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 January 2009
Inside this Issue
Happy New Year! I Like you, we’re continually striving to keep our business running efficiently, and this is the time of year when we review all of our systems. We review the hardware, software, web site, and workflow processes to see what changes we can make to improve the company. I believe by doing this each year, we not only help our business, but we also become better consultants for our clients. There is simply no substitute for experience when advising clients. This year, we outsourced our product fulfillment operations to a vendor who has dramatically improved our process, and at the same time reduced our shipping costs. It’s a great example of how we’re doing what we want clients to do. That is, we’re trusting the "experts" to help us streamline our business. And they’ve definitely done that for us. Our vendor is Acutrack in Livermore, CA and I really thank them for all their work in helping The Sleeter Group. Also, Acutrack just became one of our new Fishbowl Inventory clients! It’s a great partnership and I think we’re helping each other’s businesses grow by trusting each others’ expertise. The other project we’re working on (just about completed) is our transition to a new CRM system based on Results CRM. We’re very impressed with the flexibility of this software and we’re excited that we’ll have fast, LAN-based performance in addition to a web client that allows our remote workers access our CRM system. I think it’s the best of both worlds (LAN and Web-based), and I think many small businesses like ours could really benefit from this type of solution. And of course, Results has bi-directional synchronization with QuickBooks, so now all of our employees can see what customers have purchased, even if they don’t have access to the company accounting system. If you’re interested in learning more, check them out at www.results-software.com. We’ve also just entered into an agreement with CPE Link to manage our growing Webinar business. This partnership will allow us to reach a broader audience of accounting professionals who need high-quality, accountant level QuickBooks training. We’ll be announcing the first set of webinars in the next few weeks.
We’ve just released the 2009 edition of our popular QuickBooks Consultant’s Reference Guide: How to Set Up, Troubleshoot and
The printed book is $89.95. The Consultant’s Reference Guide is also available in a PDF format, so you can use the search feature to quickly find answers to your tough questions. The downloadable PDF is available now. The printed book will be available to ship in about a week and we are currently taking orders. Members of the Sleeter Group Consultants Network receive a link to download their free copy of the PDF as part of their membership. "A must have for any QuickBooks consultant, or accountant working with small business."
QuickBooks
We asked members of The Sleeter Group Consultants Network (SGCN) to nominate recipients for the Magnificent Member Awards. There are five categories for these awards including Prolific Poster, Top Techie, Best Business Coach, Solution Sharer, and VAR Top Seller awards. We announced the winners at our annual conference. The winner in each category is
How would you describe your practice? How has being a member of The Sleeter Group Consultants Network affected your practice? How has The Sleeter Group Consultants Network benefited your practice? Personally, I felt honored that my peers choose me for this Techie Award. Everyone knows, I don’t do it for the recognition. I do it because I want to share what I know. And just like I contribute to the best of my ability, I know that all 600 other members do the same. Do you have any advice you would like to share with our readers? Ed. Note: Mario is a contributing writer for The Sleeter Group’s 2009 Consultant’s Reference Guide.
QuickBooks Step By Step Seminar System 30% off through February 28, 2009!
Offering seminars is a powerful marketing tool for reaching new clients! We selected the most popular topics from our bestselling QuickBooks Fundamentals and QuickBooks Intermediate college textbooks and created two streamlined books which can each be taught in a one-day seminar format: QuickBooks Seminar I covers accounting basics; tracking revenue and expenses; bank reconciliation; and file setup. View the Table of Contents – Seminar I (PDF). Regular Price: $695 – On Sale Now for Just $486.50
Every In this article, reporting expert Chuck Vigeant walks through the step by step directions for creating this query.
Intuit’s The program contains three key elements:
For more information on the program, visit the Intuit web site at:
Mark Your Calendars and Plan to Attend the 2009 ASCC Conference in Orlando, Florida!The Sleeter Group’s 6th annual Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida November 9-12, 2009 at the Wyndham Orlando Resort. The hotel room rate for the conference is ONLY $139 per night! On Monday November 9th we will offer our popular "pre conference" full day in depth training sessions. The three day main conference will be held Tuesday, Nov 10th to Thursday Nov 12th. The conference will provide at least 32 CPEs. Our 2008 Conference Exhibitor Webinar Series is Still Available. Miss the 2008 conference? You can still learn about some of the great solutions that were demonstrated in the Exhibit Hall. Join Doug Sleeter as he hosts a few of our 2008 Exhibitors in a series of free webinars. Watch them for FREE! Questions? Please give us a call at 888-484-5484.
Every Question: I had a gentleman call me this morning that wants to upgrade from an ancient version of QuickBooks. He is using Version 4 for Windows – copyright 1996. He has about 100 customers and maybe 12 vendors. I told him I would ask the board to see if he could jump directly into 2009. He currently only uses it for rec/pay. I am thinking that once he has closed out the year it would probably be less expensive to buy new and start fresh with importing his customers and vendors. Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts otherwise? Kathy Coffman replied: You can try the upgrade to 2009 in one step, but you will likely have to upgrade incrementally (every few years). What is your earliest version of QuickBooks that you have? Start with that and work your way up if the one step doesn’t work. Since this isn’t a complicated file, you shouldn’t have too many problems. Just be sure to back up first! Kurt Krueger added: I had this happen last year. You have to update the file to Version 6 or 99 first. I think I moved the file to version 2002 and then to 2008. Good luck! Wendy O’Neil chimed in: I have done several of these updates and I found that you need to get the file to version ‘99, then 2003, then 2005, then 2006. You should be able to get to 2009 without too much pain. The reason you need to get to 2005 and then 2006 is the change that Intuit made in the background (going from an Access based data base to the new SDK). Always backup and check the balance sheet with each upgrade. The process shouldn’t take very long depending on the file size.
The Sleeter Group Consultants Network is the nation’s premier accounting software consultant’s network. With over 600 members located throughout the US and Canada, our members serve over 150,000 small businesses. In addition to client consulting, many of our consultants provide consulting services to software developers who seek advice on the best practices for integrating their applications with QuickBooks and other accounting software products. To locate one of our certified consultants visit our Find a Consultant page. To learn more about becoming a consultant visit our Become a Consultant page or call our office at 888-484-5484. Members of the network receive a substantial discount on our resource products as well as our annual Accounting Software Consulting Conference. Membership also includes a copy of our Consultant’s Reference Guide. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2009 The Sleeter Group, Inc. All rights reserved. 5798 Stoneridge Mall Rd. #101 Pleasanton, CA 94588 888-484-5484 |
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hope you’re off to a great start for 2009. We’ve been busy reworking several parts of our business to set the stage for what we hope will be a very good year.
Support QuickBooks and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions
2009 and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 9.0 have features that will extend the usability of QuickBooks, including Multi-Currency and improved Multi-User capability. There are also several features that will help accounting professionals, such as Client Data Review and Intuit Statement Writer 2009. This extensive article covers what’s new and how you can use these features in your practice. Written by 
Each of the next few newsletters we’ll bring you an interview with one of these award winners. This month, we interviewed Mario Nowogrodzki, winner of the Sleeter Group Top Techie Award.
day, members of The 