BluePay: Expand Your Tax Preparation Business with a Virtual Terminal

Whether you prepare taxes in a brick-and-mortar storefront location, in your home, or on the road, you can easily hand-key credit, debit, or ACH payments using a virtual terminal. A virtual terminal allows you to securely process transactions without: A physical credit card terminal The need to swipe/insert your clients' cards (more…)
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SurePayroll: Five Ways to Evaluate Your Tax Business after Filing Season

For many accountants and professional tax preparers, the end of filing season can bring a sigh of relief and a welcome slowdown in client work. Although the tax deadline can bring back some sense of work-life balance, successful tax preparers use the month of May and beyond to evaluate the filing season, their business and to start preparing for next year. (more…)
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BluePay: Protecting Your Tax Preparation Business Against Identity Theft and Fraud

In the U.S., there is a new identity fraud victim nearly every two seconds. Most of this theft targets financial information directly. After all, access to bank accounts and credit card information is the ultimate goal of most criminals. Yet, a lot of identity theft centers around personal information like driver's licenses, Social Security numbers, and contact details. Using these, criminals can often indirectly access sensitive financial data. As a business owner, it is important to take preventative measures to reduce identity theft within your payment environment. This article explai...
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Webiquity: The Indispensable Business Owner’s Guide to Networking Online

As a business owner, you can use great networking skills to find employees and clients. You've probably heard the statistic that more than half of professional relationships in U.S. were gotten because of a connection that the professional had. This may lead you to wonder – where are they getting all these connections? Contrary to what you might think, many of them weren't just family and close friends who gave them a good reference. Using online business social networking tools has dramatically changed the landscape for online business to business marketing. So how do you do this? In...
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BluePay: Checklist for Choosing a Payment Processor

Once you've decided to accept credit cards in your practice, make sure you select the right payment processor. Here's a checklist to refer to that will help you get what you need to keep your practice on track and make your life easier. 1. PCI Compliance By electing to accept payments, your business must adhere to and comply with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), created and updated annually by the PCI Security Counsel. A PCI compliant processor has already taken the steps to employ the highest levels of data security to ensure that your confidential business information is secur...
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BluePay: Top Four Reasons to Accept Credit Cards in Your Practice

Accepting credit cards makes doing business easier for both you and your clients. While implementing a solution to accept credit card payments at your practice may seem overwhelming, consider these benefits: Easier, faster collections. Sending invoices and waiting for paper checks can take several weeks. Accepting credit cards eliminates that delay. Improved cash flow. When your clients can pay with their credit cards, you receive payment immediately and your business has improved cash flow. Valuable documentation. Keeping track of credit card activity is easy because electronic reco...
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Webiquity: Local Business Advertising on the Internet

Local Business Advertising on the Internet  Is the idea that small businesses should have a strong online presence just a trend, or is there something more to it? Webiquity created this infographic to show just how important it is for small business owners to be tapped into all things internet. The combination of your company website, social media, review websites and your site’s mobile responsiveness determines the level of success that any given business will have. This infographic answers many questions you might have about the impact having an online presence can have on your prac...
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Webiquity: Why You Need a Mobile Website Now

Google recently updated their ranking criteria algorithm in strong support of mobile-friendly websites, making it more difficult for non-optimized sites to be found and clicked on mobile devices. Changes like these prove that mobile isn’t just a trend. If search result placements, website traffic and user satisfaction are concerns for your digital presence, it might be time for your site to go mobile, too. Here are just five reasons you need a mobile site sooner rather than later. More than 50 percent of all searches are made on a mobile device Google recently announced that more s...
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Surgent: Six Reasons to Become an Enrolled Agent

Looking for opportunities to increase client engagement and billable hours? Consider becoming an enrolled agent (EA). EA certification is the highest tax credential awarded by the IRS. In fact, EAs are the only professionals that the U.S. government directly grants the right to practice. While having a PTIN (preparer tax identification number) allows you to represent your clients before IRS agents and customer service representatives, a PTIN does not allow you to perform services such as signing documents and executing closing agreements, waivers and claims for refund. EA certification o...
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Surgent: How to Become an IRS Enrolled Agent

Becoming an Enrolled Agent (EA) can take your career and practice to the next level, but what’s involved in getting an enrolled agent certification? Unless you were previously employed by the IRS for five years and working in a position where you interpreted tax code, you must pass a three-part comprehensive IRS test in order to become an EA. The tests cover individual and business tax returns and administrative practices. Once certified, you must follow certain ethical standards and complete 72 hours of continuing education every three years. The steps to become an enrolled agent are ea...
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SurePayroll: When to Outsource the Back Office

Back-office functions such as payroll, data entry and hiring new employees are present some unique challenges for professional tax return preparers. Preparers who deliver excellent services do not necessarily have the ability during to manage back-office administration during tax season, but they can secure affordable help for back-office functions. Every small business has to handle payroll, HR and other administrative areas, but practice owners can feel overwhelmed managing these tasks themselves or delegating them to staffers who are already busy. As your practice grows, the burden of back-...
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BluePay: How You and Your Clients Benefit from a Payment Gateway

The BluePay Gateway makes accepting payments simple and secure. Transactions can be managed with the quick click of a mouse, offering convenient functionality for tracking all of your transaction data on a single platform. Accept all major credit cards, debit cards and ACH payments through the virtual terminal. Improve business operations with advanced functions including reporting, batching, returns and voids. Secure your business and your customers’ data with robust fraud management tools. Put the BluePay Gateway to work and start increasing sales today!
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BluePay: Three Reasons to Become a Mobile Merchant

BluePay’s mobile payment solutions for Android, iPhone and iPad allow you to accept credit cards from anywhere and truly improve ease of use and cost efficiency. Enjoy secure mobile payment processing for all major credit and debit cards. Choose from a wide range of mobile processing equipment compatible with major brand systems, including Android, iPhone and iPad encrypted credit card swipers. Stay connected, accept credit card payments and increase sales no matter where your business takes you. Start enjoying the convenience of mobile credit card processing today!
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Webiquity: Five Tips for Making a Great First Impression with Your Website

Anyone who has ever had a job interview will tell you about the importance of making a good first impression. Those first few seconds of looking into a potential employer’s eyes can be terrifying but you don’t want them to know that. The same thing can happen when coming face-to-face with a new customer. Will they like you? Will they buy something from you? You want to make sure they see what they want. Unfortunately, when conducting business online, you don’t get to dress up in a snappy suit and shake customers’ hands the way you would in the real world. You have to convince them that y...
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