Be Indispensable

Help Clients Get Back on Track in Tough Times

Fluctuations in Economy Mean Clients Need You More Than Ever

Now that the individual income tax deadline is over, some of you may be engaged in rest and relaxation. But as you get back on track, you will want to get your clients back on track too. .

Helping Clients = Helping Yourself. When clients start experiencing – or anticipating – tough times, they need your help more than ever to get back on track. This proactive stance on your part is your best defense from being dropped by clients who decide they need to economize. You just need to demonstrate how indispensable you really are.

How to Be Indispensable

• Our Best Advice on Helping Clients in Tough Times.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks and Tracking Investments

Three Options to Make It Work

Your Practice

STARTING OUT: Are You Pricing Your Jobs Profitably?

Don't Sell Yourself Short

Service providers starting their own business frequently underprice their services. CMA and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor Pam Newman shows why good financial accounting needs to start with your practice, and provides simple ways to identify your true level of profitability.

Learn how to make sure you are rewarded for all the energy and dollars you put into running your professional services or accounting practice.

SUCCESSION STRATEGIES: Selling Your Practice in a Buyer's Market

You want to sell your accounting firm, tax practice, consulting company, or bookkeeping business, but it's a buyer's market out there. (We'll use the word "practice" to cover all these types of businesses.) What can you do? Industry specialist August Aquila has just the prescription.

Here are twelve practical tips to help you make your practice sales-ready and attractive as possible – even in a buyer's market.

(And stay tuned for more articles on succession planning in future issues.)

Tax Prep & Planning

Tax Planning and Investments

The recent volatility of the stock market increases tax planning opportunities, and makes your advice to clients more valuable than ever.

Tax specialists Terry Myers and Dee DeScherer provide detail behind the opportunities.

Bonus: They share a client letter you can use to reach out to clients or prospects.

Learn more about tax-savvy tips to share with your clients with investments.

New Disclosure Regulations Hit Client Communications

Starting Next Year, You Really Have to Change the Way You Interact with Clients

When the IRS said it was tightening the rules around disclosure of your clients' tax return information, we bet you didn't know that the rules would limit the ways you reach out to your own clients – even in one-to-one communications. Tax specialists Terry and Dee commiserate, and provide some tips on how to comply.

Learn how much and how little you can say to your own tax clients starting in 2009.

Technology and Your Tips

Don't Let Data Come Back to Haunt Your Clients

The Hard and Soft of REALLY Deleting Data

Technologist Dr. Bob Spencer provides guidance on disposing of sensitive data so it won't come back to haunt you or clients after one of you lets go of old equipment.

Part I focuses on data files; Part II on hardware. Bonus: Part II links to Dr. Bob's library of pro forma guides, including a security policy you can adapt for future consulting engagements.

See how to make sure data is really deleted and read Dr. Bob's tips on how you can add data security to your consulting services.

Tips for Bookkeeper Success

Judy Fudge, Certified Bookkeeper and Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, knows what it's like to start out as a bookkeeper and then having to scramble for work and visibility. Now you get the benefit of her experience in two great tips:

• How to Meet CPAs to Expand Your Freelance Bookkeeping Business.
• How to Set Yourself Apart and Charge What You Are Worth.

More Tips

• Linking Microsoft Excel Data in Your Microsoft Word Documents.
• Accountant's Copy Rules for QuickBooks 2008.

Payroll

For Clients: Free Payroll Webcast

Tell Clients and Help Nudge Them toward Easier Payroll Solutions

Help your small business clients work smarter (and hopefully make life easier for you) when it comes to payroll processing. The QuickBooks Community hosts various Webcasts with one on easy payroll options coming up next month.

• A Simple Way to Save with Easy Payroll Processing. May 21, 1 p.m. (Pacific). Help your small business owners learn about a better way to save by automating their payroll processing with less time spent on the paperwork aspect of running their business

Direct Deposit and Memorial Day

Help QuickBooks Payroll Clients Understand the Timing So Direct Deposits Aren't Delayed

Some clients may be scheduling their normal paycheck date to be Monday, March 26, 2008, but because Memorial Day is a national holiday, they need to plan ahead to make sure employees won't get their deposits late.

The next earliest date for direct deposit will be Friday, May 23. To make this date, employers need to send payroll by Wednesday, May 21 at 5 p.m. (Pacific). Here's more information on how to proceed. You can also send this link to clients if appropriate.

Learn how avoid a conflict with Memorial Day and QuickBooks Payroll Direct Deposit here.

Your Voice: What Would You Say...?

We're Looking at Ways to Take Some of the Paper out of Your QuickBooks Work

Answer our brief survey and let us enter you into a chance to win an 8G iPod nano.

Make Sure Your Voice Is Heard. We'd like to better understand how you manage and organize data for yourself and your clients. We have no more than 16 short questions for you on the topic.

As our thanks, you will be entered into a sweepstakes to win an 8G iPod nano, with your choice from six colors (subject to availability).

Let us know what you think about managing and organizing your data and your clients' data. Rules and regulations are posted for your review before you begin the survey.

It's Your Subscription

Dear ,

This monthly e-mail is being sent to you because you have subscribed to the Intuit ProConnection Newsletter.

To manage all aspects of your subscription, our upgraded subscriber center gives all the tools you need to manage your subscription to Intuit ProConnection.

If you are not the original subscriber but would like your own subscription, let us send you your own copy of Intuit ProConnection here. To manage all aspects of your subscription, our upgraded subscriber center gives all the tools you need to manage your subscription to Intuit ProConnection.

We now have Instant News Feeds, so you can have stories delivered to your desktop in real time. Sign-up is easy; we include step-by-step instructions, along with the direct URLs for the feeds themselves, for two fairly common Windows applications as follows:

• Get Our Latest Stories Piping Hot (Outlook 2007)
• Get Our Latest Stories Piping Hot (IE7)

STAFF
Brandon Wilson, Publisher
Bill Teague, Managing Editor
Amy Munson, Web Production

COMING IN MAY

• MORE GREAT ARTICLES . Taxes: How to Keep Your Tax Clients in Tough Times; New Wrinkles in Dependency Issues for Nontraditional Households. QuickBooks: QuickBooks up in Rollers (using QuickBooks for beauty shops); Budgeting with QuickBooks. Accounting Workshop: Labor Burden and How to Calculate It.

NOTICE: DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY

Intuit does not warrant or quaran-tee the accuracy of any statement or other information and materials provided in this newsletter. All articles and other information and materials in this newsletter (collectively, "Information") are provided for general information purposes only and are not intended to constitute legal, accounting or tax advice or opinions on any specific matters. The opinions expressed in Information are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of Intuit. Laws and regulations change frequently and their application can vary widely based upon the specific facts and circumstances involved. You, and not Intuit, are responsible for the applicability and accuracy of Information as it relates to your practice or to your clients. Your use of Information does not relieve you of responsibility, including those to any third party, for matters involving your practice or your clients (e.g., preparation of tax returns, etc.) and you may not rely upon Intuit for advice regarding same. The provision of Information by Intuit is not intended to create, and your receipt does not constitute, any form of relationship between Intuit or the author(s) and you.

We provide this newsletter as a convenience and courtesy for Intuit customers. Intuit does not intend to use the newsletter to supplement, modify or extend, the software license agreement between Intuit and the customer for the applicable product or service, and the newsletter is subject to said agreement.

Please Note: Intuit respects the personal nature of e-mail communication. Every effort is made to offer only information or products that may be of value to you. If you do not wish to receive this Intuit ProConnection Newsletter, please click on the UNSUBSCRIBE link provided in the email version of your newsletter. Or, visit the Subscriber Center to unsubscribe. We'll take you off the list as quickly as possible. You are subscribed as . This e-mail address comes from your Intuit ProConnection Profile.

If you receive a message that you suspect is a phishing email, please forward it immediately to security@intuit.com.

© 2007 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, Intuit ProConnection, the Intuit logo, EasyACCT, Lacerte, ProSeries, QuickBase, QuickBooks, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, Quicken, and TurboTax, are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other parties' trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such.

Program terms and conditions, pricing, features and service options are subject to change without notice.

Customer Communications, 2800 E. Commerce Center Place, Tucson, AZ 85706