For over a decade the Apple Macintosh has been seen as a great home and education computer, but when it came time to do “serious work” it lacked the business-related software to “get the job done”.  Business-related software for the Mac was usually written for another operating system first, then rebuilt for the Mac as an afterthought.  Often the Mac versions were a “bad translation”, failing to take advantage of the different features available on the Mac.  Although the situation has improved over the decades, the Mac is still behind when it comes to desktop business software.

However, there is a new hope for Mac users - the web.  A new generations of web standards allows desktop-quality applications to be delivered over the internet directly to a browser.  Web applications like online accounting software, invoicing software, time tracking software, project collaboration, contact management, email, calendaring, appointment scheduling, simple custom databases, todo lists, and much more are being delivered as web applications.  Most web applications run just as well on Mac OS X as on Windows (you may have to switch to Firefox, however, for some of them).  This is part of what people are calling Web 2.0 - the other part is the “social media” like Facebook and blogging.

Thanks to Web 2.0, new business applications are being developed on the web, and Mac users (Linux users, too) enjoy the same access to that software as everyone else.  Although web applications are still missing features compared to our old desktop favorites like word processors, I’m confident that in the years to come they will close the gap.

This post was inspired by This Week With my Mac, where someone describes his attempt to switch fully to the Mac and running into software compatibity issues.

To learn more about our easy accounting software that works on your Mac, check out our demo.

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Mike, a CPA blogging at “Accounting Unleashed“, starts out his new series of articles on accounting basics with an article “What Are Assets?“. Assets are “what the company owns”.

Assets are broken down on the balance sheet into categories, depending on how long they are expected to last. Assets which last more than a year should be recorded as “fixed assets“, and their value is adjusted over time as the asset increases or decreases in value.  A common mistake made by those new to accounting is to record the purchase of a fixed asset as an expense, like “computer hardware expense” or “furniture expense”, when by law they are required to record these kinds of purchases as a fixed asset for tax purposes.

Most fixed assets, like computer hardware, furniture, cars, machinery, and other equipment loses value over time, because people won’t pay as much for second-hand stuff, and it eventually wears out or becomes obsolete; when these assets are reduced in value the business may record a tax-deductible “depreciation expense”.  The tax laws in your area will have specific rules about the percentage of a fixed asset you can claim as a depreciation expense each month, for tax purposes.

Some fixed assets, like land, buildings, or precious metals and stones, may fluctuate in value, which means that instead of a tax-deductible expense, you will be required to report a taxable “capital gain” as part of your income for that year.

Another type of asset that deserves special consideration is the “pre-paid” asset, such as pre-paid insurance.  Like a fixed asset, you should not record pre-paid insurance, pre-paid rent, or other pre-payments as a tax-deductible expense, except in the tax year that the payment applies.  For example, if you pay a year’s worth of insurance halfway through the year, you can only report half of that as tax-deductible in that year; the other half you must report on your tax return in the following year.  The part that’s left for the next year would be put into an asset called “pre-paid insurance.”

To learn more, read the article which inspired this one:

Accounting Basics: What are Assets

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