Hardwood Flooring February March 2018

BUSINESS BEST PRACTICES FINANCE & DIGITAL FINANCIAL Tax Tools

Tips As we enter 2018, maybe some of you are looking forward to a less- stressful tax preparation time. Or, perhaps, it will be an easier time for your CPA resulting in a lower tax preparation bill for you this year. Since this issue of Hardwood Floors highlights some of the aspects of digital marketing, it seemed fitting to dig into some digital financial tips and tools that could help make you even more efficient, providing you additional savings in time and money.

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THE WHAT • Online accounting software, such as QuickBooks • Accounting software compatible with other systems (e.g., tax, expense reporting) • Remote deposit • Positive pay

• Electronic payment receipt options • Cloud document storage • Mobile credit card processors • E-signature services • Online password generators/storage

THE WHY AND HOW If you are not using online accounting software, you may want to look into it as a way to work on finances while you are away from your office. This also works well for the company that utilizes part-time or remote workers to do their bookkeeping. Also, online accounting software tends to integrate better than desktop versions with other software systems that can be used for things like expense and tax reporting. Desktop versions are beginning to phase out and may someday not even be an option. Online accounting software is changing rapidly. If you looked into it in the past and it wasn’t right for you, try again. It is possible that things have changed and now it is right for you. In the same vein,

credit card or cash processors (e.g., PayPal or Venmo). These services integrated together can result in a situation where everything is paperless and accessible immediately from any location. It will make tracking things more manageable and result in timelier reporting that can help you make capturing everything digitally. This is understandable with the prevalence of fraud today, but there are steps you can take to help out in these situations as well. There is software that can protect your passwords and also generate unique secure passwords for the websites you visit. LastPass is one popular option, decisions in your business. Many people are leery about

expense reporting software like Expensify or Concur have changed as well. These platforms used to market mostly to larger companies, but now also have packages that target smaller businesses. Recently, my family had our HVAC technician at our house, and his company had gone entirely paperless since his last visit. Everything was done on his tablet, and all receipts were emailed to us. This made me think about wood flooring contractors and how this process could benefit you all as well. To digitize fully, you would want to consider other services like e-signature services (e.g., DocuSign), cloud storage services (e.g., Dropbox), and mobile

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