Sage is offering blog-readers a steep discount of Sage One, from $24-per-month to only $15-per-month. / Sage One is a simple, web-based accounting, business tracking and management application for running a small business.

Sage is offering all blog-readers a steep discount of Sage One, from $24-per-month to only $15-per-month. Sign up here. Sage One is a simple, web-based accounting application for running a small business. Sage One helps time-starved entrepreneurs reduce the time they spend tracking money, invoices, tasks, and projects; sharing documents and files and keeping everyone in the loop.

• Sage is offering all blog-readers a steep discount of Sage One, from $24-per-month to only $15-per-month. Sign up here.
• Sage One is a simple, web-based accounting application for running a small business.
• Sage One helps time-starved entrepreneurs reduce the time they spend tracking money, invoices, tasks, and projects; sharing documents and files and keeping everyone in the loop.
• While accounting is at the core, Sage One is designed to help home-based businesses, freelancers, solo entrepreneurs, and contractors run their overall business in fewer steps and simplify how they work and share with others.
• Sage One offers everything a micro and small-business needs to run a company and manage a team in one easy-to-use, cloudbased solution: banking, invoicing, project and task management, payment, and sharing.
• Introduced in the U.S. in May 2012, Sage One helps entrepreneurs manage their income and expenses with a simple, easy-to-use online accounting solution that streamline and automate manual, time-intensive business management processes.
• With PayPal integration, Sage One users can now get paid faster by generating an invoice in Sage One that contains a link that allows their customers to immediately pay the invoice online with a credit card or PayPal account.
• For $24-per-month, users gain access to everything Sage One has to offer, including: two administrative users, unlimited collaborative users, five gigabytes of storage, and support through phone or online.

The new SaaS all-in-one Sage One application was developed to address the unique business tracking and management needs of emerging small and micro-businesses in the United States.

Sage One was designed to help owners of aspiring businesses spend more time on innovation rather than administration. The new tool brings together money management, invoicing, project tracking, task assignment, messaging, and reporting in a single integrated application, available as an online subscription service for anytime, anywhere access.

Sage One helps entrepreneurs alleviate common challenges such as redundant data entry and errors, disorganized record-keeping, and difficulty in sharing information by offering simple, yet essential, tools in a single, web-based application. Accessible from anywhere,

Sage One allows users to easily share and manage their day-to-day operations without letting time-sensitive items fall through the cracks. The integration to Sage Payment Solutions and PayPal launched on January 31, 2013, and is available through the application.

Sage One offers bank integration, working with more than 10,000 banks and financial institutions. Users can select and link as many bank accounts and credit cards with Sage One as they wish and may reconcile transactions and apply payments against customer invoices in Sage One. Bank integration eliminates the time-consuming task of manually entering or updating payment information.

For $24-per-month, users gain access to everything Sage One has to offer, including: two administrative users, unlimited collaborative users, five gigabytes of storage, and support through phone or online. (Sage is offering Sage One for only $15-per-month for everyone online -- and not just for a limited time but for the life of the account)

Quotes

"In this economy everyone is doing more with less, and this is especially true for entrepreneurs," said Mike Savory, product manager for Sage One. "With the integration of Sage Payment Solutions, busy entrepreneurs can get paid faster and spend more time on growing their businesses, rather than chasing down payment from their customers, reconciling invoices, and wasting time going to the bank."

"Managing and tracking cash flow is a challenge for many time-strapped entrepreneurs," said Henry Benamram, general manager, Sage One. "Bank integration with Sage One further simplifies accounting and business management for entrepreneurs. Rather than keying transactions and trying to determine spending and balances from multiple sources, business owners relying on Sage One can see their accounting, projects, tasks and now banking, all in one place."

"The Sage One dashboard allows me to quickly see the income I receive, my outstanding invoices, and expenses. As a small retail business owner, I don't have a lot of time on my hands, and Sage One allows me to keep track of everything in one place. My accountant even loves Sage One because it makes his job easier!" -- Talima Davis, 

How small businesses benefit from cloud accounting systems

Whitney Vickery for CPA Practice Advisor writes:  In its 2013 SMB Cloud Insights Market Outlook report, hosting services provider Parallels estimates the worldwide market for cloud services aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) has reached $45 billion – up 30 percent relative to the prior year. Parallels further projects the SMB cloud services market will hit $95 billion through 2016.

While SMBs have embraced the Cloud for email, HR and other business functions, the transition to the Cloud for accounting and financial management has been slower to evolve. Some cite concerns with security and compliance, or a hesitation to wipe out investments in existing back office systems that would be a consequence of transitioning to the Cloud.

But as cloud-based financial accounting solutions that are delivered ‘as-a-Service’ continue to generate tangible efficiency gains and cost savings, hesitations are beginning to fade. As a result, SMBs transitioning to a cloud-based financial accounting service are experiencing several key benefits to their businesses.

‘Software-as-a-Service’ delivery model ensures seamless transition

While SMBs are not running in-house financial systems on the scale of large organizations, many do have entrenched systems in place. Financial and IT decision makers may assume that migrating to a cloud-based financial accounting service will be prolonged, costly, and disruptive to existing system users.

In reality, cloud accounting services eliminate the need to choose between “rip-and-replace” (turning off an old system and moving to the new system) or “co-exist” (running two systems in parallel). The ‘Software-as-a-Service’ (SaaS) delivery model allows the accounting service to be woven into business operations as needed, in order to smooth the transition to the Cloud and leads to accelerated deployment. For SMBs, this translates into an ability to shift to a pre-built, pre-configured system that is operational from ‘Day One’ rather than waiting months for an in-house system to be built, or configured/re-configured from scratch.

Provides access to real-time data analytics

The scalability, capacity, and speed of cloud computing provides software solutions that can deliver state-of-the-art data analytics. Effective budgeting and forecasting requires that financial decision makers look forward and backwards in order to solve financial challenges there is a need to access data, analyze it, and then take action. Ideally, improvements in analytical capabilities free financial managers from transaction processing to focus more fully on data analysis.

Data analytics tools embedded in some cloud accounting services provide greater range and depth of reporting, connecting financial data to HR, CRM, overseas operations, etc., while real-time reporting allows Business Intelligence (BI) to be obtained up-to-the-minute and acted upon with confidence.

Delivers enhanced controls and security

Security is always top priority for the Cloud, but service providers have addressed the issue by ensuring a secure environment for customers that can provide a distinct competitive advantage. For example, users of cloud accounting services delivered ‘Software-as-a-Service’ have access to much faster deployment of patches and security upgrades, and also experience a reduced need to store data on their own site, which minimizes previous storage costs. Finally, these updates keep in line with evolving financial and regulatory requirements.

Implementing a SaaS solution rather than owning and maintaining company hardware and software upgrades involves a shift in mindset—particularly for managers accustomed to using self-contained, in-house systems. Specifically, CFOs worry about whether their data will remain intact, recognizable and secure.

Strategy to Counter Estate Tax Less Appealing

Arden Dale for the Wall St Journal writes: But advisers say the trusts no longer make sense for many people now that the federal government only taxes estates of $5.25 million and over ($10 million for couples). The trusts were introduced in 1990 when the exclusion level was much lower.

Meanwhile, advisers are looking at whether it makes more sense to keep a client's trust in place--or unwind it so that the home goes back into the estate. All of that depends on the current size of the client's estate as well as the value of the home. If placed into the estate, heirs stand to save more in capital-gains taxes than they would in estate taxes.

Heirs pay the capital-gains tax on inherited property based on the fair-market value of the home at the owner's death, not the amount the person originally paid for it. This is known as a step-up in basis, and refers to the cost basis of the property.

"These are transactions that looked perfectly good at the time they were done, but the higher estate tax exclusions make them look not so good now," said Don Weigandt, a wealth adviser in the Los Angeles office of J.P. Morgan Private Bank.

For example, J.P. English, a senior financial planner in the Family Wealth Group of Key Private Bank in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, is working with a family whose matriarch set up a trust in 2003 to transfer a home to family members. At the time, the trust made sense because the federal government taxed estates starting at $1 million.

The woman's family would now prefer to have the property included in her $2 million estate. Adding the home worth $1 million to her estate would not swell it to the $5.25 million threshold. And, of course, it would reduce capital-gains taxes substantially when heirs eventually sell the property.

"As financial planners, our job is to take a holistic, comprehensive view," Mr. English said. "In this case, they had a done a very good job of planning for the estate tax at the time, but you have to look at the income tax effects as well."

Unwinding the trusts--that is, getting a home back into an estate--must be done carefully to avoid breaking the rules and raising red flags with the Internal Revenue Service. Advisers and their clients need to work with tax attorneys to pull it off.

The trusts transfer ownership of the property over time, but let the original owner stay in the home. Usually, they are set up so that when the transfer is complete, another trust owns the property. Often, the original owner continues to stay in the home, renting it from a grantor trust. That way, rental income isn't taxable.

Kenneth Brier, a partner in the Needham, Mass., law firm of Brier & Geurden, is working with a client who set up two of the trusts years ago--one holds a personal residence in the Boston area, the other a vacation home on Cape Cod. The options to get properties back into the estate are limited, because the terms of the trusts are so inflexible, Mr. Brier said.

The IRS might look suspiciously, for example, if the original owner lived rent free in the home after the QPRT transferred ownership to someone else.

"It can be tricky, because there are gray areas when it comes to intentionally clawing back an asset that already has been passed to someone else," he said.

Set up an integration between Unleashed and Xero

WITH ONESAAS YOU CAN SYNCHRONIZE YOUR SHIPPING, LOGISTICS & INVENTORY MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING DATA IN MINUTES

OneSaas connectors help keep your data in synch and you can connect your Shipping, Logistics & Inventory Management data from Unleashed with your Accounting data from Xero. The data across these platforms can be synchronized automatically on an hourly or daily basis.

Using OneSaas you can set up a connection between your Shipping, Logistics & Inventory Management and Accounting systems within minutes. If you use more applications than Unleashed and Xero then you can connect these too. Check out the full list of OneSaas integrations, or choose more integrations when you get started. OneSaas offers a Free 30 day trial and you can sign up on a monthly plan. 

Avoiding a Common Social Security Planning Mistake

Mike Piper for the Oblivious Investor writes: When you look at your Social Security statement (if you receive it in the mail) or youronline Social Security account, you will see three figures:

• An estimated monthly retirement benefit if you claim at age 62,
• An estimated monthly retirement benefit if you claim at your full retirement age (FRA), and
• An estimated monthly retirement benefit if you claim at age 70.

One of the most common mistakes I see when it comes to Social Security planning is to use these numbers without understanding the assumptions that go into them.

To be more specific, what many people overlook about these figures is that each of them is calculated based on the assumption that you will continue working — at your current rate of earnings — right up until the date at which you claim benefits. In other words:

• The at-62 figure assumes you will work until age 62, then claim benefits,
• The at-FRA figure assumes you will work until FRA, then claim benefits, and
• The at-70 figure assumes you will work until age 70, then claim benefits.

But these three scenarios might not be a match for the retirement scenarios you are considering.

For example, if you retire at age 60, but wait until age 70 to claim your retirement benefit, the actual amount you receive per month could be significantly lower than the age-70 benefit listed on the statement, because you would have 10 fewer years of earnings history than what is assumed in the at-70 figure on the statement.

In effect, the SSA statement bundles the when-to-claim-benefits decision together with the when-to-retire decision.

If you want to do an analysis solely of the when-to-claim decision, it typically makes sense to use the figure on the statement that assumes a retirement date closest to the age at which you actually plan to retire, then adjust that benefit upward or downward as needed to figure out the amount you would receive if you claimed at a different point in time. For example, if you plan to retire at 62 you would want to:

• Look at the age-62 benefit provided on the statement to get the benefit you would receive if you claim at 62,
• Multiply the age-62 benefit from the statement by 1.33 to get the benefit you would receive if you claim at 66, and
• Multiply the age-62 benefit from the statement by 1.76 to get the benefit you would receive if you claim at 70.

If you plan to retire at an age other than 62, full retirement age, or 70, you can use the SSA’s “Any PIA Online Calculator“ or “Retirement Estimator” to get the applicable benefit figures. (Both of these calculators assume, however, that you will claim benefits at the later of age 62 or the date at which you retire. So you will still have to do your own math to adjust the calculator’s output to find what your benefit would be if claimed at different ages.)

Quickbooks integration on website

From StackOverflow we read:  After searching online for some guides on how to integrate quickbooks with our webshop I have yet to find a solution that fits what we need.

Currently we are running Quickbooks Enterprise Desktop on a VPS. We have the website hosted on another VPS. The website is running .NET 4.0.

We need to show the actual inventory stock on our products - pulled live from quickbooks. We also need our customers to be able to change their details (delivery address and so on). Lastly we need any new orders on our website to be automatically entered into quickbooks.

From my understanding we need to install Quickbooks Web connector on our VPS that run quickbooks. The quickbooks SDK on the VPS that runs the website, and set up the Web connector to connect to a webservice we create on the VPS that runs the website...

First off, is this correct?

Secondly, from what I can read the Quickbook Web Connector will perform a series of tasks at a given interval (update socks, add new invoices and so on). Is there any way this can happen live?

That is, my website can query Quickbooks through the webconnector when I want it to?

Any pointers, guides, examples will be very helpful.

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1 Answer

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From my understanding we need to install Quickbooks Web connector on our VPS that run quickbooks. Yes. The quickbooks SDK on the VPS that runs the website, If you want to, but it's not strictly necessary. The SDK has some tools which are helpful for debugging, but it's not required at all. and set up the Web connector to connect to a webservice we create on the VPS that runs the website... Yes. Secondly, from what I can read the Quickbook Web Connector will perform a series of tasks at a given interval (update socks, add new invoices and so on). Is there any way this can happen live? Correct, the Web Connector updates at intervals. Using the Web Connector, there is no way to make it real-time/live. You could, however, write your own version/replacement of the Web Connector, and make it real-time/live if you wanted to. Be aware, however, that QuickBooks is not the greatest choice for real-time communication. There are a number of scenarios where it is impossible to communicate with QuickBooks. Thus, you might not want to tie your the functionality of your website too tightly to the availability of QuickBooks. Consider: If more than one QuickBooks company file is open at a time, QuickBooks will not allow integrated applications to exchange data with QuickBooks If QuickBooks has recently auto-updated itself, it will not allow integrated applications to exchange data with it until a reboot If QuickBooks is in single-user mode, it will not allow integrated applications to exchange data with it Make sure that QuickBooks performs quickly enough to query the data you need in real-time Generally speaking, you're better off using the Web Connector to query data every few minutes, than depending on QuickBooks always being available.