Business finances + personal finances = not a great situation especially when all the business’ financial data is in an accounting software such as Quicken and intermingled with personal finances. In my last blog I wrote about exporting data from an Excel spreadsheet into QuickBooks.  How do you move everything over from Quicken to QuickBooks? You can convert a Quicken file to QuickBooks through the Easy Step Interview built into QuickBooks. The conversion copies your Quicken data to a new QuickBooks company file. Your original Quicken data file doesn’t change so you can continue to use it. After converting your Quicken file, you will have two sets of data: your original, unchanged Quicken file and your new QuickBooks company file to use from that date forward.When you begin to set up any new company file in QuickBooks, make sure to have the following on hand:

Here we are - 2009 already half over. To us in the accounting world that is six months of data a business has accumulated. What if your client decides they want to switch to QuickBooks® now instead of waiting for the new version to come out in the Fall? To top it off, you get dizzy from all the data that’s kept on an Excel spreadsheet separate from their accounting system. How do you merge it so it will make sense in QuickBooks and all of your financial information will be in one place? First off, decide how much of this data is important to your client. If it’s an absolute necessity to bring the over the history, there are tools that can help you merge data from Excel to QuickBooks. Log onto http://marketplace.intuit.com/v2/f-data-synchronization/software-solutions.aspx and look at your choices to bring over mass data into QuickBooks from another QuickBooks file, Microsoft Excel and or other applications that data may be kept in.

On May 28, 2009, Microsoft unveiled Bing and described it as “a new Decision Engine and consumer brand”.  Their press release described a Decision Engine as a search tool that is “designed to empower people to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions”.

It is clear that Microsoft is trying to take market share away from rival Google.

Bing includes new features that help organize search results.  The Explorer Pane is located on the left side of the search window and contains navigational and search tools.  The Related Search feature includes a list of related searches and displays on the left side of the search screen.

Bing is definitely not just another Google.  It brings lots of new features to the search tool.  Only time will tell if people really want or need a new search engine.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to give Bing a try!

Massachusetts has set the gold standard when it comes to privacy regulations.    Their new regulation, 201 CMR 17, is entitled Standards for The Protection of Personal Information of Residents of the Commonwealth and can be found here.  The regulations apply to “all persons that own, license, store or maintain personal information about a resident of the Commonwealth”.

Essentially, the regulations apply to any company that employs residents of Massachusetts and any CPA firm that prepares returns for Massachusetts residents.  The requirements of the regulation are comprehensive and will require organizations to devote significant amounts of time, money and energy to ensure compliance.