Updates to EzyLearn services or new content
So you want to learn Excel quickly and you’re on a budget? Buy our Excel Beginners’ to Intermediate training workbooks (with exercise files) and start getting a handle on how to master the world’s number one business productivity software program.
Continue reading Announcement: Microsoft Excel Training Workbooks Instant Download
Sage One is a relative newcomer to the cloud accounting software space but it has the backing of a massive company in the enterprise accounting (or ERP space).
With the aggressive and smart marketing machine that Xero is, it’s little wonder they would get the attention of larger accounting software publishers like Sage. Sage One is a logical place for the software giant to get business customers while they are small and then upgrade them all the way.
Continue reading Sage One Training Course Workbook – Launch Price
THE DEFINITION OF a training course has changed a lot over the last 20 years. With new online internet technologies comes new ways of learning. The concept of the “micro course” is gaining momentum as students look for information when they need it, known in the industry as “just in time learning”.
There are lots of time and cost pressures for students as they juggle part-time work, kids and mortgage payments. As a result, we’re launching a brand new Online Training Service for past EzyLearn students AND new students — EzyLearn’s Video Training Library Membership.
Many experienced BAS agents have told me that data entry, accounts receivable and accounts payable skills are the ones that they’re looking for in potential employees.
Many students who’ve completed a Cert IV in Bookkeeping and Accounting however think they’re above these skills and here’s how you can beat them in job interviews.
Continue reading What do employers really look for in Accounts Receivable and data entry jobs?
In many industries, no two jobs are the same, making estimating job costs and resources tough. Job tracking is one of the best ways to develop an accurate budget and avoid blow outs.
But this can be hard work. Are the latest job costing and tracking functions in MYOB AccountRight, QuickBooks Online and Xero making life easier?
Continue reading Why is job tracking and project costing so hard using MYOB & Xero?
My first thought when a software company changes its navigation (in a significant way) is that there were issues with the previous version.
THIS BLOG POST comes in the wake of Xero promising to improve their navigation in October 2018. Xero has now subsequently released those changes and our online support team are receiving lots of requests for help!
First and foremost, if you’re an EzyLearn student, please note that we’ve already created an update addressing the navigational updates and this is available in all of our online Xero Training Courses.
Continue reading Are You Finding Xero’s New Navigation a Pain in the Proverbial?
When I made the decision to convert EzyLearn from a Bricks and Mortar training centre to an online only provider of training courses I realised that we were going to have to get good at:
EzyLearn has been in business helping job seekers, business owners, managers and clients of rehabilitation providers learn how to use software for over 20 years. Read our story here..
I’m lucky today to have a professional team who’s sole focus is on getting better at all of these tasks – every week! I guess this post is as much a thank you to all of them for their help as it is an announcement that ALL of our XERO courses have recently been updated!
Beginners and Advanced Xero Training Course updatesAlmost every course has been touched in our latest updates but here is a summary:
One reason that students choose EzyLearn for their online training courses is because they receive access to new added content and course updates.
The usual time to finish the COMPLETE set of Beginners to Advanced Xero Courses is 3 weeks but one of the reasons we offer 12 months course access (and the LIFETIME Xero Course Access) is so that students can go back and review the contents when they need it in their business or job.
Get all the Xero Course details at our FAQ’s.
If you’re interested in enrolling into a Xero course take a look at the current special offers and subscribe to our Discount Voucher program to receive the discount codes.
LAST WEEK, MYOB LAUNCHED a beta trial of its single touch payroll (STP) product, as it gears up for the July 1, 2018 compliance deadline.
Businesses with 20 or more employees need to have transitioned to the ATO’s Single Touch Payroll initiative by July.
Businesses with fewer than 20 employees have until July 1, 2019 to be compliant but for these small business owners and contractors the ATO has a new free app. Continue reading MYOB Launches Single Touch Payroll Trial Product
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?
I RECENTLY WROTE about a Tradie Charging Too Little. In this I covered the four tell-tale signs, as told to me by a tradesperson friend of mine, that your prices are too low. But there are other business mistakes that owners, particularly tradespeople, make that can wind up costing them thousands in lost revenue — and when I say revenue I don’t just mean from existing clients but also past clients and new prospects! Continue reading 3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands
MANY SMALL BUSINESS owners get distracted thinking about what they could do or want to do and not what they can do now.
Doing what you know, and particularly, what you love doing and are passionate about, will ensure you earn money and get new clients.
Why? How? Because people see it in your body language and hear it in your voice.
Throw in some good computer skills and efficient credit and money management and you’ll be set for a great financial year profit. Continue reading Do What You Know & Actually Make Money
I’VE TALKED ABOUT CASHFLOW on this blog before, particularly as it relates to good credit management processes.
This time, however, we’re going to look at how profit differs from cashflow, even though the two are intimately related.
There is the perception that a profitable business can’t suffer from poor cashflow, but this is incorrect. There are plenty of profitable businesses that don’t have enough money in the bank at a given time to pay their outgoings because cashflow is lumpy.
We’re in business to make a profit, and yet the term ‘profit’ is really just an accounting concept. Profit is revenue minus expenses, but it doesn’t reflect our investment in capital assets, such as equipment or vehicles, nor does it take into account the liabilities we have funding our business (loans and hire purchases).
Cashflow, unlike profit, is about timing. Specifically, it’s about having money before you have to pay out money, something not identified by profit. Managing cash flow is one of the most stressful things about running a business, because many variables affect it.
Sure, not earning enough money or not having processes in place to make sure that money flows into your business in a timely fashion are part of it, but there are other factors too, such as:
Quite a few of the things that adversely affect a business’s cashflow can be determined by running regular Running Multi-Period Profit and Loss Statements], while others can be managed (or avoided) by implementing better processes or procedures for doing business.
Product based business which keep inventory can have their cashflow affected by:
and this evidence will show up when you run your P&L reports, as well as your inventory sales and stock-on-hand reports. If, for example, you identify that May, June and July is your busiest quarter, while November, December and January is your quietest, and where you struggle to meet your outgoings, you should implement strategies to better plan for that leaner period.
A seasonal period of downturn is common among most businesses. It’s how you manage and plan for that downturn that separates successful businesses from ones that aren’t. For example, it’s unwise for a sole trader to take a holiday March, a seasonally busy period for his business, when he could wait until June when it’s much quieter.
Your bookkeeper will play a key role in how you plan and manage your cashflow. Ask them to run reports that will help you to identify any inefficiencies in your business that’s causing poor cashflow, and implement strategies to better manage it.
If you’re looking for a reliable bookkeeper to manage your daily or weekly bookkeeping and accounts, either remotely or in-person, Tracey from Rockingham is a highly qualified bookkeeper, who also has the practical experience of having operated her own business in the past. Tracey has a lot of experience in the day-to-day accounting functions of a small business and you can contact her directly as a fully licensed member from her profile page.
Our National Bookkeeping website has recently gone through a significant upgrade so watch out for more stories about featured bookkeepers in forthcoming blogs! Join and we can feature YOU in our articles too. Subscribe and stay tuned to learn about some new members who have moved from the corporate world to focus as Finance Managers for small to medium businesses.
Xero for LIVE data and Accurate ReportsXero enables business owners and their bookkeepers and financial managers to see what is going on RIGHT NOW and because it’s popularity is growing we’ve created a NEW Xero course which goes through a great example of the business decisions that a business owner makes about buying an investment property, figuring out which products/services provide a better Return On Investment (ROI) and more.
Check it out at Xero Cashflow Course and remember that existing EzyLearn students can get access to this course by just sending an email request to student support.
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS about Excel is that it has so many applications. It can be used to create financial budgets and forecasts, monitor stock levels in a retail shop, roster staff, and also determine how much money an investor can borrow to buy a property.
A lot of the time, however, people enrol in an Excel online training course or Xero online training course because they need to refresh a specific set of skills for their job, which means they don’t have the time to focus on other areas that don’t have an immediate relevance for their work.
With our Lifetime Access courses for Excel and Xero and many other online cloud accounting and business options, students can continue learning in their own way and at their own pace, either as part of continuing professional development or for their own personal interest — our course content includes real-world case studies, like building a granny flat, to give context to the functions of Excel.
The other benefit of our Lifetime Access for Excel online training courses and Xero online training courses is that it means you can quickly brush up on where functions have been moved to when new versions of Xero and Excel are released.
We update our course content every time a new version of software is released, and with Lifetime Access, you’ll be able to access all of this new content, along with previous versions of course — so you can keep learning on the most current versions of Excel and Xero.
Stop wasting time, and start learning for less. Visit our website for more information about Microsoft Excel training courses and our Xero training courses, and to enrol.
We are constantly refreshing the content of our online training courses so that you can benefit from all the new information that is always coming in about being in business, or running your own business as a bookkeeper or looking for bookkeeping work.
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.
WHEN XERO FIRST ENTERED the accounting space, it gave MYOB a real run for its money — something Xero continues to do to this very day.
When Xero first entered the market, it was with a bang. You see, even though Xero and MYOB share many of the same features, Xero was cheaper and easier to use than MYOB, but perhaps even more so, it was also cloud-based. Being cloud-based meant you didn’t have to buy and install pricey software that would be out-of-date within 12 months. A huge advantage.
Since then, however, a number of cloud-based accounting applications have entered the market — QuickBooks Online (now distributed by their US-based parent company Intuit), Reckon One, Saasu, Zoho, and so on.
As business owners have more choice than ever before, it’s got a lot of people wondering about whether the two market leaders (Xero and MYOB) are really all they’re cracked up to be, Xero in particular.
Even though Xero was hailed as a breath of fresh air when it first entered the market, it is still a little more complicated to use when compared with other cloud accounting apps, like QuickBooks and Reckon One. For instance, the purchase orders feature is still hidden behind bills, when it could easily be access via a dropdown menu. But it’s not a major quibble.
Although Xero allows you to assign customer numbers for your suppliers or customers in the contact profile, it doesn’t have the functionality to record customer numbers assigned by supplier or customer.
If you’re trying to get in touch with Telstra, for example, with whom you’ll have been assigned a customer or account number, you’ll have to dig around for the paper bill to find that customer or account number.
This feature is available in QuickBooks, and it’s also available in MYOB, but as is often the case with MYOB, it requires more steps to do what you can in Xero in just a few clicks. Rather than keep paper bills on hand, Xero allows you to attach them to you transactions, so you never have to go hunting around for a bill again (very useful given the contact profile issue mentioned above).
In MYOB, you must upload your bills to your in-tray, and then link them to your transactions. This is annoying, because it requires you to leave the transaction window and open the in-tray one.
Remember that when you select a cloud accounting package for your business, do not choose solely based on price. Make a list of the needs of your business and the functions you’ll require, and then select the accounting package that suits your needs the most. Ask your bookkeeper and other business friends for their recommendations as well.
