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Is the Death of the Bookkeeper Imminent?

Happy New Year to all our readers! And take comfort in knowing that we think the death of the bookkeeper is FAR from imminent! Read the post to find out.
Happy New Year to all our readers! And take comfort in knowing that we think the death of the bookkeeper is FAR from imminent! Read the post to find out.

All right, so it’s not the most joyful heading we could have gone with on New Year’s Eve, but it’s not actually meant to conjure up doom and gloom! We have  researched and developed new online training courses for Reach Accounting and Xero, which have now been added to our suite of training courses that include the flagship MYOB training course. In the process we’ve spoken to a number of accountants to see what software they’re using, to ensure we’re providing the training courses you need to get a bookkeeping job. This is good news because you can then rely on us to inform you what more you may need to offer clients.

Throughout this process, we’ve come across a number of accountants who are using BankLink, an accounting service we’ve written about previously, which streamlines and automates the data entry portion of managing a client’s account.

The ‘In-House’ Extra Employee

For many accountants the BankLink software, which was acquired by MYOB in June of this year so they could further extend their reach into the accounting space, is being billed as an “extra employee” that never makes mistakes and is comparatively cheaper than the additional in-house bookkeeper or admin person headcount.

The big question for us is: Does this spell the end of the bookkeeper? For instance, think of the way personal computers did away with the need for the office stenographer working in a steno pool? The answer is that this is indeed possible — but this is only if data entry is the sole service you offer. Like most professionals today, the more specialised you are and the more services you can offer, the more likely you are to experience career longevity.

At the end of the day, software is only as good as the person who uses it. If you’re a highly experienced bookkeeper in a particular industry or possess a number of highly sought-after accounting skills, you’ll find BankLink a dream come true in that it eliminates the tedious, time-consuming data entry from your job.

BankLink: Giving You More Time

With more time on your hands, you’ll be able to grow your client-base — a goal for most small businesses and previously only available if you miraculously grew a spare set of hands, or employed a spare set of hands, at least. You may even be able to move your business out of the narrow bookkeeping space into the small business management space.

With the number of new small businesses increasing, the key to their individual survival in a highly competitive marketplace is good management — and who’s more suited to that job than someone with a thorough understanding of account keeping?

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So while BankLink may spell the end of tedious, time-consuming data entry, for the experienced bookkeeper it presents more business and career opportunities — not less. Upskill and enjoy greater career success as a result.

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What is BankLink and Why are So Many Accountants Using It?

Your accountant can access your records easily via BankLink.
Your accountant can access your records easily via BankLink.

As we have freshly rolled out our new Reach Accounting course, as well as our new Xero Accounting course — in addition to our existing and ever so popular MYOB training course — we have been speaking to a number of different accountants across Australia to find out how they currently manage their clients’ bookkeeping needs.

What we’ve discovered during this R&D process is that an increasing number of accountants have told us that they use a service called BankLink, so we thought we’d take a closer look at BankLink to see how it works and what it means for the bookkeeper.

BankLink for Bookkeepers

BankLink is an accounting service that delivers bank transaction data from banks and financial institutions and directly to an accountant, which the accountant then uses to code their clients’ transactions.

For any uncoded data, there are number of online tools that allow an accountant to request additional information from their clients; the coded data is then used for GST, end-of-year tax reports, management reports and various other reports required for tax compliance.

In short, BankLink eliminates all of the data entry usually performed by a bookkeeper, and in June of 2013, BankLink was acquired by MYOB to further facilitate accountants as they manage their clients’ books.

For sole traders and very small businesses that have neither a bookkeeper, nor the time to manage the data entry side of their accounts, their accountant can now manage this for them easily and efficiently, without the added cost of employing an external bookkeeper.

One accountant, extolling the virtues of the BankLink software on the MYOB website calls Banklink his “extra employee; one that never makes mistakes, gets lots done and doesn’t cost much.”

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BankLink is being billed as the future of accounting; the inexpensive future of accounting, where people are being replaced by machines and pieces of software.

So what might that mean for the humble bookkeeper? We look at this in our next post.

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Cloud Accounting Software and Automatic Bank Feeds (MYOB training video)

As part of our commitment to be the number one choice for online MYOB Bookkeeping training courses we are always keeping an eye and ear out for changes and improvements in the bookkeeping industry. If you do your own banking reconciliation, you might agree that sifting through printed statements and checking each entry off in your accounting software is maybe the most tedious part of bookkeeping.

But it need not be. With accounting bank feeds – a new feature in the world of cloud accounting – your bank transactions are automatically synched with your cloud accounting software.

This means that as long as you’ve entered your purchases into your accounting software, when your statement comes in from your bank, it will automatically marry up your purchases for you to approve with just the click of a button.

Automatic bank feeds removes the single most tedious step from the banking reconciliation process, which, depending on the size of your company, can take anywhere fifteen minutes to two hours (sometimes even more).

For a little more detail on how MYOB and bank feeds works, watch this video:

http://youtu.be/XKBUH5ycGYY

Or, for more information on how Xero and bank feeds work, watch this video:

http://youtu.be/qTsy3lW-UZM

But it’s important to know how your accounting software will access your sensitive banking information as currently there are two main methods for doing so.

First there is the method used by the likes of MYOB where your accounting software provider integrates a direct feed of your bank transactions from each of your banks into your software without needing your bank username and password.

The second method, called screen scraping, requires your accounting software to use a third party to access your bank transactions, thus necessitating your bank usernames and passwords, which can become a grey area with regards to protecting yourself from banking fraud.

While the companies that use the screen scraping method take security very seriously, should a breach occur, you could find yourself in violation of your bank’s terms and conditions because you gave out your usernames and passwords.

It’s up to you to choose what method you feel comfortable with but always check your bank’s terms and conditions before you give out your login in details.

Whatever option you choose, by eliminating the hours of data entry, your saving not only time, but also money.

And for the layperson doing their banking reconciliation themselves, services like Shoeboxed only eliminate the data entry even further.

PS: We’re also almost ready to announce our new Cert IV in Small Business Management with the Australian Small Business Centre so if you are looking to start a business or learn the skills to manage one stay tuned…

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Should I switch to Xero or remain with MYOB?

Xero and MYOB

cloud-accounting Xero and MYOBI’ve written many articles about the building competition between cloud-based accounting services like Xero, SAASU and Reach Accounting and MYOB’s AccountRight Live, but I sought an opinion of someone with much more experience with the various bookkeeping programs. Margaret from BusinessEEz is an accounting software specialist and she will share her opinions about whether you should switch to Xero or remain with MYOB.

We’ve noticed some big changes in the most recent version of MYOB AccountRight version 2012 and these changes not only affect small business owners, but also bookkeepers who perform most of the day to day and month end tasks for these small businesses.

Here’s what Margaret had to say about Xero and MYOB.

Should I switch to Xero or remain with MYOB?

Cloud accounting specialist xero and MYOBBy Margaret Carey

MYOB is about to launch AccountRightLive, the cloud-based version of AccountRight 2012 which is exciting news for business owners, bookkeepers and accountants as it means that you will have the ability to remain on MYOB and enjoy the flexibility that the cloud can offer. Xero has of course been in the cloud for some six years and has wooed many Australian small businesses with its ease of use, functionality and flexibility. However now AccountRight Live is becoming a reality, business owners and bookkeepers can more readily compare apples with apples when deciding whether to switch or remain with the familiar product.

There are a number of key points of difference.

Firstly with MYOB you can choose to switch between the cloud and the desktop at any time but Xero however is a cloud-only product, accessed via a web browser and an internet connection. Some people may like the flexibility of being able to switch between the two, taking offline backups etc. and others are happy with the restriction of internet–only access, no offline backups.

[quote]MYOB is also allowing for up to 5 concurrent users, a welcome addition for users on Plus and compares well with the unlimited users for Xero.[/quote]

However, I believe that functionality is a major driver in product decision and there is a lot to consider here.

Functionality of MYOB

MYOB has been around for many years and over time has built up some industrial strength functionality. Xero has only been around for 6 years (less in Australia) and whilst new releases with new features come out every couple of months, it still has a way to go to catch up with the in-depth functionality of MYOB. So if your business has some more sophisticated processes – eg Job Costing, Purchase Order tracking

If you hold inventory for buying and selling, then you need to remain on MYOB, Xero does not have an integrated inventory solution, there are plenty of add-ons available but why go for an add-on if you can have an integrated solution?

Xero does now have a reasonable integrated payroll solution but again, if you have some more sophisticated requirements such as TOIL, RESC etc, you should carefully review how well Xero will handle these.

The number one efficiency feature with Xero is its bank feeds. You can directly download transactions from your bank accounts into Xero and through some sophisticated but easy to set up rules, Xero will suggest the correct postings for the transactions – this is a powerful feature that can save several hours of data entry but is probably more suited to the micro business than the small business.

In summary,

  1. If you have a fairly simple business model, no inventory, straightforward payroll and are comfortable with a cloud-only solution then test drive Xero – you could well find that factors such as the bank feeds clinch the decision for you.
  2. But, if your business model is more sophisticated, you are still attached to a terra firma option or you need inventory then you are better sticking with the software you know.
  3. For all shades of grey in between – further analysis may be required to make the best decision for your business.

Learn more than just MYOB

When you enrol into our MYOB courses you receive free membership to the Bookkeeping Academy where we’ll show you how to use other accounting software programs like Xero, SAASU, Reach Accounting and more..

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Will MYOB in the cloud take Bookkeepers jobs offshore?

accountants and MYOB bookkeeper jobs going offshoreI’ve written a lot about MYOB in the cloud recently as training companies like us, accountants and MYOB software users grapple with their changing software and upgrading issues and a recent article I read brought up an interesting topic. Whether Cloud based accounting software will takes jobs offshore?

MYOB in the Cloud and IT support

The article I read was more about IT jobs and IT departments and whether cloud computing was making It Departments redundant. When you think about the various jobs within the accounts department the same question can be asked. I wrote a blog post about the looming threat to Australian jobs by overseas workers earlier in 2012 and scarily, it was reinforced by an article in yesterdays Sydney Morning Herald about 1 million jobs going offshore in the next 30 years.

If you check out the article you’ll notice that not only bookkeeping jobs, but accounting in general is one of the largest sectors under threat from offshoring! The picture above shows some other sectors under threat.

MYOB in the cloud vs data files on your PC

MYOB in the Cloud will enable the bookkeeper, data entry operator and accountant to access accounting records at the same time and from different locations and this is one of the best selling features of MYOB in the cloud compared to a data file on your computer. The issue for Australian workers is that anyone in the world can now perform this work if they have the skills to use the software and knowledge of basic Australian accounting.

Keep upskilling

One of the best ways to ensure your worth and value as a MYOB user is to keep yourself up-to-date. Continuing Education is important if you want to be a BAS agent, but it is also a very good way to become the MYOB and Bookkeeping resource for your own customers.

When you enrol into our MYOB training courses, you’ll automatically receive 12 months membership to the Bookkeeping Academy as well as free student membership of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers.

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Start a Bookkeeping Business For Very Little Money

I recently wrote about our MYOB Training students and how many of them want to start a bookkeeping business so I thought we would go through some of the costs involved.

Remember that these are the startup costs and you may incur more marketing costs as your business grows. Starting a bookkeeping business, like most other businesses, takes a little extra time, effort and money initially. You need to spend money on advertising so you get to speak to as many prospective clients as possible.

The more prospects (or leads) you speak to, the more you understand what bookkeeping clients want and also what you are able to help them with – and what you can’t or don’t want to.

Continue reading Start a Bookkeeping Business For Very Little Money
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Video: Receipts in a Shoebox?

Receipts in a shoebox

Receipts in a shoebox? Shoeboxed Australian websiteI WAS LOOKING in my top draw and noticed some receipts, bundled by the month, with a bull clip holding them together. Do you know someone who also stores their receipts in a shoebox?

I have, of course, now entered them into our MYOB accounting software. However, it begs the question: How many business people do you know who still store their receipts and other paperwork with way?

The legal requirement to file receipts

Continue reading Video: Receipts in a Shoebox?

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Why spend in June if you’ll just owe in July?

MYOB Profit and Loss Report and balance sheet in reporting training courseConversations amongst business colleagues and business owners appear to suggest that many people are in a rush to spend before June 30. I spoke with someone who feverishly exclaimed that everyone should get private medical insurance! It’s all good and well to get in a panic before the end of the financial year but if you didn’t have the correct information before now and the decisions you make are not based on known facts then why make them?

It’s the time of year where all the data entry from Day-to-Day Transactions should be up to date, you should know the value of depreciation for your fixed assets and have a good idea of the value of your tax and GST liabilities. A profit and loss report and balance sheet will provide you with the information you need and if these figures are ready then spending decisions can be made. This is the time for reporting and reconciliation.

If you simply find yourself with money in the bank but don’t want it to go to the tax man think again, you might need it to pay your liabilities next month. For now, enjoy the bulging bank balance.

Remember. Compliance is the measure of success of your business plans so be compliant as soon as possible every month.

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What’s included in Day-to-Day MYOB Bookkeeping skills?

ezylearn-MYOB-training-workbooksA short time after we opened our first training centre in Dee Why in 1999 we offered MYOB training courses and our trainers included some very talented ladies Maria Landrelli and Marie Di Blasio. We quickly discovered that business owners and job seekers alike wanted and needed to learn some key Day-to-Day skills so we set about creating the ideal MYOB training course for Day-to-Day Transactions.

Most of our training workbooks are based around case study examples of a practice company. This gives you a real world example of the types of processes that many businesses go through as you learn to perform the transactions using MYOB. We’ve written a detailed description of the journey we take you through in our Day-to-Day MYOB Training Course so check it out and see if it covers some skills you’d like to master.

The MYOB Day-to-Day Course uses a case study of a small business telephone system supplier as they go through the process of purchasing products, providing customer quotes, ordering and supplying products and services, accounts receivable, receiving payments and banking. It’s the perfect course for someone looking for a job where the use of MYOB is required for data entry, or a small business owner that wants to take the next step towards a computerised bookkeeping system.

 

 

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MYOB Bookkeeping Case Study: A telephone system supplier and installer

Cisco IP Telephones for VoIP systems case study for MYOB training courseWe were reviewing the course outline for the MYOB Day-to-Day Transactions course because it covers most of the topics that someone would need if they are performing daily bookkeeping data entry tasks for a small to medium business.

The course provides the foundation skills that most of the other courses are built on. Once you have the day-to-day data entry skills you will be able to more confidently perform a bank reconciliation, generate reports and prepare BAS returns as well as enter the data and prepare reports for payroll.

The MYOB Day-to-Day course uses a very common case study of a company that provides products and services. We use an IT consultant that sells small business VoIP telephone systems and supports their customers with the initial setup as well as ongoing support.

Course features

Since January 2011 our full suit of 5 MYOB training courses comes with lifetime access so you can revisit the training videos, workbooks with step-by-step exercises and knowledge reviews as often as you want for the rest of your working life. Many students use the course as a resource for when they are using

Our MYOB training courses also come with EzyLearn ANSWERS, a service that we provide to create new course content based on  questions from our students. It’s a way that we increase what is covered in our courses while providing students with an level of customisation and support.

MYOB courses created by certified bookkeepers and BAS agents
MYOB courses created by certified bookkeepers and BAS agents

Another great aspect of this course is that we go into the Inventory module of MYOB Accounting software to see how a company can sell products as well as services using the Inventory module of MYOB AccountRight Plus.

Our MYOB training courses are created using consultation with business owners and certified bookkeepers and registered BAS agents who perform bookkeeping tasks for their own customers.

Free MYOB Training Course

We want to give free MYOB training away so you get a chance to learn more about us and see if we are the company you turn to for your MYOB training courses. Follow the link below and you will automatically receive our free MYOB training resources.

The free MYOB Training Course material is now available at our new MYOB Short Courses catalogue site. Access the FREE MYOB Training Now

Tips and Tricks

We announce new course content, free tips and tricks, free training videos and much more via this blog so feel free to subscribe and be kept up-to-date and well informed about MYOB, bookkeeping, Office Administration and Website Design. Enter your email address below:

 

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MYOB Day-to-Day course now available separately

Receive-payments-using-MYOB-training-courseUp until now we have sold all our courses as one package because we felt that that is what everyone wants. Guess what? A lot of people did and still do love it, but we found that a lot of people just want enough skills to get then a job performing data entry tasks using MYOB. For this reason we’ve made that course available.

The MYOB Day-to-Day course is still a full days worth of training on the Sales, Purchases, Banking and Inventory modules. The workbook in that course takes you through the process of a company ordering products from the wholesaler, receiving the stock and then selling that stock combined with the services they provide to their customers. Along the way, there are part payments, full payments, Accounts Receivable reports, sending of statements and much more.

The new individual course is available with 12 months access so that we can provide a great resource with up to 12 months to access it when you need to. MYOB Day-to-Day training course includes all the topic in course 502. See what’s included in the MYOB Day-to-Day Course.

If you are interested in this new low cost online MYOB training course option, discover the price for this an our other online training courses at our enrolment page.

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MYOB online course videos – Create New Company File using MYOB

When setting up a new company in MYOB the only section which is required is the company name. This is handy to know especially when entering a number of companies. Once entered, you can go back and fill in the details.

Clicking on the next button allows you to go to the next section which makes data entry easier and quicker.

Video Reference: 501101

Link for existing students: http://myobcourse.com/elearning/mod/resource/view.php?id=348

For information about our Online MYOB Training Course and new lifetime membership for all students please visit: www.studymyob.com.au

This video is taken using version 15. Check with the latest version and you will notice very little difference in this process. Please feel free to send your comments to us about this video.
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MYOB Accounting

MYOB Accounting

These courses are available at www.myobcourse.com.au, and if you want to take a brief tour about how EzyLearn online training courses work click here. Remember that although these courses are displayed as separate courses the enrolment price includes access to all courses for the one price!

MYOB Setup (501)

Accounting basics, Starting MYOB, Navigating around the MYOB program, Creating a company file, Setting up accounts, Data Entry and Record selection options, Contact log, to-do list, Creating and deleting accounts, Opening balances, Sales & purchases layout options, Invoicing and Payment defaul settings, Linked accounts,

Creating Cusomter Cards, Historical sales, Security and Sales preferences in MYOB. Tax code intro, Edit and delete linked accounts, Extra card file details, Create items and extra item information, Inventory opening balances and adjusting inventory balances.

Closing and backing up your MYOB datafile, using multiple disks, opening a newly created file (Activating a company file), Restoring an MYOB backup datafile.

MYOB Invoice form layout options, tax inc versus tax ex, text fields and data fields, deleting, moving and resizing fields, customising toolbar, MYOB printed form properties, field text formatting, copy and paste logo into your MYOB form, inserting logo image, and performing an Initial Bank reconciliation in MYOB.

MYOB Day to Day (502)

Processing Sales using MYOB (entering items, editing item details, changing payment terms, time-billing and printing, creating a quote or sales order, converting quote to order and order to invoice, using the sales register for quick conversions, insert and delete lines and headings)

Finding transactions in MYOB (Sales register, transaction journal, To MYOB Do list, accounts payable and receivable, Intro to and finding statements, MYOB keyboard shortcuts, receiving payments and paying bills, custom lists in Sales and purchasing modules)

Printing MYOB receipts (also emailing MYOB forms instead, printing one at a time or in batches, printing statements, statement types, activity statements)

Recording a cash sale in MYOB, entering credits, settling credits and returns, bad debts, deleting payments and sales, reversing transactions, creating a card on the fly, creating an MYOB inventory item. Applying a payment while invoicing in the MYOB sales screen, undeposited funds account, receiving part payments, receiving over payments.

MYOB Bank Reconciliation (503)

Learn how to create a loan account, transfer money into it, setup the accounts payable linked account, editing and deleting transactions (important at reconciliation time), the difference between sales and purchases modules and entries in the banking module, reconciling bank account entries with your statement, opening balance, closing dates and more…

MYOB Payroll – beta (505)

This course shows you how to navigate around the Payroll and Card File command centres in MYOB for the purpose of viewing, creating and editing information and transactions regarding payroll for employees.

The course goes through various payroll categories like hourly and salary wages, allowances and re-imbursements, bonuses and commission, deductions, superannuation and tax.

[button link=”https://ezylearn.com.au/products-page/”] Enrol Now[/button]

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Online Training Course Price List & Enrolment 

Wait for the form to load, then scroll down to see course prices and options for the COMPLETE Training Course option; click on the course options you want to see a running total.

We now have three other options available:

  • MYOB, Xero, Excel, QuickBooks, Data Entry Courses, Payroll Courses for $20 per week - EzyLearn - sml
    EzyLearn’s Training Video Library    : COMPLETE (Beginners to Advanced) training videos NO workbook or certificate from $49
  • EzyLearn’s Course Funding: Most of the courses listed below are available for our $20 per week course funding 
  • EzyLearn’s Individual Course Catalogue: You can enrol into the individual courses if you don’t need the COMPLETE set from $29

Get NEW Prices, discounts and options

Enrolment Process

Follow these steps to enrol and start your course:

  1. Enter your details (and those of the student if you are enrolling someone else but want to be the person who received the tax invoice)
  2. Choose the course(s) you want to enrol into
  3. Click Submit
  4. Use Paypal or choose Credit Card as the payment option and enter you payment details
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Are you worth more than a painter?

Are you worth more than a painter - Business Admin Courses with EzyLearn online MYOB and Xero Courses

This might seem like an odd question and I don’t mean to cause any issues with painters. I was looking for a painter recently and was surprised at how much they charge. The most interesting comment was “I’m very good and I will do the work for $400 cash a day”.

Do the maths and that equates to $50 per hour for an 8 hour day. Are you worth that much?

I understand that it doesn’t just come down to an hourly rate but it still begs the question..

Continue reading Are you worth more than a painter?
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The most common office admin & support jobs

the perfect administrative executive assistant office manager learn online courses training

The most common jobs for office admin and office support require confident knowledge of Microsoft Office and MYOB or Xero for bookkeeping tasks.

The office admin role is the person that connects most of the other business roles, including

  • customer service,
  • sales and
  • accounts.

This means you’ll be speaking to existing clients about the administration tasks involved in their purchase, while also coordinating with other employee of the business to help complete the services.

In the building and trades industry you’ll be helping with paperwork relating to their building project.

Office admin jobs require good communications skills because you may not know the answer to all your clients questions but you are the first person they speak with. You’ll need to correspond with other parts of the business to ensure that the client has the information they need.

Get office admin jobs with basic bookkeeping training

This can include scheduling meetings, allocating meeting rooms and reminding clients and technicians about appointments, most of which is done using Microsoft Outlook.

This role can get even trickier when you are also the person following up for payment! You may need to be nice and friendly to maintain a good client relationship while also being stern and enforcing the business credit management policies.

Combined Office Admin Course and Basic Bookkeeping Training

The office admin training course

The Office Admin Course includes training in Microsoft Office as well as MYOB & Xero Training for daily transactions.

If your employer supplies complex solutions which involve project management and many different milestones one of your first tasks will be to collect information about the customer needs from the sales person and provide them with a quote or tender that is created by an experienced estimator.

Your role might be to convert complex information into a glossy brochure or proposal that makes it easier for the client to understand.

If you are preparing this information for a sales person to present you may also need to condense it into a slideshow presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.

Read more about Office Admin Job Descriptions and Training Course outcomes

Difference between Office Admin and Business Admin

Office admin courses and business administration training course and qualifications

If you want to climb up the ladder where you work or find a higher paying office admin job you should explore some of the requirements for business administration jobs. This previous blog posts explores actual job ads and requirements for staff.