The keynote speakers for June’s big Intuit education conference in New Orleans, Scaling New Heights, have been announced, and schedules and track listings are now updated.
In case you’re not sure what this conference is all about, please see my blog post on QuickBooks-related training from a couple months ago. This conference is one of the biggies!
Scaling New Heights 2015 Keynote Speakers Announced – intuitiveaccountant.com.
UPDATE 2/25/17 — please don’t confuse partnerships with S-Corps. The home office deduction for partnerships is completely different than what I’ve outlined below. There’s a fabulous blog post about partnership home office deductions here, by an excellent CPA firm in Oregon.
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As you may know, many small businesses take a “home office deduction” on their personal return. But that doesn’t include S-Corp shareholders. Those business owners cannot take the home office deduction because they are considered employees of the business, as well as owners, and as such, they would be restricted under the same “2% of AGI” floor that regular employees are when they try to deduct unreimbursed employee expenses.
They also aren’t allowed to charge themselves rent — or if they do, they can’t deduct expenses against it, making that arrangement costly.
However, they can get reimbursed by the S-Corp for their out-of-pocket expenses. It’s called an “Accountable Plan”, and it’s really quite simple. Just keep decent records — which you’d have to do if you were claiming the home office deduction anyway. Substantiate the portion of the space used by your business, divide it by the total square footage, and there you have your business-use-percentage. Now multiply that by the expenses related to running an office out of your home — keeping in mind that you have to follow the same rules as sole proprietors: the space has to be used BOTH regularly and exclusively for business. I have a couple of clients who wrote up an accountable plan (stating that the company would reimburse the shareholder-employee for these substantiated home office expenses) and attached a floor plan of the office space as further support for which portion is personal and which is business-use. Nice touch.
I was really impressed by this lovely article that a CPA firm out in Colorado wrote on the topic, and they link to a “sample accountable plan reimbursement form” that’s quite nice (they even update it annually). If you’re looking for a CPA in that area, I must say I was pretty impressed with their resources, offerings and pricing.
Pull Money Out of the S-Corp, Accountable Plan – Watson CPA Group- Tax KnowledgeBase and FAQs.
I just got word in the latest edition of the “Intuitive Accountant” newsletter (one of my favorite resources) of an upcoming webinar on how to determine an accurate cash position in QuickBooks. It’s designed by QB ProAdvisors for QB consultants, but I think it looks like a good resource for any small business owner who has a hand in doing his/her own bookkeeping as well.
Not only do they plan to walk through common issues with figuring out how much cash is “in the bank”, and how to fix them, but they also will discuss “adjusting entries and other reporting options for income tax preparation and GAAP-compliant financial reporting”, making it a worthwhile investment of time for staff accountants and bookkeepers.
If you decide to register for and take the webinar, let me know in the comments how you liked it, what you learned, and what you’d recommend for improvements.
The webinar will be offered twice on the same day — March 11 — at noon and 5 pm Chicago-time. Click here for more information and to register: Determine an Accurate Cash Position in QuickBooks – intuitiveaccountant.com.
I was chatting with my staff accountant the other day about her education and training goals for 2015, and she said she was actually more enthusiastic about QuickBooks-oriented training than tax-, technology- or industry-related conferences (which are my personal favorite topics). That got me started looking into the “best” QuickBooks events of the upcoming year. I’m sharing my research here but would love to hear any additional feedback from readers.
It seems there are three “biggies” in the specific world of QuickBooks: 1) QuickBooks Connect (a newcomer to the scene as of last year, but apparently big and beautiful), 2) Scaling New Heights (previously the star in the category), and 3) QuickBooks VCon (an entirely virtual conference, making it the obvious choice for the cash- or time-strapped). Other resources are the annual Sleeter Group Accounting Technology Conference, which is not QuickBooks-specific, but does have many seminars on QB-related topics, including third-party add-ons, and the regular traveling schedule or online resources of QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program certification classes in both QB Desktop and Online, as well as POS, and
1) QuickBooks Connect — this conference had its inaugural year in 2014 and was apparently a big success. See their “highlights” video here.
Personally, I’m not into the big-name inspirational speakers, concerts, and social “bonding” among new colleagues — but the actual list of workshops, panels, seminars and presentations was pretty darned impressive, with an optional pre-conference during which professionals could take certification classes and exams.
It’s slated for Nov 2-4, 2015 in San Jose.
2) Scaling New Heights — presented by Woodard Events, but contracted out by Intuit, this was until recently the “go-to” conference for QuickBooks users and professionals. I’m uncertain as to how it’s different from QB Connect (New Orleans vs. San Jose, or is there more to it?), except that the sheer number and variety of workshops is mind-boggling. The schedule and session description brochure was just released, and it’s wonderfully overwhelming. (As a related aside, they also offer a series of free webinars with Intuitive Accountant, another favorite resource of mine.)
It’s slated for June 21-24, 2015 in New Orleans.
3) QuickBooks VCon – an entirely virtual conference sounds like an amazing way to save time and money… although also challenging if it is your main conference of the year, since it might be harder to convince yourself to maximize your time and attend all the sessions you can (when you could so easily be walking the dog or working on client projects instead). That said, it’s put on by the same company that presents Scaling New Heights (above), is two-days long, and is Intuit’s single-largest event worldwide.
It’s slated for May 19-20, 2015.
4) Sleeter Group Accounting Technology Conference – not specifically QuickBooks-focused, but as one of the leading accounting software companies, there is a lot here to offer QB folks, not the least of which is exposure to third-party software add-on solutions and competing products (see my blog post). PrintBoss even (mistakenly) refers to it as a “QuickBooks Conference” in their list of the best.
5) QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program – this is the place to go to find out about resources for certification, training, software, discounts, local advisor listings, support and more. It’s free for QB Online consultants, although there is a charge for QB Desktop consultants (yet another indication that Intuit is encouraging folks to move into the cloud).
Not a QuickBooks consultant, but you use the program regularly in your job or in running your own business, or you’re applying for a job where they want proof that you know the software? There’s a certification available for you, too: QuickBooks Certified User.
Other favorite QuickBooks training resources? Please share in the comments below.
I am wondering how I’ve never come across this resource before. My favorite presenter at the Sleeter Accounting Technology Conference this year was Greg Lam — which is pretty funny, because due to a last-minute emergency, he had to record his presentations for us and have them played back during his sessions. THAT’s how good a presenter he is… I watched his recordings and found his sessions to be the best of all the [amazing] presentations.
Anyway, it turns out that Greg runs an amazing little website called The Small Business Doer. For $15 — a one-time fee for lifetime membership — you get access to all his incredible “how-to” video recordings, interactive lessons, quizzes, course materials, and the ability to ask him questions. It sounds ideal for a small business entrepreneur who wants to learn more about accounting and bookkeeping, without paying someone like me to train them on the basics.
I kind of wish I could require all my clients to take Greg’s courses first, and then come to me for the bits and pieces of training specific to their situations. I think it would be a win-win situation. And lest anyone think I’m just trying to point folks toward a colleague’s website for marketing purposes, I should point out that I’ve never even met this guy — I’m just a huge fan of what he does, and I love reading his Sleeter Group articles (these are aimed at accounting professionals, as opposed to small business owners).
If you end up becoming a member and using his resources, or if you get to ask him questions or meet him, I’d love some feedback, to know how strongly I should be recommending this membership. Please comment below.