Journal Entries…the LedgersOnline blog

Testing out Plugoo, a tool that allows your website visitors to chat with you live. Let's see if this works!

http://www.myPlugoo.com/XF6JG9HV4P4M2RX

Yahoo! Search Marketing had a strong presence at the SOHO-SME Conference last week held in downtown Vancouver. Along with delivering the breakfast keynote, they had a large presence at the tradeshow along with delivering a short workshop on Search Engine Marketing 101.

Yahoo! Originally began offering the service after acquiring Overture Services Inc. (formerly Goto.com) for $1.7 billion, and now competes directly with Google Ad Words, a similar service which we have been using. While no one is disputing that Google is the #1 search engine (unofficial figures provided by Yahoo! cite that in Canada, Google owns 75% of internet searches while Yahoo! comes in at 15% followed by MSN at 10%). Yahoo!’s main point that they were trying to drive home was time spent. According to their reaserach, they find that users spend on average, 8 minutes on their search engine, while Google users spend 2 minutes on average. I’m not sure the exact parameters on which this is measured, but it would make sense if you consider that their home page is much more of a portal compared with Google’s homepage.

We are participating in the Mesh Conference in Toronto today and tomorrow (May 30 and 31st).

So what is Web2.0? For those who aren't familiar with the term, according to wikipedia, Web 2.0, refers to a perceived second generation of Web-based communities and hosted services such as social networking sites, wikis and folksonomies that facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. We are seeing the web dominated by sites such as YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, and Facebook, all of which fall into this definition. All of these sites are putting the power back into the hands of users, and away from big institutionalized sources. It allows us to all be "part of the conversation."

Microsoft and Google, two of the giants of the technology world, have begun a competition in a new market - accounting software.

Google recently partnered with Intuit, maker of QuickBooks to include links to Google's online marketing tools including Ad-Words and Maps. Microsoft responded with a new web based accounting product: Microsoft Office Accounting Professional.

Click here for a full review.

The Massive Technology Show will be held this upcoming Wednesday at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre. LedgersOnline will be among the various exhibitors at the tradeshow.

The event consists of 3 parts

a) Conference with speakers on a variety of topics
b) Tradeshow
c) Networking.

You can learn more at www.massivetechshow.com The show aims to bring together “business decision makers with the latest technology offerings and present them in a user-friendly way with a minimal amount of geek-speak.” We have some tradeshow passes to give away so please contact us if you would like to attend.

It’s that time of the year again… time to start thinking about taxes and organizing the shoebox of receipts to send off to your accountant. Despite year-ends being the source of numerous sleepless nights and headaches, they are also the most important reports for any business to issue. They will be used for tax preparation, future reference, and smarter decision making. Below is a simple checklist of items you should prepare for your tax professional:

• Does my general ledger bank balance reconcile to the bank statement?

LedgersOnline is proud to be exhibiting at the Massive Technology Show again this year, on Wednesday, March 28th at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre.

This event sold out last year, and will likely be selling out again this year because of its great learning, networking, and business opportunities. This year's event features speakers from leading technology industries, networking and many great exhibits. Come visit LedgersOnline at Booth #91.

As Microsoft is rolling out their new 'Windows Vista' operating system, we are left to debate whether or not to upgrade. The consensus from many reviewers seems to be that XP is more than sufficient for your current PC and one should only think of upgrading if buying a new computer.

However, if you are running QuickBooks 2006 and plan to upgrade to Vista, you will be facing major compatibility issues. QuickBooks notified its customers of the issue by email.

We thought it would be a good idea to list some of the top posts of the past year, many of which deal with offering small business bookkeeping advice. With a new year upon us, it often allows us to make resolutions, both personal and in business. For most of you entrepreneurs out there, they are one in the same!

Tax season is just around the corner as well - many businesses have December 31st year ends. It seems that accounting issues always tend to come up around this time of year.  

Here are some posts from the past year:

Survey finds small business owners burdened by bookkeeping

1. What books and records must be kept for a business?

Every business should keep books of accounts and records, which allow taxes payable to be calculated. These books and records must be supported by “source documents”, including (but not limited to) invoices for purchases, sales, deposit slips, cheques, and contracts. These books and records are used to prepare financial statements of the business.

For income tax purposes, many books of accounts, records and source documents have to be retained for a minimum of six years after the last tax year to which they relate. Other corporate records must be kept until two years after the day the corporation is dissolved. For more detailed information on the retention rates, please refer to this article quoting Regulation 5800.