Intuit Acquires SF Startup Playbook HR
Intuit has acquired San Francisco-based startup Playbook HR for an undisclosed amount. This is just one of many recent acquisitions made by Intuit, bolstering its portfolio of services and products. So, what does the Quickbooks maker plan to do with Playbook HR?
Playbook HR is a StartX accelerator company that offers services for hiring and managing independent contractors. As more and more small businesses seek independent contractors, there’s a growing need for services such as those offered by Playbook HR. Of course, it only makes sense for Intuit to acquire Playbook HR given its focus on accounting and business management software.
According to a recent report published by CareerBuilder, there are an estimated 10 million self-employed jobs in the United States. Granted, this number has declined in the past few years, but millions of Americans continue to work for themselves without the constraints of a parent company. And with analysts expecting this number to grow in the upcoming years, the need for self-employment management software is apparent.
Intuit Vice President and General Manager Alex Chriss cited the growth of on-demand services as being a challenge for both contractors and marketplaces. What exactly is an “on-demand” service? Well, one example is the surge of new transportation services like Uber and Lyft. Rather than calling a taxi, individuals in need of transportation can fire up an app on their smartphone to locate an Uber or Lyft driver. These companies use independent contractors as their drivers, employing tens of thousands of hard-working men and women in dozens of countries throughout the world.
“The rapid growth of the on-demand economy has created new compliance challenges for both contractors and marketplaces,” said Alex Chriss, Vice President and General Manager. “Our mission is to serve both sides of this economy. We want to make it easier for independent contractors to manage their finances and pay their taxes, and we also want to make it possible for on-demand marketplaces to manage their growing rosters of independent contractors and help them stay within the compliance guidelines.”
- Other recent acquisitions Intuit has made in recent years includes the following:
- Cloud-based payroll service provider Acrede
- Cloud-based bookkeeping software Invicto
- Small business appointment scheduling software Full State
- Data consulting firm Level Up Analytics
- Small business marketing and customer communications software DemandForce
Debit Card Transaction Fees: What You Should Know
With millions of people suffering from exorbitant amounts of credit card debt, individuals are choosing to use their debit cards to make purchases with. The advantage of using a debit card is that it limits you to spend only the amount that’s in your bank account. Besides, no one enjoys getting a credit card in the bill every month. However, you might be shocked to hear that many banks are now charging their customers for using their debit cards.
For most individuals, myself included, paying to use a debit card sounds kind of counter-productive. After all, reason people use them over credit cards it to save money and prevent fees from occurring. Unfortunately, the days of free debit cards might be coming to and end, as banks are in the early stages of charging their customers for debit card usage.
SunTrust is one such bank that’s begun charging their customers $5 per month if they use their debit card. This isn’t a per transaction fee, but rather a monthly fee if they want to use their debit card. Both Chase and Wells Fargo are also charging their debit card customers, although it’s slightly less at only $3 per month. A $5 per month fee probably isn’t going to break anyone’s bank account, but that’s an extra $60 bucks per year. When people expect free usage of their debit cards, they don’t want to be hit with an annual fee of $60.
There are a couple of things you can do to help avoid such fees, one of which is to limit the amount of times you use your debit card. Depending on the terms of the bank, you should be able to prevent the fee from occurring if you refrain from using your debit card in a given month. Perhaps you go could go every other month using your debit card. Doing this will cut your annual fee from $60 down to $30.
You might be able to avoid paying a bank debit card fee by switching banks. While most of the larger banks are charging their customers a monthly fee, the smaller ones aren’t. Spend a day calling or visiting some of the local banks in your area and asking them about their debit card fees. Chances are you could bypass some of these new fees by switching to a smaller bank. In addition to lower fees, small banks usually offer other perks such as reward programs, higher interests rates, etc.
How To Export a Quickbooks File To Quicken
Want to export your Quickbooks data to a Quicken-compatible format? While Quickbooks has become the leading and more popular business accounting software on the market, it’s not uncommon for some business owners to also use Quicken. However, the default settings of Quickbooks and Quicken have their own unique file format, preventing users from opening one file type in the other software. The good news is that you can still export a Quickbooks data to Quickbook.
Chart of Accounts
The first step in converting Quickbooks data to Quicken is to export your chart of accounts and vendor list. After opening Quickbooks, choose File > Utilities > Export > and Lists To IFF Files. Next, select the chart of accounts that you wish to export to Quicken and save it to your computer. Here’s the important part: select IFF as your preferred file type.
To export the vendor list, you’ll need to access the vendor center in Quickbooks and click the button labeled “Excel” in the header. Next, choose Export Vendor List > Export. Give your file a name and click the Save button to save it to your computer. And like before, you’ll want to make sure the file type is set to IFF format.
Transferring Data To Quicken Format
After saving your chart of accounts and vendor lists to your desktop, you can start transferring it into a Quicken-compatible format. Go ahead and open both of these files using Microsoft Excel. This is done by right clicking on the file, choosing the “Open With” option, and selecting Microsoft Excel. Once Excel is open, select File > Export > and choose the QIF format (note: that’s Quicken format).
Now that you have your chart of accounts and vendor lists, you can begin transferring the account into Quicken format. Located the previously saved files on your desktop or hard drive and open them using Microsoft Excel. If this is your first time attempting to open files using this method, let me explain how it’s done: locate the file and right click on the icon using your mouse. You should then see a list of options appear, one of which should say “Open With.” Hover over the option and left click on Micosoft Excel. This will tell your computer to open the file using Excel. After doing this for both the chart of accounts and vendor lists, you should now be able to open them in Quicken
Retirement Savings Tips
Millions of Americans make the mistake of waiting until their golden years before saving for retirement. The fact is that we simply don’t know what the future holds for us, and as such, we should begin saving for our retirement at much earlier age. Doing so will ensure that we’re able to enjoy the later years of our life without having to worry about work.
Let me first say that you’re never to young to start saving for retirement. According to the United States Department of Labor, the average American spends approximately 20 years in retirement. If your lifestyle and medical expenses cost roughly $50,000 a year, you’ll need $1 million to sustain your retirement. As you can see from that example, the sooner you start saving for retirement, the better.
You should know by now that saving for retirement at an early age is important, but where do you actually start? If you haven’t done so already, check with your employer to see if they offer a retirement plan such as a 401(k). Signing up for a 401(k) plan is one of the easiest ways to start saving money for your retirement. Basically, they’ll take a small portion out of your paycheck, add their own money to it, and place it a retirement account for you.
There are several advantages of using a 401(k) retirement plan, one of which is the reduced taxes. This means the more money you’re able to put into it, the less income taxes you’ll have to pay when April rolls around the following year. To really take advantage of the lower taxes on a 401(k), you should try to add the maximum amount of money possible to your account.
If your employer doesn’t offer a 401(k), perhaps you should try asking them to start one. When enough employees voice their concerns over an employee retirement account, the company may listen and respond by taking action. You can’t always place your retirement in the hands of an employer, though. Speak with a financial adviser about setting up an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). There are two types of IRAs – traditional and Roth, both of which allow the individual to contribute a maximum of $5,000 per year if they’re under the age of 50.
The number one reason why some people have difficulty saving for retirement is because they withdrawal their money too early. You have to treat a 401(k) and any other type of retirement savings account as just that – money for your retirement. When financial hardships occur, see if you can’t get a short-term loan from your bank. Taking money out of your retirement account early will likely cause you to lose your tax benefits and even accrue some other hefty fees as well.
When you’re ready to retire, you should visit the Social Security website to see if you’re eligible to start reviving benefits. While the amount you’ll receive varies from person to person, you can expect to get around 40% of what you earned before retirement. Along with an IRA and 401(k), social security will help to add some financial padding to your bank account during retirement.
How To Record a Bounced Check In Quickbooks
When a client or customer’s check bounces, you must adjust your Quickbooks account to reflect the lack of funds. Failure to do so may throw off your entire balance, forcing you to reconcile later in an attempt to find out why your Quickbooks balance doesn’t match your bank account balance. Thankfully, Quickbooks offers a simple solution to dealing with bounced checks and other forms of non-sufficient funds.
The next time you discover a bounced check from a client or customer, log into your Quickbooks account and click on the Receive Payments icon on the home screen. Now, scroll through the list of payments you’ve received until you find the bounced check. If you know the customer’s name, you can streamline the process by clicking Customers > Customer Center > Customer & Jobs. If you don’t know or remember the customer’s name, keep clicking the previous button until you find the bounced check.
Upon clicking the bounced check, you’ll have the option to specify a fee charged to you for the transaction. It’s not uncommon for banks to charge wire fees or other types of fees, for which this function is primary used. In this case, however, we’re going to use this field to specify the amount charged by the bank for the bounced check. Go ahead and enter the bounced check fee into this field and proceed to the next step.
You aren’t out of the woods just yet. Assuming you want to charge the customer for the bounced check fee (which you should), you’ll need to click the “yes” option next to the question “Charge customer for fee?” It’s important to note that you are free to specify any amount in this field. If the bank charged you $25 for the bounced check and you want to tack on an additional $25 as a “service fee,” you can enter a total of $50 to charge the customer. Click save and close when you are finished to complete the process. Sorry if you were expecting more, but that’s all it takes to record a bounced check in Quickbooks!
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!
Tips on Getting Approved For a Business Loan
Thinking about starting your own small business? According to the Small Business Association (SBA), there are approximately 27.9 million small businesses, and 18,500 firms with 500 employees or more operating in the U.S.
Among other things, you’ll have to pay for the business licenses, insurance, lease, utilities, payroll, marketing, tools, and on-going training. It’s not uncommon for some entrepreneurs to spend tens of thousands of dollars just to get their business up and running. The good news is that you can apply for loans at various banks and financial institutions, but the bad news is that you won’t always get approved.
If banks approved each loan application they received, they wouldn’t be able to stay in business. When lending money to entrepreneurs, they want to know it’s going to a well-structured business with a clear strategy and objective. After all, they probably won’t get their money back if the business fails. Understanding this principle will help you make smarter decisions on your loan applications; thus, improving your chances of approval.
Apply For The Right Loan
To boost your chances of approval, make sure you apply for the right type of small business loan. There are several different types of small business loans, each of which is designed for a specific reason. For instance, there are startup loans, business acquisition loans, debt consolidation loans, etc. Ask yourself – how do I plan to use this capital? – and then choose the loan that best fits your professional needs.
If your goal is simply to pay off credit card debt that you acquired from launching your business, then you’ll want to apply for a debt consolidation loan. These loans are incredibly helpful for a number of reasons; they’ll consolidate some (or all) of your debt into a single convenient loan. Rather than sending half a dozen or more monthly payments to your debtors, you can make a single payment to the loan lender. And depending on the terms and conditions, a debt consolidation loan will probably have a lower interest rate than most standard credit cards.
Be Professional
You can’t expect a bank or financial institution to lend you money for a small business if you show up in casual attire with no real sense of professionalism. Before meeting with any lenders, gather all of your documents and financial records pertaining to the practice. Even if your business is still in the works, you can draft up projected sales and revenue with the help of an accountant. This shows banks that you are serious about your business, and as such, they’ll lend you money with more confidence.
What Is Quickbooks Condense Data Utility?
After spending some time in Quickbooks, you may come across a tool called “Condense Data Utility.” If you’re a newcomer to Quickbooks, you’re probably wondering just what in the world this tool does and how to use it. In an effort to shed light on this topic, we’re going to reveal everything you need to know about the Condense Data Utility in this blog post.
The Condense Data Utility is designed to reduce the total size of your company file by condensing closed transactions into journal entries and removing unnecessary elements from lists. It’s not uncommon for company files to exceed over 1GB in file size. And conventional wisdom should tell you that large files are slower and take longer to access/back up, which his where the Condense Data Utility comes into play. It reduces the company file size, thereby improving speed and overall performance.
It’s important to note that there’s no “undo” option for the Condense Data Utility. Once you’ve condensed your company file, there’s no turning back. So before jumping head first into this tool, it’s recommended that you evaluate your company file to determine whether or not it’s needed. See below for a list of common reasons to use the Condense Data Utility:
- You are approaching a list limit.
- Your company file is too large to back up in a reasonable amount of time.
- Quickbooks is running unusually slow.
- You have exhausted all other avenues of improving the performance of Quickbooks (e.g. hardware upgrade, Cloud management, increasing resources, starting a new company file).
To run the Condense Data Utility, select File from the main menu followed by Utilities and Condense Data. This will bring up the Wizard, which walks you through the steps to running the Condense Data Utility. If you need help during this process, click the Help button within the Wizard for a list of help topics and answers. During the initial setup, you’ll be asked to specify the lists that you wish to clean up. Feel free to choose any lists that you believe are large and problematic. When you are finished with the setup, click the Begin Condense button to initiate the process. There’s no turning back once you click the Begin Condense button, so make sure everything is correct.
How To Cancel a Payment In Quickbooks
Did you accidentally send a payment to the wrong vendor? This is an all-too-common scenario that thousands of business owners experience. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, accidents such as this are bound to happen. The good news is that you can cancel payments from within your Quickbooks account.
Before we start, it’s important to note than canceling a payment is not the same as stopping a payment. If the payment has already been processed, or if it’s being processed, you’ll need to contact the respective financial institution for more information.
If you’re using Quickbooks Online, you can cancel a payment in just a few easy steps. Each time you create a payment in Quickbooks Online, you are required to specify a delivery date. The recipient’s bank/financial institution won’t process the payment until this date, so as long as you cancel it before this time you shouldn’t encounter any issues. Furthermore, most banks have a 24-48 hour “processing time,” which doesn’t begin until the specified delivery date.
To cancel a payment in Quickbooks, access the Online Banking Center > Cancel Payments > and click the “Send Check” box for the transaction you wish to cancel. When you are finished, click “Close” to complete the process and exit out of the Banking Center.
Now go back to into the Online Banking Center and open the register associated with the account from which you made the payment. Scroll through the register until you find the transaction that you wish to cancel. Click the transaction to select it and click the Edit menu followed by “Cancel Payment.” Double check to make sure you are cancelling the correct payment and click OK.
So, how do you know if a payment was cancelled? You can find out by checking your Online Banking Center. Assuming the payment was properly cancelled, it should appear in your “Items to send” list.
For Desktop Quickbooks, you’ll need to access the bill or bill payment check in the register window, search for the transaction you wish to cancel, and click the “Go to” button at the top. Next, choose Edit > Void payment or Delete bill. Voiding a bill will change the transaction to $0, but it still keeps a record in your Quickbooks account. Deleting a bill, on the other hand, removes every trace of the transaction, including the record.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!
Banks Now Charging For Debit Card Transactions
Did you know that banks are charging for debit card transactions? This isn’t a new phenomenon, as they’ve been doing it for decades. However, recent federal laws may increase the amount of fees customers incur from using their debit card. If you have a bank checking account with a debit card, it’s important that you understand what these fees are and how they’ll affect you.
You may not realize it, but each time you swipe your debit card at a store or use it to make an online purchase, the retailer is charged a fee by the bank. If a store wants to have the ability to process debit or credit card transactions, they must pay the banks for its their use. For a while, fee amount charged by the bank was uncapped and was varied depending on the bank. It wasn’t until Obama signed into effect the Dodd-Frank Act which focused on protecting consumer’s rights and interests, one of which is placing a cap on how much banks could charge retailers and small businesses for processing credit and debit card transactions.
The Dodd-Frank Act may seem like a good idea on paper, but it’s a double-edged sword of sorts. Although it caps the fee banks charge retailers to use their cards, it’s also responsible for increasing the fees for cardholders. With less money charged to retailers and merchants, banks are looking for other methods to make up for this lost revenue, such as charging cardholders for using debit cards.
Not all banks are charging their customers for using their debit cards. Thankfully, it’s usually not a per-transaction fee either. Instead, banks are charging a flat monthly fee if their customers decide to use their debit cards. Bank of America is one such bank that’s now charging a flat $5 monthly fee to their debit card customers. Whether you make 1 transaction or 100, you’re still charged the flat $5 per month fee. Certain Wells Fargo locations are also charging their card holders a monthly fee of $3 for using their debit cards.
Both of the Wells Fargo and Bank of America debit card fee programs are new and considered to be in test mode. In fact, Wells Fargo is calling their program the pilot program. Because of this, we can expect to see some changes in the years to come. Even though they’re only charging a couple of dollars for customers to use their debit cards, it’s something that most people expect for free. Sure, the program might put some money into the bank’s pockets, but it will also turn away many potential customers.
Pros and Cons of Using Debit Cards
One of the advantages associated with owning a debit card is that it gives you the ability to make online purchases. Not everyone has a credit card and many of those who do probably don’t want to use it every time they make a purchase. The high interest rate, fees and surcharges can really start to weigh down your bill. Thankfully, an alternative method is to use a debit card for online shopping.
If you’ve never made an online purchase using a debit card before, you might wondering how it works. The process varies depending on what website you’re purchasing from, but most involve using a secured checkout page to enter in your debit card information. Before making any online purchase, make sure the address in your web browser starts with “https”, which basically states the page is secure and your private information will remain protected.
When you’re ready to checkout, you’ll need to enter your debit card information into the website. After you’ve identified the website is secure, enter in your card number, expiration date, CCV and your billing information. Your order should be instantly processed after submitting your debit card information.
There are a couple of disadvantages to using a debit card over a credit card for online purchases, the most serious of which is the amount of liability protection offered. Most all credit cards are pretty good about dealing with theft situations. If someone steals and uses your credit card to rack up thousands of dollars in purchases, you can call the company and have the card immediately frozen and your charges reversed. On the other hand, a thief can wipe your bank account clean if they’re able to get their hands on your debit card. Although the bank will probably return some or all of the stolen money, it will certainly take longer than credit cards.
In addition to only making debit card purchased from a secured website, you should also refrain from storing your account information in a location where hackers and would-be thieves could access it. Even if you “think” your email account is safe, hackers are always retrieving data for thousands of accounts. In fact, nearly half a million email addresses and passwords of Yahoo users were recently compromised by hackers. The hackers responsible for this act left a note stating this wasn’t a malicious attack, but rather a wake up call to the vulnerabilities in Yahoo’s system.