Last week, I told you about the free IRS Virtual Small Business Tax Workshop. Knowing what your tax responsibilities are is great, but how do you keep track of all that information?

Let me introduce you to Outright.com. Outright is a free online bookkeeping program which was created to help sole proprieters and single-member LLCs “track income and expenses from credit cards, invoices, receipts, or even merchant accounts, or enter records quickly in simple ledgers.”

Not only does this program keep track of your income and expenses, but it also proves to be an invaluable tax tool. It will automatically track important tax deadlines (quarterly filing, 1099 deadlines, etc), manage W-9s, tell you who needs a 1099, and automate Schedule C.

You may be thinking the same things I thought when I first learned about the program. “My financial information is ultra-sensitive. Is this site secure? What happens if I cancel my account?”  Here are the answers I found:

• all information in Outright is encrypted
• the site itself is password protected and encrypted
• data is backup hourly
• all data belongs to you and can be downloaded in a format which can be read by spreadsheet software
• if you cancel your account, you data is immediately deleted

I’m recommending this product not because I receive compensation or incentives for any referrals I may give.  I’m not an Outright affiliate. I’m recommending this program because I use it myself and am ecstatic with the results. Once I had entered my 2009 income and expenses, I was able to view and download a pdf of my Schedule C.  Wow! What a time-saver! My CPA is gonna love me.

What is your preferred bookkeeping method?

PageOne Marketing Solutions before makeover - click to view full-size image

PageOne Marketing Solutions after makeover - click to view full size image

About PageOne Marketing Solutions

PageOne Marketing solutions helps local business owners develop and put into action a powerful online brand and business presence in order to attract more clients and drastically cut advertising costs while at the same time putting online marketing efforts on “autopilot.”

Reason for Makeover

Brad and Michele contacted me because they were not happy with their business website’s design. The colors did not coordinate with their logo, the video and newsletter opt-in form took up too much valuable space, their ebook cover looked like it had been created by an amateur, and the site’s layout just did not present their content in the best way.

Solution for PageOne Marketing Solutions

Since Brad and Michele already had their content in place, we decided they just needed a site redesign.  The Berries and Cream Decadence package was the perfect solution since business website designs typically require more detail than a personal blog design would.

A New Design

Brad and Michele knew they wanted their site colors to match or coordinate with their logo. They also knew they needed to keep the newsletter opt-in form and the video. I suggested moving the opt-in form to the right side of the header so that it would be easily accessible from every page of the site.

I created a pin-striped background that was dark enough to create great contrast for the white content area. The pin-striping created a subtle texture that was more attractive than just a solid background would have been.

A new ebook cover replaced the poorly designed cover that had been used before. I was able to incorporate the PageOne logo into the cover, further promoting the site’s branding.

I created a sidebar to feature important information that did not belong in the navigation bar. I also created a special page template without a sidebar for those pages where a sidebar would not be appropriate.

A feature specifically requested was title images with shadows. I used the logo colors for the titles and shadows. Every page has a custom title image.

To further fortify the branding, I created a favicon using a portion of their logo.

Home Page

Brad and Michele knew they wanted to keep the video on the home page. I suggested moving it just underneath the home page title. There, it would get the attention they desired, but it would also allow additional content to appear above the fold.

Plenty of relevant images were used in the page content, which helped to make the long page more interesting. Brad and Michele requested that I create custom pull-quotes to emphasize imporant selling point.

Goal Accomplished – Another Satisfied Client

Once the design was complete, I installed the new design at Brad and Michele’s site and made the final tweaks that are nearly always necessary after installation. Brad and Michele were thrilled with their new design and the professional appearance it gave their site.

How is your website working for you? We can transform your site just like we did Brad and Michele’s, giving it a more professional design and better navigation.
Click here to view our Custom Blog Design Packages