Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' title='Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' />An Obamacare guide for freelancers and the self employed.Lately weve been attending a bunch of workshops geared towards helping various communities navigate the Affordable Care Act.Its mostly for the Q As we know Obamacare as well as anyone, but its always helpful to hear what parts of the law are confusing to people who are new to the whole thing.At a recent ACA workshop for working artists we heard one question that was particularly hard to answer To get the subsidy to pay for insurance, you have to estimate your annual income.But what do you do if you have no idea what your annual income will be Thats a concern for anyone who freelances or is self employed, and it makes navigating the new system particularly difficult for these folk.In this post, we explain why and offer seven tips that should make the process a little easier.UPDATE 1. The poverty level income figures we mention below have been updated for 2.Free Bookkeeping Software Templates for Sole Traders, Freelancers and Limited Companies.Lets you record all your income, expenses and banking details.Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' title='Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' />Why Obamacare coverage could be great for freelancers.Currently, about 1.L.jpg' alt='Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' title='Best Accounting Software For Freelancers Insurance' />Americans work as either a freelancer, contractor, or owner of a micro business.If you include temps and part timers, its over 4.U. S. workforce and according to the most recent survey we could find from 2.Anecdotes from freelancers show how hard it could be to get decent coverage before Obamacare On NPR, one freelance writer and editor described finding a plan that cost 6.It covered nothing.It was a huge deductible and literally, the first time you filed a claim you would be dropped.Writing in Salon, a freelancer with type 1 diabetes detailed an exchange with a health insurance representative So are you trying to tell me that even if I were willing to give you a million dollars a month, you would still not let me join your health plan I asked one representative.She said yes and hung up.Then there are the people who would rather freelance or start their own business, but are afraid to leave their current employer because it would mean losing their health insurance a phenomenon known as job lock.According to a 2.Watson Wyatt study, two thirds of top performing employees said healthcare benefits were an important reason to stay with a company.So, for current and future self employed workers, Obamacare is likely a great deal theyll finally be able to find decent insurance without a traditional employer and often get help paying for it.But first, they have to get through the Obamacare application process.Why applying for Obamacare coverage is less great.To shop for plans, first you have to estimate your annual income, and getting that right is important if you overestimate, your subsidy might be too small, but if you underestimate, you might owe the IRS money when tax time comes around.Or even worse, if you live in a state that doesnt expand Medicaid and your underestimation puts your income below the poverty line, you wont be eligible for any help paying for insurance.Yet, for many self employed individuals, estimating annual income is all but impossible it can vary wildly from month to month, year to year, depending on their luck landing assignments, contracts, sales, etc.One woman in the audience during an Obamacare for artists workshop I attended put it this way The people who write these laws have no idea how things work in the real world.Even though navigating Obamacare can be a huuuuge pain for freelancers, the potential benefits are too good to pass up.Here are some tips that will help if youre self employed and applying for insurance on the Obamacare website.Make sure youre actually a freelancerself employed and not a small business.This might seem obvious, but just in case if you have any employees people you send a W2 at the end of the year youre considered an employer, and can buy insurance on the small business marketplace.If you just hire independent contractors for some work, then youre still considered self employed and youll only buy coverage on the individual marketplace.Healthcare. gov has more info here.You wont get in trouble if your income estimate is wrong.The government will try to verify your income when you apply for Obamacare coverage, but its mainly geared towards catching obvious lies or mistakes for example a person who has a full time job and says theyre unemployed.Heres how it works In the 3.Internal Revenue Service and Social Security records, looking for large discrepancies.If the amount supplied cant be confirmed through federal records, it will be checked against wage information employers send to Equifax, a credit reporting agency.After a rule change this summer, states that have built their own exchanges dont have to check every applicant for 2.Timothy Jost, professor of law at Washington and Lee University.If the estimate still cant be verified, the exchange will request additional documentation from the applicant.If youre a freelancer or independent contractor you can send them your most recent 1.Says Jost Our tax system is largely an honor system.For most Americans, theres no way you can verify in advance what your income will be in a year.All you can do is make your best guess.UPDATE A bunch of people have been asking what a self employment ledger is, since thats one of the things the IRS says freelancers can provide to verify their income.For most states, theres no official form anything that clearly breaks down your income and expenses is a self employed ledger.For an example of a self employment ledger that you can use as a template, one of the commenters mentioned that South Dakota has a good one here.Also, New York is one of the few states that includes a self employment ledger form as part of its online Obamacare application you can see a screenshot of that here.You dont have to copy them exactly, but those should give you a good idea of what kind of info the IRS is asking you to provide in a self employment ledger.And for more on income verification, Consumers Union has a good guide here.UPDATE 2 Another commenter has pointed out that you can use accounting software, like Quicken, to generate a ledger as well.Its probably better to estimate too high than too low, otherwise you could owe money later One reason the income verification isnt more strict is that the IRS will reconcile your tax return with your Obamacare application at tax time.If you knowingly provided false information, you could face fines or even criminal charges, but if you simply guessed wrong you dont have to worry.Also, if it turns out you were owed a bigger subsidy because you overestimated your income for the year, youll get that extra money in your tax refund.The potential problem for freelancers is that if your income was higher than you expected, youll have to pay back the extra subsidy credit you got.There are some limits to how much youll owe the IRS if you guess wrong, which, like the subsidy itself, is on a sliding scale Those are still hefty tax bills, but its nice to know that you wont go bankrupt if you get the estimate wrong.And if you really want to avoid owing money at tax time then you can either choose not to apply your entire subsidy to your monthly premium again, youll get the leftover in your refund or4.If your income changes, tell the insurance marketplace.A recent study in the journal Health Affairs found that the number of people owing repayments could be reduced up to 4.Obamacare marketplace. Cmd Commands For Hacking Facebook Pdf File . You can do this as often as you want, so if you land a bunch of new clients, or a big project ends, or you have a great month selling pirate guinea pig portraits on Etsy log onto your states marketplace and let them know.In reality this probably means every few months adding all your 1.We just wanted an excuse to use this picture 5.For those living in states that dont expand Medicaid If you overestimate your income, you dont have to repay anything.True to the stereotype of the starving artist, many of the ones Ive talked to have incomes hovering right around the federal poverty line FPL 1.If you live in a state that doesnt expand Medicaid and your income is below that line, youre especially screwed youre not eligible for subsidies to buy private coverage, and unless you were eligible for Medicaid under the old rules, you cant get that either.Best Marketing Project Management Software.In the digital economy, marketers need to be just as agile as software developers, engineers and other traditional users of project management PM software.PM software enables a fast paced yet coordinated approach to the creative work involved in marketing.Without a centralized PM solution, the time it takes to produce marketing assets can swell enormously, giving competitors room to swoop in.Weve written this guide to answer the following questions that you may have about marketing project management tools Click on a link below to jump to that section.What Is Marketing Project Management Software What Are the Benefits of Marketing Project Management Tools What Type of Buyer Are YouWhat Are the Features of Marketing PM Software What Are Some Examples of Marketing PM Software What Is Marketing Project Management SoftwarePM software is widely used in software development, industrial R D, construction and a host of other industries.Many marketing departments, however, still operate without a PM solution, relying instead on spreadsheets and email.Some marketers may feel that the creative work they do is just too messy for a unified approach to project management.However, this messiness is precisely why marketing departments need improved collaboration and project visibility.Overview of projects in Basecamp, a popular PM solution for marketing departments.By utilizing PM software and achieving the efficiencies that come with doing so, you can begin moving your whole department toward greater agility, effectiveness and accountability.What Are the Benefits of Marketing Project Management Tools Marketing PM software offers the following benefits Some all purpose PM solutions work well for marketing departments.There are also purpose built platforms designed uniquely for marketers.The type of marketing department you work in should guide your choice of one type over the other.What Type of Buyer Are You When it comes to project management, there are two basic types of marketing departments, each with very different needs.Creative and marketing agencies need PM software to handle projects for clients.These buyers typically benefit from purpose built marketing PM platforms, since those solutions offer functionality built exclusively with the marketer in mind.Essentially, purpose built marketing PM software aligns project management with customer relationship management, financial management and media buying.Marketing and creative agencies dont just need to optimize their own operations they also need to collaborate more effectively with their clients and contractors.Purpose built solutions are specifically designed to address these needs.In house marketing departments primarily need to manage workflows, approvals, timelines and resources.Their needs are more basic than marketing and creative agencies, so they can tyipcally get by with all purpose PM solutions that are also used by IT teams, product R D teams and a host of other business units.What Are the Features of Marketing PM SoftwarePer the discussion above, the features of a PM solution tend to vary based on whether that solution is a general purpose tool, or one customized for marketing professionals.Well look at features that benefit all marketing teams first, and then well move on to features in purpose built solutions for agencies.The most basic features of PM software, such as to do lists, email style conversation threads, real time messaging and Gantt charts for project planning, can be found in most of the robust PM solutions on the market.Marketing thread in Wrike.Marketing project management features that are useful for both in house teams and agencies include Marketing PM Features for Both In House and Agency Marketing Teams.Marketing resource management.Shows which human and technological resources are available for a particular project and enables users to forecast what their pipelines will look like.Request management.Allows departments to manage and prioritize requests for marketing assets from clients or other departments in the business.Task management. Keeps creatives focused on the task at hand via to do lists and reminder notifications.Approval workflow management.Standardizes processes requiring approvals, such as creative briefs, purchase orders and editing workflows.Budget and expense management.Tracks expenses by employee, item, business unit, task etc.User specific views and permissions.Gives each user a personalized overview of their projects and tasks.Managers can also control which users see which tasks and conversations.Document sharing and management.Enables version history control so that agencies can track changes and document sharing to facilitate collaboration with clients and contractors.Marketing project management features specifically intended for agencies are rarer than the all purpose features weve just covered, and remain the province of specialized vendors.Some of the most important agency oriented features include Agency Specific Marketing PM Features.Customer management.Allows agencies to track prospects and convert them into clients.Client invoicing.Integrates with accounting and financial management software to add details to client invoices.Client reporting.Keeps clients up to speed on the details of services rendered.Media buying and billing.Integrates with media buying solutions to place ads, and then invoices clients accordingly.Accounts receivable aging.Shows which clients need to pay up.Timesheet tracking.Tracks billable hours for employees and freelancers.Client invoicing in Scoro.What Are Some Examples of Marketing PM Software Popular solutions for creative and marketing agencies as well as in house marketing teams include Wrike.Wrike offers many of the features that agency buyers need, such as accounting integration for client invoicing.Scoro. Scoro is another good solution for agency buyers thanks to robust CRM features for managing and retaining clients.Basecamp. A good solution for in house teams in particular, Basecamp is a competitively priced solution with a simple and straightforward user interface.Work. Book. Work.Book includes a number of resource management features that allow agencies to track progress against the prices theyve quoted to clients.There are many, many more project management solutions on the market that are suitable for marketing teams, so you may need some assistance in whittling down your list.Fortunately, were here to help.
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