Category: Services

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What is Xero HQ?

Now you can do more with Xero

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Xero is adding to its list of features with Xero HQ so it’s no longer just for more basic bookkeeping, but can be used for analysis as well.

XERO HAS LONG POSTIONED ITSELF as the cloud accounting software for small-to-medium businesses. It’s one of the most popular of our online training courses; appealing not only to bookkeepers, but small to medium sized businesses in all industries.

What makes Xero so popular is that it is inexpensive software that’s simple to use and has lots of time-saving features.

In doing so, it’s basically left MYOB to hold the mantle of the accounting software used by accountants and bookkeepers.

Now, however, Xero is looking to close that gap, with the launch of “Xero HQ”; a data and insights platform for bookkeepers and accountants who are part of the Xero Partner Program.

Xero HQ wants to help you grow

To shake MYOB’s stranglehold on the accountant and bookkeeper market, Xero had to do something to differentiate itself and tempt accountants and bookkeepers away from MYOB.

And they’re betting that Xero HQ will be the thing that does it. Xero HQ will provide bookkeepers and accountants with data and insights tools so they can provide “advisory level” services to clients.

Xero’s focus on “advisory level” services is important here, because it reveals a couple of things Xero plans to do with the industry. The first is to continue to automate many of the tasks a bookkeeper would traditionally carry out — the introduction of bank feeds eliminated data entry, for instance — and the second is to up-skill junior bookkeepers, while simultaneously embedding them within the Xero ecosystem — which will fit nicely with their recently launched Xero Lifelong Learning platform.

What exactly is the Xero HQ platform?

If you’re part of the Xero Partner Program already, then access to the Xero HQ platform is free. The Xero HQ platform is essentially a separate workflow that you access online, which provides a number of features not available though your regular Xero software.

These Xero HQ features include the following:

  • Activity feed: When your clients’ GST or activity statements are due, a notification will appear in the activity feed to alert you.
  • Client list: This is essentially like a contact book, where you can store all your clients’ information in one place; even those clients who aren’t on Xero.
  • Explorer: This feature pulls data Xero knows about your clients to help you provide them with better advice, or help you up-skill in areas you know are important to them. For example: it will show you which apps are popular across all your clients, so you can learn how to use them.

Xero HQ app marketplace

The Xero HQ platform also has an app marketplace, which has a focus on apps that will help bookkeepers and accountants with their business. That’s different to the existing Xero app marketplace, which is geared towards small businesses in any industry.

The Xero HQ app marketplace is split up into three tiers, depending on the size of your bookkeeping or accounting practice.

Which Xero HQ app marketplace will suit you?

If you’ve 100 or fewer clients, then you’d be best suited to the “activate” package of apps especially “curated” by the Xero HQ team.

If you have between 100 and 200 clients, then you’re best suited to the “energise” package of apps; practices with 300 or more clients suit the “supercharge” package.

It’s up to you which apps you switch on, but Xero has eliminated the leg work involved in finding apps to suit your business needs.

Some common third party apps, recommended across all three Xero HQ app marketplace tiers include:

  • Futrli: A forecasting and reporting app designed to help control cash flow and accelerate growth. Technically, you can pull all these data out of Xero by running a number of different reports and exporting them into Excel, but this app does all that work for you, and just delivers the insights. Partner pricing starts at $399 per month.
  • Receipt Bank: Extracts relevant information from paper receipts and invoices, imports the data into Xero, categorises it, and stores both the data and receipt safely in the cloud. Your clients just snap a picture of the receipt using the Receipt Bank app on their smartphone or upload from their PC.
  • BOMA: Is a marketing and advertising platform that lets you export data from Xero and use it for your marketing and advertising campaigns. With BOMA you can create and broadcast marketing and advertising messages across five channels (email, Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter), including sponsored advertising posts on those platforms. It also provides you with all the imagery, templates and other design needs to create your campaigns. It’s basically a one- stop -shop for digital marketing and advertising. Partner pricing starts at $49 per month.  

Xero HQ is where accounting meets CRM

In essence, the Xero HQ platform is where accounting and customer relationship management meet. Xero provides bookkeepers and accountants with a platform that enables high-level analysis and data management through integrating third-party Xero HQ partner apps.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, Xero HQ serves dual purposes: it encourages bookkeepers to move away from providing basic bookkeeping services to deeper analysis and advisory roles; and they can use the Xero Lifelong Learning platform to up-skill and provide those services.

“Xero HQ serves dual purposes: it encourages bookkeepers to move away from providing basic bookkeeping services to deeper analysis and advisory roles…”

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Our Xero online training courses include EVERYTHING for ONE LOW PRICE. Furthermore, if you select our Lifetime Membership option, you’ll have LIFETIME access to our ongoing course updates. All EzyLearn courses are accredited by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) and can be counted towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. Find out more about our Xero online training courses.

 

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The Best Xero-Integrated Time Management Apps

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The best time management apps — without unnecessary bells and whistles

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There are a host of time management apps that are better than basic, but don’t have unnecessary features, and which integrate with Xero.

ALTHOUGH MANY CLOUD ACCOUNTING applications include basic time-tracking features, most businesses need something more robust.

Time management applications help your business understand how your time is spent, how much of it is billable, and whether projects are profitable — but without the additional task management tools of a platform like WorkflowMax.

Harvest is one of the best known and most popular time tracking Xero Integrations and we explore some others you can use.

Continue reading The Best Xero-Integrated Time Management Apps
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The Best Xero-Integrated Project Management Apps

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Which ones are best for your business?

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We look at project management apps that integrate beautifully with Xero to keep your project within timeframe and budget.

FOR BUSINESSES WORKING on large projects spanning weeks or even months, keeping track of time, cash flow and profitability is imperative. This is even more so for businesses that work on fixed-rate contracts or tenders.

Such fixed-rate projects are common in the building and construction industry, but also the creative, engineering, and IT industries.

Many of these businesses manage a project’s workflow across a number of different documents (spreadsheets, their CRM, accounting software) — and many don’t manage it properly at all.

As a consequence, projects often come in over budget. A number of cloud-based project management and workflow apps aim to change that, however.

Continue reading The Best Xero-Integrated Project Management Apps
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What are Lifelong Learning and Lifelong Training Platforms?

Xero Lifelong learning and training platform beginners essentials and advanced certificate courses

Xero Lifelong learning and training platform beginners essentials and advanced certificate coursesLifelong learning is the concept that learning isn’t confined to an individual’s childhood, but can be pursued throughout their life, and often in non-traditional settings. With lifelong learning, the knowledge or skills a person acquires through social interactions and other everyday experiences (soft skills) are considered just as important as those learned in formal education settings.

This approach means that learning is no longer considered to take place at two, traditional stages of a person’s life — school and the workplace — but rather is ongoing throughout the individual’s life.

How lifelong learning was born

The concept of lifelong learning isn’t new. It’s been around since the 1970s, when it was referred to as “lifelong education” by the French politician Edgar Faure in his 197s book “Learning to Be”. Lifelong learning gained more recognition during the 1990s, particularly with the publication of the Delors Report by the Delors Commission in 1996.

The Delors Commission was an administration of the European Union led by Jacques Delors through the 1980s and again through the 1990s. The Delors Report proposed an integrated vision of education based on two key concepts:

  1. Learning throughout life
  2. The four pillars of learning

The Delors Report identified three characteristics of modern life that made lifelong learning necessary, in order for individuals to remain productive and actively engaged members of society throughout their lives. Those characteristics included technological, economic and social change.

Technology made lifelong learning vital

From the mid 1990s onward, rapid technological advancements have made lifelong learning especially critical for people in the workplace. Aside from the need to keep up-to-date with changes to software (desktop software shifting to the cloud) and the introduction of new technologies (smartphones and tablets), technology has also changed the way people work.

The majority of adolescents who start university today, will be studying for a degree in the profession that will not exist in twenty years time. But in twenty years, jobs will exist that did not today, just as social media and search engine optimisation did not exist twenty year ago. And this drives the need for people to engage in lifelong learning.

Technology has also fundamentally changed our economy. More people engage in freelance or contract work than they did twenty years ago, and that’s given rise to what’s now called the “gig economy” — people engaging in short term, piecemeal or temporary work as their primary means of income.

And that’s all coincided with some big changes to our society. Paid parental leave, for example, sees dads taking time off work to become the primary carer of their children, while a new crop of mums have chosen to start home-based businesses so they can work flexible hours while they care for their children.

In each instance of change, be it technological, social and economic — though technology is the driving force of all three — people have had to learn new skills for their workplace, either formerly or informally.

The four pillars of learning

The Delors Report, which brought the concept of lifelong learning to greater prominence in the 90s, identified the four pillars of learning, which make up a central component of lifelong learning. The four pillars of learning involve:

  • Learning to know — the mastery of learning tools rather than the acquisition of knowledge
  • Learning to do — acquisition of occupational skills for jobs today and those in the future
  • Learning to live together — resolving conflict, discovering other people and culture, fostering community, economic resilience, social inclusion (soft skills)
  • Learning to be — education that contributes to an individual’s complete development (to act with autonomy, use judgment and take personal responsibility.

Implementing lifelong learning

Since the 1990s and the release of the Delors Report, universities and other formal education institutions have implemented some elements of lifelong learning, particularly the “learning to know” and “learning to live together” pillars of learning. In high school, students will study society and culture as a component of their HSC. This is designed to equip them with the tools to develop values and attitudes that promote social literacy and cohesion.

Workplaces have also become responsible to promoting lifelong learning by requiring employees to carry out continuing professional development (CPD) — although this is sometimes an industry requirement, as in the financial services and real estate sectors, for example.

Ezy Learning Lifelong training platform for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing training coursesBookkeepers and BAS agents are required to maintain a certain number of CPD points each year in order to keep their BAS registration. The Institute of Certified Bookkeepers (ICB) is just one of many Recognised Professional Associations and it lists accepted training courses, including Microsoft Excel and cloud-accounting software training which are all available as LIFETIME Courses with EzyLearn! I like to think that EzyLearn can go one better than Delor and offer students the option to get LIFETIME course access to Xero rather than LIFELONG paying for Xero Courses.

This November, Xero also launched it’s own lifelong learning platform, in conjunction with Swinburne University. The Xero lifelong learning platform is currently being piloted in Australia and New Zealand, with a full global rollout expected in 2018.

Xero lifelong learning

The Xero offering will be available for secondary and tertiary students, as well as businesses. It will provide students with access to a learning management system (LMS) that will deliver training in the form of business scenarios and simulations, in addition to grading and assessment tools.

Xero’s chief partner officer Anna Curzon said in a statement that technology has “reshaped the way people work” and created a need for lifelong learning so people can “stay relevant in the workforce”.

“Handling finances, both personal and business, is a necessity for everyone, from school age students to retirees,” she said.

“Xero lifelong learning platform allows students to grow their financial literacy to help prepare them for the real world.”

Curzon also said that the gig economy is driving demand for Xero’s services, which in itself is driving demand for a lifelong learning platform centered around financial literacy.

No pricing for Xero’s lifelong learning platform has been released, though it’s understood it will be included in the subscription price of the Xero software for businesses.

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MYOB AccountRight Plus and MYOB Essentials – they’re different

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MYOB became the cloud laggard

NOT ALL TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES were 100% committed to cloud-based software (commonly known at the time as SAAS — Software As A Service) when the high level of Internet adoption made it more feasible. One of those companies was MYOB.

At the time, MYOB was the accounting software leader by a HUGE margin in Australia, and the strategy that Craig Winkler used from the very beginning, meant the company was entrenched as the software of choice for accountants. The market leading software for small business was MYOB AccountRight and AccountRight Plus (for payroll and other advanced features).

The problem faced by MYOB was that the company required a lot of capital and had a lot of work to do to rewrite their Windows and Macintosh software programs. They only had a basic online version called Essentials which didn’t capture much attention because it was feature poor. This enabled the New Zealand company, Xero, to gain traction as the alternative accounting program which was focused on cloud-based features like:

  • bank feeds
  • automatic back ups
  • simultaneous multi-user access.

Craig Winkler sold out to Archer Capital who later did a 3-bagger to triple the value of the software company when they sold to Bain Capital. Therefore the company is well resourced financially to make up for any lost ground. Indeed, it seems they are starting to come good with their MYOB Essentials software as a reasonable competitor in the cloud-accounting space.

MYOB Essentials Evolution

myob-essentials online training course live logoAs a training organisation, EzyLearn’s service provision is driven by the needs of our students and what they ask for. Very few companies or job seekers have ever asked about MYOB Essentials until recently.

We create our own MYOB training course materials and update and add to it regularly and because we have our own micro courses and case studies (some are starting to call these “playbooks”) we’re able to replicate those for different software programs and we’re currently doing it for MYOB Essentials.

Best of all, when you enrol into any of our MYOB AccountRight training courses you’ll now get access to the new MYOB Essentials Course materials we create as part of a combination offer at the Bookkeeping Academy website – Click here>

Make sure you subscribe to get alerts about all of our new, ongoing content.

On a side note, the elephant in the room is still Intuit and their QuickBooks Online program — they are the market leader in the US and are HUGE!

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Creating and managing databases is included as part of our Advanced Microsoft Excel training courses — and you receive access to ALL OF OUR COURSES, including ALL SKILLS LEVELS for ONE LOW PRICE. You can even start your Excel journey with our FREE Beginners’ Excel Course Workbook. Read more about our beginners’, intermediate and advanced Excel training courses on our website, or enrol to start learning by 5pm tomorrow!

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Interest-free student loans and course finance VERSUS cheap courses

Interest free student loans for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Marketing and Business Startup Courses cost someoneIT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR again when my team and I review the success of our marketing for 2017 and plan our strategies for the New Year. The topic of interest-free student loans was on the agenda, so I thought I’ll write something about it.

Personally, debt has always been something that has terrified me until about 5 years ago. This stemmed from a time in my mid twenties when I got a commercial hire purchase (CHP) loan to buy an extra Telstra Mitsubishi van. It was selling for $12,000 at the time (which was a lot of money for me) and I paid it off within a year but needed to pay a penalty because the loan was for a fixed period — it cost me $16,000!

This experience left me feeling completely ripped off and began my intrigue into the different type of loans available to businesses, the risks, and how lenders cover their risks as much as possible. Then Jerry Harvey started spruiking the “buy now with nothing to pay for 3 years” mantra that has become commonplace for many retail businesses. We now have every man and his dog business giving away interest-free credit which usually comes with a credit card attached.

The fact is that borrowing money costs someone and if you’re offered an interest free loan it just means that the loan cost is being absorbed by the seller.

If you’ve completed our MYOB or Xero courses (or you’re already working in accounts) you’d know that a course debt is a liability to the student but an asset to the lender and that asset can be sold or written off. Further, if you read the financial news you’ll see that major retailers are either selling their debt or their in-store cards or credit card to the highest bidder.

The problem I have with any form of debt, except buying an income producing asset like real estate or business assets (or a business), is that if you can’t afford it now how will you be able to pay it back later?

Cashflow for a business is often lumpy and the interest cost for cashflow lending is an expense which comes off your taxable income. In this sense it’s “good debt”, but personal debt that can’t be claimed as an expense is bad and often you’re better off finding the same product or course for a cheaper price and just paying that — or use your existing credit card (and pay it back in time). Read about our newest Xero Cashflow, Budgets and ROI Course.

So, back to our marketing dilemma. EzyLearn has only ever tested part payments of courses and realised that we’re not a lender and rather than pay the cost of having a loan facility we’d prefer to include as much as possible in our courses (including additions and updates) and offer our courses at a cheap and competitive price with occasional special offers.

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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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How to Reduce Your Fail Rate in Business by 50%

What You Can Do this Christmas

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There’s lots to do in preparation for starting a business and the summer holidays is a good time for the ground work.

DID YOU KNOW research shows that by taking just one short course on small business management, the chance a business will fail is reduced by as much as 50 percent.

This is because business mismanagement is the primary reason businesses fail; the other most common reason is because owner/s fail to implement appropriate credit management processes. In both cases, this failure has come about because the owners, directors, partners or managers lacked the appropriate management skills to make it a success.

Learn the basics in business

The Christmas holidays is a perfect time for taking the steps needed to start your small business. While everyone else has gone on holidays, you’ll be ready to take on your first client or customer by the time business really starts kicking off again at the end of January.

business start up online training course christmas holidaysSo let’s get to it: there’s work to be done. And this work generally requires some rudimentary knowledge of Australian tax law, copyright law, trademarks and patents.

You should also have knowledge of particular software applications, and digital marketing.

Other key areas of business you need to know

The key areas business owners should understand before starting a business include:

Ordinarily, to become skilled in each of those areas, a person would have to take, at least, five different training courses. But few people are ever likely to do this. Instead, they’d be more likely to cherry pick the areas they’re least familiar with, and fly blind with the others. Needless to say, that’s where people run into problems.

Take Advantage of our Christmas Savings!

We don’t want you to wing it or fly blind — our goal is to help small businesses succeed which is what we’ve been doing for nearly 20 years.

We cover what you need to set up a small business in our EzyStartUp Business Course, priced at just $297. This course covers each of the key areas mentioned above that a small business owner needs to be familiar with, in addition to the following:

  • Originating and developing concepts
  • Establishing legal and risk management
  • Product packaging
  • Marketing your business

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When you enrol you will also receive FREE ACCESS to a bunch of our other online training courses, including Xero Set Up and Beginners’ Excel and Word.

Our Last Dasher Sale is also on now with special Christmas discounts on our online training courses in social media, and cloud accounting software (MYOB, Xero) and Excel, Word and WordPress.

Don’t Wait — Become the Head Honcho Today

Use your time off from work this summer to begin working on your new small business. All of our training courses are delivered online, and can be completed at your own pace, so you can complete them while you’re actually on holidays, or relaxing at home or at a cafe.

And since one of the best ways to start a new business is by operating it as a side project to your other job, if you get all the start up stuff out of the way while you’re on holidays, it’ll be ready to go by the time you back to work.

Learn more about the EzyStartUp Business Course at our website or view all of our special offers to save on your next EzyLearn training course.

start your own business online training course videosAnd as a gift to you, remember our Bookkeeping Basics Guide is yours’ for free!

 

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Video: Xero Training Course Announcement – ALL Included

Video, Video, Video. Everyone tells me you need to do it

 

I’M NO STRANGER TO NETWORKING, no stranger to making speeches, doing presentations and so forth. But creating a video is still NERVE WRACKING!

We all have issues about how we look, how we sound, how well we present ourselves and I went through all of these emotions before creating this video — SO I hope you like it.

It’s only short and covers all the topics I was hoping to convey and I’d love to hear your feedback. It’s so easy to create videos and publish them on your own website these days and we show you how to do this in our WordPress courses.

EzyLearn is a small business and we’ve been teaching students how to use software to:

  • find a job
  • do better at their current job and
  • start and manage their own business

And,we’ve been doing it for over 20 years.

When we created the training courses for MYOB in the late 1990’s I decided that we, as a company, need to create our own training materials so that we could define the learning stories that take students from epiphany to epiphany — that is one of the most rewarding aspects of training.

I was fortunate enough to work with some very experienced MYOB Certified Consultants who helped deliver and influence the contents of our MYOB bookkeeping course training materials. Since those days we have added and added, and refined content, based on feedback from student feedback.

We’ve also worked with registered BAS agents, accountants and corporate accounting staff to continue to add to and refine our courses so we can keep providing the BEST VALUE FOR MONEY COURSES in Xero & MYOB.

Working with the Best People

Having a good track record, great training courses and satisfied students is a great reward for running EzyLearn, but the best part — and the part that I could not do without — is the team of people I’m fortunate enough to work with, and part of this message is to thank YOU for helping me grow and manage the EzyLearn experience. Those people are:

  • Ange: For doing the research, putting new technology into perspective and writing many of the words that people read in our blogs and other training content over the last 6 years
  • Iroshini: For managing the technical end of our multiple Learning Management Systems
  • Brian: For helping to automate our Enrolment Voucher System that enables thousands of students to access low cost courses automatically
  • Tracey: For providing the last word in what is correct and incorrect in regards to anything BAS-related
  • Helen: For helping to co-ordinate the mammoth task of creating, version control and design of training materials
  • Luke: For consistently great customer service so that every student can get through their courses quickly and efficiently and new students understand all the information on our websites
  • Richard: For making sure that all of our procedures are followed meticulously and changed where needed
  • Rosie: For making sure that our accounts are something that I don’t need to worry too much about
  • Yvette: For coordinating and editing content and helping with marketing for all various aspects of the business
  • Linus: For the deep level coding and hosting advice you have provided when we need it

Plus there are the various smaller tasks which our international workers and virtual assistants have helped with as well, so thanks too to you all!

We’re going DEEP in 2018

Career-Academy-Course-Program-WorkbookAs a training course content creator EzyLearn focuses on our niche markets of

  • accounting
  • office administration
  • marketing

and in 2018 we’re going to give existing students more (watch out for an announcement about our LIFELONG Learning Platform — which will include MYOB and QuickBooks courses, not just Xero).

We’ve also beefed up the success programs for employees working through their careers and the sales success program to help our students upskill and reskill to earn more in 2018.

Learn more about these programs here:

Make you subscribe using the form below or at this EzyLearn Blog Subscribe Link to receive these updates.

 

More about Property Investment Courses

I’ve spent a lot of time learning more about property investment, renovation and the real estate industry and we’ll have some new courses in 2018 to help you improve your retirement and wealth by investing in property. Stay tuned for that!

 

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Why Aren’t The Phones Ringing or Leads Coming Through?

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Researching the Market is a Crucial Part of Every Business Strategy

EzyStartUp business startup and admin training coursesIn a previous post, Is Your Charge-Out Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?, I talked about Mark the painter, who charged a really low day rate that ultimately proved to be unsuccessful, because he couldn’t carry out the volume of jobs he needed to for it to be profitable.

When I asked Mark why he chose such a low day rate, he said it was because no other painter could possibly compete with him. Sure that’s probably true, but obviously, for good reason!

What Mark really should have done was to research the market to determine precisely what other painters are charging, and for which services.

Cost of bookkeeping for a contract bookkeeper using Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks OnlineDetermine the industry average

A good starting point is to determine the average price for your industry. Be diligent and look at as many businesses in your local and surrounding areas to ensure you’re getting a clear picture of what people are charging.

It’s really hard to justify charging much below the industry average, even if you’re trying to get new business.

As I mentioned in the last post about day rates, low prices is a numbers game. Unless you’re able to turn work around exceptionally quickly to justify taking a cut on your profit margin, then it’s probably not worth it.

In our work with National Bookkeeping we discovered that bookkeeper charge out rates fall into some distinct categories based on their knowledge, experience and how they prefer to work. These rates are a great guide to help you become comfortable with your own hourly rate.

Give customers savings in other areas

Rather than reducing your rates to get new business, try to give customers savings elsewhere. You can do this by providing something your competitors aren’t, which is why researching the market thoroughly is a crucial part of your business strategy.

If you determine that your competitors charge a call out fee or a fee to prepare walls, this is a good place to start reducing or eliminating those charges in order to make yourself more competitive.

How are people finding you?

If potential customers are finding you via your website, it’s important to have a good call to action that contains reasons for people to make contact with you. Then make sure you highlight the reasons to call.

Competitors copy so keep changing your offers

Believe it or not, one of the most challenging aspects of your market research and the OFFER you make to potential customers is that your competitors will also be researching what you are doing and if they feel it is a good offer they may copy it — so you may want to have a couple different offers and discounts and change them regularly to stay unique.

Use WordPress, a Blog and Social Media posts to keep your business looking fresh online and as well as attract the attention of potential customers — we cover all of this in our Digital & Social Media Marketing Courses.

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You can learn how to research the market by enrolling in the Market Research Module of our Business StartUp Training Course as a stand alone mini course. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.

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Is Your Day Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?

virion Digital Marketing Manager

I RECENTLY MET A PAINTER during a residential renovation I was involved with in Newcastle (an extremely valuable experience that will help us add to our property investment courses.)

We got talking about how he wins new clients and he said:

I advertise on social media that I’m available for $150 a day because no one can compete with it.

The price he chose is insanely cheap, and he knew other painters wouldn’t be able to compete with this as a day rate. However, there are downsides to this. Such a cheap day rate also means that he’ll be stretched financially and that he won’t be able to hire anyone else to do the work. He’ll need to be paid daily and likely can’t afford to provide any sort of credit (like 7 day terms etc).

Continue reading Is Your Day Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?
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MYOB or WordPress for your new business website?

I recommend WordPress (and our online courses) over MYOB Atlas website builder any day

Is MYOB doing too little of too much?

I recommend WordPress (and our online courses) over MYOB Atlas website builder any dayEvery business needs a web presence, and it’s become a lot cheaper and easier to get one. Where it once could cost many thousands of dollars to have a web designer get your business online, you can now build your own website yourself, quite cheaply.

That’s due to the number of cheap open-source content management systems that have come the market, like WordPress (by far, the market leader), then there is Wix, Squarespace, and even Google Sites (part of Google’s G Suite productivity apps for business). Our online WordPress Training Courses include the basic creating and editing of website pages and blogs posts to more advanced features only available to WordPress Site Admins. 

You might find it interesting that MYOB offers a website service and it makes me wonder whether MYOB has the single focus on building the best accounting software for small business or jumping into any and every new technology it can to see which one sticks.

MYOB is also into websites

About five years ago, MYOB, in partnership with Google, launched a website creation tool called Atlas as part of an initiative called “Getting Business Online.” Atlas enables MYOB customers to create a business website, get a domain name, connect an e-commerce site, and social media platforms for $30 a month. 

Learn about domains, DNS, hosting, Websites and WordPressI put together a series of emails which explains in a logical order how domain names, hosting & websites work…
and it’s free so check it out if you want to learn on that technical stuff!

Because they’ve partnered with Google, the sites promise to “rank well on Google search,” but there’s no flexibility to manage your SEO or integrate with any SEO tools. In fact, for your $30 a month, you don’t get much flexibility at all — not in the choice of themes (they’re limited), adding corporate branding, to connect email marketing services, template changes, and so on.

Carmel Crane ERP Specialist National Bookkeeping_3_comp
Learn more about ERP system from a specialist

MYOB wants to be the ERP platform for small business

Back when the internet was still fairly new, MYOB used to have a partner program in place with hosting companies to help their clients run multi-user programs in the cloud. When MYOB realised they could be earning that money themselves, they shut the program down and did what they have often done — disregarded their partners and their businesses completely. 

MYOB have gained a bit of a reputation for this sort of thing — starting up, and then abandoning, partner programs. Over the years, perhaps due to the complexity of their software, they’ve tried to establish themselves as the enterprise reporting planning (ERP) software of choice for mid-size businesses, but they’ve struggled with already established specialist brands. The MYOB Atlas website creation tool is another example of just that.

The cloud, focus and commitment

 With established platforms like WordPress, which is easy and cheap to use, and highly customisable, this might just be another missed opportunity for MYOB. These website design platforms are built around the concept of open source software and WordPress is surrounded by thousands of theme and plugin developers which provide the integration for some pretty advanced features in an easy to use interface. We made the change to WordPress after going with a Site Builder program which ended up closing down and no longer being supported – it’s a huge waste of energy and resources when you have to start all over again!

Unlike MYOB, Xero realised early that online software is about being a specialist in a given field, so they integrate with lots of different specialist platforms and systems so small businesses can connect the applications they need. I’ll be writing about some of these Xero integrations soon.

Ref:#714

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The Perfect Job; the Ideal Employee

the perfect administrative executive assistant office manager learn online courses training

And the online training to help you get there

the perfect administrative executive assistant office manager learn online courses training
Do you have the skills needed to be the perfect office manager, administrative or executive assistant?

I WAS BROWSING THROUGH my contacts on LinkedIn and found an advertisement by a company that was looking to hire people.

They were in the AI (Artificial Intelligence) space and their headquarters were in Europe.

However, the ad looked like it could be for any company including trades, professional services etc.

Here’s what the ad contained:

Executive Assistant / Office Manager

Overview

The Executive Assistant / Office Manager will be primarily responsible for helping to keep everyone (and everything) working at peak performance. We’re a growing company, and there will be new and interesting challenges every day. Ideal candidates are curious and interested in learning more about what we do, and always interested in learning new skills and taking on new challenges.

Tasks

  • Manage all aspects of office administration
  • Coordinate team schedules and events
  • Manage executive schedules
  • Handle payment of invoices and associated bookkeeping
  • Order supplies and equipment
  • Arrange travel

Skills

Required

  • Excellent verbal and written English communication skills
  • Strong organizational and time management skills
  • Ability to work with minimum supervision, prioritizing work as needed
  • Strong knowledge of office applications, including Word, Powerpoint, and Excel

The training you need

Apart from the soft skills like good time management, communications, speaking and writing the software skills you can learn to apply for this job are:

Microsoft Office Applications:

Office Admin and Bookkeeping:

Organisational and Time Management:

My thoughts on this ad?

Why I’m sharing this ad is that I reckon it encapsulates “the perfect” administrative or executive assistant, or office manager. What I mean is that anybody possessing all the skills and capabilities listed above would be well qualified for almost any job in this area — for pretty much any type of company.

And they wouldn’t be limited to any particular industry either. Any intelligent person who is a quick learner would be able to pick up the nuances for various different industries and apply their skills as necessary.

Online courses to help you

The other positive thing about this ad is that it reinforces the fact that so many of our EzyLearn online training courses are geared towards people who want to do office administrative-type roles or office management positions. They are also perfect for people wanting to run their own business in any industry.

learn xero myob excel cheap online training courses videos

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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Ray White’s Amber and LJ Hooker Compete with Purple & Jim’s Real Estate Play

Woodrising a sign for Toronto Ray White Amber Agent

Real estate agents are seeing purple!

Woodrising a sign for Toronto Ray White Amber AgentTHE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY IS undergoing substantial disruption. Only the real estate agents and agencies that decide to innovate will make it out the other side.

A big part of that means letting go of the traditional model and embracing a new, transparent real estate sales model, but many agents are still reluctant to change.

And that’s a mistake.

Disruption to the real estate industry coming from many sources

Although much of the disruption is coming from technology companies, such as REA Group and Domain Group in Australia, as well as the tech giants Facebook and Google, other established players, recognising that the timing is right, are entering the fray too.

Together, these businesses are changing the way real estate in this country and across the world is bought, sold and rented. If real estate agents aren’t proactive about this change, they’ll end up being reactive. And they’ll miss out.

One of the Case Studies in our Digital & Social Media Marketing Courses centres upon a McGrath agent based in Sydney’s Cammeray. This agent, Derek, comes to realise his own personal brand is as powerful with local residents as the McGrath brand because he is a hard-working agent and his vendors love him.

Via the virion Digital Agency we were able to help Derek create a website and social media campaign to further hone and build his brand as a property expert.

Jim’s to cut agents’ grass

Jim Penman's Jims Group getting into low cost low commission real estate agency model - tradies might pass on vendor sales leads - AFRTake Jim’s Group, the franchise group known for mowing lawns and fixing broken antennas. Last week, they announced their intention to enter the real estate fray with a new, low-cost service for both agents and homeowners.

The division, which is being headed up by a Jim’s Group veteran and the former sales director of low-cost real estate service Hello Real Estate, will charge agents a flat $1,800 a month franchise fee.

Homeowners will also be able to suggest how much commission they’d like to pay the agent to sell their home. (It’s understood there’ll be a threshold for how low commissions will actually go.)

Jim’s agents will work remotely from their home offices — or their cars — as most Jim’s franchisees currently do, and they’ll have substantially lower overheads so they can provide the same service to homeowners as a traditional real estate agent, only for less.

As an existing and trusted franchise group in Australia, they won’t have to overcome the same barriers like name recognition and trust that new entrants to the market — your Purplebricks, say — did. (Of course, the Purplebricks service is also quantifiably different to the proposed Jim’s service.)

Agents who don’t think Jim’s will make a serious dent in the industry may be right. But that misses the point; the franchise model is about giving business owners a cushion between them and flying solo. Plenty of people work in franchises — real estate is the most franchised industry in this country — but not all of them do. There’s plenty of room for independent agents to take this idea and operate their own agency the same way — and keep their $1,800 franchise fee while they’re at it!

Proptech sector friend or foe?

That brings us to the biggest source of disruption in the real estate industry: the proptech sector. In Australia, agents need to be cautious of

  • REA Group,
  • Domain Group,
  • Purplebricks,
  • BuyMyPlace,
  • Facebook and
  • Google.

But they also need to be wary of any new entrant that puts an “Uber” spin on the sector. (Domain recently opened up its developer APIs to encourage tech startups to use their data to create disruptive new services.)

At the moment REA Group and Domain are focussed on moving closer to the transaction, but they’re also heavily investing in tech to ward off any disruption from tech titans Facebook and Google, which they consider the biggest threat to the real estate industry in this country, and the world. (eBay-owned Gumtree also shouldn’t be excluded from this conversation.)

Would you advertise with a competitor?

Mortgages

Both real estate groups have acquired (or launched through partnerships) their own mortgage broking businesses — Domain’s Domain Loan Finder is a JV with online broker Lendi; REA Group acquired mortgage broker Smartline, and launched its own white label service in conjunction with NAB, called realestate.com.au Home Loans.

Trades & Everything Else!

They each also own stakes in tradie sites Oneflare (Domain) and hipages (REA), connection services Compare & Connect (Domain) and Beevo (Domain), property data and mapping firm PriceFinder (Domain), real estate CRM MyDesktop (Domain) [read more about the best real estate agent CRM’s], and property inspection app Homepass (Domain); Domain will also launch insurance comparison service Domain Insure and real estate agent training and education program Domain Academy.

And REA Group is busy building robots and virtual assistants, which can respond to customer enquiry — requests for Section 32 documents, schedule inspections, and so on.

Neither Domain nor REA are likely to bite the hands that feed them by introducing a real estate agency service or cutting agents out of the picture entirely — this year, REA Group posted revenue of $633.5 million from its Australian operations, of which $538.2 million was derived from agents advertising on its site.

Agents need to innovate NOW

But by owning the real estate “ecosystem”, they make the role of the real estate agent much less vital — and ripe for a new service to come in (like a Jim’s Real Estate) and say, “hey we can do it better.” Before long, that’ll become the “traditional” real estate model, just as the classified websites that usurped newspaper classifieds are now considered the “traditional” model of buying and selling stuff online.

To stay ahead of disruption, agents need to educate themselves. Continuing professional development (CPD) is a mandatory part of staying licensed in every state or territory. Provided agents undertake recognised training and keep their CPD points up, they can study anything relevant to the business of real estate.

Digital marketing is a fundamental part of real estate. Agents who understand how to market themselves online to get new business and demonstrate transparency about how the process works will stay ahead of the curve. Derek Farmer used educational videos and blog posts to explain the buying and selling process, and share market news and analysis.

This makes a sales agent an indispensable source of knowledge and a trusted advisor to buyers and sellers throughout the process, which can’t be replicated by a robot, virtual assistant or app. Virion also helps agents create a digital market strategy for their business, and to fill up their website or social media pages with content that provides information to buyers and sellers they’re currently getting from … Domain and realestate.com.au!

Agents should create their own property ecosystem

Domain and REA are doing their darndest to keep people on their sites for longer. They’re sewing up the entire property buying and selling process with complementary services (insurances, connections, mortgages) and they’re pushing more and more into content (videos, journalism, content marketing); Domain is particularly innovative in the content space, thanks to its Fairfax roots.

As a result, buyers and sellers are coming to agents forearmed, and again, the role of the agent is diminished. But agents can stay in home buyers and sellers minds by creating their own property ecosystem: start a website, fill it with good quality content, use a CRM to manage your lists of buyers, sellers, tradespeople — who have become one of the most important players in the sales process — and pump messages out your database regularly.

Finally, look at introducing a different fee or commissions structure for certain types of property or across the board. This is where the industry is heading and fighting it will only leave you in the same position the newspaper industry was in with the advent of online classifieds; cable TV providers with the rise of VOD services; music labels with streaming services, and so on.

***

Visit the EzyLearn website to learn more about our continuing professional development (CPD) training courses. To create your own property ecosystem with a digital marketing strategy and content, visit Virion’s website for more information.

 

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Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

Bookkeeping Incumbent, MYOB Versus Cloud Innovator, Xero

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

MYOB HAS LONG BEEN the preferred accounting software of choice for accountants, but a lot of small business owners have now come to prefer Xero. It’s easier to use, and they can access it anywhere — their desktop PC, tablet or smartphone.

Meanwhile, the rise of cloud-based accounting software, which was pioneered by Xero, has made it a lot easier for bookkeepers to base themselves from home.

Throw in other technological innovations — cloud storage, bank feeds — and a remote Xero bookkeeper has become the more appealing choice for businesses, too.

Continue reading Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?
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Staff Can do their Own Microsoft Excel Needs Analysis?

No Training needs analysis needed for beginners intermediate advanced excel courses

Save time, save money, get better skills, re-skill now

No Training needs analysis needed for beginners intermediate advanced excel coursesIN A PREVIOUS POST I wrote about how most staff and students overestimate their Excel Spreadsheet skills.

When it comes to Excel skills, a needs analysis can cost money and take a huge amount of time, when in reality, staff can simply do their own needs analysis when they do their courses.

A lot of EzyLearn’s students are re-skilling or up-skilling because they are sent from rehab and retraining companies. This may be because they’ve been injured at work and need to move to a different area of the workforce. In these situations, many aspects of the person’s needs have to be assessed to make sure they can work in an office, as opposed to out in the field where they use to work.

In this situation a needs analysis and learning plan are very important; however, when it comes to ensuring all your staff are simply up to speed at an advanced or intermediate level in Microsoft Excel can be much simpler.

Enrol into all Excel Training Courses with EzyLearn for the same price (but usually much less) than going to a physical training centre. You receive ALL skill levels and students can start at the level they “think” they are at and simply do the beginner levels if they realise they need it.

After we shifted to delivering online courses, we discovered that by bundling all our Excel courses together for one low price, companies could forgo spending many hours and many hundreds of dollars in conducting needs analysis for their staff, only to find that their employees’ skills weren’t quite at the level stated.

Give staff comprehensive training

ezylearn-training-course-workbooksWe’ve bundled all of our Excel training courses into 9 half-day short courses — each taking 4 hours to complete — so that, regardless of a student’s skill level, they can access all of the course content from beginner right through to advanced. 

Companies can let their staff do their own needs analysis, while giving them comprehensive Excel training at the same time.

Many students who enrol in our Excel training courses for the intermediate and advanced modules often report that they’ve learned lots of new skills by also taking the beginner modules, while beginners usually always continue training right through to the advanced stage.

The great bonus of giving intermediate Excel users access to beginners courses is that most of them go through these and find they have a much more rounded level of skills using Excel.

Excel has real-world case studies and scenarios

EzyLearn Online Course Case Studies real world scenarios examples for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing CoursesOur Excel training courses use real-world examples so students can apply their new skills to tasks and projects you mightn’t ordinarily consider using Excel for — working out how much money a property investor can borrow, for example.

Even if your staff only require rudimentary Excel skills, by providing them with comprehensive Excel training for a fraction of the cost of in-person beginner training, you’re creating a workforce of highly skilled employees for your business.

When you choose the lifelong learning approach for your staff, they’ll have access to all Excel courses for life so they can access them whenever they want or need them.

Lifetime Access lets students up-skill at their own pace

Ezy Learning Lifelong training platform for Xero, MYOB, Excel, Digital Marketing training coursesWhen you enrol your staff in our Excel training courses, choosing the Lifetime Access option means your employees can up-skill at their own pace. This is especially useful for employees who may only require rudimentary Excel skills in their current role, but who are later promoted or give more responsibility, requiring great Excel knowledge.

Rather than enrolling them again, your staff will still have access to all the Excel course content so they can go back and refresh their skills as they need to. And that’s all for just one low price!

***

So stop wasting time, and start learning for less. Visit our website for more information about Microsoft Excel training courses and to enrol.

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Announcement: Use NPV, IRR & Financial Functions in Excel to Invest in Property

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgage

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgageMicrosoft Excel: helping to forecast returns and manage investment property finances

I WENT THROUGH SEVERAL different spreadsheets (which are incorporated into our Microsoft Excel & Property Investment online training courses) when I had to calculate borrowing capacity and expected return for an investment property in Newcastle recently. Microsoft Excel is a great tool for managing your investment property portfolio finances and to help students understand financial literacy we recently created some new training content for our Advanced Microsoft Excel training courses, which covers common calculations that investors go through when they look at potential debt or equity investments in new startup businesses. 

Determine the NPV of a project

Net present value (NPV) is a core component of investment budgeting. It’s a comprehensive way to to calculate whether a proposed project (such as a home renovation) will add value to the investment or not. 

An NPV formula involves many financial concepts in the one formula:

  • cash flows,
  • the time value of money,
  • the discount rate over the duration of the project, and so on.

Any NPV greater than $0 represents a value-added project, with $0 representing your break-even point. A negative dollar figure suggests the project won’t add value or deliver any return on investment.  There are two ways to calculate NPV of an investment in Excel — by separating out the component cash flows and calculating each step individually, or by creating an NPV formula in Excel to do that for you. I can tell you from the Applied Finance degree I did with Kaplan that Excel makes it a LOT easier.

Determine the IRR of your investments

The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is a metric used to measure the profitability of a potential investment. IRR is a discount rate that makes the net present value (NPV) of all cash flows from a particular project equal to zero. IRR calculations rely on the same formula components that NPV does. In general, the higher a project’s IRR, the more desirable it is to undertake. You can also use IRR to rank multiple prospective projects you may be considering for an investment property, assuming the costs are equal among each project. The one with the highest IRR would be considered the one that should be undertaken first. If this all sounds a little complicated you may never need to worry about it but rest assured the companies in your superannuation fund who work hard on making money every year will be using these regularly. 

New Excel 2016 training course content for Lifelong learning

We’ve updated our Microsoft Excel course content to the latest version of Excel, but we also include all versions of Excel software in our training courses. When you enrol in Excel 2016, you’ll also get access to the content for Excel 2013, 2010, 2007 and even 2003 if you need it. Because we create our own course content, training workbooks, exercise files and videos, we can (and do) update them regularly. We’ve also just updated our Xero training courses to the latest version of the Xero software.

When you enrol for lifetime course access, you get free access to all of these versions forever. You’ll learn how to use Excel to manage your investment property finances in our latest Goal Seek, Data Consolidation and Solver advanced Microsoft Excel training courses. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.