Your Questions About Business Online Payroll

Jere answers:

A great site is sba.gov; they have a long list of helpful articles, new articles almost every day and a place to ask for help if you need it.

Obama has made numerous changes to help small business get started, sustain and grow; the Small Business Agency (sba) is there to help out.

Jere answers:

1) Intuit QuickBooks Accounting Software

Quickbooks is a popular full featured accounting and payroll program designed for small businesses – or, I should say, a small business accounting software series. QuickBooks is available in Basic, Online, Pro, and Premier editions; the Pro Edition of this accounting program includes management tools such as a Vehicle Mileage Tracker and a Cash Flow Projector.

2) Simply Accounting Accounting Software

Full featured accounting and payroll package with all the features and reports any small business needs, including Internet and e-commerce features. This small business accounting software’s data entry screens resemble their paper counterparts, and the screen tips and drag and drop functionality make the accounting program easy to learn. Professional versions include a time and billing module. Comes multi-user ready.

3) MYOB Plus Accounting Software

A double entry small business accounting software system with a user-friendly interface and over 100 financial and management reports. Includes a Professional Time Billing Module that is ideal for service businesses and the Officelink feature allows direct one click access to MS Word and Excel. Comes multi-user ready; just purchase an additional workstation license for each additional accounting program user.

4) Peachtree Complete Accounting Software

The Complete version of this small business accounting software program includes over 125 reports and features such as in-depth inventory, time and billing and job costing. The accounting program comes multi-user ready and “value packs” for 3 or more users are available. Peachtree accounting software is also available in Premium and First Accounting versions

5) Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting

The big selling feature of this small business accounting software is integration – and that’s a pretty big selling feature if you’re already using Microsoft Office. Being able to reuse data already entered into Excel or Outlook is a really useful feature and the integration with the Business Contact Manager makes it easy to stay on top of accounts. A slate of add-
on services ranges from online payroll through PayPal invoicing

Jere answers:

Susan,

It depends on how advanced you want to go. If your operating an online or mail/ phone order business you can use a system known as quickbooks that will also allow you to do inventory control, accept credit cards and most anything else. If your new to the business, it is retail based, or just want the basics you can create your own spreadsheet and use it.

Computers are making things much easier for business owners to keep track of inventory, contacts, payroll and a multitude of things that help in general.

Jere answers:

Employment Taxes for Businesses
This is the starting point on irs.gov for employment tax information. These links provide good, basic information on employment taxes and worker classification (independent contractors vs. Employees).

Http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=172179,00.html

Federal Income Tax and Social Security and Medicare Taxes
Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax
Self-Employment Tax
Depositing Employment Taxes
Reporting Employment Taxes
e-file for Business and Self-Employed Taxpayers
Preparing and Filing Form W-2
Correcting/Adjusting Employment Taxes
Combined Annual Wage Reporting (CAWR)

Combined Annual Wage Reporting (CAWR) is a Document Matching Program that compares the Employee Wage Information reported by the employer to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). If the amounts reported to the IRS do not match those from SSA, you may receive a notice asking for the reason for the discrepancy. If you do not respond timely, IRS may compute the additional taxes and/or penalties due and send you a bill. If you receive a notice CP253 or Letter 99C regarding missing Form(s) W-2, refer to Combined Annual Wage Reporting Missing Form W-2 Inquiries. If you receive a notice CP251 or Letter 99C regarding underreported employment taxes refer to Combined Annual Wage Reporting Employment Tax Problem Inquiries.
References/Related Topics

Businesses with Employees
Employment Tax Forms
Employment Tax Publications
Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop, Lesson 9 – What you need to know about Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA)
SSN Verification
Tax Calendar for Small Businesses and Self-Employed
Unemployment Insurance (UI) Taxes
W-2 Online. Create, save, print, and submit Forms W-2 and W-2c online.
Wage Reporting

Rate the Small Business and Self-Employed Web Site
Hope that you find the above enclosed information useful. 12/07/2011

Jere answers:

Hello,

My name is Melinda and I have had a successful home business for a while now. I decided to get together with my self-employed friends and family and create a free website to help others start their own business (and avoid scams). During my research I found the following sites specifically for work at home moms and dads:

1. Freelance mom – a support network for women working from home. They can help you to locate freelance work from home jobs. Their warm and supportive community is rich with home business ideas and internet marketing strategies to support you and help you to make smart decisions from choosing your business to promoting it.

2. Hire my Mom – their goal is to connect Mom Professionals, with a variety of backgrounds, to small and large businesses looking to outsource projects and jobs of all types. (Examples include: administrative, writing, graphic design, accounting, bookkeeping, customer service, marketing, public relations, programming, web design, coaching, sales, desktop publishing, payroll, human resources, database development, medical billing, etc.)

3. HBWM – provides its members with support, networking, free advertising options, information, a monthly (print) newsletter, email discussion list, searchable member directory, member spotlights and corporate discounts on various products and services. (They do not provide jobs.)

4. Mom’s Cafe – provides access to their article archive and their featured articles that discuss home based businesses, advertising, marketing, networking, and other resources. They have also included various career kits to help you get started on your home business.

Also – our site is:
Great Home Based Businesses and we have specific pages on:
– Hundred’s of Great Ideas for Home Based Businesses by Category
– Resources for Selling from Home
– Resources for Providing Services from your Home
– Avoiding Scams
– Kit businesses such as Pampered Chef
and a lot of other pointers.

PLEASE NOTE: we do not have a business or product that we want to sell you – our site is all about providing information.

If you are considering kit businesses like Pampered chef etc… – we have a page dedicated to these businesses on our site but the short answer is that: these businesses are ideal for people who do not have the time (stay-at-home parents) or comfort to leap into self-employment without a well established business concept and support system. These kits provide everything from products to sell – to marketing material – to business forms – to advice. HOWEVER you need to be comfortable selling and hitting up your friends and family and complete strangers to buy items directly from you. You also need to stage alot of “home parties” in order to make any money with the low margins alot of these companies provide. People who are successful with these businesses earn their money by recruiting alot of other people into their “sales teams”. If you are comfortable with this then these businesses can be great.

My key pieces of advice in picking your business:
1. Do what you know and love.
2. Follow your instincts.
3. Figure out how to provide value to your clients.
4. Talk to successful home business owners that you know and trust.
5. Whatever you do – try not to limit yourself to one income source – one of the best ways to grow your small business is to open yourself up to other income streams. If you start a catering business maybe you could also teach cooking classes in your house, or if you start house cleaning business then you could also stage houses for sale. This approach has been invaluable to me – allowing me to get through slowdowns in my “core” business.
6. Accept that “get rich quick” schemes only work for 1 in every million people and generally require illegal activity – instead try to build a lasting business that will continually pay you a reasonable amount.

Anyhow – that’s my two cents – Good luck with your business – I’m sure if you do your homework you’ll be very successful!!