QuickBooks-Blog

Save Money, Save Time and Speed Results

Save Money, Save Time and Speed Results-
I now have 13 years of experience in helping to save money (ROI to 100:1), save time and speed results. Click here for an Accounting Technology magazine cover story featuring me for this.

Save Money-
You can save money on the cost of keeping time records by having us create, check, correct or post them (ROI up to 100:1). You also can save money (two-thirds) on accounting, bookkeeping, filing, typing, programming and other staff. You can save even more money on payroll taxes, fringes, rent, insurance and computers.

Save Time and Speed Results-
You save time and speed results, with most work done at night. We use very inexpensive AUTOMATIC DAILY accounting programs and quickly add (or drop) extra staff, as needed.

Improve Supervision, Training, Control and Documentation-
We document all local and remote time with frequent screen snapshots and keystroke and mouse clicks. This lets us better use local and remote staff to supervise, train and control staff, while documenting work and even your car mileage. 

Please contact me to Save Money, Save Time and Speed Results.

Steve Bennett – Symantec Chairman, CEO and My Friend at Intuit / QuickBooks

Steve Bennett, the new (Norton) Symantec Chairman and CEO, was my good friend while holding these positions at the much smaller Intuit.

I became very popular with Intuit top executives by providing thousands of QuickBooks news group and forum answers, praising Intuit or QuickBooks, visiting Intuit and winning two QuickBooks beta test contests. I also were justified some Intuit price increases or lapses by saying that it was making very little compared to other software companies, despite near monopolies with Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax.

A winning boycott for tax table fees on each copy of QuickBooks, not on each QuickBooks company, made me temporarily unpopular. Part of this involved a program that told QuickBooks that its tax tables were current, when they were not. It shocked the Ukrainian programmer when he learned he could sell this program and keep related revenue, though I conceived it, paid him for it and publicized its availability, without revealing that it was mine. Intuit quickly dropped the increase, which cost it dearly. This actually may have been a big reason Steve became Intuit CEO.

In his eight  years, Intuit sales and profits rose incredibly (three and four times respectively). This mainly related to his Six Sigma focus on quality and costs, rather than big price increases, as often noted in my posts. That is no longer the case, as shown by recent QuickBooks ProAdvisor price increase discussions ($698 to $803, 151 comments already).

Despite my boycott, Steve later let me on the first QuickBooks Advisory Council. While on the Council, I began leading a TurboTax boycott over copy protection, which did not affect my ProSeries version of TurboTax. Steve quickly took steps to end the boycott, including accepting my suggestion that users get (on request) a copy-protection-free program after April 15, for 10 years. Rich Walker recently got a user such a copy a few days ago.

Steve did not dump me from the Council, as feared. He also did not stop responding promptly to my many emails. He instead used his amazing ability to engage others in intensely appropriate personal ways. He wrote me this after a Council meeting:

Keep raising hell when Intuit does something wrong!

As I gasped over it, other Council members were gasping over what he wrote them. That is why Steve’s message will always remain at the top of my BlockTax website.

When Symantec announced Steve’s new jobs, this went out from me:

From: Michael Block CPA [mailto:mblock@blocktax.com]

Sent: Sunday, July 29, 2012 01:11 PM
To: Steve Bennett
Subject: Congratulations

Hi Steve

No matter how much I like Brad, I was always very sorry to see you leave Intuit. It was terrible for Intuit. If there is ever any way I can help, beyond buying more Symantec products, please let me know. 

 

Steve replied promptly (as usual):

 From: Steve Bennett 
Sent: 07/29/2012 5:46 PM
To: Michael Block CPA
Subject: Re: Congratulations

Mike... Your email means a lot to me... Thanks for the kind words... Drinking from the fire hose as you can imagine but having a lot of fun... 

Stay in touch... Hope all is well with you... Steve

 

This followed:

From: Michael Block CPA
Sent: 07/29/2012 8:56 PM
To: 'Steve Bennett'
Subject: RE: Congratulations

Hi Steve

It is amazing that leaders like you still find time for responses like this, though that may be part of the reason you are such good leaders.

All is very well with me. I am now #2 in the U.S. for Xero clients, with 156% more this month. That is even better than Xero did (100% more paid users in 10 months), but I expect big things from Ian Vacin (former QuickBooks ProAdvisor head). I complained that Xero had too many setup questions. Xero CEO Rod Drury quickly said Ian was already hard at work simplifying and initial results were out in days.

Can I publicize this?

 

Steve instantly responded, as he did to my similar Intuit request years earlier:

From: Steve Bennett
Sent: 07/29/2012 9:03 PM
To: Michael Block CPA
Subject: Re: Congratulations

Sure

 

To me this meant we should soon start hearing very good things about Symantec. In fact, we already have:

Is New Symantec CEO Steve Bennett Worth $1.5 Billion? Not A Chance

The somewhat surprising July 25 announcement that Enrique Salim's three-year tenure as Symantec CEO had ended -- and the reign of Chairman Steve Bennett had begun -- put the lead change front and center. And that was on top of Symantec's fiscal Q1 earnings announcement. Trading volume nearly five times the norm and a 13% jump in share price were proof that the news captured the attention of investors. But what's really changed to warrant a $1.5 billion (give or take) increase in company value?

 

A $1.5 billion dollar increase in Symantec stock value, in only a few days, may seem extreme for the immediate value of one man. However, Symantec rose about 5% more since this narrow-minded uninformed writer probably wrote his story. Based on Steve’s past performance with Intuit, even this does not begin to reflect his true value. As he quickly increases the Symantec bottom line, by an expected four or more times, investors will keep buying at far higher prices.

That is why my best wishes continue to go to Steve Bennett, Symantec Chairman, CEO and my friend.

Season’s Greetings, Big Pre-Tax Season Discounts

Hi there:

My season’s greetings for you include the hope that your business is among the many that are now doing better. These season’s greetings also will help you do better soon.

You can now help your business by locking in big pre-tax season discounts. These big pre-tax season discounts are the fastest, easiest and least stressful way to get your work done sooner and more accurately, with a bigger refund or less tax. The best QuickBooks CPA can even help you better manage your business, to increase profits.

This is my slowest time of the year. You will soon find us very busy with year-end accounting and tax returns. However, you can now get your accounting and tax work done for less. I hope you will consider my season’s greetings and give us part of your accounting work right away. I can do much better if I have more time to tell you how to cut taxes and increase profits. This especially applies to deciding on year-end payroll, which I must finish this month.

You can even lock in big pre-tax season discounts if you cannot let me start your work now. You simply need is to prepay your accounting and tax fees. The more you prepay, the bigger your big pre-tax season discounts. Here are the discounts I am offering for payment this month:

5% - $500
10% - $1,000
15% - $1,500
20% - $2,000
25% - $2,500 or more

I will even do this with prepaid fixed-price agreements. However, I will only offer these big pre-tax season discounts and fixed fee agreements for a very limited time. Only if you act fast will you get these discounts and priority service, at our current rates.

Otherwise, you will lose these big pre-tax season discounts and pay 10% more starting January 1. That will be my first increase in several years, so contact us now.

  

 

Cut Federal Pay and Benefits

We must now cut federal pay and benefits. They are now 30 percent to 40 percent more than in identical private sector jobs. This is not justified by higher skills, especially since the federal government can rarely fire workers for poor performance. Cutting federal pay and benefits to market rates will save about $47 billion in 2011.

There are many reports that average federal pay and benefits the higher than average private-sector payments.[1] You cannot justify higher pay and benefits based on the federal government employing more skilled workers.

• Federal pay gives the average employee hourly earnings 22 percent above the average private worker pay for the same skills and characteristics.
• Average private-sector employees get $9,882 in annual benefits. Federal benefits average $32,115 per employee.
• Overall, federal pay and benefits are around 30 percent to 40 percent more than comparable private workers.
• Federal employees have job security. Since the recession, federal employment rose 240,000 (12 percent). The unemployment rate for federal employees rose from 2.0 percent to 2.9 percent.
• Federal employees show they get better pay and benefits by quitting jobs at one-third of the rate of the private employees.
• The number of federal emplyees getting more than $100,000 in salary increased about 40% in recent years.
• These differences are damaging competing state and private employers. 

These averages mask large differences in pay across occupations and skill levels. Many federal employees in highly skilled occupations receive market wages. However, semi-skilled federal workers earn substantially more than in the private sector. Congress should not cut federal pay across the board. This would unfairly penalize the federal workers who earn market wages.

 

QuickBooks Payroll, Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp

QuickBooks Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp is now available for almost all companies. Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp is a fantastic time and money saver. The integrated Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp is one good way for small businesses to stay on top of premium payments. You automatically Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp only what you owe each payroll run.

Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp improves cash flow and saves time -

• No large initial prepayment.

• No surprise year end bill.

• No checks to write or missed deadlines.

 

Pay-As-You-Go Workers Comp premiums are automatically calculated and paid with each payroll. If you do not want a big workers comp payment, have been denied for workers comp, or have any questions about QuickBooks Pay-As-You-Go worker's comp, please contact me!  I will be glad to explain how it works and help you apply.

 

Thanks to Ruth Perryman for the update on this.