Kid Excitedly Misspelling A Word Is Painfully Funny

Sure, everyone will talk about the first tie in the Scripps Spelling Bee in 52 years, but this is the kid we want to be when we grow up.  Go Team Jacob!

It's easy to play it cool and act like you have been there before, however, it is much more fun (sometimes) to "Go Big or Go Home."  Unfortunately, Jacob went home.

We are normally dog people, but this is definately the exception!

Ten Tips for Paying Your Taxes

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IRS Tax Tip 2014-55, April 15, 2014

If you owe taxes with your tax return this year, you should know a few things before you file. Here are 10 helpful tips from the IRS about how to pay your federal taxes.

1. Never send cash.
2. If you e-file, you can file and pay in a single step with an electronic funds withdrawal. If you e-file on your own, you can use your tax preparation software to make the withdrawal. If you use a tax preparer to e-file, you can ask the preparer to make your tax payment electronically.
3. You can pay taxes electronically 24/7 on IRS.gov. Just click on the ‘Payments’ tab near the top left of the home page for details.
4. You can also pay by check or money order. Make your check or money order payable to the “United States Treasury.”
5. Whether you e-file your tax return or file on paper, you can also pay with a credit or debit card. The company that processes your payment will charge a processing fee.
6. You may be able to deduct the credit or debit card processing fee on next year’s return. It’s claimed on Schedule A, Itemized Deductions. The fee is a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to the 2 percent limit.
7. Be sure to write your name, address and daytime phone number on the front of your payment. Also, write the tax year, form number you are filing and your Social Security number.
8. Complete Form 1040-V, Payment Voucher, and mail it with your tax return and payment to the IRS. Make sure you send it to the address listed on the back of Form 1040-V. This will help the IRS process your payment and post it to your account. You can get the form on IRS.gov.
9. Remember to enclose your payment with your tax return but do not staple it to any tax form.
10. For more information, call 800-829-4477 and select TeleTax Topic 158, Ensuring Proper Credit of Payments. You can also get information in the instructions for Form 1040-V.

Money, Money Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

Ok, so that’s not quite right, but you get the point.  Actually, “water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink”, comes from a poem about the experiences of a sailor at sea and not from Kevin Costner’s very expensive movie, Water World.  Who knew?

The same could be said for a lot entrepreneurs and their money.  Their income statement shows that they are doing quite well, but their bank account could be telling a different story.  So what’s the deal?
 Well it could be that their customers have still not paid them.  And the longer this goes on, 

the worse it gets.  In fact, according to the Commercial Collection Agency Association, the probability 

of collecting on a bill drops to 70% after 90 days. And it plummets to 23% after a year.

Below are five easy to implement accounts receivable practices, to keep your bank account in line with your financial statements.

1. Do not wait to bill your customers -  A lot of businesses bill customers monthly, to keep things simple.  They offer 30 day terms to their customers.  In many cases, customers pay 45 – 60 days after they receive their invoice, and those are the customers that are paying on time.   Now consider this, business owners have to pay staff, vendors and taxes on time during the 45 - 60 day lag period. 

2. Use automatic drafts – You can use an automatic draft from the customer’s bank account through your bank. You can set up payments on a certain date or on a recurring basis. You will incur some costs to get this set up and may even incur costs each time the transaction occurs, however, it may be well worth it in the long run.

3. Get paid on the spot – There are several useful tools that will allow you to run a credit card on the spot.  Several are now available, reliable, and cost effective.

• http://www.payanywhere.com/
• https://squareup.com/
• http://gopayment.com/

4. Bill payment services - The easier it is for your customer, the quicker you will collect payment.

• https://www.paypal.com/
• https://paymentnetwork.intuit.com/

5. Just give them a call - Not an email or snail mail.  Simply call them and ask for a specific date you should expect payment in a polite, yet firm manner.

So long QuickBooks 2011:(

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/articles/INF12842

After May 31, 2014, access to add-on services will be discontinued for QuickBooks 2011 Desktop (Windows and Mac).  This includes all versions of QuickBooks 2011 (Pro, Premier, Enterprise Solutions, Accountant Edition, and Mac).  

Add-on services are:

QuickBooks Pro, Premier, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 11

QuickBooks Payroll services

1099 E-File Service

Credit Card Processing

Check Solution

Bill Pay

Billing Solution (formerly QuickBooks Online Billing)

Online Payment Processing (Intuit PaymentNetwork)

Accountant's Copy File Transfer (ACFT) service

Online Banking

Third-party products

Enterprise Solutions Full Service Plan (FSP)

This also means that Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, will discontinue support for all 2011 products.

What does this mean?

QuickBooks 2011 will not spontaneously combust on May 31st.  It will still function the way that it did on May 30th.  This just means that if you have software troubles with this version, Intuit will not support it and will not allow you to access any add-on services.

What should you do?

Well, it really depends on your situation.  If you are a solo entrepreneur, with only a handful of transactions each month and you are not accessing any add-ons, then you may consider rolling the dice and keeping your existing version of QuickBooks (always make sure you are backing up your database).  

However, if you are using any add-on services or entering into QuickBooks daily it is time to bite the bullet and upgrade.  

And That's Why We Fly Southwest

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LFBydGjaM#t=12

Hilarious SWA Flight attendant