Greenleaf Accounting

Volunteering Your Services

admin — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:29:54 +0000

So, you decided to help out a local nonprofit and volunteered your professional services. Will you be able to write this off on your tax return as a donation? Not so much. You cannot claim a charitable deduction for the value of your services, no matter how much time and effort you put in. However, [...]

Bookkeeping Tasks Done? Check!

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:00:46 +0000

I’m a huge fan of checklists and couldn’t live without them. They get me through my day and help me make sure I’m not forgetting something vital. It also saves me from a mountain of post-it notes and little “reminders” that get lost just when you need them. So, if you’re ready to get your [...]

QuickBooks 2010 to Sunset May 31, 2013

admin — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:50:26 +0000

Intuit recently announced that they will no longer be supporting QuickBooks 2010 as of May 31, 2013, a process known as “sunsetting” the product. What does this mean? Basically, Intuit will no longer provide live technical support for the product or enable add-on services such as online banking, payroll or credit card processing. What should [...]

Four Ways to Save Money in 2013

admin — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:00:29 +0000

It’s always a good idea to be on the lookout for ways to increase your profits, and luckily, there are many ways to do that. One way is to focus on cost-cutting, and here are four expenses that are good to periodically review for cost-cutting possibilities. Telephone Re-negotiating with the phone company every one to [...]

Charitable Contributions Just Became Easier: From Evaluations to Tracking

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 14:15:17 +0000

In recent years the IRS has stiffened the required documentation for donations of clothing and other household items to nonprofit organizations like the Salvation Army or Goodwill Industries. “Three bags of clothing” or “two boxes of books” is not an adequate description of the donated items to claim the deduction. You must have a list [...]

Make Tax Time Less Painful in Four Steps

admin — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 08:00:52 +0000

Tax season may not be your favorite time of year, but perhaps I can make it easier. Here are four things you can do now to smooth out the time required to pull your records together for your tax preparer. 1. Contractor Clean-up In preparation for 1099s, take a look at your vendor list now and [...]

QuickBooks Problems? Call the File Doctor!

admin — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 14:12:27 +0000

Intuit has just released an updated version of their QuickBooks File Doctor, a tool to help diagnose and fix various problems with your QuickBooks data file, including data corruption and Windows conflicts. The tool can be found on the Intuit QuickBooks Support site here. This is a Windows tool that runs on Windows XP, Vista [...]

Wave Accounting … a Review

admin — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:21:52 +0000

Recently, I’ve been speaking with some brand-new business owners who have been looking for a cheaper alternative to QuickBooks Online. In searching for a “real” accounting system that’s (1) web-based, (2) secure and (3) cheap, I came across Wave Accounting. By far, the most intriguing aspect of Wave Accounting is the ability to tie together [...]

How Much Is Your Client Worth?

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 08:00:41 +0000

How much is the average client worth to your business? Not just per project or even per year, but for the lifetime of your business. Calculating the lifetime value of a client is an eye-opening exercise I recommend to every small business owner. Repeat business Let’s take several examples. A client who eats a $15 [...]

How Small is Too Small?

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 20:42:06 +0000

A lot of my clients don’t know that I actually received my Bachelor’s degree in Economics. While my passion, and my livelihood, has been in Accounting for years, my inner Economics geek peeks out every now and then! One of my favorite topics from Economics class was the idea of opportunity cost, which states that [...]