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User Guide Chapter 5

5. Tax Planning

The Tax Planning module estimates a business owner's tax based on the company's earnings, compares entity structures, and tracks quarterly payments. Open it from Modules → Tax Planning.

  • Main URL: /a/<team-slug>/qbo/tax-planning/
  • Requires the Tax Planning module. Available to 👁️ Members (view) and 👤 Admins (edit).

What this is — and isn't. Tax Planning produces estimates to help with planning and quarterly payments. It is not a tax return and not tax advice. Always confirm final numbers with the preparing professional.

5.1 The main Tax Planning page

The page estimates tax from your QuickBooks earnings and shows the key drivers. Highlights:

  • Earnings-based estimate built from current financials.

  • Entity comparison — toggle between Sole Proprietor / LLC and S-Corp to see how self-employment tax treatment changes the result.

  • Quarterly estimate with a payment tracker (see §5.3).

  • Losses are handled gracefully — if income is negative, tax calculations are skipped rather than producing a misleading number.

To pull the latest figures from QuickBooks, use Refresh on the page (/qbo/tax-planning/qbo-refresh/).

5.2 Owner tax profiles 👤 Admin

Owners often have personal tax circumstances (filing status, other income, deductions) that change the estimate. Capture them as profiles:

  • List: /qbo/tax-planning/profiles/
  • Create a profile, fill in the owner's personal tax situation, and calculate.
  • Edit or delete profiles as situations change.
  • Each profile produces a tailored estimate alongside the business numbers.

5.3 Quarterly payment tracker

Estimated taxes are paid quarterly. The tracker helps owners stay current:

  • Record a payment as each quarterly installment is made (/qbo/tax-planning/payment/record/).

  • The tracker shows what's been paid versus what's estimated for the year.

  • Apply prior-year tax — use last year's liability as a safe-harbor baseline for this year's estimates (/qbo/tax-planning/prior-year-tax/apply/).

5.4 Tax savings view

The Savings view (/qbo/tax-planning/savings/) tracks how much has been set aside to cover the estimated liability, and shows whether the pace of saving is on track.

  • Balance source. 👤 Admin can link a QuickBooks bank account on this page — once linked, the current balance is pulled from that account automatically. Leave it unlinked to enter the balance manually instead.

  • Set-aside rule. 👤 Admin chooses how the savings target is calculated:

  • Tax-driven — the projected annual tax divided evenly across 12 months (the default).
  • Percent of revenue — a chosen percentage of year-to-date revenue.
  • Fixed amount — a set dollar amount saved weekly or monthly.

  • Target to date shows what should have been saved by now under the chosen rule, so you can compare it against the actual balance at a glance.

  • Behind-pace alert. If the balance falls meaningfully behind the target, OML raises an alert so it doesn't go unnoticed. 👤 Admin can adjust the alert's sensitivity on the alert-settings page.

5.5 Tax planning PDF

Export the current estimate as a shareable PDF from the page (Download report, /qbo/tax-planning/report/pdf/). The PDF includes the estimate breakdown so the owner has a clear record for planning conversations.