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SMB Wire
Obama Proposes Small Business Health Credit By Washington, D.C. -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has proposed a tax credit for small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees. Obama's plan entails a refundable credit that would provide as much as 50 percent of the premiums that small businesses paid on behalf of their employees. Obama and his presumptive presidential Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., hope garner favor with the small business sector. Obama has criticized McCain's policies, saying his own plan would "help more employers provide health benefits for their workers, instead of making it harder for them, as Sen. McCain would do." The McCain camp, however, contended that Obama's plan left many questions unanswered, including how many businesses would receive the credit. Obama advisers said they would work out the details later of what size businesses would qualify for the credit.
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Improve Collections & Deduction Management with Automation Technology View this pre-recorded session to learn how small-to-medium sized businesses can help improve collections and deduction management and effectively manage workloads through cost-efficient On Demand or Software as a Service automation technology. Learn more by clicking here PayCycle Debuts Pay-As-You-Go Workers' Comp Palo Alto, Calif. -- Online payroll provider PayCycle introduced a "pay-as-you-go" premium payment service for workers' compensation insurance aimed at accountants' small business clients. PayCycle is providing the workers' comp insurance through the Hartford Financial Services Group. Traditionally small business owners must make large up-front premium down-payments for workers' compensation, and payments throughout the year that are based on an estimate of the business' gross annual payroll. With the Hartford's XactPay system, small business owners automatically pay their Hartford workers' compensation insurance premiums one payroll at a time. After accountants run payroll in PayCycle, the payroll information is automatically sent to the Hartford. The Hartford calculates the workers' compensation premium amount for that payroll period and withdraws the funds directly from the small business' bank account. Premiums are calculated based upon actual payroll, so customers are not required to pay large up-front premium deposits. PayCycle charges a fee of $5 per month per client for XactPay, but it's not part of the premium charged by the Hartford. For more information, visit: www.paycycle.com.
The poll, conducted by Suffolk University and American Management Services surveyed 400 people on a variety of issues affecting the nation's 23 million small businesses. Over three-quarters of those polled (78 percent), said this summer's economic stimulus checks did nothing to help their business. Meanwhile, 81 percent of the small business owners surveyed felt the country is in a recession. "Tens of thousands of small businesses will fail this year due to government inaction," said George Cloutier, founder and chief executive of AMS, a consultant to the SMB market. "Wall Street firms can borrow billions at 2.28 percent but average small businesses are having their credit cut off. They create 60 percent of the nation's jobs; the small business industry is clearly an economic engine and it's stalling. It's time to get it re-started."
The new version Budget Maestro 5.9 is updated to include Microsoft's Vista operating system, SQL Server 2005 database and expanded graphical management reporting capabilities. Version 5.9 is also backwards compatible with all supported versions of Microsoft Windows and SQL Server. The Dashboard Kit 2.0 gives users access to financial and key performance indicators on their desktops allowing them measure and manage the performance against established goals. Other upgrades include graphical reports including monthly, year-to-date, quarterly, annual, and percentage of sales reports. The dashboard reports separate income statement reports by product lines, divisions, and locations as well as by balance sheet and cash flow KPIs. Product tours and information, including free Webinars, are available at www.centage.com
The software provides automated clearing house delivery of payments, allowing companies to transmit electronic payments of vendors through their banks. A fraud control and loss prevention method, positive pay, lets OSAS users build a file that can be transmitted to their banks for the authorization of check payments. A reconciliation import feature enables the use of files downloaded from a bank to automatically clear transactions that have been processed by the bank. Direct debits in accounts receivable and sales orders allow users to establish recurring payments and take direct debit-type payments from customers. OSAS Banking works with Version 7.52 of OSAS. In addition to the banking application, Open Systems has upgraded several of its other modules to work with Version 7.52. Those include Contractors' Job Cost for the construction industry, which provides a number of new improvements. Enhanced Payroll Tax Reporting for printing or electronically filing state and federal reports; Info-Alert for automated alerts; and OSAS Web B2B, an Internet interface to OSAS data, have also been upgraded to integrate with OSAS 7.52. For more information go to: www.osas.com
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