QB Winery Solutions

2020 California AB5 and Independent Contractors

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Update 10/21/20

On September 8th, California AB2257 was  passed that expanded the list of workers that are excluded from some aspect of the bill. The “weekend warriors” still do not qualify as Independent Contractors, however these folks will have an easier time qualifying under the new rules. These rules are retroactive to January 1st.

  • Photographers no longer  have a submission limit
  • Content writers no longer have a submission limit
  • Musicians

A summary of AB2257

The bill from the California legislature website

Original Post 1/20/20

On January 1st, 2020 California AB5 or the “gig worker bill” went into effect. This means that your weekend warriors can no longer qualify as independent contractors because IC’s must be a bona fide business. You should have a contract with these folks — and they should have a business license and other clients. Before AB5, it was easier to give a 1099 to these folks, but with the new rules it will be easier to pay them with a paycheck.

For wineries and businesses in California: As you prepare your 2019 1099s, have a close look at the list to see if anyone should be paid as an employee beginning in 2020. And for any new workers, decide up front if they will be an employee or an independent contractor.

For more details, download our guidelines:

CA AB5 Guidelines

 

PPP for Independent Contractors and Non-Employee Businesses

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Updated 4/29/20

So far, the focus of the discussion about the Paycheck Protection Program loan has been on the typical business that has employees who receive paychecks. There is another group of people who are eligible to apply for a loan. These include

  • Sole Proprietors who do not issue paychecks
  • Independent Contractors
  • Self-Employed Individuals

Many of you have not been following the discussion because you don’t think of yourselves as a business. The SBA and Treasury Department have always always included you in the regulations, however the details have been even more confusing than for the typical business. THAT SHOULD NOT STOP YOU FROM APPLYING (sorry for shouting, but you might miss out on some grant money if you don’t jump on it now).

In this video I review my recommendation for what records you should gather and how to complete the PPP application. And as with the other folks, you must line up a bank ASAP

Update 4/29/20

The SBA finally came out with specific guidelines on how these folks calculate their annual payroll. The key document is the 2019 Schedule C, line 31 which shows the net profit. (Yes, we agree, this is not a fair reflection on your real net profit, but this is what they wrote in the guidelines). If you have not filed your 2019 tax return, then fill out a blank Schedule C with the numbers that you will use on your return.

You will also need your 1099s and your bank statement that shows activity on February 15, 2020.

This report by the US Chamber of Commerce summarizes the guidelines

Tyler Willis, CPA and I discuss some details in the our PPP Loan Part 4 conversation

 USCC PPP Program for Independent Contractors

 

  PPP worksheet for non payroll applicants

  Paycheck Protection Program Application

 

PPP Application and EIDL with Jeanette & Tyler, part 3

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Tyler (Tyler Willis CPA) and I had our third discussion about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  Listen in to find out why the application phase is the Wild West, and then the next phase, after submitting the application, is a Black Box. Last week there wasn’t enough time to handle all the phone calls and requests for information about the program. And this week we have had to hurry up and wait because the SBA and the banks were overwhelmed with applications.

We discuss:

  • What we learned about the PPP application process (It’s the Wild West)
  • What to expect in Phase 2 (It’s a Black Box)
  • What we know about the PPP for non-payroll businesses (For step-by step details Go Here)
  • Why you also want to apply for the EIDL (For details about filling this out see Part 2)

** Check out this post where I curate articles to keep you updated during the Black Box Phase UPDATES

 

  Treasury.gov 4/7/20 FAQs

  EIDL by US Chamber of Commerce

 

Paycheck Protection Program, part 1

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I called Tyler (Tyler Willis, CPA) a few days after the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was announced. We touched on some of the very basic questions around the program. This is Part 1. Look for Part 2 in a few days. How can it help the winery industry?

The Paycheck Protection Plan is another program from the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) that was passed by Congress on Friday, March 27. The purpose of this program is to prevent widespread layoffs during the Covid-19 crisis. A key feature of this program is that you could get as much as 2 months of your payroll and a few other expenses paid through this program. This is a huge benefit for you.

This information is still evolving, so stay tuned for updates. (This recording was not planned…as you can see by my messy office …it’s still tax season…)

Go here for Part 2

Here are some additional resources:

SBA Disaster Programs – This is your main list of all the SBA programs available (there are other agencies with programs)

SBA Disaster Loan Assistance Online Application – This is the page I showed in the video. It is not the PPP program.

 Payroll Protection Program by SBE

 Payroll Protection Program by USCC

 

Office Hours 11-26-19

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Here is the recording for Office Hours today. You can find the following wine accounting & QuickBooks topics in this month’s recording:

  1. Part 1: I purchased a barrel from my client. I also owe the same client a credit from a previous production contract -How do I record this transaction? – at the .41 min. mark
  2. Part 2: How do I convert my client’s bill into a credit- at the 1.25 min mark
  3. How do I create a statement? at the 7.55 mark
  4. I lost a barrel of wine. How do I track the cost of wine that was lost? – at the 15.42 min mark
  5. Grape Bills – How do I record the grapes that were over my contract amount?  I did not have to pay for them – at the 16.34 minute mark
  6. I did not order enough glass or corks – How do I account for the wine I did not bottle? – at the 17.49 minute mark
  7. How do I record use ONE bill to record my grape bill, but pay the bill per my installment agreement? – at the 19.50 minute mark
  8. I have 4 users who need to access our QB file – 2 users only have access to MacOS – Should I use QBO? – at the 27.02 minute mark

Silver Club members, please log in to view the recording

How to Record Shiners You PURCHASED

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A winery owner asked me this question recently:

Jeanette –
I have a question of the proper way to make a new entry. We purchased 220 cases of Sparkling wine from Rack & Riddle to sell under our brand.
So, the initial entry into the system is for finished case goods 240 cases @ $108….given it’s not coming out of bulk…what is the proper entry?
Thanks – Mark

The way that shiners are entered is fairly straightforward, however it depends on the situation (doesn’t it always…)

Scenario #1 – The shiners were labeled and finished by the vendor – this is super simple
Scenario #2 – You bought shiners, labels, and foils from different vendors and hired a crew or bottling line to apply the lables – this has a few more steps

For scenario #1

  1. Create the item as usual
  2. Create a bill using the item tab to record the number of units and total cost. Remember to use the same units for this SKU as for all the others, so if you use “bottles” you will need to convert the number of cases to bottles. Also, ignore the cost that you were quoted. Enter the total cost of the actual bill. QuickBooks will calculate what your actual cost per bottle was.

That’s it…just 2 steps. Of course, you will need to pay the bill at some point.

For scenario #2

  1. Create current asset account called “Shiners” (or something like that)
  2. Create a sub-account for the specific SKU (I am assuming you might do this again in the future)
  3. As the bills (or checks and credit card charges) for the different components show up, record all of these to the SKU sub-account.
  4. If these were bottled during a regular bottle run so the labeling labor shows up on the bottler’s bill, calculate the portion of the cost for the shiner SKU and record that amount to the SKU Sub-account.
  5. After the labels have been applied and you are ready to bring them into inventory, create a Journal Entry check and enter the information on the item tab as usual. For the total cost of the wine, look at the total amount of the SKU sub-account.
  6. On the expenses tab, use the sub-account name and enter the amount as a negative number.
  7. When you save the journal entry check, the total for the sub account should be zero.

The tricky part of this procedure is that you will be recording the components with a different workflow than usual. This may be confusing, but trust me…it is much simpler than including these bottles on the Bottling worksheet in the costing book.

Cheers!

Costing Book Activities

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I updated the Costing Course (How to Calculate the True Cost of Your Wine) and I added several activities so you can practice some of the techniques I discuss.

I also added a new module with a 4th costing book example. This module explains the different choices you can make when laying out the costing book. Depending on your winemaking processes and your business needs, you may choose to have a few or a lot of bulk lots. If you have just a few bulk lots in your costing book, it will be easier to maintain the costing book.

Module 7 – Steffie Farm and Vineyard

Activity – Chart of Accounts

Activity – Allocation Math

Activity – Costing Book

Activity – Bulk Lots

Have fun!

QuickBooks Online (QBO) – Pros and Cons

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I am not a huge fan of QuickBooks Online, however for some situations, it is a good choice. Here is my list of the Pros and Cons to QBO for a winery:

Pros

  • Great bank feed integration
  • Good integration with Square (there is still an extra step, but it’s easy)
  • Up to 5 people can use it simultaneously
  • PC and Mac users can both access
  • VineSpring has a new integration, but I have not tested it

Cons

  • No Custom Summary report (only in the Accountant version)
  • Cannot do the 2-step bottling method
  • No Inventory value adjustment, only quantity (workaround is to do a JE check)
  • Hard to have multiple windows open
  • Bank reconciliation is clunky
  • The bank reconciliation report does not update after you make changes (for example, if you delete a duplicate transaction, it will still show up on the report)
  • No sales by rep report
  • Chart of Accounts and Item list will only show up alphabetically (workaround is to use numbers and a dash)
  • Payroll is funky and it cannot do job costing, so my usual procedure which is super simple in Desktop does not work. This is not a problem for a super small winery, but once you have staff it becomes a big problem.

I find that the best use for QBO is the small, startup winery where the owner is doing the bookkeeping, because you want to take advantage of as many automatic integrations as possible. You will need some method of processing credit card charges, and Square integrates nicely. However, Square is a short term solution, and as soon as you can justify a true winery program that will handle a Wine Club, you want to get that going so that you can start to capture details about your customers.

Entering Balances into a New QuickBooks File

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Starting a new QuickBooks file is pretty straightforward if your business is new. Unfortunately, most people have an existing company and then decide to move to QuickBooks. It is also pretty straightforward to create a Journal Entry to enter the beginning balances of each of the accounts. But, again, most people have transactions and other data like uncleared checks, open invoices, and unpaid bills that also need to be entered. I have seen lots of creative (and messy) ways to enter these.

Turns out, the steps are not that difficult. At least it’s not something that an evening with some good music (and a glass of wine) can’t fix. The key is…do not follow Intuit’s instructions, because they actually make a bigger mess.

In this video (must be a Silver Club member to view) will walk you through the steps. If you would like assistance, come to Office Hours or use this link to set up a coaching session https://qbws.as.me/JT-Consult 

DOWNLOADS

Proc – Entering balances in a new QB file

 

The Crush

Your first step to running a profitable winery and crushing your business goals.