Intuit Study Shows How the Cloud Will Transform Small Business by 2020 / Report Is the First in a Series Exploring the New Economy

Nearly 80 percent of U.S. small businesses will be fully adapted to cloud computing by 2020, more than doubling the current 37 percent rate, according to “Small Business Success in the Cloud,” a new report from Emergent Research and Intuit Inc (Nasdaq:INTU).

“This report paints a detailed picture of how small businesses will increasingly use cloud technology not only for efficiency gains, but also in more transformative ways that redefine the rules for achieving long-term success,” said Terry Hicks, vice president and general manager, QuickBooks Online Ecosystem at Intuit.

“Whether you’re a tech startup in Silicon Valley or a mom-and-pop shop on Main Street, cloud technology presents radically new opportunities, and potentially disruptive changes,” Hicks continues. “This report is all about developing a deep understanding of how small business can stay ahead of the curve.”

“Small Business Success in the Cloud,” describes the impact of cloud technology as it is progressively adapted by more and more small businesses – moving from an initial focus on efficiency gains, to the emergence of new models of business, through broad-based saturation across business and society.

The report is the first in a new “Dispatches from the New Economy” research series, a comprehensive project exploring the ways economic, technology and social shifts will shape the future of small business success. The series builds on a 10-year partnership between Emergent Research and Intuit tracking trends in small business.

“Small Business Success in the Cloud” uncovers the first four “faces of the new economy” from the Dispatches series. These four personas represent small businesses who have fully adapted the cloud, moving from passive to active use of the technology:

• Plug-in Players: Small businesses will increasingly adapt to the cloud by taking advantage of specialized services that can be seamlessly integrated into back-office operations. Instead of spending time and effort on the nuts-and-bolts of finance, marketing and human resources, cloud-adapted small businesses will plug into cloud-based providers who deliver comprehensive, tailored solutions, giving small business operators the ability to focus on mission-critical areas of business.
• Hives: Cloud-adapted small businesses will increasingly be made up of individuals who share talent to form a team. These businesses will operate virtually, with employees working in different locations, and staffing levels will be increasingly flexible, rising and falling to meet project needs. For example, independent contractors will use virtual spaces to connect and market themselves. On Main Street, small manufacturers and producers may share a commercial facility.
• Head-to-Headers: A growing number of cloud-adapted small businesses will compete head-to-head with major firms, using the growing number of platforms and plug-in services to reach markets once only accessible to large corporations. This is already being seen with platforms such as AirBnB, which provide individuals with the ability to reach a mass market through community infrastructure.
• Portfolioists: Successful cloud-adapted freelancers will bring together multiple income streams to create a career portfolio. These largely will be people who start with a passion, or specific skill, and are motivated primarily by the desire to live and work according to their values, passions, and convictions. They will increasingly build personal empires in the cloud, finding previously unseen opportunities for revenue generation.

These personas demonstrate how the cloud is creating a new era of opportunity for entrepreneurs. They also portray the human side of how cloud computing is making it cheaper and easier to start and scale a business.

“Today, the U.S. and global economy is going through a series of shifts and changes that are reshaping the economic landscape,” said Steve King of Emergent Research. “In this new landscape, many people are using the power of the cloud to re-imagine the idea of small business and create new, innovative models that work for their needs.”

“The cloud is transforming how small businesses operate and the way companies like ours serve the needs of entrepreneurs,” said Joshua Reeves, CEO and co-founder of ZenPayroll. “Small businesses are used to associating payroll with tax calculations, countless forms, and hours of frustration. At ZenPayroll we use technology to remove all of that pain so business owners can focus on their relationship with employees, and help people feel appreciated for their work.”

A copy of “Small Business Success in the Cloud” can be found on SlideShare. To see past forecasts from Emergent Research and Intuit please visit www.intuit.com/2020.

About Emergent Research

Emergent Research is a research and consulting firm focused on identifying, analyzing and forecasting the key demographic, social, technology and economic trends and shifts impacting business and society. Emergent Research partners, Steve King and Carolyn Ockels, are co-authors of the Intuit 2020 Report and the Intuit Future of Small Business Report Series.

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.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.2 billion in its fiscal year 2013. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2014/08/08/6215078/intuit-study-shows-how-the-cloud.html?sp=/100/773/385/#storylink=cpy

Sleeter Group Review: Business Analytics with Finagraph (for Quickbooks & Xero Users)

Charlie Russell for Sleeter Group writes: Business analytics for small businesses is the great frontier these days. It’s an area where most SMB’s just haven’t taken the time to explore, it’s a tool that accounting professionals should implement in their quest to become a trusted advisor to their clients. A new tool in this area is Finagraph, which brings a different approach to business analytics for users of QuickBooks desktop, QuickBooks Online, and Xero.

Finagraph for Business Analytics

Finagraph was established in 2010, but their focus originally was on the banking/lending industry. They have expanded to work with accounting professionals earlier this year. Their aim is to provide “automated financial metrics” so that business owners and their accounting professionals can see a clear presentation of important business analytics metrics without having to perform complex manipulations. This includes comparisons with industry averages to see how the business stacks up against similar companies in the same geographic area.

Emphasis is placed on easy setup, easy generation of the analytics dashboard, explanations of terms and concepts at every step, but also the ability to drill into details to see the source information. After setting up the system for a QuickBooks or Xero user you will be presented with a dashboard similar to the following (this is just a portion of the dashboard): [snip].   The article continues @ Sleeter Group, Click here to continue reading......

LivePlan Improves KPI Tracking, Updates Scoreboard Design

LivePlan, a cloud-based business planning and small business management tool created by Palo Alto Software, launched an update today that includes a design revamp aimed to help small businesses better track and manage their financials. 

The updates primarily impact the tool's Scoreboard feature, which is a dashboard that gives business owners a better way to monitor their business and understand quickly where they are on track, and where they need to improve. The Scoreboard's update includes additional KPI tracking options and better graphs and charts that make finding and visualizing your key numbers easier.

"It is proven that business owners who plan and track their financials regularly grow thirty percent faster," said Sabrina Parsons, CEO of Palo Alto Software. "But, sometimes it can be difficult to understand key insights into your business when you're searching through endless spreadsheets exported from your accounting system. The Scoreboard connects to your accounting system and automatically highlights the most important information you need in the form of a simple, instant, visual presentation."

Integrated with QuickBooks (both Desktop and Online) and Xero, LivePlan's Scoreboard feature instantly and automatically makes sense of your accounting data and tracks key metrics like revenue, expenses, net profit and cash on hand. With this new update, the Scoreboard now tracks eighteen key numbers that are critical to understanding your business' health and digs deeper into each KPI, breaking them down on a much more granular level. 

"While it is important to track crucial data points like revenue and expenses, digging deeper into your business' financial health can make or break your future," said Parsons. "Tracking key financial data points is the best way to ensure that your business is on track and stays cash healthy. The LivePlan Scoreboard monitors all important metrics and allows you to spot problem areas before they become big cash problems."

The update also allows users to customize the type of charts they prefer to view and which period of time from which they would like to see data. 

The update is now available for all LivePlan users. The tool currently has over 250,000 users worldwide, comprised of both early-stage startups and well-established businesses. Additionally, accountants are increasingly turning to LivePlan as a way to advise small business clients and help guide them to healthy financial growth, while maintaining a good cash cushion.

For more information, please visit http://www.liveplan.com.

Qvinci : Financial consolidation tool for QuickBooks® Online streamlines reporting for franchisors, accountants, and other organizations with multiple locations

Qvinci Software announced today that its financial consolidation and benchmarking software for QuickBooks Online is now accessible on a try-and-buy basis through the Intuit® App Store. Qvinci is a reporting partner for the Intuit Franchise Program and pleased to be offering QuickBooks Online users a convenient means of acquiring Qvinci’s financial reporting solution. Qvinci’s technology allows entities to automatically sync, consolidate, and compare financial information from multiple locations on a daily basis, in seconds. Through the Qvinci dashboard, QuickBooks Online users can view consolidated reports (Cash, P&L, Balance Sheet, A/P and A/R) across locations, in an easily-digestible form. 

This kind of visibility affords franchisors, accountants, and other multi-unit operators the opportunity to monitor the financials of their entire ecosystem in real time, in just minutes a day. This eliminates the need for resource-consuming manual/off-line monthly consolidations and the extraordinary efforts it often takes to get timely and accurate financial information from every location. Qvinci is used by leading multi-unit organizations such as Anytime Fitness, Sunoco, and the Archdiocese of Lexington. 

“Qvinci has the ability to provide easy to use online reporting that a manager or owner of multiple locations needs. We have been partnering for the past 3 years and when companies and headquarters see what Qvinci does in conjunction with QuickBooks it amazes them," said David Vierreg, Intuit Emerging Channel Sales Leader.

“We are grateful to Intuit for the opportunity to deepen our relationship with the QuickBooks Online community. Together, our complementary cloud-based solutions make a ‘killer app’ for multi-location entities,” said Charles Nagel, CEO of Qvinci. Charles further explained, “Qvinci’s automatic file consolidation enables locations to effortlessly meet reporting requirements, which is extremely important to franchisors and other multi-unit operators with a vested interest in each location’s success. For some of our clients, opening the Qvinci dashboard is the first time they have ever seen all of their business’s financials up to date and in one place. Qvinci users are realizing benefits even we didn’t anticipate – everything from fraud detection to the concentration of purchasing power, to early warning systems for low-performing locations. The ability to benchmark against top performers or the average, on a line-item basis, makes it easy to identify opportunities for improvement. Accountants and bookkeepers save billable hours and profit from being able to provide these insights to their clients.”

In addition to providing visibility at the consolidated level, individual locations can view and anonymously benchmark their own financials inside the Qvinci application, without having to rename any of their accounts. With Qvinci’s patent-pending Standard Chart of Accounts (SCoA) mapping functionality, locations are able to sync with Qvinci on day one, with just 2 minutes of set-up time. 

Sage Summit 2014, Day 1

 Simon Holloway, Practice Leader - Process Management & RFID, Bloor Research writes:
This week in Los Angles, Sage is hosting a North America-wide conversation about the success of small and mid-sized businesses, the challenges they face and how Sage can help them grow and thrive. A number of announcements were released on day 1 of the summit. These include the following:

Sage North America and Moneris Solutions Corporation, Canada’s largest credit and debit card processor, announced a strategic alliance to help Canadian businesses streamline their payment processes, freeing up precious time to focus on what they do best: growing their business. Sage and Moneris will deliver an integrated payment solution that will seamlessly connect Sage accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, such as Sage 50 Accounting–Canadian Edition and Sage 300 ERP, to payment processing technology from Moneris. The new integrated solution will benefit from Moneris’ secure payment solutions, which help merchants minimise direct access to card data.

Sage North America announced continued focus on providing cloud-delivered user experiences to small and medium-sized businesses through close collaboration with Microsoft Corp. This collaboration builds on a number of years of innovation and close ties between the two organisations. Sage has already been working in collaboration with Microsoft to bring innovative solutions to small and medium-sized businesses on a global basis, including Sage 300 Online, Sage 100 Online and Sage Construction and Real Estate Solutions in North America. A key example of the joint innovation that is in development is the interoperation of the Microsoft Cortana personal digital assistant and Sage 100, which was recently spotlighted at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, and will be showcased at Sage Summit. Sage Summit will focus on creating a dialogue for small and medium-sized business owners, to address critical issues like customer acquisition and retention, growing sales and maximizing profit margins.

With the number of Canadian small businesses consistently growing, Sage North America announced key strategic partnerships with several leading Canadian brands as part of its ongoing commitment to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Canada. Sage has engaged two leading female entrepreneur groups in the country: Women in Biz Network and Mompreneur. Sage will be an active contributor to the conversation among these two socially and digitally active networks by providing thought leadership content to their members and being a valuable supporter of this growing group of female entrepreneurs. Sage has also partnered with Canada Post’s VentureOne and MasterCard Canada’s Easy Savings programs, both of which offer small businesses access to a host of solutions to help them grow their business while keeping their costs down. Sage 50 Accounting–Canadian Edition and Sage One Accounting–Canadian Edition are included in the suite of small business accounting solutions available to Canada Post VentureOne™ and MasterCard Canada Easy Savings members.

3 Tips on How to Reduce Your Taxes

National Tax Relief writes: Summary: When you prepare and plan for taxes, the goal is to reduce the total amount of taxes you must pay to federal and state governments. There are three very basic ways to help you reduce the amount of taxes you have to pay each year.

One: Reduce your total adjusted gross income. Your adjusted gross income is the total amount of your income from all sources minus the adjustments to that said income. By lowering your adjusted gross income you could reduce the amount that you need to pay each during the annual tax season.

Two: Increase the amount of tax deductions you can occur. There are many ways to help improve the amount of tax deductions that you can have such as business and travel expenses, charity donations and more. Talking with your tax preparer about deductions could be the perfect solution to reducing your taxes.

Three: Take advantage of tax credits. There are ways to increase your tax credits and exemptions. You can earn tax credits for school expenses, child adoption, and even retirement savings.

The best thing you can do is to visit a tax professional to help you reduce your taxes.

Taking a look into all three strategies with your tax preparer could help you reduce you taxes and increase the money in your pocket.

Original Article: Tax Planning Basics
By William Perez

The goal of tax planning is to arrange your financial affairs so as to minimize your taxes. There are three basic ways to reduce your taxes, and each basic method might have several variations. You can reduce your income, increase your deductions, and take advantage of tax credits.

Reducing Income

Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is a key element in determining your taxes. Lots of other things depend on your AGI (or modifications to your AGI)-- such as your tax rate and various tax credits. AGI even impacts your financial life outside of taxes: banks, mortgage lenders, and college financial aid programs all routinely ask for your adjusted gross income. This is a key measure of your finances.

Because your adjusted gross income is so important, you may want to begin your tax planning here. What goes into your adjusted gross income? AGI is your income from all sources minus any adjustments to your income. The higher your total income, the higher your adjusted gross income. As you can guess, the more money you make, the more taxes you will pay. Conversely, the less money you make, the less taxes you will pay. The number one way to reduce taxes is to reduce your income. And the best way to reduce your income is to contribute money to a 401(k) or similar retirement plan at work. Your contribution reduces your wages, and lowers your tax bill.

You can also reduce your Adjusted Gross Income through various adjustments to income. Adjustments are deductions, but you don't have to itemize them on the Schedule A. Instead, you take them on page 1 of your 1040 and they reduce your Adjusted Gross Income. Adjustments include contributions to a traditional IRA, student loan interest paid, alimony paid, and classroom related expenses. A full list of adjustments are found on Form 1040, page 1, lines 23 through 34. The best way to boost your adjustments is to contribute to a traditional IRA.

As you can see, two of the best ways to reduce your taxes is to save for retirement, either through a 401(k) at work or through a traditional IRA plan. Contributions to these retirement plans will lower your taxable income, and lower your taxes.

Increase Your Tax Deductions

Taxable income is another key element in your overall tax situation. Taxable income is what's left over after you have reduced your AGI by your deductions and exemptions. Almost everyone can take a standard deduction, and some people are able to itemize their deductions.

Itemized deductions include expenses for health care, state and local taxes, personal property taxes (such as car registration fees), mortgage interest, gifts to charity, job-related expenses, tax preparation fees, and investment-related expenses. One key tax planning strategy is to keep track of your itemized expenses throughout the year using a spreadsheet or personal finance program. You can then quickly compare your itemized expenses with your standard deduction. You should always take the higher of your standard deduction or your itemized deduction.

Your standard deduction and personal exemptions depends on your filing status and how many dependents you have. You can increase your standard deduction and personal exemptions by getting married or having more dependents.

The best strategies for reducing your taxable income is to itemize your deductions, and the three biggest deductions are mortgage interest, state taxes, and gifts to charity.

Take Advantage of Tax Credits

Once we've tweaked our taxable income, we are ready to focus our attention on various tax credits. Tax credits reduce your tax. There are tax credits for college expenses, for saving for retirement, and for adopting children.

The best tax credits are for adoption and college expenses. Not everyone is in a position to adopt a child, but everyone could take some college classes. There are two education-related tax credits. The Hope Credit is for students in their first two years of college. The Lifetime Learning Credit is for anyone taking college classes. The classes do not have to be related to your career.

You may also want to avoid additional taxes. If at all possible, avoid early withdrawals from an IRA or 401(k) retirement plan. The amount you withdraw will become part of your taxable income, and on top of that there will be additional taxes to pay on the early withdrawal.

One of the best, and most abused, tax credit is the Earned Income Credit (EIC). Unlike other tax credits, the EIC is credited to your account as a payment. And that means the EIC often results in a tax refund even if the total tax has been reduced to zero. You may be eligible to claim the earned income credit if you earn less than a certain amount.

Increase Your Withholding

You can avoid owing at the end of the year by increasing your withholding. More money will be taken out of your paycheck throughout the year, but you will get bigger refund when you file your taxes.

Source: Tax Planning Basics

Disclaimer: This article was shared for informational purposes only. National Tax Relief is not responsible for any claims, advice or errors that might exist in the articles. third party websites or analyses presented.

How filing taxes separately can save on taxes / the wisdom of Roth conversions and filing separately.

Dan Moisand for Marketwatch.com writes: When a couple goes from two incomes to just one, a number of planning opportunities can arise. In this week's featured question, I comment on the wisdom of Roth conversions and filing separately.

Q. Dan, In the next couple of years my wife will be retiring, I was wondering ... Can she file a zero income-tax return and convert her 403(b) accounts to Roth IRA accounts? What does she owe intaxes if she does this? Does the converted amount count as income for the year? If it does, I assume that if she keeps the converted amount, plus any other income, below the point of the 25% rate kicking in, she will owe somewhat less than 15%. I plan on doing this over about eight years (she'll be 70 then), converting all (or at least the vast majority) of her 403(b) account assets to Roth IRA. Also, can multiple conversions be put into the same Roth IRA, or does the law require each conversion to go to a separate account? Mahalo and Aloha — S.P., serving on the M/V Cape Ray

A. S.P., I googled your ship. Impressive.

Assuming no after-tax contributions were made in the past, converted amounts are added to all other income and taxed at whatever rate applies that year based on all entries on the tax return. You may choose to use separate accounts for each conversion but you aren't required to do so.

Using up as much of the 15% and lower tax brackets for Roth conversions before the onset of required minimum distributions, or RMDs, can be a good strategy if you anticipate your income to be taxed at more than 15% when she would have made distributions later. The 15% rate ends and a 25% rate starts at $73,800 of "taxable income,” income after all deductions and exemptions, for married couples filing jointly.

Most married couples file jointly because they find filing separately actually raises the total tax bill because of myriad limitations. For instance, you may find you are no longer eligible for certain deductions or credits like the tax-free exclusion of U.S. Bond interest or Social Security benefits, or the student loan interest deduction among others. Also often problematic is the condition that both spouses must use the standard deduction or you both must itemize.

Nonetheless, it is worth a look. We would run your numbers through mock tax returns to assess whether there is any advantage to you to filing separately.

Q. Dan, I read your responses on net unrealized appreciation of employer's stock. I want to make sure I still qualify to take advantage of the NUA. I retired from my company in June 2013. I turned 59 1/2 in August 2013. My company 401(k) is fully intact since my retirement and no distributions have been taken. Do I still qualify to take advantage of the NUA when I move my 401(k) to an IRA — now that it is 2014? Is there any deadline to complete the 401(k) to IRA transfer by and still be eligible for the NUA tax treatment? Or does the NUA option remain open (for years) up until I start taking distributions from my 401(k)? Many thanks for the information you provided on this topic and your response to my eligibility questions — Sincerely, J.F.

A. You should be eligible. As long as you don't make any distributions, transfers out, or rollovers until you are ready to pull the stock out, you will remain eligible. At the time of a distribution, transfer out, or rollover, you must get everything out of the plan within the same tax year.

Q. I will reach full retirement age in Jan of 2015. I am currently working part time and make over the $1,290 monthly amount Social Security allows before limiting your benefit. If I start drawing Social Security in July of this year can I set up an agreement with my employer to defer all of my compensation earned after July 1 until 2015? — Sharon H.

A. I doubt that would work easily. For purposes of the Social Security earnings test, income counts when it is earned, not when paid.

Q. Sir, I have contributed to a single member Profit-sharing plan for a number of years. In the years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 I made less than the maximum allowable contributions My query is, is it too late to roll back contributions from 2008 to 2007, 2009 to 2008, etc.? My position is that if I were able to recharacterize a few years contributions I would both increase the size of my qualified retirement plan and potentially get tax rebates from a number of past year tax returns. Your assistance with this issue would be gratefully appreciated. — J.L.

A. You can make a profit-sharing contribution as late as the tax filing deadline, including extensions, for the tax year in question. Once that date passes, the opportunity to contribute is gone.

Q. My husband is already retired. I am four years younger than him. I will be retiring at 62 and he will be 66. I would like him to apply for Social Security and then suspend. I would like to apply for his benefits. Will I get half of his benefits or even less because I'm younger that 66. Thanks — P.K.

A. Because you won't be to your Full Retirement Age reductions apply to your retirement benefit and to any spousal addition. Assuming his FRA is 66 and he files or files and suspends then, when you file at 62, you will get 75% of your normal retirement benefit or 35% of his normal retirement benefit, whichever is larger.