Ilene Eisen to Speak at QuickBooks Connect

Ilene will be speaking that the Intuit Conference QuickBooks Connect in San Jose, California, Monday October 20, 2014 she will be presenting Mastering QuickBooks Inventory in Pro and Premier. This session will highlight the inventory features and strategies that Ilene uses when working with client to create an efficient workflow and accurate reports.  The session complete description is:

Managing Inventory can be quite complicated in any business! QuickBooks has features and tools that will help non-accountants manage the process. This course covers inventory concepts to help you understand the process and then introduces features and tools to purchase inventory, sell Inventory Parts, and enter Inventory adjustments.

Management should also understand the concepts, and use the tools provided, review reports, and be an active participant in the process to enhance internal controls. For this reason, we will also discuss reports, the reconciliation process, and an evaluation tool to easily identify errors and issues.

There are various versions of QuickBooks and we will discuss the inventory features that are available in QuickBooks Pro, QuickBooks Premier, and QuickBooks Accountant version so that the user can assess their needs and purchase or upgrade to the version that is best suited for their Inventory needs.

Making the Most of Next Year!

Grow your business next year by making wise choices based on timely and accurate information!  This information is often at your fingertips and many clients don’t take advantage of this valuable resource. 

Each year I get many calls asking me to help companies gather their data and correct their records so they can submit them to their tax preparer for use in processing their tax return.  These clients tend to view their accounting system a recordkeeping device for tax preparation and forget the advantages of using their records to help make intelligent management decisions on a timely basis.  When you wait until after year end to enter transactions you’ve lost the ability to use the information timely for management purposes and you are more likely to have errors and omissions in your records.

My advice to you is to record transactions timely and use the reports and dashboards that your accounting system provides to you!

If your accounting system does not meet your information needs you may need more training or you may need to upgrade your software.  Now is the time to determine if you have a training issue or you need to upgrade.  If you need to Upgrade, I suggest contacting your tax preparer for advice, referrals, and/or assistance so you can start the New Year getting information that will help you manage your business.

Have a prosperous and healthy New Year and if there is anything I can do to help you please contact me at Ilene.eisen@ie-solutions.biz

Getting the Most Out of Training

Quite often clients and other CPAs ask me about good training classes for accounting and for specific software so I thought I’d share my thoughts on this topic.

Free Training

Most software publishers have free videos on their website or a link to u-tube.  QuickBooks even has an option on the help menu called “Learning Center Tutorials”.  Most videos and tutorials are short and can be viewed multiple times. You can also type the name of your software and the word video into your internet browser to search the internet for additional videos that are posted on U-Tube or other sites.

Short Classes and Webinars (Recoded & Live)

When looking for targeted information, short classes and webinars are an excellent source of training.  For example if you are interested in reports,  budgets, online features, annual updates of new features,  or other specific areas webinars or short classes at conferences or seminars are an excellent sources.  To find out about these options check with your industry groups, software publisher website, or get recommendations from colleagues.  I personally teach webinars for K2 Enterprises   but there are other venues that you can also check.

Full or Half-Day Day Live Classes

When looking for good overview, check on full or half day classes.  These classes cover a lot of material and will give you a good overview.  One  of the benefits of attending a live class in person vs online is that you get a chance to network with peers and get an insight of how they are addressing the issues you are all facing each day.  Take time to listen to their questions and network at breaks, this is a huge resource that I see is quite often overlooked.  I usually do not recommend hands-on classes since this type of class can only proceed as fast as the slowest student.  However, I would recommend that you bring you laptop to the session so you can look at specific features mentioned if desired.  I teach classes for   K2 Enterprises  and one of the benefits of this company is that you can download the practice files to follow along or work with at a later date.  When choosing a vendor, check your industry groups and the software publisher for classes.  When selecting a class be careful to take a good look at the session description of what will be taught, don’t be satisfied with words like basic, or advanced, make sure you’re interested in at least the majority of the specific topics covered.