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VoIP Phone System from Virion

broadband speed test for voip phone system
is your internet fast enough for a voip phone system

We’ve updated our telephone system to the latest in Cisco IP phones and want to share the information with you because we think it’s ground breaking. We use our Broadband Internet connection to make and receive all our calls and that throws out the window the old concept of paying Telstra almost $40 per month just to have a telephone number. I was only just explaining to a friend today how the VoIP phone system from virion works and I’ll try to explain it again in this blog post.

Your Broadband Internet connection delivers the voice to your phones and takes it away to the people you call so this link is critical in the quality of your voip phone system. The best way of testing the quality of your broadband internet connection to run a speed test and see how fast your upload speeds are. Yes, I did say upload speeds. Most people want fast download speeds to download videos, emails and attachments, but with a voip phone system you need to have a broadband connection with good upload speeds.

In this diagram the upload speed is 0.81Mb/s (810Kbps) and the best quality VoIP phone system requires 87.2Kbps, so,theoretically 10 people in your office could be having phone conversations with your VoIP phone system using your broadband internet. But what if someone is sending an email with a huge attachment? I’ll keep you up-to-date with our VoIP experience as we use it.

If you want to test a business grade VoIP phone system and VoIP service take advantage of virion’s Instant Trial.

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How to convert a document or spreadsheet into a PDF file

If you are receiving this post as an email, click on the heading to go to our blog site and see the video that comes with it.

The benefits of a PDF file are:

  • most computers in the world will open it,
  • it maintains the look and feel of anything you can view on the screen and
  • it stops people from editing your files

Adobe Systems Incorporated are the owners of the PDF (Portable Document Format) standard and they have traditionally made money by making the viewer program available for free, but charging for the program which actually creates the PDF files. This is common with many other programs like Flash (for website animations) where you can download a player to view them, but you have to buy the software if you want to create them.

There are a number of applications available which allow you to easily convert any file you can print into a PDF. These files don’t necessarily have the full functionality that is available with the Adobe Acrobat “creator” software but many people don’t need these features.

The program we have found is CutePDF and the video attached to this post (click here or on the title if you are viewing this as an email) shows you how to download the program, install it and use it to convert files to PDF. Please feel free to send us some comments if you know of a better product or want to share your experiences.

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The admin area of a cartoon WordPress website

Cartooning can be a fun exercise, but it’s also a powerful way to get an idea or message across as Steve, Director of EzyLearn, discovered. “Cartooning involves picking the parts of a scene that stand out the most and exaggerating or highlighting it, sometimes it can be flattering sometimes uncomfortable” says Steve after completing a cartooning course with Gray Hopgood. “There is a surprising amount to understand and with practice I’ve started to see the results of these new found skills” says Steve.

The Cartooning College has provided cartooning courses for kids, adults and specialised markets who have used the courses to enable disadvantaged people express themselves creatively. They have created a new website built on the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) and Steve has produced some instructional videos about how to administer a WordPress site using the newly created website for the Cartooning College. Their website is www.cartooningcollege.com.au.

“I realised the power of cartoons back in 1992 when I had a british cartoonist called Johnjo draw a caricature of my face in my logo. It became an icon in Sydney’s Northern Beaches (with the aid of much newspaper advertising over the years)” confirms Steve.

The initial video of this course is included in this post so click on the title to go to our blog and watch the video to understand about creating and managing posts using WordPress. If you want to have your own WordPress website and learn the skills in a practical example take advantage of our 123ezy Webmasters course:.

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The right heading can bring people to you

The right heading on a flyer or a document will let you know immediately if that information on that page is “relevant” to you. It’s no different with a website. When you do a search in Google you decide in second which of the search results to go to depending on what they write in their title and description. Click the link in this blog post title to watch our video on Search Engine Optimisation.

EzyLearn offers the 123ezy website builder as part of a website hosting package and it makes it so simple to add (and change) words to the heading and description of each page within your website. Visit the 123ezy website for more information or take a look at a website that he been created using the SiteBuilder to see how it works.

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Blind man and smart trainer help people learn

Most blog posts we write at this website provide information about the computer training tools we develop, but this post is dedicated to two people that we have worked with and love for what they do for the people around them. Both of these people work in the education and training market and come highly recommended to anyone seeking their services.

Ross Miller is blind and has been for much of his life. He’s intelligent and dedicated and travels around Sydney and Australia helping people who are injured at work gain the skills they need to perform and find new jobs. It is an inspiration to work with Ross because despite his seeing disability he is pro-active in every aspect of helping find his clients work. His website is http://www.careerprofiles.com.au/.

The lady that we’d like to thank is Barbara Smith from Roving Trainer. Barbara worked at our first training centre that opened in Dee Why in the year 2000 and helped build a professionalreputation for a very small business at the time. Coming from a corporate training background, Barbara added a level of professionalism that all her students enjoyed and empathy that ensured her students learnt. Barbara is now training people in sunny Port Macquarie so please look her up if you need help in that area.

There are plenty of other people that we’d like to thank and you’ll hear about their story in the coming months. If you have had a success story using EzyLearn training courses or a someone who recommended us, please make a comment or send us an email.

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Upgrading the MYOB data file for MYOB AccountRight Plus 19

You can’t have your old data file in the location where you’d like to put it. In AccountRight Plus 19 (the upgarde for MYOB Accounting Plus v18.5) the folder where all the files are stored is located at C:\Plus19.

The Training_Company exercise file used in our MYOB Bank Reconciliation course (#503) uses a datafile created in MYOB Accounting Plus v18 so it needs to be upgraded if you have downloaded the latest version. You can upgrade the file using the special program (found under the start menu) or by simply trying to open the file using the program.

This video takes you through the upgrade process. Click Here to see the elearning website, scroll to the bottom and you’ll see the topics covered in MYOB Bank Reconciliation 503. If you wish to enrol into the course you can enrol at the website mentioned above of visit our online ordering site for online courses by clicking here.

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Downloading the MYOB Training Company data file

There is an exercise file used in our 503 – MYOB Bank Reconciliation course called Training_Company.MYO. This file is accessible via this link if you are a student: http://myobcourse.com/elearning/mod/resource/view.php?id=562. This file contains a nice simple collection of data and after you have completed the step-by-step exercises the bank reconciliation process is nice and simple.

We’ve used Google’s new Internet Browser called Google Chrome (which is very fast compared to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer), to show you how to access this datafile and get it onto your computer. This data file was created using MYOB Accounting Plus version 18 so if you are using a more recent version of the software you’ll need to upgrade the datafile using the upgrade assistant.

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Navigate your way around MYOBCourse.com.au

I recently started a topic in a finance course I am doing with Kaplan Professional to discover that this tertiary qualification I am studying is done completely online. That means watching powerpoint slides with audio, reading a workbook and having access to an online forum if I have questions. Even the assignment task is submitted online and results received via the online learning portal.

My first thought was how interesting that a well reputed education institution stops having lectures altogether and I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t have an opportunity to meet my fellow students and share stories and ask questions. After using the learning tools however I have come to the conclusion that the tools themselves are very useful and it re-affirmed our online training goals here at EzyLearn to become the number one source of online training in Australia for employment and productivity for small to medium businesses.

We have received help requests of how to get around our online learning websites so the video in this post is designed to give you a quick demonstration.

The production of the next MYOB course (MYOB Payroll) is underway and you’ll get a change to see these videos for free if you are a subscriber to this blog. This video is a small taste of the many more to come. Please feel free to comment or share this blog post with your friends. To visit the online MYOB course website, click here.

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All MYOB courses now sold separately

The people who want to use MYOB on a day to day basis don’t necessarily want to learn how to set it up from scratch or customise MYOB forms. This task is commonly performed by a bookkeeper or accountant and perhaps in the case of a micro business (or a sub contractor) by the business owner themselves. To accommodate the specific needs for business owners and employees alike, EzyLearn has changed the enrolment options for its online MYOB courses.

Late in May 2010 we introduced an Installment Payment option using PayPal for students who wanted to learn how to use the program but didn’t require a certificate, which reduced the cost considerably. Now you can enrol in each of the individual courses separately and for an amount that is very affordable.

It’s coming close to end of financial year and this is the best time for small business owners to learn how to use and eventually implement MYOB as their accounting software. It’s the best time to do the MYOB Setup Course that provides you with the software skills to create a new company from scratch and set it up for daily use. Click here to visit the online elearning website and see the outline of topics included in the course. This link also provides you with a Pay Now option to get started straight away.

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Free MYOB Training Workbook

We’ve just completed our new and simple MYOB Day-to-Day workbook and I like you to have it for free. It is a significant step towards simple workbooks with big images and simple exercises and I’m so confident you’ll learn just by going through the workbook. If you do like it, please tell your friend or anyone else who needs to learn and feel free to pass it onto them. I’d also love to hear your feedback and especially stories about how your new found skills helped you get a job or some work as an independent contractor.

There are references in the workbook to the videos at our online MYOB training course so if you prefer to watch someone teaching you how to use the software as well as have a workbook with exercises, make sure you visit our online learning website.

Enter your details in the form below and you will receive the free MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions workbook (course number 502) AND enrolment passwords to access free training in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

We’ll also let you know about  new training materials and special offers like this one, but don’t worry about SPAM because the newsletter is fully anti-SPAM compliant and you can automatically opt-out instantly. Plus, we only send a message once or two a year. We figure if you like the workbook, you might also want to do the course, be assessed and receive a certificate.

See what topics are included in the free MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions training workbook?

Updated FREE MYOB Course

The FREE MYOB Training Course Samples are now available at the MYOB short course enrolment catalogue. Get your FREE MYOB Training Here.

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Three MYOB courses for $29 per month for 4 months

Full access to myobcourse.com.au for 12 months is now available at the reduced price of $116 (paid off over 4 months). This is made possible by the new Installment Payment feature available on PayPal and you don’t need to have a PayPal account, you can use your credit card (even though PayPal make this process a little confusing to find).

The pricing has changed because we realised that not everyone wants a certificate at the end of their course, they simply want the skills on how to use MYOB on a day to day basis. Rather than simply give every attendee of the MYOB course a certificate just because they paid their enrolment fee EzyLearn students perform a bank reconciliation (and all the entries to make that possible) and email their datafile for assessment. This process of handling the datafile is time consuming and requires an experienced user to assess whether the tasks were performed correctly.

Our new pricing and installment plan is designed to make our course more accessible to a wider range of potential students who might not have the means to pay for it all up front. Visit the website www.myobcourse.com.au/elearning and look for the enrolment links at the right side of the website.

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Half price online course in Microsoft Excel and MYOB with this voucher

With the changes that we’re making to our website it’s no surprise you can enrol into the Excel or MYOB online courses for 50% off (half price). We are upgrading our website using a fantastic community blog system call WordPress and if you receive this information via email, then you probably already know it. As a result we are able to combine many of our diverse services under one location and that includes the ability for you to purchase our online courses at discounted prices using discount vouchers.

Discount vouchers are simply a string of numbers that you enter into our shopping system to reveal a discount we are making this offer available to you until the end of this month. The discount voucher code that is available to you between today and 30th May is 888, and it entitles you to half price off our MYOB or Microsoft Excel courses. If you want to take advantage of the discount, go to our online training enrolment page and purchase an online course. Where you see the screen below, enter your code (888) and click update to see the new discounted price.

discount coupon for online training courses in Excel and MYOB
discount coupon for online training courses in Excel and MYOB

You might also be aware that we started a new opportunity for anyone to make promoting our online courses via a method called Affiliate Marketing. This enables you to promote a special code via facebook, email, twitter or anywhere that you can tell people about us, and if your friend enrols into a course after following your special link, you get $30! This system is managed by a completely independent company called clixgalore and if you’d like to learn more, visit our affiliate program page for MYOBcourse.com.au.

Stay tuned in the forthcoming weeks for information about ways that you can work from home using your computer skills as a remote contractor.

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New (updated) MYOB training course workbook

It’s ready! The workbook for the MYOB 502 (day to day transactions) training course is now ready. This workbook now has a better flow from navigating around the MYOB screen, creating inventory items, purchasing products from suppliers, setting inventory item properties, paying bills, creating quotes, orders and invoices to receiving payments and making bank deposits.

This workbook has larger screen shots, better practice tasks and references to our online training videos. You can even use the workbook by itself to learn how to use MYOB accounting software.

The workbook is now available in the contents section of the MYOB 502 course. If you are enrolled into the course, you can simply click this link to see the workbook: http://myobcourse.com/elearning/mod/resource/view.php?id=303

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Live Help available for Online MYOB Course

Learning online is now even better with Live Help. Now, if you are enrolled into www.myobcourse.com.au and working your way through exercises in the workbooks you can access live help.

Accessing Live Help is simple:

  1. Locate the live help screen,
  2. Click where it says “type here”,
  3. Type your question and press Enter.

Our online support will see your message and reply with an answer to help you with your workbook inquiry. “Learning a new program is hard enough, but live help relieves some of the frustration” says Steve Slisar, EzyLearn Managing Director.

Live help is also available for pre sales enquiries, so feel free to use it now before you start your course and see how helpful it is for yourself.

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Using Google Adwords – Step 1 – choose a budget

The Google Adwords market is constantly changing depending on who is bidding for the keywords you want, how they are bidding and how much they have to spend. Keeping this in mind you will have to make some simple decisions before you can get started.

I sat down with a business owner today and she wanted to bid for every keyword she could think of, everything relating to her field of business, but the problem with that is that you are then competing with everyone else for a whole lot of words. We ended up choosing fewer words and decided to spend more to get people to our website using those keywords. If website visitors who come to your website from a Google Adwords advertisement and stay and explore your site Google will recognise your site as a good result for its searches and this will end up elevating your position in the “relevancy based” search results. That should be a significant goal, but I am now just digressing.

So, the business owner agreed that she was going to spend $1200 per month. The next step is to figure out which services she is going to promote and she gave me a list of 15 different services,which we then categorised into 4 main categories… Phew. We then looked at the relative weighting for each category of her business to decide how much they will receive of the $1200 per month and it came to a relatively simple 25% split each or $300 each category (division) per month. These were good figures because that comes down to $10 per day and that is how you can limit the amount of money you spend on Google Adwords…. by setting a daily limit.

The next step is a little more time consuming and involves choosing the right keywords and keyphrases to use for each category of the business. Once you’ve discovered this you choose how much you are willing to pay per click… hence the term Pay-Per-Click (or PPC) advertising (adwords.google.com). You may not get this part right the first time, but you will soon realise that you can pay for anything from 9c to over $20 per click to be on the first page. The more generic and popular the keyword the higher the price, the more words you combine together (keyphrase) the fewer people will be promoting it so the price will be lower. I’ll cover this in another blog post.

UPDATE:

Learn about alternatives like using relevant keywords in a blog for your business to make your website more valuable and ensure it becomes a trusted resource for customers.

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MYOB training courses scheduled for Chatswood and Burwood

workbooks and videos for MYOB training coursesAnnouncing: EzyLearn and Maxis Solutions (RTO 91428) have just released the training schedule for courses in MYOB Accounting for Day to day transactions in both Chatswood and Burwood. These courses are scheduled conveniently during school hours of 9.30am to 3.30 so that mums can attend and get full value out of their day.

These courses cover the Sales, Purchases, Inventory and an introduction to the Banking modules of MYOB Accounting. If you don’t have the software there is a link to the freely downloadable Test Drive software that you can use to practise what you learn on your home or office computer.

The Topics in more detail are:

Creating quotes, orders and then invoices in the sales system, changing item information and credit terms “on the fly” while you are creating an invoice. Understand the different invoice formats, including time billing, how to create and delete text headings and more.

Finding historical transactions is a major part of accounting software. In this course you’ll learn about the Sales Register, Sales Journal, To Do list, Accounts Receivable and Payable reports and Custom lists, plus an introduction to Statements so that you can supply your clients with a summary of funds owing to you. You also learn about the two main type of statement so you can choose the one that suits your needs.

This course also includes recording cash sales, entering credits, settling credits, how to deal with bad debts, deleting sales payments, and reversing credits.

Payments: You’ll learn how to enter invoice and purchase payments including part payments and over payments.

Purchases: You’ll learn how to keep track of your purchases whether you pay for them straight away or receive an account. You will also learn how to create a purchase order, converting it to a bill, creating an item credit, settling and reversing credits, and analysing purchases.

Banking: If you make purchase or income transactions that have nothing to do with the sales or purchases modules, then you’ll learn how to make these entries using the banking module.

There is an early bird rate so visit the ordering site and book early to save money.

We closed our last training centre in 2006 and have taught thousands of students how to use MYOB accounting software since then because we offer

  1. All courses for one price,
  2. Training on various versions of the software,
  3. Training videos combined with knowledge review questions,
  4. MYOB Course Workbooks that act as an MYOB bookkeeping induction
  5. We’re accredited by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
  6. We offer a money back guarantee.

Discover more reasons to choose EzyLearn for your MYOB Training Courses.