[Hidden-tech] Quicken hand-holder? and Self-Employment Tax

[Annamarie Pluhar]

Hello all,

I love Quicken and have been a user for almost 20 years. I tried to  
go with a different software for what turned out to be a disastrous  
wasted weekend sometime last fall on the grounds that I wasn't using  
downloading transactions effectively.  I decided to stick to my own  
system.

Absolutely ESSENTIAL to enter your own data on a regular basis.  It's  
just one of my housekeeping tasks. It also makes it very easy to find  
out if something I bought is still under warranty, how much I spent  
on "Office"  etc.

Not sure, but getting hit with taxes as a self-employed person may be  
less about accounting and more about being realistic about the bite  
the Feds take from self-employment income. I warn everyone starting  
up to put away 40% of each fee check for taxes. It's a bit high - but  
at least I always have the money and some left over.

Also I don't count on the bank balance  - too many checks and charges  
outstanding to be comfortable that it accurately reflects reality. As  
an example rIght now, the bank says I have $2,400 more than my  
Quicken does! . I do rely on Quicken - which is synched to my Palm -  
I can enter transactions while waiting for the charge to clear.

Them's some thoughts on a rainy day  - much more interesting to do  
this than the work I need to be doing.

Annamarie


On Apr 11, 2008, at 2:21 PM, Rikk Desgres wrote:

>    ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
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>
> Jan,
>
> Well said!
>
> Rikk
> -- 
> Rikk Desgres
> Pinehurst Pictures & Sound
> http://www.pinehurstpictures.com
> (413) 584-6200
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> on 4/11/08 11:27 AM, Jan Werner at jwerner at jwdp.com wrote:
>
>>  ** The author of this post was a Good Dobee.
>>  ** You too can help the group
>>  ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>>  ** If you did, we all thank you.
>>
>>
>> I find this thread on Quicken rather interesting because the central
>> idea behind Quicken was that it should be easy enough for anyone  
>> to use
>> without any training (which is why the company was named "Intuit").
>>
>> Unfortunately, in the last decade, Intuit has tried to make  
>> Quicken look
>> more like Microsoft Money (which had gotten more favorable reviews in
>> some of the PC press) and has succeeded only in making the interface
>> more opaque, while adding minimal functionality to the program.
>>
>> As someone who has used Quicken for nearly 20 years to handle my
>> personal and business finances, I believe the most common problem  
>> people
>> have with Quicken is not that they don't know how to use the program
>> features, it is that they don't understand how to use the program
>> itself, which is a matter of accounting, not technical savvy.
>>
>> As I wrote earlier to the original poster, if you have an accountant,
>> the first thing you should do is sit down with him/her and find out
>> exactly how your income and expenses are categorized for tax  
>> purposes,
>> then organize all entries in Quicken according to those categories.
>>
>> The trick to using Quicken (or MS Money, or any other such  
>> software) is
>> to enter ALL the information you will need at the time you make the
>> transaction.  Downloading records from your bank really isn't as  
>> useful
>> as it seems, because it encourages skipping the really important  
>> thing,
>> which is to assign categories and enter descriptive memos for each  
>> and
>> every transaction. If you are religious about entering that  
>> information,
>> Quicken can help you. If not, you might as well stick to paper  
>> records
>> in a shoe box.
>>
>> The reason Quicken is much better than "real" accounting software for
>> individuals (and not suitable for larger businesses) is that it  
>> does not
>> impose any controls on modifying entries, which means that if you  
>> decide
>> later on that an expense classified as persona actually qualifies  
>> as a
>> tax deduction, or vice versa, you can reassign it or split it between
>> categories at any time.
>>
>> Also, if you are self-employed, you need to use the "Home & Business"
>> edition of Quicken, because that is the only version that allows  
>> you to
>> keep track properly of client billing and accounts receivable.
>>
>> I don't know if Bill Polk is interested, but he would seem to be the
>> ideal person to give a talk on how to use Quicken effectively,  
>> since he
>> advises small businesses and entrepreneurs on how to organize their
>> finances and is also knowledgeable about the software. Perhaps he  
>> might
>> be persuaded to give a presentation on the topic for BEN
>> (http://berkshireentrepreneursnetwork.org/ - that's Bill in the green
>> shirt in the photo - you can look him up in the BEN  online  
>> directory).
>>
>> Jan Werner
>> __________
>>
>>>
>>> *From:* hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net
>>> [mailto:hidden-discuss-bounces at lists.hidden-tech.net] *On Behalf Of
>>> *William Sweet
>>> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:39 PM
>>> *To:* hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>>> *Subject:* [Hidden-tech] Quicken hand-holder?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hope this isn't too off-topic, but it's germaine to my home  
>>> business.
>>>
>>> I got hit hard on taxes this year, and I'm convinced that I'm not
>>> getting enough out of my Quicken software to prepare me for tax  
>>> season.
>>> I don't have the time to wade through a technical manual: are there
>>> people I can hire to either walk me through a better set-up of my  
>>> data,
>>> or put me at a better starting point?
>>>
>>> I've been using the software for years, but I know I'm not  
>>> getting all I
>>> could out of it, and I just don't have the head for accounting.
>>>
>>> Bill
>>> -- 
>>> William Sweet
>>> Writer/Editor
>>> Media Consulting
>>> Public Relations
>>>
>>> Northampton, MA 01060
>>>
>>> email: williamsweet1 at gmail.com <mailto:williamsweet1 at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
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