Archive for home office

Your Guide to Home Office Layout and Design

Your home based business needs a dedicated area in your home to work from. It’s essential to your overall success to have a properly designated space to work from in order to maintain your work ability and efficiency. Simply “making do” won’t help your business be a success in the long run. Choosing the best area in your home to locate your home office in is a key task for anyone who ever wants to work from home.

Now you’ll need to look at what part of your home you’d like to convert to a home office. Which room in your home will readily convert to a home office with the least amount of fuss and expense? No matter what room you choose make sure that you’re not going to be mixing work with family issues – you can’t focus on what you’re doing with kids running wild around you.

Once you’ve selected the actual location itself then you’ll need to look at how you’re going to layout the office itself. Where will you put your desk and how big is the desk going to be? Are you going to be using a filing cabinet and if so where are you going to put it? Why not spend some time sketching our rough plans for how you’d like the office to look when you’re finished?

One of the key pieces of furniture in any home office is the desk . This isn’t something you can just kinda leave to chance and hope it works out. It needs to be the proper height (or height adjustable if you can afford it) and have more than enough room for all your office equipment and supplies; especially your office phone – it should be placed in an uncluttered part of the office.

Having ample free work space on your desk is important from the point of view of setting up your computer. When positioning your computer on your desk you’ll want to have it set on one side of the desk to make it easy to access and to maximize your working environment. The last thing you need is to be straining across your desk to reach anything.

Another key part of your home office is your chair. Your behind is going to spend several hours each day stuck in this chair so make sure you invest in something that won’t cause you pain and is comfortable to sit in for prolonged periods of time. It’s so important that whatever chair you choose meets your height and body style to promote proper sitting posture and allow you to sit comfortably.

And last but not least you need to look at the lighting in your home office. Good lighting is as important an aspect of creating your home office as anything else. Use natural light as much as possible – it saves on energy bills and is also good for your mental state whilst working. For those dark evenings or early mornings just make sure you have adequate lighting in the form of a table or floor lamp that properly illuminates your entire desk – eyestrain can become damaging very quickly.

The actual cost involved in setting up your own home office is not as high as you may think. Just focus on getting the basics right – a good desk, a good chair, proper lighting and a decent computer system. The rest will come in time or when you can afford it.

Buying the Ideal Computer Desk for your Home Office

It’s very, very rare to find a home office that doesn’t have a computer of some kind. The use of word-processing programs and Internet access alone has become so widespread that you now expect to find computers everywhere and especially in a home office. A computer desk is an important piece of furniture for any home office as it’s going to form the cornerstone of your working environment. Here’s some tips for the next time you go shopping for a computer desk.

A height adjustable desk is the pinnacle of computer desks for your office. Why? Because we all come in different shapes and sizes and one desk generally doesn’t fit all. Having a desk that’s the wrong height can make working on it an absolute nightmare. Not only that but it can lead to bad posture while working which in turn can lead to ongoing back problems. If you can’t find a height adjustable desk then make sure you have more than ample leg room underneath the desk; your legs should not be cramped or restricted in any way.

Some computer desks come with a sliding tray for your keyboard and mouse. These are ideal when you’re working with limited space but just make sure that your keyboard is between 28 and 30 inches above the floor. Any lower than that and you’re going to wind up slumped over your keyboard whilst typing which is going to lead to back problems and, potentially, repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Every computer obviously has a monitor of some kind and the height the monitor is placed at whilst you’re working is equally important. Your desk should be set up such a way that the upper edge of the monitor is directly at eye level with your seated position. This will prevent you looking upwards or downwards while you work. Most of the new LCD monitors (flatscreen) are height adjustable so getting this level right shouldn’t be a problem with this type of screen; most new computers are only sold with flatscreen monitors anyway.

The monitor also needs to be a suitable distance from your eyes to prevent eye strain. How do you measure this? Simply sit upright in your office chair and stretch your arm outwards. The screen should be positioned at the far end of your reach i.e. you should be just about able to touch the screen with your fingertips.

Another key point with a good computer desk is storage space. There’s nothing more annoying than having to stop what you’re doing and go searching for a stapler or notepad. Your desk should have at least one reasonably large drawer for storing these items in ; more storage is always better.

Last but not least is working space. You won’t always just be typing at your desk. You may have documents you need to read or sign or just some paperwork that needs filing. Your desk should have enough room for this and more. Many people buy a desk without taking this aspect of working from home into account – you can never have enough space on you desk; more is always better.

Don’t take the task of buying your computer desk for granted – it’s an essential item in any home office so make sure that you’re making the right choice first time around.

Work From Home? Consider the Home Office Deduction

Work From Home? Consider the Home Office Deduction

Whether you are self-employed or an employee, if you use a portion of your home for business, you may be able to take a home office deduction.  Here are six things you need to know about the Home Office deduction:

1. Generally, in order to claim a business deduction for your home, you must use part of your home exclusively and regularly:

as your principal place of business, or as a place to meet or deal with patients, clients or customers in the normal course of your business, or in any connection with your trade or business where the business portion of your home is a separate structure not attached to your home.

2. For certain storage use, rental use, or daycare-facility use, you are required to use the property regularly but not exclusively.

3. Generally, the amount you can deduct depends on the percentage of your home used for business. Your deduction for certain expenses will be limited if your gross income from your business is less than your total business expenses.

4. There are special rules for qualified daycare providers and for persons storing business inventory or product samples.

5. If you are self-employed, use Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home to figure your home office deduction and report those deductions on line 30 of Form 1040 Schedule C, Profit or Loss From Business.

6. If you are an employee, additional rules apply for claiming the home office deduction. For example, the regular and exclusive business use must be for the convenience of your employer.

 

Gary Levine is a practicing CPA from Richmond, VA.  He serves as the Executive Director of Non-Profit Connection, a nonprofit organization that provides finance and accounting support exclusively to other nonprofit groups.  Our website is www.non-profitconnection.org.

 

Remember, individual tax returns are due on April 18th this year.  That’s because April 15th, the date taxes are normally due, falls on a holiday.  If you need additional time to prepare your tax return, the IRS will grant you an extesion of time to file the reuturn, however, any tax that is owed to the IRS for 2010 is still due on April 18th.  You do not get an extension of time to pay your taxes for the previous year!