In The Black Bookkeeping

Outsourcing bookkeeping and payroll so a business owner can get on with the actual business: that is the idea behind In The Black Bookkeeping in Loveland, Colorado. The practice has been trading since 2006 and says it serves businesses of all sizes in and around Northern Colorado, including Fort Collins.

What bookkeeping covers here

The firm explains a bookkeeper's job as taking in a client's invoices, receipts and other financial paperwork, analysing the figures and condensing them into a few short reports that show progress, profit or loss, and help with planning. Services run through payables and receivables, account and bank reconciliations, budgets, financial reports, reviewing or building a chart of accounts, entering transactions, analyzing the accounting system and putting checks and balances in place.

Payroll as a plan built around the client

Small business owners, the practice notes, tire of data entry, tax deadlines and yearly workers' compensation audits. Its payroll work can be a full service or something narrower, such as records, payroll taxes or employee timecard management. The full service includes accurate and timely payroll cheques, direct deposit, electronic federal, state and local tax filing, online reports, online access for employees to check stubs and W-2 forms, a paperless option, new hire reporting, wage garnishment, paid time off accruals and tracking, unemployment claims, and W-2 and 1099 processing. A QuickBooks general ledger report is also listed. The firm adds that it offers payroll only to its bookkeeping clients.

Colorado sales tax

A good part of the practice's pitch concerns sales tax. Some Colorado cities have home-rule status and run their own sales tax collection, and the firm points out that after a 2018 US court ruling states began setting their own rules for remote sellers, with Colorado moving to collect by delivery location. Because the state has 64 counties and over 420 cities, each with its own rate, and some cities cross county lines, tracking the rates is a heavy load for a small owner. Its sales tax services include setting up each state, county and city tax item and group correctly in QuickBooks, deciding whether to report monthly, quarterly or annually, setting up online reporting, reviewing liabilities, filing state and local returns, and adding new jurisdictions when a customer appears in a place not yet set up.

Getting started

The process begins with a free initial consultation to learn about the business, then an audit of the current bookkeeping and payroll systems, and a plan aimed at the areas that cause stress or cost money. The practice also keeps a page of tools for clients, such as calculators for paycheck withholding and self-employment tax.

In The Black Bookkeeping is a bookkeeping business in Loveland, Colorado. It takes over routine financial admin so that owners can concentrate on running their companies, and it serves businesses of all sizes across Northern Colorado.

Services

• Bookkeeping: invoices, receipts and other paperwork gathered, analysed and kept organised.
• Payroll: handling data entry, tax deadlines and workers' compensation audits for small employers.
• Sales tax: filing at state and local level, including for Colorado's home-rule cities that collect their own tax.
• QuickBooks set-up: making sure the accounting software is configured correctly.

The practice notes that it is not currently supporting clients who use QuickBooks Online.

Customers and markets

Small and medium businesses in and around Loveland and Fort Collins.

Key facts

• Based in: Loveland, Colorado
• In business since: 2006
• Region served: Northern Colorado