There are many different options for backing up, all manufactured to be user friendly. The best methods sit independently of your computer; outside vessels which can be saved in the event that your computer crashes.

External hard drives with software are the most reliable. They plug directly into your computer so you can run a back up using software programs. You then need to disconnect the device and store it in a safe place because even minimal damage to the drive can cause the data to be compromised. External hard drives, however, are not the sleekest design and can be difficult for commuting and remote work. 

If you work from different computers or locations, a USB flash drive is both convenient and simple to use. USBs are best used for transporting backs-ups of important presentations or data that you might want to have on hand at all times. However, being small and convenient can also be the pitfall of these storage devices – they are easily lost, and with them, the stored data.

“Reduce the risk of a complete technology meltdown.”

The current trend is online back up services. What computer-savvy folks are now calling the “pinnacle of file protection’’ is so far considered to be the most easy-to-use and safe method available. Storing your files and data online safeguards it from viruses that might attack your system, as well as crashes and coffee spills.

Online back up services set up automatic reminders to keep you backing up constantly and can be accessed from anywhere, on any computer with an internet connection. Move easily from home to the office and have important documents available in a secure and safe location at both sites, minimizing the need to transport your laptop everywhere you go.

Services such as DropBox and Mozy Home offer up to 2GB of storage for free then up to 50GB for a low monthly fee, while Carbonite offers unlimited storage for just dollars a month. The downside of the sites is that they take an extraordinarily long time: running the initial back up on your entire machine could take anything from a few days to a month. But the subsequent backups take less time and often work in the background, backing files up as you save them.

With so many options, it is becoming easier to back up your device. Incorporate this task into your everyday ’to do’ list and reduce the risk of a complete technology meltdown.

Unfortunately, millions of Americans whose homes are now in foreclosure have learned — the hard way — that in the real world, nothing is surefire. While it’s true that buying a house has been a great way to build wealth for many people, homeownership isn’t for everyone. For some folks, continuing to rent an apartment or house may be the wiser choice. Renting isn’t always a bad idea.

Here are three questions to consider when evaluating whether to rent or to buy a home.

• How long will I live there? If flexibility is an important consideration, think twice before taking on a mortgage. As a rule of thumb, expect to live in a home for at least five years to break even. Of course that calculation depends on the term of the mortgage, closing costs, and the size of your down payment. But if your short-term plans include moving — even across town — renting may be a better option.

• How much can I offer as a down payment? If at all possible, you want to avoid the requirement for private mortgage insurance or PMI. To get that break, you’ll need a down payment of at least 20% of the purchase price. If that percentage isn’t feasible for you, shoot for a down payment of at least 10%. The higher the down payment, the smaller the mortgage, the faster you build equity.

• Can I afford the monthly payments? Some lenders, especially prior to the housing meltdown of 2008, were notorious for offering mortgages at the very limits (and sometimes beyond) of a family’s ability to pay. If you’re considering homeownership, take a hard look at whether you can cover the costs — month in and month out — of mortgage principal and interest, utilities, maintenance, taxes, insurance, and all the other costs for which you’ll be responsible. In general, expect about 80% of your monthly payments to cover interest alone in the first five years of a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. That’s money you’ll never see again, like rent.

IRS is warning taxpayers

Typically, the scam e-mail or call states that the IRS needs certain information to process a tax return or refund. The e-mail contains links or attachments to what appears to be the IRS website or an IRS form. Though they appear genuine, these phonies are designed to get from taxpayers the information scammers need to steal identities. The links can even download malicious software onto the taxpayer’s computer if clicked. The software is often designed to search out and send to the scammer personal and financial information contained on the taxpayer’s computer — information that the scammer uses to commit identity theft.

The IRS reminds taxpayers that it does not send unsolicited e-mails asking for sensitive personal and financial information. If you receive one of these e-mails, do NOT respond to it.

It's important to keep an eye on your company's cash

Periodically, you hear about a huge loss caused by an employee who’s been quietly embezzling cash for years. But many smaller cases are never noticed. And it’s not always employees at fault. In fact, the vast majority of employees are scrupulously honest and loyal. Outsiders can be stealing your cash too, by submitting false or inflated invoices that are paid without proper review.

How to reduce risk of loss

What can you do to reduce the risk of losses? The textbook answer is “internal controls.” This refers to things such as standard procedures for approving and paying bills. It includes segregation of duties — having more than one person involved in preparing, signing, and reconciling checks. Unfortunately, many small companies don’t implement proper controls — either because there’s not enough staff or because they think it’s too much trouble.

Regardless of the size of your business, here are some steps you can take:

• Maintain a strict rule that all invoices must have an approval signature before being paid. Nothing focuses a person’s mind like having to sign his or her name on something.
• Have a policy that all employee expense reports must be signed off by a higher-level employee.
• Make it a rule that the person who prepares a company check can’t sign that check.
• Ask your bookkeeper or accountant to give you a signed note each month affirming that the bank statement has been reviewed and balanced.
• Follow up personally to make sure that these procedures are being followed.
• Every few months, ask to see the bank statement and canceled checks for the prior month. Review them in detail. Not only will this increase your chances of spotting fraud, but it will also remind you just what the company’s cash is being spent on. The owner/manager’s review of the bank statement puts a bookkeeper on notice that the boss is keeping an eye on transactions.

Please contact our office for details or for assistance in improving controls over your company’s cash.

1. Hotel Rooms

Hotels advertise their rooms at a rack rate, which is similar to a recommended retail price and is generally the highest rate they think they can charge. Room prices in fact are much more fluid and the hotel industry is very responsive to demand. During peak season there will be little room to move on room prices, but at every other time a hotel will be open to negotiation.

“Hotel room prices are much more fluid than the advertised rate.”

There are a swag of specialized search engines that will help you find a cheap room, sometimes in a nice hotel. Try Googling terms such as ‘cheap hotel’ or ‘last minute hotel deal’.

Some of these sites offer a ‘mystery room’, a riskier approach whereby you decide the price you want to pay and choose a room sight unseen.

You might also find that loyalty points accrued through a credit card can pay towards hotel stays. Certain clubs will give you access to discount rates at some hotel chains.

2. Airfares

You can search for deals on another budget killer, the airfare, online. When it comes to airfares there are some other tips that will help you find the best price. 

Airlines have mailing lists with special deals on tickets, you can usually sign up on the airline’s website. You are more likely to find a cheaper ticket or package deal during off-peak periods. The duration of these periods varies but you are guaranteed to pay more during school vacation times. Either way, book as early as possible because the cheapest tickets are always sold first.

Flying on weekdays is cheaper than flying weekends, and generally flying on Saturday is cheaper than on Sunday. Some cheap fares will require you to stay a minimum number of nights or over a weekend.

It’s worth experimenting with the online flight scheduler to find the best combination.

Email etiquette is partly set by expectations. If you are in a role with high levels of communication, people will grow to expect a quick turnaround to their questions. This can be frustrating and annoying, but if they are clients it can also be a great opportunity to show off the company’s customer service.

In these cases, how you handle vacancies from your desk is obvious. The Out of Office Assistant in Microsoft Exchange (or equivalent in other email application – they all have them) can let people know that you will not be able to give them the instant response they may be expecting.

The away message should give a brief description of what you are doing, when you will be back and when you will return their emails.

It could also leave an alternative form of communication (”if it is urgent please call my mobile”) or point of contact (”if urgent please ring the receptionist”).

Do not leave your clients guessing.

 

An out of office message shows your email contacts that you respect the effort that they have made and that you value what they have to say.

It also acknowledges receipt of their message, if only by automated response. Email is still not a 100 percent reliable form of communication; spam trapping software can catch legitimate emails, they can get accidentally deleted by a wrong key press, or an email server can crash and messages disappear.

When someone fails to get a reply to an email they will inevitably wonder whether the receiver has reacted negatively to the email’s contents. Was it not important, offensive, over-reaching?

Even if you are not in a customer facing role, using an out of office responder is a professional touch that can increase the likelihood that a client or business partner will try to get in touch with you again, just because they will expect an answer if they do not see the auto-responder message.

Of course, you need to make sure that when you are in the office you respond to emails promptly. If you have an extremely busy schedule then set aside a half hour in the morning and in the afternoon to respond to emails. Regular contacts will know that receiving a response in the middle of the day is unlikely and will modify their behaviour and expectations accordingly.

Google and Microsoft have instant messaging applications which can transmit your “status” to all your contacts as either available, away from your desk or busy. This can reduce the amount of phone tag where two people get stuck in an endless round robin of voicemails.

For most people, email is the preferred mode of communication. The key is to set up a predictable routine, stick to it, and treat the emails you receive with the same respect and attention you hope other people treat yours.

Lacking the resources of large corporations, small businesses are especially vulnerable to disasters. Smaller firms don’t have departments dedicated to disaster recovery. They can’t rely on partners, insurance companies, or government agencies to bail them out. Some even lack basic recovery plans to steer them in the aftermath of catastrophic events. As a result, many small companies don’t survive when a fire breaks out in a warehouse or an earthquake destroys company assets.

To avoid becoming a disaster statistic, your firm should develop a comprehensive recovery plan that addresses the following factors:

• Document protection. All critical files should be copied and stored offsite on a routine basis, either by scanning documents to digital media or transferring data to online servers. Vital backups might include general ledgers, client lists, insurance policies, contracts, and title documents. Even simple procedures, such as storing hardcopy files in fireproof safes, can help in a disaster.

• Insurance coverage. If your business is located in a flood plain, make sure you have the necessary coverage. Review your company’s policies regularly and keep an accurate inventory of business equipment, goods held for sale, and other assets that could be destroyed in a disaster. Ensure that all important policies can be retrieved in an emergency.

• Communication protocols. Employees should know how to maintain contact with one another during a disaster. Clients, insurance agents, attorneys, accountants and other outside parties also should have access to emergency contact information through your company website or other venues. Your disaster plan should list primary and alternate communication systems — cell phones, radios, e-mail — and should identify employees responsible for monitoring such systems.

• Recovery procedures. Employees and managers should be trained in relevant recovery processes. They should know where to meet if evacuation becomes necessary, who is responsible for coordinating critical functions, and how to recover business data (if applicable to their position).

Developing a business disaster recovery plan shouldn’t be an afterthought.

Here are 10 tips to help you improve your cash flow.

 

These 10 tips could help you improve your cash flow.

1. Consider giving discounts for payments upfront. Some firms will have a discount window of a month that clients must pay within to receive the discount. This is easier to enforce than a penalty for late payment and is more attractive to clients too.

2. Take as long as you can to pay your bills without incurring a late fee. If a supplier gives 30 days, then take the full 30. Pay regular suppliers before others; early payments can generate goodwill and improve the likelihood of obtaining credit.

3. Invest surplus funds in a high-interest bearing account or other financial vehicle. There is no point having idle money in a firms, but just make sure you can get your hands on it quickly if the need arises.

4. Create a cash flow forecast. Know when the money should come in, when it is likely to come in, and when you will have to pay it out. Knowledge is power as it will help you prepare for the inevitable delays.

5. Issue your invoices as soon as possible. This is one task that should be first on the list every day. Once sent, make sure you follow up the day after the invoice is overdue. A polite phone call to jog the memory or a second email can help things along.

6. Give clients many options for payment and emphasise your preference for electronic payment such as direct debit.

7. Split payments for longer projects so that you are not waiting for the full invoice at the end of the job. This has the advantage of providing some security of payment as well as increasing cash flow.

8. Monitor your stock and replace products that are unlikely to sell. Focus on the better selling, higher-margin items.

9. When things get tight, triage your payments. Call all your suppliers and negotiate extended periods or deferred payments. Do not pay the biggest debt first, pay the most important.

10. Link sales commissions to invoices paid rather than revenue billed. A cold call from your accountant to a client asking why a bill is unpaid is going to be less well received than the sales rep giving a friendly reminder at the next meeting. It also gives the sales person a reason to speak to the client again – and perhaps lay the ground for another sale.

Date: 2011-05-26 Time: 08:30AM – 01:00PM Location: Thaney & Associates CPAs office

Date: 2011-05-19 Time: 08:30AM – 01:00PM Location: Thaney & Associates CPAs office