Intuit Unveils QuickBooks Workforce: A Game-Changer for HR Management | Small Biz Trends

May 15, 2026May 14, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Small and mid-market businesses face a daunting challenge: managing HR duties across numerous disconnected tools, resulting in inefficiencies and wasted resources. Intuit aims to address this issue with the launch of QuickBooks Workforce, a comprehensive human capital management (HCM) solution. Set to revolutionize how businesses handle workforce management, this new platform is embedded directly within existing QuickBooks applications, promising a more efficient and integrated approach to HR tasks.

QuickBooks Workforce consolidates a range of essential functions—from hiring and onboarding to payroll, benefits administration, and performance management—all within a single platform. According to Intuit, many small businesses utilize anywhere from 7 to 25 different tools to manage their workforce, resulting in an annual cost of about $120,000. QuickBooks Workforce directly tackles this fragmentation by automating and synchronizing various HR processes, thereby reducing overhead and administrative burdens.

Lyft and United Airlines Launch First-Ever Pay with Miles Feature | Small Biz Trends

May 15, 2026May 14, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In a groundbreaking move for travel convenience, Lyft has partnered with United Airlines to allow MileagePlus members to use their accumulated miles to pay for rides directly through the Lyft app. This innovative feature, announced on April 29, 2026, marks the first collaboration of its kind in the U.S., effectively bridging the gap between air travel and ground transportation. For small business owners who value efficiency and cost-effectiveness in managing travel expenses, this integration may offer a significant advantage.

The “Pay with Miles” feature is designed for all United MileagePlus members who link their accounts to Lyft. Once linked, users can seamlessly redeem miles for eligible rides, which include everyday trips, airport travel, and premium services. For small businesses often juggling tight budgets and frequent employee travel, this new option can enhance not just convenience but also financial flexibility. Members can cover the full fare or split payment with a credit card when their miles are insufficient to cover the entire ride cost.

6 Effective Strategies for Businesses Dealing With a Crisis | Business

May 14, 2026May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

At some point, most businesses will face a crisis in today’s fast-paced, constantly changing, and social-media-driven world. When an organization is in the midst of one, it’s essential to provide stakeholders, employees, and customers with a clear, heartfelt message. How quickly — and how sincerely — you respond can make the difference between rebuilding trust and spending months trying to repair your reputation.

Planning your crisis communications in advance can help any organization navigate a PR nightmare. Like preparing for a storm, equipping leadership teams and employees for a downturn can reduce anxiety and build confidence. We’ll highlight six crisis communication strategies and share mistakes to avoid.

Effective strategies for crisis communication

Whether your crisis stems from natural disasters, financial setbacks, personnel issues, organizational failures, or technology breakdowns, the following crisis communication strategies can help lessen the blow, steady the ship, and set you on a path toward recovery.

How to Keep Your Emails Out of Gmail’s Promotions Tab | Business

May 14, 2026May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Gmail organizes incoming messages into multiple inbox tabs, including Primary, Social, and Promotions, to help users manage their inboxes and reduce clutter. Google uses a mix of signals to decide which emails land in which tab. While some Gmail users appreciate having marketing and social messages sorted automatically, others deactivate the tabs entirely and stick with a more traditional inbox view.

Email marketers can improve their chances of landing in the Primary tab by following a few proven best practices and sending the kind of messages people actually want to open, read, and engage with, instead of ending up in the Promotions tab, where they’re easier to overlook.

How to prevent emails from going to the Promotions tab

There’s no foolproof way to keep every email out of the Promotions tab, and Gmail’s filtering signals don’t exactly stand still. Still, there are a handful of practical steps you can take to give your messages a better shot at landing in the Primary tab.

Apple’s 2028 iPhone display sounds impossible, but Samsung and LG are scrambling to build it | Digital Trends

May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Apple doesn’t ask its suppliers to build things. It tells them to, hands them a deadline, and watches billions of dollars move on product lines and supply chains.

The company is reportedly pushing Samsung and LG to build a fundamentally new OLED cathode material called IZO (Indium Zinc Oxide) for a four-sided bending display planned for 2028 iPhones (via ETnews).

What is a four-sided bending display?

LG Display has reportedly responded by investing approximately $770 million in infrastructure. Samsung is still deciding whether to go ahead with committing to new, dedicated factory lines.

Samsung phones will block those nasty push notifications brimming with adware | Digital Trends

May 13, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Push notifications are useful until apps start treating them like free ad space. On Android, this gets especially annoying because promotional alerts are not always clearly separated from important notifications. Users often have to guess which setting controls ads, and many end up turning off notifications entirely just to stop the spam.

Samsung now appears to be addressing this issue with a new Device Care update that can detect and block apps that send too many promotional notifications.

The Practical Side of Planning a Great Event | The Startup Magazine

May 12, 2026May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What do you think about first when you’re planning an event? Is it the exciting stuff like the music, food, and decorations? Probably. But although those things are very important, there are some other things, perhaps not so obvious ones, that you also need to think about if you want your event to go well. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the practical side of planning a great event.

Get The Space Right

It’s easy to underestimate how quickly people can fill a space once everyone actually arrives, but you might find that the areas that looked huge beforehand are suddenly pretty cramped, and you might have queues forming in awkward places. In other words, people are too close together, and they feel uncomfortable rather than being able to enjoy the event.

In event planning, a good layout can make a massive difference, and we’re not just talking about the places where people sit and gather – you’ve also got to think about where they walk, queue, eat, dance, and basically spend any time at all.

How Smart Surveillance Solutions Support Business Growth | The Startup Magazine

May 12, 2026May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Businesses nowadays need to be more aware of their security practices, both online and offline. For in-person premises, surveillance solutions have become smarter in their efficiency and effectiveness to protect the property and its occupants.

Smart surveillance solutions help support business growth by transforming it into something more proactive, data-driven for operational efficiency, and enhancing customer and staff experiences.

Operational Efficiency and Business Intelligence

Smart cameras are now going beyond just monitoring to provide actionable insights. In fact, there’s a lot that this type of technology is doing in order to protect businesses across the world.

Not so dusty: How tech is changing woodworking | BBC News

May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“I’ve seen workshops that are nigh on dust-free,” marvels furniture maker and woodwork instructor Ryan Saunders.

It’s one of the big changes that technology has brought to the woodworking business in recent decades.

“We’ve understood so much more about the safety of our lungs,” Saunders says.

From high-pressure extractors to high-quality filters, there are more tools than ever before to protect the lungs of people working with wood.

Mount Dukono: I led hikers up an Indonesian volcano and then it erupted | BBC News

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

An Indonesian guide who led a group of hikers up Mount Dukono has described the harrowing moment they were caught up in Friday’s eruption, which killed three people in his group.

Reza Selang narrowly escaped being crushed by a large rock ejected from the crater, which landed on two other hikers right beside him.

“There are no words. Until now, I still feel torn apart, I still can’t believe it… right now, I am deeply devastated,” he told the BBC over the phone on Monday.

Indonesian authorities have said two Singaporeans and one Indonesian were killed in the eruption, while the other hikers were safely evacuated from the mountain located on Halmahera Island in North Maluku.