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The Paperless office was envisioned years ago but it hasn’t really eventuated in most businesses I visit. But there are many little things you can do to avoid using more paper than you need to. Some of these include using cloud storage for files, moving your accounting system into the cloud, and sending and receiving statements and invoices electronically.

We have recently shifted to cloud accounting (don’t know why it took me so long) and have experienced a real productivity gain in data entry with bank accounts syncing transactions straight to our accounts. In addition, we are starting to shift our paper invoices and bills into electronic formats and save them online.

One thing you can’t get rid of all together is the paper receipt needed for business from a EFTPOS terminal. However, you don’t need to keep them. Scanning them and then saving them online is the best way to do this. And you don’t need an expensive scanner. Most good ones designed for document storage start around $500 or more. Simply use the Office Lens App on your Android iOS or Windows phone and you can scan straight into OneNote – and thence into your cloud accounting system.

Talk to us about the significant advantages to your business by reducing Paper and By using Cloud Accounting.

OneDrive For Business Syncing

Are you using OneDrive for Business or SharePoint? If so you may have had a bit of a bumpy ride recently with updates to the sync tool. The new sync tool is here and is far better, removes the old limitations and works – well let’s just say – as it’s supposed to! Read on for more info if you have had issues.

Office 365’s cloud storage in SharePoint and One Drive for Business is wonderful – gives you access to your data anywhere, version control and collaborative editing and sharing amongst many other features. However, the sync tool used to sync libraries to your PC has been buggy and had some limitations. To be fair these were mostly legacy issues that didn’t matter back when the size of libraries online was so much smaller. Now we expect to store large quantities and Office 365 certainly gives your business a heap of space.

The OneDrive for Business Next Generation Sync Client is now available for Windows 7, 8 and 10 machines (coming to Windows 8.1 in the first quarter 2016 sometime) and for MAC )S X 1.9 and above now. However, it is not rolled out in regular windows or office patches but needs to be deployed.

At the moment it does NOT support Windows 8.1, or SharePoint libraries - though these capabilities will be added soon. It can run alongside the current tool and works just fine. I have been running the pre-release version since November with ZERO problems – not something I could say about the previous tool.

This Office Support Article has all the details as well as guides for Windows and MAC for deployment.

If you need assistance then please do not hesitate to call or message and we can discuss your options or do it for you

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As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces, then connect with me:

Welcome to 2016! As I get older (and aren’t we all) don’t the years just seem to fly by! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are hard at it back at work!

This newsletter is a first week back jam packed bumper edition. I even have a HOW TO article on making automatic rules in Outlook.

Automating Outlook – Rules, Conversations, Clutter, and Quick Steps

clip_image001Most information workers spend a considerable amount of time in email. Nowadays there are multiple ways to access email including Outlook, mobile apps and online. However, Outlook is probably the best tool for productivity workers because it contains so many features. Some of those features are actually designed to make it easier to use the other tools. My mobile email management is so much easier because of the ways I have automated email management in Outlook. Check below for the ways in which you can speed up your use of Outlook.

Clutter

Clutter is turned on by default in Office 365. It is a machine learning system that analyses your email for newsletter and bulk emails and stores them in a separate folder, freeing your inbox from them and improving your ability to see the email that you need to deal with more easily. Like any machine learning tool, it can get things wrong so you can help it learn by “training” it. Move items to Clutter yourself (either by drag and drop or right clicking an email and choosing Move to Clutter. Likewise, you can move items back from Clutter to your Inbox. Note emails in Clutter are physically removed from your Inbox folder so will not show up on your mobile device without explicitly going to the Clutter folder.

Rules

Rules are a fantastic way of automating email delivery and management. You can create simple rules that simply delete email based on subject headings, to complex forwarding and filing processes. The options are large and can be complicated, however there are some shortcuts.

Right Click on any email and go to the Rules section. You can quickly create a rule to always move emails from a particular person to a particular folder.

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If you need to create more complicated rules this can be done as well by using the other options, Create a Rule or Manage Rules and Alerts.

Quick Steps

clip_image004Quick Steps are shortcuts that you can create that will mark items as read, move them to folders, forward emails to preselected team members and many other customisable actions.

Click on an email and in the ribbon select the quick steps box. You can open the manager and look at the default ones, modify or duplicate them and play with the options. More help online to manage Quick Steps.

I use these all the time to file emails from clients, staff and family.

 

 

File in folder – Move Conversation Messages

clip_image005Moving emails to folders is a good way to manage email, filing by customer, task, staff member, or even just for grouping things together. Once again the Right Click option gives access to a short cut to conversation filing. Conversations (grouped by subject) can then be completely removed from your inbox.

clip_image006Further conversation tools are available from the ribbon in the Home Tab. You can choose Ignore to delete an entire conversation (including future emails in the conversation). The Clean Up options give you the ability to remove duplicate emails (caused by replying and forwarding which includes the original email.) Be careful using this is you need an audit trail of what was sent to whom and when.

If you need help setting up or managing email management systems on your devices, talk to us today.

Windows 10 now on over 110 Million devices

We have now moved a significant portion of our customers to Windows 10, and without a single problem so far. There are significant compelling business reasons to do so as soon as possible – specifically the free upgrade that is only available until July.

Talk to use about the significant advantages to your business about using Windows 10. We can upgrade you over a weekend to avoid Down Time.

Windows 10 HP Stream for Sale $99

I have for sale a 7” tablet running the latest version Windows 10 Home. It is a 32GB device so small but very functional and it can take a Micro SD Memory Card. It has Bluetooth so can pair with an external keyboard and mouse. The Atom Processor gives it a very long battery life. Great for travellers, children or students.

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Here is a review of the device (with US Prices – it retailed in Australia for $199).

Contact me today if you want to buy this – first in first served.

the Tax Office is Going Digital – maybe You Should Too

If you hadn’t already seen their news release the Australia Tax Office has announced its Digital by Default Initiative and has requested feedback on it. Your business will need to prove why they can’t use the digital services and must qualify for an exemption. While there are many business processes that can’t be digitised, the world has seen remarkable growth with the onset of the Digital Revolution. And it makes sense to digitise whatever you can in your business where productivity gains can be realised. Just like you we are migrating our business slowly to the cloud wherever possible with the reduction of paper, cloud based accounting, digital delivery of information, and collaboration tools.

With the ATO’s announcement now might be timely for you to engage us to conduct a digital audit and look at developing a digital strategy, or if you think you might qualify for an exemption let us help you with that also.

New Office 365 Features and Announcements

Improvements to Office 365 kept flowing through the holiday season, bringing even more value to Office 365. The new Skype for Business for Android is here! The Power Pivot data model in Excel 2016 got smart rename support and Access 2016 Runtime became available. For business, the popular First Release program added more services, the Office 365 Compliance Center became the Office 365 Protection Center, Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery arrived and the Office 365 Planner preview started rolling out. To help you schedule meetings faster, there’s a new Outlook add-in called FindTime. The big news for developers is the availability on GitHub of Matter Center, an Office 365 Add-in and SharePoint-based document collaboration solution designed to increase productivity for legal professionals.

There are lots of things being introduced, updated and changed – check below for a quick summary and contact us if you need more information.

Skype Meeting Broadcast – New Office 365 Feature

Skype Meeting Broadcast lets you conduct meetings on the Internet for up to 10,000 people. They can attend in a browser on nearly any device. Meetings include real-time polling and sentiment tracking. Plus Yammer, to enable dialogue during the broadcast.

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Organise Teamwork with Office 365 Planner – Coming Soon

Office 365 Planner Preview rollout is starting and will be available soon to Office 36 customers.

What is it? Office 365 Planner, a new experience in Office 365 offers a simple and visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for teams to create plans, organize and assign work, share files, chat about what everyone is working on and get updates on progress.

Planner preview started rolling out to commercial First Release customers in the United States 16 Dec 2015. Microsoft expects to complete rollout of Planner Preview to commercial First Release customers worldwide over the next several weeks. Office 365 tenant admins will get detailed directions on how to enable Planner within their tenancy. The expect to make Planner generally available to all eligible Office 365 commercial and education customers in 2016.

Learn more about Office 365 Planner.

If you are interested in this tool we can give you a demo once we get access to it.

Office 2016 – Auto Update in February

Beginning February 9, 2016, Office 2016 Current Branch for Business will be available. The First Release for Current Branch for Business has been available since September, and we Microsoft is now making this broadly available to Office 365 customers.

How does this affect you?

Current Branch for Business is the default update branch of Office 2016, for Office 365 ProPlus subscriptions.

What do you need to do to prepare for this change?

We recommend that you review upgrade guidance and develop a plan to manage the upgrade of your existing Office 365 ProPlus installations. Auto-upgrades for Office 365 ProPlus and Office 365 Business clients will begin later in February 2016. If you wish to disable auto-upgrades refer to the following KB article: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3097292 .

Contact us if you have concerns about moving to Office 2016. If you have CRM or other customisations that only work in Office 2013 please talk to us now

The New OneDrive For Business Sync Client is here

Now available for Mac and Windows 10 the new OneDrive for Business sync client solves most of the problems we were experiencing with files and folders not syncing correctly. No support for Windows 8.1 until the second quarter of 2016 though – another reason to upgrade to Windows 10 now.

Follow Us On Social Media

As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces, then connect with me:

All content © Tim Miller. Feel free to share or send these emails on. If you want to unsubscribe just reply with Unsubscribe in the subject.

Did you get to the end of the Financial Year in good shape?

I certainly hope 2014-2015 was a good year for you and that you are looking forward to lots of new prospects, sales and good business in the next. I have outlined below some end of year things that you should take note of.

Financial Year End Tasks - Backups

There are lots of things to do at Financial Year End. Preparing Trust and Company minutes, getting stocktakes done and preparing final things for your accountant are some of the important ones. However in this newsletter I want to highlight some often neglected ones.

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First of all remember a copy of your data is not necessarily a backup. If you copy it, label it and store it securely it can be. The important test is that it is not being overwritten. So using your daily backup without taking monthly or at the very least annual snapshots of your data is a poor process. At the very least you should be able to locate and recover from the last 1-5 financial years data. If you do not have a “proper” backup process in place then ask us how to do so. These components should be a checklist for you. A Proper Backup should:

  • Allow you to recover from the last day, week, month, year – meaning you have access to media with those data sets on them.
  • Be labelled – clear and time proof labelling (not post it notes)
  • Be recorded – note who did the backup, when and what was backed up as well as the media it was stored on if your system does not do that for you automatically.
  • Be tested – at least once every 3-6 months you should run a recovery test to ensure that you can recover your data in the case of a failure.

Contact us now if you can’t tick off all those items for your backups.

Financial Year End Tasks – Using Excel Spreadsheets

Nearly every business uses Excel Spreadsheets. And none more so than office staff, accountants and book keepers. While Excel is a fantastic Business Intelligence tool a quick google search on parliamentary inquiries excel errors will scare the pants off you. I have seen first-hand how QLD government has reported incorrect numbers based on spreadsheets with errors in them. Most businesses also have the same problem – even mine! Relying on spreadsheet data for financial information needs to be done with the right auditing tools in place to ensure fidelity of the data, and comparison with the source (accounting) data. Done right Excel Reporting tools can greatly improve a business’s ability to manage their financial information, management reporting and other data. I have 27 years of experience of working with financial data in Excel (since version 1 and Lotus Notes before that). If you would like some assistance to ensure that your spreadsheet design (or your accounting staff’s spreadsheets) are accurate there are some simple things we can do to assist you. Even if that is just a couple of hours of specific training in good spreadsheet design techniques.

Talk to us about Excel and VBA training for your business. We provide customised training that your end users will find useful straight away – not just going through a manual on formulas and functions they will never need or use.

Financial Year End Tasks – Filing and Archives

CB107982_LoResI grew up in businesses with large filing archives, microfiche machines, rooms full of filing cabinets, stacked shelving and the dusty ceiling space storage accessed with a torch in times of desperate need only!

Today we create data in multiples so much greater than those days of typing pools, slow copy machines and dusty archives. However often digital data is stored in the same method that we used to store analogue data. This is really rather ridiculous when we think about it. Before computers data could only be stored in one place in a filing system and the indexing method needed to be able to help you easily find that data. Today with the use of metadata we can store data anywhere and use powerful search algorithms to find and locate data. The key is the metadata. Without it we can be as lost as the person in the archives who discovers all the vertical tab filing labels have fallen off.

The modern office stores data in most if not all the following places. Email, hard drives, network servers and storage, cloud storage places, USB external drives and mobile devices. How many times have you or someone you know spent ages looking for the file, email or image you “saved” and now can’t remember where it is?

Talks to us about how we can help you make the best use of your digital filing systems and reduce wasted time

Quick Steps in Outlook

outlook quick stepsEmail management is probably the largest time waster for businesses and office workers today. From Outlook 2010 on there is an awesome feature in Outlook that enables anybody to quickly and easily automate repetitive email management tasks. Effectively they are shortcuts that you can create that will mark items as read, move them to folders, forward emails to preselected team members and many other customisable actions.

Click on an email and in the ribbon select the quick steps box. You can open the manager and look at the default ones, modify or duplicate them and play with the options. More help online to manage Quick Steps.

If you are processing more than 100 emails a day ask us for help with managing them in significantly more efficient ways than what you probably are doing now. this applies to those people with hundreds of unread mails also!

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As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces then connect with me:

All content © Tim Miller. Feel free to share or send these emails on. If you want to unsubscribe just reply with Unsubscribe in the subject.

What’s the biggest challenge facing you in business right now?

If you don’t read the rest of this article maybe just take 30 seconds to email me and send me an answer to that question. It’s possible I can locate something or know something that can help you. Or maybe one of my other clients can; the power of networking is invaluable!

Seminar Update

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If you missed the seminar we will be holding a repeat one. However we are aware Wednesday mornings are not good for a lot of people. We are also prepared to come and do a customised version directly with customers and their staff for a flat fee.

Contact us now if you want to do this for Your Business

Windows 10 Specifications

More and more information is coming out around Windows 10 and the specifications have now been released for the upgrade. There potentially will be deprecations of applications and features. The official Windows 10 Specifications page lists the minimum requirements for hardware and also lists all the potential issues.

WARNING! At this stage if you are running a small business network with a server we don’t recommend upgrading to Windows 10 yet. If you are running individual PCS then there should be no problem, but I would recommend either doing it on a non-critical machine first or asking us to assist. Finally you should have a Microsoft ID before upgrading. Windows 8 users will likely already have one but Windows 7 users might not.

Talk to us first if you are not sure about updating to Windows 10.

Office Shortcut Keys

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Learning to use Office applications effectively is critical for information workers. So many hints and tips are out there it is sometimes hard to know where to start. Even the little ones we provide in these newsletters or online are just a drop in the bucket.

Today we are going to show you a bunch of really effective short cut keys that we use regularly and that once mastered will speed up your use of Excel. Print these out maybe and put them near your screen. I have highlighted the best ones that are my constant use Go Tos.

Keys for moving and scrolling in a worksheet or workbook

Arrow keys: Move one cell up, down, left, or right

CTRL+arrow: key Move to the edge of the current data region
HOME: Move to the beginning of the row
CTRL+HOME: Move to the beginning of the worksheet
CTRL+END: Move to the last cell on the worksheet, which is the cell at the intersection of the rightmost used column and the bottom-most used row (in the lower-right corner), or the cell opposite the home cell, which is typically A1
PAGE DOWN: Move down one screen
PAGE UP: Move up one screen
ALT+PAGE DOWN: Move one screen to the right
ALT+PAGE UP: Move one screen to the left
CTRL+PAGE DOWN: Move to the next sheet in the workbook
CTRL+PAGE UP: Move to the previous sheet in the workbook
CTRL+F6 or CTRL+TAB: Move to the next workbook or window
CTRL+SHIFT+F6 or CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous workbook or window
F6: Move to the next pane in a workbook that has been split
SHIFT+F6: Move to the previous pane in a workbook that has been split
CTRL+BACKSPACE: Scroll to display the active cell
F5: Display the Go To dialog box
SHIFT+F5: Display the Find dialog box
SHIFT+F4: Repeat the last Find action (same as Find Next)
TAB: Move between unlocked cells on a protected worksheet

Keys for moving in a worksheet with End mode on

END: Turn End mode on or off
END, arrow key: Move by one block of data within a row or column
END, HOME: Move to the last cell on the worksheet, which is the cell at the intersection of the rightmost used column and the bottom-most used row (in the lower-right corner), or the cell opposite the home cell, which is typically A1
END, ENTER: Move to the last cell to the right in the current row that is not blank; unavailable if you have selected the Transition navigation keys check box on the Transition tab (Tools menu, Options command)

Keys for entering data on a worksheet

ENTER: Complete a cell entry and move down in the selection
ALT+ENTER:
Start a new line in the same cell
CTRL+ENTER:
Fill the selected cell range with the current entry
SHIFT+ENTER:
Complete a cell entry and move up in the selection
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER:
Enter an array formula (must be used when editing an existing array formula)
TAB:
Complete a cell entry and move to the right in the selection
SHIFT+TAB:
Complete a cell entry and move to the left in the selection
ESC:
Cancel a cell entry
BACKSPACE:
Delete the character to the left of the insertion point, or delete the selection
DELETE:
Delete the character to the right of the insertion point, or delete the selection
CTRL+DELETE:
Delete text to the end of the line
Arrow keys:
Move one character up, down, left, or right
HOME:
Move to the beginning of the line
F4 or CTRL+Y:
Repeat the last action
SHIFT+F2: Edit a cell comment
CTRL+SHIFT+F3:
Create names from row and column labels
CTRL+D:
Fill down
CTRL+R:
Fill to the right
CTRL+F3:
Define a name

Keys for working in cells or the formula bar

BACKSPACE: Edit the active cell and then clear it, or delete the preceding character in the active cell as you edit cell contents
ENTER: Complete a cell entry
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER: Enter a formula as an array formula
ESC: Cancel an entry in the cell or formula bar
CTRL+A: Display the Formula Palette after you type a function name in a formula
CTRL+SHIFT+A: Insert the argument names and parentheses for a function after you type a function name in a formula
CTRL+K: Insert a hyperlink
ENTER (in a cell with a hyperlink): Activate a hyperlink
F2: Edit the active cell and position the insertion point at the end of the line
F3: Paste a defined name into a formula
SHIFT+F3: Paste a function into a formula
F9: Calculate all sheets in all open workbooks
CTRL+ALT+F9: Calculate all sheets in the active workbook
SHIFT+F9: Calculate the active worksheet
= (equal sign): Start a formula
ALT+= (equal sign): Insert the AutoSum formula
CTRL+; (semicolon): Enter the date
CTRL+SHIFT+: (colon): Enter the time
CTRL+SHIFT+" (quotation mark): Copy the value from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the formula bar
CTRL+` (single left quotation mark): Alternate between displaying cell values and displaying cell formulas
CTRL+' (apostrophe): Copy a formula from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the formula bar
ALT+DOWN ARROW: Display the AutoComplete list

Keys for editing data

F2: Edit the active cell and put the insertion point at the end of the line
ESC: Cancel an entry in the cell or formula bar
BACKSPACE: Edit the active cell and then clear it, or delete the preceding character in the active cell as you edit the cell contents
F3: Paste a defined name into a formula
ENTER: Complete a cell entry
CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER: Enter a formula as an array formula
CTRL+A: Display the Formula Palette after you type a function name in a formula
CTRL+SHIFT+A: Insert the argument names and parentheses for a function, after you type a function name in a formula
F7: Display the Spelling dialog box

Keys for inserting, deleting, and copying a selection

CTRL+C: Copy the selection
CTRL+X: Cut the selection
CTRL+V: Paste the selection
DELETE: Clear the contents of the selection
CTRL+HYPHEN: Delete the selection
CTRL+Z: Undo the last action
CTRL+SHIFT+PLUS SIGN: Insert blank cells

Keys for selecting cells, columns, or rows

CTRL+SHIFT+* (asterisk): Select the current region around the active cell (the current region is a data area enclosed by blank rows and blank columns)
SHIFT+arrow key: Extend the selection by one cell
CTRL+SHIFT+arrow key: Extend the selection to the last nonblank cell in the same column or row as the active cell
SHIFT+HOME: Extend the selection to the beginning of the row
CTRL+SHIFT+HOME: Extend the selection to the beginning of the worksheet
CTRL+SHIFT+END: Extend the selection to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)
CTRL+SPACEBAR: Select the entire column
SHIFT+SPACEBAR: Select the entire row
CTRL+A: Select the entire worksheet
SHIFT+BACKSPACE: Select only the active cell when multiple cells are selected
SHIFT+PAGE DOWN: Extend the selection down one screen
SHIFT+PAGE UP: Extend the selection up one screen
CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR: With an object selected, select all objects on a sheet
CTRL+6: Alternate between hiding objects, displaying objects, and displaying placeholders for objects
CTRL+7: Show or hide the Standard toolbar
F8: Turn on extending a selection by using the arrow keys
SHIFT+F8: Add another range of cells to the selection; or use the arrow keys to move to the start of the range you want to add, and then press F8 and the arrow keys to select the next range

Let us know if you like these tips or want to know how to use any of the Microsoft Office products more effectively. Training your staff in how to use their computers more efficiently and effectively is a small investment that can make them more productive.

Call us today!

Social Media Images Sizes

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There are so many different social media platforms and they all have different recommended image sizes for use in the header, profile pic and content. It can be very difficult working out what size to use where. Getting it wrong can mean that images don’t display correctly, scale badly, crop text or logos from the image or worse. We actually use a spreadsheet tool we have developed to identify the correct sizes for to convert images to for each platform as well as many other regular formats such as A4 portrait and landscape, DL flyers, business cards and more. If you struggle with this talk to us and we can help. In the meantime this website gives you a great cheat sheet for social media image sizes on some of the more popular platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest) and the sizes to use for headers, profile pics and inline content.

Ask us for help with developing great images with text overlays for your social media advertising and web content

Follow us on Social Media

As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces then connect with me:

All content © Tim Miller. Feel free to share or send these emails on. If you want to unsubscribe just reply with Unsubscribe in the subject.

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Did you know that email newsletter campaigns are more effective than any social media campaign as a way to grow your business? If you want help writing and sending newsletters like these that you can send to your mailing list then just talk to Tim today. Let me know if these are useful for you – and if you have a burning “how the heck do I do that?” question then ask that as well and we can write about it next newsletter.

Advance Notice

We will be running a Seminar early June with Jerrod D. Smith Attitude Coach. Pre-register your interest as we expect to sell out early as seats are limited to 25

Cloud Management Tips – Accounting systems

One of the easiest places to find potential time and therefore cost savings is in shifting your business accounting into the cloud. There are numerous advantages, but also some things to watch out for.

Advantages of cloud accounting

This isn’t an exhaustive list but some of the more popular features that most cloud accounting packages will offer or use as promotional or sales features:

  • Access to your data anywhere on any device (note this isn’t always true – many do not have apps that work on all mobile platforms and many have plugins that are also similarly hampered.)
  • Access to your accountant for live data review. Not having to close off your accounts, send them to your accountant and then wait for them to finish with them before carrying on working (or go and make the same end of year journals they just made) is a huge advantage. Your accountant can login (usually free) and make the changes while you can continue to operate.
  • Up to the minute reporting. This sounds good but isn’t necessarily so. As a management accountant for many years I know the danger of providing inaccurate data to business owners. GIGO or Garbage in garbage out is a software development acronym that also applies to Accounting packages. If you don’t have all the data entered in correctly then the reports you might be relying on could be inaccurate.
  • Licensing cost means updates are “free” and you are only paying an easy monthly fee. This has a catch for some systems – if you stop paying – your stop having access to your data. Some systems have offline data, others will allow you to download into excel. But this can catch people out so make sure you choose the right package.

So how can you choose? We are partners with Financials for Office 365 so our advice could be biased but we can certainly give you some broad level advice as to which package might or might not be right for you. However for true unbiased advice feel free to get in touch with one of our customers Dianne Kennedy from Small Business Know How on 07 3343 3796.

We can sit down with you and talk about your current accounting system and how to migrate this into the cloud in the most cost effective and efficient manner. Call to discuss today on 0414 770 002.

Windows 10 is Nearly here – crazy amount of news being released

Windows 10 will be released later this year. And if you upgrade from Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows Phone 8.1 in the first year from its release you will get the upgrade free*.

I'm not going to try and talk about everything Windows 10 related that has happened in the last 2 weeks. There’s been an avalanche of news both from Microsoft itself and also from the media speculation and hype growing around release dates, inclusions and exclusions and so on.

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Here are a few key points:

  • We are telling customers to hold off on Win 8.1 upgrades now. There is no point in spending money on that when the Win 10 upgrade from Win 7 will apparently be free and “painless”. Of course we will be testing that thoroughly before we start assisting our customers to upgrade. However if you want to be a test dummy then feel free to let us know. There is a 12 month free upgrade deadline from release date so you do need to factor that in.
  • The new apps store will include carrier billing – that means not having to enter credit card details on a mobile device – it will bill your mobile carrier instead. And there’s a rumour that iOS and Android apps will be ported into the store.
  • A release date was “leaked” for July – still not confirmed officially but seems pretty likely. A second release of October will likely be for the first major refresh with features that didn’t make the cut in July being implemented in this one.
  • Solitaire is back – hooray! The best time waster of all. Where is the productivity tip here?

If you are interested in previewing Windows 10 we can show you some devices with it running and then talk about when your business will migrate to Windows 10 and take advantage of the under the hood features that will make your staff more productive.

*Doesn’t apply to customers running Windows Enterprise or on Software Assurance.

Office 365 Introduces Outlook Clutter Feature

o365-clutterClutter is a new feature being progressively rolled out to Office365 customers. If you want to try it ask me and we can see if it is available for you and turn it on. It is turned on organisation wide but off by default and needs to be enabled per user account.

How Clutter works

Clutter learns from your actions to determine the messages you are likely to ignore. As less important messages arrive, they are automatically moved to the Clutter folder. Clutter does this by leveraging Office Graph’s sophisticated machine learning techniques to determine which messages are Clutter. It gets smarter over time, learning from your prior actions with similar messages, and assessing things like the type of content and even how you are addressed in the message. The Clutter experience is personalized to each individual and reflects an email experience that adapts to your actions and preferences without you having to do anything. The information Clutter learns from each user’s actions are only applied to that user’s experience and are not shared with anyone else.

More info here http://blogs.office.com/2014/11/11/de-clutter-inbox-office-365/

Let us know if you get a lot of email per day. There are smart ways to work with your inbox that can help save you time and money. Training your staff in how to use email more efficiently and effectively is a small investment that can make them more productive. Call us today!

Using Absolute References in Excel

Excel uses a powerful vector system for managing formulas. Each cell can be linked to many others using formulas. In a simple way of explaining this, 2 cells can be added together in a third cell using a formula that references them. Most people do not know how to use absolute references to speed up their formula development time, and ensure accuracy of formulas in a table. I have a comprehensive article online detailing what they are as well as how to use them. Read all the instructions on how to use absolute references in your formulas at http://spyjournal.biz/back-basics-using-absolute-references-excel

If you want to know more about using some of the more powerful functions in Excel to improve your productivity then give us a call.

Google Mobile Friendly Test – do you pass?

 

In case you haven’t heard the biggest thing in recent times in search engine optimisation happened back on 21 April 2015 (22nd for Australia). Google implemented a major search engine ranking algorithm change for mobile search. With a huge rise in the use of mobile devices for search, and the high likelihood of local search using these devices it makes sense for Google to deliver localised results. However they are now saying for a mobile user the results should be optimised for the mobile device. So if your site is not optimised for mobile (passes the mobile friendly test) then it will automatically drop down the rankings in preference of sites that are friendly.

Test your site today https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ Enter your domain name.

If you fail the test talk to us about if you even need to pass. And if you do then we can work out the most cost effective way for you to achieve that. It doesn’t need to cost thousands of dollars.

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As always Jethro is your web, cloud and technology specialists. I am constantly learning new things and spending time researching, playing and testing new systems and reading about other people in the IT world doing the same thing. If you want to follow along with what I share in various spaces then connect with me:

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Jethro has worked closely with us through our company establishment assisting as our trusted IT advisor. Tim has continued to provide purchase decisions assistance, troubleshooting and maintenance and other IT solutions ever since.

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