Intuit is hunting for ways of helping their software become more relevant to Australian small business owners.
They recently sent me an email offering to pay $25 for my thoughts. What do you think I did?
Continue reading Intuit QuickBooks Course updates coming – features and navigation changes
It’s interesting how negative the sentiment is on Linkedin and Facebook when you start seeing annual price increases for Xero.
MYOB has been smashed in it’s social media marketing campaign for their MYOB Solo software but Xero’s CEO was smashed on Linkedin for the continuing increases in price of Xero.
You can push the innovation angle for so long but it seems like Xero are trying to test how much their clients can really afford.
There is a link in their price increase email to their innovations page and I wonder if they did the price increase just to get more traffic to that part of their website!?
The question is:
These increase in subscriptions seem a lot like the recent Black Mirror episode “Common People” where users have no real choice but to keep paying more and more for the software because it is hard to find an alternative.
If you are into dark comedy or want to see how bad things can get from a technology perspective this episode has a very interesting take about subscriptions and premium services – wait until you when the subscriber starts talking about sponsored products!
Xero did a great job with an earlier price increase by telling their users about the massive gain they received with the inclusion of Hubdoc in their Xero feature list.
It was portrayed as a massive saving compared to the monthly fee and it worked very well at a time when other software companies were simply increasing their subscriptions with bland corporate notification emails.
They’re pushing the innovation angle again but users are pushing back.
Like it or not, Xero is still the leading online accounting software in New Zealand, Australia and the UK and it’s popularity continues to rise.
Learn everything about Xero in the Complete Xero Course. It includes 7 skill levels from beginners to advanced bookkeeping using Xero and it’s available from $20pw.
Have you noticed the social media ads for Reckon, MYOB and Xero? It’s 2 months out from the end of financial year and it’s interesting to see the comments on Facebook to the ads of these companies.
They all have different marketing messages. Which one would you choose?
Continue reading The election for accounting software is now on
Learning how to use Xero for specific tasks is easy. There are dozens of videos that you can watch for free on YouTube and they are good for “JIT Learning” – Just In Time Learning. If you want to get a thorough and detailed training about how to perform bookkeeping using Xero you need to learn how to perform all the bookkeeping tasks.
Most people like to watch training videos about how to use Xero or Excel and then try to replicated it.
But once you’ve watched 3-4 videos you get the feeling that you should be using the software. You’ll also start to realise the benefit of a course that contains all the sample data and exercises to help you learn bookkeeping.
Continue reading What is the cheapest way to learn Xero and Microsoft Excel
Office admin workers are the key employees which keep every business running, large or small. They perform the tasks required to keep some form of order and record keeping for the business and without their assistance everything could turn messy quickly.
There is a celebration in a small number of countries for these works and it is often known as Secretary’s Day.
It is an opportunity for bosses or managers to give gifts to their secretary’s and some common gifts tend to be gestures of appreciation that are relatively easy to give in a workplace setting. These often include:
Continue reading Office Admin Workers Day – gift ideas for staff
Join the Bookkeeping Academy as a member to improve your personal brand and get online exposure for bookkeeping and office administration work.
The Bookkeeping Academy is designed for anyone who wants to enhance their knowledge and use of technology to manage the financial aspects of their business.
As a business owner this gives you a low cost educational and support resource to help you use technology to become more organised and efficient in the administration aspects of your business.
This membership gives you ongoing access to EVERY course that you have ever enrolled into (since January 1st 2013) with EzyLearn – this includes all
We update our training materials regularly to keep up with changes in features, compliance requirements and navigation changes made by the major software vendors.
When you specialise you demonstrate your commitment to a deeper level of understanding about certain Bookkeeping Assistant tasks. This knowledge ensure you are more productive for your employer or client and can help them use technology to better manage their business.
Specialisation Training include:
Get the details about Bookkeeping Academy membership
For a lot of business owners, just the thought of reconciling their accounts once a month is enough to make them go weak at the knees, never mind every day.
Some business owners feel that bank reconciliation is wasted time that doesn’t bring in revenue, yet there are plenty of contract and remote bookkeepers who work for their clients each week, and some that work every day for the same client, reconciling their accounts and providing other vital bookkeeping services.
And they’re not just big businesses whose accounts are reconciled daily — plenty of small businesses do so too.
In fact, with so many small businesses going asunder due to cash flow problems (often stemming from a lack of procedures in place for credit and debt management) it can be not only a cost-saver but a potential life-saver to your business.
Continue reading Should You Reconcile Your Accounts Every Day?
Some of the most challenging bookkeeping work is catchup or rescue bookkeeping. When there are 3 months worth of transactions of all different types and you need to
This course is designed for students or workers who already have an understanding about data entry for daily financial transactions, credit management and bank reconciliation.
You’ll work with 3 months of data and end up producing financial reports to help Jerry be compliant with the ATO for GST as well as his payroll PAYG obligations.
You’ll also give Jerry some useful insights into his messy business using financial reporting.
This BAS Course case study is available to help you learn BAS and Financial Reporting using QuickBooks, MYOB and Xero.
When we were using our old enrolment form I was alerted about the option to migrate to using Stripe instead of PayPal.
At the time I wondered why a software company that makes online forms would encourage all their users to migrate away from PayPal – the company that Elon Musk started. Now I can see why.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of great features that PayPal offer, including:
The problem we’ve noticed is that once a payment has been received the system that we’re using often doesn’t get the correct notification of a successful payment for that order.
It started with our Wufoo form builder several years ago, but recently it has happened for some students who use PayPal for their payments.
As a result of a recently missed payment a student requested a refund and the whole process for this has changed as well. In fact it was clunky and awful to use. So bad that we found ways of trying to reach out and ask a question to a real person.
We also wanted to know how to rectify the payment notification issue and came across a VERY awkward support system that wanted to just brush it’s hand of our enquiry!
We offer a 30 day money back guarantee and have since we first started offering online courses in MYOB and Xero and Microsoft Office. Early on this offer was important because some students didn’t know if they would be able to learn online. Now it’s to ensure that students are completely happy with their online learning experience.
Just wanted to give you the heads-up on some cool stuff we’ve been working on. We made this free guide called “Introduction to Bookkeeping Beginner Basics” (super catchy, right? ?) that you can grab on the EzyLearn website.
Think of it as the foundation of your business’s finances. Our guide walks you through setting one up in Xero, MYOB, or QuickBooks, but this blog post is more about why it matters.
Basically, it’s just a way to organize all your business’s accounts (like assets, liabilities, etc.) so you know where your money’s coming from and going.
It makes your reports make WAY more sense and gives you a quick look at your business’s health. It’s like creating categories for your money (spending, saving, making, etc) so you can easily see the flow.
A good chart of accounts helps you play by the rules (financial reporting standards) and can be customized to fit your business perfectly. For example, you could track your income and expenses by product type or department. So you can adjust it as your business gets more complicated.
Xero call is an Accounts List and you’ll learn about this in the Beginners Certificate Xero Courses.
When you set up your chart of accounts, it will be organized like this: banks accounts, assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses in that order.
No matter how you keep track of your finances (even if you’re still using a spreadsheet!), it’s crucial to know where your money is coming from and going. A chart of accounts is what makes that possible. Keeping it up-to-date will give you an accurate snapshot of your business’s financial health at any moment.
This is just one part of our Bookkeeping Basics series, so don’t forget to download the free guide from the EzyLearn website if you want to learn more!
Learn about bookkeeping basics in the QuickBooks Online, MYOB and Xero course for beginners.
I’ve received some negative feedback this week, but it’s not as bad as you think.
When I say negative it means that we did something that needed correcting. I think a lot of people take any negative feedback as a personal attack but I’ve come to realise it is a HUGE BONUS when someone actually reaches out to tell you what they think – but you need to do something about it.
I love hearing from our blog subscribers and students PARTICULARLY if it helps us improve and do a better job.
Dani, if you are reading this, you made us act on our digital marketing using MailChimp!
I think Mailchimp has become a bit of a rip off to be honest. They’ve figured out exactly what people like about their email marketing software and created “upgrades” for anyone who wants to use them.
When anyone requested our free training course samples we use MailChimp for our AutoResponders – messages that are sent automatically at pre defined intervals.
Here is an example of an AutoResponder series (or what MailChimp call a Journey).
All of those 8 steps were part of ONE Journey Automation (AutoResponder) but then Mailchimp limited the number of Journey points so we got rid of the “Wait one day” steps.
Mailchimp realised that their users were creating lots of automated marketing messages (Journeys) so they included this ability in a more expensive “upgrade” plan. Anyone who used them previously were simply TRUNCATED and left to waste!
It resulted in 3 emails being sent automatically and Dani thought that was a complete overload and very SPAMMY.
There are alternative email marketing software programs and one that still enables you to create long journeys is Aweber.
Many other students probably thought the same but because you wrote it down and made us realise how bad it looks, we acted on it!
The messages come out regularly and are spaced with a day or two in between them.
We’ve now created many different journeys and separated the dates to make sure that the messages you receive when you request our free Xero Course samples for example are spaced out evenly.
Learn Mailchimp in our Email Marketing Course and connect with your own customers.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, staying stagnant is a recipe for falling behind. This is especially true with accounting software, where innovation and updates are constantly reshaping how businesses manage their finances.
At EzyLearn, we’re committed to providing our business administration students with the most current and relevant training possible, particularly when it comes to mastering Xero.
Continue reading Stay Ahead of the Curve: Our Updated Xero Beginners Course Reflects Xero’s Constant Evolution
Master Microsoft Excel one step at a time with the guidance of:
Don’t pull your hair out or cry in frustration because you lack some skills and confidence to work with Excel spreadsheets.
Don’t get angry because you struggle to create a spreadsheet from scratch that performs the calculations you need or shows your information in meaningful, concise reports.
Don’t LOSE YOUR MIND because you can’t get charts to look the way you want them to!
Follow the “ultimate learning journey” so you learn Microsoft Excel by performing small exercises one step at a time.
We’ve combined printed workbooks, exercises files and video tutorials so that you just need to watch and then do.
The practical tasks are used in most office admin jobs and gradually get harder and harder as you progress to the advanced Excel Course topics.
The most popular and widely used software program in the world is Microsoft Excel and you can learn how to use it one step at a time.
The best value for money Excel course is Excel COMPLETE
It includes 9 x half day short courses that take you from beginners Excel to Excel Advanced Certificate.
The courses are carefully and lovingly designed to take you on a learning journey where you’ll
The Excel course manuals (which are available separately if you want to save money) include step-by-step tasks and the Instructor video tutorials show you exactly how to do it – you can repeat them as often as you want to.
See all the Microsoft Excel Course options and current special offer
All eyes will be on the announcement from the Reserve Bank Governor today to see what is happening with interest rates. If you are like most people your cashflow would have been affected in the years since Covid because of the increasing interest rates.
There has never been a more important time to master your household budget and spending than now and good knowledge of Microsoft Excel will give you these skills.
A mortgage for your home is a huge debt, particularly for those living in the swelling capital cities with soaring house prices. The pro and cons of buying your own house and living in it are:
The big problem with this is the interest charge – you can’t claim the cost of it yet it’s a massive component of each and every payment you make on your mortgage.
You’d need your house price to go up at least at the interest rate you are paying to make it a good investment – and right now you’d be doing fine (perhaps except in Perth now).
Our Microsoft Excel Training Course now includes an Excel spreadsheet file that will help you see just how much money you’d save if you paid even a small amount off extra each month!
You can use the mortgage comparison file to compare two mortgages, make extra payments or even shorten the term of the loan to see how much you’d need to pay each month if you want to pay your mortgage off quicker.
If you are an existing Excel Course student you’ll find the new file at the end of our Microsoft Excel Advanced Course 309.
There are several reasons to open this spreadsheet and start seeing the resulting figures to workout the best way to allocate the money you earn.
Either way you look at it, why not use your Microsoft Excel skills and play with some calculations to see how much better off you could be if you are financially prudent now.
You can also use this Microsoft Excel file to do a stress test and see how much your mortgage would be if interest rates do go up as many people expect they will.
Every contract bookkeeper loves receiving these emails but they can wreak havoc with your computer
Emails like these usually means you have a new client and the client has invited you to start doing the bookkeeping for them on their MYOB file.
Everything about the email looks good but here is what to look for and the steps to take:
Continue reading Cyber Security for Bookkeepers – How are scammers trying to get you
There’s lots to do when businesses engage a new worker. As an employer, you’ll be busy going through the onboarding process and showing your new employee the ropes, but there are other important things to do when you add a new member to your team.
Keeping accurate records complete with the right information is essential for businesses to maintain, and that means updating and adding data when engaging a new worker. Here are some things to keep in mind as you go through this process:
Continue reading Engaging a New Worker? Here Are The Things You Need To Do, particularly if you’re classified by the ATO as a withholder:
