Update July 27th:

Hi everyone — we know this isn’t ideal for Mac users who depend on Safari in your daily web lives. We feel your pain. That said, I’d like to explain a little more about why we currently aren’t supporting Safari 5 in QuickBooks Online.

Without any public beta or pre-release version from Apple, we were unable to test Safari 5 before it came out. Unfortunately, when Safari 5 was released we discovered a bug that made QuickBooks Online unsafe to use with Safari 5, and we blocked access to QuickBooks Online from this version to protect your data. (Later, when Apple released Safari 4.1 with the same bug, we blocked that version as well.)

Within hours of the discovery of this bug, our engineers reported it to Apple. The bug has already been fixed by Apple in WebKit, the engine on which Safari is built. Now we are all waiting on Apple to release an update to Safari that contains the fix. We can’t tell you how soon that will happen, because Apple hasn’t told us.

I know this is hard to hear, but please keep in mind that this is a bug in Safari, not a bug in QuickBooks Online. We’ve done everything possible to reach a speedy resolution, and we hope that the fix will be made available to you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, Firefox and Chrome are supported alternatives to Safari in OS X. I’ve heard from several of you that these browsers are giving you problems, and the best advice I can offer is to contact our Support team to discuss these issues. We have many, many users on these browsers in OS X who are not experiencing the problems that have been described here. But we can’t help you with these problems through comments on a blog — please reach out to our Support team for troubleshooting.

- QBO Dave

Update July 5th:
Safari 4.1 for Mac OS X Tiger is also having the issue listed and should not be used for the time being.

Update:
The bug in question – https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40367
This bug has been fixed in webkit by apple developers, however apple still needs to officially push out updates to Safari.
When this will happen is unknown since it’s in the hands of apple.

What is Webkit?
Wikipedia entry for webkit.
Webkit is the underlying engine for Safari, and since this bug is in a very low level math operation in webkit, it is hard to get around it.
In Quickbooks Online this causes erroneous calculations related to money.
The issue is not with Quickbooks itself and can be reproduced as mentioned in the above mentioned bug link outside Quickbooks Online.

Original:
On June 7, Apple released version 5 of the Safari web browser. Safari 5 includes JavaScript performance improvements, a new Safari Reader feature, and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search engine for the Safari search box.

Unfortunately, during our early testing we discovered a bug in the new browser that causes some of our calculations to be off. Because of this, we haven’t yet allowed Safari 5 to log into QuickBooks Online. We have reported this bug to Apple, but we’re working hard to develop our own fixes so that you can be up and running with Safari 5 as soon as possible.

If you aren’t using Safari to access QuickBooks Online on your Mac, then this won’t affect you. If you are, you’ll need to take some specific steps until QuickBooks Online is enabled for Safari 5:

• If you still have Safari 4 and would like to continue using Safari with QuickBooks Online, do not update to Safari 5 yet. We’ll let you know when access is enabled for Safari 5.
• If you have already updated to Safari 5, you’ll need to use a different web browser to access QuickBooks Online. Both Firefox and Chrome work great!

We value the security and stability of QuickBooks Online as much as you do, which is why we are diligently testing. Once access is available for Safari 5 we will place an alert on your QuickBooks Online home page to let you know, so keep an eye out for it. Please stay tuned for updates.

Do you sell widgets? Or books? Or dolls? Or scuba gear? Or other random specialty parts that you need to keep track of, in a way that would make an accountant proud? Well, product-based businesses rejoice! QuickBooks Online Plus users who sell merchandise can now easily create, manage and send professional Purchase Orders (POs) and track your inventory right from your QuickBooks Online accounts:

• Automatically track and adjust Quantity on Hand inventory.
• Be IRS-compliant when accounting for the purchase and sale of inventory items.
• Categorize your purchase of inventory items by Product/Service, Vendor, Location, or Class, in real time.
• Link POs to payments to vendors via Bills, Checks, Cash Purchases, or Credit Card charges to accurately identify open purchase orders.
• Automatically update Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss reports when a bill is entered into QuickBooks Online.
• Customize your PO forms with your company logo and up to three custom fields.

Sample Products & Services list in QBO Plus

QBO Plus tracks Quantity on Hand Inventory.

And for you accounting pros out there, you’ll be interested to know that QuickBooks Online uses the FIFO (first in, first out) costing method. (Desktop versions of QuickBooks use “average costing”).

QuickBooks Online Plus users: to turn on inventory, choose Company > Preferences > Products and Services > Quantity on Hand.

Other QuickBooks Online users: Login to your account and click “Upgrade” in the upper-right corner to get this feature.

Not a QuickBooks Online user? Click here to learn more and try it free for 30 days.

Free Webinar – Inventory Tracking

Join us live on June 17 at 10:00 a.m. PDT to learn more about the Inventory tracking feature during a free, hour-long Small Business webinar hosted by one of our QBO ProAdvisors.  Go to http://community.intuit.com/events/inventory-tracking-with-quickbooks-online-edition to register.

Sporting a recently revamped website, the Online Security Center lets you bite back and report a fake email or Website.  I think this site is a solid resource for folks who are concerned about security risks.   It’s thorough and direct, yet calming, and quickly lets you know what Intuit does to ensure your online security.

The site gives phishing repellent tips on how to:

• Protect your information
• Protect your computer
• Protect your business, employees and customers.

A few other cool “bite-repellent” options the Center offers are:

• Live Security Alerts
• Malwarebyte’s Free Anti-malware
• Secunia’s Free Scanner

I don’t know about you, but  I’d much rather slather on some insect repellent, kick back in the sunshine and relax (knowing I’m fully protected), while waiting for a real fish to bite my line! That’s why I say the Online Security Center is worth a visit.

Only time will tell what the impact is to small business.  With the credits and exchanges we can expect more small businesses to offer health insurance, but how many will depend on the depth of the savings from the exchanges.  We can also expect sole proprietors to have an easier time getting health insurance, which could indirectly encourage more entrepreneurship.  And for our larger small businesses (those with 50+ employees) the fear is that there will be an adverse impact on hiring given incentives to stay below 5o employees and 80k salaries.

Current state: The smallest businesses aren’t providing their employees with health insurance

Lots of small businesses aren’t offering health insurance…
Only 49 percent of firms with 3 to 9 workers offered any type of health insurance to their employees in 2008. In contrast, 99 percent of firms with more than 200 workers offered health insurance.

Those that do offer insurance are paying more…
Small businesses (less than 100 employees) pay up to 18 percent more per worker than large firms for the same health insurance policy.

And things aren’t looking up.
Between  2002 to 2008, businesses with 3 to 9 employees offering health insurance to their workers declined from 58 to 49 percent.

The reform’s intent is to lower costs for the smallest businesses with credits and exchanges and make insurance mandatory for bigger businesses

How small businesses will buy insurance:

• By no later than 2014, states will have to set up Small Business Health Options Programs, or “SHOP Exchanges.”
• A SHOP exchange will pool small businesses (less than 100 employees)  together  to buy insurance.
• The impact?  These are expected to have a small positive effect  (between 1-4%) on the premium cost and amount  of coverage offered.

Starting now until 2014, businesses with less than 25 employees will get a tax credit.

• If you have 10 or less employees that you are paying less than $25K a year, you will be eligible for a tax credit of 35% of health insurance costs
• If you have between 11 and 25 workers with an average wage up to $50K, you are eligible for partial credits.
• You don’t get a tax credit if you have more than 25 employees.
• Any employee who earns more than $80K/year will be excluded from the credit
• In 2014, if you have 10 or less employees, earning less than $25K, you could earn a 50% credit.

It is pay or play…for bigger businesses

• By 2014 if you have more than 50 employees, you will have to either offer insurance or pay $750 per employee.
• This coverage will have to meet minimum benefits and services, as well as handle 60% of costs.
• In 2011, employers will have to provide coverage for dependents of employees until the age of 26. (Now it is typically age 19 or the end of college)

If you are a freelancer/one person shop, coverage expansion will help you:

• By 2014 insurers won’t be able to set rates to exclude coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and can vary premiums only by geographic location, age, and tobacco use.
• Going into effect right now is a ban on lifetime limits on coverage, and on “rescission” (canceling policies already issued) except in cases of fraud.

Other stuff small businesses need to know:

• Part-time employees will be counted toward the 50-employee minimum (pro-rated)
• You will have to report the value of an employee’s health care plan on W-2 forms
• If you earn (as an individual) more than $200,000 a year, or are a couple earning $250,000 or more, there will be  a  3.8% surcharge on investment income to help pay for the bill
• This SHOP exchange will handle individuals as well.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expects the number of people getting insurance through the new marketplace to start around 8 million in 2014 and to grow to 24 million in 2019.

Questions? Have a point of view on this? Please leave it in the comments.

The information cited here is the WhiteHouse.gov report, with recent updates included from CNN.com. http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/Health-Care-Reform-and-Small-Businesses
http://www.CNN.com

Believe it or not, it’s time to think about one of the two inevitable things in life – taxes! This can be a stressful time, particularly for small owner-run businesses.

We had posted a great summary of tax “Dos” and “Don’ts” for home-based businesses a while back on one of our web sites. It was so worthwhile that I thought it would be worth reposting here. So, here you go!

Your Home Office: Tax Matters
By Betsy Dee, Small Business Owner

The Home Office Deduction: It’s Okay to Take It. Really.
In 1999, Congress clarified the rules on this once controversial deduction and now allows more taxpayers to take it. But if you’re going to do business out of your home, get to know the rules with our Official Do’s and Don’ts List for Your Home Office.

Your home office deduction is allowed if the space you’re claiming is used exclusively for an office or to store inventory.

DO make it strictly business
Be sure you’re using the space as the principal place of business for meeting clients or customers and/or business administration.

DON’T use it for leisure
Your home office cannot be used for anything other than business purposes (this includes watching television, sleeping, helping your kids with homework on the computer–even paying personal bills online, if you can believe it).

DO take the related deductions you’re entitled to
Take a portion of your rent or mortgage interest, property taxes, utilities and repairs as part of your home office deduction. The deductible portion is based on the square footage of the area used for business as a percentage of the total square footage of the home.

DO claim your eligible deductions in more than one schedule
Take the part of the mortgage interest and property taxes that aren’t deducted as home office expenses as part of your itemized deductions on your Schedule A.

DON’T take the deduction if you pay the ATM
If you generally have to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM) when you itemize deductions, look carefully at how a home office deduction could alter your AMT status. (You may want to forego the home office deduction.)

DO your homework on capital gains tax
If you include home depreciation as part of the home office deduction, if you sell your home at a profit, you’ll have to pay a capital gains tax on the total amount of depreciation deductions you took while you were living there. (The good news: This tax does NOT apply to any other deductions you took.)

Corporations, Partnerships and multi-member LLCs
Individual owners of S corporations, partnerships and multi-member LLCs can take a deduction for home office expenses if they qualify.

DO know what you’re entitled to claim–and where
Claim the deductions for your home office on your personal return if you’re a shareholder and your home office is your only business office. Form 8829 is used to calculate the deductible amount. List it as a “Miscellaneous Itemized Deduction” on your Schedule A.

DO know the law
By definition, real estate earnings and losses are considered “passive” investments unless you are “actively” and materially involved in the investment.

So if you’re an S corporation, you may be able pay rent to a shareholder for use of a home office. The income and expense would then be treated as rental activity and entered on Schedule E of Form 1040. If the shareholder is active in the S corporation, the activity is considered non-passive and is not subject to passive loss limitations.

DON’T worry. Help is out there
For more information about Passive Activities, visit the TurboTax Support website.

This was  a guest post by Laura Messerschmitt, Product Manager for Intuit QuickBooks, desktop. Like it? Read more here!

Looking broadly across all QuickBooks Online industries, 2009 small business revenue was down by more than 10%.

However, there’s a twist.  It seems the tough times have caused businesses to become wiser about managing their expenses.  Looking at the same broad data set across all industries, 2009 expenses declined by 12%, leading to a 2% increase in profit margin over the same period in 2008.

Effectively, small businesses were more profitable overall due to their ability to contain spending in the face of declining revenue.

How did your small business fair during the trying economic conditions of 2009?  Does this analysis hold true?  What actions did you take to remain profitable?  Please post your comments below.

For QuickBooks Online users: To explore how your business compares to your specific industry, visit Trends from the Company Snapshot page under Reports.

Trends uses aggregated and anonymized QuickBooks Online data to compile stats across over 100 industries to gain insights into the health of small businesses.  (Image from the Trends Application in the Intuit Workplace App Center http://workplace.intuit.com/AppCenter/)

Go ahead and try it out! Just enter your usual user name and password on our mobile login page:

https://qbo.intuit.com/m

Are you a Mac user who prefers Firefox to Safari? If so, we’ve got some great news for you: QuickBooks Online can now be used with Firefox for Mac! Just make sure you’re running Firefox 3.0 or higher and log in as you normally do, or use the Log In link at the top of the QuickBooks Online home page.

We’ve worked hard to make QuickBooks Online compatible with more browsers than ever before, and we’re very happy to have reached this milestone. But that doesn’t mean we’re finished! Please keep sending us your feedback to let us know how we can improve.

We want to let you know about a great contest Intuit is sponsoring…and encourage you to take part. It’s all about promoting GREAT local small businesses. And since your business most likely falls into the GREAT category, we are pretty sure there’s an opportunity here for you.

A little background:

In November, Intuit put out a Thanksgiving Challenge to fans who nominated businesses for a $5,000 small business grant on LoveALocalBusiness.com.  For December, the Holiday Challenge offers loyal customers a chance to send a gift that really matters to you.

Get someone to nominate you:

1. Direct your customers to LoveALocalBusiness.com
2. After they have nominated your business on LoveALocalBusiness.com, have them send you an email with the subject line “I Love Your Business.”
3. When they do this (and cc: LoveALocalBusiness@Intuit.com) they will be in the running for a $250 drawing.
4. This is cool for you because it gives your customers an incentive to nominate you.   Everyone wins.
5. Oh and the deadline for participation is 11:59 pm PT on December 31, 2009

It would be awesome if a QuickBooks Online business took home the 5,000 grant. First step…go get yourself nominated.

Happy Holidays from Intuit!

I was running a small computer tech service and repair company in Madison, Wisconsin called netNerds. I hired really smart computer ‘nerds’ to go help people with their computer problems. It started with 2 contractors and grew to 9. It started with flyers and chalk on the sidewalks and grew into contracts with big clients and a booked schedule. It started an excel sheet and my cell phone and grew into QuickBooks Online.

netNerds has since stopped running. I still have the LLC and a website up (neednetNerds.com) but that’s to satisfy my emotional attachment and not my bank account.

[Fast forward a few years.]  I am now one of the product managers for the QuickBooks Online team…mostly focusing on our pre-accounting solution called Billing Manager, the easiest invoicing software you have used! Yep, I’m totally not biased or anything.  

The mission this team is tasked with is to “Help small businesses succeed.” Plain and simple we’re out to improve the bottom line of our customers.  So that got me thinking.  What did I learn from netNerds…my small business experience? What would I do differently if I could do it again?

It comes down to two things:

1. Play around with the numbers.

We have to acknowledge that sometimes accounting just isn’t a crazy amount of fun. (I know, a shocker!!) This makes us procrastinate actually doing it. Who hasn’t put it off for a day or two at some point? And then, when we do get into the product, there is a tendency to do just enter our invoices, reconcile the bank account and call it a day.  

If this blog had sound effects and animation there would be red lights flashing “ERROR!”  What I realize now is that I should have taken more time to play around with my numbers and find those business insights.
How much more do I have to spend if we increase our customers by 20%?Was that large client really profitable? (turns out he wasn’t!).  What is my employee turnover and training costs?

QuickBooks Online has since made it so much easier to find those insights just from logging in. The new Company Snapshot is enlightening!  Yes, accounting may not be that much fun compared to other things, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘play’ around with your numbers.

2. Know when to change your business processes/systems.

At one point I was answering the phones, grassroots marketing, hiring employees, answering our support calls, signing deals, managing the website and trying to grow the business. Just thinking about that makes me want to take a nap…but it’s the same story for all small businesses in the beginning. You do it all…except sleep.

There comes a point though, when you have to make a change. For me it was choosing an online scheduling system that automated the manual work.  (a Setster type app).  For you it may be just as simple as calling QuickBooks support to find out how you can better use your current tool.  What is it for you that is going to help free up your time and your sanity level so you can focus on growing the business?

 So the journey continues – full circle.  I am now working for the product I used to use.  Pretty exciting! More exciting is that the QuickBooks online team has the awesome charter to help make life easier and business better for lots of people, whether you’re the bookkeeper or the business owner.  We’d love to hear from you…in the comments or with your feedback on the product!  What are your 2 things you have learned about running your business?

Kristen
Twitter: @Intuit_Invoice