Blog Archives
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How much do you value your employees? As much as they contribute?
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Saturday April 13, 2013From Isaac's Tech Views blog . I'm about to reach the 11 year mark of working for the same employer, this publication. I graduated high school in 88, tried college (had fun, but didn't do well) - worked a few jobs, then joined the US Navy as a Seabee until the end of 1996. Then, I returned to college at OU and finished my BA in Public Relations/ Tech Journalism in Dec 1998. I then took an internship in Denver with Ogilvy , the world's largest PR firm. After Denver, I was offered a tech PR position in San Francisco. A great mid-sized firm (110 people in SF, NY and AZ). But I was laid off during the tech bubble of 2001. The firm went kaput in 2002. So, in mid 2001, I returned to Oklahoma and re-enrolled at OU to pursue grad... -
Licensing Tax Preparers: It's necessary, and it's going to happen soon
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday April 12, 2013From the "Bleeding Edge" blog : More than half of all tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service are prepared by professionals. That’s a substantial number of returns, so it is sad to see the number of preparers who make significant errors. And the number of software products for tax preparation that run into substantial problems by calculating taxes incorrectly. No need to name them – you can read the headlines for yourselves. The point is that the IRS wants to clean up this mess by licensing tax preparers, and I am all for it. The sad truth is that while many people can do their own taxes by self-directed online tax programs, the code is getting so complicated that half or more of the population and nearly all... -
Accounting's Disability Niche
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Friday April 12, 2013From the Bleeding Edge blog. Tax and Accounting services are and always have been niche businesses. That is to say, firms become successful by identifying segments of their market that have accounting and tax needs, then serving that segment well. Which is why I’m surprised that more firms are not building their client base by serving the growing ranks of disabled Americans. By all accounts, there are some 8.8 million people in the United States today, and the numbers are increasing. In the year from November, 2011 to November, 2012, an additional 1.2 million Americans joined the ranks of the disabled. There are a host of reasons for this increase, but four factors are likely contributors: The Veteran’s Administration and... -
Working from home quite simply rocks - For employees and the business
By Sandra Wiley, COO, Boomer Consulting - Monday April 8, 2013" Productivity and sharing of wisdom will be sacrificed if we allow our staff to work from home. We need everyone in the office, working together physically." ~ A Managing Partner, Public Accounting Firm, California Say what? Productivity and sharing wisdom will be lost if we allow our team to work from home? I would place my bet that right now if you are a firm that has allowed their team to work from home, you are saying “that is not true.” If you are a firm that is entrenched in working in a more traditional manner, you are saying “I think that is true.” Where do you go from here? How do you find the new reality for your future? Grow Your Own Wisdom : Read everything you can get your hands on about companies... -
How to obtain penalty relief for clients affected by delayed IRS forms
By Jim Buttonow, CPA; CoFounder and VP New River Innovation - Thursday March 28, 2013From the IRS Inside blog. Because of last-minute tax changes this year, 31 IRS forms needed for filing were delayed. Some taxpayers who had to wait for these delayed forms may file an extension. When filing extensions, taxpayers are required to estimate and pay 90% of their tax liability (Treas. Reg. 301.6651-1(c)(3) and (4)). However, some taxpayers may not have had the benefit of the forms, including computations, to help them properly estimate their liabilities. When taxpayers incorrectly estimate and inadvertently underpay their tax liabilities with a filed extension, the IRS automatically imposes a failure to pay penalty. On March 20, the IRS announced that it will waive failure to pay penalties for taxpayers filing extensions... -
Is Facebook Becoming Obsolete?
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday March 19, 2013
From Dave's Bleeding Edge blog : Last year, I began warning that Facebook was a tech crash in the making. It wasn’t just that the social network had no other business model than mining its own users for their personal data to sell to advertisers. It wasn’t that the service was over-run by sleazy advertisers, viruses and hucksters. It was because its core users, the tween-to-twentysomething group, is notoriously fickle. One day you are hotter than the teenie rock group Hanson, the next day you are embarrassing to be seen with. Not only that, young people appear to be turned off by the raw egotism of the service. But that’s not the disconcerting part of all of this. The truly disconcerting part is that the company, now ten... -
Cutting your Internet Bill, Part III
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Monday March 18, 2013So you have done your homework, cut your bills for some things, but are you really done squeezing the fat out of your communications bills? Not even close. For one thing, if you have been very lucky you may have cut your bill by about $100, but you are still on the hook to a variety of vendors for upwards of $250 per month. You can do better, and here’s how. This is part III of a three-part series from Dave's Bleeding Edge Blog . You can read the first two here and here . Note that since we gave the first five in the previous article, we will start with #6: 6) Cut your cable/satellite/fiber TV bill by cutting out channels. For the package that you buy, to get the channels you like to watch, you will pay from $100 to $150... -
SmartVault Debuts in Intuit AppCenter
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Tuesday March 12, 2013From Darren's "My Perspective" blog. SmartVault is the first to offer integrated online document management for QuickBooks Online customers, which is now available in the Intuit AppCenter. The integration allows QuickBooks Online users to attach and view source documents (such as receipts, bills, and invoices) directly from within QuickBooks Online—supporting a completely digital and collaborative accounting workflow. SmartVault shared with us a few key features of the integration, including the ability to: Attach and view files directly to entries in QuickBooks Online Increase efficiencies in workflow with a built-in electronic Inbox View files instantly in a browser without having to download files initially Access... -
Tax season scams that tax preparers need to worry about
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Tuesday March 12, 2013From Dave McClure's Bleeding Edge blog . The last thing you need in the middle of tax season is to be hit by scammers trying to plant malware on your computer and force you to make payments to them. The Internet Crime Complaint Center ( http://www.ic3.gov ), a joint effort of the National White Collar Crime Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is currently warning about two scams, the Citadel Malware Extortion Scam and the Tech Support Scam. Here are the reports, taken from the IC3 web site: Citadel Malware Extortion A new extortion technique is being deployed by cyber-criminals using the Citadel malware platform to deliver Reveton ransomware. The latest version of the ransomware uses the name of the Internet Crime... -
Cutting Your Internet Bill, Part II
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Sunday March 10, 2013If you are looking to cut the costs of your telecommunications systems, understand up front that you will be lied to, lied about, mislead and confused. The companies that provide these services have absolutely no interest in giving you real and usable facts with which to make valid decisions. (This is Part II of a three-part series from Dave's ' Bleeding Edge ' blog. Click here to see Part I .) You will be treated as though you are moderately stupid, or simply handed off by a customer service representative who has no power to help you in the least. Nor is the government in your corner – except in the case of cell phones. But if you are willing to do a little work and introspection, here are some steps you may take. If you...
