Why I Hate This Time Of Year

Tax time... Blech.  I was so not born to be an accountant, it isn't even funny.  I've been stressing out about taxes for over a month now.  It wouldn't be this hard if we had any kind of a better organization process for our finances and all of the tax stuff that goes along with owning a daycare.  Some of the business end of running a daycare I actually do like, but keeping track of all of the expenses and deductions for tax time I do NOT like.  I've always kept excellent track of my pay checks. A few months ago I switched over to the accounting program through my childcare food program, but before that I had every check written down in a notebook AND recorded on a spreadsheet on my computer, backing myself up either way.  It's just those pesky expenses that give me trouble.  I guess I haven't figured out the best way to make keeping track of them easy.  I'm so busy all the time that the last thing I think of doing throughout the week is closely itemizing my Target receipts and keeping track of my business mileage, and writing down somewhere that I bought bandaids and they can fall under medical expenses.

On top of the pain of preparing for our tax appointment, is the actual cost of the appointment.  Ever since I opened my daycare we've gone to H&R Block since there is so much put into our tax preparation.  The woman who's done our taxes every year since our second year with H&R Block does an excellent job and we've always gotten back a nice rebate, but they are expensive.  Just today I went ahead and made an appointment with a different accountant.  She's not with a financial giant like the other place so their costs are lower, which makes our costs lower.  I'm just hoping there will be a great big fat rebate check coming our way to make it all worth it!

I really want your input on this one... What/who do you use to file your taxes?  What software or record keeping devices do you use to manage your general or business finances?  Do you have any links to great financial management websites or blogs that you would care to share?