Noteworthy Financial Events and a Little “How-to”

Universal Accounting Center has heard your requests for more accounting news and tips. Here are a few timely financial events we thought might interest you.

QuickBooks Time Tracker: A Feature That May Save You Time

This QuickBooks Add-On is intended to make tracking timesheets much easier. For those accountants who manage payroll for small businesses, this will eliminate the need to retype timesheet information; the employees track their own time and it gets transferred into QuickBooks automatically. Data can be collected over the internet, allowing you to accomplish timely billing with fewer errors. A 60-day trial is included with the 2007 versions of QuickBooks Pro and Premier. For more information visit Intuit’s QuickBooks website.

The IRS Announces a Formula for Calculating Telephone Excise Tax Refunds
In May of 2006 the Treasure Department announced that beginning April 1 the government would no longer collect federal excise tax on long-distance telephone service. They also announced that taxpayers could request refunds for telephone excise tax collected after February 28, 2003. To avoid the troublesome task of calculating 41 month’s worth of long-distance telephone taxes, the IRS recently released a formula intended to help individuals, business owners, and non-profit organizations to calculate their refunds.

To request a refund, business owners and non-profit organizations should complete Form 8913, Credit for Telephone Excise Tax Paid and attach it to their regular return. In order to calculate their refund, they must use the new IRS formula. First compare two telephone service statements: April, 2006 and September, 2006. Calculate the tax percentage of each bill (April contains a tax on local and long-distance service while September only includes a tax on local telephone service). The difference between these two percentages must then be applied to the quarterly or annual phone charges to determine their refund. You can find more information on the federal telephone excise tax refund in your 2006 tax return materials, or visit the IRS.gov.

More Affluent Women Need Financial Services

All business owners want to increase their client base. If you were aware of a new target market in need of your services, you would alter your sales approach in order to better promote your business. AICPA reports that there are more affluent women in 2006 then ever before; this means there are more affluent women in need of financial services than ever before. For the most part these women are well-educated, between the ages of 45 and 54, self-made, and financially conscientious. These women are interested in preparing for retirement and taking good care of their families. Understanding these potential clients will enable you to better market your services and respond to their financial needs.

Helping Clients Prepare for a Bank Reconciliation

At some point you’ll have a client request help with a bank reconciliation, or perhaps you’ll feel the process is necessary to ensure that the business’s records and the bank’s records are correct. Whoever requests it, you’ll need to compare the bank’s statement with company records and note adjustments: outstanding checks, bank fees, deposits in transit, etc. The company then needs to note the balance on their current records. If the adjusted balance per the bank and the adjusted balance per the company match then the bank reconciliation is complete. If not, the difference needs to be identified. And any difference needs to be noted in the company records with corresponding journal entries. Bank reconciliations can be tedious, but accountants and bookkeepers must become comfortable with the task in order to best serve their clients, ensuring that company records are accurate and complete.

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