Business

Bonuses can be an effective way for employers to reward hourly employees for an outstanding year. Some employers also offer a bonus as an incentive to meet certain productivity or sales goals.  Make sure you understand the definitions of each type of employee bonus and are computing and reporting overtime pay correctly when a bonus […]

A primary goal of estate planning is asset protection. After all, no matter how well your estate plan is designed, it won’t do much good if you wind up with no wealth to share with your family.  Are your retirement savings safe from creditors? If you have significant assets in employer-sponsored retirement plans or IRAs, […]

“Sorry, we don’t carry that item.” Or perhaps, “No, that’s not part of our service package.”  How many times a year do your employees utter these words or ones like them? Lost sales are lost opportunities. The specific number is critical because, if you don’t know it, you could be losing out on profit potential. Although […]

What could stop your company from operating for a day, a month or a year? A flood or fire? Perhaps a key supplier shuts down temporarily or permanently. Or maybe a hacker or technical problem crashes your website or you suddenly lose power. Whatever the potential cause might be, every business needs a disaster recovery […]

Does your business have too much cash? From the time a business opens its doors, the owner is told “cash is king.” It may seem to follow that having a very large amount of cash could never be a bad thing. But, the truth is, a company that’s hoarding excessive cash may be doing itself […]

The IRS warns that tax professionals are increasingly the targets of phishing scams. Increase cyber security and beware of email that appears to be from friends, customers or companies. In conjunction with their Security Summit, the IRS has launched a campaign entitled, “Don’t Take the Bait” as part of their Protect Your Clients, Protect Yourself series. […]

The tax consequences of the sale of an investment, as well as your net return, can be affected by a variety of factors. You’re probably focused on factors such as how much you paid for the investment vs. how much you’re selling it for, whether you held the investment long-term (more than one year) and […]

Donating to charity is more than good business citizenship; it can also save tax. Some business owners may not be aware of some of the lesser-known federal income tax breaks. Here are 3 tax breaks for business charitable donations: 1. Food donations Charitable write-offs for donated food (such as by restaurants and grocery stores) are normally […]

As a business evolves, so must its compensation strategy. Hopefully, your company is growing — perhaps adding employees or promoting staff members who are key to your success. But other things can spur the need to fine-tune your compensation strategy as well, such as economic changes or the rise of an intense competitor. A goal […]

Many business owners buy accounting software and, even if the installation goes well, eventually grow frustrated when they don’t get the return on investment they’d expected. There’s a simple reason for this: Stuff changes. Technological improvements are occurring at a breakneck speed. So yesterday’s cutting-edge system can quickly become today’s sluggishly performing albatross. And this […]