. However, you can have as many jobs as you want for each customer. Here are some reasons to have jobs:
Adding Customers in QuickBooks
New customers can be added to QuickBooks at any time. When you add a new customer to QuickBooks you have the option to add information about the customer (contact info, payment terms,etc.) but you are not required to do so. There are a couple of ways to get to the New Customer window in QuickBooks. First, you can do so by selecting "Add New" when creating an invoice or sales receipt.
Hire an Accountant Who Picks Up the Phone
Being able to get ahold of your accountant as you have questions is incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, many of my customers complain that they can't get ahold of their accountant when they need them. Therefore, I recommend that if you are looking for an accountant, you specifically ask how soon you can expect to hear back from your accountant when you have questions.
QuickBooks Tutorials Added This Week: Setting Up QuickBooks Users, Managing Your Chart of Account, More
We posted five new QuickBooks tutorials this week, four of which have to do with managing the QuickBooks chart of accounts. Every QuickBooks tutorial includes a discussion of things to think about, detailed instructions and pictures illustrating exactly what we are talking about. Following is a list of the QuickBooks tutorials we posted this week:
Editing Accounts in the QuickBooks Chart of Accounts
The most common reason to edit an account in the QuickBooks chart of accounts is to reorganize the chart of accounts by changing the account number or account name, or to make an account a subaccount of another account.
Deleting Accounts from the QuickBooks Chart of Accounts
Before deleting an account from your QuickBooks Chart of Accounts, you need to be sure the account has not been used. If the account has been used in a transaction, an item or in your payroll setup, then QuickBooks won't let you delete it. If the account is in use, then you can either make it Inactive (see Making QuickBooks Accounts Inactive) or find out where it is used and make the necessary changes so that it is no longer being used.
Adjust Your Withholdings and Estimated Tax Payments to Avoid Penalties
Now that your 2007 tax return is final, it is time to take a look at what you are paying in for 2008 and make sure you are paying in enough to avoid penalties when you file your 2008 tax return. There are two ways to avoid penalties:
