QuickBooksCPA

QuickBooks Essentials for CPAs and Other Accounting Professionals

QuickBooks® Essentials for CPAs and Other Accounting Professionals

 

You are the expert your clients turn to for tax and accounting issues, but do you know what you need to know to help them navigate through QuickBooks®?

 

Starting on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, we will begin our new online seminar series QuickBooks® Essentials for Accounting Professionals. This is a six-session series of webinars designed especially for CPAs and other accounting professionals with clients that use QuickBooks®. 

 

This webinar series is not for novices...ideally, you are an experienced accountant, you are comfortable with computers, and you’ve worked with QuickBooks® already.

 

Each week Carol Garris will focus on one specific area of QuickBooks®. For each topic she will address what you need to know to get the most out of the accounting software and how to better serve your clients who use QuickBooks®.

 

Here’s what one CPA says about Carol, the designer and presenter for this webinar series:

 

“Everyone in our firm considered themselves knowledgeable in QuickBooks, but Carol made us realize that we had only scratched the surface. Now we affectionately refer to Carol as the “Michael Jordan” of QuickBooks around our office. She is truly gifted!” Debbie Senestraro, CPA – Principal Consultant, Financial Strategies, Lake Oswego, Oregon

 

What's the cost?  Only $179 total for all six sessions of the webinar series.

 

Not sure? Register for the webinar series, pay the $179 registration fee, and watch the first session. If you aren’t happy for any reason, email Carol at carolgarris@transitionmgt.com to request a refund. We’ll refund all of your money, no questions asked.

 

The webinar series is held on the following dates:

 

Oct 28, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

Nov 4, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

Nov 11, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

Nov 18, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

Nov 25, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

Dec 2, 2008 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM PDT

 

Register Now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/247088795

 

After you have registered on the GoToWebinar website, you will be routed to our shopping cart to pay the $179 registration fee.  PayPal is the payment provider for this webinar series. So, you can pay by credit card or use your PayPal account.

Once your registration is complete, you will receive an email confirming your registration with the information you need to join the Webinar.

 

 

 

QuickBooks Official Guide Now Available (Free)

If you're looking for a great resource for QuickBooks, check out this free e-book, QuickBooks Accounting 2009:  The Official Guide for Premium Edition Users. Users of QuickBooks Premier 2009 can download this 500+ page e-book from the Help menu under Learning Center Tutorials.

If you are an accounting professional, you can download this free 500+ page e-book now from a link on my website: www.transitionmgt.com

In this ebook you'll find lots of good information for yourself and your clients, all in one place. Check it out.

If you download it, be sure to let me know what you think about it.

Wishing you great success...

Carol E. Garris, CPA

Doug Sleeter Honored as Among Most Influential in Accounting Profession

Author: Deborah Pembrook  Created: Wed Oct 1 20:26:23 2008

Accounting Today Magazine Names QuickBooks Guru to Annual “Top 100” List

PLEASANTON, (CA) – Accounting Today, the premier news source for the accounting profession, has named Doug Sleeter, president and founder of The Sleeter Group, to its 2008 “Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting.” The magazine’s annual list recognizes “those who are spearheading the profession’s journey into brave new worlds,” according to publisher Bill Carlino. He also noted that this year’s list surpassed previous years’ because of the “expansive sphere of influence that many in the profession wield.”

The September 22 issue of Accounting Today noted that Mr. Sleeter “has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s leading QuickBooks and accounting software experts, training thousands of accountants who rely on him to help run their firms more effectively.”

The Sleeter Group is a community of experts who provide consulting services to small business owners in the accounting software and business process design areas. Its experts provide the critical glue (consulting and implementation services) that connects technology solutions to the needs of small business clients. Since 1993, The Sleeter Group has trained over 30,000 QuickBooks users.

Working with Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, The Sleeter Group develops and provides training resources to both QuickBooks users and consultants, including QuickBooks-specific reference books, expert-level webinars, college textbooks, teaching systems, a consultant certification program and membership network, practice management tools, and a free online QuickBooks newsletter. The Sleeter Group’s textbooks have been adopted by more than 100 colleges and technical schools in the United States.

The Sleeter Group also hosts an annual Accounting Software Consulting Conference, to be held this year on November 10-13 in Glendale, Arizona.

Mr. Sleeter’s unique combination of practical accounting knowledge and technology expertise has been a cornerstone of the success of The Sleeter Group and has established him as one of the most respected thought leaders in the accounting software industry. He is a frequent speaker at accounting events and tradeshows, including the AICPA’s annual TECH conference. Sleeter is also the author of more than 40 reference books and courseware materials in use by colleges and technology schools across the country. Doug’s column, “The QuickBooks Advisor,” is a must-read for the 50,000 tax and accounting professionals who subscribe to The CPA Technology Advisor and the magazine’s website, and the Sleeter.com website is a primary destination for QuickBooks educators, consultants, and users.

Accounting Today’s “Top 100” come from a variety of fields, according to managing editor Daniel Hood. They include professionals in public practice, academia, standard-setting, government and the regulatory arena, the software community, and others. “They all have in common a profound impact, both short- and long-term, on the way accounting is and will be practiced.”

Copyright © 2002 - 2008 The Sleeter Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Notes from Adam Urbansky (MY Marketing Mentor)

I met Adam Urbanski at the 2007 Speak Your Way to Wealth conference and immediately signed up for his Navigator Program. I always pick up a lot of practical tips from every encounter with him, so I was thrilled to hear him speak at the conference again this year. Here are some of my notes from this year's presentation:

Use your time most effectively

1. Identify money-making ideas
2. Find your "ready-to-buy" clients
3. Create hot-selling products fast
4. Write a magnetic sales pitch
5. Build a website that sells
6. Generate traffic
7. Use a proven business model and automate

1. "Just Get Started"

• What is your passion?
• What is already selling on-line? Google search
• What's already selling off-line? Checkout bookstores

How to become an expert fast:

• Research a problem
• Report your findings
• Create a community

2. Identify rabid markets

• Can you find them easily?
• Can you affordably reach them?
• Are they looking for your product?
• Do they have the money to buy it?
• Can they make the buying decision?

Check out adamrecommends.com

3. Create product fast

• Create, borrow, or buy
• Host and record telephone seminar
• Interview an expert
• Compile articles in an e-book
• Host a seminar and record
• To charge or not? What and why should be free; How should cost; What If has the highest price

4. Write a magnetic sales pitch

• Headline
• Sub-head
• Bullet points
• Testimonials
• Guaranty
• Call to action
• P.S. (Second headline)
• Include proof: testimonials, endorsements, case studies showing problem, solution and results

5. Build websites that sell

• Branding
• Sales
• Leads
• Feeder (opt-in)- Keep it simple: Headline, benefits, opt-in form

6. Bring in website traffic

• Articles
• Pay-per-click
• Joint ventures
• Social media
• SEO (slowest)
• Audio to transcript to article to opt-in site to sales site
• Use an auto-responder
• Take money on-line

7. Recommended business model

• Lead generator (opt-in)
• Sales/lead conversion - good sales letter
• Client retention - Thank you cards
• Profit multipliers - speak, transcribe into articles, convert to e-book

Carol E. Garris, CPA  Transition Management Resources 9/8/08

Three Million Reasons to Be a QuickBooks Consultant

I was looking around on the QuickBooks (Intuit) website this morning and found some interesting statistics. According to Intuit, eight out of ten small businesses choose QuickBooks when buying accounting software. QuickBooks is the most widely used accounting software for small business - "over 3.7 million users and growing" according to Intuit.

What does that mean for you?  That means that you have a constant flow of small business owners looking for help with QuickBooks...looking for setup guidance, for training, for ongoing support. Your QuickBooks services can serve as a "foot in the door" of small businesses who also need other services you may already be providing, such as monthly bookkeeping, tax returns and planning, business consulting.

If you have ever thought of becoming a QuickBooks consultant, here are 3.7 million reasons you should. To see how many users are near you, check out your state on the this map of QuickBooks users by state.

Download map_of_qb_users.pdf

Notes from Dave Lakhani

Dave Lakhani, speaking on the Power of Persuasion, was the second speaker on the first day of Speak Your Way to Wealth.  And let me tell you he definitely knows what he is talking about when he talks about persuasion. Here are some of my notes from his talk:

• Most people don't ask for what they want
• Packaging + Positioning = Desire
• A desire is a buyer
• Customers and clients aren't one-night stands, they're a seduction; it takes time
• You must be seen in order to sell
• You need a system (a common theme throughout the conference)

Dave's model for persuasive speaking:

1. Tell a persuasive story (makes audience attentive)
2. Grab the listeners by the ears (say something that perks them up)
3. Lay the foundation with pictures, history
4. Engage their emotions
5. Layer on the proof
6. Answer questions before they are asked
7. Move your narrative into a story

Develop a persuasive persona

1. Consistency leads to success
2. Appearance is important
3. Slow down
4. Put space between your words
5. A lower voice sells more

Control your audience; make them accountable

Present yourself to the media

• Editors and writers need stories, sources, case studies, fresh approaches
• Provides third-party endorsement, transfer of power, and believability

Powerful persuaders

• Social proof, i.e., testimonies
• Give to receive...gifts, opportunities
• Exclusivity...only a small group

Other take-aways:

• It takes about 1,000 hours of practice to develop an expertise in anything
• Experts have opinions and they're not afraid of sharing them

Notes from Mark Victor Hansen

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books and related products, was the first speaker at the Speak Your Way to Wealth conference and set the tone for the whole event with his inspiring presentation. Here are some of the thoughts I took from his talk:

It's important to develop systems, i.e., Save Your Self Time Energy Money

Be an enlightened speaker to:

• Touch people's lives
• Create instant behavioral changes
• Be a catalyst for change
• Influence the influencers
• Inspire people to make better decisions for themselves, for those arround them, and for the world

1. Find your own niche..."Grow rich in a niche"
2. Start with the title...the "title sells"
3. Find your own "unique soulular purpose"
4. Have a 50-year plan
5. "Problem = Opportunity"
6. Must have a platform
7. "Sell continuity"
8. Be original
9. Do what you believe in your heart, your mind, and your soul
10. "Dreams don't have deadlines"
11. Answer a question with a question
12. Break down your 50-year plan into pieces down to what you are going to do next week
13. Have a dream, get a team, and get a superstar to help you
14. "Imagination is God in action"
15. Find addicts and "hungry fish"
16. Tap into a universal want or need
17. Create lifelong clients and friends

Marketing Tips From the Experts

Last week I attended the Speak Your Way to Wealth conference in Manhattan Beach, California, and I am not exaggerating: IT WAS AMAZING. More than a dozen experts talked about a variety of marketing ideas including:

• Being an "enlightened speaker" (Mark Victor Hansen),
• Setting up a blog (The Blog Squad),
• Selling "info-products" on the internet (Adam Urbanski),
• Adding add humor to your presentations (Brad Montgomery),
• Attraction marketing (Jeffrey Howard),
• The power of persuation (Dave Lakhani)
• Using neuro-linguistic psychology to make powerful presentations (Gary de Rodriguez),
• Luxury cruising for speaking (Daniel Hall),
• Speaking with confidence (Pamela Harper),
• Writing and publishing a book (Lee Pound), and
• More.

I'll be writing more about some great things I learned at the conference and some of the people I met. Stay tuned.