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How Your Business Credit Card Can Help You Prepare Taxes

Denise O'Berry — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 19:31:43 +0000

Enjoy this guest article from Jud Hogan of Business Credit Card Source.

It’s getting to be that time of year. When the weather begins to warm, flowers begin to bloom and the IRS comes to collect from you. Yes, it’s tax time… again. But it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, your business credit card can make preparing your taxes easier than ever.

So before April 15 rolls around here are a few ways to use your credit card to help you prepare and file your 2008 taxes.

Check Out Your Statements
If you’re like most business owners, most of your business related purchases go on your credit cards. Who needs receipts when you have credit card statements that document every single purchase? So if you need to write off a business lunch from August and your gas from traveling to see clients, all your purchases are documented through your statements.

Get The Year In Review
What’s better than a monthly statement? A year end one. More and more cards companies are providing their members with year end statements that list all of your purchases throughout the year and categorize them accordingly. Completely convenient and a huge time saver, they can even be exported directly to your money management or tax software for immediate use.

Go Paperless
Speaking of your statements… have you gone paperless? Not only does it save trees, postage and space in your filing cabinet, but online statements give you instant access to what you spent last week, last month and even last year. Many credit card companies even give you the opportunity to export your statements to your money management software making the process of preparing your taxes that much easier.

Let Technology Do Your Taxes
Well almost at least. As previously mentioned, many companies allow you to export your statements to computer software programs. Use software like Turbotax or Quicken? Exporting your statements will save you precious time and energy. By exporting your statements into the program, the software automatically inputs the necessary information. No need to manually enter transactions that you want to write off. How easy is that?

You can find information on the most popular business credit cards at http://www.businesscreditcardsource.com. Exclusively focused on business credit cards, entrepreneurs and business owners can browse reviews, compare cards and apply online.

What do you think?

Photo Credit: Paalia

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Selling On Credit Is Risky Business

Denise O'Berry — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:42:01 +0000

How many times have you heard me say your small business is not a bank? Plenty I’m sure.

And although I encourage you not to sell to your customers on credit, I’m a realist and do understand it’s a must for many small business owners.

So I tapped into Ted Shalek, CFO of Smart Online, a company that specializes in technology based solutions for small business owners, who believes that the risks associated with selling on credit can be greatly reduced if the proper steps are followed.

“Since we do not all have the luxury of knowing and trusting each customer, we must take precautions to protect the cash flow of our small business,” said Shalek, an authority on small business. “If you do not know the customer, make sure that you obtain solid and confirmable information about the prospective customer by identifying their name, address, phone number, email address and business/credit references, credit card numbers if appropriate.”

Here are a few simple steps he recommends you take to significantly decrease the likelihood of future collections nightmares

>> Reminder Notice: Send out 7 days before the original, agreed upon payment date, if you have not received payment.

>> Read Receipts: In the email, let your customer know that you had an agreement, you provided the service or product on a timely basis and it is customer’s obligation to provide you with payment.

>> Stay Professional: Place a professional call to the buyer and/or the point person at your customer’s office. During the call, be firm and remember to state the facts and identify specific payment terms and times.

>> Appointments: If the amount owed is significant, make an appointment with the buyer to come by and collect the funds, and if they say the funds are not immediately available, keep the appointment and discuss specific payment terms and times.

>> Dramatic Impact: If the customer/buyer refuses to accept your calls and does not reply to emails requesting an appointment, stop by the customer’s office unexpectedly and tell them that you are prepared to wait on their premises until you receive payment or have a meeting with the owner, buyer or financial officer.

>> Collection Agency: Unfortunately, if the customer does not provide any positive feedback and refuses to acknowledge your communication, contact a reputable collection agency that will represent your company in a professional manner (remember that the collection company will retain a portion of the funds that collected from the customer).

Take care when selling on credit — and don’t forget you are not a bank. If it truly is necessary for your small business to grow, make sure you use proper care so you don’t set yourself up with collection problems down the road.

What do you think?

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Free Webinar on Accepting Credit Cards In Your Business

Denise O'Berry — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:01:57 +0000

The maze of credit card services can be quite confusing and the lingo is often very tough to understand — payment processor, discount rate, merchant account, etc. If your mind is a bit boggled about it, set aside some time to attend this free webinar on Thursday, July 9 from 2pm – 3pm edt.

Here’s the scoop:

In today’s electronic driven world, customers and donors want to, and expect to, make payments and donations quickly and easily by credit/debit cards to your organization. You MUST be ready to accept their plastic card at any time, in any medium, by any method: face-to-face, email, fax, snail mail or online. How do you know if you are set up optimally for plastic cards? Are there special rates that you are not taking advantage of? How long should it take for the proceeds to arrive in your bank account? Should you let a third party operate your merchant account or should you have your own?

Topics include:

Card pricing criteria: debit/credit cards, card brand- and industry-specific pricing
Processor and merchant responsibilities
What happens in a transaction: soup-to-nuts
Avoiding fraud and chargebacks
E-commerce and online donation sites

The webinar is presented by Marc W. Halpert, Managing Partner, Your Best Interest LLC. Put this on your calendar and sign up for the webinar here.

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Payment Options Can Increase Your Cash Flow

Denise O'Berry — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:43:47 +0000

If you’re looking for a way to increase your bottom line, take a look at your payment options. How many choices do your customers have to pay you? If you only accept cash and checks, you’re letting a lot of money walk out your door. I know that accepting credit cards — at first look — seems to be just an added expense, but they can add quickly to your bottom line and can actually save your company money.

Consider this.

If you only accept cash or checks, you have to total purchases and take them to the bank which could take an hour or two. And in the case of checks, you have to wait at least 48 hours for them to clear and be available for your use. When you accept a credit card for a purchase, you pay your merchant provider nominal fees and the money for that purchase makes its way into your bank account typically within about 24 hours. No extra work on your part is required.

If you take the time to compare the fees you are charged to accept credit cards against the cost of a human being handling the transaction, I’m sure you’ll find it’s less expensive for your business and you’ll save a ton of time in the process.

What do you think? Leave me a message.

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Yes, Credit Is Still Available If Your Business Is In Good Shape

Denise O'Berry — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:17:20 +0000

As the recession has progressed, small business credit has been tougher to secure. And once the banks and Wall Street had their melt down, credit became nearly impossible for many small businesses.

Richard Flynn, Senior Vice President & General Manager, American Express OPEN, the small business division of American Express says “Given the current economy, it’s more critical than ever for small business owners to be strategic about applying for new credit and vigilant about managing their existing credit.” Here are some of Richard’s suggestions.

Before you apply for credit:

Clean up financials. Review your company profile and credit report regularly and immediately address any issues, mistakes or irregularities in order to maintain your credit score.
Register your business. Register your business with commercial bureaus like Dun and Bradstreet and the Small Business Financial Exchange to make it easier for card issuers to confirm you are an established business.
Don’t apply for too much credit. Too many credit requests can lower your credit score and negatively impact your ability to access credit.

Once you secure credit:

Practice good debt management. Borrow funds only for essential business purposes. “Good debt,” such as purchasing new equipment, moving to a better location or hiring key staff, helps a business grow. “Bad debt” such as buying a new computer when your current computer is working well, adds to a business’s monthly financial commitments but does little to up the revenue stream.
Pay all bills on time. Late payment on any bill may have a negative effect on your credit score. Remember, your personal credit and business credit are linked and both should be managed carefully.
Effectively manage cash flow. Your ability to pay bills depends on the cash that flows in and out of your business. Stay on top of accounts receivable and consider using a charge card to control business spending and expenses.

Believe it or not, you can still get credit for your small business. It’s just a little tougher these days.

Do you have a suggestion to offer other small business owners? Please leave a comment.

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Pump Up Your Cash Flow By Getting Paid

Denise O'Berry — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:47:54 +0000

Recently a copy of the “Getting Paid Survey” landed in my mailbox. The survey was conducted by an independent firm for Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, from Oct. 7-10 and included a sampling of 751 small business owners with less than 10 employees. The results say some really sad things about how small business owners are managing the cash side of their business. I know you know better, but I’ll share the results with you anyway.

Don’t Do This

Let your invoices age
Guess how many invoices are overdue in your business
Forget to invoice
Forget to follow up on an overdue invoice
Manually handwrite your invoices
Lose a customer because you don’t accept credit cards

If you’re not doing any of the above, good for you. But the survey results paint a different picture. Here’s what the survey revealed.

Nearly 40 percent of small business owners have aging invoices of over 30 days with some not knowing how many days it takes to get paid.

You simply must collect on your invoices. Don’t allow them to age. Invoice as soon as work is completed, or better yet set milestones for payment and get that cash in your account.

Nearly 20 percent of small business owners admit to forgetting to invoice or follow up on an overdue invoice.

There is no excuse for this. If you are uncomfortable asking for money from your customers, you shouldn’t be in business. Get this taken care of now.

66 percent of small businesses still handwrite invoices, use word processing programs and spreadsheets, or simply don’t have a standardized method.

Time to move into the 21st century. Get a financial software program like QuickBooks (or sign up for one online) and get those invoices generated.

20 percent of small businesses admit to having lost a customer because they could not accept credit cards.

Lots of people carry little to no cash these days. They can’t buy what you sell if you don’t take credit cards. If you can’t find a merchant account, check out PayPal online as an option.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.

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