Let New Technology Help Your Small Business in 2007

Recently I was able to sit in on a webinar regarding technology and how it affects the accounting profession. Although it was directed to the accounting profession, the core values and principals of the webinar could be applied to any business. The topic was OCR or Optical Character Recognition a way of producing readable files from hard copies and /or scanned documents. I have had an opportunity to use this technology and must say that it can really streamline the process of data tracking, data warehousing, audit and compliance.

There are quite a few low cost vendors out there for a small business owner to use for OCR and other document management services. One I came across was alldocuments.com where their web based document management system for $35 a month. Microsoft’s Office software also has a document image writer (Microsoft Document Imaging) that allows users to review documents and edit text from documents. Other low cost ideas are to use a company intranet/extranets to store documents instead of paper files. Either way “thinking outside the box” may be the way to make your business run more efficiently.

As the year 2007 approaches, try to think of ways to streamline your small business processes and make your business more efficient. A small monthly investment can make your internal processes much more efficient and bring more dollars to your bottom line.

Use these tips to keep your Business N Synergy

Brian N. Stovall
http://www.thebricogroup.com/

Final Baby Boomer Tax Tips

Here are some additional baby boomer tax tips for portfolio income in your retirement years. These tips are regarding IRA’s and how to withdraw money from them in the most tax advantage manner.

IRA’s

Boomers that have a substantial amount of appreciated securities should withdraw money from their IRA’s before taking the gains from those securities in taxable accounts. As long as the stocks produce small dividends, the tax burden will be minimal. The exception to this rule is when taxable accounts consist of mutual funds that generate capital gains distributions. When this occurs, the mutual funds need to be sold before withdrawing money from the IRA.

Typically a boomer should take IRA distributions after the age of 70 (70 and one half to be exact). The benefits of waiting are:

The IRA will continue to compound on a tax-deferred basis
There will be no change in the clients AGI (adjusted gross income)
The boomer can leave greater amounts of the IRA to heirs

IRA’s a great way to save money for retirement and tapping into them at the right time will produce benefits that won’t strain your budget at tax time. As always check with your financial advisor to see if these tips can work for you.

Until next time, keep your Business N Synergy.

Brian N. Stovall
www.thebricogroup.com

Baby Boomer Tips Continued

As tax season approaches, here are more tips for baby boomers to enjoy their retirement years at the same time minimizing their tax bill. This week’s tips deal with how to take income in those retirement years from CD’s and savings bonds.

Using CD’s for income

Using income producing assets such as CD’s is a great way to produce income in retirement years. Boomers can reduce their tax bill from the interest income that the CD’s generate at the same time allowing other tax advantaged investments to remain.

Savings Bonds

Boomers redeeming their savings bonds set off all the deferred income tax due on the bonds at redemption. Boomers should wait to redeem savings bonds as long as possible to benefit from the continuous tax-deferred interest accumulation.

More tips to come next week until then as always keep your Business N Synergy.

Brian N. Stovallwww.thebricogroup.com