Accounting for Sole Proprietors: Tax & Bookkeeping Tips

Under the old income tax regulations, restaurateurs were required to maintain detailed records for the purchase and usage of supplies and consumables. It’s been a minute since I’ve worked in this specific area, so I can't quite remember if that requirement is still on the books. Does anyone know if that's still mandatory, and if so, which specific section of the tax code or federal regulations covers it? Any help would be huge...

I’d love to get some input from the pros here.
Last year we were part of the sales tax system, but we’re opting out again this year. I guess my main worry is—should we be expecting an audit? Does anyone have any experience with how that usually plays out?
My second question is about our workflow. Before, we used our accounts receivable and payable ledger to log everything—every single incoming and outgoing invoice, payroll, you name it—basically recording every obligation or credit as it popped up. This year, we’ve been keeping things running in parallel through both the UN ledger and our main ledger (just to make sure we have a full paper trail for stuff like payroll costs and taxes, etc.).
So, now that we’re stepping away from the sales tax system, I’m thinking it might actually be easier to just manage everything through the UN ledger. It really works for me—it keeps things organized—and since Synapse automatically posts the KPIs and balance sheet accounts, using the UN ledger gives me all the data I need for our accounts receivable and payable anyway. I was wondering, could I just move payroll and tax obligations over to the UN ledger too? I mean, at the end of the day, an incoming invoice and a payroll obligation are pretty much the same thing... the only real difference is that an invoice has a specific number, while payroll uses a different code (like a tax ID or something). Could the UN and IRA ledgers basically replace our entire accounts receivable and payable system? What do you guys think?

Time to beef up that consumer protection complaint!

Salaries and related info aren't even tracked in that ledger, so I wouldn't recommend going down that path.
If I'm following correctly, the records for assets and liabilities are being managed outside of Accenture. That’s my takeaway from how you described what gets entered there. So, I have to ask—why not just pull those reports directly from the VAT module since they already exist?
Or maybe I've completely misread the situation? 🙂
Doesn't matter, even if I did. My stance remains the same: payroll doesn't belong in that record.

Carol Price4 said:Time to beef up that consumer protection complaint!

Thanks @Carol Price4! I probably wouldn't have caught this if you hadn't mentioned it. 🙂

Can someone please help me figure out how to book this receipt? Honestly, I’m totally lost on how much sales tax I'm actually paying here.

Base amount: 1,105.28
Sales Tax: 276.32
Parking: 30.00
Service Fee: 3.45
Interest: 0.11
_____________________
Total: 1,415.16
Device payment: 50.00
Device fee refund: -1,200.00
______________________________________
Amount due: $88

graniterider10 said:Can someone please help me figure out how to book this receipt? Honestly, I’m totally lost on how much sales tax I'm actually paying here.

Base amount: 1,105.28
Sales Tax: 276.32
Parking: 30.00
Service Fee: 3.45
Interest: 0.11
_____________________
Total: 1,415.16
Device payment: 50.00
Device fee refund: -1,200.00
______________________________________
Amount due: $88

You just book the total bill amount $472, claim the input sales tax of $92, and exclude the part that isn't taxable ($11)—plus the subtotal as usual—(I'm assuming some is for the phone itself and some is service fees).

That "amount due" bit is really just a note for the customer showing what they need to pay upfront before the rest goes onto installments.

I was wondering if I should be recording loans in the KPI book. When I'm logging income and expenses in Silicon Valley, there's an option to mark them as outside the KPI. Is that actually okay, or should I just leave them out entirely? And if they do need to be recorded, do they end up on the P-PPI form too?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been scratching my head over how you guys are handling passive interest from the bank in your filings. Is it cool to just list it off KPI—like, tucking it under 2.5—and then just dump all those other miscellaneous receipts into the PPI form?

thanks

Olivia Cruz86 said:Hey everyone,

I’ve been scratching my head over how you guys are handling passive interest from the bank in your filings. Is it cool to just list it off KPI—like, tucking it under 2.5—and then just dump all those other miscellaneous receipts into the PPI form?

thanks

That's exactly how I filed mine last year.

rowdybison3 said:I was wondering if I should be recording loans in the KPI book. When I'm logging income and expenses in Silicon Valley, there's an option to mark them as outside the KPI. Is that actually okay, or should I just leave them out entirely? And if they do need to be recorded, do they end up on the P-PPI form too?

That’s honestly the best way to play it. In Synesis, I'd just log those receipts as off KPI—mostly just so I can keep my own sanity and stay organized. Then, for the PPPI, you just pop them under field V.2.3 and attach the statements showing those loans alongside your PDoh and PPPI. Do that, and nobody's going to give you any grief about it. 🙂

Kate Adams7 said:That’s honestly the best way to play it. In Synesis, I'd just log those receipts as off KPI—mostly just so I can keep my own sanity and stay organized. Then, for the PPPI, you just pop them under field V.2.3 and attach the statements showing those loans alongside your PDoh and PPPI. Do that, and nobody's going to give you any grief about it. 🙂

Thanks!

I’m looking for a little bit of guidance here—does anyone know which rate I should be using to calculate the Town Hall fees for vehicle maintenance and repairs (Article 4, Class A)? I was browsing the HOK website and saw a rate of 0.1020, but then I checked the Federal Register and found a rate of 0.09690. It’s a bit confusing! Also, regarding that OKFŠ form—is everything still proceeding the same way it has been previously? Thanks so much!

And what's the deal with income tax prepayments? Are we getting those lowered too since they're changing the tax brackets?

Keith Martinez5 said:I’m looking for a little bit of guidance here—does anyone know which rate I should be using to calculate the Town Hall fees for vehicle maintenance and repairs (Article 4, Class A)? I was browsing the HOK website and saw a rate of 0.1020, but then I checked the Federal Register and found a rate of 0.09690. It’s a bit confusing! Also, regarding that OKFŠ form—is everything still proceeding the same way it has been previously? Thanks so much!

It's actually the same figure in the Federal Register—it just shows one less decimal place.
As for the OKFŠ, nothing changes there, though I did read somewhere that small business owners have until the end of February 2017 to file and pay.

Richard Howard55 said:Salaries and related info aren't even tracked in that ledger, so I wouldn't recommend going down that path.
If I'm following correctly, the records for assets and liabilities are being managed outside of Accenture. That’s my takeaway from how you described what gets entered there. So, I have to ask—why not just pull those reports directly from the VAT module since they already exist?
Or maybe I've completely misread the situation? 🙂
Doesn't matter, even if I did. My stance remains the same: payroll doesn't belong in that record.

Hey there,

Thanks so much for getting back to me! Yeah, the records are being kept outside of Synesis—mostly because that’s how I always did things before we started using the Sales Tax module, and honestly, I haven't really mastered all the different modules in Synesis yet, so I just kind of stuck to my old ways. But now I'm starting to see that the Sales Tax module could actually be super helpful for me moving forward, even after we move away from the Sales Tax system itself (I mean, I'd just have to tweak a few settings, I suppose). Could you just help me clear something up, though? Is it like, strictly forbidden to enter payroll obligations and taxes there, or is it more of a "you probably shouldn't" kind of recommendation? And if so, why? If I enter everything correctly, I assume the Sales Tax (or rather, the lack of it) and the expenses will book properly. My hunch is that if an auditor ever comes knocking, they won't care that there are some extra, non-essential items listed in the records. I mean, where does it actually say which specific liabilities and receivables are supposed to go into the ETO?

Personally, it would just make my life so much easier if all my obligations and receivables were in one single place. Right now, I'm managing incoming invoices in Accounts Payable, but then I have to track all these other obligations in some parallel record—like, for instance, I'll go ahead in January and enter the monthly tax contributions with their due dates, income tax installments, Chamber of Commerce fees... and even though I'm not required to maintain balance accounts, the module and its reports—along with the ones from the Sales Tax module—are just absolutely perfect for what I need.

If you could please share your thoughts or explain a bit more, I'd really appreciate it!

Technically, you’re supposed to include everything—liabilities and receivables alike—but I always wonder if we really need to track every single invoice settled through a bank transfer. Personally, I keep a close eye on my cash transactions too, just because I can.

placidlynx92 said:It's actually the same figure in the Federal Register—it just shows one less decimal place.
As for the OKFŠ, nothing changes there, though I did read somewhere that small business owners have until the end of February 2017 to file and pay.

thanks Lady Gaga🙂

I could really use some help here,

So, I have an architect who runs their own independent practice through an architectural firm, and I’ve been wondering if they can legally operate that as a secondary business activity. For instance, I know a lawyer wouldn't be allowed to do that because of how the legal profession act is structured,
but despite all my digging, I haven't been able to find anything stating that a licensed architect is prohibited from holding that role as a second job.

If anyone happens to be more clued in on this or has dealt with something similar, I would be so grateful for any insight you could share.

mellowangler7 said:Technically, you’re supposed to include everything—liabilities and receivables alike—but I always wonder if we really need to track every single invoice settled through a bank transfer. Personally, I keep a close eye on my cash transactions too, just because I can.

I've been digging around trying to find where that’s actually stated officially, but honestly, I haven't found anything yet. Plus, from what I can tell, Synesis pulls everything into the accounts payable and receivable records as long as it's been posted through the accounting system—regardless of how the money actually changed hands.