Author: Steve Slisar

Xero has always used its partner network to reach it’s users. I remember one claim made by Xero that they are the accounting software of choice for property and real estate businesses but it was really their integration partner Re-Leased that did the heavy lifting.

I received an email from Xero promoting GoDaddy. It was a promotion where GoDaddy would create the website for you and optimise it for Search engines.

What surprised me the most is that GoDaddy will actually create the website for you – not just host it.

The purpose of a well designed course is to provide a series of steps for students to perform that gives them the knowledge and practical experience they need to learn.

We use a number of different tools and case studies and one of my favourites is the Jerry Lame “. He’s like many people that you’ll meet every day.

I’ve tried and tested hundreds of software programs over the last 25 years and I’ve noticed something very interesting in the last 12 months – they’ve gotten so complicated!

Email marketing is commonplace these days and you know it’s a money spinner when Intuit buy Mailchimp.

The cost of email marketing software has gone up and up and up and all the software vendors are increasing their prices at the moment. I thought Xero was pushing it with their yearly price increase but Aweber is similar to Mailchimp and they recently increased one of their monthly packages from $10pm to $55pm – that’s OVER 500% increase.

Is it worth it?

That’s the big question I’ve been asking myself lately, now that all the software vendors are increasing their prices you start to question what you really need.

Now, try to remove these services from your business and websites and you start to realise how “sticky” they are.

We were using Gravity Forms in our WordPress websites because we thought they increased convenience for students but in the end it caused a headache with form spam and we already had an online form solution that did the job just fine.

In the end I’ve come to realise that most business needs are pretty simple and it’s times like these when you need to stick to your core services and focus on doing a great job.

When I look at the knowledge that most businesses need their staff to learn about bookkeeping using MYOB and Xero it comes down to perfecting the data entry and credit management.

The MYOB and Xero Data Entry Courses teach those skills and if business admin and bookkeeping staff focused on getting these tasks done perfectly most businesses would be in great financial shape.

These skills include:

• Accounts Payable
• Accounts Receivable
• Receiving payments
• Making payments

In reality small business owners need to master all aspects of their accounting to get their financials right every month, quarter and financial year. This usually means they need one or more team members who specialise in each aspect of the accounting tasks required.

Job seekers, explore the Bookkeeping Academy course combinations – they provide beginners to advanced certificate level skills (Complete) in the major accounting programs.

We receive lots of bookkeeping course enquiries from students who are changing careers and want to find bookkeeping work.

If you are new to bookkeeping you may be familiar with MYOB because it has been around for decades. As soon as you start looking at job ads you’ll hear about Xero because a lot of businesses are migrating away from MYOB to Xero.

So a common question is should I learn MYOB and then Xero?

Should you learn MYOB before Xero?

When students ask for our advice the simple answer is it doesn’t matter.

Learn one and then learn the other one straight away. If you are changing careers this will reinforce the common bookkeeping tasks you’ll be doing for work and give you confidence speaking with employers.

Business owners also ask us if they should use MYOB or Xero and the problem with that is that everyone has a different opinion. Even amongst our own team members we prefer different programs.

But there is a good way to decide which one to start with.

Am I speaking gibberish or just crazy?

No, I’m speaking the language of eInvoicing!

PEPPOL is a global way for accounting systems to avoid the entire email system as we know it and Xero are registering every business unless you opt out by 13th November.

Is this a new closed network that eliminates any invoice and bill paying spam? Yes, pretty much.

I remember teaching people how to use email when it first arrived in our lives in the late 1990’s and it is now the most common way to “authenticate” yourself as a real person.

It is also one of the most common ways to be scammed, spammed and phished!

I first wrote about PEPPOL when the Australian Government announced that they were adoption it – yes, it’s an Australian Government initiative, not a Xero Initiative. PEPPOL is the mechanism whereby you can get your invoice directly into the software of your client and I think it’s great.

1. Learn as much as you can about Xero in our Xero Complete training course which comes with lifetime course access and support.
2. Or choose an individual short course with 12 months access and support with Xero Beginners Course BUNDLE or the Advanced Certificate in Xero.

If your finances are under pressure and you need to learn Xero then our current Special Offer should make you happy.

We offer FREE training sample materials for Xero and MYOB as well as Microsoft Office and buying a course manual is a smart way to learn without spending too much money.

I realise that new students are nervous about which training company to enrol with so many claims being made about accreditation and work guarantees and that they are the best (which is called puffery believe it or not).

I also realise that some training companies think that a handful of videos makes a course – if that were true you could get a degree watching YouTube videos!

Following a step-by-step training program where you actually use the software is the best way to learn and RETAIN knowledge about bookkeeping and office admin tasks.

Using case studies that are based on real world scenarios is even better – those skills are transferrable to the workplace when you get the job you want.

Better still, these case studies are based around tasks that are essential knowledge in accounts and office admin jobs.

So if you want to learn how to use Xero and Microsoft Excel buy and download one of our course manuals and supporting files and get learning today cheaply.

There are times when I wish we all had the choice to only upgrade our software if we wanted to!

Microsoft made us all do it by changing the “look and feel” of their Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Excel and MYOB made us all doing it by putting the changes in PAYG tax tables in their update rather than leaving it in the core MYOB AccountRight software.

I had a few days off and decided NOT to take my laptop with me and gee that felt great!

When I came back my Inbox was full and my website was out of date! Some students messaged to say that the software was a bit different to the training material and the navigation of some of my apps had changed.

It’s normal these days to spend time just catching up on changes in your software, office procedures and prices!

When you enrol into a Xero and MYOB Bookkeeping Course with LIFETIME course access you get ongoing access and support for LIFE!

When you join one of our Career Academy membership programs you also get ongoing access and support.

I was speaking with an intelligent lady in her early 50’s and she was telling me about the number of job applications she had done but got no interviews!

This lady has plenty of experience and training but was still struggling to get employers to notice her.

Is this happening to you?

As a business owner this happens EVERY DAY! and you learn to keep digging and applying and calling and emailing. You also need to evolve and tweak and improve on every little aspect where you feel you could have done better.

Courses help to fill any knowledge gaps you have and the more job applications you do the more you’ll see what employers are looking for.

The key is to keep your chin up, take a break if you need to and start searching again.

If you need to learn Office Admin, Business Admin or Bookkeeping skills EzyLearn has a number of options:

• Micro courses – software and topic specific
• Complete courses – beginners to advanced skills in a software program
• Combination courses – Complete courses for several different software programs combined

Learn more about how we structure courses in Microsoft Office, MYOB and Xero

The most common question we get asked about our MYOB courses is which version should I learn?

Is MYOB AccountRight more popular than MYOB Business PRO or Lite?

This question is hard to answer because it depends on where you are located and what job ads are going up on Seek and Indeed. When you look for accounting and office admin jobs you’ll be in a better position to answer this yourself.

BUT, to make life easier we offer a MYOB Course Combination which includes both courses AND at a discounted price.

To make this question a little more confusing MYOB changed the name of their MYOB Essentials to MYOB Business and created two versions: Lite and Pro!

Learn more about the MYOB AccountRight and Business PRO Course Combination

Running a business is hard.

It’s hard because you have to know most aspects about your business and financial management is a critical one – after all the reason for starting a business is to earn money!

One of the hardest parts I’ve found for bookkeepers and accountants is sales.

People are interesting aren’t they?

I recall when we opened our first Sydney training centre how I took people through a needs analysis to determine what they knew and didn’t know. I could quickly see the difference between what people say and what they do.

We were doing most of the training for clients of Commonwealth Rehab Services when the Internet was in it’s infancy and lots of people were learning about how to send an email!