Learning Center for Tax and Financial Insights

We tend to fall into the same old patterns once we’ve learned how to make a computer application work for us. We learn the features we need and rarely venture beyond those unless we find we need the software or website to do more.QuickBooks Online is no exception. It makes its capabilities known through an understandable system of menus and icons, labeled columns and fields, and links. But do we really see what else it can do? Expanding your knowledge about what QuickBooks Online can do may help you shave some time off your accounting tasks and better manage the forms, transactions, and reports that you work with every day. Here are some tips.Edit lines in transactions. Have you ever been almost done with a transaction and realize you need to make some changes farther up in the list of line items? Don’t delete the transaction and start over. QuickBooks Online comes with simple editing tools, including:Delete a line. Click the trash can icon to the right of the line. Reorder lines. Click the icon to the left of the line, hold it, and guide it to the new position. This is tricky. You may have to work with it a bit. Clear all lines and Add lines. Click the buttons below your line items, to the left. Click the More link at the bottom of a saved transaction to see what your options are.Explore the More menu. Saved transactions in QuickBooks Online have a link at the bottom of the screen labeled More, as pictured above. Click it, and you can Copy the transaction or Void or Delete it. You can also view the Transaction journal, which displays the behind-the-scenes accounting work, and see an Audit history, which lists any actions taken on the transaction.Create new tabs. Do you ever wish you could display more than one screen simultaneously so you can flip back and forth between them? You can. Right click on any link in QuickBooks Online, like Sales | Customers, and select Open link in new tab.Use keyboard shortcuts. Not everyone is a fan of these, mostly because they can’t remember them. Hold down these three keys together to see a list: Ctrl+Alt+?. Some common ones include those for invoices (Ctrl+Alt+i) and for expenses (Ctrl+Alt+x).

Building a successful business is more or less a balancing act. Here are some things to keep in mind for a successful startup.

Our 2021 Tax Organizer is designed to help you identify missing tax deductions and get more organized before your appointment. We update the tax organizer annually to make sure you are in compliance with the latest tax law changes. The tax organizer currently posted below is primarily for the 2020 tax year, although it can be used for other years.To get ready for your tax appointment, we use tax organizers to help us identify missing tax deductions and get you more organized before your appointment. We update the tax organizer annually to make sure you are compliant with the latest tax law changes.The 2021 individual tax organizer is provided in three configurations to assist you in collecting relevant tax information needed to properly prepare your tax return. Access any of the three versions by double-clicking on the underlined title links below. The organizers can be downloaded to your computer where you can fill and save the information until you have completed collecting all of your information. After you have completed it, please forward the organizer (printed or digitally) to our office for immediate service. If you have an office appointment, you can print it out and bring it with you to the meeting. A word of caution: you can fill the organizers online and print them out. However, if you close the file, your data will not be saved unless the form is saved to your computer.Once the completed organizer has been received, you will be contacted by phone, fax or e-mail with any questions, comments, or suggestions. If you e-mail our office advising us that you have sent your tax materials, we will notify you of their receipt.

November 10 - Report Tips to EmployerIf you are an employee who works for tips and received more than $20 in tips during October, you are required to report them to your employer on IRS Form 4070 no later than November 10. Your employer is required to withhold FICA taxes and income tax withholding for these tips from your regular wages. If your regular wages are insufficient to cover the FICA and tax withholding, the employer will report the amount of the uncollected withholding in box 12 of your W-2 for the year. You will be required to pay the uncollected withholding when your return for the year is filed.

November 1 - Social Security, Medicare and Withheld Income TaxFile Form 941 for the third quarter of 2021. Deposit or pay any undeposited tax under the accuracy of deposit rules. If your tax liability is less than $2,500, you can pay it in full with a timely filed return. If you deposited the tax for the quarter in full and on time, you have until November 10 to file the return.November 1 - Certain Small EmployersDeposit any undeposited tax if your tax liability is $2,500 or more for 2021 but less than $2,500 for the third quarter.November 1 - Federal Unemployment Tax

According to one recent study, nearly half of all employees switched to working remotely in 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost overnight, local and state lockdowns went into effect on all services deemed non-essential — meaning that people suddenly had to adapt to a working situation that couldn't be more foreign to them at the time.While it's certainly true that some jobs have proven more than adaptable to the current COVID-19 situation, many sectors are simply not well-suited for the remote environment. Some jobs need to be performed on-site — at least as far as maximum efficiency is concerned. More than that, some workers have home lives that present overwhelming productivity challenges. It's difficult to give your best to your job when you also have to be a part-time caretaker and school teacher for your children.Because of that, some managers may be finding their roles more difficult than ever — and they're making the lives of those under them stressful as a result. Thankfully, managing these challenges is not impossible, but it does require you to keep a few key things in mind.The Era of Remote Work Is Upon Us. It's Time To Embrace It, Not Fear ItOne of the major reasons why it's so important to attempt to overcome these challenges — as opposed to just waiting for the remote work era to "pass us by" and for things to "return to normal" — is that those two things won't be happening.Another recent study indicated that an estimated 25% to 30% of the workforce will still be working from home at least two days per week by the end of 2021. All of this points to one trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.One study conducted by the team at the Harvard Business Review indicated that many of these issues stem not necessarily from the remote workers but from the managers themselves. The results showed that roughly 40% of supervisors and managers who participated in the study said that they had low self-confidence in their ability to manage their telecommuting employees. An additional 16% were unsure of their ability.Obviously, none of that is the employees' fault — though as previously stated, there are certain positions and even people who are not suited for this type of situation. Still, countless others are, and it would be a shame to penalize them for one's own lack of self-confidence.Overcoming These Challenges, One Step at a Time