Xero Unveils Innovative Features to Strengthen Industry-Leading Cloud Accounting Platform / New Functionality Makes Accounting Easy, Affordable and Accessible for Small Businesses

 Xero, the global leader in online accounting software, has announced new features (Touch, Files, and Purchase Orders) to help make managing finances and related financial documents in the cloud easier than ever for accounting professionals and small businesses.

Xero's redesigned iOS application, Xero Touch, gives small businesses anytime, anywhere access to their finances and enables real-time connections with their accounting professionals. Xero Files enables important business documents, such as invoices, contracts and expense reports to be stored directly into Xero's platform, giving users a 360-degree view of their finances. Xero Purchase Orders helps customers manage the process of ordering and paying for goods. Lastly, Xero today previewed its upcoming Payroll service, which will provide the industry's most seamless and comprehensive solution for SMBs.

The new features come as Xero is experiencing record growth and adoption following arecent fund raise of $150 million to fuel innovation and expansion in the U.S. The company also recently introduced the industry's first QuickBooks® Conversion Service, allowing customers trapped in legacy and ineffective desktop software to seamlessly transition to Xero.

"We are setting a new standard for the industry: an intuitively designed and beautiful platform to take care of all small business accounting needs," says Jamie Sutherland, Xero's U.S. President. "We are driven by SMBs and accounting professionals that are clamoring for change and providing an alternative to Intuit's QuickBooks that effectively delivers the power of cloud accounting. Our growing customer base and recent $150 million investment is fueling this innovation and quickly putting us at the head of the market. Most importantly, with these new capabilities and the forthcoming Xero Payroll, we're helping our customers improve their business productivity and manage their finances with ease."

"Xero continues to make life easier by constantly anticipating our needs with new tools to help us manage and grow the business," says Tim Donohoue, COO of Advisor. "These new features will save me time and allow me to make the best business decisions with a complete and always up-to-date picture of our company's financial health. Rather than spending hours sorting through receipts, bills and contracts, I can just snap a picture, tap my phone, or click my mouse to accomplish nearly all of our accounting needs in minutes."

Xero Touch for iOS
Xero has introduced a complete redesign of its iOS application to complement iOS7 and deliver fast performance and responsiveness. The new app embraces Apple's mantra of "content is king," eliminating screen-hogging visual features and replacing them with more productive means to access and manipulate data. The new app speeds up bank reconciliations with the touch of a button; expensing and invoicing with the click of a camera; invoicing with the tap of a finger; and offers real-time connections with accounting professionals for financial health check-ups.

Xero Files
Xero Files allows for multiple files and documents to be attached to almost anything in Xero, delivering a comprehensive, 360-degree financial picture that can be viewed in Xero's single ledger. Users of Xero Files can drag-and-drop almost any kind of file into Xero and link it to almost anything (invoices, transactions, expense receipts, fixed assets, contracts, chart of accounts, bank accounts and even manual journals). Xero ensures files are secure, encrypted and easy-to-find for customers and their accounting counterparts. The collaborative nature of Xero Files fosters improved efficiency, allowing for anytime, anywhere access to your financial landscape with just a few clicks.

Xero Purchase Orders
Xero Purchase Orders helps small businesses manage the process of ordering and paying for goods, all in one location. With the touch of a button, Xero Purchase Orders create customized POs that can be emailed to suppliers and easily be turned into bills (saving countless hours of data entry and eliminating the possibility of human error). Similar to the workflow process of Xero Invoicing, with Xero Purchase Orders customers can search for POs and manage the process from a PO specific dashboard.

Free QuickBooks® Conversion Service
In response to vast customer demand, Xero recently introduced the industry's first QuickBooks Conversion Service. This free service releases more than four million small businesses and accounting professionals from the confines of legacy desktop accounting, allowing customers to easily migrate data from QuickBooks into Xero's powerful cloud platform. Moving data from QuickBooks' archaic system into Xero's cloud-based platform allows customers to easily and quickly access, transfer and manage massive amounts of disparate financial data -- simply from a browser.

Sneak Peek at Xero Payroll
And coming soon... Xero Payroll marries accounting and payroll to provide the industry's most seamless and comprehensive payroll solution to date. With Xero Payroll, customers can automate the following processes: payroll; tax calculations; direct deposit and check options; employee access options; and an electronic tax filing alert and e-applications. Xero Payroll also includes an API to connect relevant systems such as HR and time tracking. For a sneak peek of Xero Payroll, join us on the Xero Virtual Roadshow.

10 Year-End Tax Strategies

William Baldwin for Forbes writes:  You’ve got two months left for tax tricks. The objective is to either lower your taxable income or push it into lower brackets. One item on my to do list has to do with lowering estate taxes. There are two ways to reduce your taxable income: increase your itemized deductions or reduce your adjusted gross income. A lowering of AGI is more powerful because the AGI is used to figure all kinds of benefits, like college tax credits and personal exemptions.

1. Kick up your 401(k) contribution. If withholding from your paycheck has been lower than it could be, talk to your plan administrator about making a one-time catch-up. Your annual maximum is $17,500, or, if you are at least 50, $23,000. These “elective deferrals” come on top of whatever the boss is putting in for you.

This powerful tax dodge lowers your AGI.

2. Contribute to a Health Savings Account. High-deductible insurance plans permit the employee to chip in; for family coverage, the maximum total contribution (employer plus employee) is $6,450 a year. If you are 55 or older, add $1,000.

By paying out-of-pocket medical expenses via the HSA, you accomplish two things. First, you get around the limits on medical deductions, which are so tight that most people can’t deduct medical costs at all. Second, you lower your AGI.

3. Sell stinker stocks.The game here is to sell losing investments to get the capital loss deduction, while letting winners ride. You can cry poor to the tax collector even though your overall portfolio is doing well.

Some people hesitate to sell because of the “wash sale” rule, which says you can’t claim a capital loss on stock X if you get back into X within 30 days. They are worried the stock will rebound while they’re on the sidelines.

Here’s a cure for those worries: Diversify your loss harvesting. If you have six losing positions, A through F, sell A, B and C, and use the proceeds to double up on D, E and F. After 31 days, sell the original (high-cost) lots of D, E and F and use that money to reestablish your positions in A, B and C.

Capital losses lower your AGI up to the point where they top capital gains by $3,000. That is the maximum net loss you can claim in any one year.

If you would otherwise have reported gains of $12,000 for 2013, but manage to harvest $14,000 of losses next week, then the harvest lowers your 2013 AGI by $14,000. If you previously had $12,000 of gains and now harvest $140,000 of losses, you’ll lower this year’s AGI by $15,000 (the gain/loss entry goes from +$12,000 to -$3,000) and you’ll have a $125,000 loss carryforward to use in future years.

4. Do a bond fund swap. If you had the misfortune to buy a long-term bond fund a year ago, it’s under water now. Grab a capital loss deduction. It’s easy to honor the 31-day wash sale without taking the risk of being whipsawed while you wait. You do that by switching into a similar (but not identical) fund. If you are down 10% on the Vanguard Long-Term Government Bond Index fund (VLGSX), you could switch to the Vanguard Long-Term Treasury fund (VUSUX).

If your intermediate-term tax-exempt fund is doing badly, you could switch temporarily, or permanently, into a blend of short-term and long-term muni funds.

Bond swaps work best with no-load funds, but they also can make sense for exchange traded funds. With the ETF, your transactions are not free, but they are pretty cheap: You’ll be out some $8 commissions and bid/ask spreads. The iShares ETF covering the bond market, ticker AGG, is similar but not identical to the Vanguard product, ticker BND. You can swap from one to the other without triggering the wash sale rule.

The great battle between investors and the IRS over which ETFs are “substantially identical” has yet to be fought. I think the IRS would win if someone swapped two S&P 500 funds and tried to claim a loss (SPY for VOO), because their positions match. Taxpayers will win if the AGG-BND swap is challenged. These portfolios are close to identical in economic effect (they are mostly Treasuries, with an average duration of five years) but the positions do not match.

Are you losing money on a gold position? You can probably take a loss on a bullion ETF and get right back in because the IRS views these ETFs as “collectibles,” not “securities,” and the wash sale rule applies only to “securities.” Good news for underwater GLD holders.

5. Make some gifts. That annual $14,000 exclusion from the gift/estate tax is a use-it-or-lose it benefit. If you know you will be leaving money to heirs, start leaving it now. You should be thinking about not just the federal estate tax, which for couples kicks in at $10.5 million, but state inheritance taxes, which can nail bequests of only $1 million.

6. Time your bonus. Do you have some sway over the timing of your year-end pay? Figure out which year is likely to leave you in a lower tax bracket.

If you started a high-paying job this year, you may be in a lower bracket in 2013, and that’s when to get supplemental pay. If you are retiring next year, though, 2014 would be the better timing for an extra paycheck.

Other things that can put an upward or downward jolt in your tax bracket: getting married, getting divorced, moving between a high-tax and a low-tax state and doing a Roth conversion. If you’ve got any of these things going on, talk to your accountant and then talk to your boss.

7. Think about Roth. Senator William Roth (1922-2003) came up with the idea that you might be willing to prepay income tax on your retirement account in return for a free pass when you take the money out. Is this a good deal for you? Often, yes. It’s particularly likely to be a winner if you can pay the tax from sources outside the account and if you expect to remain in a fairly high tax bracket during retirement.

If you work the numbers and they tell you to go Roth, waste no time. You are probably going to be better off doing a little in 2013 and a little in 2014 than doing a lot in 2014. Your target amount of Roth conversion in any one year should be no higher than whatever fills up your current tax bracket. If your marginal tax rate is 35%, for example, it would be foolish to Rothify so much money that you get pushed into the 39.6% bracket.

8. Pay state taxes early-maybe. You’ve got it in your calendar to make your fourth payment of estimated state income tax on Jan. 15. You might do yourself a favor by sending the money in a month early. That will raise your 2013 itemized deduction total on your federal return but lower your 2014 deduction. Why would you want to do that? It could help if your tax bracket is going down.

Accelerating state taxes would also help if you are not paying alternative minimum tax in 2013 but expect to be paying AMT in 2014. That’s because AMT payers lose the right to deduct state taxes on their federal returns.

9. Bunch your deductions. Two important deductions-for medicine and for “miscellaneous” items-have hurdles. You only can claim amounts above the hurdle. Strategy: concentrate payments into alternate years.

This year the medical floor for people younger than 65 is 10% of AGI (oldsters can use the former 7.5% floor until 2017). Say your AGI is $100,000 and your med costs are running $10,000 a year. Maybe in January you can pay a 2013 surgeon’s bill late and pay for three years of a kid’s braces early. That would kick some expenses into the deductible zone.

The miscellaneous category includes fees for investment advice and unreimbursed employment costs, with a 2%-of-AGI floor.

There are limits to your ability to deduct prepayments of monthly fees. But a bill due Jan. 1 can be legitimately paid in either December or January, and prepayments, as on braces contracts, are likely to pass muster if they get you a discount.

10. Prefund charitable gifts. Are you giving $10,000 a year to charities? It might make sense to put $50,000 right now into a donor-advised fund (of the sort offered by Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard and others), then use that fund to make your annual contributions. This would be a winning move if your tax bracket is likely to be higher this year than in later years, or if you want to use this deduction to offset a $50,000 Roth conversion.

Here, there’s no arguing with the IRS about whether the deduction for a prepayment is legit. You are clearly entitled to the deduction as soon as you have irrevocably partly with the money. Another reason for liking those donor-advised funds is that they make it easy to pay for charity with appreciated securities. Do that and you get a deduction for their market value, yet the appreciation never gets taxed.

Behind the Price Rise – We’re the Best Value, Not the Cheapest: Xero Accounting Software

Sholto MacPhearson for BoxFree IT writes: 

• Apples to apples comparisons are very difficult, Xero says 
• Auto super payments and online document storage were highly valuable features
• Accounting industry struggling to sell on value, not price

In an exclusive in interview with BoxFreeIT, Xero rejected claims that it was the most expensive cloud accounting software for small business and that in a fair comparison of features, Xero was the best value.

The cloud accounting company had conducted independent research to rate its software against competitive products based on the value of features to small businesses to ensure it was priced fairly, Xero said.

“It’s hard to put a value in terms of what Xero offers to the market. Some people say Xero doesn’t have sales quotes or inventory – that’s absolutely right,” said Chris Ridd, Xero’s managing director for Australia. “But we are blurring the lines between what the accountant and the client is doing. With features like tax coming the accountant is way more efficient and that flows through in terms of benefits to clients.”

While Ridd tracked competitors’ pricing it had become increasingly difficult to value Xero’s cloud-based features against the standard set of accounting tools.

“The apples for apples (comparison) is a really hard one. First and foremost, we’ve never been the cheapest product,” Ridd said. “But as we started to think about the pricing plans we were getting increasingly concerned whether we had an objective view of all the features out there and how we stack up.”

The company hired a data analyst who tracked the fast-moving consumer goods market to create a weighted system of features versus price. The analyst found there was a stark difference in the range of features and how they were packaged.

Xero sat towards the lower end of the range in price once additional services were added to competing vendors’ programs, Ridd said.

Xero was highly competitive once automated superannuation payments included in its Premium plans were taken into account. In Australia, Xero’s Premium 10 plan for up to 10 employees cost $60 per month and its Premium 100 plan for up to 100 employees cost $90. The Standard plan, without auto super payments, cost $50 per month.

By comparison, dedicated payroll apps could cost $4 per employee per month in addition to the cost of accounting software. MYOB’s M-powered Superannuation service cost $1 per employee per month and was only available for its desktop accounting programs.

“People think payroll is payroll. But since we’re in the cloud we can do employee portals and a payroll app (for smartphones and tablets). There’s a whole lot of innovations that you can’t compare to what’s in the market,” Ridd said.

Despite the fact that Medicare offered a free service for paying super to up to 20 staff, Xero’s inclusion had struck a chord, Ridd said.

“It’s become really popular. Partners were saying that even though we can get a free service, the fact that we have a uniform way of managing payment to various funds is enormously convenient,” Ridd said.

The introduction of plans with auto super payments was partly driven by legislation due to come into effect in June 2014. Any business with more than 20 employees was required to use an automatic super payment service. All small businesses had to comply with the ruling by June 2015.

“This whole super reform is another reason for us  as they will require electronic payment for super funds. Bundling auto super makes a lot of sense because you’re compliant from day one,” Ridd said.

Ridd acknowledged that the company had work to do in educating the market about automated super payments. Xero users are saying ‘no, we don’t want it’ but we’re saying, ‘You will love it.’

“Our partners who are using it love it. (Gold Xero partner) Paul Meissner says it’s a game changer and we agree,” Ridd said.

Another unique innovation that was difficult to value was online document storage built into the accounting app. Xero Files attached contracts, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PDFs and images directly to expenses, bills and purchase orders.

“There’s definitely value attached to that, and the fact that it’s delivered through the accounting experience. The next release will let you email those documents and automatically load them. Just the savings in the workflow is phenomenal,” Ridd said.

Xero Files and the auto super payments were features users would love “but we have a cost to serve that business”, Ridd said. Xero’s competitors offered separate services that had to be bought separately, he added.

Selling on Value

Xero was trying to educate accountants and bookkeepers to sell their services and accounting software based on the value it could provide to business owners. However, many accounting professionals were struggling to move away from selling products based on price, Ridd said.

“We saw some comments on the blog that price was our selling point and I thought ‘Man, I hope not.’ If you’re selling on price you’re having the wrong conversation,” Ridd said.

“Clearly there’s a lot of accountants selling on price and they’re the ones that are struggling (to deal with the price rise). The ones doing well are those selling on value. What’s interesting is I don’t think the market is as price sensitive as many people believe.”

Xero hadn’t been modelled on how to create the best accounting program. It had been modelled on how a small business works which drove a different level of thinking, Ridd said. Bank feeds were a good example of this.

“All these features are more about understanding the workflow of business than the debits and credits of accounting,” Ridd said. “Effectively Xero is becoming this operating system for small business, for interacting not just with accountants but with the banks and the ATO (taxation office).

“There are a few comments out there that indicate the industry is still coming to terms with the changes. They’re still thinking compliance and the old way of accounting,” Ridd said.

“As accountants uncover some of the productivity gains in the software it’s a completely different conversation with business owners.”

Under Criticism, Xero Increases Standard Plan To Five Employees

Sholto MacPhearson for BoxFreeIt writes: 

• Standard plan swings from 20 to one to five employees
• MD explains how Xero calculates employees
• Users could scale plans up or down to allow for seasonal, casual labour

Cloud accounting program Xero has increased the number of users on its Standard plan from one to five payroll employees after facing heavy criticism three days after releasing its new pricing scheme.

Xero users and partners left more than 170 comments on the Xero blog post announcing the change, most of them critical of the price rise, which will come into effect on December 9. One of the biggest targets for criticism was the new Standard plan which cost one dollar more but dropped from 20 employees to one payroll employee.

Businesses with more than one employee had to use the $60 Premium 10 plan, which covered up to 10 employees, or the $70 Premium 20 plan for up to 20 employees.

In a post yesterday Chris Ridd, Xero’s managing director for Australia, said many Australian partners and customers had asked about the single employee on the Standard plan. “We know we’ve slipped up and I won’t bore you with the convoluted history of discussion that led to us putting that out there. So we’re confirming that for the new Standard plan, we’ll make the number of payroll employees on that plan five not  one,” Ridd said in the blog post.

“Thursday was a pretty brutal day, to be honest. We hadn’t anticipated the feedback. It was good that we could turn it around very quickly,” Ridd told BoxFreeIT.

Xero had “an enormous number” of customers who had no payroll or one employee and would have fit a Standard plan limited to one employee.

“But what was clear from the feedback was that (the one-employee restriction) was creating a lot of pain for all the mums and dads businesses. We looked at various iterations and we spoke to a number of partners and we realised we got it wrong,” Ridd said.

Xero had initially wanted to encourage businesses with staff to move to its Premium plans which included automated superannuation payments. Competing products sold super payments as a separate feature, but bundling it with the accounting program was much more efficient, Ridd claimed.

“No-one is doing that (bundled super payments) and once you price Xero at that end of the market we are highly competitive and we generally sit at the lower range (in price),” Ridd said.

Xero was also concerned about missing out on the 1.3 million sole traders and 520,000 micro-businesses in Australia. “We didn’t want to price ourselves out of the market,” Ridd said.

How Xero Calculates Employees

Several commenters on Xero’s blog asked how businesses using casual employees selected their pricing plans which were segmented by number of employees. Xero calculated the number of unique employees in the previous month’s pay run, Ridd said.

“That’s how it works now. If you are on the medium plan and you get to your 21st employee then the system will tell you to move to the next subscription,” Ridd said.

Businesses had the option of moving to cheaper plans in months when they had fewer employees. However, Xero didn’t automatically move users to a cheaper plan automatically; the business had to select the plan manually.

There were no fees for moving up or down plans and Xero users could scale their Xero subscription as required. “We monitor movement between plans, and it’s quite a bit. There’s a lot of movement between small and medium.”

Thousands of customers operating seasonal businesses scaled back their subscription to the smallest plan in the quiet times, Ridd said.

Xero had introduced a plan for businesses with 100 employees “to say to the market what we’re in and what we’re not into”, Ridd said. Although Xero had several customers with hundreds of employees, those businesses were better suited to enterprise accounting software such as NetSuite, Ridd said.

Trade-Ideas: Intuit (INTU) Is Today's New Lifetime High Stock

Jamie Hodge for TheStreet writes: Trade-Ideas LLC identified Intuit (INTU) as a new lifetime high candidate. In addition to specific proprietary factors, Trade-Ideas identified Intuit as such a stock due to the following factors:

• INTU has an average dollar-volume (as measured by average daily share volume multiplied by share price) of $118.5 million.

• INTU has traded 1.8 million shares today.

• INTU is trading at a new lifetime high.
• Intuit Inc. provides business and financial management solutions for small businesses, consumers, and accounting professionals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, and Singapore. The stock currently has a dividend yield of 1%. INTU has a PE ratio of 26.8. Currently there are 7 analysts that rate Intuit a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 9 rate it a hold.
  The average volume for Intuit has been 2.2 million shares per day over the past 30 days. Intuit has a market cap of $20.6 billion and is part of the technology sector and computer software & services industry. The stock has a beta of 0.88 and a short float of 6.2% with 10.87 days to cover. Shares are up 22.7% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.
  TheStreetRatings.com Analysis:
  TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Intuit as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, expanding profit margins, increase in stock price during the past year and notable return onequity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.
  Highlights from the ratings report include:
  • INTU's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.14 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.45, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.
  • The gross profit margin for INTUIT INC is currently very high, coming in at 87.70%. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the strong results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of -2.52% is in-line with the industry average.
  • INTU's share price is up by an impressive 25.12% over the past year, but this positive result lagged behind an even stronger performance in the stock market as a whole, as reflected in the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, INTU should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
  • INTUIT INC's earnings per share declined by 36.4% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, INTUIT INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.71 versus $2.53 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.56 versus $2.71).
  • INTU, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 6.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 2.6%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
  • You can view the full Intuit Ratings Report.

Tax1099.com reduces IRS B-Notices (CP2100 and CP2100A) and streamlines 1099-MISC filing process

Tax1099 both features simplify the e-file process for 1099-MISC, 1099-K, 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, and other 1099 forms. Online W-9 e-solicitation allows a user to send W-9 forms on demand via email. Recipients of the W-9 use the secure link in the email to identify themselves, complete the form online, and sign electronically. Electronic W9 collection pairs with existing TIN matching to provide a seamless method for reducing I RS B-Notice s (CP2100 and CP2100A). In the event of a penalty notice, customers using online W9 collection can show their due diligence in obtaining accurate Payee information.

Accountants and tax professionals with several locations or large client bases may require multiple users to maintain their 1099 e-file information effectively. The second new feature allows a primary user to register and then invite additional users to register as well. The additional users can then perform all the necessary functions for 1099-MISC, 1099-K, 1099-DIV, and 1099-INT filing. Having multiple users can assist busy accounting firms to serve many clients more efficiently.

These new features support the robust offering Tax1099.com has provided in the past. Customers can integrate leading accounting software, such as QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Enterprise, Bill.com, Intaact, and Xero with Tax1099.com. Integration reduces data entry errors by eliminating duplicate entry. It also increases productivity by using the information already stored in another system. In addition, Tax1099.com handles e-filing of a variety of 1099 forms beyond 1099-MISC, such as 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-K, 1099-A, 1099-B, 1099-C, 1099-S, and 1099-PATR.

Security features include a new optional SSN masking feature, bank grade security, and SSAE 16 compliant hosting to ensure data security and confidentiality. 1099 e-file and e-delivery also enhance security by preventing theft of physical documents.

Additional services provided by Tax1099.com include year-round 1099 e-file service, prior year filing, Federal and State filing acknowledgement within 48 hours, and US-based phone, email and online chat support. Tax1099.com is a full compliance solution for 1099 filers.

About TechAtlantis, Inc. and its Online Tax Product Offerings:

Tax1099.com is powered by TechAtlantis, Inc. TechAtlantis, Inc. is America's leading online tax solution and service provider, serving the tax filing needs of more than 20,000 customers. TechAtlantis offers a user friendly, innovative, SaaS (software as a service) tool for small businesses and accounting professionals backed by outstanding multi-channel customer support. TechAtlantis also powers ez2290.com, ezifta.com, ezextension.com, and fbaronline.com. Visit Tax1099.com at http://www.tax1099.com/ or TechAtlantis at http://www.techatlantis.com/

Apple Approves New Workbox App / Allows small businesses to run all bookkeeping functions from their iPads.

Small businesses overwhelmed by bookkeeping and accounting technology can now get the help they need and on the go!

Apple approved Workbox, the first application that allows small businesses to run all bookkeeping functions right from their iPads.

The app, developed by Workbox Software, workboxsoftware.com,  is designed to appeal to healthcare professionals, consultants, graphic designers, software developers, artists, landscapers, store owners, lawyers and other small operators and professionals who may have accountants but are intimidated by QuickBooks and similar pricier accounting systems.

"The Workbox system runs on the iPad and does not require an Internet connection which means it will be fast and always available, if you are on the road or on an airplane," said Workbox Founder and Developer Bob Glass.

Bob Glass a Major Business Software Developer for 30 Years

Glass founded Workbox in 2012 capping off a 30 plus year career as a major business software developer for the advertising, banking, insurance and manufacturing industries.

Datatech Software, which Glass launched in 1980, became one of the nation's dominant providers to the advertising industry earning Glass industry-wide recognition from top advertising agencies TBWA\Chiat\Day, Grey Worldwide, Draftfcb and MediaBrands. Datatech was acquired by Groupon founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell in 2007 and subsequently merged with Donovan Data Systems, another leader in the field, to form Mediaocean.

Glass got the idea for Workbox when he saw "how difficult it is for small businesses to manage their accounting in the middle of everything else they must do to survive and grow."

At a dinner with friends and a former client at New York City's famous Sparks Steak House, Eve Luppert, a nationally known human resources consultant and author of the best-seller "Rules for the Road," told Glass there were no good accounting programs to help her or others who rely on mobile devices to manage small businesses.

Glass then set up shop in the BankNote Building in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx sharing space with other entrepreneurs at the Sunshine Bronx Business Incubator, a joint venture of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Sunshine Suites, co-founded by Cheni Yerushalmi.

"There are some good accounting systems on the market but they are usually expensive, require Internet connections and accountants and bookkeepers to decipher," Glass said.

How Workbox Works

Users of Workbox will be able to download their app free from the Apple App Store and will be have unlimited access for free during a 90-day trial period.

After that, users with five or fewer clients can continue to use the system free of charge. Users with more than five clients can purchase the premium version for $4.99 a month which allows an unlimited number of clients.

"It will really depend on the users' degree of need," said Glass. "The free version is fully functional until the five-client threshold is reached."

Workbox's unique system allows single practitioners like therapists, tutors or lawyers to view their work visually on daily and weekly calendars and manage appointments with one-time and repeating appointments supported. "Using a calendar to view and enter time in a format that people are familiar with helps make sure that all time is accounted for," added Glass.

The system tracks and bills hourly tasks, products sold, services provided, fees and expenses. Its rate cards allow flexible pricing for products and services. It also tracks client projects with hour and dollar budgets and provides notifications when budgets have been exceeded.

"The system generates fast, accurate and professional looking invoices," said Glass." "Invoices can be printed or emailed directly from the iPad."

Our reports are easily generated with the tap of a button and give accountants all the information they need to know to do a company's books," said Glass. "Reports can be viewed on screen or printed or emailed and can be formatted as a PDF or CSV spreadsheet -- whatever the user prefers."

And for businesses that accept online payments, the system lets clients quickly pay their bills via PayPal or major credit card. A full suite of reports is available including time analysis, expense analysis, billing, aged accounts receivable, client payments, sales tax and project tracking.

Beta Testers Pleased with the Results

Framing store owner Gary Zaretsky has used the Workbox app to manage accounts receivable for his stores in Chappaqua and Scarsdale in Westchester County, N.Y. 

"I love the feature where a big yellow balloon pops up to highlight accounts aged over 30 days," says Zaretsky, who counts Bill and Hillary Clinton and singer and actress Vanessa Williams as local customers. "It alerts me and gets my attention."

Zaretsky also likes Workbox's mobility. "I take my iPad between my two stores and even work on my accounts at home while I watch television," added Zaretsky. "That is what makes it a homerun for me."

Mandi Susman, a social media consultant who is also beta testing Workbox says, "It's made a big difference in my productivity. Having every hour accounted for has made me more conscious of how I spend my time so I can focus on what really matters!"

WorkBox @ iTunes Here.

Year-end tax moves for small businesses There’s still time to cut your 2013 business tax bill

Bill Bischoff for MarketWatch writes: Good news: you still have time to significantly reduce your 2013 business income tax bill. Here’s a digest of the best year-end tax-saving moves for small businesses.

Buy a Heavy SUV, Pickup, or Van

Big SUVs, pickups, and vans are useful for hauling people and stuff around in your business, and they also offer major tax advantages.

• Thanks to the Section 179 instant depreciation deduction privilege, you can immediately write off up to $25,000 of the cost of a new or used heavy SUV that’s placed in service by the end of your business tax year that began in 2013.
• For a heavy long-bed pickup (meaning one with a cargo area at least six feet long on the inside), the $25,000 Section 179 deduction limit is inapplicable. Instead, the regular Section 179 deduction limit of up to $500,000 applies, as I will explain later. The same is true for a heavy van that has no seating behind the driver’s seat and no body section protruding more than 30 inches ahead of the leading edge of the windshield.
• Thanks to the 50% first-year bonus depreciation privilege (more on that later), you can immediately write off half of the business-use portion of the cost of a new (not used) “heavy” SUV, pickup, or van that’s placed in service by 12/31/13.
• After taking advantage of the preceding breaks, you can follow the “regular” tax depreciation rules to write off whatever is left of the business portion of the heavy vehicle’s cost over six years, starting with 2013.
  To qualify for this super-beneficial tax treatment, you must buy a “heavy” vehicle, which means one with a manufacturer’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) above 6,000 pounds, and you must use the vehicle over 50% for business. You can usually find a vehicle’s GVWR specification on a label on the inside edge of the driver’s side door where the hinges meet the frame. First-year depreciation deductions for lighter SUVs, light trucks, light vans, and passenger cars, are much stingier: the maximum write-off is only $11,360 for light trucks and vans, and it’s only $11,160 for cars and light SUVs.
  Claim Big Section 179 Deductions for Asset Additions
  For tax years beginning in 2013, the maximum Section 179 instant depreciation deduction for eligible new and used assets (other than heavy SUVs) is a whopping $500,000. For instance, the $500,000 limit applies to Section 179 deductions for new or used computer gear, purchased software, new or used office furniture, and new or used machinery and equipment. As explained earlier, the up-to-$500,000 Section 179 deduction limit also applies to new or used heavy long-bed pickups and new or used heavy vans used over 50% for business.
  Real property expenditures have traditionally been ineligible for the Section 179 deduction privilege. However, there’s an exception for so-called qualified real property that your business places in service in its tax year that begins in 2013. Specifically, your business can claim a Section 179 deduction of up to $250,000 for expenditures on the following types of real property:
  • Interiors of leased nonresidential buildings.
  • Restaurant buildings.
  • Interiors of retail buildings.
  Warnings: Watch out if your business is already expected to have a tax loss for the year (or close) before considering any Section 179 deduction. You can’t claim a Section 179 write-off that would create or increase an overall business tax loss. This is the so-called business income limitation. Also, claiming Section 179 deductions for real property can trigger high-taxed ordinary income gains when the property is sold. For full details on the Section 179 deduction rules, check out IRS Publication 946 (How to Depreciate Property) at www.irs.gov. (This government website actually works!)
  Take Advantage of 50% First-Year Bonus Depreciation for Other New Asset Additions

  Over and above any available Section 179 deductions, your business can also claim 50% first-year bonus depreciation for qualifying new (not used) equipment and software that’s placed in service by 12/31/13. For example, this break is available for computer systems, purchased software, machinery, office furniture, and so forth if the costs exceed what you can write off under the Section 179 deduction privilege. There’s no dollar cap or business income limitation on 50% bonus depreciation deductions. That means bonus depreciation write-offs can be used to create or increase a net operating loss (NOL) for your business’s 2013 tax year. You can then carry back the NOL to 2012 and/or 2011 and collect a refund of some or all of the taxes paid in one or both those years. Cool!

  Juggle Income and Deductible Expenditures through Year-end

  If you run your shop as a sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, or S corporation, your share of the net income generated by the business is reported on your Form 1040 and taxed at your personal rates. Since the 2014 individual federal income-tax rate brackets are not much different from this year’s (see the tables at the end of this column), consider the time-honored strategy of deferring income into next year while accelerating deductible expenditures into this year--if you expect to be in the same or lower tax bracket next year. In that case, deferring income and accelerating deductions will, at a minimum, postpone part of your tax bill from 2013 until 2014.

  On the other hand if your business is going great, you might expect to be in a significantly higher tax bracket in 2014 (say 35% versus 25%). In that case, take the opposite approach: accelerate income into this year (if possible) and postpone deductible expenditures until next year. That way, more income will be taxed at this year’s lower rate instead of at next year’s higher rate.

  How to Defer Taxable Income

  Most small businesses are allowed to use cash-method accounting for tax purposes. Assuming your business is eligible, cash-method accounting gives you the flexibility to manage your 2013 and 2014 taxable income in order to minimize taxes over the two-year period. If you expect your business income will be taxed at the same or lower rate next year, here are specific cash-method moves to defer some taxable income until next year.

  • Charge recurring expenses that you would normally pay early next year on credit cards. You can claim 2013 deductions even though the credit card bills won’t actually be paid until 2014.
  • Pay expenses with checks and mail them a few days before year-end. The tax rules say you can deduct the expenses in the year you mail the checks, even though they won’t be cashed or deposited until early next year. For big-ticket expenses, consider sending checks via registered or certified mail, so you can prove they were mailed this year.
  • Prepay some expenses for next year. As long as the economic benefit from the prepayment does not extend beyond the earlier of: (1) 12 months after the first date on which your business realizes the benefit or (2) the end of the tax year following the year in which the payment is made. For example, this rule allows you to claim 2013 deductions for prepaying the first three months of next year’s office rent or prepaying the premium for property insurance coverage for the first half of next year.
  • On the income side, the general rule for cash-basis businesses says you don’t have to report income until the year you receive cash or checks in hand or through the mail. To take advantage of this rule, consider waiting until near year-end to send out some invoices to customers. That will defer some income until 2014, because you won’t get paid until early next year. Needless to say, this idea should only be used for customers with solid payment histories. 

  2013 Individual Federal Income Tax Brackets

  	Single	Joint	Head of Household
  10% tax bracket	$0-8,925	$0-17,850	$0-12,750
  Beginning of 15% bracket	8,926	17,851	12,751
  Beginning of 25% bracket	36,251	72,501	48,601
  Beginning of 28% bracket	87,851	146,411	125,451
  Beginning of 33% bracket	183,251	223,051	203,151
  Beginning of 35% bracket	398,351	398,351	398,351
  Beginning of 39.6% bracket	400,000	450,000	425,000

  2014 Individual Federal Income Tax Brackets

  	Single	Joint	Head of Household
  10% tax bracket	$0-9,075	$0-18,150	$0-12,950
  Beginning of 15% bracket	9,076	18,151	12,951
  Beginning of 25% bracket	36,901	73,801	49,401
  Beginning of 28% bracket	89,351	148,851	127,551
  Beginning of 33% bracket	186,351	226,851	206,601
  Beginning of 35% bracket	405,101	405,101	405,101
  Beginning of 39.6% bracket	406,751	457,601	432,201