The Virtual CFO

CPA for Small Business Website Frames Now Work with Firefox 3.0

I am the webmaster for the CPA for Small Business website. Within a day or two of publishing the site, my brother-in-law Brian called to tell me that the frames didn’t work in Firefox 2.0.

I couldn’t find an easy solution to this, so I tabled solving the problem until I had time. Fortunately, I’ve been busy enough to not have the time to solve this problem (which is also the reason I haven’t blogged as much as I did before).

This morning, I was reading an article in the June 28 edition of BusinessWeek entitled "Firefox Keeps Nipping at Microsoft". In the article, the author mentioned that Firefox 3.0 improved "in rendering pages that failed to load properly in Firefox 2 ( but that worked fine in Internet Explorer".

This morning I installed Firefox 3.0 and I am pleased that the frames on the website now load correctly. There are a few sentences that run-together, so the rendering isn’t perfect. But I believe that I can solve this problem by adjusting the space between the paragraphs.

I just looked at my analytics and discovered that approximately 20% of the visitors to the CPA for Small Business website do so with Firefox. So I am especially glad that Firefox 3.0 fixes the frame rendering problem 2.0 had with my site.

Personal Property Tax

Personal property tax for a business is usually tied to the company’s annual business license. It is a tax on the assets of a firm and the asset value is generally adjusted for the time you have owned the asset.

As with the state unemployment tax, you need to contact your local jurisdiction to insure that you are in compliance with your business personal property tax filings.

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

State Unemployment Tax (called SUTA and sometimes SUI), is the unemployment tax that is paid to the state(s) where you have employees. SUTA is normally paid on a quarterly basis in conjunction with FUTA and is usually due the last day of the month following the end of the quarter.

Since this blog is read nationwide, I would highly recommend that you become familiar with the SUTA reporting requirements for the state(s) you have payroll in.

940 Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

940 Federal Unemployment tax (FUTA) is the federal unemployment tax your businesses must pay. You have to make quarterly 940 tax payments which are due the last day of the month following the end of the quarter. However, the 940 form itself is filed on an annual basis.

Memorial Day

The Virtual CFO bolg will stay silent during the next 24 hours in memory of those who have served our country. Your sacrifice has allowed us to live in a free country.

Thank you to all who have served in the United States military!!!

941 Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return

The IRS Form 941 is the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. This is where you report the gross wages paid to employees and the Federal income tax withheld from the employee’s compensation. The 941 is also used to calculate the social security and Medicare taxes due for both the employee and the employer. This form is due the last day of the month that follows the end of the quarter.

You report on the 941 the tax deposits you have made during the quarter. If you are a new employer or a company that has a payroll with taxes of $50,000 or less, you are required to make monthly deposits. If you are an employer with more than $50,000 in taxes, you are required to be a semiweekly tax depositor.

The 941 is how you report the payroll taxes you have withheld from an employee’s pay as well as the payroll taxes you owe as an employer.

Nashville Microsoft Heroes Happen Here Conference

In the ten years I was a small business CFO, I constantly had one foot in accounting and the other in information technology. This is the reason I chose the MIS (Management Information Systems) concentration in the Tennessee Tech MBA Program.

The last CFO position I held was at A-Plus Reprographics. During the last ten months I was at A-Plus, the company was owned by a private individual, the venture capital firm Chicago Venture Partners, and the NYSE traded American Reprographics Company.

During the Chicago Venture Partners tenure, I was the project manager for implementing Repro Total Office which is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV (formally called Navision) solution for the reprographics industry (reprographics is printing for the architect, engineering, and construction industries). During this period, I became very familiar with Microsoft Server and SQL.

CPA for Small Business is a member of the Microsoft Partners program. Last Thursday, Microsoft held its "Heroes Happen Here" conference at the Nashville Convention Center to unveil Microsoft Server 2008, SQL 2008, and Visual Studio 2008.

I have a few observations I’d like to share concerning things I learned at this conference.

Windows Server 2008 gives you a dashboard view of all the activities and statuses of all the servers on your network. This dashboard allows you to click on a problem or error message and the GUI (graphical user interface) of the server where the error message originated from is automatically brought up. With this feature, you don’t have to drill down to find the server where the problem is.

Windows Server 2008 has a feature that interrogates any new computer that is hook up to the network. The new computer is interrogated to ensure that there are no viruses or malware present and to verify that the computer has the most up-to-date patches and service packs. If the new computer does not pass the interrogation, it is segregated from the main network where it can still access, but not pose a threat to, the main network.

There is one more interesting thing that was discussed during the seminar. Microsoft has come out with a server product that is positioned between Small Business Server and Enterprise Server (this product is called Windows Essential Business Server). This is the first time I have seen Microsoft attempt to fill a product gap between software offered for very small businesses and the software made for larger firms.

In business accounting software, there is a very big gap between the software made for small companies (Microsoft Office Accounting, QuickBooks, Peachtree, etc.) and the software for larger companies (Great Plains, Navision, ACCPAC, MAS90, etc.). I am wonder if Microsoft will eventually introduce an accounting/ERP (enterprise resource planning) product that will fill the gap in accounting software like Windows Essential Server does for server software.

Kudos to Holiday World’s Culture

I had planned to write my next post about the Microsoft Heroes Happen Here conference I attended last Thursday, where Windows Server 2008, SQL 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 was unveiled. But I decided that I wanted to give kudos to Holiday World instead.

This is the second year in a row that my family has purchased season tickets at Holiday World. Last Saturday was opening day and it was logistically a good time for us to go. The previous weekend, I wrapped up the final projects for the semester in my MBA program and this week I have two large projects starting for clients that may require me to work the next two weekends.

In between sessions at the Heroes Happen Here Conference, I read that Chris Botti was going to be in concert at the Ryman Auditorium on June 6 and that tickets were going on sale Saturday morning at 10 am (you can read my feelings about Chris Botti in my "Chris Botti Rocks, OK Jazzs" post from last year). I knew I had to take my lovely bride, Linda, on a date to this concert.

Knowing we were going to be at Holiday World when the tickets went on sale, I emailed Paula Werne, the Director of Public Relations at Holiday World and the curator of the HoliBlog, to see if there were any public hotspots in Santa Claus, IN besides Lake Rudolph and Santa’s Lodge (two places we stayed last year). Paula volunteered to contact the town’s visitor’s bureau to see if they knew of any public hotspots in the town.

What I like about Holiday World is that their corporate culture is engrained with being friendly and helpful to guest (I've been to other attractions where this is not the case). This is the third year we have gone to Holiday World and I have yet to receive bad customer service at the park or by Holiday World employees. This creates an atmosphere where guest are treated respectfully and thoughtfully so they can relax and have fun at the park.

And here’s a little Holiday World hint, go the next weekend or two before all of the schools let out. Last Saturday, we were able to ride our favorite rides multiple times without having to wait in long lines!

(Now that I have my tickets in hand, I don’t mind blogging about the Chris Botti concert <vbg>.

Five Tax Obligations Startup Business Need to Know About

My practice is built around the needs of small businesses. Often, I met with startup client’s right after they have opened their doors for business to discuss the state and federal tax obligations they have. On the opposite end of the spectrum are startup clients who call me for help right after they have just found out the hard way that they have federal and state tax obligation.

When I owned a startup logistics company, I fell into the later category (see my blog post, A Call from the IRS is How I Learned About W-2’s, for details on this).

Over the next week or so, I am going to post about the federal and state taxes that most startup businesses have, including:

1. 941 Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return
2. 940 Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA/FUI)
3. State Unemployment Tax (SUTA/SUI)
4. Personal Property Tax
5. Estimated Taxes for Business Owners

I hope you find this series informative.

Now It’s Finals Time

So the hustle and bustle of tax season ended last week, and now I’ve moved on to the final assignment is Analytical Decision Making.

I’ll be back posting once I get this out of the way.

Thank you for reading my blog! I really appreciate it!