Search Results for:

Posted on by

$99 MYOB Course: Intro, Intermediate, Payroll – ALL FOR $99!?

Mr Ed a horse is not just a horse and an online course is not just an online course

When a training course is not really a training course…

WE REGULARLY PARTAKE in competitive analysis so we can keep giving you top quality online training courses for the best value out there, and in doing so, I found an online offer for not just one, but THREE levels of MYOB — Intro, Intermediate and Payroll OR ALL THREE for $99.

Not mentioning any names; we’re not in the business of naming and shaming and, besides, you can search the deal easily enough online yourself, but it prompted me to put out a reminder that not all courses are created equal.

Not all training courses are the same

I guess it’s obvious to some degree, but many of us are still misled by marketing, and sometimes what’s packaged to the customer as an online training course, is simply a pile of videos (and not even featuring current and up-to-date software versions, either!) all plonked together. You know what, you can get this, and possibly more, directly off You Tube for free!

Using old versions of the accounting software

myob logo online myob training course videosThere are many online courses available for cheap prices, but many of these same courses are not providing training on the latest version of software packages. A quick scan of the fine print shows that this particular $99 MYOB deal is training you on Version 19 of MYOB. This dates back to 2010, which in any one’s language, is very old. Very, very old.

As part of our suite of online MYOB courses, we include access to our old “archived” courses where we use version 19 of MYOB; only for the benefit of those people who still use it and don’t need features like payroll, super and other added features that you’d expect to get after 8 or so years of software development.

What’s retail price anyway?

Box saying If its too good to be true read the fine print for online training courses

Another thing to be wary of is “retail price” comparisons. Plenty of these may be legit, but there are others out there who deliberately distort the truth or make a current cheap offer seem far more appealing by comparing their cheap price to a retail price that isn’t really indicative of what’s on offer out there online.

Make sure you’re talking “courses for courses” and that the retail price comparison isn’t looking at prices from half a decade ago or thereabouts. The price of online training courses is a forever shifting thing, so do your research!

What your online training course should include

In our books, an online training course that’s actually going to deliver results for you should come with these ingredients at the very least:

  1. A detailed workbook to supplement your training and absorption
  2. Knowledge reviews, quizzes and tests (so you can see how you’re absorbing information as you go)
  3. Certificate of completion option formally stating what you’ve achieved
  4. Case studies that keep the content based in real-world scenarios and ensure you’re learning things that will be practical in real-life circumstances and situations
  5. Responsive email and phone student support for all queries
  6. Money-back guarantee; if you’re not happy with the course content, or it’s not what you thought it would be, you shouldn’t be stuffed around in the fine print by not getting a full refund, (no matter how small the amount you’ve originally paid).

The training course should feature the training on the software as it is in its current version and this training, or training videos, workbooks, whatever, should be provided in an order that’s been carefully considered, trialled and tested.

Oh, and some testimonials by real people vouching for the effectiveness, quality and professionalism of the course content and course content provider is pretty important too. Then there’s CPD point accreditation, access to lifelong learning platforms, the option to get lifetime course membership to course content so you’ll always get updates at no extra cost and have an “after course resource” … yep, don’t get me started, courses simply ain’t all the same and you usually pay for what you get (though I think we’re super cost-effective by those standards!)

***

People say “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. This isn’t always the case, and sometimes excellent opportunities in life seem, at first, too good to be true. But when it comes to online MYOB courses for $99 or $29 or $69 or whatever the probably-too-good-to-be-true price point is, just make sure you’re getting apples for apples, or courses for courses, or horses for horses, Mr Ed.

Mr Ed a horse is not just a horse and an online course is not just an online course

You can watch some FREE MYOB course videos? Scroll through our freebies list of online training videos that you can watch without charge or obligation and subscribe to our blog to get updates to more free videos as we’re adding them all the time. Or check out our special offers page to see what discounts we’re giving at the moment or online training courses in MYOB, Xero, Excel and many others.

Online bookkeeping accounting training courses for CPD points

Posted on by

The Best Xero-Integrated Document Management Platforms

best xero integrated proposal quote software learn xero online learning training course videos

‘Seal the deal’ with a beautiful proposal

best xero integrated proposal quote software learn xero online learning training course videos
Sometimes it’s all in the proposal: win over your clients by presenting them with your value proposition in a way that not only looks professional and competitive; but that you can also track online.

FOR MANY BUSINESSES sending quotes and estimates to prospects doesn’t accurately describe the work you’ll be providing them.

Sometimes it’s because you’ll be providing an ongoing service or solution to a business problem — property management, content marketing, bookkeeping — and other times it’s because your business will be competing with others in a public tender.

In these instances, you’ll need to send a proposal to potential clients to explain your value proposition and how you’ll solve their business problem. Rather than sending a proposal in a Word document that you can’t track, use a cloud-based document management platform.

Here are some popular Xero CRM Integrations.

Continue reading The Best Xero-Integrated Document Management Platforms
Posted on by — 1 Comment

What is Xero HQ?

Now you can do more with Xero

new xero hq learn xero online learning training course videos
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…”

learn Xero online learning videos cheapest

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.

 

Posted on by

FREE Xero Training Video: How Often Should You Check Your Inventory in Xero?

The key to cutting down discrepancies is consistency

IF YOU RUN A SHOP or business that holds stock, you should be in the habit of checking your inventory regularly. A lot of retail stores only check their inventory every quarter; others every year. This is usually because a stocktake is a big job.

Stock and inventory stocktake and count - inventory in Xero & MYOB Advanced Certificate Training CoursesThe case for a monthly stocktake

The inventory feature in Xero was a functionality that was missing for many years — but then Xero caught up.

Running an inventory report in Xero is pretty easy. The hard work sets in when you have to count your inventory to account for any discrepancies. There are usually always differences between what Xero says you should have in stock, and what you actually have on hand. The more frequently you run them, the fewer discrepancies you’ll find.

Like anything in the bookkeeping process, the more frequently you do something — be it reconciling your account or chasing up late payers — the easier and quicker it is. Where a quarterly or yearly stocktake could take half a day or more, a monthly one may only take you a couple of hours.

Understand trends in your business

A monthly stocktake is a good way to get to know your business, and understand its certain trends and idiosyncrasies. In particular, it helps you with ordering and making related business decisions.

A shop selling food, for example, needs to be wary of ordering stock that doesn’t sell quickly and ultimately goes out of date. A monthly stocktake will help you keep track of this, and monitor which items sell quickly and which don’t. Likewise, a monthly stocktake of a furniture shop lets you determine which pieces spend long periods in storage, and manage your ordering accordingly.

Run inventory reports in Xero

Free Xero Training Course video about inventory reporting
Click Image to see FREE Xero Training Course video

Do a monthly stocktake by running your inventory reports in Xero. You’ll be able to work out whether your stock:

  • is ageing (for technology retailers)
  • is going off (food)
  • costs more money to store (furniture); and, subsequently, how long it can take to sell before it’s costing you money. 

If you are new to bookkeeping it’s probably a good idea to learn more about some of the basic Xero reports you can produce for a business.

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos***

If you only have a very basic knowledge of Xero, cloud accounting or bookkeeping, and you’re looking to gain a better understanding of basic bookkeeping terminology, get our free Basic Bookkeeping Guide. 

You’ll learn how to run reports in Xero, in particular inventory reports, in our Xero training courses. Visit our website for more information or to enrol and see course prices.

online bookkeeping courses to earn 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.

 

Posted on by

Should You Charge Less Than the Minimum Wage as a Contract Bookkeeper?

Junior level 1 bookkeepers good cheap local bookkeeping services - Natbooks

Don’t attract interest in your services for the wrong reasons

RECENTLY I’VE WRITTEN about how your prices should be part of your business strategy and not your marketing strategy. I talked about Mark, the painter, who advertised a really low day rate but wasn’t able to carry out the volume of jobs he needed to make enough money (see Is Your Charge-Out Rate a Marketing or Business Strategy?).

A better strategy for Mark would have been to research the market and find ways to provide customers with savings elsewhere (Researching the Market is a Crucial Part of Every Business Strategy).

The same principle can be applied to contract bookkeepers charging less than the minimum wage. Although this may get you a lot of regular work early on in your business, you will soon learn that it’s unsustainable. And because it’s also really hard to increase your rates substantially, you’ll just find yourself back at square one if you do so anyway.

Check out the National Bookkeeping Rates of Pay to get indicative pricing for contract bookkeeping services.

Remember your entitlements

When you’re setting your prices, don’t forget to factor in your entitlements. As a full time employee of a business, you receive annual leave entitlements equating to four weeks’ salary, sick leave equating to ten days’ salary, public holiday pay, superannuation, and tax withheld on your behalf.

As a contract bookkeeper, you should earn the equivalent of a full year’s salary proportional to how many days or hours you work each week.

Contractor or employee?

As a contractor, your hourly rate will be higher than that of a full time employee, sometimes two times as high. If you have clients who don’t want to pay a higher hourly rate to hire you as an independent contractor, they might be better suited to employing casual staff instead.

If you’d prefer the life of an employee check out our Career Academy Success Program.

Increasing your rates

If you decide it’s time to increase your rates, you need to show how you provide value to your clients’ businesses, in order to discourage them from seeking the same services from another, cheaper bookkeeper. If there’s some extenuating circumstances, it may also be worthwhile explaining the reason for the increase — if your compliance costs have increased due to government regulatory changes, for example. (Note: Rising electricity, broadband or rent is best kept to yourself.)

***

You’ll learn ways to increase your rates without losing your clients by enrolling in Research the Market module of our Business StartUp training course as a standalone mini course. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.  

Ref:#700

 

Posted on by — 1 Comment

MYOB AccountRight Plus and MYOB Essentials – they’re different

myob-essentials online training course live logo

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!

learn to use excel online training course videos cheap best

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!

Posted on by

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!

 

Posted on by

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

how useful is a linkedin profile online learning social media training

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.

***

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.

Blog Ref:#699

Posted on by — 1 Comment

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). 

 

 

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Accounting Software or ERP System?

enterprise resource planning systems learn myob xero quickbooks online training course videos

Are you BIG enough yet?

I’VE BEEN IN BUSINESS since my early twenties but it wasn’t until my late twenties that I had any clue about how larger companies use and pay for software. I was going through the process of selling a water filter business that I’d been operating in Sydney’s Dee Why when I had the pleasure of meeting the owner of Fountainhead Water Company, Mark Darling.

Fountainhead used a specialised accounting system for the bottled water business which did everything from receipts for each delivery to capturing bottle deposits, tracking rental coolers and more — and Mark was paying hundreds of dollars per month for this software. It was a far cry from purchasing the MYOB software for a couple hundred dollars and NEVER upgrading (no payroll at the time).

Continue reading Accounting Software or ERP System?
Posted on by

Save 48% off Excel, MYOB and Xero Training Courses

EzyLearn Last Dasher Sale November 2017 for cheap Xero, Cheap MYOB and Cheap Excel courses

EzyLearn Last Dasher Sale November 2017Now almost half the price and twice the speed!

I HAVE JUST BEEN THROUGH a gruuelling experience with our hosting company, technical people and course creators to make sure that EzyLearn continues to be the first choice for Bookkeeping and Marketing Courses.

Our servers are now twice as fast and have more storage so existing students should experience some nice and fast access speeds — unless you’re in an NBN area that drops out all the time (sorry Telstra, I love you BUT the access speed is no different from what it was over here in the NSW Lake Macquarie area!)

In case you weren’t aware, I was recently heavily involved in a renovation of an investment property in Newcastle (which I really enjoyed and has given us a whole lot of extra content from real world experiences with local tradies like electricians, plumbers, chippies, painters and more) but am now back on the tools (the internet and software tools, that is) and keen to continue improving every aspects of our courses for existing AND new students.

We’ve coming up to the crazy, silly season once again that is Christmas, and I thought I’d push our marketing up another notch to help those who want to learn more to improve their lives and businesses in 2018. I hope I’m not too early in thinking like this but it’s a great time to think about what’s important in life and go and get it.

New people, new experience and MORE new content

I’ve spoken with some fantastic people who’ve joined us in the accounting software space and they have some tremendous experience in the ERP (Enterprise resource planning) side of accounting — that is accounting software as used by mid size companies. From this, we’re going to share some great information, tips and experiences to help those businesses who either deal with larger companies as clients, or who are at the stage of ramping up their accounting as a mid size business.

We’ve also just gone through the upgrade of training materials for Microsoft Excel 2016 and Xero Courses, including the new Xero Cashflow Course, and I’ll share some of that information with you as it gets published on our LMS.

If you are an existing Xero Course student you can access this course for free as part of our EzyLearn Updates policy.

There’s much more news to come, but for now please take advantage of and share our current “LAST DASHer SALE!” with your friends. And do subscribe to receive our updates!

Posted on by

Invoice Late and Say Goodbye to 7 Days

Get paid in Nett 7 days with Xero and Quickbooks Accounting Software Training Courses

Not invoicing quickly sends a message to your clients

Get paid in Nett 7 days with Xero and Quickbooks Accounting Software Training CoursesI MENTIONED IN A previous post about why you should quote and invoice customers on the spot if you can.

You’re more likely to get the job or get paid on the spot or pretty soon after if you do and it helps you

  • prioritise your work schedule (ideally using something like Calendar in Google’s G Suite)
  • keeps your cash flow healthy, which is important if you’re a tradie who goes out purchasing materials before you start a job
  • Sends a message that you are efficient and would like to be paid promptly

If you don’t invoice quickly your clients could forget what the invoice was for, call and ask questions about it because it’s no longer fresh in their mind and even put it off “Until the next payment cycle”, which is sometimes just an excuse for “some time in the future”.

Late invoicing is a pain for clients

During a recent renovation in Newcastle, I encountered a handyman named Paul. I asked him at least three times to invoice for the work he’d done before he finally sent one through.

When the invoice did come through it was in Microsoft Word format so I understand why it took so long — he would have been better using Xero or QuickBooks Apps on his phone!  On top of this, he then said to me, “Can you please pay me quickly because I’ve run out of money!”

I chased him for an invoice so I could pay him quickly, after all, I believe that if you charge a competitive price and do a good job for professional services that you should be paid quickly.

I prefer to pay quickly because I don’t have the debt over my head and I want people to work for me in the future — it’s a form of goodwill from a customers perspective but not all customers are like that.  Some customers see you as just another “Creditor” and are accustomed to string their Creditors out as long as possible.

Chasing someone for payment or an invoice or even a quote takes time and management — you have to note it in your diary, calendar, todo list or a report from your software program, and it starts to bring in feelings of resentment, particularly if they’re not feeling the best one day. Make it easy for customers to pay you and get your invoices out quickly.

Don’t invoice using Microsoft Word

When Paul finally sent me his invoice as a Word document there were a few problems I recognised:

  • First, it takes a long time to update a Word template, and it’s easy to make mistakes — leave the customer name, invoice number, date or other details unchanged, for example, which messes with your bookkeeping come tax time.
  • It’s easy to accidentally delete or change details in a Word document. It’s even easier to delete or change details in a Word document on purpose.
  • Paul had to get onto his computer to create the invoice
  • He doesn’t have a system of keeping track of who owes him money
  • It’s more complicated to make a note of and keep track of which Word Document (um, I mean “Invoice” has been paid)
  • Most people recognise a Word document and don’t think you’re very organised.

You definitely shouldn’t send invoices or estimates to customers in an “editable” Word document. It becomes a game of “he said, she said” if something goes awry, and that just further impedes a quick payment from your customer.

Don’t invoice late, then ask for prompt payment

When Paul followed up with a call asking me to pay the invoice promptly (and after I asked him no fewer than three times to send it in the first place), I paid it promptly because I happened to be available and organise payment.

However, the practice of doing this causes so many negative effects that it’s something every business owner should avoid. Here are some problems with asking for prompt payment after sending a late invoice:

  • If the first call you’re making to a client or customer after working with them is to ask them to pay you quickly, your business processes are wrong. Your first call, after working with a customer, should be a customer service call not a credit management one.
  • It builds resentment in the customers mind because they haven’t done anything wrong.
  • It makes you look desperate and, even if you are, it’s not your customers concern.
  • It stays in your customers mind for the next time they want to use you or someone else who offers a similar service.

Get set up on Xero and start being more professional immediately

in person and one on one training online learning course videosUse cloud-accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks so you can quote and invoice on the go quickly, securely and easily. For help setting up QuickBooks or Xero for your business, visit our website to learn more about our Xero or QuickBooks training courses.

 

Posted on by

3 Little Mistakes that Cost Thousands

online training learning tradesmen carpenter painter plumber electrician turning quote into sale

How tapping into your Smartphone can win you work

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

Posted on by

Excel Spreadsheet Skills Overestimated & Needing Analysis

EzyLearn Online Courses logo - Microsoft Excel 2016 training & support

Excel Course Needs Analysis Checklist Waste of TimeNeeds Analysis a Waste of Time

IN LARGER COMPANIES a Needs Analysis can be a powerful tool for delving into a problem and coming up with a solution.

However, when it comes to Microsoft Excel Training, asking students to complete a needs analysis can be a complete waste of time.

Why? Because most students overestimate their skills — not because they’re being dishonest, but because they will have come across many terms before and, because they can use certain jargon in conversation, they tend to think they know how to do the associated skill.

Sometimes a needs analysis is also irrelevant because many people are unaware of all the wonderful things Excel and other programs can do.

When we put our training courses online, we realised that instead of wasting time doing needs analyses — which aren’t accurate most of the time, anyway — we could bundle all of our courses together and cover every skill level, for one low price.

Typical Excel Intermediate Course Scenario

As a Microsoft Excel Intermediate Trainer, one of the most awkward moments I remember when doing face-to-face training was when I started going through one of the very first exercises with a new group of students, only to realise that 40% of the people in the room had no idea what I was talking about.

It’s worse in a face-to-face group training environment because everyone else in the group will now be disadvantaged. When we used to conduct these classroom style Excel classes, we would ask people to go through and supplement their lack of knowledge by reading the Excel Beginners workbooks.

Online Excel courses are even better — you can get everyone to start from scratch and they can all be on the same page.

Bundling all pf our Excel courses together means businesses can save many hours of needs analysis and hundreds of dollars, by enrolling staff in our Excel training courses.

Besides, most students report that, even though they might do our training courses for the intermediate or advanced modules, they learned lots of skills from the beginner courses, too.

Everyone Learns Something in an Excel Beginners Course

Granny flat manufactured home development for property investmentBasic / Beginners’ Excel courses take students through the different tasks that are possible with spreadsheets, introduce commonly used terms and set the foundation for more advanced features, covered in the intermediate and advanced courses.

If you’re subscribed to this blog, then you’ll know that EzyLearn use to operate physical training centres before we moved all of our content online in 2006. In those early days, we did a lot of needs analysis for the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Service (now called Disability Employment Services).

Through this organisation we received Workcover students, who needed to brush up on their Excel skills before returning to work, and who often they had to change careers from physical work to more office type jobs.

Many students enrol in our courses only requiring a beginners’ level of training but proceed to the advanced modules by choice. This is because our online courses are built in a logical progression from basic to more advanced, building constantly on the new skills taught. Students also find that the Excel course content helps them in their everyday tasks and work, no matter what their field.

Thinking of investing in property? “Wannabe property investors” will find our Excel courses very helpful because they contain exercises to help you:

  • Maintain a household budget
  • Determine how much you can borrow
  • Potential returns from property investment

***

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

EzyLearn Online Course CPD points for bookkeepers and marketing professionalsNeed Accounting CPD Courses?

Do you need to up-skill and complete some short courses to earn CPD points? Check out our CPD Course programs.

Online bookkeeping accounting training courses for CPD points

 

Posted on by

What Does Lifetime Access Mean for Xero and Excel Courses?

Receive updated course content — for life!

learning how to use excel and xero with online training
We are one of the only online learning centres offering access to course updates for the rest of your working life with our Lifetime Access option.

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.

Upskill at your own pace

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.

Keep up-to-date across all software versions

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.

Don’t miss out on our terrific Spring specials! 

learn online training Xero courses videos for less

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.

 

Posted on by

Don’t Wing It With Customer Service – Plan It

Great customer service doesn’t just happen.

learn online training videos about small business customer service
If you’re unsure about what makes up the kind of customer service people rave about, then perhaps you should look into our EzyStartUp Course.

HOW TO PROVIDE REALLY exceptional customer service is just one of the modules covered in our EzyStartUp Course which teaches you all about how to start up your own business.

We handpicked this inclusion as our experience is that, time and time again, good, nay excellent customer service goes a long way to ensuring a business has longevity. Continue reading Don’t Wing It With Customer Service – Plan It