Inside this Issue
- A Message from Doug Sleeter
- Sleeter Group Webinars
- Labor Burden and Profits
- Product Sale - QuickBooks Point of Sale
- Chuck's Reporting Corner
- The Sleeter Group Consultants Network
- Tricks of The Trade
| A Message from Doug Sleeter |  |
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Happy New Year,
2007 was a record year for The Sleeter Group, with significant growth to our network of Accounting Software and IT Consultants as well as our annual conference.
And 2008 is full of opportunities. We have expanded our Sleeter Group Webinar Series with new and repeated webinars to help you improve your knowledge and your practice. We are continuing and expanding our VAR program, looking to build on our successful relationship with Fishbowl Inventory.
In the coming year, you can count on us to keep you ahead of the curve with information about the best of breed software and hardware solutions, and the tricks of the trade for successful consultants.
| Sleeter Group Webinars | |
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Our winter Sleeter Group Webinar Schedule is now posted. This series includes ten information-packed webinars, covering a wide variety of topics aimed towards accountants and QuickBooks consultants. These high quality, consultant-level online seminars are quick, convenient, and most of all affordable!
Here are a few of the webinar topics covered in January and February.
Free Recorded Webinar! New Features of QuickBooks 2008. You can watch and listen to this one hour webinar FREE.
Check out our complete list of upcoming webinars on our website.
| Labor Burden and Profits | |
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by Diane Gilson, Sleeter Group Consultant
We all know that employees are an expensive, but necessary, component of doing business. Company owners count on an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, and have a right to expect both service and value from staff and direct labor employees in return for their compensation. Additionally, to make a profit, every company needs to accurately determine employees’ costs and what to charge for their time.
But determining true hourly worker costs can be challenging. This article examines the challenge and explores the Qlean$tart® Labor Burden Calculator, created by Diane Gilson.
This Excel-based product helps you and your clients compute the full, true cost of employees’ production time and determines exact amounts they should use to estimate, and charge for, labor-related services or products. As a consultant, you can add a variety of valuable training, coaching, and support services to your company using this Excel-based analytical tool. Please note that a 20% alliance discount is available to Sleeter Group Consulting Network members.
| Product Sale - QuickBooks Point of Sale | |
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QuickBooks POS Best Practices for Success – Version 7 on Sale!
Our new POS book is on sale through February 15th, 2008
Save 15%! Regular Price is $79.95, buy it now for only $67.95
This book, authored by Leslie Capachietti, teaches implementation, daily transactions and financial exchange with QuickBooks Financial Software. An invaluable resource whether you are new to Point of Sale or an experienced QuickBooks Point of Sale consultant. Filled with step-by-step instruction and easy-to-read graphics, QuickBooks POS Best Practices for Success covers behind the scenes accounting information so there are no surprises when integrating with QuickBooks.
Visit the Sleeter Group product store to view the Table of Contents as well as a sample chapter - and to order the POS Version 7 book
QuickBooks Point of Sale software was a 2008 Sleeter Group QuickBooks Awesome Add on award winner. You can read more about the Awesome Add ons Awards here.
| Chuck's Reporting Corner | |
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The Sleeter Group is pleased to announce a new segment for our monthly newsletter, Chuck’s Reporting Corner, featuring Chuck Vigeant from ACCOUNTiGRATE. This section will contain articles, case studies, and usable examples on reporting and Business Intelligence.
Chuck has spoken at our annual conferences, and is the managing partner of ACCOUNTiGRATE, the world’s largest provider of custom reporting, integration and business intelligence solutions for QuickBooks.
He will address real world issues and has promised to provide reporting examples that you can employ in your customer engagements. If you have a particular topic you would like him to review, please submit it to AskChuck@sleeter.com and he may include it in his monthly article.
Some of this information will be exclusive to the Sleeter Group, and may provide you with a better education to help you discuss with your client what can and can’t be achieved with QuickBooks data outside of the box.
Chuck’s experience as a controller in a mainframe environment, as a tax preparer, and as an accounting technology specialist since the mid 80’s, led him to partner for three years with FLEXquarters, the maker of the QODBC driver, to improve its use as a reporting tool, and to spearhead its inclusion into Enterprise Solutions. In addition to his duties at ACCOUNTiGRATE, he currently consults as an engineer in the Intuit Mid Market Group, specializing in database, business intelligence and reporting technologies.
To read the full article click the link below.
| The Sleeter Group Consultants Network | |
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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. 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 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 products and our annual conference.
| Tricks of The Trade | |
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Every day, members of The Sleeter Group 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 Consultants Network E-Mail Group.
Question: I am really stuck on the Unit of Measure feature. I have a client who manufactures from raw goods into batches, holds the batches in inventory and then packages into different sizes and cases. I have manufactured goods assembly items and finished goods assembly items, but I can’t figure out the Unit of Measure. Some conversions include kilograms to gallons, kilograms to 8oz,and kilograms to 4oz, etc. The cost of goods is not calculating correctly.
Kara R. Haas, CPA replied: I’ve been there and I feel your pain. I set up a brick paver manufacturer in this type of scenario in QuickBooks Premier Manufacturing Edition. Here is what I’ve found helpful to keep in mind with Unit of Measure:
- Always define your base Unit of Measure in the smallest unit.
- Establish some constants and build an assembly of each of the constants, then included them in the others.
As long as you are buying in one unit and selling in another (not mixing in other variables such as how it is stored, used, etc.) I think you’ll be able to make it with what you have.
Doug Sleeter and Joe Woodard also wrote about the Unit of Measure feature in our New Features of QuickBooks 2007 article.