Intuit's giving away Grants & Free Software for Acctg Professionals and Small Businesses

Not sure if you saw this or not, but Intuit just launched a "Power to Get More Done" campaign to help accounting professionals by offering significant discounts on products, free training, and even $10,000 grants to accounting professionals looking to start new firms or growtheir existing practices.

You can apply for the Stimulus Grant (note that the actual application link will go live in the very near future - it isn't live yet), and also find excellent savings that you can pass on to clients - by going to:http://accountant.intuit.com/GetMoreDone

For small businesses, Intuit is also helping to stimulate the economy by offering over $300,000 in small business grants and free software. See http://SmallBusinessUnited.com for more info on that program.

FREE Online Courses plus FREE CPE

There are a lot of great courses available online (http://accountant.intuit.com/training covering a variety of topics:

• What's New for QuickBooks 2009
• QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition 2009
• Lacerte Tax Update
• Payroll for Today's Accountant (by me)
• Preparing for QuickBooks Certification (by me)
• and more

Plus, coming in the next week or so:

• Common QuickBooks Mistakes and How to Fix Them (by me)
• Effective Marketing for Accounting Professionals (by me)

These online courses are free and inlcude CPE credits if you need it! Check them out!

Customizing the Icon bar in QuickBooks 2009

Although we could customize the icon bar in previous versions of QuickBooks, we can now customize it even more! In QuickBooks 2009, you can delete centers that you aren't using and edit the names from 'Customer Center' to 'Customers.' This allows more room for additional icons that you choose to add. Simply Right Click on the icon bar to customize it.

You can also create an icon for things by clicking on View>Add xx to Icon bar. For example, there isn't an icon available for 'Make General Journal Entry' to add to the icon bar. So, if you bring up the JE screen, and click on View>Add Make General JE to icon bar, you can add it yourself! This works for memorized reports too!

So, customize the icon bar, eliminate unused icons, edit the names, add new ones, and rearrange the icons to meet your needs! You should also Edit>Preferences to turn off features not used and eliminate unneeded icons from the home page (this helps reduce errors).

New for QuickBooks 2009 -- Duplicate Transactions

There were several new features for QuickBooks 2009, but one that many people overlooked is the ability to duplicate transactions. This will be especially great when you have the same invoice for many (or all) customers such as a home owner's association or need to issue checks for the same amount to numerous vendors or whatever.

After you create the first transaction, you simply right click on it (or Edit on the menu bar) and select Duplicate. Then, you can change the name or whatever else before you create the next one!

Don't forget you can also memorize transactions (Control+M or Edit>Memorize) to recur automatically too!

I hope that helps save some time for you or your clients! ;-)

Using Jing Videos for Training or Answering Questions

Often it is easier to show someone how to do something rather than to write about it or try to explain it. That is why I just LOVE creating quick videos with Jing (http://www.jing.com ). It is very easy to learn how to use and you can be creating videos in no time!


I've been using the Free version which limits you to 5 minute videos. They will host the videos or you can save them and post them to your own website, YouTube or email them to clients or others. Once you've created your video, make sure to name it so you can re-use it again later.


There is a Pro version of Jing for about $15 per year. You can also do a screen shot instead of a video. Here is a sample of a Jing video I created about 2 sided items in QuickBooks: http://screencast.com/t/zvU0HzyhvSf

This can be an effective marketing method to demonstrate your skills, knowledge and training abilities. You may get clients from people who watch your videos. So, get started with Jing and you'll see that 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and your clients and others will love it!

Intuit Academy Virtual Conference

Intuit Academy has its first Virtual Conference on Wed and Thursday (1/21 and 1/22/09). I logged in for a few minutes a couple of times on Wednesday. It was really cool! It is just like a real conference with an exhibit hall and conference hall (for live webinars and online courses available for CPE credit!).

In the Exhibit Hall, there are booths where you can talk to Intuit Employees and/or other ProAdvisors or peers and The Sleeter Group has a booth too with Doug & Sherrill Sleeter along with other Sleeter employees. It is great to be able to ask questions and talk to people in the booths. You can also pick up documents and save them into your briefcase to download later!'

You talk via chat and messaging. You can join in the booth chat for everyone or have private chats with people. You can also go into the Networking Lounge for Schedule Chats on various topics. I'm moderating a scheduled chat on Marketing ideas for Accounting Professionals today. I'm really looking forward to it and spending more time at the Virtual Conference today!

It seems similar to Second Life and I think it is a great way to utilize technology! Especially when the economy is bad, you can attend a conference without the travel expenses. Plus, my feet won't hurt at the end of the day!!!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm just getting started blogging so bear with me as I learn how to do this! Feel free to make suggestions!