Virtually Control Time & Costs – Field Service Management ES

Blog posted by Christine Galli, M.Ed. - Does your business send technicians out into the field to install, service or repair customer equipment? Later this month, I'm co-facilitating an event that will provide you a solution to streamline your business. At this event you'll hear how Kotz Heating and Air Cooling decided to embrace a time-efficient dispatch process and increase revenue and reduce costs at the same time. Our event will showcase how Donna Tenbusch of Kotz Heating and I worked together to deploy Intuit Field Service Manager ES with QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions to achieve this resolution, and more, despite difficult economic times. During this event learn how this solution was just a stepping stone for Kotz’s larger plan to departmentalize and develop a system to grow their business and lead with cutting edge technology in a competitive market. Turn your “On-Demand” Business Model into a recurring revenue approach to field service management and see how you can do more with less. This event will be on Friday, January 22, 2010 from 12:30 - 2:30 pm Eastern time. It's easy to register. Click this link. You'll be taken to the Intuit Community website. You'll have to create a log in and password account and then you can register for our Field Service Management Event. Oh, and it's free!

Doug Sleeter on the Sleeter Conference

Blog Posted by Executive Director Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP –

Andrew and I are participating in next month’s Sleeter Conference in Orlando. You’ve got until tomorrow, 10/15/09, to receive a discount off the Main Conference. Just click here and you’ll get to the website to register. We talked to Doug Sleeter, President of The Sleeter Group, about what’s going to be new at the conference this year. Thought you’d like to read some of our Q and A with Doug. We’re going to have a full article on Andrew’s and my participation in the conference this week in our Technology In A Box newsletter. If you’d like to read that article – sign up for our newsletter by clicking here. Just fill in the blanks and let us know you'd like our newsletter. Here’s Doug’s Q and A.

Amy: You’re back on the East Coast this year. What brings you back and how long has it been – 5 years or so?
Doug: Many of our long-time network members and accounting software consultants are located on the east coast and we often get requests from them to locate the conference closer to their home. So this year, we’re hoping to see lots of east cost people at the conference. It’s been since 2004 that we were on the east coast.

Amy: Did our economy have any influence on what you are presenting this year as far as topics?
Doug: This year we’re having a keynote speech on the topic of thriving in tough times. It’s something everyone is dealing with and we felt the need to get some good, actionable information out to the audience to give them food for thought on what they can do to thrive in these tough times.

Amy: Anything new you’re offering because of participant suggestions?
Doug: People are asking for more information about the online tools in the market so we’re adding a whole track of sessions that focuses in that area. Also, by popular demand, we’ve brought back the Train the QuickBooks Trainer preconference session, taught by you, the master trainer herself.

Amy: Talk a bit about the session you and I are facilitating – the QuickBooks Deep Dive.
Doug: In this session, we will dive into some of the tough issues that happen when clients screw up the data entry. Sometimes these seemingly unimportant data entry problems can cause consultants or tax preparers to spend hours unraveling the data. So we’ll discuss several of these common problems, along with our tips on how to fix them.

Amy: We have a special event planned for conference attendees this year – a yoga class to begin the day on Wednesday morning. That’s definitely different for an accounting conference!
Doug: As we were reaching out to our conference content committee to plan the event, we were all sitting around and just about to start the meeting. Remember, we were catching up on what was new for each of us, and you mentioned that you were just certified as a yoga instructor. So we all seized on that and said, “How about you give a yoga class at The Sleeter Group conference this year?” We all loved the idea and we’re glad you agreed to do it. I think it fits so well into the work-life balance we’re all striving to achieve.

Blog posted by Executive Director Amy Vetter - Mark your calendars – The Sleeter Group’s Next Generation Accounting Solutions Conference is slated for November 9 through the 12^th in Orlando, FL. We’ve got so much going on at Technology In A Box we didn’t have room to promote it in our newsletter this week! I thought I’d fill you in on some of the highlights and give more details in next week’s newsletter. By the way, if you want to sign up for our newsletter, contact me through our website by clicking here and let me know you’d like us to add you to our newsletter.

 

Okay – the Sleeter Conference. Lots of training coming up at the Conference! Everything from the Next Generation Accounting Practice to Awesome QuickBooks Add-Ons for 2010 to a QuickBooks Troubleshooting Deep Dive that Doug Sleeter and I will be facilitating. Other courses I’ll be facilitating or helping to facilitate:

• Financial Reporting, Analysis and Business Intelligence         
  
• How to Reach Level W in Report Design - and Why Levels D, I, and K Aren't Good Enough Anymore
  
• Retail and Restaurant Set-up and Consulting using QuickBooks
  
• Professional Services Set-up and Consulting using QuickBooks
  
• New Features in QuickBooks Accountant Edition: An In Depth Perspective
  
• Advanced Financial Reporting Using Intuit Statement Writer
• Streamlining Your Collections Process with Intuit Payment Solutions – 2010

There’s a $150 savings if you register before October 15. Click here to get more details. Oh, and we have a very special “training session” planned for registrants – a “first” for an accounting conference. We’ll tell you more in our next newsletter!

Milwaukee QuickBooks 2010 Event

Blog posted by Executive Director Andrew Abrams - We have a great event coming up in Milwaukee next month where you can find out what’s new in Intuit QuickBooks® Enterprise Solutions 10.0, QuickBooks Point of Sale 9.0 and actually see how some third party softwares work that integrate with QuickBooks. Our event is based on Taking Your Business to the Next Level and with the improvements Intuit has made to all its software this time around – you’re sure to find ways to make your business more productive and streamlined! This free event is happening on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 9 am – 5 pm at the Milwaukee County War Memorial in downtown Milwaukee. Even if you can’t be there in person, watch it from your office on your computer – yep come to our event virtually! There’s more information here at this site – and you can register for the event too. See you there!

Technology In A Box Customer Finds QuickBooks Point of Sale Cleans Up Labor and Payroll Costs

Blog posted by Executive Director Andrew Abrams - One of our clients Mike Barr from Sudsational – a carwash chain in the Chicago area – is going to be featured as a Case Study on the Intuit website next month. We’re able to give you sneak peak at how QuickBooks Point of Sale has helped Mike -

· It was a fraction of the cost of similar competitive products.
· It saved 25-30 labor hours per month on clerical work.
· It reduced payroll costs by identifying underperformance.
· And it helped establish repeatable processes for business expansion.

Pre QuickBooks POS and Mike, the car wash chain was managing all their financial transactions using pen and paper.

"When you have ten or 15 people hand writing customer invoices, it can be a real headache, especially if you're trying to read information like VIN numbers," Mike said. "QuickBooks POS has cleaned up our process a lot, which definitely makes running the business easier overall."

Those standardized processes have been critical to the firm's expansion. Mike and his team plan to add more locations around the Chicago area with another purchase soon to be finalized. "It makes it much easier to grow if you have a consistent process and a system you know you can rely on. All the information is there; it's just a matter of setting-up a computer and getting an internet line," says Mike.

Talk with us about Point of Sale and what it could do for your business. It’s as easy as sending me an email!

Advanced Seminars for QuickBooks Users - Golden, CO

Blog posted by Amy Vetter, CPA.CITP - You can still sign up for advanced QuickBooks training coming up in Colorado. I'm an instructor at the upcoming ASQU (pronounced "ask") or Advanced Seminars for QuickBooks Users to be held Wednesday and Thursday, August 5th and 6th at the Green Center at the School of Mines in Golden, CO. This seminar is designed to help you achieve your next level in understanding QuickBooks. The seminar is not a beginner's seminar, but is for the person who has been using QuickBooks and is familiar with the basics of the program. I was at this training last year too and it's a bit different because three topics are presented each hour in a different classroom so you can select the topic that interests you most. Topics range from Company Setup to Job Costing to Computing in the Clouds. Click on the ASQU website at http://asqu-us.com/ to find out more.

Listen to our Intuit Podcast on Assisted Payroll

Blog posted by Lisa McCarthy - Intuit recently interviewed me and one of our clients - Carl Gurney who owns Gurney Electric in New Jersey - about Assisted Payroll and why Carl loves the product so much. Carl says, "I absolutely love it. Intuit's Assisted Payroll gives me my time back to make money for my company but yet I still have some control because I write the payroll checks."
Here are five reasons why you might love Intuit's Assisted Payroll, too

1. Intuit handles the tax filings and payments
   Intuit handles your tax payments and files tax forms for you—
   guaranteed accurate and on time. You don’t have to worry about
   dealing with the government.
2. Payroll specialists help you get started
   From set up to running your first payroll in QuickBooks, Intuit can help
   with personal, step-by-step guidance. With Assisted Payroll you can run
   payroll with confidence.
3. You’re in control (that's what Carl likes about Assisted Payroll)
   Simply enter employee hours in QuickBooks and create paychecks in just
   a few clicks. Easily print paychecks or use Direct Deposit (additional fees
   apply).
4. Save time—no double data entry (He likes this too.)
   All your payroll data automatically integrates with your business
   finances in QuickBooks. There's no need for double data entry,
   transferring totals or rekeying your payroll information.
5. Job costing
   Effortlessly track job costs for no additional fee.

We can help you get set up with Assisted Payroll - it's easy - just contact us. Listen to our podcast by clicking here.