Goodbye Outright

I am no longer recommending Outright.com and have removed the link from my previous post. They've made several "improvements" over the past year, most of which I don't like, and are now going to charge a monthly fee. Here are excerpts from a recent email:

• New users are now charged $9.95 a month after a 30 day free trial.
• All existing Outright customers may continue to use Outright for free through Dec 31, 2011. That gives you about a year to continue to use Outright for free and determine for yourself if we provide enough functionality to make Outright worth the monthly cost. It also guarantees that you can track your entire 2011 calendar year finances for tax purposes. After Dec 31, we hope that the small (and tax-deductible) monthly fee will feel insignificant compared to the time savings and peace of mind that Outright provides. If not, and you wish to move to another solution, you will be free to download your transaction history - we don't believe in holding data hostage.

Well, apparently they do believe in holding my data hostage until the end of the year as I can find no way to export it now - and now is when I want to do so as I plan to create my own tracking system in Excel. Beings I'm currently immersed in 2010 taxes, now will be an easy time to create a custom set-up based on what I actually need to know at the end of each year. So I'll just manually enter data rather than export. Fortunately, much of the needed info is also on PayPal, which will let me export with no problem.

I understand that Outright needs to pay their bills and chose to transition to a paid service rather than subject their users to ads. So be it and I wish them well. It just isn't worth nearly $120/year to me.

It's Tax Time!

As the old saying goes, there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. And what time of year is it? Why, tax time, of course! The time when accountants across the land are busily crunching numbers and good old John Q. Public is busy biting his nails. How much more fun could you ask for?

I’m the resident income tax preparer in our little group. I actually don’t mind – which is good beings no one else wants to do it! I only take care of the personal taxes, however, and not the taxes for Horn's Jewelry. But between all of us and a few friends and relatives, I stay plenty busy. Here are a couple of tips to make tax time less stressful.

Keep Good Records

It may be too late for the 2009 tax year but certainly not for 2010. Especially if you’ve started a new home based business, keeping good records is crucial. In a previous post, I talked about Outright.com but I’d like to mention them again. After discovering them in January, I entered all my 2009 info for both my freelance writing and custom memorial quilt businesses. When it came time to fill out my federal tax return, Outright.com actually generated the needed Schedule C forms for me! It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Don’t Make It Harder Than It Has To Be

I also use TurboTax Home & Business for all our tax prep. I used to buy the H&R Block or J.K. Lassiter tax guide each year and study like crazy but now I let the software do all that for me. I still stay on top of tax changes and double check the completed forms to make sure nothing is amiss but it sure is nice to just enter the info and have the program put it all in the right place and make all the calculations. Pretty much eliminates the inevitable human errors that tend to occur when using a calculator and filling forms out by hand.

The IRS also has a terrific website where you can access all the forms and publications and more info than you’ll ever want to read. Anything you need to know about your federal taxes is right there, neatly organized and readily available 24/7. Have fun!

Another Great Resource for Entrepreneurs!

Update 2/25/2011 - I'm no longer recommending Outright.com and have removed the link. See Goodbye Outright for my reasons why.


I have found the coolest FREE bookkeeping system online and thought I’d share. Outright.com provides a very nice bookkeeping system that also generates a Schedule C at the end of the year! How cool is that? All you do in input your income and expenses (correctly categorized, of course) and the program will create exactly what you need for your tax return.

I found out about Outright.com shortly after starting my Etsy shop. It was a fortuitous discovery as I had on my calendar for THAT VERY DAY to develop a bookkeeping system. I was going to create my own in Excel and was dreading it. See how procrastination pays?

Not only have I used the Outright system for my Etsy shop, I also set up separate accounts for my freelance writing and custom memorial quilts business. For those of you who have your taxes done by an accountant or CPA, this may not seem that exciting. But I do all the personal taxes around here and I’m telling you, I’m thrilled to have found this! (Can you tell?)

Of interest to anyone with a business will be the YTD Profit feature. On the top right of the page, the system tracks your profits for the year as you input income and expenses. (This would be of especial benefit to my brother-in-law if I could just get him to sign up.) For folks that don’t have a business, I can see that this could also be a really good way to track personal or family expenditures. So check it out and sign up if you feel it might be of benefit.

Please Note – I have no affiliation with Outright.com other than being a happy user of the system.