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How Does QuickBooks Online Handle Mobile Expenses?

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Largo CPA FirmIf you purchase several items and services away from the office, QuickBooks Online can help you record them while you’re out and about.

QuickBooks Online’s mobile app, available at the Apple App Store and Google Play, can do many of the same tasks that it performs on your office desktop. You can, for example:

 

  • Check account balances.
  • Add and edit estimates, invoices, and sales receipts.
  • Add and edit customers, vendors, products, and services.
  • Record invoice payments.

 

One of the most common uses of the app, though, is the recording of expenses. Rather than coming home from a trip with your briefcase stuffed full of receipts and notes about purchases you made, you can document them on the road using your mobile device. When you get back to the office and log on to QuickBooks Online, they’ll all be there.

 

How It Works


You can snap a photo of a receipt with your smartphone and attach it to an expense you record in QuickBooks Online’s mobile app.

Open your QuickBooks Online mobile app and click the plus (+) sign at the bottom, then tap the Expense icon. The New Expense screen will open. If you have a paper receipt, lay it flat on a table in a well-lighted area. Click the camera icon and then the Take Photo link. If you took the picture outside of QuickBooks Online for some reason, you’d select the Choose Existing link. Your device’s camera will open, and you’ll see four squared corners on the edges of the screen.

 

Hover your device over the receipt. You’ll need to position the camera so the receipt area that you want captured appears within the four corners. QuickBooks Online will provide advice along the way to help you do this. When you’re in the right place, you’ll see the phrase, Great! Snap the pic. Click the shutter icon below, and your device will snap the photo and display it. If you want to use it, click Use this photo (if you want to try again, click the X in the upper left of the screen).

 

QuickBooks Online will open the New Expense screen. You’ll see a miniature version of your receipt in the upper left corner. Looking at your original version—it will be too small to see here—fill in the blanks with the data from the purchase. Be sure to click the Billable button if you can bill someone else for it. Make any notes you’ll need in order to remind yourself of the transaction, and Add a Split if you need to divide the transaction between categories, customers or vendors, or billable status. Click Save when you’re done.

 

Automatic Synchronization


Once you’ve entered an expense in QuickBooks Online’s mobile app, it will be synchronized with your desktop, browser-based version.

Of course, no duplicate data entry is required once you’ve entered a receipt in the QuickBooks Online mobile app – the two versions always update each other.

 

Once you’re back at your desktop, on the browser-based version of QuickBooks Online, click Expenses in the toolbar to open the Expense Transactions screen. You should see the transaction you just created on your mobile device first in line on the list that displays. Click View/Edit at the end of that line to see it. Look toward the bottom under Item Details to see the link to an attachment that contains the photo you snapped of the receipt.


The record of the expense you entered on your mobile device will contain a link to an attachment that contains the photo of your receipt.

Of course, you don’t have to take a picture of your receipt with your mobile device. You can simply enter the details of your expense and Save the record.

 

QuickBooks Online’s mobile app can help you save time and improve the accuracy of your work done away from the office. As we mentioned earlier, the app is capable of doing much more than simply recording receipts. We’d be happy to run you through its pieces to make sure your remote accounting work is done correctly.

 

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Have you downloaded and explored QuickBooks Online’s iOS or Android mobile app? There’s a lot you can do away from the office. Let us show you how.

 

If you come home from trips with a briefcase full of receipts, you should consider entering them quickly and remotely on the QuickBooks Online mobile app.

 

Collecting a lot of receipts on the road? Snap photos of them using QuickBooks Online’s mobile app. Your expense record will sync with the browser-based version.

 

Did you know when you take a picture of a receipt using QuickBooks Online’s mobile app, it appears as an attachment in that expense record in your desktop version?

Payroll Taxes: Who’s Responsible?

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payroll conceptAny business with employees must withhold money from its employees’ paychecks for income and employment taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes (known as Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes, or FICA), and forward that money to the government. A business that knowingly or unknowingly fails to remit these withheld taxes in a timely manner will find itself in trouble with the IRS.

The IRS may levy a penalty, known as the trust fund recovery penalty, on individuals classified as “responsible persons.” The penalty is equal to 100% of the unpaid federal income and FICA taxes withheld from employees’ pay.

Who’s a Responsible Person?

Any person who is responsible for collecting, accounting for, and paying over withheld taxes and who willfully fails to remit those taxes to the IRS is a responsible person who can be liable for the trust fund recovery penalty. A company’s officers and employees in charge of accounting functions could fall into this category. However, the IRS will take the facts and circumstances of each individual case into consideration.

The IRS states that a responsible person may be:

  • An officer or an employee of a corporation
  • A member or employee of a partnership
  • A corporate director or shareholder
  • Another person with authority and control over funds to direct their disbursement
  • Another corporation or third-party payer
  • Payroll service providers

The IRS will target any person who has significant influence over whether certain bills or creditors should be paid or is responsible for day-to-day financial management.

Working With the IRS

If your responsibilities make you a “responsible person,” then you must make certain that all payroll taxes are being correctly withheld and remitted in a timely manner. Talk to a tax professional if you need to know more about the requirements.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your business needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

Deducting Home Office Expenses

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If you’re one of the many people working from home this year, you may have questions about the home office tax deduction and whether you can qualify for it. Here’s a rundown of the rules.

Employees

Unfortunately, home office expenses incurred while working as an employee are not currently deductible. The reason: the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act temporarily suspended the itemized deduction for unreimbursed employee business expenses (and various other miscellaneous expenses). Unless lawmakers make a change, the deduction won’t become available again until 2026.

Self-Employed Individuals

The news is better if you are self-employed. You will be eligible for a home office deduction provided you can satisfy certain requirements. If you do, you can deduct all direct expenses and part of the indirect expenses involved in working from home. The deduction is generally limited to income from the business, and excess expenses may be carried over to the next year.

Direct expenses are costs that apply only to your home office. The cost of painting your home office is an example of a direct expense. Indirect expenses include expenses such as rent, mortgage interest, real estate taxes, maintenance, and homeowners insurance. You can deduct only the business portion of your indirect expenses. These expenses are typically allocated between business and personal use based on square footage.

IRS Requirements

To qualify, a home office — a room or another separately identifiable space — generally has to be used regularly and exclusively for business purposes. The home office also must be (1) your principal place of business; (2) a place where you meet patients, clients, or customers; (3) a separate unattached structure that you use in connection with your business; or (4) a space within your residence that you regularly use to store inventory or product samples in connection with the business, if the residence is the only fixed location of your business (in this situation, the space doesn’t have to be used exclusively for storage).

You don’t necessarily have to spend most of your work hours in your home office for it to meet the principal place of business requirement. A home office can qualify if you use it for administrative or management activities and it is the only fixed location where you conduct those activities. Some examples of administrative or management activities include: billing customers, clients, or patients; keeping books and records; ordering supplies; setting up appointments; forwarding orders or writing reports.

Simplified Option

If you prefer not to keep track of your expenses, there’s a simplified method that allows qualifying taxpayers to deduct $5 for each square foot of office space, up to a maximum of 300 square feet. When the simplified method is used, qualified mortgage interest and property taxes are separately deductible as itemized deductions.

Your tax professional can help you determine whether you qualify for a deduction and what you may need to do to take advantage of it.

 

Storing Your Tax Records

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Tax wording on wooden cubes with US dollar coins and bag.Once you’ve filed your tax return, you may be tempted to clean house and get rid of some of your old records that are taking up space. The guidelines that follow will help you decide which items can go and which should stay in your files.1

Income and Expenses

Keep for at least three years after the date you file your return (or its due date, if later) the records proving your income and expenses, such as:

  • Form(s) W-2
  • Form(s) 1099
  • Form(s) K-1
  • Bank and brokerage statements
  • Canceled checks or other proof of payment

Three years is generally considered a minimum. If you can, consider keeping these items six years, the IRS’s time limit for auditing a return when income is substantially understated and no fraud exists.

Investments

You’ll need your investment records to figure your gains and losses when you sell the investments. After you’ve sold an investment, continue to retain your records for as long as you keep the other items supporting the tax return on which you report the sale (three or six years). Investment records include statements showing when you purchased the investment, the purchase price, brokerage commissions, and any reinvested dividends.

Residence Purchases and Improvements

Hold on to closing statements and other paperwork related to the purchase of your principal residence for use when you eventually sell the home. Put records of any home improvements you’ve made in the file, too. While many homeowners won’t have a taxable gain when they sell their homes because of the $250,000 ($500,000 for married couples) exemption, special circumstances, such as renting out your home or having a home office, could result in a taxable profit.

Your Tax Returns

Maintain one or more permanent files with important personal documents, including your tax returns. If you don’t file a return, the IRS can assess tax at any time. You’ll need a copy of your return in case the IRS has no record of your filing.

1This communication is not intended to be tax advice and should not be treated as such. Each individual’s tax situation is diferent. Contact your tax professional to discuss your personal situation.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your tax needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

What You Need to Know About Incorporating Your Business

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451583115Incorporating your small business the right way can bring tax benefits and protect your personal assets. Read on to learn more about what incorporation is, why you might want to incorporate, and how an accountant can help you navigate the questions that come with selecting the right business structure.

What is Incorporation?

When discussing “incorporation” in terms of a business, the term denotes how the business is organized or structured.

Regardless of the structure you choose for your business, incorporation is a legal process that brings your business into existence. The following are business structures commonly used in a small business.

Sole proprietorship

If you conduct business as an individual and do not register as any other type of business, you are a sole proprietor. With this business structure, your personal and business assets and liabilities are not separate. Sole proprietorships are relatively simple structures and a good choice for low-risk businesses or entrepreneurs testing a business idea. However, this business structure does not offer liability protection, so the owner is personally responsible for business debts and obligations. Another drawback is that it can be more challenging to get bank financing and business credit with this structure.

Partnership

When two or more individuals own a business together, the simplest structure is the partnership. There are limited partnerships (LP) and limited liability partnerships (LLP). LPs consist of a general partner with unlimited liability; the remaining partners have limited liability and limited control in the business. The partner without limited liability pays self-employment taxes. In LLPs, every owner has limited liability, protecting them from business debts and the actions of the other partners.

Partnerships can be a good choice for multiple-owned businesses and professional groups like physicians, attorneys, and veterinarians.

C-corp

Sometimes called a C-corp, a corporation is a separate legal entity from the business owner(s). The benefit of a corporation is that they offer the most robust protection for owners from personal liability; however, it costs more to form a corporation than it does to establish other business structures, and business profits are taxed at the personal and corporate level. Further, the record-keeping, operations, and reporting are more involved for a corporation. This structure is usually best for higher-risk businesses or those that raise money or plan to become publicly traded in the stock market.

S-corp

An S-corporation, or S-corp, is designed to avoid the double-taxation of a C-corp. This avoidance is possible because, in an S-corp, profits and some losses go through the owner’s personal income to avoid corporate taxes. S-corps are taxed differently in different states, so it is essential to have your accountant help you understand the guidelines and laws in your state.

LLC

A limited liability company (LLC) has the benefits of a corporation and a partnership. The owner is protected from personal liability in situations like bankruptcy or lawsuits and can avoid corporate taxes because profits and losses can pass through their personal income. However, there are self-employment taxes and Medicare and Social Security contributions since LLC members are considered self-employed.

An LLC is an option for owners with significant assets that need protection and who want the benefit of a lower tax rate than a corporation pays.

How to Incorporate

When you’re ready to incorporate your business, consult your trusted CPA or accountant so that you have a full view of what incorporating will mean for you and your business initially and for years to come.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your business needs with an experienced Largo CPA.

How Do You Add Users in QuickBooks Online?

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If you have one or more people besides yourself using QuickBooks Online, you’ll need to know how to set up their accounts.

Your QuickBooks Online file contains a great deal of very sensitive information, like customers’ credit card numbers and employees’ Social Security numbers – data you don’t want to have fall into the wrong hands. You obviously trust your employees or you wouldn’t have hired them, but when it comes to security, you should implement all the safeguards you can.

QuickBooks Online can help you stay safe by limiting the access that other users have to your company file. Here’s how it works.

To get started, click the gear icon in the upper right and select Manage users. You should be listed there, of course, as the Master Administrator. Click Add user. The screen that opens will ask you what type of user you’re adding. There are four of them:

  • Standard user. You can assign full or limited access to standard users, but they won’t have administrator privileges.
  • Company admin. At this level, the user can see and do everything.
  • Reports only. These individuals have access to all reports except those that contain payroll or contact information.
  • Time tracking only. You’d assign this type to employees who only need to enter their own timesheets.

 

The first two count toward your user limit, but the second two do not. Make your selection and click Next. We’ll select standard user for this example.

On the screen that opens, you’ll be assigning actual access rights, telling QuickBooks Online what the user’s restrictions are. You can choose All (with or without payroll access), None (allows some activities), or Limited. Select Limited, then click in the box in front of Customer to create a check mark. You’ll see the list of specific actions that that individual can take (like creating invoices, sales receipts, and statements) and the screens that they can see (customer registers and reports, tax rates and agency settings, etc.).

There’s also a list of what they can’t do, including printing checks, viewing bank registers, and preparing a sales tax return.

Click in the box in front of Customer again to uncheck it and select Vendor. You’ll see a similar list here of what your new user can and can’t do, only its activities relate to your accounts payable.

 

Click Next If the user will be entering his own her own timesheets in QuickBooks Online, click the button in front of Yes, then select the correct name from the drop-down list. Click Next. Answer the user settings questions on the next screen and click Next. Enter the user’s name and email address (user ID), then click Save. QuickBooks Online will return you to the Manage Users screen, where you’ll see that your new user has been added to the list. The individual you just invited will receive an email invitation to set up an account, with instructions on how to do so.

Other Security Tips

There are other ways you can keep all of your company’s data safe. Here are some suggestions to consider if your business has returned to its offices.

  • Always update your operating system and applications when prompted. These often contain security patches in addition to bug fixes and new features.
  • Keep backups out of reach of others. Cloud backups are best, but if you use a local device, don’t leave it out in the open.
  • Log out of QuickBooks Online when you’re not at your desk.
  • Shred anything you print from QuickBooks Online or store it in a locked drawer.
  • Protect your networks. Discourage excessive web browsing by employees. Don’t allow extraneous app downloading on company equipment and ask employees not to use company mobile devices on public networks. Consider network monitoring software if you can’t afford managed IT.

We follow security best practices in our own offices, and we hope you’ll do the same. Applying safeguards proactively will help prevent data theft that can be nearly impossible to recover from.

Intuit employs industry-standard security practices to keep your data safe, too, and it handles all backup and upgrades. Often, those updates include new features, like the recent addition of transaction “tags.” Let us know if you need our help with these or with any other element of QuickBooks Online.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Are you taking on a new employee who will use QuickBooks Online? The site has a specialized setup process for this.

Did you know that you can create and use tags now in QuickBooks Online? We can show you how it’s done.

Are you concerned about the security of your QuickBooks data? Ask us how you can best protect it.

Are you considering using QuickBooks Online in 2021? We’d be happy to help you set it up for your business and learn to use it.

Send us an e-mail or call us today at 727-544-1120 and ask for Debbie Jackson to discuss your QuickBooks accounting needs with an experienced Largo CPA.