Category: xero training

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Linking a Financial Forecast with Xero and Excel

Excel Will Help You Work Out the HOW of Depreciation

learn excel online training courseWe recently updated our advanced Microsoft Excel Training Course content. It now contains a case study, by way of an extra exercise workbook, using a granny flat building project to create a financial forecast.

We chose a granny flat building project for our case study because it’s an investment decision quite a lot of people with or without a business have made. It’s also a capital asset that can be depreciated over time. Therefore it has the potential to affect your taxes in lots of different ways.

Our Excel Training Course, with its granny flat financial-forecast case study, will teach you how to use Excel to create a financial forecast, which you can then replicate for your own investment — whatever that may be.

Your bookkeeper uses Excel to calculate depreciation

When you build a new structure, such as a granny flat, which you intend to rent out or use for businesses purposes — i.e., it’s an investment and not for your own personal use — the building can be depreciated along with some of the fittings and finishes (floorings, curtains, paint, etc). That’s despite the value of the land upon which the granny flat is constructed increasing in value over time.

Once you’ve set up your financial forecasting file in Excel using the correct formulas that will update as the investment progresses, you’ll be able to track all of the future costs, income and depreciation in that spreadsheet.

Input depreciation into Xero

Excel will calculate the depreciation amounts for you, which you should then enter into Xero. We cover how to deal with depreciation in our Xero Bank Reconciliation Course, because lots of businesses own, or will own, a capital asset at some point.

However, this doesn’t tell you how to determine the depreciation amounts, which most business owners have to get their bookkeeper to work out for them. Most bookkeepers work this out in Excel based on the depreciation rates provided by the ATO. However, if you have already created a financial forecast in Excel, you won’t need to get your bookkeeper to do this for you.

Individuals can claim depreciation too

Even if you’re not a business owner, but you’ve still built a granny flat that you intend to rent out, you can claim depreciation in your tax returns. Instead of entering the depreciation into Xero, you’d include it on your annual tax return, so it’s really important that you work this out in Excel first and regularly update it.

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Once you know how to use Excel for financial forecasting, you can use the same formulas and modelling for any financial forecast — be it for a granny flat project, business investment, anything that requires you to make a financial decision. Visit our website for more information on our advanced Microsoft Excel Training Course, with its new granny flats case study.

Do you want to brush up your Xero skills? Or perhaps you use MYOB but want to get a handle on Xero? Check out our suite of Xero training courses — all available for one low price. 

Online bookkeeping accounting training courses for CPD points

EzyLearn Excel, MYOB and Xero online training courses count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeepers and accountants. We’ve been an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers ever since the organisation started in Australia. Find out how CPD points can be of benefit to you.

 

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Which Transactions Affect Balance Sheets?

Avoid Any Nasty Surprises: Balance Sheets Matter!

EzyLearn Xero Balance SheetA business’s balance sheet is a snapshot of its financial position at a particular period of time, which is not to be confused with a profit and loss (P&L) statement. Unlike a P&L, which just shows whether the business is making a profit or loss during a given period, a balance sheet, will eventually, show nearly every activity that has occurred within a business.

However, there are some transactions that will show up immediately. You’ll learn how to run a balance sheet in our Xero Daily Reconciliations Training Course, but we wanted to show you the transactions to look out for and why.

profit and loss statement xero online training course
A balance sheet reveals the nitty gritty of your business’ transactions.

The purchase or sale of assets

When an asset, such as a car, is bought, it will reduce the cash account and increase the fixed-assets account. Both of these accounts are listed in the asset portion of the balance sheet, however, cash is part of the current assets section and fixed assets are part of the long-term assets section.

When an asset is sold, the way the cash is accounted for is a bit more difficult. Here, both the asset’s book value and any accumulated depreciation are removed from the books at the same time that the cash account is increased by the sales price. If the sales price does not equal the book value, the difference is accounted for as a gain or loss on the sale of equipment. This gain or loss is recorded on the P&L statement.

Purchases on credit

When a business purchases supplies or inventory on credit, the business will debit the asset account (supplies or inventory) and credit the accounts-payable account. Almost always, accounts payable are considered to be current liabilities and are shown at the top of the liabilities section of the balance sheet.

Debt and lease arrangements

When a business issues debt or enters into a leasing arrangement, a liability must be recorded in the long-term section of the company’s balance sheet. For example, if a company issues bonds for cash, the company would debit cash and credit bonds payable in the simplest bond-issuance scenarios.

Capital-lease transactions affect the balance sheet in a similar manner. When entering a capital-lease arrangement, the business will debit a fixed-asset account to show that the company has taken economic possession of the leased asset. At the same time, the business will credit a capital-lease obligation account to show the offsetting economic liability.

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For a balance sheet to be correct, you must code each transaction correctly in your accounting software. Our Xero Daily Reconciliations Training Course covers balance sheets, and much, much more. Why not enrol today?

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Online bookkeeping accounting training courses for CPD points

EzyLearn Excel, MYOB and Xero online training courses count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeepers and accountants. We’ve been an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers ever since the organisation started in Australia. Find out how CPD points can be of benefit to you.

 

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Basic Bookkeeping Reports in Xero: Profit and Loss

Learn How to Run a P&L Using Xero

Profit and Loss statement
Profit and loss statements should be run by businesses regularly and are required by law.

A basic, yet vitally important, report for every business owner is a profit and loss (P&L) statement. A profit and loss statement, as the name suggests, shows whether a business is running at a profit or a loss over a given period. We’ve written about why running multi-period P&Ls before in QuickBooks and MYOB is a good idea for businesses with inventory, but single period P&Ls are equally important for all businesses.

If you’re a bookkeeping newbie, a profit and loss statement, which sometimes goes by other names — income statements, earning statements, revenue statements, operating statements, statement of operations, or statement of financial performance — is a basic report you’ll learn to run in our Xero Daily Reconciliations Course. If you’re planning to work as a contract bookkeeper, you should get in the habit of running P&L statements for your clients regularly (if you’re a business owner, ask your bookkeeper to run them).

P&Ls are required by law

Depending on how a business is structured, it may be required by law to complete a P&L. A P&L shows how the revenue of the business is turned into net income by subtracting all expenses from income. They’re also useful for understanding a business’ net income, which helps with the decision making processes. A business will also need a P&L if they’re applying for a small business loan.

The contents of a P&L

profit and loss statements P&LsAlthough the process of running a P&L differ between accounting software packages, they usually all contain the same elements, depending only on the business itself. In the first section, the cost of sales is subtracted from the revenue, which highlights gross profit. The business’ operating expenses are then subtracted from the gross profit, which leaves the operating profit. Now, all of the non-operating revenues and expenses must be factored into account, after which the business’ profit or loss will be displayed.

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Because P&L statements are often used by a business’ owner to make financial decisions, to inform shareholders of the business’ performance, apply for a business loan, or as proof of income in the sale of a business, it’s important that you understand how to create one correctly. Our Xero Daily Reconciliations Training Course covers P&L statements, and much more. Visit our website to learn more or to enrol.

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online bookkeeping courses to earn cpd points

 

Did you know that EzyLearn Excel, MYOB and Xero online training courses count towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeepers and accountants?We’ve been an accredited training provider of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers ever since the organisation started in Australia. Find out how CPD points can be of benefit to you.

 

 

 

 

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Use DropBox to Store Your Tax Records Digitally

In a previous post I suggested it’s a good idea to create a digital filing system for your business receipts and tax records. Storing tax records digitally is not just a space saver — it’s also an efficient way to share information with your accountant and bookkeeper, especially if you’re working with a remote bookkeeper, as it’ll speed up the process.

Our Xero Bank Reconciliations and Journal Entries Course will also show you how to record these transactions in Xero. 

Continue reading Use DropBox to Store Your Tax Records Digitally
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How and What Kind of Receipts Do You Need to Keep?

Xero course online receipt keeping

Online Receipt Keeping is the Way to Go

A HUGE PART of reconciling your bank account involves coding business expenses or purchases. You then need to keep a record of those expenses in the event you’re ever audited.

Our Xero Bank Reconciliations and Journal Entries Course covers how to code an expense or purchase in Xero, and it’s important to also store your receipts and get them to your bookkeeper if they’re working remotely.

Many people have used Dropbox to capture images of receipts but there are even better ways. Continue reading How and What Kind of Receipts Do You Need to Keep?

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Performing Weekly Reconciliations in Xero

Why it Pays to do Regular Bank Reconciliations

bank reconciliations weekly
Doing regular weekly bank reconciliations will help avoid confusion or errors later on.

In our Xero Bank Reconciliations and Journal Entries Course, you’ll learn how to carry out each step in the reconciliation process, in particular how to set up bank feeds. Bank feeds are an important function that allows transactions on your linked bank account or credit card to automatically show up in Xero, so you (or your bookkeeper) don’t have to spend time entering the details from scratch.

Both contract bookkeepers working from home or employees working remotely or in the office can log in and perform bank recs using bank feed data. Continue reading Performing Weekly Reconciliations in Xero

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How Bank Feeds Save Time and Money

Making Light Work out of Bank Reconciliations

Xero bank feeds
Incorporating Xero bank feeds will save you time, money and stress.

Cloud accounting software’s greatest innovation was not putting the software in the cloud; it was introducing bank feeds. You’ll learn how to set up bank feeds in the latest version of Xero in our Xero Bank Reconciliations and Journal Entries course. For now however, we’re going to explain why you should — whether you’re a business owner doing your own bookkeeping or whether you’re a bookkeeper employed to do it for your clients — be using bank feeds.

Bank feeds in brief

A bank feed is an automatically created list of the transactions (spent and received) in your bank account that is imported into your Xero accounting software. For this to occur, you have to give Xero permission to access your account. Some people feel funny about this, but bank feeds have been around for so long now that, just like online shopping, there’s really nothing to worry about. I won’t go into how the technology works, but I will say that no one looks at your account data; you’re just allowing the free flow of information between your bank and Xero.

Direct bank feeds save time (and indirectly, money)

There was a time when you or your bookkeeper had to wait until your bank statement arrived before any transactions could be reconciled in your accounting software, usually at the end of the month. For businesses with a lot of transactions, either in the form of receivables or payables or both, reconciling a month’s worth is a finicky job that’s prone to errors.

With bank feeds, transactions will show up in your accounting software as soon as the payment leaves your account or credit card. If you (or your bookkeeper) get in the habit of reconciling your account on a daily, twice weekly or weekly basis, it makes it easier to accurately code each transaction because you’re only dealing with a few at a time. This results in fewer errors and fewer hours spent fixing them, and that saves money (read: time = money).

The Xero online courses we offer

Xero online training course bank feedsBank feeds are an important aspect of reconciling your (or your client’s) accounts. Our Xero Bank Reconciliations and Journal Entries Course covers setting up bank feeds, plus much much more. Alternatively, to take it back a step, you can learn about invoicing, credits and reporting in our Xero Day-to-Day Transactions Course.

Using an old version of Xero?

You might like to read this prior post we wrote explaining how you can add bank links on an older version of Xero or enrol for our Xero courses here.

 

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Announcement: Xero Bank Recs and Journal Entries

Bank Recs are a pain in the !@Accounts#$

Bank Statement for Bank Reconciliation Courses in MYOB, Quickbooks and XeroAlthough the daily data entry is a frustration for many business owners and manager, particularly if you are quoting, ordering and invoicing regularly, the bank reconciliation is the most frustrating for bookkeepers, BAS agents and accountants because they need to make sense of EVERY transaction and make sure it is accounted for correctly. Xero bank reconciliations are made easier with bank feeds and today we announce that this course is available as part of our All Xero Courses for 1 Price Offer!

Bank Statements Reveal Much

We base our bank reconciliation course development (for Xero and Quickbooks) on our MYOB Bank Reconciliation Course and I was reviewing the contents of this course a couple weeks ago.

The thought that stuck in my head the most was “Wouldn’t it be great to design my own bank statement! A bank statement that I would like to see for my business each month” but that is a topic for another “business development and goal setting type blog”.

The important thing for bookkeeping students is that this bank statement includes most of the transactions that you’ll come across each month including interest, capital purchases, loans etc that you’ll probably need to check and make sure they’re coded correctly.

Xero and all cloud accounting programs make bank reconciliation easier because they enable you to import bank feeds directly from your bank. This saves a lot of the typing involved in data entry but you still have to get the codes right.

Xero 513 Bank Reconciliation Course

Learn more about what is included in this course at our Xero Bank Reconciliation Course landing page. In this course we introduce a new “character” in our course design – Jerry. Jerry is an ordinary man who decides to go into business because he loves talking to and helping other people but he’s not that tech savvy (or accounting savvy) so he makes a lot of the mistakes that many other business people make when they are starting out for the first time.

If you are an existing student enrolled into our Xero Courses, just contact support and ask them to enrol you into the Xero 513 (Bank Recs) course – there’s not charge for you if you are within the 12 months course access period.

Stay tuned for more updates to our Xero and Quickbooks Training Courses.

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There is No Official Diploma in Xero

Nationally Recognised Courses in Quickbooks, MYOB and Xero Courses do NOT Exist

Federal Government Department of Education and Training myskills website check on RTOs and accredited coursesA lot of our enquiries regarding MYOB, Xero and Quickbooks courses are from students looking for a bookkeeping job or start a bookkeeping business so when they ask about accredited or certified courses in accounting programs its because they want a qualification or because of what they’ve read on training websites – some of them are very confusing. The biggest confusion that I’ve come across lately has been about a Diploma in Xero! it doesn’t exist.

The best place to find out the truth about Nationally accredited courses is at the official government websites: http://training.gov.au/Home/Tga and https://www.myskills.gov.au/ and if you do a search at either of these sites for Xero,MYOB or Quickbooks and you’ll find there are no results and the reason is simple – bookkeeping skills are the same regardless of which software program you use.

When the Department of Education & Training began the process of regulating the education industry last decade I explored the options of applying to turn EzyLearn into an RTO and decided against it because of the red tape and high compliance costs. I’ve since spoken to managers at some VERY large companies that initially decided to jump on the RTO bandwagon only to discover many years later that it was all a huge cost for very little benefit. This doesn’t mean that RTO’s are bad, it’s just that the business owner needs to go through an evaluation process to see if it is financially viable. Here’s some recent news about RTO’s that have experienced financial difficulty.

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

EzyLearn has Partnered with an RTO for Cert IV in Bookkeeping!

EzyLearn creates, delivers and supports short courses, often called night courses, in the popular accounting software programs for a low cost and with the flexibility of online delivery so you can start quickly anytime (no waiting for a course schedule) and then progress at your own pace. See our Cloud Accounting Courses here.

If you’re looking for a Nationally Accredited Bookkeeping Certificate then learn more about what’s included and the costs for a Cert IV in Bookkeeping.

Compliance Requirements for RTO’s

A great example of one very onerous compliance task for RTO’s is that they need to keep student records for 30 years, 30 years! That’s more onerous that the 7 long years a business needs to keep tax records for the ATO! If you are really interested, take a detailed read of Standard 3 the site that governs RTO’s in Australia, Australian Skills Quality Authority (scroll down just past half way).

ezylearn-MYOB-training-workbooksEzyLearn has always been a creator of training course content and we focus on keeping our content up to date, marketing it, delivering it via an LMS and supporting students – that includes delivering exceptional value for a low price and using as many learning tools as we can (workbooks, exercise files, training workbooks, knowledge reviews).

When students ask us whether we are accredited or whether our certificates are accredited we try to find out what is most important for them: to get software skills and experience or to get a nationally accredited certificate – there is a MASSIVE difference in price and I’ve written this blog to help you find the right course for your circumstances.

Nationally Accredited Courses and RTO’s

Here are a couple things that will help you find the right course and the right training company.

  • Only an RTO (Registered Training Organisation) is able to deliver nationally accredited courses and more specifically the assessments that deem whether you are Competent or Not Yet Competent.
  • RTO’s can only deliver Courses based on the subjects available from a Nationally Accredited Library of subjects

If you are thinking about doing a Nationally Accredited Course check out whether that training provider is listed at this site: http://training.gov.au/Search. While you are at it see if the course they advertise is also listed.

Diplomas are Available for Accounting: Check your RTO

Satisfaction and Labour marketing information for bookeeping jobs if you have a Cert IV in BookkeepingSee if you can find a Diploma in Xero, or MYOB or Quickbooks? The answer is no, because their isn’t one. What some training companies offer is a Cert IV in Bookkeeping or a Diploma in Accounting and they may focus on using Xero or MYOB or other software but if that is the case you should delve a little deeper into the RTO and see how good they really are. If you search the training.gov.au website you’ll be able to see all of the information about every RTO. The Investment Banking Institute in Melbourne is a highly regarded RTO for the provision of financial services and bookkeeping courses and when you visit their Official Organisation Details page you can see the courses on their “scope”, their contact details and if there are any restrictions on the training they deliver.

If you are really that interested in learning more about accreditation and accredited courses you should take a look at the Cert IV in Bookkeeping. There are 24 available courses but an RTO only needs to deliver 13, of which 6 are core units. That means that apart from the core subjects EVERY RTO is able to mix and match with 18 of the potential elective subjects. I’m not the best at statistics but this means there are LOTS of potential combinations of subjects that can make up a Cert IV in Bookkeeping.

See my conclusion and references for examples of the type of information a good RTO will make available about the student satisfaction (Quality Reporting Indicators).

Accreditation by the Software Company: MYOB, QuickBooks, Xero

Online bookkeeping cloud accounting services using MYOB, Quickbooks and XeroAnother type of accreditation are those offered by the software companies but let’s be honest, these services are revenue raising “partner” programs and the more “paying” partners a software company has the more money they earn and the more exposure to clients they have. I recall when MYOB was in it’s early days (and still called Data Tech) that the main requirements to become a partner where to do at least 3 installations – but there was not training or quality control beforehand, it was almost like you had to wing it and if you did 3 then you were rewarded with a partner status!

In those early days EzyLearn delivered MYOB courses and some of the students who came along shared experiences about “MYOB Certified Consultants” who just flew in, set everything up and then flew out leaving a mess that often they wouldn’t fix. These consultants made themselves appear like super heroes who could only possibly come for one day at a time (they were booked out for months of course and charged a fortune). The company’s accountant or accounting staff were usually left to clean up the mess and make everything right. Sure,things may have changed these days and the standards imposed by the software companies are much higher but to me this accreditation is one of the last places a bookkeeper should turn to – and the last accreditation an employer should look for.

The best accreditation in my mind is accreditation (or certification) by the industry and that’s normally delivered by not-for-profit associations that aim to increase the education and compliance of their members.

Accredited by the Industry

Accredited online MYOB training course and support institute of certified bookkeepersThere are several associations for bookkeepers who want to become Registered BAS Agents but the most progressive is the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers. This organisation came from the UK where they are still a leading member group, when the Australian Bookkeeping Industry began the process of regulation and they recognised the benefit of letting their partners use their logo to demonstrate their membership status.

We spend over $1000 pa on this membership but we do it because our students are then able to join the Institute as student members.

Conclusion

Firstly,I did NOT see myself writing all this.

Secondly if it’s important for you to receive a nationally accredited qualification do some basic research in the company delivering the courses and make sure they are an RTO and not just using words like Diploma in Xero to confuse you and finally check out the subjects that they include in their Cert IV, you may find one company’s Cert IV is better than another.

MYOB Training Courses with 30 Day money back guaranteeFinally, If you decide you just want to learn how to use the software using practical exercises and following step by step processes that are performed in most companies everyday then enrol into one of our EzyLearn courses. The Certificate we provide is a Certificate of Completion once all our Knowledge Reviews have been completed successfully and these knowledge reviews are at the end of each section of each course. In the MYOB course we have 5 courses.

The best guarantee I can offer is a 30 day money back guarantee. Happy Learning

 

Some other references you may find interesting:

 

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Running Your Business from Your Mobile Phone

Millennials Driving SmartPhone Usage

Can you send an invoice using sms text message from Quickbooks, Xero or MYOBI WAS TALKING to a tradesperson in his mid twenties and how he wants to start his own business.

The more we spoke, the more I realised that this bloke runs his life almost entirely from his mobile phone — and doesn’t have a computer or laptop!

After having spoken to a few tradies in the last 6 months, I realise that this is the case for many of them. In large part, it’s because the nature of their work is outdoors and requires them to focus on what they’re doing there and then on a work site.

What this guy is very good at doing is replying to SMS text messages and using Facebook Messenger. This made me think about how much of your business you can actually do with a smart phone and via text messaging.

(It also made me think about how much business we might all be doing via Facebook whether we like it or not, but that is a topic for another blog post!)

How do you use your SmartPhone?

I am an Android / Google person through and through because I like their open source model and low priced (OK, cheap) solutions. Way back in 2012 I wrote about how the smartphone could replace your computer.

What I didn’t realise at the time is that most people want to run their business while they are doing it — ON THE GO — rather than have to plug it into a big screen and keyboard when they got home or to the office.

If you are interested in ways of using your SmartPhone as your office computer check out these sites!

I use my smartphone for:

  • emails
  • texting
  • calendar scheduling
  • checking online support and chat activity
  • reading the news
  • checking website analytics
  • taking photographs
  • internet banking (using CBA Netbank)
  • a street directory
  • real estate property searches
  • research on any of the projects I’m working on
  • making and receiving phone calls.

The things I don’t do on my phone are:

  1. writing and publishing blog posts
  2. transferring funds using NAB (because their Internet banking is sad)
  3. accounts and bookkeeping (interesting, huh?)

Thoughts of what we do with our smartphones made me explore a little deeper into something very simple that I think most tradies would like to do — “Send invoices by SMS”

This is what I found out:

 

It seems like much of the functionality that people are starting to want is available as a paid extra. However, what doesn’t make sense is the fact that I can send an unlimited number of text messages as part of my mobile plan.

Can’t these modern accounting programs just take advantage of that feature?

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I’m very interested in hearing back if you have a real world experience where you’re using a smart phone to do something you would normally do from a desktop or laptop computer. Drop me a line at sales@ezylearn.com.au! I’d love to talk about you and your business in the blog.

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MYOB, Xero or QuickBooks: Which Suits Your Business Best?

Which is the Pick of the Bunch?

xero myob or quickbooks which is best
It’s a competitive accounting software market place out there … which is the pick of the bunch for you?

IN A PREVIOUS POST, we highlighted some of the biggest differences between QuickBooks and MYOB. 

However Xero is also a serious competitor to MYOB (and QuickBooks to a lesser degree).

So let’s take a look at the different capabilities of each accounting application and the kinds of businesses they best suit.

Continue reading MYOB, Xero or QuickBooks: Which Suits Your Business Best?

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Bad Payers Cost 12 Working Days to Collect $13,200

flowchart of the cash conversion cycle

Credit Management is an Extra Job

credit-management-training-assessment-management-and-enforcement

I’ve always believed that as soon as you offer credit you’ve got yourself another business – a credit management business.

When we first created our MYOB Daily Transactions course we designed it to take students through the cashflow process of where money goes when it first leaves your bank account and these are the main steps:

  1. Money in the bank (cash asset)
  2. Buy stock (inventory asset)
  3. Products sold on account (accounts receivable asset – Trade Debtors)
  4. Customer pays their account (cash asset)

The interesting part of this business process to me is the marketing (choosing the products, pricing, marketing message and advertising) and the credit management to get the money back.

Continue reading Bad Payers Cost 12 Working Days to Collect $13,200
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6 Questions You Can Ask to Find the Cheapest Bookkeeper

Questions can ‘weed out’ bookkeepers until you get your perfect fit

Job interview questions to hire a good quality cheap and local bookkeeper with MYOB or Xero experienceI have been reviewing the chat requests we receive via National Bookkeeping and it confirms my own thoughts about bookkeepers and the rates that businesses pay for good bookkeepers. These rates have a lot to do with overheads and qualifications — and often very little to do with experience. Allow me to explain.

Most of the daily transactions (see Daily Transactions Courses for MYOB and Xero) performed by bookkeepers involve data entry and coding. This data entry work is repetitive and once a new bookkeeper or accounts person understands the tasks, (which is often quite quickly) they can be performed over and over again with little variation except for client details and total hours worked (I’m assuming invoicing for services provided).

In the case of invoicing your contract bookkeeper could then provide reports and followup with clients to make sure your debtors management is sorted out.

The hardest thing for some small businesses is understanding how to weed out exactly the bookkeeper they need — and I hope these questions make your job easier. Remember, it’s often the answer that helps you find the right person.

checklist for job interview questions for bookkeepersThe questions you should be asking a prospective bookkeeper:

  1. How long have you been performing bookkeeping work?
  2. What type of bookkeeping tasks can you perform?
  3. Are you familiar with cloud accounting software and, if so, which ones?
  4. When are you available to do bookkeeping work?
  5. Where are you based?
  6. Do you have professional indemnity insurance?

I’m going to further break down these questions and show you the answers you should be looking for. Remember that our goal with this case study is to find the cheapest bookkeeper for daily transactions accounting.

1. Bookkeeping Experience

This was once the most important aspect of a bookkeeper’s resume for employers because it demonstrated that this particular candidate has experience that will benefit the business. If the bookkeeper you’re looking for has plenty of experience, then follow up with Question 3 regarding cloud-based functionality and whether they’ve used the latest versions of MYOB, Xero or Quickbooks.

2. Bookkeeping Tasks

This question is important because if someone is educated enough to complete and lodge your BAS, or even lodge your end of year financials, then they’ll want to be charging for the skills they have. You may as well get your accountant to do your bookkeeping if you are prepared to pay for someone with high skills education and experience. Many bookkeepers have plenty of experience doing accounts receivable and accounts payable and all of the steps in between so if it’s a cheap bookkeeper you want, then weed out the ones who can lodge your BAS for you. Read more about bookkeeping tasks.

3. Cloud Accounting Software

It’s important to know if your bookkeeper is familiar with accounting software that is accessible in the cloud because they may know some of the advanced features that comes with that — like integrations with other cloud-based services for project management, estimating, time billing etc. It may also come in handy because they’ll be able to work at home, or even from remote locations, and be more available at potentially lower cost (less travel time and cost).

4. Work Availability

Many bookkeepers will SAY that they’re available whenever you need them, but in reality they each have their own set of requirements and they may not want to say this right up front for fear of limiting their chances of getting your work. Some bookkeepers are mums (or dads) and they need to fit into school hours, while others are really looking for a full-time or part-time job. Some bookkeepers will be prepared to work at night and on the weekend (others may only work at these times) whilst some bookkeepers will only want to work during business hours.

We all need to manage the work-life balance that comes with leading a fulfilling life, and for some people, this includes working at night. Some bookkeepers want to spend time with their kids during the day and work when they have quiet time. Some bookkeepers work for multiple clients and can only fit you in one half day a week. It’s important to understand where your bookkeeper sits in this area.

5. Bookkeeper Location

This is a pretty big consideration, even in the modern times of cloud-based bookkeeping because your bookkeeper’s location can affect how busy they are or how long it will take them to get into your office to do their work. We’ve had some examples where some of our team members live miles from the nearest town; therefore to have to travel there takes time and considerable cost. If you have faith in remote contractors and are willing to work with a bookkeeper who works from home you may find you’ll get the most ideal bookkeeper and the best price — this is something I managed to do when I closed EzyLearn’s bricks and mortar training centres and instead went totally online!

6. Do you have Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance?

This one is a biggie because if the bookkeeper has PI Insurance they’ll also have the trappings that comes with it like:

  • Professional association membership
  • CPD / CPE point requirements
  • Basic Education Requirements to attain their Registration

If a bookkeeper has PI insurance you’re probably talking to a Registered BAS Agent, as bookkeepers who attain this level of bookkeeping do so because they want to perform one of the most important tasks they can for a business — lodge the BAS. A Registered BAS Agent is governed by the same government authority that governs Tax Accountants — the Tax Practitioners Board (TPD). Indeed, many businesses already have a tax agent or accountant who is responsible for lodging their BAS. Therefore, I’ve found the biggest reason BAS agents are popular is because you know you’ll receive an excellent job on the tricky aspects of GST and Payroll, PAYG, Superannuation etc without paying accounting rates.

request-quote-for-myob and xero bookkeeping servicesI hope these questions help you filter a great bookkeeper from all the enquiries that come for your job ads and remember if you’re interested in finding a cloud-based bookkeeper, feel free to browse the National Bookkeeping Directory or Request a Quote.

 

 

 

 

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Is MYOB really a CRM and which CRMs are best for people in sales?

CRM = Customer Relationship Management

THE PURPOSE OF HAVING a CRM is so that when you call one of your clients or prospects, you know everything about them and can start a conversation based on what they’re looking for — their needs.

This might seem a little strange when you think about it because you could be out of date with your info (say you’ve entered old information on this particular client) but, casting this quibble aside, CRM’s are generally a terrific way to provide excellent customer service, on a consistent basis, and this is often the competitive edge that will you need to stay in business. (I’ve written a little comparison of real estate agent CRM’s but I wanted to add a couple other ones to the mix for good measure.)

Accounting Software and CRMs

Cloud CRMs that integrate with MYOB AccountRight - online training coursesIn the early days, MYOB used every aspect of their software to sell itself to small business clients.

The fact that the software enabled business to keep contact details and search for past orders was a good reason to call the software a CRM.

However, times have moved on and even with powerful and well known CRM brands like Salesforce, there seems to be dozens of CRM providers to choose from, with prices ranging from $15 per month/ per seat to over $150! In fact if you head over to MYOB’s Add-On Centre you’ll find plenty of CRM’s that now integrate with their software.

We are now entering the integration phase of software development – which cloud-based services integrate with other services you’re using – and we wrote an article at the beginning of the year about a home appliances technician who uses accounting software integrations on his tablet to run an efficient and profitable little business.

Real Estate Agent CRM’s

best-real-estate-agent-crmsOne thing that has become apparent to our team lately (we’re working on social media marketing for real estate agents) is the difference in mindset between bookkeepers and real estate agents and if you think about it for a second it makes sense.

Bookkeepers are usually people who just want to get themselves into their work and sort out the financial and accounting details whereas real estate agents want to find big shiny things to sell and earn a commission based income.

It’s the classic back office versus front office personality style, the salesy and bold vs the unassuming and detailed office admin person.

The thing that real estate agents are looking for in a CRM are:

  • Quick and Easy contact detail collection (do it once and get all the data) – ideally at open homes
  • Automated categorisation of contact (Who’s keen and what are they looking for) – often defined by the type of property they enquire about
  • Constant messages pinging prospects with their brand (like weekly emails about their open homes this weekend)
  • Great reporting to see what works (so they can repeat it) – like how many emails sent, calls, open homes etc

The relationship with a real estate agent is often brief and very intense because property owners (vendors) will be speaking sometimes every day with their sales agent to see how the selling process is going. With property marketing campaigns in the capital cities like Sydney and Melbourne only lasting a couple weeks in some instances there is a massive amount of information to be collected yet the reporting needs to be simple.

My Preference for CRMs is Simple

zoho-crm and cloud based integrationAlthough I’ve had some exposure to Salesforce when I originally spoke to that company (many years ago and much has probably changed) they only offered yearly plans (but showed them as a low monthly fee) and the upfront cost was too high so I didn’t go down that path.

Instead I found some great nimble tech startups (at the time, now they’re quite a bit bigger) who offered software that did all the basics very well and offered normal cloud-based pricing ie. low monthly fees: Zoho CRM and HighRiseHQ

I found that these two programs did many useful things. They:

  • enabled me to integrate with our form collections (no need for double entry)
  • gave me the ability to very easily make comments every time I spoke with them
  • integrated with my email marketing software
  • enabled me to use tags to categorise and find contacts
  • offered a low monthly cost!

The Dark Horse in Real Estate CRM’s is CreataCRM

CreataCRM integrates with MYOB Cloud and is used by top performing McGrath real estate agentsI had the pleasure of meeting Reece, the managing director of CreataCRM, at Cebit 2016 and was amazed I’d never heard of this company before.

When I took a look at their software I was blown away – here is an Australian based software developer who has worked with some of the top performing McGrath real estate agents to build a complete and thorough cloud-based CRM with all the integrations you could ask for, including:

  • MYOB AccountRight (live and even the old v19)
  • Xero
  • VoIP telephony
  • Email broadcasting
  • Workflow Automation

The most amazing part about their software is that it costs just $11 per user per month! Now that is a lot of software and a VERY low price. I’m thrilled to be able to share this information with you because here is a company with a great product that focus more on their product development and software features and less on making themselves look big and flashy.

If you have had any experiences with CRM’s I’d love to hear from you and add further depth to our conversation and study into CRM’s.

Xero online training course

At EzyLearn we offer online training courses to help you up-skill and find employment. Choose from our range of cloud-based online accounting software courses, to business start up and management courses, to marketing and sales courses, or update and further your skills in a range of Microsoft Office programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Word) or social media and WordPress web design). 

 

 

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Bookkeepers need help with Xero ANSWERS

EzyLearn Answers for student support in online training courses in MYOB, Xero, Quickbooks online, Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and WordPress

Xero enrolments for bookkeeping businesses

EzyLearn Answers for student support in online training courses in MYOB, Xero, Quickbooks online, Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and WordPressDespite the fierce competition from MYOB to own the cloud-based accounting market, Xero cloud accounting software is powering along and many of our course enrolments have come from existing bookkeepers who are being directed towards Xero by their clients. We’ve priced our Xero course to be comparable with our MYOB course so it’s currently cheaper but we’re listening to our bookkeeping students to add course content that is relevant to their needs.

What xero bookkeepers want to know

Xero enables you to login from any computer via the internet so trades people, professional services providers and even retail and food outlets can access their accounting software from a tablet, Mac, Windows PC or even their smart phone so it’s little wonder that small business are moving to Xero in the cloud. It’s also proving popular because bank reconciliations can be performed from anywhere by Xero bookkeepers using bank feeds as opposed to printed bank statements.

Payroll is live and constantly updated AND the payroll function can be performed by experienced payroll bookkeepers no matter where they are located in Australia or around the world.

Xero Answers for Xero Bookkeepers

MYOB and Xero training courses created by certified bookkeepers and registered BAS agentsNot long after we began offering LIFETIME course access for our online MYOB courses back in 2011 we introduced a service called EzyLearn ANSWERS and we’re now extending that service to our Xero training courses. We’ve included our Xero course in the EzyLearn ANSWERS service because of the large number of bookkeepers asking questions about how to use the more advanced functionality, because we want to add more new content to the course and we want to add new content that is relevant to bookkeeping working with their small business clients.

The best news is that every Xero course student has access to this service and our bookkeeping course creator, Jacci, who is an assistant accountant and registered BAS agent is keen to see how she can help.

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Start Now and you’ll have until 2017 for MYOB, Xero, Excel, Word and WordPress

Corporate Training for Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Accounting and WordPress Courses

Online Training Course special offers for MYOB, Xero, Excel, Word and moreWith these software programs you can run most aspects of a business and we’re including them all in our new Corporate Training Business Software Training Licences for businesses with a team of people who all want to improve their software skills.

Our Business Software Training Licence enables up to 5 staff members have unlimited access to all training resources for all of our software training courses for 12 months for a low fixed cost. We also have discount prices for larger numbers of staff.

If you look at the total retail price for all of this it is well over $6,000 of value in online corporate training courses and at the current price you’ll only pay less than 25% of the price. That is a saving of over 75%!

Software corporate training course licences for discounted online coursesIn 2015 we experienced a significant increase in the number of corporate enrolments for our Microsoft Office courses and have created this package to make life easier for corporate who want to enrol their staff easier, while also taking advantage of the discounted prices.

Bookkeeping Course Combos and Enrolment Vouchers are also available

If you are looking to up-skill in a number of accounting software or office application programs you’ll also discover some discounted course combination offers for popular courses.

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