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September 2007
 A Message from Doug Sleeter  

Doug Sleeter There is still time to register for The Event of the Year, our annual Accounting Software Consulting Conference. The conference is October 23-26, 2007 at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.

At this conference, we bring together the entire "ecosystem" of small business accounting software, including consultants, developers, Intuit, Sage, and Microsoft so everyone in our industry can learn about each other and pick up new ideas for succeeding in the market.

We have 44 vendors exhibiting and over 50 conference sessions in these tracks:

  • Consulting Tools and Best Practices
  • Business Development
  • Technologies and Trends
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Industry Solutions
  • Compliance Issues
Plus, come to the special pre-conference day where you can attend any of the following all-day sessions:
I sure hope to see you all there. This is the ideal chance to learn about the whole industry and meet all the players who can help you succeed in the business.

Register today while we still have room.

 Troubleshooting Payroll  

This article "Troubleshooting Payroll" is an excerpt from our 600+ page 2007 QuickBooks Consultants Reference Guide.

This excerpt explains how to make the Payroll Liabilities report and the Balance Sheet agree. Under normal circumstances these two reports will not agree because QuickBooks uses the date through which payroll liabilities were accrued to generate the Payroll Liabilities report. As in any accounting program, QuickBooks uses the transaction date to calculate the Balance Sheet.

 Sleeter Group Annual Conference Update  



The Sleeter Group’s annual conference will be held October 23-26, 2007 at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The main conference is a three day event (10/24-26) plus three optional “Pre-Conference Sessions” on Tuesday 10/23/07.

General and Break Out Sessions Are Now Posted – Check out the session descriptions.
Rio Room Rate Sale! The Rio hotel room rates during our conference week are currently on sale. Rates range between $120 and $140 per night. Book now and save.

Giveaways and Raffles: Giveaways include free software from Intuit, Sage Software, Microsoft and BillQuick Software. More than 15 prizes will be raffled. Click here to check it out.

The Conference Program Guide that all attendees will receive on site is now available online. The guide includes the conference schedule, session descriptions, raffle prizes, conference giveaways and more. Click here (PDF).

We have over 40 companies attending the conference to exhibit their products and services. Check out all of our Exhibitor companies here.

 The Sales Process - Recording Sales Transactions in QuickBooks  

The Sales Process introduces readers to the QuickBooks Accounts Receivable process. This is an excerpt from our 2007 QuickBooks Fundamentals book which is aimed toward those new to QuickBooks and accounting. It explains the difference between processing transactions for cash and credit customers, setting up customers, and introduces Job Costing.

For more information about our Fundamentals and Intermediate books, visit our online store.

 Congratulations to Sleeter Group Members in the 40 under 40  

The CPA Technology Advisor MagazineCongratulations to three Sleeter Group Consultant Network members who have been named by The CPA Technology Advisor magazine to the "40 Under 40" list. 

The CPA Technology Advisor’s 40 Under 40 program recognizes those professionals who entered the profession during those lean years and have grown into established leadership roles within the professional community through dedication to client service, strong ethical conviction, education of their peers and adoption of technological resources that aid in client service and practice development.
 
Sleeter Group Members Named to the list are:
Liz Alexander, CPA
Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP
Robert Chandler

 Product Update News  

The Sleeter Group’s 2007 Learning QuickBooks Step-by-Step Teaching System helps you start teaching seminars without reinventing the wheel. This system includes a copy of our Fundamentals and Intermediate books as well as PowerPoint slides, instructor notes, testing and review materials. NEW! We now include a printed copy of our Seminar Planning Guide. This guide will guide you through all the steps of  planning, marketing and executing a successful seminar.

This year’s version of our Fundamentals and Intermediate books contains significant changes, including a complete update of all our exercises with new exercise files. Each book now includes a summary problem at the end of the each book covering topics from each chapter. We have greatly enhanced the Revenue, Payroll Processing and Setup chapters as well as included a new Sales Process and Time and Billing chapters.

These changes are also included in our 2007 QuickBooks Complete College Textbook which contains the combined content from the Fundamentals and Intermediate books.

Our 2007 versions of these products are available. Visit our web store at www.sleeterstore.com.

 Tricks of the Trade  

Every day, members of The Sleeter Group’s Consultants Network tackle the day-to-day problems of their clients in the real world. The following is an example problem and solution that surfaced this month on our "Sleeter Group’s Consultants Network Yahoo Group."

Question: I’m trying to identify the best tools for QuickBooks database analysis. Before creating a new QuickBooks file for clients, I perform an in-depth review of all the customer, vendor, employee, and item lists to determine what information should be in the new file. Using such tools as Transaction Pro Exporter to export transactions to analyze in Excel or Access have often been sufficient. However, item information is more difficult to analyze as I need to relate items sold and purchased. I’ve played around a little with QODBC and AccessBooks. I would love to hear some feedback from the group.

Joe Woodard replies: You can certainly do a lot with QODBC that you cannot do in [the QuickBooks] product. However, there is also the in-product approach. For example, you can create a custom summary report filtered by date range with the rows set to Item or Customer to see what transactions in QB used an Item or Customer name. You can get even more detail using a detail report totaled by Item – but the report will not be as effective with pairing down the lists. I also typically defer this work to the client, asking them to make any customers/items they haven’t used in a while inactive. As the business owner they have an instinctive knowledge of which items/customers have been used recently.

Kathy Coffman suggests: Check out Bonnie Nagayama’s data file analysis tool.

Result:Thanks Joe and Kathy for your suggestions. I’ll continue to explore QODBC. This particular client has a "monster file" that I need to do extensive cleanup before we upgrade them to QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. Even though QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions can handle their file size (340+ MB in QB 2004!), there are many issues that need to be resolved first, so in-depth database analysis is key. What I usually do is analyze their data, make recommendations on how it needs to be cleaned up, have the client review/sign off, and then build the lists for the new QuickBooks file. With periodic review of their file, training, and support, the file will stay that way! I make my clients, and their CPAs, very happy!

For more information about QODBC, go to www.qodbc.com. For more information about Bonnie Nagayama’s data file analysis tool, go to www.4luvofbiz.com.

 The Sleeter Group's Consultants Network  

The Sleeter Group’s Consultants Network is the nation’s premier accounting software consultant’s network. With over 500 members located throughout the US and Canada, our members serve over 30,000 small businesses. We provide expert QuickBooks consulting, add-on integration services, business process workflow consulting, outsourced bookkeeping services, and financial statement preparation.
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 located 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 products and our annual conference.