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Can you REALLY Trust PayPal?

PayPal vs Stripe - MYOB and Xero Courses from EzyLearn - customer service using AI

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:

  • PayPal Pay in 4
  • Cashflow lending
  • low cost ePayments gateway

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.

AI Driven Customer Service, VERY Average PayPal

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!

The PayPal AI support assistant didn’t appear to understand English

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.

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Bookkeeping Basics: Chart of Accounts Explained

ezylearn-bookkeeping-basics-training-course-workbook-logo

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.

Okay, so what IS a chart of accounts?

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.

Breaking Down the ‘Accounts’

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.

  • Assets: This is not money that you have received. So, imagine you invoice someone and they haven’t paid you yet? That’s “accounts receivable,” which is different from actual income!
  • Liabilities: Think of these as debts your business owes. Like leases or credit from suppliers.
  • Equity: This is stuff your company owns outright, like equipment you’ve paid for. If you sell it, you get the money! Cars and office equipment are equity.
  • Expenses: This is the money you spend immediately on running your business. Like gas for your car or office supplies. If you pay right away, it’s an expense. If you get a bill with 14 days to pay, it’s a liability.

Why do you even need a chart of accounts?

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!

bookkeeping-basics-training-course-for-Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks online cover-300x201 EzyLearn Bookkeeping Career Academy

Learn about bookkeeping basics in the QuickBooks Online, MYOB and Xero course for beginners.

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Thank you Dani!

Big fireworks saying thank you - online Xero Courses and Certification

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).

  1. Person subscribes to your list (Mailchimp now limit your lists to 3)
  2. Send a Confirmation message which includes details about how to access our Free samples.
  3. Wait one day
  4. Sent a message about our learning journeys
  5. Wait one day
  6. Send a message about our past students and testimonials
  7. Wait 3 days
  8. Sent a message about our Bookkeeping Academy

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.

Example_of_a_Customer_Journey_Map_with_two_starting_points_a_delay_an_email_and_branching_if_else_point - Mailchimp Course for Email Marketing
Example of a customer journey in MailChimp

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.

The RESULT

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.

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Stay Ahead of the Curve: Our Updated Xero Beginners Course Reflects Xero’s Constant Evolution

9 Sales invoice in Xero - Beginners Certificate in Xero Course

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
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Are you 1) Angry, 2) Frustrated or 3) Exhausted trying to use Microsoft Excel?

AI middle aged lady getting angry trying to use Microsoft Excel on a computer showing the spreadsheet - Excel Courses 800x436

Master Microsoft Excel one step at a time with the guidance of:

  1. Training Workbooks
  2. Excel Course exercises
  3. Instructional Video Tutorials
  4. Practical tasks used in Office Admin jobs
  5. Knowledge reviews
  6. Excel Course Certificate
  7. Support

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.

* FREE Sample Available *

Most Popular Microsoft Excel Course

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.

Microsoft Excel Beginners to Advanced Spreadsheet training course & support - Ezylearn

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

  1. learn new skills,
  2. reinforce those new skill using the Excel course exercise files and case studies and then
  3. progress to more advanced functions.

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

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How does $20,000 mortgage repayments equate to $47,598.02?

Master your mortgage and financials with the Complete Excel Course package - upskill for office admin jobs too

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.

The COMPLETE Microsoft Excel Course Package now includes a mortgage spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgage

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:

  • You don’t pay capital gains tax on a property you live in, but
  • You can’t claim the interest component of your loan

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).

Bigger payments reduce the interest paid

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.

Take 10 years off your mortgage when you can

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. 

  • Interest rates are at record highs,
  • house prices ‘may’ be peaking,
  • some people say that Australian banks are so highly leveraged to the residential property market that they’ll need to hold more capital reserves.

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.

free online training course in Xero or Microsoft Word with MYOB or Microsoft Excel Course
50% OFF the normal price for Microsoft Office courses

See our currently discounted Microsoft Office Courses

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Cyber Security for Bookkeepers – How are scammers trying to get you

Cyber Security for Bookkeepers - How scammers are using MYOB and Xero to get you

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
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Engaging a New Worker? Here Are The Things You Need To Do, particularly if you’re classified by the ATO as a withholder:

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:
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Cert IV in Bookkeeping and Accounting + MYOB and Xero Course TRIO

Nationally Accredited-Certificate-IVin-Bookkeeping-online-training-course

Not every students needs a Cert IV in Bookkeeping and most business admin and accounts jobs don’t ask for it but if you want to be a BAS Agent or get a Diploma in Accounting it’s a must.

Most employers want you to have a good knowledge about MYOB and Xero but some Cert IV in Bookkeeping Courses don’t even cover them.

The Cert IV in Bookkeeping and Accounting and MYOB and Xero Course TRIO includes it all.

It is ideal for job seekers or current employees of accounting firms who want to progress in their career.

Learn bookkeeping with the Xero and MYOB course online training package - Bookkeeping Academy $20 per week

Now, you can start with a $400 deposit and the balance of payment when you’ve complete the formal Cert IV enrolment process.

You get access to the MYOB and Xero courses quickly and can start learning right away and then go through your accreditation.

Cert IV in Bookkeeping with MYOB and Xero Course
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COMPLETE Xero Course includes Beginners to Advanced skills

Xero COMPLETE Training Courses Online Suite - EzyLearn

This Xero course is the most popular with job seekers and business owners because it gives them the training they need to do almost anything using Xero. These are the course topics:

The Complete Xero Course takes most students 3-4 weeks to complete but you can learn it at your own pace and in your own time.

12 months or LIFETIME access – your choice

Ezy Learning Lifelong training platform for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing training courses

Enrol at our original enrolment website and you can learn everything about Bookkeeping using Xero with LIFETIME course access.

This includes all additional content we create and updates to training material. It also includes access to EzyLearn ANSWERS!

If you want the cheaper option you can enrol into the course here with 12 months course access and support.

Join us as a Tutor

If you have industry experience AND you complete our courses you can also become an EzyLearn Tutor.

Accounting Tutor for Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks Online Training Courses & Support - cropped

As an EzyLearn TUTOR you become our partner and work part time, while also earning an income online as our affiliate – this is just one of our Career Academy membership options for students.

Enquire with us today and get the FREE Xero course sample – as well as Microsoft Office and Word training!

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

If you have any other questions you’ll find answers to most of them at our FAQ’s.

Here are just some of the most common questions and links to their answers.

Get the FREE sample and enquire now

EzyLearn Course Enquiry

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Career Academy updates for 2025

The-Career-Academy-for-EzyLearn-Online-MYOB-Xero-QuickBooks-and-Microsoft-Office-and-Excel-Training-39-cropped

Feel like you need a little something extra? Have you reviewed your life in 2024 and thought “I need to do more”?

I reviewed our membership programs and in particular the tutoring programs and we’ve tweaked them to help you perform better.

After you complete a course with us you are welcome to join one of our Career Academy programs to

  • get more experience,
  • get discovered for work online and
  • earn some extra money.

The training in our EzyLearn Tutor package teaches you how to speak with clients to find out what they need.

EzyLearn Online Accounting, Office Admin & Digital Marketing Tutor

This is called qualifying and I’ve found it one of the best ways to help every person you speak with – even the ones you can’t help personally!

The Sales and Customer Service course is included in the EzyLearn Tutor program and it is one of the best tools to help you both win new clients AND build a referral network.

If you want to do more in 2025 explore our Career Academy options and reach to see which one suits you the most.

Career Academy
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2024 in Review – Most popular topics

What most readers where interested in this year.

There are a couple trends which seemed to dominate the small business course market in 2024 and most of them related to replacing your bookkeeper!

It was the rise of automated bookkeeping services from companies like

  • Thriday,
  • HNRY, and
  • NAB’s Bookkeeper.

There also appeared to be a lot of ambiguity in job descriptions between Office Admin and Business Administration topics.

The other major observation is why did Intuit buy MailChimp and do email marketing companies make more money than accounting software companies?

Here’s our most popular blogs of 2024:

The range of skills and software knowledge for office and business admin employees is widening as they perform more and more of the daily tasks for each business.

A bunch of videos on Youtube or even Udemy is commonly called a course these days so Xero course prices vary widely. Some training company providers create interesting “accreditations” to lure students. In the end you get what you pay for and a real course involves you doing the work for a business – that’s the power of case studies.

Mentor Education advertised heavily and sold lots of courses and most of their students thought they could trust Australia’s accredited training framework – that didn’t end up being the case for thousands of unfortunate students.

Accounting automation has been a buzz word for several years but it now seems to be maturing when NAB and other major banks start promoting their automation features.

Payroll is a very complicated job to manage. It is important for all of our livelihoods and it’s a significant cost and time consuming task for businesses. It goes from hiring staff to tracking their every working hour, lunch break and sick day and more of these tasks are being combined into one software platform rather than a suit of software programs.

We offer free samples so you can get to know us and we get to show you the work involved in creating a proper course with practical tasks and business case studies. There are lots of free samples available so check them out.

Microsoft Excel is such a versatile program that it remains in strong demand even though specialist programs come along to try to make things easier. We have some free samples and hundreds of Excel exercise files that you can open and use to learn Excel.

Intuit bought MailChimp and we delved deeper into the world of email marketing software and how much these companies charge for their software. It’s far more lucrative than accounting software because they charge more as your subscribers increase. This will be an industry to watch in the coming years.

Xero course workbooks now for sale

It was also the first year we started selling the full range of Xero Course workbooks and exercise files. In these challenging financial times it is a cheap way to learn how to use Xero.

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Jerry knows all about email..

Jerry profile startup course and social media marketing for small business entrepreneur

Jerry Lame is a serial entrepreneur and loves shiny new objects. He was a corporate employee but went out on his own to start a business and be his own boss – then things got messy.

He needed to learn how to use Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks Online to manage his bookkeeping.

Mailchimp Course for Email Marketing

He started doing whatever he could to earn money and created income selling lots of different things to lots of different people. He used Outlook to send group messages to his clients until one day he realised it was going to get too hard.

Tony, a customer, sent him a reply email abusing him for sending junk mail and that surprised Jerry!

Jerry loves people and he loves talking to people from all sorts of different backgrounds and he remembered his conversations with Tony vividly so he was surprised to get such a reply.

Continue reading Jerry knows all about email..
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I’m not sure what to say..

Have you ever been in that situation? There’s lots going on and you have a lot on your mind yet you just can’t think of something to say? It’s like that with content marketing too.

It can be challenging but if you are in sales and marketing you MUST find something to say.

I was reviewing some of the recent updates to our Mailchimp Course for Email Marketing and realised that most content marketing is based around what is happening at the business.

It might have something to do with suppliers or products and changes to features or it can simply be about a success story or what one of your clients did.

Mailchimp Course for Email Marketing - Create a new email campaign - Digital Marketing Academy

When the Mailchimp course is ready it will be available at a discounted price to our Bookkeeping Academy members and can form part of your CPD Points.

Explore the Bookkeeping Academy and Inquire to learn more

PS. A new member recently understood how affiliate marketing works and was able to earn someone money just by referring someone to our courses. We’d rather pay you for introducing a new client than give the money away to Google Ads to get new students!

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Do you need to learn Email Marketing?

Mailchimp Course for Email Marketing - Create a new email campaign - Digital Marketing Academy

I must admit that I have written a lot about email marketing lately and it’s ever since Intuit bought MailChimp and our monthly bill went up and some of the features were stripped out.

I then heard about Aweber increasing their prices massively and thought there must be something at play in the world of email marketing software.

The most disappointing part about what MailChimp has done is that they’ve stripped back the ability to create more than 4 automations unless you upgrade to a higher plan.

Everything about MailChimp is screaming out MORE MONEY, MORE MONEY, MORE MONEY!

Continue reading Do you need to learn Email Marketing?
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New menu items have been added for ‘Customers & leads’ and ‘Budgets’

QuickBooks and Mailchimp Integration - QuickBooks brings leads into your business admin software - Online Business Admin Courses

There have been some big changes in Intuit QuickBooks Online navigation that have given our course development team the nudge to create updated training material.

All current students and members can access this material at no extra cost – that’s our Updates and Additions Policy.

Some of the biggest changes relate to Customers and leads and that makes sense when you consider that Intuit now owns Mailchimp – one of the largest email marketing service providers in the world.

Continue reading New menu items have been added for ‘Customers & leads’ and ‘Budgets’