Welcome to the DMS Digest! |
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Upcoming Tax Filing Deadlines |
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Please be aware of these upcoming business tax deadlines for Spring/Summer 2022:
6/15/2022: 2nd Quarter Income Tax estimates due (business and personal)
8/10/2022: Ohio CAT 2nd Quarter 2022 filings due
8/15/2022: BWC True-Up
Various due dates (based on County): Ohio Property Tax
--- as well as your normal payroll, Sales & Use tax, and BWC payment due dates.
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Brandy Olsen
Accounting Systems & Implementation Coordinator
QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor
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What Does the QuickBooks 2019 Desktop Discontinuation Mean for Your Business?
If you are still using QuickBooks Desktop 2019, you may have noticed a warning about the software expiring – but what does that mean for you?
If you have not updated your software, your access to QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Services, Live Support, Online Backup, Online Banking, and other services through QuickBooks Desktop 2019 will be discontinued after May 31, 2022. This does not mean your software will immediately stop working – but you will no longer be able to integrate with any outsides applications or receive support from Intuit.
Now that you know what the QuickBooks Desktop Discontinuation means – let’s discuss what you should do.
First, we highly suggest you make a backup of your file - see Maria's QuickBooks Tip in this newsletter on how to perform this step. While file corruptions are rare - you can never be too safe!
Next, spent some time evaluating your accounting software needs; this is a great time to talk to your accounting team about the various software options that may make sense for your business.
- Are you getting everything you want and need from QuickBooks Desktop?
- Would QuickBooks Online be a better fit for your business?
- Are there any Apps that would make your business more productive or alleviate some of your manual entries?
Lastly, upgrade your software! We are happy to help facilitate the upgrade or conversion for you and ensure that all of your balances move over seamlessly.
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Maria Angotti
Chief Onboarding Officer
QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor
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How to Create a Backup of your QuickBooks Desktop File:
- Open your QuickBooks Desktop File
- Click File – Back Up Company – Create a Local Backup
- Select “Local Backup” and click Next
- Select the location you’d like to save the file and click OK
- Choose the “Save it Now” option and click Finish
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DMS Management Solutions places a high priority on providing training, technology tools, and continuing education to our team members so that they can best serve our clients.
Since our last newsletter we have focused our DMS Development efforts on QuickBooks Online recertification for our staff. After each person completes the training and passes the exam, they are recertified by Intuit and they maintain their QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor designation.
Team training continues to be a top priority for DMS in order to improve productivity, maintain quality, and augment career development.
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Using a QuickBooks Process Unconventionally
by DMS staff contributor
Laura Granito
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Recently I’ve had several clients who have had to deal with scammers getting access to their bank accounts or to their mailed checks. One such situation was a client who had issues with scammers stealing their checks, changing the vendor name and dollar amount, and cashing them. It happened with multiple checks and although they were able to get their money back, it was very frustrating that it continued to happen when they sent out checks. This client uses Quickbooks Online and bank feeds.
My client worked with their banker who suggested using the bank’s ACH batch processing system. Unfortunately, the ACH batch comes through as one line item through the QBO bank feed – and the client had to match multiple transactions in QBO to one ACH withdrawal from the bank feed. We wanted to use a similar feature that Undeposited Funds does for customer payments and deposits. We tried it with the client and it worked: we entered an Expense, selecting the payee, then selecting Undeposited Funds for the payment account and ACH for the payment method (you can add this method if it is not in the list), then select the appropriate category and amount. This way we are able to maintain the payee for 1099 purposes and we checked the 1099 report detail and these ACH vendor payments come through on the report. The next step is to go to the Bank Deposit process, select the type that have Expense and Payment Method of ACH. This creates a negative deposit that will equal the ACH batch in the bank feed and will show as a match to the negative deposit. This process will only work in Quickbooks Online.
The result: my client is happy with QBO, happy with the bank, and happy that scammers can no longer steal and cash their checks!
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Tips on How to Boost Productivity
When Working From Home
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Do you - or do any of your employees - work from home? Have you made adjustments at your workplace to accommodate a new hybrid working model?
Many employees report being happier and more productive when working from home. However, with all of the positive aspects come some unhealthy or unproductive habits that WFHers need to watch out for, such as becoming sedentary, working from bed, poor personal hygiene, and more.
This recent article from Entrepreneur lists 10 unproductive WFH habits, with suggested habits to replace them with, in order to build productivity and create a happier, healthier, and more successful work-from-home environment.
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To Retain Your Employees,
Know Your ABCs
Corrigan Krause CPAs
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Employee retention is more important than ever. Your employees are the key to the productivity and profitability of your business. Retaining quality employees and top talent saves your business money, maintains and even increases your productivity, creates a positive customer experience, and more. To retain more of your employees for longer periods of time, you need to know your ABCs:
Address Burnout
Balance Work and Life
Career Path for Everyone
Develop Relationships
Address Burnout
Any employee at any level can experience burnout, a specific kind of chronic, unmanaged work-related stress. Depending on the situation or person, burnout can happen after a specific event or it can build over time. A stressed employee may feel they’re “drowning” in responsibilities.
If you find your staff is:
- Frequently tired or drained
- Easily upset or angered
- Particularly cynical or has a consistent negative outlook
- Overwhelmed
- Procrastinating
There is a very good chance your team is burned out. Addressing burnout takes more than a pizza party to alleviate – it’s an ongoing process that should be built into your workplace culture. Employees are unlikely to stay with a company if they get – and stay – burned out.
Identifying the root cause of your employees’ burnout is key and you can only get this information from your employees. An anonymous employee engagement survey is a great way to get the information you need to start making the necessary changes your team needs. Anonymity is important in these surveys as employees may fear negative consequences if they answer honestly and you need your team to be fully transparent.
Once you identify why your employees are burned out, make changes to address those issues and keep your team updated on why you’re making the changes: you want your staff to be happy to stay on your team. Going forward, surveying your team at least once a year will help keep you stay informed about the morale of your team and give you the information you need to address issues causing burnout more quickly.
Balance Work and Life
Your employees have full lives outside of work, so if the expectations and demands of work are consistently affecting their personal lives, they’re more likely to look for a new job that aligns with their needs better.
There are a number of changes you can make to help your employees achieve a better work/life balance and, subsequently, be more satisfied with their job:
- Take a look at employee schedules. Depending on your business and your employees, you can help employees balance by offering:
- Clear, consistent set schedule
- Employees want to know when they are working as far in advance as possible so they can plan and schedule around their shifts. This is one of the keys to balancing work and personal responsibilities.
- Flexible hours
- Think about the schedule at your company. Are there opportunities for your staff to come in earlier or stay later if something comes up in their personal life and they need to be away during your traditional times? Not every business can offer more flexible hours, but if there is an opportunity, it’s great for your staff to have the option to meet their schedule and work goals outside their usual hours if they need to.
- Remote work or hybrid flexibility
- Again, not every company can offer remote work, but if you are able, employees are increasingly choosing workplace that offer some kind of remote option. Is there an option for employees to work remotely some of the time?
- Manage your employees’ workloads
- You likely have a good idea of what each employee is supposed to be doing, but it’s important to know the actual workload each employee is tasked with. Understanding the actual workload will help you understand where additional staff may be needed or provide insight into where cross-training employees could help alleviate issues and increase productivity and efficiency.
- Limit contacting employees during off hours
- Before contacting an employee when they are not at work, take a moment to think if the issue is truly an emergency or if it can either be handled by someone at work now or wait until the employee’s next shift. By allowing employees to truly step away from their work while they’re at home, they’re better able to rest, recharge, and, hopefully, keep burnout at bay.
- Paid time off
- Does your company offer employees paid time off? Paid time off is often crucial to an employee’s satisfaction with their job. Paid time off shows your employees that you value them as people. It’s also important to both encourage and model using your paid time off. Check in to make sure your employees truly can and do use their time off – as well as using your own!
Career Path for Every Employee
No dead-ends at your company. Employees, especially talented employees, are ambitious, and you should encourage that ambition by providing every employee with some type of career path, which can be within their current role. Employees need to know they’re part of a company that sees their potential and sees them as part of the successful future of the company.
There are three parts to a career path: goals, recognition, and advancement:
- Goals
- Every employee should be working toward goals specific to them. This should start during the onboarding process, ideally, but you can implement an employee evaluation and goal-setting process at any time. Setting clear goals with your employees gives them a better understanding of their role within your company and how their success is measured. Regularly checking in on how your employees are progressing toward their goals engages and motivates employees and allows them to discuss any issues or ideas they may have directly with you.
- Recognition
- Employees want to know their time and work are valued. Compensation is an important piece of recognition, but it is more important to acknowledge when an employee does something worthy of recognition. Sharing the good work during a staff meeting or sending a company-wide email can help increase employees’ satisfaction with their job because they know leadership appreciates their efforts.
- Advancement
- The goals set for an employee should be building blocks for their career at your company. As you’re setting goals with your employees, talk through what they’d like to see in their future at your company. This will help you develop a path for them, keeping them satisfied and engaged with new challenges. Additionally, as positions open at your company, look first at your current team and do your very best to promote from within before looking at external candidates. Watching tenured employees advance through your ranks helps keep them motivated as well.
Develop relationships
Understanding their role in your company is important, but the relationships employees develop, both with leadership and their coworkers, is critical to keeping them with your company.
Employees who have solid relationships within their company feel more connected to the company and its goals, increasing employee satisfaction and engagement.
Encourage your employees to work as a team whenever possible and provide opportunities for your employees to connect outside their job duties. Employee appreciation events go a long way and don’t need to be overly complicated or expensive. Setting aside time to bring in lunch and let your staff eat together is a great start, along with offsite team-building events, can help your employees strengthen their relationships, which, in turn, strengthens their relationship with your company.
Corrigan Krause Can Help
The ABCs of employee retain we discussed above are just a starting point for your business. If you’re ready to make changes to help retain your employees, Corrigan Krause can help you financially plan for the investments you want to make. Email info@corrigankrause.com for more information.
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About Corrigan Krause
Corrigan Krause is a mid-size CPA firm located in Westlake, Ohio, specializing in servicing closely-held businesses since 1989. With a team of over 70 individuals, Corrigan Krause provides various accounting, tax, compliance, and consulting solutions to the challenges that small companies face in the ever-changing business environment. Corrigan Krause is also an independent member of MSI Global Alliance, a worldwide organization of professional accounting firms and business advisors in more than 100 countries.
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Genie Diederich and Tanya White Join DMS
Genie Diederich joined DMS as a Staff Accountant on May 3rd. Genie earned her accounting degree from the University of Toledo and has experience in accounts payable, accounts receivable, account reconciliation and general ledger, in both the small business and non-profit sectors.
Tanya White joined DMS as an Accounting Manager on May 3rd. Tanya has 10 years of experience in accounting. She has a bachelor's degrees in Accounting, Management, and Finance as well as an MBA from Lourdes University and an MSA from Southern New Hampshire University.
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Welcome DMS Summer Interns!
We are pleased to welcome our inaugural class of DMS Summer Interns! Pictured L-->R:
Cooper Cook, Finance Major, sophomore at Miami University (OH)
Michael Hageman, Finance Major, senior at Miami University (OH)
Vince Merriner, Accounting Major, senior at Baldwin Wallace University
The DMS Internship Program will give Cooper, Michael, and Vince the opportunity to experience what it's like to work at DMS. They are receiving in-depth training and will be assigned projects that will help them grow and develop. We are happy to have them in the 'real world' until mid-August when they will return to school.
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Congratulations to Brandy Olsen
Brandy Olsen has been promoted to Accounting Systems & Implementation Coordinator effective March 14, 2022.
In this new position, Brandy will be responsible for implementing accounting systems & related technology tools for clients and for DMS. She will be instrumental in developing our DMS tech stack, documenting associated DMS best practices, and educating users to allow them to be more efficient and effective.
Brandy joined DMS as a Staff Accountant in 2019. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Financial Management from Hiram College. Congratulations Brandy!
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Congratulations to Linda McWilliams
Linda McWilliams has been promoted to Accounting Manager effective May 23, 2022.
Linda joined DMS as a Staff Accountant in 2019. Linda has over 30 years of experience in general accounting and office administration including financial statement preparation, sales analysis, accounts payable & receivable, account reconciliations and payroll. She has managed the books for a corporate headquarters with over 35 unique and diverse locations and has collaborated with senior executives to develop business plans. Linda has established great relationships with her clients and is dedicated to providing the highest level of service. Congratulations Linda!
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Welcome to our new office space! |
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