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Finding a job using Linkedin as your resume

How to use linkedin to find a job or new customers
How to use linkedin to find a job or new customers

LinkedIn + your resume

I recently wrote about the death of the resume and how Linkedin is replacing the written resume, now I have located a great ebook to help you master the art of using Linked in as a tool to help you find a job or get new customers.

The most interesting change in the employment market that I have noticed is the slow evolution from job seekers looking at job ads to employers searching for the best employees. Social media tools like Linkedin make this all possible.

Attracting the right people

If you are a business owner you have a website to attract customers. You combine great writing and interesting pictures to attract potential customers to your website and then contact details and an offer to ensure they make contact with you. LinkedIn is the same concept for individuals, you combine the right keywords and headings to attract people to your LinkedIn profile. Once people are attracted to your profile you can let them know that you are interested in a job, contracting work or other opportunities.

Find Bookkeeping work or customers

If you are completing our MYOB Training Courses you might want to consider joining LinkedIn if you are not already a member. If you are a member and want to get better results this concise ebook about LinkedIn has some excellent information that will help you get more results from your current LinkedIn profile.

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MYOB Payment Terms and Getting Paid on Time

MYOB Payment TermsReceive payments MYOB payment terms

I wrote a blog post about getting paid on time back in late June 2012 and thought I would share some information that might help if your customers are not paying according to your MYOB Payment Terms.

If you are not already aware, MYOB enables you to set payment terms at three levels:

  1. System wide default
  2. Customer (or supplier) card level
  3. Transaction (ie. Invoice) level

Debtor Control and Credit Risk

Setting up MYOB Payment Terms enables you to maintain tight control of your credit risk. When the MYOB Payment terms are set-up correctly you can run reports that show exactly how much money is owed to you and how old it is. The age of the debt is referred to as the Aging Period and it’s commonly 30, 60 or 90 days. We teach these MYOB skills in our MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions course.

Direct Debit Facilities

If you work in or own a business that provides ongoing services and charges a monthly fee then a direct debit facility is something you should definitely look into. Direct Debit services are traditionally offered by the major banks like St George Bank, but there are also some small and nimble companies that help you get paid on time and here are a couple of them:

When you decide to use these services you would create another “bank account” in your chart of accounts and keep track of the money that goes into these accounts, the fees they charge and then the money that comes out and into your main bank account. It’s very similar to setting up a Paypal account for your company, the Paypal account becomes another bank account in your MYOB file that needs to be reconciled.

I hope these tips help to reduce your debt collection woes and make for happier, healthier bookkeeping.

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Are Aussie accounting software firms now competing in a global space? Threats to MYOB?

Kashoo Online Bookkeeping Software comparison to MYOB, XEROI was speaking with a business owner this morning and he mentioned that he was going to try a new accounting software SERVICE after a recommendation from his web guy? It made me ask the question: “Is your web or IT guy the source of recommendation about your bookkeeping software or is it your bookkeeper or accountant?”

In my previous blog post where we included a free training video about performing a bank reconciliation using MYOB, I mentioned some other bookkeeping software programs that compete with MYOB but the program that my business owner friend talked about was from a Canadian company called Kashoo…It then dawned on me that of all the bookkeeping programs only one of them is Australian owned anyway, SAASU. MYOB is now owned by US Private Equity, Xero is a New Zealand public company, Freshbooks is US based and Kashoo is a Canadian company.

This adds to the impetus behind local Australian bookkeepers having to compete with international remote workers for bookkeeping work… but more about that another time.

The good news right now is the MYOB is a clear market leader for use in most small businesses and if you are looking to earn a living as an accounting employee or independent contractor the chances are you will need to know how to use MYOB Accounting software. We try to make it easier by providing LIFETIME student access and all five MYOB Training Courses for one low price!

We will be reviewing the online accounting software mentioned in this blog post so make sure you subscribe to receive the reviews as they arrive.

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Video: Reconcile your bank account to your MYOB datafile

We use this blog to provide some free samples of our training materials as well as inform readers about the features of our online MYOB and Microsoft Excel Training Courses. Today I am going to demonstrate the key features about performing a bank reconciliation using MYOB and how our EzyLearn ANSWER student support service helps bookkeeping students.

A bank reconciliation in MYOB is what brings your MYOB datafile back to reality. Your bank statement shows the truth about what money has gone into and out of your bank account and provides you with the blueprint you need to reconcile your MYOB accounting system. The video below demonstrates that once you have performed all your Day-to-Day Transactions a bank reconciliation makes sure that you have entered all the information you need to. At the end of a bank reconciliation your MYOB data is correct and you can start to run reports and get some great up-to-date information about your business.

MYOB releases new versions of their software most years and usually at the beginning of each new tax year to coincide with new PAYG tax tables and they are currently going through a race to the cloud to compete with many new startups like Xero, SAASU, Reach Accounting and FreshBooks. Some times these upgrades haven’t gone smoothly and students ask us how to perform actions in our training workbooks using MYOB. To help students in these scenarios we launch EzyLearn ANSWERS in May 2011 and this is one of the results we release via our blog. There are many other support blogs we’ve written so feel free to search our blog for answers.

If you have subscribed to our blog and are reading this via email, click on the heading to get to our website to see the free training video.

Your Free MYOB Training Workbook is almost with you

[schema type=”product” url=”http://ezylearnonline.com.au/courses/myob-training/course-502-day-to-day-transactions-using-myob/” name=”MYOB Daily Transactions Course” description=”Learn about sales, purchases, items, terms, sales orders, quotes and invoices and statements, Credits, Bad Debts and Reversals and much more about how MYOB is used for day to day bookkeeping training induction” brand=”EzyLearn” manfu=”MYOB” model=”AccountRight Plus” single_rating=”5″ agg_rating=”25″ price=”$197.00″ condition=”New” ]You’ve reached this page because you subscribed for our free MYOB training workbook.

You will receive an email to confirm your email address and then you’ll receive the workbook as a pdf that you can save and print.

Add our email address (sales@ezylearn.com.au) to your contacts so you don’t miss the email. If it doesn’t arrive check your JUNKMAIL folder.

The workbook takes you through a typical scenario for a small business telephone company that purchases VoIP telephones from a wholesaler and supplies them to customers with their setup and maintenance services. The workbook includes:

  • payments for things like office cleaning
  • purchase orders and receiving of goods in stock
  • quotations, converting quotes to orders and then invoices
  • receiving part and full payments for invoices
  • Using item and service layouts

The content of this workbook covers the MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions course which is one of our most popular online training courses. It covers most of the skills you would need to perform daily transactions.

If you like what you see and want to have access to all five MYOB training courses (includes videos and knowledge reviews to test your skills) and receive a Certificate in MYOB you can enrol today and start by 5pm tomorrow.

The 5 MYOB courses are:

MYOB Setup
MYOB Day-to-Day
MYOB Bank Reconciliation
MYOB Reporting, GST and BAS
MYOB Payroll

Not only does our one price include access to all 5 MYOB courses but you receive LIFETIME access to the course and training material.

We add new content regularly and as a student you get access to this new content which is announced via the EzyLearn Blog. We also use the blog to provide free tips and tricks and news articles that relate to bookkeeping and office administration, career support if you are looking for work and business startup skills to help you start and build your own business.

I hope you enjoy your experience with EzyLearn Training material.

Sincerely,

Steve Slisar
EzyLearn Pty Ltd
Phone: (02) 9971 0000

PS: If you are interested in learning more about us, please follow this link to read about how we’ve been helping students since 1996.

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Google Maps makes you street smart

Google Maps and Computer Shops Parramatta MYOB training coursesHave you ever tried to use Google Maps to get directions to your next appointment? I had a recent experience that made me realise why Google Maps makes you street smart.

Many years ago when we had street directories we could see exactly where we needed to go. We could choose our own path based on our knowledge of the roads and of traffic patterns. Now Google gives you suggestions, but I am not sure they are always the best suggestions.

I’ve been using Google Maps to find local training companies around Sydney as well as computer shops, employment agencies, job network agencies and other companies in the career and recruitment fields so that I can tell them about our MYOB Bookkeeping Training Courses and bring them on board as partners. I know that many of us take it for granted these days, but I am reminded of how powerful our mobile phones and internet searching has become! I wrote about this for local business marketing back in 2010 in my personal blog.

I’ve gone to Google Maps on my Android Smartphone and searched for computer shops and up comes a map with a whole bunch of dots and placemarks (like in the image). If you click the place mark you get information about that business and can then call them directly from this information! Google users can also write reviews about your business so watch this space.

Google Android Screen shot of Google Maps local search info
Click on the image to see it enlarged on your screen…

You also have the ability to get directions and this is the part that I always find interesting. Having grown up in Sydney I know how to get around and often I am presented with driving suggestions that I don’t agree with. When I use my gut instincts I end up getting to the destination on time and without frustration and I wanted to share this with you because I think it demonstrates that technology is only here to make our lives easier. We still have to make the right decisions regarding the information that technology gives us.

In the end your own experience will tell you which way to go and there is no better feeling than using and trusting in your own instincts. Google Maps makes you street smart because your own local knowledge is often better than that of a machine and it’s always good to trust your own instincts.

PS. It’s interesting to see a photo for JB Hi-Fi that appears to be from someone’s bedroom…

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Could Linkedin replace the written resume?

Linkedin hands searching for potential bookkeeping employeesI’ve written a series of blog posts about various aspects of resume writing and other tips you can use to help secure the next great job and it’s fitting that we explore why Linkedin is a serious place for you to promote your MYOB Bookkeeping skills.

I was fortunate enough to attend a social media club (Sydney) education event that was presented by the managing director of Linkedin and he went to great lengths to explain just how deep the company wants to go into the recruitment and talent market. Upon visiting various parts of the LinkedIn website I found some links that might further encourage you to recognise the importance of Linkedin in your employment or business building journey.

Linkedin has a page for talent departments and case studies for companies that have used their services and employers can even place recruitment ads within the site to clearly target the right job applicants.

We found a great article written by Susan Heathfield about how Linkedin is being used as a recruitment tool for the HR team at many businesses. Do you need help in your job searching strategy? Stay tuned.


We will shortly be announcing a fantastic special offer regarding Linkedin and resume writing for all students who take advantage of our forthcoming Bookkeepers’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program. This program is a new service as part of our MYOB training courses. Make sure you subscribe to receive this information in your email inbox.

 

 

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ATO says write-off $6500 of capital purchases in the 2013 financial year

business asset depreciation for 2013 financial year with ATO and MYOB bookkeeping coursesThere have been some big tax changes this year and as part of our Bookkeepers Continuing Professional Development Program and our MYOB Training Courses we’re writing some short articles about key information that you can pass onto your customers or employers regarding their bookkeeping.

In conjunction with the recent announcements regarding the carbon tax, the ATO has made significant changes with regard to the Tax Free Threshold and Write-off for capital purchases.

Businesses with less than $2M turnover previously had to depreciate any assets which cost more than $1,000 over several years. From 1 July 2012 this has changed to a whopping $6,500. If you buy an asset valued at say, $5000, it can be “expensed” straight away, no need to include it in your depreciation schedule. It’s like an instant expense which reduces your taxable income .

The benefits are aimed towards smaller business owners as it affects their cash flow almost immediately, rather than being depreciated and split over a number of years. Want to receive these tips and tricks in your email inbox? Subscribe now and remain continually updated.

Would you like to see an example of how to manage asset depreciation and writing off assets using MYOB accounting software?

The ATO is allowing businesses to write-off more assets than before without having to depreciate them.We’ve added new training content to our MYOB Reporting course about how to handle these tasks at the end of each financial year as part of our constant content updates. Make sure you subscribe to this blog to be abreast of all new training content as well as some free tips and tricks.

To find out more, click the ATO’s link here: Small business concessions: changes to simpler depreciation rules apply from 2012-13

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Is being a work-at-home mum like being on holidays?

cloud based voip telephone systemsOne of the great benefits of being a work at home mum is being able to watch your kids grow up while you take some time out to do work. Since we operated computer software training centres in 1999 many of our students have been either working mums or mums returning to the workface after spending many years in babyland and for many it has been a difficult change.

We’ve always noticed that many mums look to enter the workforce in the bookkeeping field because the work is not time critical yet requires a good skill level that ends up paying well. The great news is that bookkeeping is moving further and further into the cloud so you can now literally do the books from your home.

We’re proud to say that we have a team of work at home mums keeping the engines running at EzyLearn Online. Our MYOB training courses are some of the most popular MYOB courses in Australia and we are able to provide them at their current prices because of the work-from-home mums that are part of our team.

Our business utilizes some state-of-the-art software as a service (SaaS) tools available today and we’re committed to helping all work-at-home mums learn the skills they need to ensure that they can have the work-life balance they are looking for. Our Work-at-home mums use VIRION business grade voip telephone services, HighRiseHQ online CRM, our online learning platform and our online student support system that manages queries from students.

Where you live has never been less important than now. As long as you have a good broadband internet connection and the skills to use cloud based applications you can earn a living while bringing up your children.

To those work at home mums reading this blog post we want you to know that we have some exciting announcements between now and the end of this year about the plethora of online software applications that enable you to earn a living from home while looking after your kids. If you haven’t subscribed yet, feel free to do so and receive updates as they are announced.

Stay tuned for announcements of new courses planned in the coming 6 months…

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Is the money really owed to you? Then pursue it!

Get paid on time using MYOB, Xero or SAASU - accounts receivable
Image from Sydney Morning Herald article about difficult payers on September 14th 2011

I was reading an article about difficult payers and the steps that some companies need to take to chase money that is owing to them and thought that this is something that every MYOB Bookkeeper needs to be aware of.

There seems to be perception (and most of the bad news seems to come from the building and construction industry) that payment of debts is something that should be stretched out as far as possible. I was discussing this concept with a colleague and was interested to find that this person believes that payments should be stretched out as long as practical. The interesting part of this conversation is that this person is a very reasonable man. He believes in long term investments and dealing with every person in a fair and reasonable manner, so it was strange for me to hear this mentality.

If you commission someone to do some work for you, shouldn’t they be entitled to be paid on the same terms that an employee is entitled to? I think so and you’ll find some skills to find out who owes you money in our MYOB Day-to-Day training course.

Here are the steps that are recommended:

  1. Charge in Advance if you can
  2. Chase money owing early
  3. Provide multiple payment options
  4. Be as up-to-date as possible
  5. Enforce your trading terms
  6. Be honest about non-paying clients
  7. Give customers an opportunity to complain
  8. Be polite
  9. Get heavy on time

A leading author of MYOB and Small Business “How to” books, Veechi Curtis says that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So, chase money as soon as an account falls behind. Perhaps a more relevant saying is “work with the willing”. There are many people who value the work you do enough to pay you before the due date. There are customers who can afford what you do and want you to think positively of them so they pay as early as practical.

Find customers who want to be good to you!

This blog post is an introduction to articles that will be coming shortly for the continuing professional development of the bookkeeping academy so make sure you subscribe to receive updates via email.

References taken from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald on September 14th 2011.

 

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Should we offer MYOB Training Courses to group buying companies?

group-buying-sites-choice-review-discounted-MYOB-training-course
Image from Choice website

We’ve been approached by many different Groupon type companies. There seems to be hundreds of these sites popping up every day and they are famous for offering you almost unbelievable discount coupons for almost anything but most commonly services like pedicures, restaurant and cafe meals etc. We’ve always ensured our prices are competitive and bookkeeping students receive good value for money, but our Training Partners have tried them and we’ll share their opinions with you.

For business owners (or merchants as we are called) group buying sites promote the possibility of receiving hundreds of sales of your product (so you better make sure you can service the demand) but what do they want in return. Here’s a classic scenario:

Normal Price: $200

Group Buying Price: $100

Saving to you: $100

Margin that goes to the Group Buying Site is typically 50% of the discounted price, ie. $50

This means that a merchant that would normally receive $200 for something, will now receive $50! Is it worth it? Then why not just sell it on special for $100 and spend some money advertising it? As you can see, we are pessimistic about the future of group buying sites. Our training partners workface.com.au offered a discount on their Microsoft Excel training courses only to receive a handful of sales.

choice_group_buying_reviewAnd there are hundreds of these group buying sites. See if you can recognise some of these names: Cudo, Groupon, AlltheDeals, Spreets, Living Social, Grabone, BizzBuzz etc. At the beginning of 2011 a local Australian startup in the space was sold for $40M! If you have time read a review by Choice Magazine.

The main reason we don’t like the big group buying sites is because of some of the conditions imposed.

When you buy the discount voucher the group buying site earns the money. Some of the more selfish sites will then only pass this money to the merchant when the customer uses the voucher. In other words, if the  customer doesn’t use the voucher within the “valid period” the merchant earns nothing and the customer loses the benefit!

By the way, I was at a software training function last week and a birdy told me that consumer protection laws might come into affect that provides protection for buyers of these discount vouchers – if you buy a $50 product then you can receive $50 off after the offer period has expired. Watch this space…

As far as discount coupons, we make them available to you. Just tell us what you are looking for in a training course and you’ll automatically receive a discount coupon code for our MYOB, WordPress and Excel training courses.

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Ebay sends mothers little helpers

Ebay sends mothers little helpersWithout wanting to dive into the psyche of a new born mother I noticed a warming pattern in Ebay shipments. Although my teenage years weren’t filled with the educational perspective of The Rolling Stones’ lyrics, the benefits of small parcels from other Ebay devotees fulfils the mothers need for new and interesting things.

Moving away from our usual topics of computer software training, employment services and MYOB and Bookkeeping related blog posts I delve into the stupendous success of Ebay. Ebay users share an unequalled (in the eye of this writer) desire to be rated by their peers so that they can sell to other Ebay devotees. Small children’s garments are often mailed for the cost of the packaging and freight in the knowledge that they will benefit another fledgling family as merchants are rewarded by the invisible smiles of happiness of thousands of  recipients in other suburbs every day.

If business owners can act in this way the future might be filled with more specialised businesses that do a better job and are prepared to be publicly rated.

Just like Carol the kindle user and Grandpa Jack, Ebay is evidence that technology is now like electricity – a normal part of our lives. Bring on the next wave.

 

 

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Mummy earns good money

mums returning to work doing bookkeeping using MYOBEmployment is one of those huge questions in the mind of many mums and dads. How to ensure that the family can maintain an income from both parents while still giving your new infant the time they need.

When we operated our MYOB training courses in Parramatta, Chatswood, Burwood, Gordon and Dee Why we noticed that a lot of mums were looking for a way to work during school hours while still being able to earn good money. They were coming to our MYOB courses because they knew that they could earn good money performing bookkeeping for local customers. The same still applies today.

It is now easier for working mums to earn good money and still remain at home! With VoIP Phone Systems, accounting services in the cloud and broadband internet mums can perform bookkeeping tasks for clients anywhere in Australia.

 

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The Richest Man in Babylon

We wrote about the superannuation guarantee last week as part of our bookkeeping academy and continuing professional development (CPD) for bookkeepers and we wanted to expand on an excellent concept within the blog post about “The richest man in Babylon”.

There are some excellent phrases and some simple, but important lessons in the Richest man in Babylon book which dates back to 1926! The one which we found interesting (and it stood out to us because we are an education and training provider) was the heading “Increase thy ability to earn“.

This concept applies to many industries and we’ve found there are two types of workers (whether you are a business owner or employee), those that seek new information and education so that they can be innovative and productive or those who do it because of necessity. When we say necessity there are two types:

  • If I don’t learn I will be out of work, OR
  • I need to learn to keep my job, licence etc

The Bookkeeping industry has been undergoing massive changes since 2010 and will continue to do so because bookkeepers responsible for lodging BAS’s on behalf of their clients will need to be registered BAS agents and as a result will need to always be abreast of changes in legislation. This webcast transcript from the tax practitioners board will give you some insight into how much the bookkeeping industry is changing.

You can be assured that our online MYOB training courses will be regularly updated to ensure that your knowledge on MYOB is up-to-date.

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Want to see what MYOB looks like when it’s hosted in the cloud?

Remote_desktop_connection_icon for MYOB hosted in the cloudAs part of our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program for our Bookkeeping Academy we write and inform about products and services that will help bookkeepers build their business and job seekers learn new skills to become more employable.

We recently wrote about companies that offer MYOB hosting. This enables companies to access their MYOB datafile from no matter where they are and it also enables remote contractors to manage a companies bookkeeping from their own homes. In this blog post we include a video demonstration about how easy it is to use MYOB in the cloud.

We spoke to John from Bluewave who use to promote his MYOB hosting services under the domain MYOBinthecloud.com (we think it’s a great name because it describes the service that he offered very accurately) and he was kind enough to give us a demonstration account so that we could give a hosted version of MYOB a spin. He said that they provide hosted solutions for more than just MYOB and we were able to create an invoice and email it using Microsoft Outlook.

The MYOB version we used in this demonstration is the stable version 19 (as opposed to MYOB AccountRight version 2011 that had a lot of bad publicity). The great news about MYOB is that it’s navigation hasn’t changed significantly for at least 10 years from our experience.

If you area reading this blog post via email, click on the heading to be able to see the video). If you want to ensure that you get each update as it is published via your email feel free to subscribe. If you want to create your own blog using WordPress and Google Feedburner learn how to create it in our WordPress course.

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Live Excel Pivot-Table Stats: self-paced learning versus class-based training

Excel Course 308 - pivot table value field settings for intermediate to advanced Excel training courseWant to see some live data from when we operated our Sydney-based training centre? We conducted courses for Absolute Beginners (we call it Computer Learners now), Microsoft Word and Excel, MYOB Accounting software for bookkeeping and others. We also offered different start times and different methods of delivery including self-paced (which has evolved into online) as well as class-based training courses.

The data in this free Microsoft Excel training video is taken from our student enrolment database the same year we created our first training videos. We created these videos to make them available to students who couldn’t fit into a schedule or wanted a more personalised training experience. Want to learn more about my fond journey in computer training? Feel free to also subscribe to my small business blog while you are at that site.

If you are reading this as an email, click on the heading to get to our blog site and enjoy the free training video about Pivot Tables using Microsoft Excel (the exercise file is provided in our Excel Training Course) and shows live data of enrolments for that year. We used a pivot table to find out:

  1. The popular courses,
  2. The popular training methods
  3. The popular start times for courses.

Can you see in the video which year the data is from? Back then we had experienced trainer like Maria Landrelli and Marie Diblasio to deliver our popular MYOB Day-to-Day courses to find work as a bookkeeper.

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