Despite the heat this summer, the Certum Solutions team has heard so much about Pickleball, the court sport that is all the rage. That got me to thinking: Playing pickleball is similar to running an e-commerce business.

The last several years have been challenging, to say the least. The global pandemic arrived quickly, leaving many businesses unprepared to pivot quickly enough to address the needs of their customers. It didn’t matter if you had a brick and mortar location and/or sold your products and services online. We all faced issues in continuous operations, working remotely, and giving customers what they needed to survive.

Each month, Certum Solutions presents feature highlights in QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Online Advanced, and other products in the Intuit ecosystem. If these updates are helpful to you and your business, please drop us a note to tell us how you are using them, and what you’d like to see us cover in the future

When it comes to a loss, there is no commonality. You could operate your business out of a warehouse or manufacturing plant, or maybe your company is on the 12th floor of an office building. Whether you’re hit by a hurricane, earthquake, or tornado—or you’re the victim of a massive fire—no one I know has ever said they were 100% prepared for the potential loss of business, let alone your livelihood.

Between big summer blowouts and back-to-school sales, retailers are slotting in time for the biggest shopping season of the year: the winter holidays. Even though it’s still July, it’s exactly the right time to start thinking about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and year-end celebrations that drive an influx of cash flow for many product-based businesses.

Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2022, 52 million consumers worldwide spent $7.5 billion with independent brands through Shopify’s ecommerce platform alone. With the right tools, your small business could be benefitting from that big spending.

QuickBooks Online is continuously evolving to meet the needs of small businesses, and July 2023 brings some exciting updates to the platform. Hot off the presses, these are the latest features and improvements to four areas of QuickBooks Online. Don’t break a sweat this summer; take advantage of the updates to make the most out of your software.

Is it possible to turn your hobby into a business? Possibly, but there are some definitive IRS rules you need to be aware of—and income you need to report on your tax return. Hobbies are near and dear to us. They help us get through stressful times and reflect our passions. In my own case, I love growing my own vegetables and raising chickens, so if I were to really pursue making money from my hobby, I might open up a roadside vegetable stand, or have a booth at the local Farmer’s Market to sell vegetables and eggs.

One of Certum Solutions’ niches is working with nonprofits — and that includes working with non-for-profit entities. Unless you’ve sat on a charity or church board, been involved in a community fundraiser, or have been employed by these types of organizations, it is probably hard to figure out the differences when it comes to accounting and bookkeeping.

Buying decisions can sometimes be a mixed bag. From time to time, business clients ask us whether it’s better to buy a car versus leasing a car. While the answer is often based on an ROI and tax savings, there are often other non-business factors as well that lean to, for example, how emotionally you’re tied to a certain car.