9 Resources to Get You Prepared for Tax Season

Don’t let tax season overwhelm you. Utilize these nine resources to help you take the stress out of preparing your taxes for Uncle Sam. April really is the cruelest month. But when British poet T.S. Eliot immortalized those famous words in his literary masterpiece “The Waste Land,” he never could’ve known that they would end up ringing true for business owners and entrepreneurs living in 21st-century America. Getting all of your receipts, financial documents and bank statements in order can be an arduous task. But there are solutions so that you can focus more on running your business and less on sifting through mountains of paperwork. Seeking outside help from a trusted accountant or bookkeeper is a great option, and technology has taken the grunt work out of organizing and preparing your own tax records — making April not seem nearly as cruel as it used to be. We asked nine entrepreneurs from YEC to share the resources they use to simplify things and help get their taxes in order.  

1

Track1099

Issuing 1099s was always a slow, costly process that required a CPA or advanced knowledge of Quickbooks. New online services such as Track1099 make processing your business’ 1099s much easier. These services connect to your accounting program, pull the information from the appropriate recipients of 1099s and take care of all the communication with both the recipient and the IRS. Online and cheap. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors

2

Mint

Mint is a great way to review your business transactions from the past year. It is a mobile finance app you can link to credit cards, bank accounts and investment funds. Mint will automatically tag and categorize purchases to help you identify donations, gifts and other tax-deductible expenses that you’ve incurred over the year. – Adelyn Zhou, TOPBOTS

3

QuickBooks Self-Employed

Intuit recently launched a new offering called QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE), which is perfect for small businesses that aren’t ready to jump into the full-service offering that most are used to seeing advertised. QBSE is great for independent contractors and freelancers as it allows a user to quickly and easily detangle expenses that might be intermingled across personal/business accounts. – Corey Eulas, Factorial Digital

4

Xero

We implemented Xero about two years ago, and it is a great cloud accounting solution with superb integration for other platforms so that you have Xero as the heart of your organization. There’s also lots of customization possibilities due to their open API. We are still using a personal accounting firm, but remotely, we use Xero as a cloud accounting solution. – Philipp Mohr, Hashplay Inc

5

A Bookkeeper

The best way to plan for taxes is not to leave everything until the last second. Hire a good bookkeeper and have them take care of your books year round. I’d recommend having them utilize a widely used system like Quickbooks Online, which will give you real-time access to your financials. This will allow you to focus on growing your business as opposed to spending more time on taxes. – Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas

6

Evernote

I like Evernote because I can put all my files, notes and receipts in one place via a cloud-storage format. It just makes it easy when I’m on the go and can save and upload from anywhere. – John Rampton, Due

7

QuickBooks Online

I absolutely love using QuickBooks Online to help keep me organized and my books reconciled for tax time. It has made my life so much easier, and I love their mobile app for ease of use while I’m traveling or on the go. I can actually run payroll off my smartphone — how cool! – Rachel Beider, Massage Greenpoint, Massage Williamsburg

8

Google Sheets

In addition to many of the other well-known tax software products out there, Google Sheets is definitely going to come in handy. Google Sheets is free to use and nearly identical to Excel — with even more benefits. Access your data from anywhere and also share or convert to a different file type with the click of a button. – Zac Johnson, Blogger

9

An Accountant

Outsource your taxes. It’s not going to be expensive if you use an independent accountant that has your best interests at heart. You can make more money in the time (not to mention avoid the headaches) that you’ll save yourself. – Thomas Smale, FE International

Why Tech Should Behave More Like Finance

Tech executives in particular should take a page from top financiers on how to build efficient, competitive, and successful companies.

The financial industry often gets a bad rap, thanks in part to world-shattering events like the 2008 recession. It’s tough for an industry to appear on the up-and-up when a few legacy companies upend the global financial system.

But not all finance organizations are Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns — in fact, most of them aren’t. The most pure markets in finance are incredibly sophisticated and arguably result in the most level playing fields of any industry. This is largely due to the fact that legislation forces transparency, so the sector must be vigilant about plugging holes and rooting out corruption.

Leaders in other fields can learn a great deal from studying leading finance companies. Unlike tech companies, which maintain relatively friendly relationships with competitors, finance is a dog-eat-dog world. Finance companies refuse to permit bloat and inefficiencies because they can’t afford such distractions when billion-dollar decisions are on the line.

Finance’s Finer Points

Not all business leaders desire a house in the Hamptons and a private yacht, nor do they thrive on the fast-paced, 24/7 work ethic that finance demands. But founders and executives of all stripes could stand to cultivate some of finance leaders’ most effective qualities.

Here’s what distinguishes the leaders — and winners — in this industry:

They take management seriously.

Major finance corporations conduct extensive management trainings that yield standardized processes and well-trained leaders. Executives in the tech industry would benefit from more intensive training, for ourselves and our staff members, before diving into or doling out management positions.

They recruit talent aggressively.

Finance companies know how to entice the brightest analytical minds, and they hook them before they’ve even started their careers. Much like talent scouts pursue college athletes for the big leagues, top finance organizations operate strong recruitment programs. They visit the best universities in the country, promoting their grade-A internship opportunities to promising would-be investors.

They’re data-driven.

Finance professionals rely on high-level, high-quality data information to stay on their competitors’ trails. Minute alpha advantages make the difference in billions of dollars in profit, which is why you see finance companies using predictive tools that are years ahead of those in any other industry.

Finance is a zero-sum game.

Professionals in this field either win big or lose big, and they’re keenly aware of what’s at stake. That mindset creates a hyper-focused approach to delivering results.