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What is QuickBooks Class tracking?

Class tracking is a feature in QuickBooks that enables you to keep track of your transaction data by creating classes to categorize them.  

What is a class?

Classes are assigned to transactions that relate to one another by category.  For instance, many clients have a need to track income and expenses by categories such as, department, business segment, location, etc.

This feature is the best way for a business to separate any significant segments of the business without having to add additional income and expense accounts to the general ledger.

Examples:

• For profit companies may want to track multiple locations or divisions of the company.
• Not-for-profit companies may need to track grants and restricted and unrestricted funds.
• Any company doing business with a governmental entity can use classes to track fixed priced jobs versus cost plus jobs versus overhead.

  Previously in this blog series, we discussed sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, and Corporations, and areas to consider when deciding on a business structure (read our first post in this series for more detail regarding these areas). In this post we'll be discussing S corporations.

What is an S Corporation?

A Subchapter S (S Corporation or S Corp.) is a form of corporation that meets specific Internal Revenue Code 1361 requirements, giving a corporation with 100 shareholders or less the benefit of incorporation while being a pass-through entity.  S corporations pass income directly to shareholders and avoid double taxation on the dividends of corporations, while still enjoying the advantages of the corporate structure. 

QuickBooks® offers a module to make the process of preparing and updating a budget or forecast easy. At a time when clients are reviewing their goals and objectives, be it monthly, quarterly, or annually, the process often includes the preparation of an operating budget and/or financial forecast.

What is financial forecasting?

"Forecasting is the use of historic data to determine the direction of future trends. Businesses utilize forecasting to determine how to allocate their budgets or plan for anticipated expenses for an upcoming period of time. This is typically based on the projected demand for the goods and services they offer." - Investopedia

 1. Does my employee benefit plan need an audit?

The audit requirement for your ERISA plan is based on the number of plan participants at the beginning of a given plan year.

Generally, if a benefit plan covers 100 or more participants as of the beginning of the plan year, the plan should be filing form 5500 as a “large plan.” Filing form 5500 requires an accompanying audit. 

There is an exception to the 100 plan participant requirement for an audit.  The 80-120 Participant Rule can be summarized as follows:

If the number of participants at the beginning of the year is between 80 and 120 and a form 5500 was filed in the previous plan year, you may elect to file in the same category as the prior year filing. For example, if you filed the plan’s form 5500 in the previous year as a “small plan” and the number of plan participants at the beginning of the following year is less than 120, you may elect to file as a small plan for the following year as well.

Breaking it down, the following are the scenarios in which your plan may or may not require an audit;

This is the third blog post in our series on Types of Business Entities. In it, we'll be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Limited Liability Companies (LLCs).  

According to the State of Washington Business Licensing Service;

"A limited liability company (LLC) is a hybrid type of legal structure that provides the limited liability features of a corporation and the tax efficiencies and operational flexibility of a partnership.

The "owners" of an LLC are referred to as "members." Depending on the state, the members can consist of a single individual (one owner), two or more individuals, corporations or other LLCs."

LLCs can have multiple members and exist and be taxed similar to a partnership with some corporation-like proponents. LLCs can also exist as single member LLCs which are similar to sole proprietorships. Furthermore, LLCs can file an S-corporation election, which will enable them to be taxed as an S-corporation while remaining a limited liability company.

This is the second of multiple posts in a series on using QuickBooks. QuickBooks holds the largest market share of accounting software in the United States. Yet there are many other accounting software options available and we encourage you to explore the Best Accounting Softwares for your business.

In our first post in this series we discussed the benefits of accounting software versus manual accounting practices. 

This post discusses the benefits of accounting software versus manual accounting practices.

There are many versions of QuickBooks on the market. There are versions of QuickBooks that range from the most basic, which is like a check register, to a more sophisticated version to imitate an enterprise planning “ERP” system.

What are business valuations?

"The process of determining the economic value of a business or company. Business valuation can be used to determine the fair value of a business for a variety of reasons, including sale value, establishing partner ownership and divorce proceedings. Often times, owners will turn to professional business valuators for an objective estimate of the business value." - Investopedia

A business owner’s largest asset is the investment in their business, but few realize what the value of their business actually is. 

Understanding a business's value can help its owner(s) make decisons regarding but not limited to, the following:

• Buying or selling a business
• Gift and estate planning,
• Creating a succession plan,
• Filing an insurance claim

This is our third post in our series on Types of Business Entities. In our first blog post of this series, we covered areas to consider when structuring a business. In this post we'll take a look at these areas again while discussing the advantages and disadvantages of partnerships.

"A partnership is a single business where two or more people share ownership. Each partner contributes to all aspects of the business, including money, property, labor or skill. In return, each partner shares in the profits and losses of the business."

There are three types of partnerships; General, Limited, and Joint Ventures. The definition above applies to General and Limited partnerships. The below definition applies to Joint Ventures.

The following summarizes these changes to help you prepare for your review.