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The Best Xero-Integrated CRMs

How can you provide great customer service? Consistently?

IF YOU ARE LIKE most businesses, you’re probably communicating with your customers and clients via multiple touch points — email, social media, phone calls, chat bots. But how are you keeping track of all these interactions?

A while back I wrote a blog asking the question whether MYOB is, in fact, a CRM and which CRMs I found to be the best and why. It’s worth a read if you want to familiarise yourself with exactly what it is CRMs can do for you and your business.

Continue reading The Best Xero-Integrated CRMs
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$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


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The Best Xero-Integrated Project Management Apps

xero integrated apps to keep your business within budget learn xero online learning videos

Which ones are best for your business?

xero integrated apps to keep your business within budget learn xero online learning videos
We look at project management apps that integrate beautifully with Xero to keep your project within timeframe and budget.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How lifelong learning was born

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

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

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

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

Technology made lifelong learning vital

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

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

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

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

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

The four pillars of learning

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

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

Implementing lifelong learning

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

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

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

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

Xero lifelong learning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ref#728

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Sometimes “Real World” Marketing, Not Digital, is More Appropriate

IF YOU’RE A TRADIE, working as a plumber, builder or carpenter, handyman, gardener or electrician, then you probably already know that some of the best jobs come by referral.

Identify “real world” sales opportunities

During my recent renovation of an investment property in Newcastle, most of the good tradies would tell me, “Someone you’re working on a job with on Monday will ask you to do a job for them somewhere else on Friday, or a neighbour of a client will ask you to do some work for them.” I soon saw from other tradespeople how “work can come to you just because someone happens to be walking by while you’re on the job” — gardeners get a lot of work this way, for example.

The important thing in this scenario is to act efficiently in finding out what the potential client needs, finding out what else is important, and then selling them on your services. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Kristine Seymour, an experienced sales person and business builder, for the Sales Training Course at the Australian Small Business Centre (ASBC). She spoke in detail about how to act when your future income depends on how well you can sell. This Sales Training Course is available on the EzyLearn LMS.

Continue reading Sometimes “Real World” Marketing, Not Digital, is More Appropriate
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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!


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


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Interest-free student loans and course finance VERSUS cheap courses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


 

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Video: Xero Training Course Announcement – ALL Included

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Working with the Best People

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

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

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

We’re going DEEP in 2018

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

  • accounting
  • office administration
  • marketing

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

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

Learn more about these programs here:

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

 

More about Property Investment Courses

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


 

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MYOB or WordPress for your new business website?

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

Is MYOB doing too little of too much?

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

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

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

MYOB is also into websites

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

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

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

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

MYOB wants to be the ERP platform for small business

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

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

The cloud, focus and commitment

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

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

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Best to use your Accountant’s Bookkeeper or hire a junior to save money?

Junior level 1 bookkeepers good cheap local bookkeeping services - Natbooks

What’s Your Bookkeeper Preference?

Recently, I wrote that a lot of bookkeepers are losing out to accountants because business owners prefer the cheapest and easiest way to stay compliant. Rather than employing a bookkeeper AND an accountant to lodge their tax returns and activity statements, many business owners choose to hire an accountant only so they can deal with just one person but are they really getting value for money? When it comes to finding a good bookkeeper at this skill level business owners have the choice of hiring: 

  • Registered BAS Agents,
  • Their accountant’s internal bookkeeper,
  • An external, independent finance manager

Many good bookkeepers these days have trained as qualified BAS agents, which allows them to complete and lodge activity statements for their clients and other BAS services. The skill sets of a BAS agent and an accountant performing BAS tasks are the same, so they usually charge the same, but does your accountant really do your BAS or basic bookkeeping work?

Accountants perform higher level duties, such as financial planning, and their fees for this service are inline with what some experienced finance managers charge but when it comes to basic bookkeeping tasks they often hire a junior bookkeeper and charge them out at a lower rate but this rate is often much higher than if you hired this type of bookkeeper directory – so what are you paying for?

Pay for what you need, not what you don’t

Junior level 1 bookkeepers good cheap local bookkeeping services - NatbooksThink about your business needs. Most micro and sole trader businesses will rarely need the expertise of an accountant. But hiring one means that you’ll need to stay on top of your bookkeeping (reconciling your account, etc) because accountants won’t perform these tasks — they may outsource it, which can be costly because your accountant will be managing the bookkeeper and adding a margin to their rate as a management cost.

These businesses should instead hire a BAS agent, who can also perform bookkeeping work as well as lodge activity statements and in this situation they could just use a tax agent like ITP or H&R Block. Depending on the amount of work to be completed you could directly hire a junior or Level 2 bookkeeper and have that person perform a lot more of the bookkeeping function and office administration work and with cloud-based software like Xero & QuickBooks and Office productivity tools like Google G Suite the work can be done remotely.

If you want someone to manage all of your finances — keep track of inventory, credit management, etc — and also provide financial reporting and planning services, a finance manager is the way to go as this person can also provide guidance to your office admin and junior bookkeeping staff. 

Who does an EzyLearn course?

Lots of EzyLearn students complete an MYOB, Excel or Xero course because these software programs are demanded by employers, but we also receive enrolments from lots of bookkeepers and accountants who want to learn the cloud-based accounting software programs as well as up-skill in MS Office and Digital & Social Media Marketing. If you are a bookkeeper or accountant and need CPD courses check out our Bookkeeping Academy.

Start a bookkeeping business and work from home

Every business needs a good person with numbers and many small businesses and startups are focused on what they do best – and it’s rarely accounting. Learn about the bookkeeping business startup options..

ref:#713

 

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The Perfect Job; the Ideal Employee

the perfect administrative executive assistant office manager learn online courses training

And the online training to help you get there

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

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

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

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

Here’s what the ad contained:

Executive Assistant / Office Manager

Overview

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


Tasks

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

Skills

Required

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

The training you need

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

Microsoft Office Applications:

Office Admin and Bookkeeping:

Organisational and Time Management:

My thoughts on this ad?

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

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

Online courses to help you

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


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


 

 

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Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

Bookkeeping Incumbent, MYOB Versus Cloud Innovator, Xero

MYOB or Xero online accounting course training videos

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

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

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

Continue reading Is Xero Better than MYOB for Bookkeeping Businesses?
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How Bookkeepers Can STOP Losing Out to Accountants

Junior level 1 bookkeepers good cheap local bookkeeping services - Natbooks

Or is it just BAS Agents who are losing out?

THE BURDEN ON Australian small businesses to stay compliant with the ATO is immense. A lot of that is to do with the Government not distinguishing between a small business with upwards of 20 staff, and a micro business which may have 5 or fewer staff — sometimes even no staff.

All of this compliance — bookkeeping, activity statements, payroll, superannuation, and so on — is costly and time consuming, so most business owners outsource this work to a professional contractor. Before the Government changed the tax laws, it was bookkeepers who small or micro business turned to.

Continue reading How Bookkeepers Can STOP Losing Out to Accountants
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Announcement: Use NPV, IRR & Financial Functions in Excel to Invest in Property

Microsoft Excel Training Course can help you halve your mortgage

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

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

Determine the NPV of a project

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

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

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

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

Determine the IRR of your investments

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

New Excel 2016 training course content for Lifelong learning

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

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

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How to Use Google Search and Maps to Get More Business FREE

EzyLearn Digital Marketing Courses Google Adwords Training Courses

Plumbers, electricians, Carpenters, handymen and builders can get free leads and prospects using Google My Business, Sites and MapsGoogle My Business, Google Site & Google Maps – ALL FREE

DURING A HOME RENOVATION project for an investment property I was involved with recently, I needed to find lots of different tradespeople in the Newcastle area — and quickly.

I also wanted to look up trade tips that would help me solve a few renovation issues, and it made me realise just how important Google Maps and local searches are.

This is in addition to local classifieds and online services like Gumtree and Airtasker.

Create a free website with Google Sites

A local painter and handyman named Mark helped me with many aspects of the Newcastle renovation project and we talked a lot about the ways he could increase his profile in the Newcastle area to grow his business. 

I created him a simple website for free using Google G Suite’s Sites application, and also set up Mark’s Google My Business Account, so he would show up in local search listings and on Google Maps — all of which is free with a Google G Suite account. (A G Suite account costs as little as $5 per month, per user.)

By the way, I suggested that he shouldn’t take a photograph for his website after he’d just gotten a buzz cut, but he did it anyway! 😉

Google is a cheap and easy way to get online

Using the productivity tools contained in Google G Suite Course is a great way for businesses to get organised with great SPAM filtering email, calendars and scheduling, tasks and to do lists and much more, and using Google Sites enabled Mark to get online cheaply and easily. And because you’re using a Google product (Google Sites) to create your website, it’s a simple way to make sure you’ll be discovered in Google Maps and local Search results. 

Although WordPress offers greater functionality, and is a more robust content management system, it also requires more technical skills to ensure your website is able to be discovered in Google Search and Maps results. It’s also a little trickier to integrate with Google G Suite and other productivity apps. (We offer training courses in WordPress for this reason.)

***

If you need help setting up your Google G Suite account, and would like to learn how to set up a Google Sites website to increase your online presence for your business, we cover Google G Suite in our Digital and Social Media Online Training Course. Visit our website for more information or to enrol.  

EzyLearn Online Courses Google Adwords TrainingFREE Google courses for EzyLearn students

If you’re interested in doing a Microsoft Excel, Xero or MYOB course, then you’ll be thrilled to discover that we give away some Google courses as a free student inclusion.

Our newest FREE course for EzyLearn students is Google Adwords, the paid way to get traffic to your website.


 

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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 currentLAST DASHer SALE!” with your friends. And do subscribe to receive our updates!