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Here’s What You Need to Know About the Cash Conversion Cycle

flowchart of the cash conversion cycle

There are a lot of things that contribute to a successful business, but there’s no doubt that cash is a pretty significant one.  Whether or not a business can generate enough revenue to not only stay afloat, but make a profit, determines whether or not that business can continue to operate.

But collecting that cash is not as simple as swiping a customer’s credit card.  From the first cent a business spends in buying its stock, to the final cent the business receives in payment from a customer, the cash conversion cycle can tell a lot about just how efficient and effective a business is.

Continue reading Here’s What You Need to Know About the Cash Conversion Cycle
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Should You Buy Commercial Property Outright or Get a Mortgage?

The power of using Excel and Xero combined

Excel and Xero combined importing_comp
Our courses cover how to import from Excel into Xero and visa versa, for purposes such as working out depreciation on a business premises.

THERE ARE MANY UPSIDES to buying a commercial property for your business and if you’re able to buy an industrial unit like a Cubbyhole, it can also be a lot cheaper than renting premises.

Buying outright

If you’re in the financial position to buy your business premises outright, it may seem like a no-brainer to do this instead of getting a mortgage. However, there are some things you need to consider:

  • You’ll lose liquidity on the assets in your property, which means you won’t be able to tap into any equity in the property, unless you take out an equity loan against the property.
  • You’re tying all your cash to one asset class, which may limit your ability to make other investments and prevent your business from expanding. This could run counter to your reasons for making the property purchase in the first place.

Getting a mortgage

When you get a mortgage, you have the benefit of being able to access equity in the property, which will enable to invest elsewhere. Of course, there are still factors to keep in mind:

  • You’re spreading the payments over many years, which ties you to paying down that asset for the foreseeable future.
  • You’re paying interest, which although it’s a tax deduction, will significantly inflate the price of the property.

Work out the best way in Excel

Using the data from your Xero accounting software package, Microsoft Excel can help you determine whether your business will be financially better off buying its premises outright or getting a mortgage.

You can also create a financial forecast in Excel. Using Excel, you can calculate the depreciation amounts, which can then be entered into Xero. We cover how to deal with aspects like depreciation in our Xero Bank Reconciliation Course, because many businesses own, or will own, a capital asset at some point.

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Check out our new Cash Flow Reporting, Budgets and ROI Course for Xero which shows you how to deal with an asset purchase like a business premises in Xero. Remember, you get access to ALL our Xero courses for ONE LOW COST. Visit our website for more information on our suite of online training courses or enrol today!


learn to use excel online training course videos cheap best

Importing from Xero to Excel and back again is included as part of our Advanced Microsoft Excel training courses — and you receive access to ALL OF OUR COURSES, including ALL skill 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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What Bookkeepers Can Learn From Real Estate Agents: Using Video and Images

Focusing on Education Rather than Sales

how bookkeepers can use videoTHE INTERNET HAS CHANGED the way businesses market their services to prospects, from a simple sales message to an educational one.

Real estate agents caught onto this shift in buyer trends early and started creating online content to cater to these buyers.

Visit the website of any real estate agent and you’ll find lots of images and videos educating potential buyers about their services, previous sales and the local area they represent.

Continue reading What Bookkeepers Can Learn From Real Estate Agents: Using Video and Images

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So You Think You Can Be an Entrepreneur?

entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs are strong-minded individuals – but we’ve found there are at least 5 other qualities they tend to possess that leads to their business success.

In running our Small Business Management Course and MYOB Training Courses, one of most common reasons we find that people want to start their own businesses is to be their own boss and work remotely from home.

This is a perfectly understandable sentiment — but it’s not necessarily conducive to making a small business work.

Entrepreneurs are known to be people who manage starting up and/or bringing to fruition their own businesses and ventures, but entrepreneurs are a certain breed and as many find out the hard way, self-employment is not for everyone. Continue reading So You Think You Can Be an Entrepreneur?

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What’s New in MS Office 2013? Here’s a Quick List

Frequent updates and infrequent use of software like Excel can really leave you stumped - that's where Lifetime Membership comes in real handy!
Frequent updates and infrequent use of software like Excel can really leave you stumped – that’s where Lifetime Membership comes in real handy!

At EzyLearn we offer online training courses for MYOB — the #1 Cloud-accounting software — but did you know we also offer training in Microsoft Excel and Word?

Just as we do with our MYOB training courses, we also offer Lifetime access to our MS Excel and Word training courses, which means each time Microsoft releases a new version of MS Office, we update our course content so you’re always totally up to date with the latest versions of Word and Excel.

Keeping Excel in Your Memory

Let’s be straight up here; once you get the hang of Word you probably won’t need to refer back to our course content all that much. Excel, on the other hand, is a different ball game.

In many ways Excel is a lot like algebra or a foreign language: if you don’t use it often, you’ll forget it. Sure, you’ll remember bits — J’adore Dior! E = mc2! — but you’re likely to struggle through your day-to-day if it’s something you rely on heavily at work.

Because many people use accounting software like MYOB, their use of Excel is fairly infrequent. For instance, suddenly trying to create a PivotTable will probably leave most of us stumped! And let’s not forget that by the time most users have mastered how to create macros in their worksheets, Microsoft will have released a new version of MS Office and we’ll be back to square one again. This, in large part, is a key reason why we offer Lifetime access to our training courses— because we, just like you, also forget stuff.

New Features in New MS Word and Excel (in a Nutshell)

Now that Microsoft has released their highly anticipated MS Office 2013, it’s likely you won’t be able to find the ‘Paste Special’ button again, so we’re updating our course content to reflect the new changes.

Here’s a low-down on some of the new features in the new MS Word and Excel:

Word:

  • Open and edit PDF files in Word – finally! Gone are the days of having an additional piece of software installed on your PC to enable this.
  • Threaded review comments
  • Read mode with page turning
  • Alignment guides – hallelujah! Why have they never had this before!
  • Placeholder

Excel:

  • Quick analysis
  • Flash fill – we’ve always had this to an extent, but flash fill just got a whole lot more intelligent!
  • PowerView – for the real Excel pro, but still a welcome addition.
  • New PivotTable tools
  • Improved functionality when opening new Excel windows
  • Recommended PivotTables and charts
  • New chart controls
  • Get a link
  • Publish Excel data to social media – we don’t recommend using this often, because snore. But it’s still great if you want to quickly share your yoy sales results with your Twitter followers or Facebook friends.

So whether you’re using MS Office 2013, 2010 or prior, if you’ve forgotten how to do a VLOOKUP, it’s time you educated yourself in the mystery that is Excel — enrol in one of our Microsoft training courses today!

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Tossing Up Where to Study? We Look at TAFE, Uni and Private Facilities

online study courses
Where you study will probably change over time.

There are more ways to study, more institutions to study with and more courses to study than ever before. But with so much choice, it raises the question: Where’s the best place to study?

Study to Suit Your Circumstances

I am a university graduate and I wouldn’t swap my degree for anything else. But I’ve also studied online and completed short courses and seminars run by universities and various other learning institutions.

Each time I studied, the method of delivery — face-to-face, online — or institution I chose offered me something that uniquely suited my circumstances at the time.

As a university student undertaking a five-year journalism degree, it was necessary to gain entry into the competitive media industry where a tertiary education is essential.

But when I decided to study again — this time an online course on becoming a freelancer — it provided me with the flexibility of studying when and where I wanted while I was still a full-time employee.

That said, I don’t believe an institution like TAFE or university is necessarily better than a private institution. For instance, I would NEVER study a language at university! I would much rather private tuition.

Online Study Benefits

I didn’t choose online study merely because of the flexible delivery — I was more than able to attend night classes at TAFE or uni if I’d desired. I chose online study because, having worked in the industry for several years already, I’d been exposed to much of the industry know-how and I was quite practised at working independently; face-time with the teacher and fellow students simply wasn’t necessary.

Studying with Peers

Sometime later I enrolled in a two-day seminar about building a successful freelance business. I had been freelancing for sometime by this point and I was seeking something that fostered interaction with fellow freelancers while I learned the low down, (semi) dirty tricks of the trade.

Stretching out your Study

And most recently, I completed a short course in investigative reporting; again at a university. What attracted me to the course was not the institution, but the teacher: a gold Walkley Award-winning investigative journalist. In this instance, I opted to attend the classes over a series of weeks rather than one intensive weekend, it gave me the chance to experiment with the things I was learning — accessing public registers like electoral rolls, seeking information from government departments through the Freedom of Information Act, and so on — so I could seek guidance if I ran into difficulties.

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So if you’re tossing up between online or face-to-face study, university or TAFE or a private institution, it’s not a matter of who’s the best or what’s the best method; it’s really a matter of what your circumstances are and what you’re hoping to achieve.

If you’re a motivated, self-starter we offer a number of online courses designed to help you develop and grow your skills across a range of pursuits, when and where you want.

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Discount code for online MYOB Bookkeeping and WordPress Website Design Courses

cheap MYOB training coursesWe recently wrote about why more and more mums are looking to work from home as a virtual assistant and perform bookkeeping tasks using MYOB. Mums are also becoming website designers using the free website building software called WordPress.

We just wanted to remind you that if you are a mother or a stay at home dad and you want to learn these programs so you can work from home while bringing up your children, we want to offer you a discount.

Just tell us what you are looking for in an online training course and instantly receive your discount to one of our online training courses.

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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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Hundreds of businesses already use MYOB hosted in the cloud!

ozBeanz MYOB Approved Hosting Provider for MYOB in the cloud
Screen Shot from ozBeanz website

In our research about cloud based accounting software we discovered that MYOB have an approved hosting reseller program. This is a program where MYOB partners with companies who specialise in providing hosting services so that MYOB users can access their data file from anywhere.

We recently spoke to one of those hosting businesses and took their service for a test drive and it was amazingly quick and did everything we needed it to do. We were able to login, access the MYOB data file, create an invoice and email it via the cloud based hosting account!

[quote]This is a definite boon for Remote Contractors who provide bookkeeping services from their own home, like working mums.[/quote]

The term cloud means different things to different people and Heather Cox from asponline wrote an excellent article about hosted MYOB services. We spoke to the people at ozBeanz as well and they have been MYOB Approved Hosting Providers for many, many years.

Do you have any experience using MYOB in the cloud? If you do, we’d like to hear from you at our Facebook page.

Our MYOB training course is also in the cloud so you can complete all 5 MYOB courses no matter where you are.

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What is a PAYG tax table and how does it work?

ATO 2013 tax tables for online MYOB payroll training courseWe recently announced our updated MYOB Payroll Course videos and training workbook and were asked to explain PAYG tax tables in a bit more detail. We’ll explain tax tables using the data from the ATO website relating to tax tables for the 2013 financial year.

We recently witness a federal budget and there are usually some changes in each budget that relate to tax tables or tax thresholds. These tax tables simply define how much tax you pay for each threshold and the simplest way to describe it is to define the first category. This category is called the tax-free threshold and it is the level at which you don’t pay any tax. The annual pay for this level will be $18,200 from 1st July 2012 (the beginning of the next financial year). Any money you earn up to this level you don’t pay any income tax on.

Any money you earn over this tax-free threshold amount but less than $37,000 will be taxed at 19c per dollar.

The most important thing to note is that just because you earn $50,000 doesn’t mean you will be taxed at 32.5c in every dollar you earn. You’ll be charged

  1. zero for the first $18,200, 
  2. 19% from $18,200 to $37,000 and then 
  3. 32.50% for each dollar over $37,000.
Stay tuned for more bite size chunks of knowledge in the coming weeks as we evolve our MYOB Payroll training course. Make sure you subscribe to receive these posts via email.
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Need help with Payroll and MYOB?

help with MYOB Payroll and Superannuation SG online training course and supportWe use the EzyLearn blog to inform new and existing students about new course content, tips and tricks and free training that we make available from time to time. Today we are announcing the completion of the workbook and training videos for our online MYOB training courses.

Our MYOB Payroll course has been created and you’ll soon be able to learn how to create employee cards, setup the payroll tax tables, choose wage categories, pay benefits, superannuation information, perform a payroll run, send pay slips, generate payroll advice reports, pay your SG liabilities, reconcile your super and wages payments and print out payment summaries.

Although the course has been created we are finalising the knowledge review questions that are used as part of our assessments for students who want a certificate after they complete their MYOB training course.

Did you know that our LIFETIME student membership entitles you to review the training material (including videos and workbooks) for the rest of your working life? This includes new content, so enrol now at today’s prices and have access to MYOB training course content for life!

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming week! IF you are not a subscriber, subscribe here.

 

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FREE Computer Software Training Courses in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, even MYOB & more..)

Ezylearn and it’s partners are able to offer you free computer training on Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, plus MYOB and softskills courses like time management and goal setting if you fit the following criteria:

  1. Are an Australian permanent resident
  2. Are over 25 years of age
  3. Do NOT have any certificate II or higher qualifications (in any industry)
  4. Have not completed Year 12 or equivalent 

If you fit this criteria, the Australian Federal Government will fund the cost of your training. That’s  $3000 value at no cost to you. Click Here for more information about the free computer software training course.

What type of people could use some updated computer skills? 

  • Do you run a business and struggle to understand how to use computer software?

  • Are you employed, but have no formal qualifications and want to improve your skills?

  • Are you a mum or a carer that wants to get back into the workforce, but are worried you are under qualified to gain employment?

  • Are you self-employed? Would you like to improve your business skills by increasing your administration and bookkeeping abilities?

  • Are you a job seeker and would like a qualification to help gain employment?

We can provide you with a Certificate II in Business and you can complete the training in three locations across Australia: Chatswood, Dee Why and Perth. You can start anytime you want and you can learn from home using the EzyLearn online computer training system.

Click Here to access the free computer software training course enrolment form and begin the enrolment process.

Please feel free to call us, or Click Here to find your nearest EzyLearn computer software training centre..

OFFER ENDS JANUARY 31st so HURRY, conditions apply

FREE Computer software training course enrolment form