Carl's Takeaway Blog today mentioned this Wall Street Journal article about tax preparation for small business.  Carl's conclusion:  "Basically, you need good recordkeeping."  After reading the article, I can say that Carl is right on with his summary.  All the "tips" in the article basically have to do with keeping your company's books in order throughout the year in order to make tax preparation as painless as possible.

The problem the article doesn't address, however, is that most people that keep all their "transaction records" in a shoebox do so because they don't have the time or motivation for anything else!  Keeping up with entering transactions into your software can be a time-consuming and sometimes frustrating thing to do.    Each software program has its own advantages and disadvantages, but ALL of them are sure to give you some hiccups along the way.

My company offers bookkeeping services to small and micro-sized businesses, so this issue hits close to home.  By having a professional keep up with the books through the entire year (for less than it costs to hire a part-time employee), tax prep is a cinch cheap and your accountant will love you.  Try it for six months- you will never go back to doing them on your own again.

Mike Freeman
Proponent of Professional Bookkeeping Services