SENIOR ACCOUNTANT - Seattle Times

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT Seattle Times, United States - 11 hours ago Seeking candidate with a minimum of four years experience, BS/BA in Accounting, knowledge of payroll, billing, A/P, balance sheet reconciliations, ...

Accounting Software Online (Benefits and Disadvantages of SaaS)

Many accountants, especially the younger generation, have heard of SaaS by now, and no we're not talking about Statements on Auditing Standards(SAS)--though they are a delightful topic as well. SaaS stands for Software as a Service and basically means instead of having a physical copy of your software, everything accountants in Harrogate run through the Internet.

This means that it isn't absolutely necessary to go to the store and buy Quickbooks, you can actually just use online software that will store all of your information. This somewhat recent technology has advantages and disadvantages over the traditional method.

Advantages

The biggest advantage of accounting SaaS is that you can access your accounting information/software from anywhere in the world and from any computer in the world. Before SaaS, accountants were still able to access their accounting information from anywhere in the world as long as they had their laptops with them. With SaaS, the accountant no longer needs to bring a laptop along, all the accountant needs is access to the Internet from any computer.

You can think of accounting SaaS as being like checking your email. All you have to do is log in and you have complete access to all of your accounting data (pretty unbelievable). You can even use your phone to update/check your accounting system as long as the phone has Internet capabilities.

Another big advantage of accounting SaaS is that someone else is responsible for the upkeep of your data(this is also the biggest weakness, but more about this in a minute). With SaaS the accounting data is hosted by the company providing the software. They are responsible for its integrity and security which can save accounting organizations a lot of headaches and time. Having the information hosted on another server also frees up room on the organization's personal system.

Weaknesses

Did we mention that someone else is hosting your precious, invaluable data? With accounting SaaS they are, and it can be scary to think that years worth of important invoices, payables, and other ledgers are in someone else's control. If the company that is hosting your information is not established, they could simply go out of business and with them all of your data.

A simple suggestion is to make sure that you have physical backups of all of the accounting data. You can request these regularly from the companies hosting your accounting data.

Inherent risk of the Internet. Accountants know all about inherent risk and the nature of the Internet can be a little risky. Your data is being stored online and could be stolen or ruined by bored hackers or eager competitors. Set inherent risk to "very high" when using the beloved audit decision making model.

Accounting SaaS is a very valuable tool that offers flexibility that was previously unknown in the accounting world. Deciding whether the benefits of accounting SaaS outweigh the costs is a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. We suggest picking up some more work on the way by having your accounting company audit the hosting company to check for proper internal controls (wink, wink).

Kimberlie is a Masters of Accounting Student and an author. Come find out more about church accounting software and free church accounting software

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Seven Reasons To Consider Working At A Small CPA Firm

Let me start by admitting that if youre an accountant in training, you should definitely consider working for a large firm. Two or three (or more) years working for a large international or national firm give your resume an extra burnish. You will probably receive a higher salary and more training. Plus, your stint at a large firm can be another personal pedigreeequivalent to a degree from a well-known top-tier university.

In spite of the big advantages that the big firms offer, however, let me suggest that you should also consider working at a small local firm. And I count at least seven, super-compelling reasons.

Reason #1: Close to Home Work Location

Many small firms locate in suburban areas. Which means that rather than commuting into some central business district during rush hour, you may only be traveling a few miles in light traffic to get a small firm office.

If you like the hustle and bustle of the city, sure, you may want an urban practice location. And maybe youve considered the hours youll spend trapped in traffic or riding the bus and the time isnt significant. For many of us, however, the time and money cost of a long commute represents a big liability.

Reason #2: Less Overtime

The Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants annually publishes a survey that tallies a bunch of interesting statistics on accounting firms. One of the things that survey shows is people work more overtime at the larger firms. (By the way, be sure to look at this survey if you can get a copy from a professor or at the library. The survey provides tons of useful information.)

But back to the subject of overtime. Dont fool yourself. Working sixty hours a week through tax or audit season burns you out. Do you really want to sign up for that grind?

Tangential aside: At small firms, you may work a bit of overtime during tax season, but youll also often find that during the off-season, the workload lightens considerably. Often, people may not even work a full, forty-hour week.

Reason #3: Minimal Business Travel or No Business Travel

Small firms almost always serve local business clientswhich means you probably wont have much or any business travel. And you certainly shouldnt find yourself assigned to some other out-of-state location for weeks or months.

No kidding: I left Arthur Andersen twenty-five years ago when the office managing partner told me that I was being reassigned from Seattle to Chicago for a two-year-long firm project. It sure didnt seem like that was a good choice for my marriage

Nothing quite saps the fun of work if after spending the week working long hours, you spend the weekend in airport security lines, on overcrowded flights, and doing your laundry.

Reason #4: More Family Friendly Environment

OK, reason #4 is sort of a combination of reasons #1, #2 and #3, but think about the sort of firm where the partners have said, Hey, we want to work close to homedont want to work a bunch of overtime and sure as heck dont want to travel a bunch

Are you really surprised that such a small firm environment is more family friendly? If in all the obvious, big ways the firm has constructed a family friendly work environment you can be pretty certain that the firm will also be family friendly in a bunch of small ways, too.

A small firm will more easily allow you to pick up a sick kid from school or schedule time off to coach little league. I guarantee it.

Reason #5: More Client Contact

Large firms operate with a leveraged structure, which typically means that staff accountants and senior accountants work for managers, managers work for partners, and then partners hobnob and schmooze and sell to clients.

The good part of leverage? Leverage makes it possible to serve large clients and work on large projects. And thats cool.

The bad part of leverage? The structure also means that most of the professionals in firm have little or no client contact. In fact, in many large firms, accountants may have to wait years before they actually sit down with a client. And thats tragic. Client contact makes the work more fun. And client contact provides context for the work.

In comparison, in a small firm, an accountant may have client contact as soon as he or she acquires professional competency. If youre mature and technically competent, in fact, a small firm setting may mean that you have client contact a few days or weeks after starting work. Seriously.

Reason #6: Services Provided to Decision-makers

Another subtle yet significant difference between a small firm and a large firm concerns who the CPA works with. In a small firm serving small clients, the CPA very likely works directly for and with the owner. In a large firm serving large clients, the CPA very likely works with mid-level managers.

Thats also too bad. The entrepreneurial owner of, say, a $2M, $5M or $20M business will almost surely be a very intriguing person.

Not to pick on accountants, but lets face it. That entrepreneur will probably be way more entertaining than, well, the manager of the accounts payable department or the divisional controller of some huge distribution company.

Close contact with the decision maker will also mean that youre often working on strategic and important tactical problems and opportunities. Thats not going to be true if youre working with, as I say, an accounting manager several layers deep in the organizational chart. Sorry.

Reason #7: accountant Chance of Partnership

And one final reason to consider a small firm: A small firm should provide a more realistic opportunity for sharing in the firms ownership. In fact, if youve got good technical skills and good people skills, you are a shoo-in. Absolutely.

Lets face it: Large firms, by design, rely on pyramidal staffing. The firm cant promote every qualified candidate to the next level of the organization. Each partner keeps three or five or ten other people busy and billable.

In comparison, a small firm using a flat organizational structure could, theoretically, promote everyone to partner. A partner only needs to keep him or herself busy.

Whats more, inevitably, a small accounting firms owners will want to sell out at retirement. And that means that the firms staff should automatically have an opportunity to buy into or acquire the practice.

Bellevue Redmond WA accountant Stephen L. Nelson CPA operates a small Seattle-area accounting firm. Nelson is also the author of QuickBooks for Dummies and the Do-It-Yourself LLC Formation Kits. Contact him at http://www.stephenlnelson.com

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Tax Returns - What Is A W2 Form

If you are an employee, that is earning salary from someone, you should receive a form W-2 from the employer. The form is a Wage and tax statement accountant the year. In order to file tax returns for 2007 you must either include a W-2 and in case the W-2 is not received by you on time you will need to use form 4852 as a substitute.

As an employee you must receive a form W2 from the employer no later than Jan 31 st. Keep a track of where all you worked during a year and gather W-2 for each job.

The earnings will be entered in box 1 of the W-2. To compute total wages for any year you need to add the box 1 amounts of each W-2 form.

Then when filling the tax return insert the total amount earned on form 1040, 1040A, or Form 1040EZ.
The format of a W-2 depends on how the employer processes the payroll. However the content of every W-2 remains the same.

In order to prepare taxes efficiently it is advantageous to known and understand the w-2.

* Boxes A to F of the W-2 are unique identifications:

* Box A represents the control number and the code, specific to you is assigned by the payroll system.

Box B is the employers tax identification number.

Box C records the employers name, address, and other relevant information.

Box D: This is your social security number. Always check that this is correct.

Box E records your personal details, your name in full.

Box F gives your permanent address and recent address.

Boxes 1-10 of the W-2 detail systematically your wages as well as tips, bonuses, and so on; federal income tax withheld by employer; the social security wages; social security taxes withheld; Medicare wages; Medicare taxes; social security tips; allocated tips; advance EIC payment; and dependant care benefits.

Boxes 11-20 detail: non qualified plans; compensation benefits; employee status: statutory employee, retirement plan, and third party sick pay; detailed tax information; state and state employers ID; state wages; state income tax withheld; local wages; local income tax withheld; locality name detailing state taxes.

Box 12 of the w-2 details all the different compensations and benefits like uncollected social security, uncollected Medicare, salary deferrals, retirement plans, and so on.

The Social Security Administration will receive copy A of W-2 directly from the employers. The SSA will in turn send relevant details to the IRS. Copy B of the W-2 is to be attached by you to your Federal tax return. Copy C of the W-2 is to be filed and kept by you along with other tax documents for a minimum of four years. Copy 1 of the W-2 will be mailed by the employer to the local state tax department and copy 2of the W-2 must be filed by you along with your state tax returns. Copy D of the W-2 will be retained by the employer and maintained as record for at least four years.

Detailed instructions for form W-2 are provided by the IRS at http://www.irs.gov/instructions/iw2w3/index.html use of the instructions as well as other online tips such as common errors.

Create a check list that will enable you to check that the W-2 received by you has no errors.

Barry Allen is a freelance writer for http://www.1888tax.com , the premier website to find tax, return tax, tax software, free tax filing, sales tax, services tax, income tax, property tax and many more. He also freelances for the premier Credit Report site http://www.1888creditreport.com

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