​Typical Situation: Our client is complaining their location does not have enough space. They may wish to change their location. They may want to explore buying their own building and want some comparisons.
When you hear a business owner say:
·        “There is just not enough space here anymore.”
·        “The building owner has been neglecting maintenance”
·        “I think it is time explore buying my own building and need some comparisons.”
 
Commercial Real Estate Broker works with businesses that are looking to lease or buy office, industrial, or retail space in the Chicago area. Our process is geared to reduce the pain involved in the business relocation process.

How they Work: Starts with meeting with the client to better understand what his/her real estate needs are. They do an extensive property search to generate a list tailored to our client’s specific needs. Then a tour of the properties that have been further vetted.  Once a property is selected the broker will advise our client during the negotiation process.

Matching Ideas with Resources:

​New entrepreneurs can start out on the right foot by making sure they understand the tax responsibilities of running a business. The process can seem daunting, but IRS.gov has resources to help new business owners.

Here are a few things new entrepreneurs need to do when starting their business.

Choose a business structure
The form of business determines which income tax return a business taxpayer needs to file. The most common business structures are:

• Sole proprietorship: An unincorporated business owned by an individual. There's no distinction between the taxpayer and their business.
• Partnership: An unincorporated business with ownership shared between two or more people.
• Corporation: Also known as a C corporation. It's a separate entity owned by shareholders.
• S Corporation: A corporation that elects to pass corporate income, losses, deductions and credits through to the shareholders.
• Limited Liability Company: A business structure allowed by state statute.

Choose a tax year
A tax year is an annual accounting period for keeping records and reporting income and expenses. A new business owner must choose either:

• Calendar year: 12 consecutive months beginning January 1 and ending December 31.
• Fiscal year: 12 consecutive months ending on the last day of any month except December.

Apply for an employer identification number
An EIN is also called a federal tax identification number. It's used to identify a business. Most businesses need one of these numbers. It's important for a business with an EIN to keep the business mailing address, location and responsible party up to date. IRS regulations require EIN holders to report changes in the responsible party within 60 days. They do this by completing Form 8822-B, Change of Address or Responsible Party and mailing it to the address on the form.

Have all employees complete these forms

• Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
• Form W-4 Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate

Pay business taxes
The form of business determines what taxes must be paid and how to pay them.

Visit state's website
Prospective business owners should visit their state's website for info about state requirements.

Many of the accounting entries are done behind the scenes in QuickBooks just by carrying out the day to day activities of your business. This week we cover 10- 20 great things about QuickBooks...

10. Keep Questions Organized - If you come across transactions that you are not sure how to handle don't let them stop you from reconciling and closing out your financials.  Use the QuickBooks ask my accountant code on your chart of accounts.  This will allow you to enter the transaction and reconcile all while keeping your questions organized in one spot. 

11. Journal Entries - Journal entries are sometimes necessary to fix issues or create year end entries per your CPA to match your tax return.  Although journal entries are getting more into the "accounting" end of things you should still be familiar with them. 

12. Accept Online Payments - You can turn on the Intuit payment network services which allows customers to pay your invoices easily online.  The best part is it only costs you $0.50 per transaction with no percentage of the invoice being charged as a fee.  So you could send a $50,000 invoice and only pay $0.50 to get that money sent directly to your checking account.  Hard to beat that price given the typical merchant processing fees.

13. Email Invoices and Statements - You should set up all invoices and statements to be emailed directly from QuickBooks.  This will help reduce the amount of time it takes for your customers to pay you, which will increase cash flow.  You can turn on the online payments as discussed in #12 above to help you get paid even faster.  

14. Payroll Management - You can process your payroll directly in QuickBooks or use an outsourced payroll service.  We typically recommend outsourcing your payroll to reduce your liability.  When you use an outsourced payroll it is important to record your outsourced payroll correctly in QuickBooks.  Many payroll companies even offer files that can import your outsourced payroll data into QuickBooks. 
 
15. QuickBooks Class Tracking - QuickBooks class tracking is one of the more powerful functions of the software that often is not utilized.  QuickBooks classes are a way to track your data in a way that is meaningful to your business.  Examples of QuickBooks classes are locations or departments.  I use QuickBooks classes to track sources of income so that I know the source of every penny that our business has ever made.    

16. Financial Reporting - One big mistake I see is small businesses not taking advantage of the reporting that is available in QuickBooks.  Small business financial reporting is a crucial piece of the bookkeeping process.  Without running and analyzing financial reports your bookkeeping system is not performing to its full capability. 

17. Owner Memorized Reports - I develop a custom set of reports for myself to run our business.  We also work with our clients to develop a set of reports that the owner finds particularly useful to run their business.  While many reports are available in QuickBooks it is nice to organize them all in one spot for easy access.  Under Reports/Memorized Reports you can find your memorized report list.  You should create a new list called 'owner reports' and memorize important reports to that list to make them easily accessible.

18. Custom Importing - If your financial institution does not offer import capabilities into QuickBooks you still have some options.  You can use a CSV converter to QuickBooks to make your data importable into QuickBooks.  Additionally you can create Intuit Importable Files also known as IIF files which import into QuickBooks.  You may need to seek a developer or programmer that can create IIF files.   

19. Web Apps - There are a whole lot of apps that work with QuickBooks that may help your business.  It is worth browsing the apps to see how they can help your business.  Be sure to get an app that is approved and supported by Intuit.  One QuickBooks app that we recently started using is Time Tracker by eBillity.  This app allows our employees to track and enter their time from their computer, mobile phone or tablet.  The administrator can then approve the time, which can then be set up to sync with your QuickBooks file. 

20. QuickBooks as a Tool - Lastly, I want to talk about using QuickBooks as a tool to run your small business.  Many small business owners look at bookkeeping as a hassle or as a means to filing their taxes.  I think some small business owners simply don't like bookkeeping, others are intimidated by it and some don't see the value in it.  If your bookkeeping system and QuickBooks file are set up properly and tailored to your specific needs they can help you run your business.  Your QuickBooks file should be a tool that you can use to aid you in making key business decisions.

QuickBooks can be a valuable tool to help you run your small business.  If you look at your bookkeeping as a hassle then you have not been shown how to properly use your bookkeeping system to aid you in making business decisions.