Intuit Reimagines QuickBooks Online Ecosystem for Mac Users / Cloud Solutions Available Anytime, Anywhere, From Any Device

 Intuit Inc. INTU -0.33% today announced the availability of the new QuickBooks app for Mac, a brand new app designed for the Mac OS that brings the power and benefits of the QuickBooks Online ecosystem to Mac users.

QuickBooks app for Mac is the newest addition to the QuickBooks Online ecosystem, the number one cloud accounting solution for small businesses. Now Mac users have the option to leverage QuickBooks’ easy-to-use design with an app they can access through the Mac menu bar that gives small businesses and accountants access to a robust, open platform that works for them anytime, anywhere.

“Small business owners who use a Mac can now access the power of the QuickBooks Online ecosystem while working with the operating system they know and love,” said Dan Wernikoff, senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Small Business Group. “This is another example of how we’ve turned QuickBooks into an open ecosystem of business management solutions that can be accessed from any device.”

Business Management on Multiple Devices

The new QuickBooks app for Mac was designed to make managing a business from Mac OS even easier, with the option to not only use the new app but iPhone and iPad apps to ensure businesses always have access to their important business data. Through just one QuickBooks Online account, a business can access and interact with its data from acomputer , iPhone , or iPad . The app automatically syncs data between devices and users, so small businesses can manage their finances anytime, anywhere.

QuickBooks is rapidly becoming the world’s small business operating system – an open platform that was redesigned to help small businesses get the most out of the cloud. More than 600,000 companies and 1.5 million individuals subscribe to QuickBooks Online globally, making it the number one cloud accounting solution for small businesses.

“As a bookkeeper for many local small businesses such as local farms and delis, I spend much of my day looking at reports on my computer. The clean design and colors of the QBO application for Mac are easy on the eyes and is what a Mac user has come to expect,” says Joanna Rosenfeld of Joanna Rosenfeld Bookkeeping in Valley Ford, California. “When I see I have matching transactions, it’s a satisfying feeling, like I’ve won a prize!”

The Power of the Cloud Meets the Desktop

QuickBooks app for Mac offers small businesses everything they need to manage their operations. The powerfully simple solution streamlines business tasks to save businesses time and money, offering a complete picture of a business’s financial performance in a visual manner that is intuitive and accessible. Core QuickBooks features include:

• Simple setup that is easy to learn.
• Fast performance, offering real-time data and reports.
• Scalable solutions, fitting the needs of any size small business.

QuickBooks app for Mac is designed to provide the best possible QuickBooks experience for Mac users. For example, it offers:

• Menu bar notifications that provide real-time alerts.
• Multi-window support to streamline how users want to work in QuickBooks.
• Keyboard shortcuts that save a business owner even more time.

Pricing and Availability

QuickBooks app for Mac is free to download in the Mac App Store . QuickBooks Online subscribers in the United States can start using the app with their existing account login information at no additional cost. New users can instantly create a QuickBooks Online account through the app and sign up for a monthly or annual subscription. More information can be found at http://quickbooks.intuit.com/quickbooks-mac-app .

Resources:

• Mac App Store
• QuickBooks on Twitter
• QuickBooks on Facebook
• Intuit Press Room
• Intuit on Twitter
• Intuit on Facebook
• Intuit Community
• Intuit Small Business Blog

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc . creates business and  financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals.

Its flagship products and services include  QuickBooks ®,  Quicken ® and  TurboTax ®, which make it easier to manage  small businesses  and  payroll processing ,  personal finance , and  tax preparation and filing .  Mint.com  provides a fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their  money , while  Demandforce ® offers marketing and communication tools for small businesses.  ProSeries ® and  Lacerte ® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.

Xero releases Practice Manager for the accounting community

Xero, the global leader in online accounting software, today released Xero Practice Manager, delivering online practice management capabilities to accountants, bookkeepers and financial advisors.

Practice Manager delivers all the key features an accountant or bookkeeper would expect from practice management software, but makes users more efficient by connecting to Xero, pulling client data in to keep contacts up to date and turning completed jobs into draft invoices in Xero. This means less moving data around between disconnected systems.

Organisations that use Xero Practice Manager can experience a faster turnaround of jobs, resulting in a reduction in the work in progress; increase working capital as a result of a decrease in debtor days; and can improve the productivity of their staff as a result of the streamlined processes provided by the platform.

Xero’s Head of Accounting Grant Anderson says the global launch of Xero Practice Manager is another step forward in providing a compelling and complete solution for the financial community.

“Practice Manager equips accountants and bookkeepers with the tools that free them up from time-consuming administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on the important advisory role and adding real value to their small business clients. "By unifying both small business and accounting tools on the same cloud platform, accountants, bookkeepers and financial advisors can increase efficiency, saving time and money.”

Firms will be able to use Practice Manager as a key online tool for delivering job, time and invoice management. They will be able to connect their practice management to client accounting, become more efficient, take control of cashflow and have better visibility over their business.

Further efficiencies can be gained by using Practice Manager in conjunction with the Xero online accounting solution, improving the sharing and collaboration of clients’ financial information.

Blair Smith, Partner, Blacker Smith & Co in New Zealand says, "As a newly opened financial advisory business, with over 100 clients, it is paramount that we use a system that is flexible and easy to manage whilst being the best solution for us and our clients. Xero's Practice Manager solution is just that.

"With practice management software I've used in the past it's been difficult to add fields and generate reports when we've needed to, reflecting how we want to work. The flexibility of the Practice Manager offering for our business and clients on Xero is fantastic."

Xero Practice Manager, a branded evolution of the WorkflowMax Practice Manager offering, is a key component of Practice Studio, Xero’s suite of tools for accountants and bookkeepers.

It is available now for all Xero Accounting and Bookkeeping partners worldwide. Xero Practice Manager is available for no software license cost to members of the Xero Partner Program who have a status of Silver and above.

About Xero
Xero provides beautiful, easy to use online accounting software for small businesses and their advisors. The company has over 300,000 paying customers in more than 100 countries around the world and is listed on the NZX and ASX. Xero ranks No.1 by Forbes as the World’s Most Innovative Growth Company.

How To Beat Taxes And Fees (when investing)

Larry Light for Forbes writes: They’re like mold to your investments: taxes and fees that rot your returns. Nathan Sonnenberg, chief investment officer at Glassman Wealth Services, in McLean, Va., is very smart about ways to beat them. Here’s his report:

Taxes and fees in your portfolio add up, quickly whittling your returns, eroding the cash you hold and harming your future. Making your investments work best for you means heading off your potential tax exposure and high management fees, and managing your portfolio to take every advantage.

Do-it-yourself investors and even some financial advisors often ignore those expenses, placing too much attention into structuring a portfolio and not enough into low-hanging opportunities, such as keeping expenses low. Portfolio tax efficiency translates into how much of your gains you keep after fees and taxes. The greater the tax efficiency, the more gains you keep – like the difference between gross pre-tax earnings and net earnings after taxes on your paycheck.

For example, one avenue of exposure to the equity markets is a Standard & Poor’s 500 Index mutual fund. While its low fees are important, the tax efficiency of the index affects your after-tax returns more. The S&P 500 Index has low turnover, less than 5% of the listed companies per year on average.

This means the index adds or removes about 5% of the total value of S&P 500 companies yearly – in stark contrast to how most money managers invest.
On average, U.S. equity managers turn over their complete portfolio once every two years. This buying and selling of securities creates taxable gains on your holdings.
You can take several steps to improve the tax efficiency of your portfolio.
Indexing. Do you want to keep 11.3% or 9.6% of your returns? That’s the after-tax difference between the Vanguard S&P 500 Index (VSPVX) and the average U.S. large-cap equity fund over the past three years. What accounts for the difference?

Fees and tax efficiency: The annual index fund fee is 0.17%, the average U.S. equity manager fee 1.03%. More important, the turnover of stocks in active manager portfolios was 10 times greater than that of the index. All that trading erodes returns.

Note: I don’t advocate putting every investment in an index fund. Our firm certainly uses managed funds in many areas of portfolios where those funds make sense. Instead, I suggest that, in certain asset categories, you index for efficiency and use active managers for other segments of the markets. [snip].  The article continues at Forbes, click here to continue reading.....

IRS: Get Credit for Child and Dependent Care This Summer

Many parents pay for childcare or day camps in the summer while they work. If this applies to you, your costs may qualify for a federal tax credit that can lower your taxes. Here are 10 facts that you should know about the Child and Dependent Care Credit:

1. Your expenses must be for the care of one or more qualifying persons. Your dependent child or children under age 13 usually qualify. For more about this rule see Publication 503, Child and Dependent Care Expenses.

2. Your expenses for care must be work-related. This means that you must pay for the care so you can work or look for work. This rule also applies to your spouse if you file a joint return. Your spouse meets this rule during any month they are a full-time student. They also meet it if they’re physically or mentally incapable of self-care.

3. You must have earned income, such as from wages, salaries and tips. It also includes net earnings from self-employment. Your spouse must also have earned income if you file jointly. Your spouse is treated as having earned income for any month that they are a full-time student or incapable of self-care. This rule also applies to you if you file a joint return. Refer to Publication 503 for more details.

4. As a rule, if you’re married you must file a joint return to take the credit. But this rule doesn’t apply if you’re legally separated or if you and your spouse live apart.

5. You may qualify for the credit whether you pay for care at home, at a daycare facility or at a day camp.

6. The credit is a percentage of the qualified expenses you pay. It can be as much as 35 percent of your expenses, depending on your income.

7. The total expense that you can use for the credit in a year is limited. The limit is $3,000 for one qualifying person or $6,000 for two or more.

8. Overnight camp or summer school tutoring costs do not qualify. You can’t include the cost of care provided by your spouse or your child who is under age 19 at the end of the year. You also cannot count the cost of care given by a person you can claim as your dependent. Special rules apply if you get dependent care benefits from your employer.

9. Keep all your receipts and records. Make sure to note the name, address and Social Security number or employer identification number of the care provider. You must report this information when you claim the credit on your tax return.

10. Remember that this credit is not just a summer tax benefit. You may be able to claim it for care you pay for throughout the year.

For more on this topic, see Publication 503 on IRS.gov. You can also call 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) to have it mailed to you.

Additional IRS Resources:

• Tax Topic 602 - Child and Dependent Care Credit
• Frequently Asked Questions - Child Care Credit
• Publication 926, Household Employer's Tax Guide
• Publication 907, Tax Highlights for Persons With Disabilities