Articles of Interest to PC Entrepreneurs
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FINANCIAL HELP AT THE TOUCH OF A KEY, Part 1
by
Michael A. Tims
Of all the reasons given for buying a personal computer, being able to manage your personal finances has to be one of the most often mentioned. But in addition to managing home finances, the PC can also be a boon to the small business entrepreneur who is trying to keep track of his/her finances.
Are you working, saving and planning for your retirement? What about making investments to finance your child's college education? Here's another common occurance; you go to buy a car and the dealer proposes what sounds like a terrific leasing deal. What should you do, buy or lease? What is the best way to get yourself out of debt? Should you double payments? Should you put extra money on a mortgage or put it on a different debt? There IS help with ALL these money problems and it CAN be as close as your PC.
When you go to CompUSA, Computer City, or look through a Tiger Software catalog, you will find a wealth of software programs to help you with all your financial decisions. There is one problem, however, if you purchased every financial program that could help you with your finances, you would go broke and have no need for financial software.
There IS, however, an alternative to purchasing high priced commercial financial software, to help with your finances. As anyone who has read my articles should know, I advocate the use of shareware.
Shareware is not a type of software, but a marketing concept. It is sometimes called, try-before-you-buy software. You try out the software for a reasonable period and if you want to continue to use the software you register it with the author. Registering is the way the author gets paid for his programming efforts. When you register, you may get an upgraded software package for registering, or a printed manual, or some othe incentive. It depends on the author. If you do not register the software, because you and no longer find the software useful, you are legally obligated to discontinue using the software.
There are, literally, thousands of shareware programs to choose from, with many in the financial help area. Whether you are trying to balance your personal or business checkbook or trying to plan your retirement, there is a shareware program designed to do a particular financial job.
CHECKBOOK MANAGEMENT Most people (as well as small businesses) need a checkbook program to keep track of checks written, account balances, etc. Using a checkbook software program on your PC is the fastest and easiest way to reconcile your bank statements when they arrive each month.
"Checkbook Plus, v5.7" is just such a checkbook management program. It can handle multiple checking accounts, does account reconciliation and can memorize transactions. You can print checks as well as several types of standard reports. The software features pull-down menus, on-line help files, mouse support, a pop-up calendar, math and financial calculators and many other features. Other shareware programs, with basic checkbook features, include such programs as: "Checking, v1.0", "CheckBook, v3.0" or "CheX, v3.1".
"Fastbucks, v5.07" puts a little more computing power at your disposal. At the same time, it is a user friendly financial manager for home or small business. The program supports 25 each of checking, charge, savings or miscellaneous accounts. The program uses a recursive budget model to generate relatively painless, but workable, budgets for your home finances. Fastbucks also features a financial calculation section to produce loan amortization schedules as well as savings and depreciation calculations.
If you would prefer a checkbook program which will run under Windows, the shareware program, "ChequeBook, v4.0", is a basic checkbook program which makes reconciliation and budgeting chores easier to accomplish. It features automatic recording of recurring deposits and payments.
INCOME TAXES Doing one's own income taxe preparation on their PC is one area of financial help that I do not count on 100% myself. I have a CPA do my final tax returns for me, but I do all the preliminary figuring and preparation beforehand. I use a CPA just to make sure I get every dime of deductions that I am legally entitled to. All the same though, I do use several shareware programs to help with my preliminary tax preparation and I usually know how my tax figures will come out even before seeing my CPA. For the small business person, who is usually running their business as a second income, it could mean the difference between owing the IRS and getting a tax refund.
However, if you would like to try doing your own tax preparation at home on your PC, or if you would like to pre-fill out the forms before having your tax preparor take a look at them, there are several software programs designed to do the job. The commercial programs, such as Intuit's TurboTax or Block Financial's TaxCut, might seem to have the edge over the shareware entries when it comes to filling out the tax forms themselves. There are, however, several shareware programs to help in tax preparation and it may give you some insight, so you will be more efficient, in either doing your own taxes or in knowing what areas to discuss with your tax preparer.
"AM-TAX from AM SOFTWARE" is right up with the commercial programs in being able to prpare a complete tax return consisting of Form 1040 and Schedules A, B, C, D, E, EIC, F, R, and SE. All of the forms and schedules (including the 1040) print in a format that can be filed directly with the IRS. Keep in mind that tax preparation software is meant as HELP in preparing your tax returns, not the ultimate answer. Even AM Software puts this precaution in their documentation.
"AM-Tax is your assistant in preparing your tax return. It will save you a lot of time, but it does not offer advice. You are the one responsible for deciding whether you should file a return, which forms you need, and for the figures entered and calculated on your return. The formulas in this software program have been carefully checked and we believe that they are correct. However, the tax laws are complex and at times vague. In some cases your special circumstances may not be properly handled by the program's calculations. You are the one ultimately responsible for the numbers on the form. Inspect them before signing your return."
If you order the Professional version of AM-TAX from the authors, you will also receive their Electronic Filing Feature which allows a tax preparor to transmit tax returns to the IRS by modem. A similar shareware program called, "EFP (Electronic Filing Program) v1.2 by William Sanders", is a full featured shareware package for filing your tax returns electronically. It will handle all forms, schedules and statements. It even comes with an 8453 form, which is required by the IRS when filing electronically.
TAX PLANNING Probably more to the point of this article would be shareware programs which could help you PLAN for the yearly ordeal of doing your taxes, rather than actually doing them. Programs such as, "QuickTax v1.08 by Bates Engineering", is just such a program. It is promoted as a tax planner, estimator, tracker and checker. Plan your taxes to get the most from deductions, credits, IRAs, savings plans, pensions, social security, capitol gains, dividends and interest. The software determines your filing status and requirements, dependencies, withholding allowances and estimated tax.
"SuperTax95 by Rockware Data" is another good tax planning package. It determines your proper estimated tax payments, if you are self employed, by prompting you to simply plug-in all pertinent information; your number of deductions, any deductions for IRAs, etc. The package even includes facilities for figuring standard depreciations.
EXPENSES If all you need is help in tracking expenses for tax or expense account purposes, shareware, once again, can come to the rescue. For general expense account reporting, programs such as, "Xpens v1.3 by Richard A. Williams", Will help keep your expense reporting under control. It is designed to provide employers and employees with a quick and easy way to enter expense account information and print out expense reports. Of course, the same program could be used to track general expenses for a small business.
If you only need to keep track of automobile expenses, there are many shareware programs specializing in this area of expense tracking. Among the many are, "AutoPlan v6.0 by Black Cat Software", "AutoTrax v3.0 by Doug Scott", and "VTR (Vehicle expense Tracking Program) by Eric Jarrett", are all excellent examples of this type of shareware program.
"Car Book Plus for Windows", includes two separate car expense programs: Car Milage Book and Car Expenses Book. Both programs will help keep track of all car records (services, maintenance, repairs, insurance & license fees, fuel & oil costs, leasing costs, mileage, and more. The package is very thorough for either personal or business car use.
One last vehicle related finance shareware program is "Buy or Lease It for Windows by KJ Software". Think about it! You're all ready to buy the car of your dreams and then the dealer dangles a low down, low monthly payment lease in front of you. What do you do? This program can help answer this tough question. Simply input all relevent data and the program will calculate your financial position for each alternative for the time period specified. It will then make a recommendation for either buying or leasing. Of course, I would recommend you simply use the program as another TOOL to help you make a better informed financial decision.
MORTGAGE PLANNING Anyone who has ever tried to finance a new home will find the shareware program, "Mortgage Designer for Windows by MaeDae Enterprises", invaluable. By inputting the terms offered by different lenders, you can compare various mortgage packages. Change values to do, what if?, comparisons. Should you go for a 15, 20 or 30 year mortgage? Is the loan officer likely to approve your loan? Simply input your current debts, your income tax bracket, local property taxes and other pertinent information and the Mortgage Ratio part of the program will make a decision on the possibility of loan approval.
SMALL BUSINESS FINANCIAL HELP AND ADVICE One last shareware program that a small business entrepreneur might want to take a look at is, "Small Business Advisor by Ronin Software". It is reported to be an expert program that puts the tax, legal, and business knowledge of a Harvard lawyer and "Big 6" CPA at your fingertips. Said to give your small business instant and current tax, legal and other information; federal and state (for whatever state you select). Covers IRS, OSHA, ADA, ERISA, EEO, labor laws, workers comp, fringe benefits, environmental laws and hundreds of other easily accessible topics. The program creates multi-page checklists of business startup requirements in just a couple of minutes, customized for your business and the laws of your state.
SHAREWARE Keep in mind that neither BBS's nor shareware distributors OWN the software they distribute and you are not purchasing the software outright from them. You are paying a disk copying fee only. The individual authors retain ownership of the software and if you continue to find the software useful, after a reasonable evaluation period, you are required to send the registration fee directly to the respective authors or else discontinue using the software.
Whether you get your evaluation copies of shareware programs from on line services, shareware distributors or straight from the authors, I know you will find the experience worthwhile. Any shareware you end up registering will be the best investment you could make to help modernize (make that computerize) your small business and (in this case) getting your finances under control.
Part 2 of this article will cover other areas of financial help from your PC. Such topics will be covered as, Planning for Retirement, Repairing Poor Credit, as well as Getting Yourself Out of Debt. ===================================================
AUTHOR PROFILE
Michael A. Tims is a retired high school math teacher but has run a mail order business as a sideline for over 20 years. Being a self taught computer NUT, one of his passions has been to find unique ways to use a PC to enhance or enable a small business venture.
Mr. Tims has written numerous magazine articles on PC basics or using a PC in business and is the author of the published book, "101 Computer Related Businesses", as well as a syndicated column called, "PC Biz of the Month".
Visit his new web site at www.matcopublishing.com and let him know what you think of it. Many other articles may be read at www.matcopublishing.com/articles.htm
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