taxdetective-Sandusky-Register

It's after the third quarter, and several bookkeepers bought the bundle of video training on how to use QuickBooks this weekend.  Reminded me to remind you that these products exist.  I have about 100 things for sale in my shopping cart, and if you've never experienced any of them, you may be missing out on something amazing, at least that's what the bookkeepers tell me.

Since spring of 2011, I've been delivering webinars on a variety of topics to do with QuickBooks, Procedure Manuals, Inventory Parts, Microsoft OneNote, etc. for the members of the Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada.  Their website is www.ipbc.ca

If you haven't gone to investigate who they are and what they are doing, I encourage you to pay them a visit. I love that they asked me to be a participant in their journey. They tell me they're up to over 1,100 members and climbing.

You'll find those products sell on my website, and I give them a cut of course, because they hosted the webinars.

I bundled everything up from March 2011 to October 2012, and then have kept on producing webinars,

November 2012, Inventory Parts (QuickBooks of course)
January 2013, Quicken, a series on Investment Accounting for everyone who has investments
February 2013, Self-employed record keeping using QuickBooks, and focused on tax.
May 2013, Microsoft OneNote, more for fun and profit, not like the working papers series included in the bundle from March 2012 which was about using QuickBooks reports to create working papers in One Note (that's cool too but this was more about procedure manuals.

Next up, I'm doing a four part series on Internal Controls, at their request, and you'll find the pricing and details on their website in their calendar.  The first part of the series starts on the 19th of November, and runs weekly for four weeks. I'm having fun putting this series together with help from a couple of CFE's (certified fraud examiners) and a CMA and a CGA who took time to answer my interview questions. 

More on that this week.  Anyway, check out my shopping cart at www.taxdetective.ca
If you want an idea of what this looks like, there's a freebie for 49 minutes on my YouTube channel, and the sample QuickBooks data file created during this process is there to download in my free stuff section of my website.

It's never just the DTC, it's the supplement for a child under 18 that must be clawed back by child care costs, it's the extra child care costs eligible because of the DTC, it's the DTC supplement to the fitness and now the arts credits for $500 if at least $100 is spent on that child. There's more, but you get the idea. And now, we have Bill C-462 which requires us to report if we charge someone for assisting them with claiming the DTC. Doesn't say anything about all these extra bits though. He already claimed the DTC, it's all the extra bits that weren't claimed.

Because he filed his personal returns manually for the past three years, he didn't add the bonus extra $500 children's fitness amount for a child with a disability who had a claim for at least $100 of fitness costs. He just claimed $500 per year for each child.

That equates to $75 per year for 2010, 2011 and $100 for 2012, BC added a children's fitness credit for 2012, so $500x 15% federal, plus 5% provincial for 2012, that's $100. More than enough to pay for using the online TurboTax program to file their returns next year.

Then, for last year, he forgot to claim the DTC supplementary amount for a child under 18, net of child care costs paid and claimed by his spouse. There is a significant refund for the DTC Supplement for a child under 18. $4402 x 20% is $875 for BC.

After we met online to review the changes he would have to make once he found all of his receipts for child care and children's fitness amounts for both children,  I had a moment of doubt, did they claim the infirm amount for the child with the disability, so I called back.

Can you spot a fraud? or have you been the victim of a fraud that could have been prevented with internal controls?

Week #4 on December 11 is about identifying fraud and not providing opportunity for someone to commit a fraud by taking preventative actions

So tell us your story (change the names to protect yourself) and share your tip!

I've already had a few accountants share their tips, and incorporated their wisdom into the content,

But you never know, your tip could help someone

Someone much wiser than me said that as much as 50% of all fraud is because there was an opportunity and someone took advantage. Are you doing everything you can to protect yourself?

Register for the series, Nov 19, 28, Dec 4 and 11, right here at

http://www.ipbc.ca/events/event_details.asp?id=370626&group=

If you can't attend, you can get the recordings after each event if you sign up for the event, or you can purchase the series after it's over on my website, but it will cost more. So registering now, whether you attend or not, is a better deal.

If you've got a tip for bookkeepers on how to practice safe record keeping, post your tip here, or email me if you don't like posting to a blog, at eileen@taxdetective.ca

If it's not already there, I'll add your tips to my list of tips for bookkeepers in lesson #4

Well, I did it, with only a few small vocal tremors. I stood up #331, and spoke in front of Council, in a room with people in red hats waving little hand size placards, and people with green shirts, who spent a lot of time rolling their eyes behind me.

Most helpful, big smiles on the faces of the council members, Sylvia's smile, and Mayor Jackson's smile stood out, but there were others. I was very grateful as it made it easier to speak. Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Like the woman who spoke a few numbers before me, I wore a purple hat and boots, to reflect a mix of green and red. We wore purple on purpose. We felt conflicted.

There's two parts to this deal. I like the donation of the land and it's subsequent maintenance, but it's tied up with an unacceptable development of 20% with its 950 homes.

950 homes in the wrong place, plunked smack dab in the middle of two low density neighbourhoods with about 600 houses in each. The impact on these two neighbourhoods is dramatic, in the build-out and on-going. The cost to the closest neighbourhoods can't have been calculated.

I wish the two issues to be treated separately. One should not be contingent on the other.

Whether the donation is 80% or 100%, I'm ok with that part. If it's 80%, I'd be prepared to live with a few estate homes, with hobby farming and horses maybe as that used to be a big part of life in Beach Grove and Boundary Bay.

Why not a town centre with more people, more density, one that's vibrant, alive, safe, one that is re-designed so it isn't necessary to traipse across several major intersections, risking life and limb, whipped by the prevailing wind and rain?

A town centre should have character, and feel welcoming. Where there are people out and about in the evening, even in the winter. Where when you drive through, you want to park diagonally, to get out of your car and look in a shop window or walk and talk. It sounds like the design of the 20% Southlands is exactly this. So why not move that design to the town centre, and built it there instead?

What would I want to see? I'd like to rent a single level suite with street access, pet friendly, with a little patio out front where I can sit and people watch. What good is it to me to live down by the border, miles from services, in a secondary town centre, without public transit, down a hill from town when I'm old? I want to be in the middle of things, with services within walking distance, and I want to feel safe to walk at night with my dog, just like I do now in Beach Grove.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_control

Now how on earth am I going to condense all of this down into four sessions for bookkeepers...

Sales, what leads up to a sale, the sale process, post sale, now that everything is on the internet for sale, eBay, Craig's List, my website, your website

Purchases, what leads up to a purchase, the order, the receipt of goods, verification of the bill, post purchase, now that I can buy it online

Deposits, now that banking is so automated, this will be interesting. Have you tried making a deposit from home yet? Last week I deposited a cheque at my desk, using my iPAD to record the deposit on the bank APP. No more trips to the bank machine in my future.

Payments, now that I can pay with PayPal using my iPhone, and PayPal wants me to upload my picture so the vendor can ID me right on my phone.

This is such an interesting topic given the times we live in and advances in technology!

www.ipbc.ca

Will ATM's disappear?  Are receivables a thing of the past for small businesses?