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You should if you want to take full advantage of a tax deduction many people overlook. The home office deduction allows individuals to deduct expenses that are not otherwise deductible such as utilities and homeowners insurance. There are certain requirements you must meet to have a home office, including:

You own a business (if you are an employee, you must meet the “for the convenience of the employer” test). You have an area set aside in your home used regularly and exclusively for specific administrative or management activities There is no other place of business where you conduct those activities

These requirements help you to determine whether the area used in your home is your principle place of business for certain business functions.

If you don’t think the area you use qualifies, you may just need to change the facts. Are there too many nonbusiness items in your office area? Move them to another room and you may qualify. Are you struggling to find business activities that you can do at home? Bookkeeping, billing and ordering supplies are just a few activities that are easily done from home.

Once you’ve determined that you have a home office and you would like to take the home office deduction, you need to track certain expenses.

Allowable home office expenses include:

- Utilities

- Mortgage interest

- Property taxes

- Homeowners and liability insurance

- Repairs and maintenance of office area

- Depreciation of office area

Deductions that do not qualify as home office expenses are items that do not relate to the home office such as landscaping and pool care. In addition, taxpayers are denied a deduction on a first phone line regardless of the level of business use. A taxpayer must have a second phone line to deduct telephone expenses, long distance charges and internet service.

Of course you can’t deduct 100% of these expenses. The expenses are allocated based on square footage or number of rooms in the house. In most cases, the number of rooms allocation yields a higher deduction, make sure your CPA calculates both numbers to maximize your deductions.

- What You Should Know About Home Office Deductions -

Home office deductions are allowed for areas used exclusively for the management and administrative duties of the business when these functions are not conducted in the principal place of business.

Prior to 1999, the IRS regarded the location of major business transactions, based on time usage, as the principal place of business. For example, sales conducted in customer’s homes disallowed the home office deduction, even if invoicing, bookkeeping and other management functions were conducted from the home. Now these responsibilities are accepted for home offices.

However, if multiple businesses are conducted from the home, separate office space should be allocated, or the entire deduction taken, in the most active business. This is particularly important where spouses each conduct business from the same home office space.

Home Office Requirements:

The home office must be an area in the home set aside and used regularly and exclusively as an office. No other fixed place of business can be used to conduct the same business regularly.
General expenses of your home are deductible in proportion to the business office percentage of your home. This can be measured either by square footage or by number of rooms, excluding bathrooms and hallways.

Certain home office expenses must be paid through your company, while others are personal expenses.

The following items should not be paid by your company:

- Mortgage expense and interest.

- Property taxes.

- Homeowners and liability insurance.

- Repairs and maintenance of the office space.

The following items should be paid through your company:

- furniture and fixtures purchased specifically for business purposes, whether stored in the home office or at another location.

- Separate business phone lines that are installed at the home office.

- Office supplies.

- Other items specifically used for the business.

The following items are not generally deductible:

- Landscaping and lawn maintenance.

- Pool care.

Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with his frequent seminars on such strategies, Tom is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University. For more information, please visit http://www.provisionwealth.com

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There are literally millions of people forex trading online in the currency markets on any given day. This wasn’t the case 10 years ago but the growth in this investment vehicle has been exponential. One of the reasons has been that so many people have been successful at it. Success breeds copy cats and competition. The most successful currency traders are using software to help them make their trades. Not only to process the transaction but to choose which currency pair and when and what stops.

When choosing a forex trading platform you need to test drive it before you ever buy it. This is the norm in today’s market. There are several companies that are more than happy to let you download a demo and setup a dummy account and run their software. This is important because every software looks different and has different features. Some are horrible to look at and some look like you wrote it yourself, almost perfect.

But testing it in real time with real data is THE MOST IMPORTANT feature of any software that you end up choosing. You need to test it to see if it gets your orders in time and gets out of the markets where you set your stops. Not all softwares are equal in this most important of aspects, and it can cost you big time if the software blows through your stops.

As I said earlier you should be comfortable with the way the software looks and the location of the buttons you need to click on. It should be laid out in a logical manner so that if things happen quickly you can easily get out or get into a currency market. You don’t want to have to click on 3 different screens to place a trade or to get out of one, especially in the forex markets where things move faster than stocks.

After seeing that the software works and looks alright check out the different strategies that are built into the software. There are a number of normal charting strategies that all platforms have, but if you have purchased a piece of software it should be programmed with its own specialty. This is the deal maker. Does the software’s technique make money. This can be easily tested since you will be running a demo. Run the demo a minimum of 2 weeks but try for a month.

Some software companies let you use real data from the past to test your own new strategies and this can be worth the software price in and of itself. Especially if you are creative and are coming up with new ideas. If you study the forex markets you will find out that there are several popular strategies but there has to be a BEST STRATEGY. Do you think you can discover it? You might as well try if you bought the software anyway.

Finally, after you have chosen the forex trading online software you must find out what the company offers in terms of safety of data encryption and what do you do if your computer crashes. Who do you call? Do you call a specific person? This is really very important, you don’t want to be in the middle of a transaction and the power goes out and you are only part way in and have no stop or target to get out. So find out who and what you must do in emergency situations.

There is another software option that I haven’t covered here. It is called Forex Robots. They make trades without you having to be there, so they can trade 24 hours a day. I will leave that for another article but it is something else you should look into.

Bob Perry is a freelance writer specializing in the financial markets. He has experience with currency markets and stocks. Check out his blog at ForexTradingOnlineBlog.com for more informative articles and tips on making money.

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You should if you want to take full advantage of a tax deduction many people overlook. The home office deduction allows individuals to deduct expenses that are not otherwise deductible such as utilities and homeowners insurance. There are certain requirements you must meet to have a home office, including:

You own a business (if you are an employee, you must meet the “for the convenience of the employer” test). You have an area set aside in your home used regularly and exclusively for specific administrative or management activities There is no other place of business where you conduct those activities

These requirements help you to determine whether the area used in your home is your principle place of business for certain business functions.

If you don’t think the area you use qualifies, you may just need to change the facts. Are there too many nonbusiness items in your office area? Move them to another room and you may qualify. Are you struggling to find business activities that you can do at home? Bookkeeping, billing and ordering supplies are just a few activities that are easily done from home.

Once you’ve determined that you have a home office and you would like to take the home office deduction, you need to track certain expenses.

Allowable home office expenses include:

- Utilities

- Mortgage interest

- Property taxes

- Homeowners and liability insurance

- Repairs and maintenance of office area

- Depreciation of office area

Deductions that do not qualify as home office expenses are items that do not relate to the home office such as landscaping and pool care. In addition, taxpayers are denied a deduction on a first phone line regardless of the level of business use. A taxpayer must have a second phone line to deduct telephone expenses, long distance charges and internet service.

Of course you can’t deduct 100% of these expenses. The expenses are allocated based on square footage or number of rooms in the house. In most cases, the number of rooms allocation yields a higher deduction, make sure your CPA calculates both numbers to maximize your deductions.

- What You Should Know About Home Office Deductions -

Home office deductions are allowed for areas used exclusively for the management and administrative duties of the business when these functions are not conducted in the principal place of business.

Prior to 1999, the IRS regarded the location of major business transactions, based on time usage, as the principal place of business. For example, sales conducted in customer’s homes disallowed the home office deduction, even if invoicing, bookkeeping and other management functions were conducted from the home. Now these responsibilities are accepted for home offices.

However, if multiple businesses are conducted from the home, separate office space should be allocated, or the entire deduction taken, in the most active business. This is particularly important where spouses each conduct business from the same home office space.

Home Office Requirements:

The home office must be an area in the home set aside and used regularly and exclusively as an office. No other fixed place of business can be used to conduct the same business regularly.
General expenses of your home are deductible in proportion to the business office percentage of your home. This can be measured either by square footage or by number of rooms, excluding bathrooms and hallways.

Certain home office expenses must be paid through your company, while others are personal expenses.

The following items should not be paid by your company:

- Mortgage expense and interest.

- Property taxes.

- Homeowners and liability insurance.

- Repairs and maintenance of the office space.

The following items should be paid through your company:

- furniture and fixtures purchased specifically for business purposes, whether stored in the home office or at another location.

- Separate business phone lines that are installed at the home office.

- Office supplies.

- Other items specifically used for the business.

The following items are not generally deductible:

- Landscaping and lawn maintenance.

- Pool care.

Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with his frequent seminars on such strategies, Tom is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University. For more information, please visit http://www.provisionwealth.com

Tags: administrative duties, advantage, Ally, amp, Ast, Bookkeeping, business, Business Activities, ceo, cia, Coach, convenience, creative, Employ, Employe, Expenses, find business, Fre, furniture, home, inc, informat, insurance, Irs, lows, Mai, many people, mortgage, Mortgage Interest, oic, People, Personal, phone expenses, pool, principle, Prope, property tax, property taxes, proportion, Rate, Regard, Rsi, sales, sit, Target, Tax, tax deduction, Taxes, taxpayers, Wheel

Folkestone was tax small village in 1066 composed mainly of fishermen and farmers who were cultivating the lands owned by the church at Canterbury. The town was so small that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, there were only about 120 houses in Folkestone.

By the 18th and 19th century, Folkestone was developed into a soldier’s barracks for the Peninsula Wars and stone houses were built during this period. Today, it has become an important area with the Channel Tunnel connecting Folkestone to Europe. In fact, the coast has a magnificent view of France.

Aside from being an important fishing and shipping town, it is also home to the renowned Folkestone Literary Festival that started in 2002. It has become one of the foremost art and literary festivals in Britain. The festival includes lectures by authors, book launches, live entertainment, art exhibits, book swapping, poetry and book readings and literary competitions.

The Folkestone Literary Festival usually kick-off in November 1 and runs through November 9. Tickets are required for some of the events but most of the activities are free to the public. There are various activities and each year, a theme is selected for the days’ activities.

• Themed Activities
In 2006, poetry was a featured event in the festival including an Open Mic at The Chambers and a poetry and performance event that featured several new and up-and-coming poets who showcase their works in the Leas Club.

In 2007, a History Weekend was featured from the 2nd to the 4th of the month with talks by David Starkey on Monarchy, London in the 19th Century with Jerry White, Great Tales from English History with Robert Lacey and The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire with Peter Clarke.

• Competitions
The festival also features competitions on different literary categories such as the short story and poetry competition. The competitions themselves are grouped in different age divisions, from 5-11 years old to adult participants. The competition is organized by the Friends of the Festival and it accepts entries from all over the world. Last year, entrants include writers form Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

• business Movies and Exhibits
The Folkestone Literary Festival is indeed a very cosmopolitan event with film showings and art exhibits. There are art installations and gallery exhibits around the town. Last year, a feature on the environment paved the way for the showing of Al Gore’s documentary: An Inconvenient Truth.

Other partnership activities in the Folkestone Literary Festival are the tours such as the Tours of the Folkestoen Academy, Creative Quarter and the Green Room. These tours offer tons of educational and creative pursuits for the literary enthusiasts. Aside from the many sights, there are also bookshops and souvenir shops as well as eateries scattered around Folkestone.

The Folkestone Literary Festival has diversified its target audience and further involves families and even children with various activities full of fun and excitement. Last year, the festival featured storytelling day for families, family day, and reading sessions for children.

The organizers are also supporting the literary and artistic qualities of Folkestone. The Folkestone People’s History Centre was opened to the festival-goers last year which made known the rich background of Folkestone and its people.

For accommodation in Folkestone please visit: http://www.folkestonehotels.me.uk | Hotels in Folkestone

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In the past, traditional mortgage lenders have automatically rejected people who had declared personal bankruptcy. Many potential home-buyers or exiting homeowners felt they must wait at least seven to ten years after a bankruptcy to be eligible for financing. This is a common misconception.

While some people declaring bankruptcy have had trouble managing their money, a larger number of those declaring have simply experienced unfortunate events. Americans have been filing bankruptcies at record-high levels over the last many years, especially last year.

Though a bankruptcy is certainly a blemish on a credit report, it does not necessarily disqualify a borrower. Recognizing that sometimes bad things happen to good people, some select loan officers are becoming more willing to take a calculated risk.

Some lenders use a scoring system to determine whether potential borrowers are a worthwhile risk. Unfortunately, bankruptcy gives an automatic low score. However select lenders are beginning to look beyond the scores and look at the individuals in need.

Instead of waiting two or four years after being discharged from bankruptcy, some mortgage professionals are willing to give a home loan much sooner. Those who have declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation may be eligible for a loan in as little as one day after discharge, and those who have declared Chapter 13 may be eligible for a loan even while they are still in their plan.

Another common misconception is that a previous bankruptcy on your credit report will require you to have a large down payment and pay extremely high rates and points. There are currently programs available with no down payment required and with very attractive rates and points.

Some lenders are even pre-qualifying buyers for a loan, saving time and making the home-buying experience easier and more efficient. When a buyer pre-qualifies they will have the advantage of greater negotiation power.

No matter what the situation, select mortgage professionals have a program that will work for the buyer with a bankruptcy history. If a buyer cannot get approved, there are customized plans that can re-establish credit to help the buyer become mortgage ready, ensuring homeownership in the future.

Because of new options, bankruptcy no longer needs to stand in the way of getting a home loan. With the help of more creative lenders, those who have experienced financial difficulty will have an easier time getting a mortgage.

Luke Currier and Ed Jeffry are experts in mortgage lending. They specialize in working with homeowners who have had a bankruptcy or other credit challenge find payment relief, achieve financial security, restore their credit and receive peace of mind. Visit their website at http://www.Chapter13Experts.com for more information or call them direct at 925-983-3127 to ask their advice.

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This is the time of year when all Americans think about their tax situation and what they might do differently to reduce their heavy tax burden. There is a record of an ancient civilization that was required to pay 50% of their earnings to their captors. They considered themselves in bondage. And yet, many Americans who earn over $100,000 per year pay far more than that in federal and state income tax, sales tax, social security tax, property tax and excise taxes.

I’m not against paying taxes for necessary government services. To the contrary. What I am opposed to is paying a dime more than I have to. But MOST OF YOU are paying far more than you have to. Why? In most cases, it’s simply because you are getting poor tax advice.

The reality is that the Internal Revenue Code is full of opportunities to reduce your taxes. I have spent almost 30 years pouring through the Code and learning all of these opportunities. And I am continually learning new ways to reduce taxes. It’s all a matter of understanding the law and applying it the way Congress intended. That’s right, Congress intended to provide tax benefits to individuals and companies who behave a certain way. Why? Simply because Congress has long used the Internal Revenue Code as a way to promote social, energy and economic policies.

But how do you know if your tax advisor is giving you the best advice? Unless you are legally paying no taxes, you really don’t. The answer, quite frankly, is to have another, experienced tax advisor review your tax returns from prior years and your current tax situation. It may be that when you were a simple wage earner that there were few ways to reduce your taxes. But now you are in business or you are investing in real estate. What’s happened is that YOU HAVE OUTGROWN YOUR TAX ADVISOR!

Before you commit to another advisor, have them review your situation. Don’t expect that they will give you free advice. But find out if they think they can do something different. Just the other day while reviewing a tax return I found $60,000 of taxes that a prospective client was paying that we could easily eliminate. What would you do if I found $60,000 of ANNUAL tax savings for you? I hope you would jump on this opportunity immediately.

Whatever you do, remember that “if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got!”

Tom Wheelwright is not only the founder and CEO of Provision, but he is the creative force behind Provision Wealth Strategists. In addition to his management responsibilities, Tom likes to coach clients on wealth, business, and tax strategies. Along with his frequent seminars on such strategies, Tom is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Tax program at Arizona State University. For more information, please visit http://www.provisionwealth.com

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When running training classes for project managers, one of the issues coming up time and again is that projects look profitable only until after they have been completed. Only when some time business all third party invoices have been received by the accounts department and been allocated to the job bag, the profitability suddenly turns out to be much less favorable.

It doesn’t have to be this way as a lot of information is readily available:

- In most cases there is a budget for a project agreed with the customer after the brief has been accepted. Part of this budget partnership be covering third party costs. A lot of thought and experience from similar jobs will have helped generating this budget.

- Project managers will more often than not also have some kind of (hand written or memorised) record of what they have ordered for their job. So all the information is available at a much earlier time than when the purchase invoice arrives.

That is where an electronic purchase ordering system comes in. It is an easy method to record forthcoming costs against jobs at the point of initiating them.

People are sometimes a bit concerned that using a computer to record those costs might be time consuming, but it only takes about half a minute to enter a PO, not longer than it would take to hand write a note with the additional benefit that – unlike a note – the information on the system can’t get lost.

If any third party costs are recorded in the job bag at the time of ordering them, there won’t be any surprises, when the invoices come in.

There will always be cases where costs change from what was originally budgeted for, but this will usually be discovered when the supplier is approached with the detailed work description during creation of the PO, not at the very end, when all the supplier work has been received and needs paying for.

If the price quoted by the supplier when ordering the work turns out to be more (or less) than the original budget, the budget can be amended accordingly. Ideally when preparing the initial budget and a quote to the client a mark-up was added that will cover cost rises. If this is not sufficient, the client may be contacted at the time of the purchase order and be informed of the changed costing allowing for either an increase in their budget or a change of the project brief.

An electronic PO system is therefore an excellent way to track actuals against budgets at the earliest possible time and avoid nasty surprises after a project is finalized.

In addition to this benefit from a job costing perspective, a computerized PO record will also save time for the finance department:

When the supplier invoice arrives, this invoice can then in an integrated job costing and accounting system be married to the PO that triggered it. Since this PO will contain all the details of work, there is no more typing in of invoice lines into the finance system required. If invoices come in higher than the order value this is immediately flagged up and they can be questioned with the supplier.

A win-win result for the entire organization.

Volker Bendel is manager of the training department of Agency Software Worldwide, the producers of the partnership job costing software (http://www.paprika-software.com) (http://www.rebus-software.com) Originally from a legal background, he has several years experience in planning and implementing Job Costing and Accounting Software Systems in the Creative Industry. He has also delivered training courses in the UK, Europe, Dubai, the US and Australia. Prior to that he worked as a senior business consultant in Hong Kong and as a department manager of a design department in Hong Kong.

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Shanghai has always been an exemplary city of the People’s Republic of China. This cosmopolitan as well as a metropolitan city comfortably situated on the extensive banks of river Yangtze, is now fast on its journey to join the global band of world’s most happening cities. It is aptly assuring the world of being a city that has immense potential in contributing to the global economy. Shanghai is the largest city of China and the eight largest in the world. The city is a gentle blend of the traditional oriental culture gelling well with the modern western flair as can been in its architecture and modern way of thought and living. River Huangpu flowing amid the city has split the city. Puxi is the old city on the western side while the Pudong on the east is the ravishing new.

Shanghai as the most populous and most developed city of China has always been the bastion of intellectual, cultural, financial, commercial and industrial eminence. From its humble origins as a seaside fishing hamlet before twelfth century, Shanghai is currently the hub of software, electronics, communications and citadel of modern China’s economy and finance. Shanghai has the distinction of being the largest commercial hub of the Far East and third in the world only after New York and London. It is equipped with the world’s largest and busiest ports besides other high-speed means of transportation and communication. Shanghai has rightly been referred as the ‘Queen of the Orient’ and ‘Paris of the East’ attracting both the tourist as well as business communities from worldwide horizons galore.

Like other global biggies Shanghai partnership face the challenges linked with mass immigration of the workforce flocking in here from other towns and cities. Most of the tribulations are in terms of housing problems, huge wealth gap, environmental degradation, stressful living and other of the like associated inevitably with life in big cities. But then these challenges are fast resolved by higher resolution by its inhabitants to come up to the elevated world standards and gear up to competition with greater zest. The struggle to keep alive in maddening hustle-bustle of big cities becomes a way of life for its populace. It is only under such circumstances that humans get the platform to show their best.

Time has proved that the inhabitants of the city of Shanghai have lived up to the immense standards and delivered only the best. Modern sky kissing tall buildings shinning with neon lights illuminating in the backdrop of the dark , brisk movements of men and material, high speed toll highways, wide roads, up to date lifestyle, sophisticated technology and high deliverance can make any foreigner green or teary eye with envy. Indeed these are the signs of economic growth and development that the land and the inhabitants of Shanghai appear to have promised themselves for. The city that does not sleep for it is perpetually abuzz with varied activities each contributing in its own way to the vibrancy and dynamism of the city.

The road to development was not an easy one considering the Opium wars, Taipang Rebellion and occupation by the Japanese besides other political upheavals and competition from Hong Kong that could have played havoc with the city but for the undying spirit of the city. Today Shanghai is a haven for the business and financial community and a shopper’s paradise catering to the pockets of every kind. Here ancient structures and traditional residences and markets move shoulder to shoulder with modern skyscrapers and contemporary shopping malls. Nanjing Road is the modern shoppers’ delight and for those with artistic taste Yuyuan Bazaar is the answer. Shanghai’s restaurants serve commendable culinary delights on the lines of the Yang Zhou, Guangzhou, and Beijing, Sichuan as well its resident cuisine.

Shanghai is a home to may religions. Taoism, the religion based on the indigenous Chinese business thought is practiced by the majority. The City God temple located in the heart of the old city is a house to three deities revered by the natives as the protectors of this exclusive city. The Wenmiao temple is bestowed to the great thinker Confucius and the Temple Three Kingdoms is offered to General Guan Yu.

Besides this the city has the presence of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. Of business mentioning and most popular destination is the Jade Buddha Temple, where the creative statue of Lord Buddha is carved from the precious gem jade. Shanghai also houses other religious places of importance as the Songjiang Mosque in Songjiang province, the traditional Xiaotaoyuan Mosque in the old city. The other notable religious places are Dongjiadu Cathedral, She Shan Cathedral and the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui district.

Rosy Vohra works for Online books India

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Introduction

Diagnosing problems in a QuickBooks file is easy once you know what you are looking for. It’s usually a matter of glancing at the chart of accounts for anything out of the ordinary. The problem is that most business owners aren’t sure what is out of the ordinary and what isn’t. This is the first in a series of articles that tax explain how to diagnose what the problem is and how to correct the problem once known.

Negative Balances in A/P or A/R

Although this may seem kind of basic for those who have been entering data into QB for a while, for those who haven’t this may be new information, so hang in there for their sake. Accounts Payable is the account automatically created by QuickBooks when you enter your first bill. This is the account that tax mistakes these amounts go into and from which these same amounts are taken when you pay the bill. More often than not, the clients I see for the first time have a negative balance in the A/P and cannot explain why, nor do they know what to do with it.

A negative balance in the A/P would indicate that YOU owe your vendor money, and though there are legitimate reasons why you would give a credit to a vendor, a refund for extra material sent, etc., most of the time it is the result of a simple mistake. That mistake is the entering of a payment to a vendor without entering the bill that the payment should apply to. This happens when the data entry clerk is not using the Enter Bills/Pay Bills screens and is simply entering the amounts paid into the check register. Since there is no corresponding bill, (according to QuickBooks) the amount of the check is entered as a credit toward the vendor specified.

Likewise, a negative balance in the A/R indicates that there are customers that your company owes money to. And again, there are legitimate reasons you would credit a customer, but often it is a mistake. The mistake that is made is that a customer payment is recorded without a corresponding invoice being recorded. If the invoice isn’t recorded, then according to QuickBooks, this customer doesn’t owe you anything, upon receiving the payment and recording it, you now have a customer you owe money to, but not really.

NOW HOW DO I FIX IT?

As with all questions related to accounting, the answer is, “that depends”. If these are current mistakes and the bank accounts have not been reconciled as of yet, the method of correction is easy. For the A/P, look for the Pay Bills and enter in the same check number that you used earlier and pay the bill in that screen. The little ‘oh-oh’ screen will pop up telling you that this check number is already used, ignore it and use that number anyway. When you are done with all of these entries, return to the register and look for those identical check numbers, the ones entered correctly will have BILLPMT in the box below the check number, delete the one without that designation and you will have completed the task. Fixing the A/R is not much different, (assuming that the reconciliations have not been completed!) enter an invoice dating back to the time of the payment received for whatever that customer ordered. The invoice will counter the credit received and will bring the balance out of the negative to zero, unless the customer of course, still owes you for work done.

WHAT IF EVERYTHING IS RECONCILED?

If the negative balances date back into months that have been previously been reconciled and the bank statements and QuickBooks match, deleting these payments by customers and reentering them applying them to invoices will throw off all reconciliations for the rest of the year. You will then have to re-reconcile the bank accounts and that can be tedious.

For A/P corrections after reconciliations, DO NOT DELETE THE BILLS! We have to be a little creative with this so here goes. First, create a fake bank account; call it Adjustment Bank or First Bank of David, whatever you wish. Go to the Pay Bills screen and use the fake bank account to pay the bills you are sure have already been paid.

Once you have completed the entries, make a fake deposit from an account called adjustment into the fake bank account for that same amount of the already paid bills. This effectively zeroes out the bank account, which you can then make inactive.

For A/R corrections after reconciliations, since the amounts have already been received and deposited into the right bank account that has already been reconciled, simply entering in matching invoices to compensate for the received funds will not affect the bank account, and thus will not affect the reconciliations already done. Just make sure to tie out the payment to the invoice number you create by using the invoice number in the payment memo box. Since the amount won’t change you won’t have to worry about affecting the reconciled transactions.

CONCLUSION

Admittedly, this is not the ideal solution, and if you only have a few of these transactions and it won’t require an entire year of re-reconciliations, you should do it the long way. However, this way gets you done sooner and let’s you get on with the day to day business you love to do. I hope this helps you with your QuickBooks issues.

David Roberts, CFE, CQBPA, MBA, lives in Kissimmee, Florida with four girls, three dogs, two snakes and one wife. He has been a member of the ACFE for five years and has been studying fraud for longer than that. He is the owner of Homesoon Accounting Services which specializes in Quickbooks Consultations and Fraud Prevention and Detection.

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Every company and business has great stories. We need to hear them, tell them and internalize them. The biggest challenges, however, are convincing others of the power of storytelling and the impact it can have in the business world. How can we do this?

Start a small booklet of good company/organization stories. Name the heroes and heroines. Ask others you trust to write up some stories for it. The stories should not be long, but all should include the beginning status quo, a character and/or characters, the crisis or challenge the climax and resolution, and how the original status quo was changed. Details are important, but should not be overwhelming.

With all of the easy-to-use desktop programs available today, you can put together a small booklet filled with these stories and give a copy to many of your peers. You will be surprised, once the word is out, how many other people will ask for a copy. It may be even time to start a small magazine or company newsletter that consists of stories.

Before a meeting starts (if you have any way of setting agenda items), ask if everyone would share a quick incident that they have recently encountered, what happened and if it changed their thinking and/or approach. Or ask what was the funniest happening last week. I know it may take some time to get this off the ground — and, I don’t suggest forcing everyone to take part in the beginning.

You will be amazed that if you can continue this quick story sharing introduction, those who haven’t contributed before will start having a story to tell and everyone will look forward to this. I know a company that started adding a half an hour to the end of their weekly sales meetings for a story sharing session. This soon became the most popular part of the meeting and, as storytellers know, the most valuable part of the meeting.

Once the storytelling starts to take hold — and it will if you are persistent and keep it going — the next step would be to call a group of the most enthusiastic story lovers and tellers together to work on the “Grand Narrative” of your company and/or organization. This will define what your group is all about. What describes the mission and goals in a clear and understandable way? It is OK to redefine your “Grand Narrative” even if you are a large, small, or even a one-person company.

Now is the time to take your storytelling plan to upper management. Convincing reasons that you can propose for capturing and using stories are to accomplish any of the following:

• Share knowledge for succession planning.
• Promote team development to enhance productivity.
• Exemplify values to build community.
• Capture lessons learned to develop best practices.
• Prompt action to change the company or organization.
• Record the past to preserve corporate heritage.

Armed with these purposes and the stories that have already been shared and recorded, you will be able to convince the group that storytelling should be a daily occurrence.

Chris King is a professional storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. You will find her storytelling website at http://www.storytellingpower.com and her business website at http://www.creativekeys.biz You will find her new her information-packed E-book How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE! at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com

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