How accountants are taking up the mobile cloud

John Stokdyk for AccountingWeb.com (UK) writes: The cloud is all around and most people are already using it for online banking, shopping and media storage – and not thinking twice about it.

Having transformed our lives as consumers, business people are adapting many mobile-based tools for work, without even thinking about it. And where clients lead, accountants inevitably follow.

Cloud adoption patterns within accountancy practice

This article will review the pros and cons of mobile working within accountancy, but since the shift is already under way, it will also look at how mobile tools are being used, and by whom, within the profession.

• Cloud pros and cons
• Who's using the mobile cloud and how?

At the recent ICAEW annual practice conference, I presented a talk on how mobile technology was taking hold within the profession. The starting point for this talk was a chart showing the proportion of user traffic coming to AccountingWEB on mobile phones and tablets during the past four years (see right).

The last time we saw a graph like this was around four years ago when our Software Satisfaction survey data showed cloud accounting applications taking off in a similar fashion. [snip].  The article continues @ AccountingWeb UK, click here to continue reading....

salesforce.com, inc. CEO Marc Benioff Sells 40,000 Shares (CRM) : Total of 160,000 Shares sold in 2 weeks and 3 transactions

A week ago it was reported Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff sold 120,000 shares of CRM (Salesforce stock) in 2 separate transactions inside of 1 week.   It appears the sell off continues with Mr. Benioff selling another 40,000 shares of  his CRM stock this week. As Mr. Benioff is worth $3 Billion, it's not a lot of money....but the interest is about the optics of the CEO selling 160,000 shares of a stock [CRM] in 3 separate transactions over 2 weeks of what many consider to be the most overvalued stock there is (click to read why).   They optics lean towards lending credence of the criticism of salesforce.com's valuation.

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Ethan Ryder for TickerReport writes: Marc Benioff sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.32, for a total transaction of $2,412,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Analysts at Barclays raised their price target on shares of salesforce.com, inc. from $63.00 to $67.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at Zacksreiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of salesforce.com, inc. in a research note on Monday, August 25th. They now have a $63.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Argus reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of salesforce.com, inc. in a research note on Monday, August 25th. They now have a $71.00 price target on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $68.03.

salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) traded down 1.16% during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $59.66. The stock had a trading volume of 4,428,976 shares. salesforce.com, inc. has a 52 week low of $48.18 and a 52 week high of $67.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $56.0 and its 200-day moving average is $55.79. The company’s market cap is $36.930 billion.

salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 21st. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.12 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.32 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.09 earnings per share. salesforce.com, inc.’s revenue was up 37.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that salesforce.com, inc. will post $0.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of enterprise cloud computing and social enterprise solutions. The Company provides a customer and collaboration relationship management (NYSE:CRM), applications through the Internet or cloud.

Breaking Up (with Salesforce) is Hard to Do...Or is It? Intuit discontinues Salesforce for QuickBooks : Method CRM to the Rescue..

Lynda for Method CRM writes: Breaking up (with your business application) can be difficult.

But I’m positive you’ll bounce back (and even find love) if you’re experiencing the breakup brought on by Intuit’s discontinuation of the Salesforce for QuickBooks app and integration service.

I know it’s tough to be told “it’s time to move on and starting seeing other applications”. But it really was them, and not you!

In their Salesforce Discontinuation FAQ Intuit states “...we have seen a high volume of use by customers who have needed a higher level of customization than our solution can provide – and our solution was unable to meet their needs.  We have made the decision to direct our customers going forward to other 3rd party solutions that are better positioned to solve these integration problems…”

Below I’ll provide some perspective on your breakup and offer to set you up with something better.  

Chin up! You’ll find a better (and stronger) connection out there

Maybe the breakup is for the best. Your previous CRM relationship with QuickBooks only allowed for a limited number of transactions your staff could create and modify within Salesforce.

For example, if you had an Opportunity in Salesforce that turned into a paying customer, you could create an invoice from within Salesforce (that would sync with QuickBooks), but you wouldn’t be able to view or modify that invoice.

But, isn’t that the whole point of giving your team access to transactions through a QuickBooks integration? So someone (you) doesn’t have to go back into QuickBooks and make changes

That doesn’t sound like a strong connection, and I really don’t think you should settle.

They didn’t give you the real-time of day

Providing your team with real-time access to QuickBooks speeds up how work gets done because your team no longer relies on other people to keep the business moving forward. 

Your previous Salesforce/QuickBooks relationship, however, did not sync in real-time. You could get pretty close with the lowest time increments at 15 minutes between syncs.  But, what if you have multiple staff in your CRM and QuickBooks working simultaneously?  Even the 15 minute time lag could become problematic.   

I know you’re thinking of trying to patching things up, but let’s consider what that will mean:

First, you’ll need to transition your subscription over from Intuit and subscribe to one of the Salesforce packages, which involves signing a contract. And second, you’ll need to choose a 3rd party integration app, which will also involve a monthly fee and another potential contract.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a high maintenance, expensive relationship that would involve a lot of trust considering all the different applications accessing crucial financial data.

Having a strong, real-time sync directly between your CRM and your QuickBooks is easier on your bank account and provides your whole team with (limited) access to customer financial data and the (safeguarded) ability to create transactions.  

We take great pride in our strong integration with QuickBooks, so much so that sometimes we treat our integration patent to a romantic dinner and, of course, take a selfie.  

You guys just weren’t a good fit

Was your past relationship based on the Group Edition? Maybe that’s why it just didn’t feel right - it wasn’t a good fit for what you needed out of a CRM for QuickBooks. If you were subscribing to the Group Edition, not only were you not allowed to create transactions as a user, but the account was limited to to 5 users in total.  Sounds like a pretty restrictive relationship to me.   

In fact, Charlie Russell from Sleeter Group recently recalled that “...the initial integration had a lot of limitations – it was only set up for the lower level of Salesforce capabilities and it didn’t play well with many Salesforce extensions”.

You treat your financial data as your small business’s single source of truth and we really get that. This is why Method:CRM was developed specifically with QuickBooks users in mind.  QuickBooks is the lifeblood of Method:CRM with our real-time, bi-directional sync working as the heartbeat.  So, will you find QuickBooks-centric functionality and naming conventions?

You betcha!

And, we love our users equally, so anyone can create transactions in either of our monthly subscriptions packages.  And don’t worry - we understand that you many not want all your staff creating transactions, but we leave that up to the business owner to decide in the permissions sections of Method:CRM.   

Let me set you up! What your first date with Method:CRM will look like

Since I know you’ll be much happier with Method:CRM, I thought I would answer some questions you might have and walk you through your first date (a.k.a the process of converting from Salesforce to Method):

“How do I get started? Will it be complicated?”

While at first glance, the process might appear to be arduous, the team at Method is ready and able to make this transition as easy and seamless as possible!

Upon signing up for a Free 30 Day Trial, our Customer Success Coach will walk you through the first steps and make sure you are synced and ready to start moving data over.

“What information do I need to bring over?”

With Method’s Single Click QuickBooks Integration, your entire customer database will automatically sync to Method when you sign up for an account, so no need to worry about bringing over any customers - how awesome is that?

“But what about my leads who aren’t in QuickBooks and all the other data I have in Salesforce?”

Method has built an Import/Export tool that enables you to extract your data from Salesforce and Import it into Method:CRM. It may sound complicated, but it’s not! We’ve provided step-by-step instructions as well as multiple tutorial videos to guide you through this process.

“I’m really busy with my business - is there any other help you can provide?”

During your free 30 Day trial, you’ll have a free hour with one of our Business Solutions Specialists who will spend time with you on learning how to use Method in more depth, or migrating your existing Salesforce data. If you happen to need additional time beyond the free hour, we offer professional services on an hourly or dedicated basis. You can check out these options here.

As always, feel free to leave a comment or email us with any questions - we’re here to help you through this breakup. It may not feel very good right now, but I know you’ll look back in a few months and laugh at why you didn’t make it happen sooner.

Visit Method CRM by clicking here.

What Is the Capital Gains Tax?

The Motley Fool for NASDAQ.com writes: You may not realize it, but you're not always free to keep all the gains you've earned from an investment. In fact, thanks to a little levy known as the capital gains tax, Uncle Sam may take a big share of the money you've made by investing wisely and assuming risk. So what is the capital gains tax, and how does it work?

The capital gains tax is a charge levied by the government when you sell an investable asset (like a stock or a bond) for more than you paid to buy it. In addition to traditional investments, the capital gains tax gets levied on collectibles and precious metals, and you may even find yourself paying it when you sell your home.

The bad news is that capital gains taxes can be somewhat complicated. The good news, though, is that capital gains are often taxed at less than your ordinary income tax rate, and you can often use capital losses to offset capital gains, potentially reducing the tax bite even further.

What are the capital gains tax rates? 
Capital gains are generally considered either "short term" or "long term," depending on how long you have held the asset you're selling. You generally have to hold an asset for at least a year and a day for it to be considered a long-term gain. If you've sold an asset short (sold it first and then bought it back later), it's taxed as a short-term gain regardless of how long you held the short position open.

Short-term capital gains are taxed as if they were ordinary income -- at your marginal income tax rate . Long-term capital gains are generally taxed at a lower rate -- or at least at a rate no higher than your marginal income tax rate. The chart below comes from the Internal Revenue Service and shows the capital gains tax rates:

 
Source: U.S. Internal Revenue Service, publication 550.

Further, your capital gains may be subject to an additional "net investment income tax" of 3.8%, depending on your income and tax filing status. The table below comes from the IRS and shows the modified adjusted gross income thresholds that would make your capital gains also subject to that net investment income tax:

 
Source: U.S. Internal Revenue Service, NIIT Frequently Asked Questions page

Your home is a special asset when it comes to the capital gains tax. If you meet certain tests of ownership and occupancy, you can exclude up to $250,000 (or $500,000 if married filing jointly) of gains on the sale of your primary home from your income.

To qualify for that exclusion, during the five year prior to the sale, you must have owned the home for at least two years (the ownership test) and lived in the house as your primary residence for at least two years (the use test). And during the two-year period ending on the date of the sale, you must not have excluded the gain from the sale of another home.

Offsetting gains with losses 
Within a given tax year, your capital losses can be used to offset your capital gains. If your capital losses exceed your capital gains, you can use up to $3,000 of those losses ($1,500 if married filing separately) to offset ordinary income. Any additional capital losses are "carried forward" to future years and can still be used to offset future gains.

Short-term losses first offset short-term gains, and long-term losses first offset long-term gains. If, after that like-for-like netting, you still have losses of one type left over, you can use those losses to offset the other type of gain. Only after that point would you use your capital losses to partially offset your ordinary income or carry them forward for future years.

Complicated but worth understanding 
The capital gains tax is complicated, but it's certainly worth getting to know if you're an investor. After all, that tax only applies if you close an investment. While you may sometimes be forced out of an investment because, for example, it was acquired or a fund you own sold its position, you generally have significant control over whether and when to take a capital gain.

It's a good rule not to let the tax tail wag the investment dog, but it's also important to consider the net amount you'll be left with after taxes when you close out your investments. Successful investing can create an incredible source of wealth, and once you understand exactly what is the capital gains tax, you can capture more of the wealth you generate from your investing for yourself.

Take advantage of this little-known tax "loophole" 
Recent tax increases have affected nearly every American taxpayer. But with the right planning, you can take steps to take control of your taxes and potentially even lower your tax bill. In our brand-new special report " The IRS Is Daring You to Make This Investment Now! ," you'll learn about the simple strategy to take advantage of a little-known IRS rule. Don't miss out on advice that could help you cut taxes for decades to come. Click here  to learn more.