Join Michelle Long at Scaling New Heights – an Advanced Training Conference for Intuit Advisors

I’m thrilled to be presenting several sessions again this year at Joe Woodard’s Scaling New Heights 2012 conference in Nashville, Tennessee from June 17 – 20.  Joe has lined up great sessions and speakers again this year.  There’s over 100 hours of in-depth training on Intuit products and selected QuickBooks – integrated solutions and more.  Read below for more details and register before February 29 for the early registration discount.  Read more

Great Sale on QuickBooks Pro 2012 – Remember QuickBooks 2009 to Sunset in May

There are some GREAT sales on QuickBooks 2012 right now.  Plus, if you or your clients are using QuickBooks 2009, it will be sunset on May 31, 2012 which means many online services will no longer work.  Read below more for details about the service discontinuation or sunsetting of QuickBooks 2009 and details on sales for QuickBooks 2012. Read more

Congratulations to Winners of QuickBooks Enterprise, ProAdvisor Program Membership and the 10 winners of QuickBooks 2012!

Thank you to everyone who subscribed, shared and posted during the contest over the past few months.  Below you will see the final list of all the winners.  Hopefully, I will have more contests or giveaways in the future.  Watch for  some of the survey results in future blog posts.  Also, check out the quick poll on billing rates on the website and watch for a new poll soon. Read more

Intro to Social Media for Accounting Professionals and Small Business Owners — Free Webinar by Michelle Long

In this webinar, Michelle Long presents an Introduction to Social Media.  If you want to learn the basics to get started with social media for your business, then you need to watch this free webinar.  Michelle covers the basics of getting started with Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter and demonstrates important things about each.  Also learn about tools and tips for managing social media efficiently and effectively including using HootSuite to help  monitor and schedule posts and more.  Read more

Last Call – Enter to Win a ProAdvisor Membership with Enhanced Payroll for Accountants ($799) or QuickBooks Enterprise 12.0 ($3,000)

The latest winner of QuickBooks Premier 2012 was Janet Roderick, CPA!  You still could win a ProAdvisor Membership with Enhanced Payroll for Accountants ($799) or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0 (5 user – $3,000) — details below.  It only takes a few minutes to enter and you can’t win if you don’t enter!  Also, answer the poll on average billing rates on my website to see how your rates compare to your peers.   Then, check out Intuit’s Average Billing Rates Survey for lots of details.  Read more

iPad (or Tablet) Basics and Benefits to Improve Productivity and Efficiency for Accounting Professionals, Business Owners and Others

Are you considering an iPad or other tablet for the holidays?  Are you wondering how will you use it?  Are there enough benefits for you to justify the cost?  Do you need 3G or WiFi only?  How much storage space should you get?  Can you use QuickBooks or other programs on an iPad or tablet?  This blog post will provide you with an overview to help answer these questions and more to help you decide whether to get an iPad (or other tablet) or not.  I hear a lot of accounting professionals and business people wondering if they will benefit from an iPad or tablet.  I have had my iPad for six months and I love it.  Hopefully this post will help answer some of your questions to decide whether an iPad or tablet is right for you. Read more

FREE Webinars – Intro to Social Media and Intro to Pivot Tables

Michelle Long and Chuck Vigeant are offering you free webinars in December.  Pivot tables provide the most powerful option to analyze business data from a variety of angles and Chuck will help you learn the basics of using pivot tables.  Social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and more) is a revolution (watch the video below to see the importance and magnitude) and Michelle will show you the basics to help you get started.  Also, please take a few minutes to complete Michelle’s quick survey to provide general information about yourself and your feedback and comments.  Read more for details on everything.  Read more

Last Chance – Enter Weekly Drawing to Win QuickBooks Premier 2012 – Plus, Enter to Win a ProAdvisor Membership or QuickBooks Enterprise

Last week Jo Ellen Peters entered the drawing and she won QuickBooks Accountant 2012!  You still have one more chance to win QuickBooks Premier 2012 ($399).  Plus, enter the drawing for a ProAdvisor Membership with Enhanced Payroll for Accountants ($799) or QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 12.0 (5 user – $3,000).  It only takes a few minutes to enter and you can’t win if you don’t enter!  Read more

Tax Preparation Fees a Strong Value, Says National Society of Accountants

Survey finds average cost for an itemized return is reasonable at $233

What can you buy for $233?

How about this: the services of a professional tax preparer or accountant who can complete your 2011 tax return, relieving you of endless hours of hassle trying to decipher the ever-changing federal tax code (not to mention state tax law changes).

A biennial survey of nearly 8,000 tax preparers conducted by the National Society of Accountants (NSA) showed the average tax preparation fee for an itemized Form 1040 with Schedule A and a state tax return is only $233. Rates for non-itemized returns are also low – the average cost to prepare a Form 1040 and state return without itemized deductions is only $128.  Read more

Final Weeks–Will You Win QuickBooks Enterprise? A ProAdvisor Membership? QuickBooks Accountant or Premier 2012?

We are in the final weeks of the QuickBooks 2012 contest.  As a reminder, Intuit generously donated nearly $8,300 worth of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products and services for me to give away!  Eight people have already won but there are still four prizes to give away worth almost $4,700! Read more

Intuit Service Outage Continues to affect Merchant Services, Email and other Online Services

Unfortunately Intuit “executed a planned maintenance over the weekend and ran into some issues.”  Monday the servers were experiencing outages or delays in processing and users are reporting problems this morning (Tuesday) too.  Affected services appear to include Merchant Services (processing credit cards), QuickBooks Online (slow or offline), emailing invoices,estimates. etc.  from QuickBooks and possibly other online services.  Check Intuit’s Facebook page for updates. Read more

Deadline is November 15 for Discount Pricing to Grow Your Business for Accountants, CPAs, Bookkeepers, QuickBooks ProAdvisors and more

Do you want to grow your accounting, QuickBooks, tax, or IT consulting business, but feel like your marketing skills are holding you back?  Do you feel like there is no time to take on more clients, but you’d still like to earn more than you currently earn?  Is your business not as full as you’d like it to be? Read more

QuickBooks Tip: Fixing Reconciliation Beginning Balance or Date

Many times I hear QuickBooks users say the beginning balance in the bank reconciliation window is wrong and they do not know how to fix it.  If a transaction has been voided, deleted and re-entered or otherwise un-reconciled, it will affect the beginning balance in the reconciliation window.  You should never just mark transactions as cleared in the register, since they will still show in the reconciliation window.  To clear and reconcile them and fix the beginning balance in the reconciliation window (and re set the date if needed), it is necessary to reconcile the account again. Read more

For Accountants, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, CPAs, EAs, and Bookkeepers who want to Grow their Practice

If I were to ask you how you would rate your selling and marketing skills on a scale of 1 to 10, what would you say? If you’re like most of us, the economy has made our weaknesses in this area glaringly obvious over the last few years. Just about everyone I know needs more clients these days. Read more

QQube Receives “Awesome Add-On” Award — Technologies That Boost Productivity

QQube was selected as one of the 2012 Awesome Add-Ons by The Sleeter Group. The award signifies that QQube is among the most productive and effective technologies designed to enhance common business management systems, helping to increase productivity and efficiency.  Read more

Want to Win QuickBooks Premier 2012 or QB Enterprise? Just Subscribe, Click to Share & Post to Enter

It’s time to announce the seventh Weekly Winner of QuickBooks Premier 2012 (three more weeks to go)!  As a reminder, Intuit has generously donated nearly $8,300 worth of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products and services for me to give away! There will be 12 lucky winners of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products or services in this contest / giveaway. Read more

ALERT — Spam / Phishing Email about Intuit QuickBooks – Security Tool

There is another spam / phishing email making the rounds again.  Please spread the word that this is not a legitimate email — just delete and do not click on any links.  It says: 

You will not be able to access your Intuit QuickBooks account without Intuit Security Tool (IST) after 31th of October, 2011.

You can download Intuit Security Tool here.

After a successful download please run the setup for an automatic installation, then login to Intuit QuickBooks online to check that it is working properly.

Although the dates may change as they send it often.  Check http://security.intuit.com when ever you aren’t sure or want to check on an email.  You can forward suspicious emails to spoof@intuit.com

Intuit’s Average Billing Rates Survey 2011 – Details for QuickBooks ProAdvisors, Accountants and Bookkeepers

Drilling Down on Intuit’s Bookkeeping Survey Results:  Regions, Population Density, and States

By Bill Teague

In Intuit’s second early report we drill down on the results of Intuit’s Bookkeeping Rates survey based on location.

Before we show you the results in terms of region, population density, and state, please be aware that the size of our sample this year allowed us to do something we have never done before. That is, we will now include our results for all states. This is the first time we have done so. While some states have small samples, we still think the results will be of interest.  Read more

QuickBooks Tip: Applying Owner’s Time for Job Costing

Job costing is important to contractors, builders and many other types of small businesses such as plumbers, electricians, architects, landscapers, wedding planners, caterers and many others.  When the business is a sole proprietor (or an LLC taxed as a sole proprietor), then the owner takes an Owner’s Draw instead of a paycheck.  Thus, you cannot allocate the owner’s time to jobs via payroll.  Instead, you can create a zero-dollar check to allocate the owner’s time (i.e. cost) to the job as follows: Read more

Join Michelle Long for What’s New in QuickBooks 2012 and Find and Fix Client Data Errors Faster

Welcome QuickBooks 2012 — there are some really great new features this year for QuickBooks users and accounting professionals! I am honored and excited to be one of the trainers again this year for Intuit Academy.  I hope you will join me for live seminars or webinars as detailed below. Read more

Subscribe, Share & Post to enter to Win QuickBooks Premier 2012 or QuickBooks Enterprise 12.0

It’s time to announce the sixth Weekly Winner of QuickBooks Premier 2012 (four more weeks to go)!  As a reminder, Intuit has generously donated nearly $8,300 worth of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products and services for me to give away! There will be 12 lucky winners of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products or services in this contest / giveaway. Read more

Congrats to the latest weekly winner of QuickBooks 2012 – Subscribe – Still More Chances to Win

It’s time to announce the fifth Weekly Winner of QuickBooks Accountant 2012 (six more weeks to go)!  As a reminder, Intuit has generously donated nearly $8,300 worth of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products and services for me to give away! There will be 12 lucky winners of FREE QuickBooks 2012 products or services in this contest / giveaway. Read more

Intuit’s Average Billing Rates Survey for 2011

Setting billing rates and fees can be challenging and can vary depending upon your education and credentials — are you a Certified ProAdvisor, CPA, accountant, bookkeeper or QuickBooks consultant?  How many years of experience do you have and do you specialize in a certain area?  Where are you located geographically?  Should you charge hourly or fixed fees?  Intuit recently conducted a new Average Billing Rates Survey and this post are the initial results.  Read more

Make More, Work Less, and Get Inspired About Your QuickBooks Consulting Practice

Want to know how Cindy S., a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, raised her rates by 50% just a few months ago and is already earning more revenue in her bookkeeping practice? Or perhaps how Suzanne, a CPA and Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, implemented a super simple, takes-a-tiny-bit-of-time follow-up system that got her a nice 4-figure account she wouldn’t have otherwise gotten? Read more

FREE Webinar to Learn the Basics of QuickBooks in the Cloud

QuickBooks in the Cloud 101 – an Entry-Level Introduction to working with QuickBooks Clients and Users Online

I see a lot of questions about QuickBooks in the Cloud posted in my Linkedin Group and elsewhere.  Cloud computing, online applications and Internet services are changing how we do business.  Interaction is real time, and the market demands that data be real time, too.  Accounting after-the-fact for business activities is helpful, but doesn’t provide the business owner with the information when and where it is most useful: here and now.  The details of ‘the cloud’ can be overwhelming and confusing.  Join us for this free webinar to learn the basics of working with QuickBooks clients and users online with QuickBooks in the cloud. Read more

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