Simplify Small Business Accounting with Outright

When it comes to personal finances and budgeting, Mint is without a doubt one of my favs. But it’s not really tailored for small business accounting or a small online sales company.

That’s where Outright accounting software comes into play.

It’s a free online accounting program for small businesses, like Etsy, eBay or Amazon. It also made my top 5 must-have online tools and apps for freelancers.

The Benefits

• Completely FREE
• Safe and secure to use
• Tracks business expenses
• Prepare reports for estimated taxes
• Send invoices and collect payments
• Links to thousands of bank accounts
• Verify the new 1099K forms at a glance

Keep track of tax-deductible expenses like: mileage, sales tax, subscriptions, licenses, office supplies and lots more.

I’m using it for my Paypal account, because it separates shipping fees/costs from selling and listing fees. It totals the income and shows a daily profit or loss.

Eliminate the Guess Work

Once you link your seller account or checking account it will import transactions from the past few months. So you don’t have to go back and manually input anything.

It’s easy to see profit and loss at a glance, taxes due and who your best customers are. Estimated taxes are much easier to calculate each quarter if your business is more than just a small hobby.

Track Invoices and Get Paid

Add an invoicing program, like Freshbooks or Harvest and Outright will track how much money you’re owed and what invoices have been paid.

This program makes it easy to categorize your income by vendor and view your best customers. It will automatically add your vendors contact information, and keep it for future use.

The New 1099K Forms

By January 31, 2012 online retailers and payment companies will be rolling out the new 1099K tax forms to small businesses. If you sell merchandise online, have a small Etsy or Amazon store, or receive credit cards payments via Paypal you might get a form if:

• Your small business had over $20,000 in gross sales AND
• You had over 200 transactions or items sold

Here’s how to double check your income and file it with your tax return for 2012.

Outright will be rolling out an update on Monday, January 23, 2012 to accommodate the new 1099K forms.

Along with the estimated taxes, sales tax and other tax options, Outright offers the ability to view all the sales transactions. Verification with the IRS and your 1099K will be easy and much more accurate

Social Media, Webinars and More

The blog is full of tips, like How to Gain More Etsy Exposure, and other helpful information for freelancers and people with small start-up companies.

Sign up for their free small business webinar, with updates on tax law changes and other valuable tips. And follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

[This post is sponsored by Outright, and written/endorsed by me.  As with all the products I blog about,  I use them personally and the opinions are my own.]