Billing Manager apologies

Posted June 17, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

I apologize for the effect that the service outage had on you and your business. We know our customers rely on QuickBooks Online/Billing Manager and we take it very seriously when your business is unable to perform its key tasks.

Your business success and the availability of our service is one of our top priorities. We have an entire team of folks investigating this incident and are committed to improving our service’s availability.

My sincere apology,

Suchi Upadhyayula
suchi_upadhyayula@intuit.com
Director of Product Development, QuickBooks Online and Billing Manager

Service Outage Notification

Posted June 16, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

We apologize to those of you who have been unable to connect to a number of Intuit websites, including QuickBooks Online and Billing Manager, that became unavailable at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, Pacific time.

Our first priority is to restore these websites and give you full and complete access to our sites and your data as soon as possible. We are also investigating the cause of the problem and will take measures prevent a recurrence. We appreciate your patience and will provide more information as it becomes available.

Phishing emails – put on the repellent

Posted April 21, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

Get some repellent for those pesky insects from the Online Security Center!  With an increase in phishing scams (fake emails masked as though they are coming from Intuit), everyone needs extra protection.

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:

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.

Obama’s HIRE Act and how it affects you

Posted April 21, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized


Small businesses are getting tax breaks for hiring employees

We recently published an article about Health care reform and heard from many of you that factual information about new laws and policies was helpful…so we will continue to update you on laws and policies that may affect how you do business.

A few weeks ago President Obama signed into law a $17.5 billion bill, called the Hire Act.  It’s  stated intent is to help  stimulate job creation for small businesses.  Ok, $17.5 billion sounds awesome, I could buy 35 million iPads with that, but what does it all mean for you?  Here’s what you need to know:

Reduced Social Security Taxes: Employers will not have to pay the Social Security tax for hiring someone who has not had full-time work for the past 60 days.  This means you can save up to 6.2% of wages up to $106,800, a maximum value of $6,621 per employee.

Business Tax Credit: If you keep the employee for at least a year, you will also be eligible for a $1,000 business tax credit (the employee’s salary in the last 26 weeks must be at least 80% salary of the first 26 weeks).

Which employees apply? The employee:

  • must be hired between Feb 3rd, 2010 and Jan 1, 2011
  • was previously unemployed for the past 60 days
  • is not a relative
  • cannot be fired then rehired

What are your thoughts on the new bill? Will it actually make you consider hiring someone?  If so, what do you plan on spending your tax savings on?

On a side note, Intuit’s most recent Small Business Employment Index reports that 50,000 new jobs were created in March alone, and 175,000 new jobs since June 2009.  As we all know, you are the heart of the economy, so thank you for keeping us afloat!

To learn more, checkout these helpful resources:

Best Wishes,

Brian Tran

(About me: I’m a software engineer on QuickBooks Online.  He hopes to one day own a restaurant called Bubbo’s, serving different kinds of comfort food from around the world.)

What you need to know about Health Care reform

Posted April 15, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

The digest: Many small businesses have a hard time affording health insurance for their employees.  It is expensive.  The new reform attempts to lower these costs through state-run insurance exchanges…where small businesses  pool together to purchase coverage. Between now and 2014 when the exchanges will be in place, there will be tax incentives for small businesses to start offering coverage.  It’s only play or pay for bigger businesses. By 2014, businesses with more than 50 employees will be forced to offer insurance or pay a fine.

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

IE6? Time to upgrade!

Posted March 8, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

You’ve seen a number of posts and comments in this blog where we have encouraged upgrading from Internet Explorer 6 to a more up-to-date browser.  We told you that Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox are faster and more secure. We also hinted that some new features and improvements are coming, which make Billing Manager faster and easier to use, but are not compatible with IE6.

These posts were no accident.

We are currently working on some features that will makes Billing Manager  will not work with IE6.  Its time to upgrade to get the most out of the Billing Manager.  You will also benefit with other web sites you use, many are discontinuing IE6 support as well.

If it were me, I would first download Firefox and start using it.  You can install Firefox without changing your Internet Explorer version.   Then, when you are comfortable with Firefox, upgrade Internet Explorer. You will end up with 2 excellent browsers on your system. This is only a suggestion, its OK to just upgrade Internet Explorer.

If you are using a Macintosh, then you are already covered.  The new features work fine with Safari and Firefox.

Want more customers? Register here for 2 free marketing webinars

Posted February 22, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

Hey Billing Manager users, we have some fun webinars coming up.  These two are our favorites!

Online tools for strong offline relationships with John Jantsch
Wednesday, February 24 at 10:00am PST

Learn how to leverage social media and other Web tools to build stronger relationships with local customers, suppliers and prospects. John will cover how to create local communities with online groups, and how to access local bloggers and media to raise your brand awareness. He’ll also advise on how to use online communities to create offline events, mine social media platforms for local leads and how to enhance local search engine placement for your business.

Register here

Turn Clicks into Conversations and Relationships with Brent Leary
Wednesday, March 10 at 10:00am PST

Learn the tools and techniques needed to turn content into conversations, conversations into exchanges, and exchanges into long-lasting customer relationships. Brent will teach social listening, automating content creation and distribution, and steps for enhancing the customer experience with your company by facilitating opportunities for customers to connect with each other.

Register here

Find more free webinar events

If you go, share your thoughts or learnings with other Billing Manager  users. Leave them in the comments.

Reminder: If you have employees or contractors, there are tax forms due.

Posted January 22, 2010 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Uncategorized

Rushing to finish 1099-MISCs and W-2s for contractors and employees?

Information you should know: The deadline to send independent contractors and employees their 1099-MISCs and W-2s is Feb 1st.

For you do-it-yourselfers, we know it can be a headache to gather all the payments, worker info, and do the calculations between year end and the deadline  (QuickBooks definitely helps with some of this remember). But, the 1099-MISC is especially troublesome if you’re filing manually because the IRS requires using a special paper form with red-boxes, which can only be ordered in packets of 25 or more – not very practical for those of you with just a few contractors!

We’re happy to share an easier way to finish these forms quickly and easily. A new service from our friends in TurboTax called Quick Employer Forms provides step-by-step guidance to prepare 1099-MISC, W-2 forms and e-file for only $2.95 each.

Bonus: If you finish your forms before 6:00AM PST on Jan 28, they will even mail them to your contractors and employees by the deadline. We hope you like it!

Check it out.

Upgrade to QuickBooks Online and take your Billing Manager data with you!

Posted January 8, 2010 by abeo12
Categories: Billing Manager News, New Features

Hi, I’m Abe from the Billing Manager team. I hope you’re enjoying using Billing Manager for your invoicing!   We love you, don’t get us wrong… but sometimes we know you may need a bit more than just invoicing

If you have had that thought, consider upgrading to QuickBooks Online. 

What is QuickBooks Online?

It’s a complete online accounting solution in which you can:

  • Invoice your customers (like Billing Manager!)
  • Track expenses
  • Sync up your bank accounts and download transactions
  • Do Reporting (Profit & Loss, Balance sheet, many more…)
  • Prepare for Tax Time

We’ve made it super easy to move from Billing Manager to QuickBooks Online by adding an upgrade feature to Billing Manager.  With just a few clicks we’ll create a new QuickBooks Online account for you and transfer all your contacts, services and products, invoices (not draft or trashed) and payments. 

But wait! How much is this going to cost me?

Your QuickBooks Online account is free for 30 days, after which it’s just $9.95.  Try it out—we expect you’ll love the powerful features you get with QuickBooks Online, but if not, don’t worry. 

What happens to my Billing Manager data?

The data in Billing Manager will remain untouched, so you can go back to Billing Manager if you decide QuickBooks Online isn’t for you.

How do I do it…sign me up!

Look for the green button on the top of your Billing Manager page.  We like to call it a little green dog ear. Click and go!

Some last words

Now a few notes on the things we don’t export to QuickBooks Online when you upgrade (and some help for how to reenter them in QuickBooks Online):

1) Estimates – If you want to recreate any estimates in QuickBooks Online, select Customers > Create Estimate and re-enter the information.

2) Recurring invoice schedules – See this help page  for how to re-enter them.  However, be sure also to pause or delete the recurring invoice in Billing Manager when you do this so your customers aren’t billed from two places!

3) Logo – Check here for how  to add your company logo in QuickBooks Online.

4) Product units (e.g., “per foot”) – custom units are not supported in QuickBooks Online.

5) If you have Intuit Merchant Services (accept credit cards and e-checks online), refunds are not transferred.  Look here for how to enter refunds into QuickBooks Online.

Thank You for a great year! We’re looking forward to the next

Posted December 27, 2009 by QBO Bermster
Categories: Customer Learning, Feedback

As 2009 ends, the Billing Manager team would like to say “Thank You” for your loyalty, and to wish you, your family, and your business a happy and prosperous New Year. We are grateful for your continued feedback, and are excited to share improvements we’ve made based on it.

With your help, we introduced big product features in 2009, including:

  1. FREE: Hello FREE. We won’t accept your money, spend it on your business. Billing Manager is free
  2. Currency Localization: Where do you live?  We probably have your currency in Billing Manager now.
  3. Sales Tax and Payment reporting: Need some reporting? You can now click to see a list of your sales tax and payments.

We’re excited about the New Year and what’s coming. There’s a lot to look forward to!

Thanks for your loyalty and consistent feedback.   Please continue to tell us what you like, what you don’t like and what you want.

- Happy New Year from the Billing Manager team!