Full time self employeds

I've some questions for the full time self employed internet perople.

What accounting software do you use to keep track of income/expenses? What do you use to do payroll for one or two employees? Do you outsource or cut checks yourself using software?

Did you meet with a tax advisor early on to figure out tax strategy plans? Did you incorporate instead of staying sole propreitor?

How about those tax & wage earning reports. Is there any way to outsource getting that stuff (accounting, taxes, payroll) done so I don't have to deal with it? UGH Any tips, advice for a new small business owner would be great.

 

I would check out Shawn's OptiGold. Pretty robust...

See here:

http://www.digitalpoint.com/products/isp/

 

I use QuickBooks Pro and have for years. I had my tax guy set it up (I am sure he could do it for you...was "almost" my brother in law) so that everything gets put in the right account. When tax time comes, he just goes in, spits out the reports he needs and it is all good. The best part for me is the bill tracking, you enter the bill and the due date and it will print out the checks for you (simple I know, but I love it) and can handle net terms with discounts. All in all an easy to use and flexible setup. It can handle everything you mentioned. One or two employees are not a big deal. You may want to have a good accountant/bookkeeper close by for questions and handling payroll taxes, etc.

 

That's a great rec! Thanks for the info. That will really help out with that part.

Did you find any small business books or resources that really helped you out in any way?

 

although im not fulltime but im earning from my sites alot than my regular day job. Im using microsoft money for small busines. its easy to use even for non-techie people.

 

No books per say, but I think talking to people and asking questions (like you are already doing) is the best thing you can do. If you don't understand something, ask. Talk to as many smart people as you can and ask questions.

 

Ok, here's some more questions! And thanks for helping me out with your answers.

Do you have your tax advisor fill out the quarterly wage and earnings report or do you do it? Do you do your own taxes or are they so complicated with business stuff that you hire them out? Did you incoporate? If so and you used a turnkey company to incorporate in another state which one do you recommend? Did you get health insurance for your business and employees?

I'm trying to get health insurance for my business and just recently hired another employee to bring the total count up to 2. But the insurance company wants a copy of the latest Employer's Quarterly Contribution Investment Fee and Wage Report DOL-UID-21. Do you know what that is? I wonder if I could tell them I just hired a new employee or if I should fill it out for the last quarter anyway, assuming I know what the heck it is first and where to find it!

 

For billing yes.. Accounting, payroll? No.. Would be nice though.. We use Quickbooks for that. Tax wise we export from OG (takes a day an a year, not sure why) then import to quickbooks.. We can also export in other forms such as peach tree for our accountent direct from OG. But payrol is 100% quickbooks.

 

I use Excel and a German accounting software ;-)

 

I second Excel! My accountant supplied a spreadsheet for inputting sales and expenses. Relatively easy to calc the dreaded VAT. As he wants the spreadsheet for the tax return, it seems a good way to go! He says it saves him time and me money!!