MTS releases acclux accounting app to be the first accounting app that runs on Android smartphones and smart watches

MTS Development LLC, a leading provider of enterprise application software and services, today releases acclux accounting for Android devices to be the first accounting app that runs on both smartphones and smart watches giving small business owners a brand new way to manage their accounting and view their most critical financial data on the go.

The main goal of the app is to help small business owners to stay connected with their business, view business status, create and manage their customers data, create and track expenses, create and manage invoices.

“We are so excited to announce this breakthrough news that takes the mobility and managing business on the go to a brand new level, from today and on, small business owners will be able to stay connected with their business like never before.” said Mustafa Al Shaikhly a CEO at MTS Development LLC “We want to congratulate ourselves and congratulate our customers for this big achievement. At the end we are here to innovate and discover new ways to help businesses in their daily lives.”

The app comes with a beautiful interface that let small business owners enjoy managing their businesses using acclux accounting app. Acclux accounting for Android is available on the Google play to be downloaded for free for current and new acclux accounting users.

FEATURES:

- A real-time view of business cash-flow, bank accounts and net income (Income and expenses) that can be viewed from Android phones and smart watches.

- Complete management and tracking of business invoices.

- New invoices can be added using the app with the ability to send the invoice to the customer as email directly from the app.

- Invoices can be sent as a PDF attachment and can be included in the email body for online payment options.

- Complete management and tracking of businesses expenses.

- New expenses can be added using the app.

- Company profile can be viewed and updated.

- A wearable app comes as part of the acclux accounting for android to view a real status of business financial data.

- All data automatically synced with acclux accounting cloud version.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

The app is available today to be downloaded from the Google play for free. Android users who are not acclux accounting users can download the app for free and sign up for 14-day free trial. After 14-day trial, they can subscribe to one of acclux accounting packages that start from only $10/month.

Current acclux accounting users can use the app for free without purchasing or signing up for new account.

ABOUT ACCLUX ACCOUNTING

acclux accounting software, it is simple, yet complete accounting and project management software. It has been designed to meet the need of small yet growing businesses. Get more information about acclux accounting by visiting acclux accounting website acclux.com.

ABOUT MTS DEVELOPMENT

MTS Development LLC, provides high quality enterprise level applications designed to help standard and specific industry with state of the art business solutions using a proven methodology. We also provide custom made solutions, maintenance, consulting and training, learn more about MTS Development LLC on mtsdevelopment.com

Reviewing The Best Tax Software For Early Filers

ROBERT FARRINGTON for The CollegeInvestor writes: Early tax filers are chomping at the bit to start getting their tax returns. Why? Because if you're getting a refund, why wait any longer than you must to file your return. Seriously - don't let the government hold onto your money any longer than they already have.

But the trouble is two-fold. One, we don't know when you can file your return yet - heck, some of the laws aren't even finalized yet. That means that the tax software companies like TurboTax and H&R Block can't even finish their programs. Two, there are a lot of choices out there when it comes to filing your taxes.

Today I wanted to look at what is available for early filers - those that want to start right now and be ready to submit on January 1 if they could. Who's software is the best? Who's is the cheapest? What's happened in the past that could make a difference this year? Let's break it down.​

Comparing The Best Tax Software

When it comes to filing your taxes online, there are three major competitors: TurboTax, H&R Block, and TaxACT. However, there are many more "small guys" out there. I'm going to try to review as many as possible, but for early filers, it's typically best to stick to one of the big three.​

To compare the software for early filers, I looked at the following:

• Ease of Use
• What information you could input today in December
• Does it require you to sign up to try
• Does it offer tax calculators where you can just "run the numbers"
• Any technical issues I encountered while using the site
• Early Pricing

	TURBOTAX	H&R BLOCK	TAXACT
Ease of Use	Easy	Easy	Easiest
How Much Works?	Most of the income section worked and it started asking questions about deductions, but not for all categories.	All of the income sections worked, but most of the "Adjustments, Deductions, and Credits" sections were still disabled.	Every section worked and allowed input.
Do You Need To Sign Up To Try?	Yes	No	Yes
Can You Run The Numbers?	Yes, but not easy to find.	Yes, but not easy to find.	Yes, easy calculators.
Any Technical Issues?	Site continually froze and I eventually gave up trying to use it.	None	None.
Pricing	Federal Free: $0 Deluxe: $29.99 Premier: $49.99 Home & Business: $74.99​	Federal Free: $0 Basic: $19.99 Deluxe: $29.99 Premium: $49.99​	Federal Free: $0 Deluxe: $12.99 ​Ultimate: $17.99
	Try TurboTax	Try H&R Block	Try TaxACT

My Choice For Early Filers

If you're an early filer, the software that worked the best was TaxACT. ​Here's why:

I found TaxACT the easiest to use out of all three companies. They had the easiest questions, and gave a lot more information about which option to choose - while not being overwhelming. I also liked how you could enter all of your information, even if certain forms haven't been created yet due to Congress. It does worry me a bit that the numbers are misleading as a result, but I appreciate the ability to enter everything once and be done.

Next, you save on the cost. My goodness you save on the cost. While it's still early in the tax season and all of the companies have the ability to change their prices until April 15, TaxACT is clearly the cheapest alternative. We're going to be comparing all the tax filing options next week, but this early glimpse leads me to TaxACT.​

Xero Releases New Dashboard / "Your Business at a Glance" (click to view the video)

Xero Dashboard: your business at a glance  by Tony Rule

Tony Rule for Xero writes: I’ve spent the last six years leading the Xero API team and am excited to get back to my roots to focus on the core user experience of Xero. I am laser focussed on making it easier for Xero users to monitor and understand the health of their business.

I’m excited to tell you that with today’s release you’ll notice a fresh new look to the Xero Dashboard. This is just the start of many ongoing updates you’ll notice to the dashboard in the coming months. With this release:

• We’re introducing a new graph which shows your incoming and outgoing cash over the last few months – handy for seeing your historical cash movements at a glance. You can drill into the detail as required.

• Our invoice and bill graphs will be improved so you’ll be able to see the total amounts for all outstanding invoices rather than just those overdue – the same will apply to bills. The charts are simplified so you can quickly see if there are overdue items at a glance and drill down to see these.

• You’ve told us for a long time that you want the choice of what to show on the Dashboard and where those items are positioned. So from now everything can be positioned as you like or optionally hidden if you don’t have a need for a particular item.

Check out the video below to get an overview of the dashboard and how it works.

Coming soon: the Business Performance Dashboard

This update to the Xero Dashboard begins the journey of delivering on our vision of providing big data capabilities for small business.

Last month, we previewed our Business Performance Dashboard, a set of indicators that will help small businesses better measure and understand their performance, while giving them information to work more effectively with their advisors. You’ll hear more about this over the next few months.

As always we’re keen to hear what you think, so please keep telling us how we are doing on Xero Community.

I look forward to keeping you updated as we roll these improvements out. Today’s release included more fantastic features, which you can read about here.

Free Integrated Cloud-Based CRM from Vembu

Vembu Technologies, a leading provider of affordable software and cloud services for small and medium sized businesses, is extremely pleased to launch the unified CRM Cloud solution for FREE! Businesses can now expand their scope of opportunities using the Vembu advantage of leveraging the free CRM offering for an unlimited number of users. It is a ready to go business tool for small and medium sized businesses meant to generate, manage and maintain customers. Vembu CRM includes SalesDesk, HelpDesk, SocialDesk which mainly targets B2B, H2H business model.

"Targeting business clients and staying customer centric is no longer an ordeal for organizations with the use of Vembu CRM, which is essentially FREE," said Larissa Simone-Director of Marketing, Vembu Technologies. Lead generation and deal wins are no longer a pathless pursuit. With an intuitive dashboard and amazing set of forecasting options, sales managers can understand and operate with insightful Vembu SalesDesk forecasts. Higher performance and operations can be delivered by means of smart dashboards and Sales Force Automation (SFA). Lead management, lead nurturing, lead conversion and sales capturing are done efficiently with SalesDesk.

HelpDesk allows the agents to respond to the customers quicker through their devices. Ticket management, priority support and systematic ticket escalations keeps the customers happy and gets customer satisfaction surveys done instantly. SLA's are set to measure the organization's performance through multiple automated reports.

In addition, Vembu CRM includes-SocialDesk, which offers you a centralized space to toggle between the social networks with which Marketing managers plan their campaigns. Multiple social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can also be integrated. With the help of a singular dashboard, responses to business followers and customers can be done via SocialDesk and you can quickly engage with your prospects to improve the business opportunities.

Vembu also support native Android and iOS apps to allow support agents to manage customer support tickets even as they come in from anywhere, anytime.

To know more about the features and integration, please visit the below link:

https://www.vembu.com/products/vembu-crm/

To sign up for Free CRM:

https://crm.vembu.com/signup.html

About Vembu:

Vembu is a leading provider of affordable software and cloud services with an array of innovative, flexible and reliable solutions for data protection, disaster recovery, file sharing and CRM.

Vembu's flagship offering is its Backup & Disaster Recovery (BDR) product targeted at IT-Administrators in small and medium businesses to protect their Physical, VMware and Hyper-V environments. Vembu Cloud Services comprises of multiple offerings – OnlineBackup to protect files, email, databases and applications on servers and desktops, FileShare for syncing, sharing & collaboration and CRM for help desk, sales force automation & social inbox. 

ABCs of Year-end Tax Planning

Lawrence Greenberg for OnWallStreet.com writes: For many of your clients, 2014 has been a prosperous year and they have seen substantial gain across their portfolios. Developing your expertise in tax planning—and putting it to work to protect clients' wealth—should be a top priority. And while it should be a priority all year long, it becomes especially important at year-end. Deadlines are approaching, but it still is not too late to take measures that can help reduce the taxes they will owe on income and investment gains.

Taxes can be the single biggest investment expense a client will face, especially the high net worth. Taxes can be as much as 40% or even 50% of client’s earnings every single year, when Federal and State taxes are combined.

Based on changes to the tax code in 2013, many households are now paying more—and high earners have been hit hardest. Individuals with income over $406,751 and married couples with income over $457,601, face a 39.6% income tax bracket, as well as taxes of up to 23.8% on dividends and long-term capital gains. In addition, clients earning above $225,000 are subject to a 3.8% Health Care Surtax on investment income.

Likewise some states also increased tax rates in recent years. In November 2012, California passed Proposition 30, creating three new upper income tax brackets. The new top income tax rate, for individuals with annual income of more than $1 million, became 13.3%, up from 10.3%. That eclipses Hawaii’s top rate of 11% and Oregon’s top rate of 9.9%. In May 2013, Minnesota legislators passed H.F. No 677 Omnibus Tax Bill, increasing the top tax rate for individuals with annual income of more than $150,000 to 9.85%. Other states with the highest upper income tax brackets include Iowa (8.98%), New Jersey (8.97%), Vermont (8.95%), Washington D.C. (8.95%), and New York (8.83%).

Without taking the right proactive measures now, clients could pay more than expected to the IRS come April 2015.

POWER OF TAX DEFERRAL

An important first step in the tax planning process is to help clients diversify between different tax rates and different types of taxes, as well as diversify between taxable investments and tax-deferred vehicles, to help control not only how much your clients pay in taxes—but also when they pay taxes.

To achieve “tax diversification,” effectively manage the timing of taxes, and ultimately generate more wealth, advisors and clients alike recognize the power of tax deferral. In one of Jefferson National’s most recent surveys, 96% of financial advisors say tax deferral is important, and 94% report that their clients agree. With tax deferral, clients keep more of what they earn by deferring taxes during peak earning years, when they are taxed at a higher rate. They accumulate substantially more through tax-deferred compounded growth. And when they withdraw income in retirement years, they are likely to be in a lower bracket and pay less in taxes.

There are a number of solutions for using tax deferral to manage and mitigate clients' tax obligations:

Max-Out Qualified Plans: The first fundamental step in any tax-optimized strategy is investing in tax-deferred vehicles like a qualified plan. To impact a client’s 2014 taxes, contributions to a 401(k), 403(b), or similar workplace retirement plan must be made by December 31, 2014,—so there is still time to act. The 2014 contribution limit to employer-based 401(k) plans is $17,500 ($23,000 for people age 50 or older).

To make a 2014 tax-deductible contribution into an IRA, the deadline is April 15, 2015. The current contribution limit is up to $5,500 ($6,500 for clients age 50 or older). Many advisors prefer to wait until this April deadline to evaluate the client’s tax return and determine the best way to leverage an IRA. With a Traditional IRA, clients pay no taxes now—and instead wait to pay taxes later when making future withdrawals during retirement. With a Roth IRA they pay taxes now—but make future withdrawals tax-free and penalty-free as long as they are at least 59½.

Roth Conversions: A Roth IRA can be an important tax-free source of income for clients in later years. But when converting from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, the entire value of the IRA is considered ordinary income. This “bracket creep” can create an immediate tax burden, a disadvantage for some clients considering a conversion. Many clients can save more on taxes by waiting until they are in retirement to do the conversion, when they will most likely be in a lower bracket. When converting to a Roth, clients have until October to undo the conversion and turn the Roth back into a Traditional IRA.

Asset Location for Tactical and Alternative Strategies: To manage the market’s ongoing volatility and generate more alpha, today many advisors use tactical management or non-correlated assets such as liquid alternatives. But these investments can be tax-inefficient due to high turnover and short term capital gains. Research shows that using asset location helps to increase the returns of tax-inefficient investments by 100 bps or more—without increasing risk—while mitigating any tax implications. For clients heavily allocated to fixed-income, commodities and REITS—typically taxed at higher ordinary income rates—asset location can have a measurable impact as well, preserving all of the upside without the drag of taxes. “Locate” these tax-inefficient investments in a tax-deferred vehicle for the high-net-worth who can quickly max out the low contribution limits of their qualified plans.

Maximizing contributions to tax-deferred investing vehicles and using asset location to optimize tactical management, alternative strategies and other tax-inefficient assets are fundamental elements to help plan and manage your clients’ taxes. Other year-end tax strategies that are relevant, especially to the high net worth, include the following:

Tax-Loss Harvesting

Taxpayers in higher brackets can harvest losses to offset investment gains and lower their tax liability. Focus on selling losing investments that no longer fit your client’s investing strategy, or use this as an opportunity to rebalance the portfolio. Don’t sell shares to lock in a loss with the intention of buying them back right away. The IRS “wash sale” rule bars investors from claiming the loss if they buy the same or a “substantially identical” investment within 30 days of the sale.

Annual Gift Tax Exemption

An individual client can give a gift of up to $14,000 per year—and couples can give a gift of up to $28,000 per year—to an unlimited number of recipients. These gifts can help reduce the amount of their taxable estate—and are exempt from the federal gift taxes. Gifts may include cash, stocks, bonds, and portions of real estate. To contribute money toward a child’s education, clients typically can make a payment directly to an educational institution and pay no gift tax. To fund education expenses clients may also consider a tax-deferred 529 plan.

Charitable Contributions

When making a significant gift to charity, clients should consider giving appreciated stocks or mutual fund shares that they have owned for more than one year. The deduction for the charitable contribution is the fair-market value of the securities on the date of the gift—not the amount the client originally paid for the asset. Clients can boost their tax returns by deducting the appreciated amount—while never paying any taxes on the profit. Keep in mind that if clients expect their income to increase next year, they may benefit by waiting to defer charitable contributions and other deductible expenses accordingly.

While the competition for high-net-worth clients continues to increase, and complex market dynamics make every basis point of performance count, you can differentiate your firm and create more value for your clients by demonstrating your expertise in tax planning. Taxes may be one of the biggest investment expenses that your clients face. By using simple effective tools, you can help clients achieve tax-diversification, optimize the performance of tax-inefficient assets, and mitigate the rising tax rates on income and capital gains. The sooner you begin tax planning, the sooner your clients can begin to reap the benefits.

Laurence Greenberg is President of Jefferson National, a developer of investment-only, variable annuities retirement products for financial advisors.

The Tax Trap of Year End Qualified Plan Distributions

 ThinkAdvisor.com writes: End of the year retirement plan distribution decisions are looming in the minds of many clients. For those clients who are eligible to take lump sum distributions from their qualified retirement plans, however, often overlooked considerations must be taken into account in order to take full advantage of the potential tax savings that can be realized if retirement plan assets include appreciated company stock.

In these cases, timing is everything—and it’s critical to realize that the window for taking advantage of the tax break that can be afforded to net unrealized appreciation may be closed for most clients who are considering the pros and cons of taking a lump sum distribution from a qualified retirement plan.

The Net Unrealized Appreciation Break

Clients whose qualified retirement plan assets contain appreciated employer securities may be eligible to take advantage of the net unrealized appreciation tax break.  Net unrealized appreciation (NUA) is the gain on employer stock that has accrued from the time it was acquired within the qualified retirement plan up until the time that the stock is distributed from the client.

The NUA tax strategy allows certain clients whose qualified retirement plans contain these appreciated employer securities to pay taxes on the appreciated value of those securities at the lower long-term capital gains tax rate. The remaining qualified retirement plan assets are taxed at the taxpayer’s ordinary income tax rate under the traditional rule for taxation of plan distributions.

In order for a client to take advantage of the NUA strategy, he or she must be eligible to take a lump sum distribution from the qualified retirement plan in question.  In order to be eligible for a lump-sum distribution, the client must have reached age 59½, become disabled or retired (for certain employees), or died. The eligible client transfers the funds in his or her tax-deferred account into a taxable account, realizing the gain on the sale of the employer securities.

This strategy has proven effective for some clients—for example, if employer securities within a client’s 401(k) are worth $100,000, but originally cost $20,000, only that $20,000 would be taxed at the client’s ordinary income tax rate. The remaining $80,000 would be taxed at the applicable long-term capital gains rate.

Potential Year-End Complications

While the NUA tax break can prove effective for clients who are eligible to take lump sum distributions from qualified retirement plans, year-end considerations can potentially complicate the strategy. This is because, while the client may be eligible to take a lump sum distribution from his or her qualified retirement plan, that distribution must occur within a single taxable year in order to qualify as a lump sum distribution.

If the client attempts to take a lump sum distribution late in the tax year, he or she may face unanticipated delays that could push a portion of the distribution into the next year should that distribution contain employer stock.  Late in the tax year, there is obviously a greater possibility that a portion of the distribution could be pushed into the following tax year.

Unfortunately, if the entire account balance is not emptied by the end of the tax year, the client will not qualify for the favorable NUA tax break.  As a result, this late in the year, most clients should be advised to delay the lump sum distribution into the next tax year in order to ensure that the distribution will take place within a single tax year in order to be taxed at the long-term capital gains rate.

Conclusion

The NUA tax break afforded to appreciated company stock held within a qualified retirement plan can be significant for many clients who hold highly appreciated employer stock—but because the simple misstep of failing to ensure that the entire account balance is distributed within a single tax year could cause the client to lose the entire break, proper planning is crucial to the NUA strategy.

AU: Aussie Office 365 resellers recruited for assault on Xero / Local vendor launches accounting SaaS with a Microsoft twist.

William Maher for CRN writes: An Australian software company is signing up Office 365 resellers in a bid to take on Xero and NetSuite in the growing Australian cloud accounting market.'Financials for Office 365' has signed 40 channel partners in Australia, is moving into the New Zealand market next and has plans to expand into Asia, said John Munnelly, chief executive officer of Hands-on Systems, which is behind the product.“We hope to have 200 partners by end of first quarter next year, by April,” Munnelly told CRN. He said expansion into the Philippines would follow, then other Asian countries late next year.

For resellers, the product could be an opportunity to tap into a growing market that has seen Xero attract 158,000 local customers and MYOB 100,000 online subscribers.
“The plan is this will be the default financials package for someone that has Office 365,” Munnelly said. “Microsoft are helping us launch this. This is really a test for them to see if they can successful in the SMB space."

Importantly, Financials for Office 365 gives Office 365 resellers an opportunity to dip into cloud accounting, unlike some products which focus on accountants as resellers. The theory is that the sale might also have the added benefit of giving customers another reason to stick with Office 365 instead of switching to Google Docs.

In another twist, the product was spun-off from Australian Microsoft Dynamics integrator Hands-On Systems. The company has had a forerunner on the market for two years called Dynamic Business Online, but Financials for Office 365 is a new company and has a simplified user interface.

The product itself is browser-based and built on Microsoft Dynamics. It is designed to work with Office 365 - using Word for saving invoices or Sharepoint to save client orders, for example - but can also run on its own.

While Hands-on Systems has customers with data stored on Azure in Singapore, it now has an early adopter using Azure’s Australian data centre in the Starlight Children’s Foundation.
Several other local cloud accounting products have hit the market this year. These include the Deloitte Private Connect platform and Asset-Guru, which was claimed to be the first physical asset management add-on for Xero.