LEWISTON, Idaho – Eight workshops, including four on QuickBooks, highlight the May offerings by the North Central Idaho Small Business Development Center at Lewis-Clark State College.
Topics for other workshops during the month include big challenges for small businesses, fraud and embezzlement prevention, the ins and outs of hiring, and tax deductions for small businesses.
The Lewiston workshops will be held at the SBDC offices, located at 406 Main St. The Grangeville workshop will be at 201 E. Main St. in Grangeville, while Orofino’s workshop will be held at the LCSC Orofino Outreach Center, located at 416 Johnson Ave.
Pre-registration is required for all workshops. To pre-register or for more information for any of the workshops call 208-792-2465, email isbdc@lcsc.edu, or visit the website www.lcsc.edu/sbdc.
QuickBooks Payroll Part 1 and Payroll Part 2 workshops will be held in conjunction. Part 1 is set for May 1, a Tuesday, while Part 2 is May 9, a Wednesday. Both will be held at 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Lewiston and Janice Gobbi will be the instructor. The cost of the two workshops is $60 and participants will learn how to use the payroll function in QuickBooks. Topics covered include setting up employees correctly, adding payroll items, tax and deductions, using time tracking, generating payroll checks and reports, and understanding payroll expense and liability accounts. Washington and Idaho payroll requirements will also be discussed.
On May 3 in Grangeville, there will be a QuickBooks Basics workshop taught by Gobbi. The workshop runs 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and the fee is $85. There is room for 10 students. The workshop will cover QuickBooks training fundamentals. Participants will learn how to add customers, vendors, products and services, and also manage and reconcile bank accounts and credit cards. The hands-on course is held in a computer lab where there will be training exercises with the instructor. Call 208-983-2164 to pre-register.
The final QuickBooks workshop is on QuickBooks Reports and will be May 8 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Lewiston. Accountant Su Brown is the instructor and will discuss various reports and graphs QuickBooks offers and how to create them.
The workshop on Biggest Small Business Challenges and How to Mitigate Them will be on May 14 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Lewiston. The fee is $20 and the instructor is Aziz Makhani from the Small Business Development Center at Washington State University. Statistics say anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of all new businesses fail, but Makhani believes business owners can push the odds of success in their favor if they know the common pitfalls. He will discuss those pitfalls as well as how to identify a genuine market need, the importance of being able to sell a product, and making sure there is adequate funding for the business.
Fraud and Embezzlement Prevention is the workshop on May 15 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Lewiston. The fee is $20 and Polly Knutson will be the instructor. Even if a business owner has only one employee, fraud prevention is a must. Learn the practice and simple internal control and reporting processes that can be implemented to keep cash and assets under control at all times.
So You Think You Need an Employee – the Ins and Outs of Hiring is the workshop set for May 17 at Orofino. It will be at 5:30-7:30 p.m. and the fee is $10. Chris St. Germaine, Director of Clearwater County Economic Development, and Diane Hairston of the Idaho Department of Labor will be the instructors. They will discuss different options for hiring help and whether to use contracted help or hire an employee. They will discuss how to register employees and how to write a job description, as well as how a local labor office can help. To pre-register, call 208-476-5731.
The final May workshop, Tax Deductions for Small Businesses, will be held in Lewiston on May 22 at 5:30-7:30 p.m. Brown will instruct the class, which has a $20 fee. The workshop will cover common business expenses that are tax deductible and the general rules for deducting them, such as when meal, travel and entertainment expenses are deductible.