Archive for September, 2009
QuickBooks Now Signs Your Checks!
Intuit Payroll has added a new check-signing feature in QuickBooks to make issuing checks more efficient. Instead of signing each check, you can now scan your signature once, save the image, and then use it in QuickBooks when you print checks on your preprinted check stock.
The signature works for all check transaction types, including paychecks, liability checks, bill payment checks, sales tax payment checks, and standard banking checks. You can print your signature on both voucher checks (one to a page) and non-voucher checks (three to a page). Note: The signature will not work on wallet-sized checks.
Source : QuickBooks Payroll Bulletin, September 2009, Editor: Lise Quintana
QuickBooks and Dept of Labor Reports
Projects that are publicly funded typically require the contractor to pay a prevailing wage rate for workers on the job. Then, for each payroll period, the contractor must create a Certified Payroll Report that shows the wages paid to each worker.
QuickBooks 2009 and 2010 include a new Certified Payroll Report in Excel. You can use this feature to compile the information needed for the U.S. Department of Labor’s WH-347 and WH-348 forms required for Davis-Bacon Act payroll certification compliance.
The federal government allows businesses to use substitute formats for these Certified Payroll filings. The reports produced in QuickBooks contain all of the required information on the WH-347 and WH-348. You can then print and sign the Excel-based reports just as you would the standard forms.
Source : QuickBooks Payroll Bulletin, September 2009, Editor:Lise Quintana
Record Retention Guide: What You Need to Keep
What records do you need to keep and for how long? This matrix shows you.
Credit Cards: Top 10 Spending Habits That Will Get You Noticed
Santa Claus may not be watching you. But the Credit Card companies are.
Credit card companies are profiling you and certain types of purchases can be red flags to the card companies that are looking for signs of consumers with questionable finances.
Not too long ago, the Federal Trade Commission filed a suit against CompuCredit, which marketed the Visa Aspire card. Reilly Dolan was on the FTC’s litigation team. Mr. Dolan says, “Compucredit was reviewing how consumers used the credit card, and it would lower the available credit to consumers based on their transactional history.”
Internet: Small Business Website Myths Revealed
The Internet: It can save you money and make you money
I quit using the yellow pages quite awhile ago. I have several and while there are times it can be convenient — if you know exactly what you are looking for — it is usually much faster to use an internet search when you’re looking for products and services. Most people with a computer and and internet connection work this way these day.
So, I ask you, why would you spend more than a token amount of money on yellow page advertising when that money can be better spent on internet advertising and your very own website?
Case in point. A longtime friend and sometimes client who has an AC and Heating Equipment & Repair company decided to stop spending $500.00 a month on yellow page ads and put up a web page with the standard information (who, what, when, where and how). He not only saved a bunch of advertising dollars, his business actually increased. When he added some Google Adwords advertising his business grew even more. Now, he doesn’t even bother with a display ad in the yellow pages.
