Have you pondered the benefits of a lifetime student access to our MYOB courses? Here is the best answer we can think of – our newest MYOB course is the MYOB Setup course for version 2012, and all students will have access to this course for no extra charge*.
I wrote recently about the significant changes that are occurring with MYOB accounting software as they take their journey from desktop to cloud and in-between. I’ll explain more about the in-between part in another blog post. These modifications have caused a change in how to use MYOB software so we’ve undergone a re-write of all of our courses. The MYOB Setup Course is now in beta stage and we are looking for existing students who want to give it a bit of a run through. Do you want to have a sneak peak at it?
Beta stage simply means it’s ready, but we want to see if our existing students like it. Do you want to become a VIP training member? It’s free, so submit your details in our Bookkeepers Register and select the VIP option.
I just want to use this opportunity to let you know another reason for choosing EzyLearn for your MYOB training: We create our own training materials and the people who create the courses also provide support to students. This means that we are amongst the first company to create training material for the latest versions of MYOB.
* If you have enrolled into a lifetime MYOB course access option.
A great way to participate in a continuing education program for bookkeeping is to apply for our MYOB Bookkeeper VIP membership. It’s free! Membership is not guaranteed however and you have to participate in our MYOB bookkeeping Training Courses incubator. If that sounds like you, read on…
Why a MYOB Bookkeeper VIP membership?
If you are a regular EzyLearn blog reader, you’ll be aware of the sadness we experience by not being able to have a coffee and Tim Tam with you. We are inching closer to finding a solution to that though and I think we’ve found it! The MYOB Bookkeepers VIP membership. You could call it a club for people willing to participate in our training material creation process.
What’s in it for me?
You get to road test our new training material and participate in the creation process (well OK, that’s also a benefit for us)
You get to elevate your status in the learning community
We’ll include your details in our forthcoming bookkeeper register
We’ll explore ways to help you perform online marketing to build your own business
You’ll get access to other training resources to widen your skill base
You’ll get to know similar minded people and build a great network
You’ll be able to explore new bookkeeping technologies with us and keep your skills up-to-date
Continuing Professional Development for Bookkeepers
Continuing Professional Development is going to become more and more relevant and important for MYOB Bookkeepers across Australia as the industry becomes more regulated and you will be at the coalface of our training development.
We have some exciting news to release in the coming months about new partners who will be working with us to provide our students with small business management skills including the ability to write a comprehensive business plan including financials. As a MYOB Bookkeeper VIP member you will have privileged access to this new material.
The MYOB Bookkeeping Training Courses is your first step to gain access to the club but even if you are an experienced bookkeeper or accountant you are welcome to submit your details into our Bookkeeper Register.
I’ve written several articles about starting a bookkeeping business in recent months but an article I just read in the Sydney Morning Herald about the value of a bookkeeping business re-inforced a great reason to be in business for yourself. Capital Gains.
Yes, it can be hard to start a new business from scratch and yes, you may need to get out of your comfort zone to meet new people and share your story and yes, you may need to do some courses and learn some new skills, but the rewards are more freedom, flexibility, capital value and you might meet some great business owners and managers in the process.
We strive for an innovative training experience for our Microsoft Excel and MYOB training courses by providing:
Beginners to advanced software training skills for one price so you don’t have to agonise over which course to choose for your current skill level
Lifetime access to course resources including updates
Variety of learning tools including training videos, workbooks with exercises, exercise files and knowledge reviews
As a result it is important for us to develop training materials that are easy to use and self explanatory so that our students learn quickly and we don’t need to provide too much support. We need to ensure that any problem a student faces is dealt with so that future students are guided more smoothly through their learning experience.
Sometimes it’s the software
I wrote in a recent blog about the significant changes that MYOB are going through with their software and how it affects not only our students but real, live businesses that use MYOB software in day-to-day operations. We’ve experienced this most recently in our MYOB bank reconciliation course where we exported the accounts list and journal entries from a previous version of MYOB so that students can easily import them into the current version. This worked very well for all the previous versions until MYOB started developed their current versions using the Microsoft .NET platform.
After going through several scenarios about how to improve the flow of our course and scouting MYOB’s support communities we’ve discovered that importing from previous versions to the current version is a little more difficult than it use to be. Students will just need to create the data manually and this isn’t a major problem, but it highlights some of the issues that are faced in the real world anyway.
But what can we do?
To handle our growing number of student members (and we call you members because you have lifetime access to the course materials including the new updates) we implemented a powerful customer support system called Zendesk, a system that is used by over 20000 companies world-wide including Twitter, msnbc.com, Denver Broncos, Lonely Planet, and SAP. We also turned on the satisfaction ratings which scared us at first because we would truly see how well we are doing according to our students. The result? 90% Customer satisfaction – that’s a high distinction I believe.
There are several aspects to learning that most people are used to:
Training that is easy to follow and easy to duplicate so you can do it yourself
Training material to answer most of your questions
The social experience of meeting other people and sharing stories during the coffee break
Sadly, online training can’t provide the thousands of personal experiences our trainers experienced with their students during the coffee breaks, while eating Tim Tams. It’s this human contact element that we can’t replicate online so we closely watch the satisfaction ratings for the answers and support that our team provide to students when they have questions or difficulties.
We can’t replicate the coffee and Tim Tams online, but we can implement leading support tools and find great team members so we maintain a high distinction in support.
Is it a good time to start a bookkeeping business?
GST-registrations from SMH 20120816
Tim Reed, the CEO of MYOB recently mentioned that they track the number of Australian business registering for GST because it gives a good indication of the number of business entering the market and the chart showed an astonishing decline in the last 12 months. What I found most interesting is that our recent blog about Starting a bookkeeping business cheaply was one of our highest read blog posts. So is it a good time to start one?
Is there a need?
If you ask any business owner or accountant you will soon discover that there is always a need for good bookkeepers. Most business owners start out in business because they are good at their craft and bookkeeping is the last thing they want to worry about. After all, it is a compliance issue not a money earning issue. What do I mean by compliance? I mean the Australian Taxation Office require you to lodge your financial information with them if you want to operate a company.
The next common question is how much will I earn as a bookkeeper and the answer depends on how good you are and how you want to work. If you are an employee working full-time for a company you will most likely earn award wages, if you are a bookkeeping business owner you can charge more because your customers know that you have a business to run, but also because you are only working for them a handful of hours per week or month.
There is a need for MYOB skills
One of the most commonly sort after skills in Australian office administration type jobs is the ability to use MYOB accounting software. We have many students from accounting backgrounds do our MYOB Training Courses because they haven’t used the software in their corporate work. We’ve even had bookkeepers perform our courses because many Cert IV’s in Bookkeeping (a common course for those wanting to be registered BAS agents) do not include training on how to use MYOB – they cover bookkeeping principles.
Who are your competitors?
If you look at the graph in this blog post you should probably be encouraged to start a bookkeeping business because it appears that your competitors are scared to start one right now. It’s also a good time to note that the bookkeeping business is starting to become a regulated industry and a profession in it’s own right. After all you need qualifications and to be a registered BAS agent if you are going to operate a bookkeeping business these days and with these higher standards come higher expectations and higher pay.
If you explore your local competitors in your bookkeeping business planning process you will start to better understand just how important bookkeeping is. It will make you feel more comfortable in choosing your new profession and taking the right steps to get to your desired goal.
Do you have what it takes?
The real question you should ask yourself if you are looking at starting a bookkeeping business is do you have what it takes? Are you good at explaining bookkeeping and accounting terminology to your customers in their own language? Do you have the skills to get the job done quickly and efficiently. Do you have the confidence to speak to prospective customers and charge the amount you want to charge?
The business planning stage is very helpful in building your confidence, but the winning formula is:
a willingness to speak openly and simply with potential customers,
find solutions to customers problems and
explain accounting to them in simple language
Remember that owning a bookkeeping business requires people skills, business skills and bookkeeping skills. If you are interested in starting a bookkeeping business contact our business partners at workface.com.au and begin your journey to flexible hours and business success.
We create new training content for our online MYOB training courses each quarter and we’ve just been going through a flurry of recordings and re-writes for our MYOB Setup course because we know that MYOB AccountRight version 12 is different.
MYOB AccountRight version 2012 is part of the cloud strategy
Did you know that MYOB is going through a lot of changes as they position themselves as a cloud based accounting software provider? A recent article in The Australian goes onto explain that MYOB’s cloud-based strategy is designed to get people away from using Microsoft Excel (for which we have training courses with lifetime access) and onto their cloud based systems. It also explains that one benefit to the company is the ongoing monthly revenue stream as opposed to many of their customers who only upgrade their software when they really need to.
MYOB is created on a Microsoft programming platform
The other major reason for the changes in MYOB AccountRight version 2012 is that it, and all their other products, have been re-written from the ground up using a whole new programming language in Dot Net (Microsoft .NET framework). We wrote a controversial blog post about how accounts are recommending some of their customers not to upgrade their MYOB software and some information on their website reveals that MYOB themselves are not recommending the upgrade under certain circumstances, in particular:
[quote] If you use M-Powered services, or other third party add-ons, we recommend waiting until we’ve finished developing these features before upgrading. [/quote]
Benefits of MYOB Training Course lifetime access
Either way, we are upgrading our training materials and keeping our old training material available for those students who want access to both versions. We promote lifetime access for our MYOB training courses and all students on this enrolment plan will have access to the new MYOB AccountRight version 2012 courses for free.
Stay tuned as we keep you up-to-date on our progress. The 45 new videos for our MYOB AccountRight version 2012 course have now been recorded and are uploading to our training video server as we speak. When they are live at the training site we’ll issue another blog post.
You can find out more about the upgrades that MYOB AccountRight version 2012 software is going through by visiting this link at the MYOB website.
Our MYOB Training Courses are available through our partner network of accountants, business development and career services companies across Australia and one of our partners is exhibiting at the Reinvent your career expo this weekend.
Many of our students learn to use MYOB accounting software so that they can
Find work in the accounts department of a company,
Become more valuable to their current employer, or
Start their own bookkeeping business.
When you look at this list you realise that learning = change and change usually provides new opportunities and advancement. Workface are a team of career experts and I will be at the stand to demonstrate how the company can help you and your friends become more valuable in your career by becoming a bookkeeper.
Workface have a professional business development consultant who provides training tools and support for those students who want to start a bookkeeping business so make sure you pop into the expo this weekend and come and say hi.
It’s in Sydney so I don’t expect out-of-towners to make a trip to Sydney for it, but if you are Sydney-based and want to participate in our open meetings to build a community of bookkeepers please come and talk to me.
***
Want to start a business from home?
I’ve had the pleasure of working with many interesting and intelligent people and since operating my first physical training centre in Dee Why in 1999 I’ve found it very rewarding to help people learn new skills so that they can find a job. We now do a lot of online training and I’m even more excited when we can help people start, promote and manage their own business – particularly if students are doing it for the first time. If you are interested in exploring ways of starting a business from home and working as an independent contractor see the business opportunities available.
A good percentage of the students who complete our MYOB training courses want to start their own business. Getting into any new venture can be daunting if you have never been in business before and if that’s you a bookkeeping franchise might be the way to go. There are many aspects to Small Business Management and they include:
how that business works,
how to get and maintain customers,
how to provide great customer service
how great customer service will bring new customers
ensure you do a consistently great job, and
manage your finances well
The key aspects to consider when looking at a bookkeeping franchise are the costs. When we ran our training courses in Dee Why (Sydney) there were many business owners in surrounding shops and I recall speaking to one franchised business owner who said that he chose the wrong location and his overheads were killing him. This highlights the most important gripe that most people have about a franchise; “what am I paying for?”
Franchise regulations
Franchising is regulated now which means that bookkeeping franchise operators like all others, now need to disclose more information about existing franchisees. StartupSmart recently wrote about the harsh franchising reality check that a couple went through in South Australia and it’s an interesting read if you want to explore a bookkeeping franchise further. The article quotes Phil Blain, Co-author of The Franchisee’s Guide:
[quote]Thanks to recent legislative changes franchisees are now able to access critical details in the disclosure document like full details of existing franchisees and also people who have left the system.[/quote]
What are you paying for with a bookkeeping franchise?
If the franchise you are researching charges you a percentage of sales it’s good to know exactly how they are going to get you new customers and justify this payment. It’s also important to know that if you buy into a franchise you will have to sell your business to someone who also wants to buy into that franchise. Sometimes the franchiser can have a sale in who buys your business.
The other popular alternative is to go it alone and start your own bookkeeping business by yourself. If you are in this category you will have to spend more time at the beginning choosing your logo and other branding aspects of a small business. You also won’t have the leverage in advertising that a larger company can offer.
MYOB Training Courses
If you are looking for work as an MYOB Bookkeeper and have contemplated buying a bookkeeping franchise feel free to ask questions and share your story at our Facebook page. We have teamed up with Workface to help not only our MYOB Training Course students, but any bookkeepers find work or new customers if they operate their own bookkeeping business. If you are looking for work as an MYOB Bookkeeper feel free to register at their site.
I was recently speaking with the owner of an electrical business who wanted to know if we have a student who completed our MYOB Bookkeeping Courses in his area. His area is Dulwich Hill and he was interested in speaking with MYOB Bookkeepers within the area of Strathfield, Marrickville, Newtown, Ashfield, Burwood, Sydney and Drummoyne, which prompted me to realise that we might be able to help you, our students find work in other ways.
You may have read my previous blog post about our students looking to start a bookkeeping business. When we discover the needs of our bookkeeping students we discuss them in our weekly management meetings to find out what we can do to help. After hearing a great concept from a business coach we put some wheels into motion and we are now accepting submissions from anyone who wants to start their own bookkeeping business and get more clients.
Looking for bookkeeping jobs or clients?
Since going completely online with our MYOB Training Courses in 2007 we have helped students become a MYOB Bookkeeper in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Perth Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns plus hundreds of local suburbs in between. With the help of Workface.com.au we are compiling a register of MYOB Bookkeepers so please feel free to register at their site.
You’ll notice that their application form allows you to clearly identify the areas of bookkeeping where you are very confident so they can help you locate the most appropriate employer or client. This is not just for those looking to start a bookkeeping business, but also for any students looking to find work in the accounts department of a company.
Anyone can register for bookkeeping work
The great news is that you don’t have to be an EzyLearn student to register and it doesn’t matter what qualifications you have. Remember that different levels of bookkeeper are required by different companies and there might be a company looking for someone just like YOU.
I recently wrote about our MYOB Training students and how many of them want to start a bookkeeping business so I thought we would go through some of the costs involved.
Remember that these are the startup costs and you may incur more marketing costs as your business grows. Starting a bookkeeping business, like most other businesses, takes a little extra time, effort and money initially. You need to spend money on advertising so you get to speak to as many prospective clients as possible.
The more prospects (or leads) you speak to, the more you understand what bookkeeping clients want and also what you are able to help them with – and what you can’t or don’t want to.
Sometimes we write at this blog about software and internet tools that can help small business manage their affairs better and today I’ve come across a great service that emails you automatically if your website is down. And it’s free, or at least donation based. If you are enrolled into our WordPress Training Course you’ll know what to do with this information.
Who’s responsible when your website is down?
I’ve written before about the occasion when a colleagues WordPress website was hacked and how devastating it was to their business. When this happens the first place most people turn to is their website designer, but designers usually just make sure your website contains all the information to help you sell your services. The next place to turn is your website host, but they just make sure that you have somewhere to put your website. So who’s responsibility is it?
Steps to take when your WordPress website is down
When your website is down it is up to you to know what to do to ensure it is back online and here’s three tips:
Use a service like Solidalert to notify you by email if your website is not live
Ensure you have at least 7 days worth of incremental backup organised with your hosting provider
Safe Harbours only became relevant to bookkeepers since changes in the law made it mandatory for anyone lodging a BAS to be a registered BAS agent. These changes then resulted in registered Bookkeepers needing Professional Indemnity Insurance and qualifications that demonstrated a thorough understanding of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Safe Harbours ATO PS LA 2006/2
CPD for Bookkeepers and Tax Law
When I explored this practice statement I realised that it was outdated. The ATO Practice Statement was outdated because of the outcome of a court/tribunal case (see below).
ATO PS LA 2012/5
I don’t know about you, but if I have some spare time and I’m in the mood for researching, I find it fascinating to discover how the law works, how and why decisions are made and how it affects people in that industry. CPD for Bookkeepers gives you the benefit of keeping up-to-date with your bookkeeping skills.
If you are enrolled in our MYOB Training Courses you get free membership to the Bookkeeping Academy (CPD for Bookkeepers) where I will introduce you to bookkeeping industry professionals who will help you understand more about the industry, the laws that govern the industry and tools you can use.
If you or your BAS agent take care in making a tax return or statement you will not incur a penalty if you have understated your tax liability or overstated your entitlements. This is part of the safe harbour definition by the Australian Tax Office and it highlights a significant change in the legal framework for completing BAS returns.
The safe harbour only applies to statements made on or after 1st March 2010 and it affects who is responsible for tax information lodged with the ATO.
It’s a question of who is responsible for tax information lodged with the ATO, you or your bookkeeper/BAS agent?
Below is a quote from the ATO’s website that puts it in their words:
[quote]For statements made by a tax agent up to and including 28 February 2010, you are liable for any administrative penalty for the making of the false or misleading statement. It is not relevant if you made the mistake, your registered agent or a mix of both.[/quote]
[quote]Legislators may include safe-harbor provisions to protect legitimate or excusable violations, or to incentivize the adoption of desirable practices.[/quote]
Does it apply to you?
Safe Harbours apply to you if:
You want to be a bookkeeper and lodge BAS’s for your customers and/or
You are a business that uses a bookkeeper.
Legislation came into place on 1st July 2011 whereby BAS agents must have professional indemnity (PI) insurance to protect their clients in case of negligence.
If you are contemplating our MYOB Training Courses to start a career as an MYOB bookkeeper speak to us about the qualifications required to gain admission to the Tax Practitioners Board.
I WAS LOOKING in my top draw and noticed some receipts, bundled by the month, with a bull clip holding them together. Do you know someone who also stores their receipts in a shoebox?
I have, of course, now entered them into our MYOB accounting software. However, it begs the question: How many business people do you know who still store their receipts and other paperwork with way?
The most interesting change in the employment market that I have noticed is the slow evolution from job seekers looking at job ads to employers searching for the best employees. Social media tools like Linkedin make this all possible.
Attracting the right people
If you are a business owner you have a website to attract customers. You combine great writing and interesting pictures to attract potential customers to your website and then contact details and an offer to ensure they make contact with you. LinkedIn is the same concept for individuals, you combine the right keywords and headings to attract people to your LinkedIn profile. Once people are attracted to your profile you can let them know that you are interested in a job, contracting work or other opportunities.
Find Bookkeeping work or customers
If you are completing our MYOB Training Courses you might want to consider joining LinkedIn if you are not already a member. If you are a member and want to get better results this concise ebook about LinkedIn has some excellent information that will help you get more results from your current LinkedIn profile.
I wrote a blog post about getting paid on time back in late June 2012 and thought I would share some information that might help if your customers are not paying according to your MYOB Payment Terms.
If you are not already aware, MYOB enables you to set payment terms at three levels:
System wide default
Customer (or supplier) card level
Transaction (ie. Invoice) level
Debtor Control and Credit Risk
Setting up MYOB Payment Terms enables you to maintain tight control of your credit risk. When the MYOB Payment terms are set-up correctly you can run reports that show exactly how much money is owed to you and how old it is. The age of the debt is referred to as the Aging Period and it’s commonly 30, 60 or 90 days. We teach these MYOB skills in our MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions course.
Direct Debit Facilities
If you work in or own a business that provides ongoing services and charges a monthly fee then a direct debit facility is something you should definitely look into. Direct Debit services are traditionally offered by the major banks like St George Bank, but there are also some small and nimble companies that help you get paid on time and here are a couple of them:
When you decide to use these services you would create another “bank account” in your chart of accounts and keep track of the money that goes into these accounts, the fees they charge and then the money that comes out and into your main bank account. It’s very similar to setting up a Paypal account for your company, the Paypal account becomes another bank account in your MYOB file that needs to be reconciled.
I hope these tips help to reduce your debt collection woes and make for happier, healthier bookkeeping.
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Xero is a great bookkeeping program for tradies who are on the go and using their phones (or a tablet) all the time. From receipts scanning to creating quotes and invoices, receiving payments and keeping track of project costs.
bookkeepercourse.com.au/produ…
Have you pondered the benefits of a lifetime student access to our MYOB courses? Here is the best answer we can think of – our newest MYOB course is the MYOB Setup course for version 2012, and all students will have access to this course for no extra charge*.
