Third Hand Bookkeeping Service

QuickBooks 2009 Small Business Users Must Decide, Should I Upgrade to 2012?

Linda — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:11 +0000

If you have not received notification from Intuit and you are a registered user of QuickBooks 2009, you need to be aware that on May 31, 2012 Intuit will no longer be supporting the QuickBooks 2009 software versions. What does this mean? If you are one of the many users still using 2009, this means you need to seriously think about upgrading to QuickBooks 2012. This does not just mean software support will cease but on June 1^st you will no longer be able to use the following services and for many 2009 users this will greatly impact how you will continue to use the software and will affect how you run your business. The services to be suspended include:

Assisted Payroll/Basic Payroll/Enhanced Payroll/Standard Payroll
Online Banking and Bill Pay
Merchant Services
Billing Solutions
QuickBooks Email
Terminal Download
Intuit Support Plans and Services

With the loss of support in QuickBooks 2009, there are many other features besides what was added and improved in QuickBooks 2012 but also in past versions 2010 and 2011 to make it worth your while to consider upgrading. For QuickBooks 2012, Intuit really ramped up this version with many new tools to also assist you with.

Some of those new features or product enhancements in the QuickBooks 2012 version include:

Document Center is new to 2012. Document Center allows you to attach receipts and other documents to invoices and customer files. Intuit has included local storage with your QB purchase.
Another new features added to 2012 QuickBooks is the Lead Center for keeping track of your prospects. One area that many small business owners struggle with. The new Lead Center allows you to keep track of your sales leads and when the lead becomes a client, you can move the contact information into the Customer Center quite easily.
Batched Time Sheets allow you to create and use the same time sheet for both employees and vendors who work the same hours.
New to QuickBooks 2012 is industry specific report templates which have been created by other QB users. You can now access Contributed Reports pertaining to your industry searching by industry, user rating and popularity. Select template you like and QB will populate the report with your data in one easy click.
Calendar view: you can now view your invoices and billing using the new Calendar View. This allows you to quickly scan glance when invoices and payables are due.
Memorized transactions has been improved. You can set up transactions for those recurring bills and invoices and either process each individually by selecting the entry to run now or which can be run later.
If you create reports in Excel from exported QuickBooks reports, you can now save the format so that when updated data is imported to Excel, you no longer need to reformat the document.

To highlight a few features added or enhanced since you purchased QuickBooks 2009:

Access customer and vendor balance and transaction history
Collections Center for staying on top of your receivables
Batch Invoicing
Customer Snapshot to see all your key customer information

Another option for you to consider – do you really need to be the holder of the QuickBooks software? Perhaps when you started your business in 2009 you were able to handle the bookkeeping yourself. Well over the past 3 years, your business has grown and your time is pretty much spent on client projects and continuing to market and grow your business.

You find yourself months behind in reconciliations, client invoicing is also falling behind which is now starting to affect your cash flow – now may be the time to partner with a virtual bookkeeper and QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor and take this burden off your shoulders allowing you to do what you excel at and allowing them to do what they love to do. QuickBooks ProAdvisors will be able to keep your accounting software updated using the latest QuickBooks software so you do not need to continually purchase upgrade software.

To find a QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor, you can select the Help menu in QuickBooks and scroll to Find a Local QuickBooks Expert. You can also contact your accountant or other colleagues and ask for a recommendation and of course you can do an internet search “looking for a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.”

Are You Fully Supported in Your Business?

Linda — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:08 +0000

Whether we run a large company with dozens of employees or run our own solo business, we rely on a support team of vendors, customers, employees, contractors, and other associates that help us carry out our business goals. Here’s a fun exercise to discover the strengths and weaknesses of your business support team and how you can increase and strengthen the support you have.

Take out a blank sheet of paper, and draw a small circle in the middle. Write your name in the circle. This represents you.

Draw a little larger circle next to your circle. Write your employees’ names and major functions in this circle. Draw a similar circle for contractors’ names and functions. If you have partners and/or affiliates, include them in a big circle.

Draw a small circle for your five largest clients, and write their names in the circles. Draw another small circle for your five largest vendors, and write their names in the circles.

Draw one more circle for your business mentors and coaches, and write their names inside the circle. If you have any more major groups related to your business, draw them now.

These circles represent your business and all of the people you rely on to get your job done.

Now, think about what groups you belong to that relate indirectly to your business. It could be a professional association, a licensing agency, or a networking group. Make large circles for each of the groups you feel connected to, and write some of the key names you know that are part of each of the groups.

Add a few more circles in the same way if you have more business associates to list or other groups that you didn’t add above. If you want to, you can also include your personal support team: the nanny, cook, gardener, esthetician, wardrobe consultant, makeup artist, nail artist, hair stylist, nutritionist, personal workout trainer, butler, chauffeur, masseuse, travel agent, and water boy. Okay, maybe listing the water boy is getting a little carried away.

The sheet should now represent all of the important people in your business that support you in one way or another. It’s a lot, isn’t it?

Now is where the aha’s come in:

Take a look at your to do list and see if there are holes in your team that you need to fill. Are there job openings or are you ready to bring in more support? Mark the openings or potential openings with a yellow highlighter.

With a green highlighter, mark the people who are most positive and supportive to you. You may want to let them know how much you appreciate them if it’s been a while.

With a red highlighter, mark anyone who is costing you more than supporting you. It may be time for a change in team members.

With a purple highlighter, list the five people you most look up to and can count on for great advice. These people should either have expert advice or be ahead of you in business.

We’ll stop here, but you can continue selecting colors to evaluate the relationship of the people in your circles.

When you take a look at your social circles, what do you notice?

Where are you fully supported?
Where could you use more help?
Where do you need to make some replacements?
What else do you notice about your business network?

Make a list of action items you can do to strengthen your business support network.

This is a great exercise to allow you to consciously evaluate and improve the ever-important support system in your business. When you have a great team, you can accomplish so much!

Tip: Test Your Fax

Linda — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:00:25 +0000

For those that still have a fax machine, there is a way that you can test your fax line without having to bother your friends or colleagues. All you need to do is send a fax to 1-888-473-2963 and within 10 minutes you will receive a verification fax back. This test line is provided by HP but it will work with other fax brands. If you do not receive a verification fax then you know that you have a problem.

Mac Tip: Apple App Store – App Refund Policy

Linda — Fri, 11 May 2012 13:00:07 +0000

You just purchased an app through the Apple Store and once you start working with the app realize it is not what you expected. Apple does have an official app return policy: no refunds unless the app is unavailable to download after you have paid for it or you are experiencing technical problems. For those apps that you purchased and are not what they promised, you can try to contact Apple for a refund. Here is the process:

Go to Manage Account at Apple Store (left side) and click on Purchase History
Click on Report a Problem
Click the arrow next to the purchase
Click the Report a Problem link next to the app purchased
Click the Problem drop down menu and select the problem description
Write your comments in the comment box and submit.

Product Feature: Magic Whiteboard-The Portable Whiteboard

Linda — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:25 +0000

A great new product for those that perhaps need visuals for drafting that 3^rd and 4^th quarter marketing plan, or maybe you are presenting and there is no whiteboard available. Check out Magic Whiteboard. It comes in a roll of ‘whiteboard’ that will stick with static to any wall surface. All you do is roll out the whiteboard and tear off a sheet along the perforated lines. What’s neat about this product is you can put it up and take it down many times without losing its stickiness and it can be reusable. Standard dry erase markers will work fine with the Magic Whiteboard. Each roll is approximately 65 feet long and includes 25 perforated sheets at 23.5” x 31.5”. The Magic Whiteboard retails for $59.99.

www.magicwhiteboardproducts.com

Website: FollowUpThen.com

Linda — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:00:09 +0000

FollowUpThen is a service that allows you to schedule follow up emails and clearing out your inbox by forwarding emails to FollowUpThen. You can also use the bcc or To fields in your email to schedule a reminder to yourself only or you can use the cc field to add a recipient.

Some other features include:

Scheduling recurring reminders such as everyfriday@followupthen.com
View followup reminders in your calendar. Integrates with Google, iCal, Outlook and most calendar systems.
Follow ups will reference your original email and threaded conversations in Gmail
Customize your follow up with company name, intro message and ability to modify colors to match your brand or style.

The features noted below are included in their free version. FollowUpThen also offers a Premium Service which costs $24 for the entire year. The perks of the Premium Service: you can forward attachments, receive SMS reminders to your cell phone and add your company logo.

Are You Working on All the Wrong Things?

Linda — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:00:19 +0000

Have you ever gone through your list of things to do and looked for the easiest thing to knock out first? Have you ever been moody when you’ve looked through your tasks and said to yourself, “I don’t feel like doing that one, that one, or that one?” Do you have some items on your to do list that have been there for a while (like months)?

If so, you’re not alone. However, you may be working on all the wrong things. One of the top time management secrets that smart business owners implement is to prioritize their tasks in a very special way: by the highest payback, and not the biggest sense of urgency.

The hard truth is we may not be able to get to every single thing we want to do, especially those of us who are creative business owners who have an idea every minute! You may have a lot of them captured on your to do list, and some may still be swimming around in your head.

One of the ways that you can choose your opportunities and slim down that ever-growing to do list is to understand the concept of return on investment. For each task, how much money could it bring you if you did it? Some of the items that are not urgent but incredibly profitable are often the items we’re too exhausted to do once we complete all the required client and compliance work we need to do.

The successful business owner will make time for those profitable but not urgent activities. In fact, they will do them first thing in the morning before checking their email or returning calls.

Here’s an exercise to try on your own to-do list. Assign a dollar value to each task on your list in terms of revenue potential or cost savings. If you got to that task, how much could it save you or make you?

Then the fun starts. Sort your to-do list by this new dollar value column you just added. Sort the highest payback tasks to the top and the lowest payback tasks on bottom.

What’s jumping out at you on the top of your list that you’re not getting to? Can you find a time on your calendar to do it this week?

When we step back, become more proactive about insisting that we get a return on our time for what we’re doing, we can make a really huge difference in our bottom line. It’s as simple as assigning some values to the tasks on our to-do list, and then re-sorting them by that value.

However you identify them, the goal is to bring to our attention the highest potential revenue opportunities so we can act on them. Even if you only get to one more per week than you are currently doing, you’ve made wonderful progress.

It may take some discipline to resist tackling the urgent tasks. When we accomplish our urgent tasks, we feel needed. We love rushing to the rescue of clients that need us. When we attempt our high-dollar tasks, it may be a little uncomfortable, even scary. So that’s why we avoid them.

Prioritizing is something we all have to do, since we live in a world that competes for our limited time. Prioritizing by highest dollar return on investment is something the most successful business owners do, even if it feels a little uncomfortable in the process.

When we do the serious work of choosing what is really going to move our business forward, we will see the changes in our revenue. If we can help you with any of your high-payback tasks, let us know.

Third Hand Vendor Resource: Mary Motz, ProVirtual Solutions

Linda — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:00:57 +0000

One of the items on my list to tackle recently was revamping my website using a new WordPress theme as well as changing web hosting companies. Well as you all know that task alone can be quite daunting. Lucky for me, I called a fellow colleague Mary Motz of ProVirtual Solutions. I have known Mary for many years now through my affiliation with DVVAA (Delaware Valley Virtual Assistants Association). Working with Mary was such a pleasure and the process was painless and smooth. If you haven’t seen my updated and refreshed website, please check out Mary’s work at www.yourextrahand.com.

If you are thinking of doing a little spring “web” cleaning or perhaps converting your current html site over to WordPress, Mary Motz of ProVirtual Solutions specializes in providing solopreneurs online business consulting, WordPress blogsites and more. Mary specializes in getting solo-businesses off to a great “tech-start” with complete website, email and consulting solutions, including Google Apps. If you aren’t sure what options are right for you – consider her new Preferred Coaching Club - an easy and cost-effective way to access Mary’s expertise for your online business questions. Visit Mary at www.provirtualsolutions.com and tell her Linda sent you. I know you will not be disappointed.

Mac Tip: Quickly Scroll Through Finder Window View Buttons

Linda — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:00:53 +0000

When I work in the Finder Window, there are times that I need to view my files in details view, however, the next time I may need cover flow if I need to view graphic files. Instead of changing those view settings, I can easily hit Command 1, Command 2, Command 3 or Command 4 which quickly scrolls through the Finder Window View Buttons.

Product Highlight: Energizer iSurge Travel Charging Station

Linda — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:00:42 +0000

With business conferences and upcoming summer vacations, do you find yourself packing all those electronic chargers? One problem travelers usually deal with is they have more devices than hotel room has outlets.

Check out the Energizer’s iSurge Travel Charging Station. On the front are three surge-protected AC outlets; on the top is an iPhone and iPod charging dock and on the side is a 1-amp USB charging port. (That 1 amp provides only enough power to charge an iPad slowly). Tucked away on the bottom is a night-light that you can switch on and off.

You can find the iSurge Travel Charging Station at Amazon for $59.99.