We’re not sure if it’s the summer slowdown or the fact that our Outright.com users have always been frugal fannies, but we’ve been fielding many budgeting and money saving questions on Outright lately. Wondering about the most cost effective invoicing application? Or how to choose between different business credit card options? Ask at Outright.com and we’ll all help each other!
Outrighteous News
- Do you use the same bank account, credit card or maybe even PayPal account for business and personal purchases? If you tracked that card with Outright.com, you probably ended up either deleting your personal expenses or scratching your head about what to do with them. Scratch no more! Outright.com’s new “Personal Income” and “Personal Expenses” categories allow you to categorize those personal transactions and tell Outright to leave them out of your quarterly estimated tax calculations and your end of the year Schedule C.
- We’ve now made it possible to change the name of an imported account to something more friendly. Ebay and PayPal accounts, especially, have long, non-intuitive names when they import into Outright. Now you can nickname your Outright.com import accounts with titles like“PayPal 1” and “PayPal 2.” You can even nickname them “Joe” and “Bill.” We don’t judge.
- We’ve also added a more intuitive way to categorize your expenses in Outright.com. We worked our magic behind the scenes at Outright, tabulated the categories you most often use to categorize your business expenses, and made those easier to find. Don’t worry, if you ever need a new category, our “Add a Category” option is now easier than ever to find.
New From the Outright Blog
- Seven Types of eBay Buyers to Add to Your Blocked Buyer List – While we certainly don’t want you to block all your potential customers, this post details how to identify the fidgety, the fussy and the downright fraudulent buyers on eBay.
- Owner’s Investment: The Business Owner’s Perspective – “How do I categorize funds I have invested in my own business?” is a popular question at Outright. Here’s your answer!
Most Answered Questions
- Where are you? (In a geographic sense, not so much an existential sense, though if you wanted to answer that question, I’m sure we’d be happy to read all about it!) Ever wonder if you have any Outright using neighbors? Check out the Outright Directory!
- Do you invest your own money in your business?
- What’s the ballpark rate for tax preparation for a startup? Real numbers for entrepreneurs searching for an accountant.
- What’s the one thing you would NOT do if you had to start your business all over again? Many people said dial down the pressure to succeed or keep their day job until they turned profitable. How about you?
Perplexing Puzzlers
Once in awhile a question stumps even the collected talent of the Outright web community. We had to dig back a little bit today because you guys have been hopping lately, but we did find a couple of puzzlers. Can you help?
- How do I categorize my monthly Freshbooks expenses?
- War Stories! Has a freelance assignment (or other self-employed type job) ever gotten you in trouble?
Feeling knowledgeable? Visit our unanswered questions at Outright section for opportunities to help others Outright users!
Sagest Advice
Now that we can nickname our various import accounts in Outright.com, Eric of Richards Web Group has a fantastic tip for quickly and easily distinguishing between your PayPal accounts.
Last but not least, are you already an Outright fan on Twitter and Facebook? If you want quick access to the latest and greatest Community Discussions, Questions, and Outright.com updates, give us a follow. And don’t forget, you can now receive an email notification when an Outright discussion you are following is updated!
And until next week… question everything!
Outright is secure.
What do you think?
Do you have a business budget problem child?
Are you addicted to shopping for office supplies or registering domain names? Do you hang on to that high-priced invoicing service because you don't have time to check out your more budget-friendly options? Share your business budgeting problem children!
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Oh god yes. I'm an avid reader and have an ebook addiction. With books I have that time to pause before hitting the Amazon order button but with ebooks they're right there on the site! There's no time to think! And heaven help me if they have a recommended product feature...
Posted Jul 23, 2010 8:49:22 AM by: Leslie A. Joy
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Actually, we have a very interesting one. Because my wife and I are webcomics artists as well as graphic artists, fontographers, etc., we sometimes blend what would seem as "frivolous" expenses for research (and I mean actual research). For example, we'll buy comics not because we like them (and some of the titles, I wouldn't be caught buying otherwise), but because we want to study the art. Some videogames for the same reason. Same with movies. I should note that many artists in this field tend to do so, but many are sole-proprietors and don't have to worry about how it's going to look on our Outright entries, much less to our tax accountant.
If you think having you or your business partner try to explain why Starcraft II is a valid business purchase (because you want to study the game's rendering when you actually dislike playing that kind of video game) is annoying enough, you should see the apoplectic looks our tax guru gives us when we explain.
Posted Jul 24, 2010 3:30:36 PM by: Megami Studios