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Steve training Excel and MYOB in December

If you are located in Sydney and want to attend an MYOB Day to Day Transactions course or Beginners Microsoft Excel 2007 before the festive season begins, you are in luck. Steve, who has created most of the EzyLearn content for computer software training is the trainer for the upcoming Excel and MYOB courses at Chatswood training centre Maxis Solutions.

Steve will use his humour and years of education experience to make the the learning of these software programs as simple and as quick as possible.

The one day courses are usually held on a Wednesday and you can enrol online using their secure and automatic enrolment service. Click the link below to enrol:

www.ezylearn.com.au/schedule

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MYOB Payroll – Employee Payment transaction video

The EzyLearn offer to MYOB students is simple. One price for access to all training resources (videos, workbooks and knowledge reviews) in a 12 month period including new updates. The MYOB Payroll course is part of www.myobcourse.com.au and it’s now ready for paying students to enrol. Included in this blog post is the 4th of 5 videos in part 1 of the course launched today.

This part of the course takes you through the sample company data file to highlight and explain how to navigate around and get information about employees, wages and other payroll categories, pay slips (Pay advices), pay cheques and other transaction information relating to Payroll.

If you are not already enrolled into the course you can choose the

  1. Full Access enrolment (no certificate), or
  2. Full Access enrolment (including assessment and certificate)

Enrol today!

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Earn money with phone bill analysis and Microsoft Excel

phone bill analysis example 2 - virion
phone bill analysis example - virion
phone bill analysis example - virion

One of the benefits of a spreadsheet is you can use a reasonably complicated spreadsheet over and over. One person goes to the effort of creating a spreadsheet and millions of people could potentially use that spreadsheet for a similar purpose.

The people at virion business grade voip have put a spreadsheet together to make it easier for them to perform price comparisons for their customers. The virion prices are fixed into the spreadsheet so all you need to do is enter in information about the costs on your phone bill and hey presto, phone bill analysis showing potential savings.

virion operates a distributed business model using “cloud based” software to manage and promote their business. Cloud computing is where your software operates over the internet, just like your banking and email applications like Hotmail and Gmail. Even powerful companies like MYOB are facing competition from cloud based solutions which are smaller, nimbler and more in tune with early adopters of new technology.

As part of the virion distributed business model they are seeking the help of remote contractors who are interested in earning money performing price comparisons for people they know as well as from leads provided by the company.

If you are interested in performing these tasks and earning money while working from home register as a remote contractor for further details as they come to hand.

If you want to take a look at the Microsoft Excel file that virion voip use for the phone bill analysis, please see the attachment to this blog post. Call Cost Comparison Spreadsheet v5 – RC

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Google saves you 2-5 seconds with Instant Search

The innovator in searching through millions of web pages to find the most relevant yesterday introduced Google Instant, a way of providing you with results before you’ve even finished typing. In other words Google has a pretty good idea what most people want to find when they start typing and reveals the results as you type. Great for slow typers this new feature will give you relevant results right there on your screen.

We are pretty proud of our search engine placement for online MYOB course so please feel free to do a search using the new Google Instant and see our website appear on the first page of search results.

I tried using the search and it was fascinating watching the search results change so quickly. When I tried it a second time it just worked like the normal Search results. Go and visit the Google Instant Search page or read Google’s announcement on their blog to learn more.

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What do you think? hmmm?

Social media is the craze these days. Web 2.0, interactive, personal and relevant are terms used to describe what you are looking for in your internet experience. We are interested in knowing what you think about our content and at the same time we want you to share your thoughts with others so we’re trialling a social commenting feature at the end of each post and we’d love to hear from you.

EzyLearn is trying a new service where you can comment on, recommend and share our training material with your network of friends or colleagues. You can see at the bottom of this post, under the Subscribe box, that you can log in using any choice of social networking services and make a comment about this or any other blog post.

Please let us know what you think about our blog posts, videos and training material.

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What is a Remote Contractor or Virtual Assistant (VA)?

Software as a Service (in the Cloud)

woman using mobile to find job in payroll, accounts receivable or administrationWITH THE ADVENT of fast speed broadband internet, software programs that operate “in the cloud” and telecommunications that use your internet connection, there’s no wonder the Remote Contractor market is growing.

In the Cloud explained

What is in the cloud, you ask? Well, it’s just like Hotmail or Facebook or your internet banking; secure services that you use on the Internet from anywhere in the world.

It’s easy to access and you don’t need to bring your computer with you if you don’t want to. Even programs like MYOB are moving to the cloud with their online product called Live Accounts. It’s also an interesting time for these companies because new and nimble competitors have an opportunity to grab a market share; take Xero online accounting (New Zealand company) for example.

There are online customer databases like SalesForce which companies use to keep track of their customers and Skype that allow personal users to make calls to other Skype users for free. These services enable you to work from where ever you are and enable employers to validate that you have logged in and performed the desired work so opportunities are coming thick and fast for home workers.

Remote Contractors and Virtual Assistants (VA)

Remote worker, home-based employment, virtual assistants and even Mumpreneurs (working mums and parents starting their own businesses) are some of the terms used to describe this type of work. Some of the work available is paid hourly pay or payment for specific tasks. Of course, it’s an ideal situation for working parents who need to earn an income while caring for babies and young children. But it’s also fairly in demand.

Courses built around employment outcomes

If you’re going to invest time and money in study and upskilling, it’s a given that you want to earn more money as a result, whether that be locally or in your home office. Our online training courses are designed with job outcomes in mind — our cloud accounting software courses in MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks are designed by professionals working in the industry so they know what the requirements are.

Our training courses include real life examples mirroring the everyday occurrences of real world businesses, and its becoming increasingly common for businesses to outsource work tasks to contractors working from home (think bookkeeping, telemarketing, graphic design, social media, content marketing and sales work).

What you study in our courses follows the logical flow of the how everyday businesses are run. Bookkeepers are as in demand as ever, and our courses are designed to help you set yourself up as a bookkeeper, working in an accounting practise, for yourself, or for someone else’s business.

If you’re considering a local position as a receptionist, or in administration or clerical or you enjoy bookkeeping work and want to find a job in accounts payable & receivable and payroll, we have courses for all skills levels from beginners’ to advanced.

Find out more about how we will help you earn more money

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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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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.