Posted on March 2, 2012February 28, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

Can MYOB repay it’s debts with its head in the clouds?

We wrote back in early 2010 about what appeared to be a revolutionary move at the time about MYOB founder Craig Winkler jumping ship and moving to Xero. In the recent bad press about the bug-ridden upgrade of MYOB AccountRight 2011 there is an interesting mention about Cloud Based accounting and MYOB’s goals to get into that space.

In the past 12 months we have worked with as well as provided training for many virtual assistants (remote contractors) and we’ve come into contact with other cloud-based accounting/bookkeeping services you might like to know about. Our pick of the bunch would have to be SAASU at this stage because they have a product that is perfect for remote contractors or micro businesses.

It appears that Xero and SAASU own the online accounting market space but it will be interesting to see how MYOB go as they diversify into cloud accounting as well as their many other products like website hosting, which we’ve never really understood when there are market leaders like MelbourneIT and NetRegistry as well as thousands of small providers.

While we’re on the topic of cloud, here’s a little plug for virion business grade voip. Our trainers have compiled an Excel spreadsheet to demonstrate the cost savings of VoIP over traditional telephony and this year we will have some training for IT Consultants about the Siemens Gigaset office phones.

Posted on March 1, 2012February 28, 2012 by Steve Slisar

Is it better to repay your debts or prepay with discounts?

The recent bad news about MYOB AccountRight 2011 demonstrates the risks involved when you borrow money for any venture (MYOB have a $575M loan that they need to repay). The money needs to be paid back and luckily you can use MYOB software to keep track of what is owed to you. It also brings up the question of rather than having a debt to repay can you pre sell what you do (at a large discount)?

We are asked many questions in our MYOB online training course support service we call “EzyLearn ANSWERS” and one of the recent questions was “what is the best way of keeping track of Prepayments”. We took the question to our Registered BAS Agent and MYOB Tutor as well as our Microsoft Excel Expert and we’ve come up with two scenarios, one using MYOB and one using Microsoft Excel.

What is the best solution?

You could use MYOB to handle pre-payments, or you could use it as a simple track of the lump sum payment you’ve received into your bank account and use Excel to enter the day to day information about how and when that prepayment is used.

We’ve created an Excel “Handy file” for you and we’ve putting the finishing touches on the workbook that explains how to do it using both Excel and MYOB so stay tuned to this blog or subscribe to receive these blog posts via email as they are published.

Need something created in Excel? Enrol into the online Microsoft Excel course and use EzyLearn ANSWERS to put it to our Excel guru.

Posted on February 29, 2012February 28, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 3 Comments

Accountants now refusing to recommend MYOB

As part of our commitment to create new training content every quarter for our online MYOB training course we’ve added some addendums to the bank reconciliation and payroll courses in line with the latest version of MYOB AccountRight Plus available. Many Accountants however are not recommending that their clients make the upgrade.

We received some complaints from students about issues they experienced with the MYOB Bank Reconciliation and Payroll Intro courses and as a result our Registered BAS Agent and MYOB Tutor, Jacci, went through the course and wrote some notes to help students come up with the correct results.

Just as we suspected after speaking with bookkeepers and accountants it appears there are major flaws with the current version of the software and it’s affecting the revenue of MYOB Professional Partners and Consultants (who are being encouraged not to share the information).

It’s times like these that we are all tested as trainers, installation consultants, bookkeepers etc to be confident that we are doing our best to use the software to provide the information that we need. It’s also a good time to understand the benefits of having alternative ways of working with your data (ie. using a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel) to perform calculations for PAYG and Superannuation.

Posted on February 28, 2012November 13, 2018 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

Will Your Smart Phone Become Your Future Computer?

MANY OF US are already using our smartphones in ways that overlap with our PCs and laptops.

For instance, when we looked at Google Analytics to see our blog readership stats, we found that a good number of you are reading this on your smart phones.

Smart phones have so permeated our lives and become so powerful that it’s little wonder they could become much more.

There’s talk about smartphones becoming your electronic wallet (or at least your credit card). Then there’s Ubuntu, a company that make software that helps your “Android” smartphone become a computer. Of course, right now many of us already use “the cloud” to communicate, write letters and much more.

We spend a lot of time looking at new technology and thought you would be interested in this cutting edge technology.

Apple or Android?

Although the Apple iPhone is the market leader that everyone talks about, some of our team members, including myself, use an Android-based phone. I find this preferable as it’s easy and has live integration with Google Apps (ie. gmail).

The great thing about companies that manufacture Android-based smartphones is that they are building in HDMI, USB and other great connectivity features that enable this type of technology.

It’s a beautiful example of convergence in technology.

Are you making the most of the Cloud?

Xero accounting software can enable you to price work from the road and do your business bookkeeping from anywhere 24/7 — or help you get an accounts job. Find out more about Xero Accounting for Invoicing and Accounts Receivable by accessing our FREE Xero workbook

Just visit our new Online Training Course Catalogue website and get the Xero Training Course Workbook for free instantly.

Posted on February 23, 2012February 21, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

Are you a mum returning to work? Receive an instant discount coupon!

Our online training courses help people gain new skills and keep job seekers up-to-date with software so they are confident in job interviews. They also provide skills to create their own resumes.

Our training includes

website design and blogging using WordPress,
office administration using Microsoft Office and
bookkeeping using MYOB

We believe we have the best solution for online training in Australia but we always want to be certain by understanding what students want in an online training course.

Features like training videos, knowledge reviews, LIFETIME course access, Tutor Support and Student Community enable students to immerse themselves in the training and make it less stressful. After all, who does a course because they enjoy it? We all know that structured learning is something we do because we have to if we want to get ahead!

Complete the Training Course Needs Assessment and receive an instant discount for one of our online training courses. Tell us what you are looking for and be rewarded. You can forward the reward to someone else if you don’t need it now.

Posted on February 21, 2012February 21, 2012 by Steve Slisar

Do you pay yourself but don’t use the Payroll feature of MYOB?

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about general course information. Today we’re announcing a new exercise file that is included in our Microsoft Excel Course 308 (which covers Macros) as well as the MYOB Payroll Course.

If you are a small business owner and you only have yourself or a handful of employees you might come across the dilemma about how to keep a record of payments you’ve made to yourself so that you can pay the correct amount of PAYG, Super etc. If your business is only small you may decide not to purchase and use the full MYOB AccountRight Plus version of MYOB accounting software and opt to keep Payroll records separately or in an Excel spreadsheet.

In a previous post we mentioned that one of our course content creators was working on a spreadsheet to help with PAYG and Super calculations for BAS reporting. Well it’s now ready (AND there’s more to come).

The Excel spreadsheet we have created enables you to enter the total amount that you have paid to an employee (or yourself) and calculates the PAYG and Superannuation that is payable for that amount (you can adjust the superannuation rate). All you have to do now is enter the payment into MYOB and your compliance is assured.

This file is handy if you pay yourself irregularly or differing amounts as you need it. Using this PAYG spreadsheet you simply enter the total amount you’ve paid yourself (or an employee) over the quarter and it finds how much you need to pay in PAYG and Super.

This excel file uses the VLOOKUP command in Microsoft Excel and the tax tables for weekly pay at the ATO website. If you are an existing student you’ll find the exercise file in the Excel 308 course (under the heading Handy Files). This course covers 3D formulas, CHOOSE, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, MATCH and INDEX, nested functions and how to protect worksheets.

Did you know that when you enrol into the EzyLearn online Microsoft Excel course that all levels are included for the one price? This also includes access to new content as it is created and you have lifetime access.

Posted on February 16, 2012February 16, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

What do you want in a training course?

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn blog to learn more about what you are looking for in a training course, particularly if you have not done a course with us before. As a thank you for sharing your opinions with us you’ll receive a discount coupon for one of our courses and updates about special offers.

We’ve assembled a simple Course Needs Assessment to understand what you are looking for. With online training courses and support for MYOB bookkeeping software, WordPress website design and blogging software and Microsoft Office, we cover a wide range of topics.

Our courses are for:

Job seekers,
Those already in a job and
People seeking skills to operate their own business

Each category of student has slightly different needs and we want to make sure we are catering for your training needs.

Complete this brief questionnaire to join the “specials” list and receive a discount coupon code for one of our online courses.

Posted on February 15, 2012February 15, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

Is your WordPress website secure?

This is a general announcement to anyone with a WordPress website. We have a WordPress Webmasters course to help small business owners setup their own website or blog and also to help individuals learn about WordPress so that they can earn a living creating websites, blogging and participating in social media.

You may recall that this EzyLearn Blog was actually affected by a WordPress Malware attack back in mid November 2011. It’s a known fact that there are occasional vulnerabilities in all sorts of software and that includes online software (they call them scripts rather than programs), like WordPress.

The recent issue with WordPress was caused by the TimThumb.php script for inserting, cropping, editing images etc and rather than go into the details here are some links that you’ll find interesting.

Trend Micro wrote a blog about it
The WordPress Plugin Market now has Vulnerability Scanner that you can install onto your website to identify the risk and provides a resolution.
There is a website that you can use to scan any website to see if it contains malware or other risks.

Why are we writing this post? Because it highlights the importance of using a theme club or theme maker that constantly updates the themes they create.

We recommend ElegantThemes and Woothemes and they both wrote articles about the vulnerability when it was discovered and provided updated themes with the risk removed.

See the articles from ElegantThemes and WooThemes.

If you want to learn more about our WordPress online Training Course contents, pricing etc please visit our WordPress Course website: www.wordpresscourse.com.au.

Posted on February 13, 2012February 10, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 1 Comment

Statement of formulas for calculating PAYG amounts to be withheld

The MYOB Payroll Training Course is in stage two of development. The contents of our existing Payroll course give students an introduction to how to navigate around and get fundamental information about the payroll environment in the sample company file. As part of our constant improvement process we are developing payroll scenarios as exercises for our students. This new content when published will be available for all existing Payroll Students and all those who have enrolled with the LIFETIME training course Access option.

Which table to use?

The ATO release papers that provide you with the information you need to perform your calculations regarding PAYG, super etc. In this blog post we look at Schedule 1 Pay as you go (PAYG) withholding NAT 1004. If you take a look at table 7 on page (see diagram on this page) you’ll see the variables or what the Australian Tax Office call coefficients.

New Spreadsheet for Excel and MYOB students

One of our content creators is in the process of creating an Excel spreadsheet as a simple tool to help you work out how much PAYG tax and super you owe at the end of quarterly BAS reporting period. It’s a tool that we will offer both Microsoft Excel and MYOB Training Course students when it’s ready. And no, before you think of asking, it won’t cost you any extra money to receive it. It’s available as part of our LIFETIME student access.

Posted on February 9, 2012February 7, 2012 by Steve Slisar

Hello to New Zealanders

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about who uses our online MYOB training courses. We received an email from a New Zealand student and we have had many New Zealanders enrol into our MYOB Training Courses.

MYOB is an international business that started humbly many years ago in Australia but sold recently to a private equity firm, valuing the business at over $1 Billion dollars. You can see from a recent Bloomberg article that the value of MYOB has grown significantly in recent years.

MYOB, Craig Winkler, Xero and Online Accounting

While we are on the topic of big business and who’s buying what, you might be very interested to know that MYOB founder Craig Winkler closed his account with the company he started in back in 1987, to become a major shareholder in New Zealand publicly listed online accounting company and rival called Xero.

Online accounting appears to be the domain of online workers like website developers and we have had very little demand for MYOB Live Accounts (online accounting competitor to Xero) so as yet we don’t cover MYOB Live Accounts. We wrote an article about cloud based software and it’s importance in the rise of remote contractors (Virtual Assistants) back in August 2010 so feel free to learn a bit more about cloud based software services.

We can help New Zealanders

Until then, we just wanted to say that if you are from New Zealand and you want to learn about MYOB accounting software, we can help you. I also want to add that if you are an existing EzyLearn student and you want to highlight some of the difference between the Australian training videos and the New Zealand version of the software, send us an email to sales@ezylearn.com.au, we’ll get Jacci (our resident BAS Agent) to write something up and include it in our course.

To see the full list of topics included in our online MYOB training course visit our website and REMEMBER, we offer all our MYOB Courses (including updated and new content) for one price AND you receive LIFETIME access.

Posted on February 7, 2012April 3, 2012 by Steve Slisar — 2 Comments

Having problems with bank reconciliations using MYOB AccountRight Plus version 2011?

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about modifications to our MYOB online training course. We’ve received feedback in the MYOB Support area from students that elements of our MYOB Bank Reconciliation course are coming up with errors when they use the most recent version of the MYOB software.

One of the great aspects about coming across problems in a course is that it replicates the type of problems you’ll experience in the workplace or while managing your own business. Jacci, our resident BAS Agent has gone through the steps in the course and identified potential issues. She has written up a concise guide that is now included in the bank reconciliation course (#503) to help you balance the books using MYOB.

If you come across problems or issues please feel free to use the EzyLearn ANSWERS service we launched in May 2011. It is part of our growing support options for students. If you operate a small business and want to know something or if you come across an issue that is not covered by the training in our existing course let us know because EzyLearn courses are LIVE courses, they are growing every month with new content that you don’t have to pay extra to use.

Oh, before I leave you on this blog post I want to highlight our new student support option we launched last month – Tutor Support and Student Community – it’s a way to connect with other students and have direct contact with our professional tutors who have real life experience using the software in their daily business life.

Posted on February 6, 2012February 7, 2012 by Steve Slisar

How long will an online training course take?

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about general course information. Our online courses are completely self-paced so you can complete the online MYOB course in 7 days, 2 to 3 weeks or just use it as a resource.

It’s that time of the year when traditional training centres start their class-based training courses. When EzyLearn operated three physical training centres in Sydney we spent a lot of time scheduling which courses. We asked ourselves questions like

What day should the course start
Which course should be held on a Tuesday/Wednesday etc
Should we schedule it for the morning, all day, evening or Saturday
How many weeks should the course last
Which training room and centres should we hold the course,
Who will the trainer be
Is the trainer available

Office administration (Microsoft Word and Excel etc), MYOB (Bookkeeping software), Website Design (using WordPress) and Absolute Beginners courses have always been scheduled this way so people are used to talking about courses this way. One of the most common questions we get asked is “how long will it take?” and our first temptation is to say “How long do you want it to take”.

Our online MYOB training course includes 5 courses for the price you’d expect to pay for one course (It includes MYOB Setup, Day-to-Day Transactions, Reporting & BAS and MYOB Payroll Intro) and the contents of the course is what we used to cover in approximately 4 full time days of training.

Another great aspect about an online training course is you can use it for the rest of your working life without paying any extra (if you choose that enrolment option). So you can complete just the MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions course (# 502) and when you need it you can complete the Bank Reconciliation and BAS courses.

To enrol into our online MYOB training course click here.

In the forthcoming weeks we are going to write about

Using Microsoft Excel to enter Payroll information and then enter that information into MYOB
Differences between MYOB AccountRight version 2011 and previous versions
New content for the MYOB Payroll Course

We’ll also introduce you to Jerry Lame. He’s the new Ordinary Man. Follow Jerry’s journey of starting a business, writing business plans, creating a budget and forecasts and then implementing it. You’ll learn how to use software for practical purposes along the way.

If you don’t want to miss out on this information, make sure you subscribe to our blog using the form below:

Posted on January 17, 2012January 17, 2012 by Steve Slisar

Have you seen the latest version of MYOB software

We sometimes release information at the EzyLearn BLOG that relates to information that will benefit our students. If you are a student and you download the free trial version of the software you will be downloading the latest version.

Back on November 17th 2011 MYOB launched their MYOB AccountRight Plus version 2011 product.

We’ve recently recorded some training videos about MYOB Reports for GST Collected and Paid and where GST is located in source documents like invoices. We’ve then gone on to show you how to update your BAS Info in MYOB and use the BASlink feature that collects your GST information and quickly and easily gives you the information you need for your Business Activity Statement (BAS). This information is covered in our MYOB Reporting and BAS course (code 504). If you are familiar with EzyLearn you’ll know that this course is included with all the others MYOB courses for the one price and LIFETIME membership.

The navigation around MYOB AccountRight Plus version 2011 is very similar to earlier versions (although MYOB has updated the icons they use). We’ve downloaded and recorded a quick video to show you what it looks like. If you are receiving this blog post via email, click on the heading to see the video below.

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Steve Slisar

MYOB Training Course and Support – Reporting Course updated (BASlink added)

Sometimes we use the EzyLearn Blog to inform readers about new course content or updates to existing training tutorials. We have created new content for the MYOB Reporting Course and more specifically how to complete your BAS using the BASlink in MYOB.

If you are an existing student you’ll know that you have access to this new content for no extra charge.

We downloaded the latest version of MYOB AccountRight Plus to perform these tasks and you’ll be thrilled to know that the navigation of the program (apart from where the Sample company file is stored) is VERY similar. The icons and images are slightly different, but navigation is the same.

Stay tuned for the next free MYOB Training Video about this newest version of MYOB Accounting software. The next step after performing a bank reconciliation (Course 503) is the Quarterly or Monthly BAS (Business Activity Statement).

Posted on December 28, 2011January 16, 2012 by Steve Slisar

We are OPEN now – enrol before school starts

WE are planning some exciting new content for our online MYOB training course, including new support features for students who want extra support. Remember, once you enrol into the EzyLearn online MYOB training course (with LIFETIME membership) you receive access to all new and updated content for no extra cost. Now is an excellent time to enrol.

Now is the perfect time to start a course because most people are on holidays and you have time to think, study, learn and refocus your life strategies for 2012. If you do want to improve your bookkeeping skills and learn how to use MYOB accounting software you’ll be happy to know that we are open over the holiday period (except public holidays).

We hope you enjoyed your Christmas day (if you celebrated it) and wish you all the best for 2012. We sent a thank you out to you and our EzyLearn team, but we forgot to include Monique from Monstar Documents and Rosie Shilo from Virtually Yours. You have both been excellent to work with and we are thrilled at the benefits we have provide some of your members with our Online WordPress training course. Now, more and more virtual assistants and home workers are able to earn an income while working from home.

Here’s to a successful 2012 to you!

Posted on December 23, 2011December 23, 2011 by Steve Slisar — 3 Comments

It’s time to thank YOU

It’s only days before Christmas 2011 and from all of us at EzyLearn HQ we want to thank you for watching our training videos, using our training worbooks and completing our knowledge reviews, reading our blog posts and telling your friends about us. I personally also want to thank the core EzyLearn team for enabling us to grow and provide a great online training solution for thousands of Australian’s and international students.

Thank you Frankie, Yvette, Richard, Jacci, Ross, Amy, Luke, Iroshini, Warren and Allison. Also a big thanks to Simon, Scott, Amy J, Faisal, Jennifer, Nicholas and Mathew. You have made a real difference to EzyLearn this year and to our students and the hard work you’ve done will reward students for years to come.

This year has been one of our best years because we made a commitment to be the best online training company for

MYOB accounting software and bookkeeping
Microsoft Excel & Microsoft Word, and
WordPress website Content management system and blogging platform.

Other training companies spend their time and energy trying to provide hundreds of courses with the aim of trying to get anyone they can. We decided to focus on our core skills and give everything we could. We also tried to make our online training courses affordable and inclusive so you don’t have to worry about your availability or skill level.

Here are some highlights during the year:

Creating a WordPress blog post

Social media has gripped us all this year and if you are a business that didn’t know about websites, blogging, Facebook pages and Twitter you were considered lost. We’ve used WordPress to create our own websites for years and this year we introduced the WordPress Training Course.

You might find it interesting that we were writing blog posts about WordPress back in 2007 and even earlier, but this year we expanded our content significantly and included Google Analytics, Feedburner and other skills in it.

LIFETIME student membership

In January 2011 we introduced lifetime access to our online MYOB Training Course. This gave students access to all courses (Setup, Day-to-Day, Bank Reconciliation, Payroll Introduction) and it also provided them with a safety net and a resource when they are in the workplace. Rather than say thank you and goodbye once our students have completed their online course we welcome students to come back as often as they need.

A significant benefit to this offer is that students get access to all new content that has been created for the course or updated content for the existing material. An excellent example of this is our online Microsoft Excel course. We have training material since 1999 on Excel version 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2010 and as we create new content for Office 365, existing students will have access to the new material for no extra charge.

Welcoming Entrepreneurs as Business Partners

Our Business Partner program has enabled other dedicated professionals to use and promote our training material as part of their own business activities. This has enabled us to focus on the delivery of training materials and management of a learning platform while other business owners earn money by their promotional and sales activities.

We are 100% dedicated to this program going into 2012 so if you are interested please ensure you make contact with us.

Testing your MYOB knowledge and skills

Online training is still relatively new for many prospective students so we introduce the concept of knowledge reviews and skills tests to demonstrate how they are a learning tool as well as a testing tool.

We created a significant volume of new tests and quizzes as part of our online training courses this year and as a demonstration of their efficacy we introduced a free public MYOB skills test to see how much you knew about MYOB. It was also a great way for students to discover a new way of learning something online.

Partnering with Bookkeeping Industry groups

A significant number of our online training students complete their training to perform bookkeeping tasks as an employee or as an independent contractor. To demonstrate our commitment to “would-be” MYOB Bookkeepers and provide you with reputable accredited MYOB courses we became an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. EzyLearn is also a member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development, the Australian Web Industry Association and the International Coaching Federation.

We join these associations to support the online training and coaching industries, demonstrate our commitment to professional industry ready courses and keep abreast of all new training techniques and technology.

More than just an online training course

Support is an important aspect of online learning and it is also a source of significant costs for organisations like EzyLearn. In balancing the costs of maintaining our current team members will the benefits of some rudimentary customisation of our courses we introduced EzyLearn Q&A. With a separate Q&A service for Microsoft Excel, WordPress and MYOB.

We’ve subsequently called this service EzyLearn ANSWERS. It’s a way of providing new training materials based on questions from our students. Students ask questions relating to their needs and our software specialists create a short answer to lead students to a solution. We use this service to increase the breadth of topics covered in our courses.

More team members to serve your needs

This year we added 8 new team members to help create new training content, manage our online learning site, answer questions and provide support. Most importantly it has helped us significantly reduce the time it takes between when you complete your course and when you receive your certificate.

You’ll meet more of these team members during 2012 and we hope to bring more people into EzyLearn to support your learning needs.

Faster loading videos and better online learning tools

We listened to the feedback from our students to improve as much as possible and to complement the addition of new team members we significant upgraded our video hosting capacity to ensure faster and easier viewing and navigation of our online training video tutorials.

This technology update enabled students with new devices like iPads and other Apple products to view our training videos and participate in mobile elearning regardless of their chosen devices.

Training for office administration for small businesses

This year we formed a partnership with virion business grade VoIP to provide online training tools for their installation partners. As part of this project we included some new training materials to help office admin staff not only configure their new VoIP telephone systems, but we also provided spreadsheets for them to use as part of their phone bill analysis reports for customers to demonstrate how much money they could saving using Voice over IP.

We started looking at VoIP solutions for our own business in 2008 when we tried out the features of MyNetFone. In our constant search for better technology and support people we discovered the VoIP solution dedicated to small businesses, virion.

In 2012 we will strengthen this relationship by providing more in-depth training videos and tutorials. Our commitment to online training is focused on providing students with the tools they need to be efficient and productive in small business across Australia as well as provide these small businesses with the tools they need to operate great businesses.

Conclusion

If you think we have made a lot of improvements in 2011, just wait until you see what we have planned for 2012. We will:

create more training content for our MYOB course and WordPress / Webmasters course
implement more services to help support your online learning
help you find more customers (for small business owners using your website and Google adwords, Analytics and SEO)
provide more tools to help you find a job (for job seekers by helping you write better resumes, perform better at interviews and be more confident in your work)

Thanks again for reading and following our progress we want to demonstrate your successes in our 2012 blogs posts.

All the best from the EzyLearn Team.

Sincerely,

Steve Slisar