New Technology

The “New Technology” section contains information about new versions of Windows, QuickBooks, and our software as well as posts about new software programs that we’ve tried.

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This week’s Freebie Friday – 100 Essential Tips for Microsoft Office 2010 comes from PC Magazine.

Most of us use Office, and most of us could make better use of it, too. Check out these tips, sorted by application to learn basic tricks and advanced tips for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access.

The editors have shaken down the programs and pinpointed 100 tips and tricks to help put you back in command.  These tips cover not only the basics, like deleting that infuriating line that appears when you type one too many hyphens in Word (one that I find especially annoying), to more advanced tricks, such as connecting your email to social websites and services.

They’ve also included some tips about features that you might not know to search for at all but which offer a lot of value and are worth knowing.   The tips are separated by program, and some are further parceled out into sections for beginners, intermediate-level users, and advanced users.  Each tip is accompanied by a screenshot to further guide you, no matter your comfort level.  All of the tips will work in Microsoft Office 2010, and many are also compatible with earlier editions of Office, too.

5 Essential Microsoft Office 2010 Tips for Everyone
The five how-tos in this piece will show you some of the most fundamental things you’ll want to do in Microsoft Office, no matter which program you use most.
Microsoft Office 2010 logo
15 Essential Microsoft Word 2010 Tips for Beginners
If you consider yourself a novice with Microsoft Word, start your Office education by picking up a few of these 15 tricks. You’ll soon find that they’ll become second-nature actions that you’ll be performing with a couple of clicks or keystrokes.
Word 2010 logo
10 Essential Microsoft Excel 2010 Tips for Beginners
Fumbling with spreadsheets can makeanyone feel like a complete dolt. These ten essential functions and tricks will make you feel much more adept at creating and managing charts, lists, and data.
Excel 2010 logo
14 Essential Microsoft Outlook 2010 Tips for Beginners
Whether you’re brand-new on the job or a 20-year veteran, chances are your company uses Microsoft Outlook and you only know as much as you’ve ever needed to get by day-to-day. Pick up 14 new ideas, and learn how to implement them, from this list.
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14 Essential Microsoft Excel 2010 Tips for Intermediate Users
Comfortable with Microsoft Excel? Good! Let’s move up a half-step to the next level of difficulty. Click through the title to find 14 new things you can do with spreadsheets.
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10 Essential Microsoft Word 2010 Tips for Advanced Users
Let’s say you’ve mastered the basics of Microsoft Word. These nine tips will expand your horizons to do some advanced tricks with macros, use OpenType typography, export a Word document to your blog, and more.
Word 2010 logo
5 Essential Microsoft Excel 2010 Tips for Advanced Users
Fine tune your Excel skills with a few more masterful tricks. These five tips cover working with transposed tables, how to create Sparkline Microchartsin Excel, and more.
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8 Essential Microsoft Outlook 2010 Tips for Intermediate & Advanced Users
After you’ve gone through our basic Outlook tips, turn to this next batch to make your email life even smoother and more efficient. Outlook can perform a few amazing stunts—don’t miss out on any of them.
Outlook 2010 logo
9 Essential Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 Tips
The last time you saw someone give a dynamite presentation, filled with video clips and text that was actually large enough to read at a distance, you probably made a mental note to teach yourself some new PowerPoint skills. And, lo, that day is finally here. Learn how to check the accessibility of your presentations, integrate videos, use the animation painter, and more.
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10 Essential Microsoft Access 2010 Tips for Beginners
This ten-point primer for Microsoft Access users starts out with the basics and moves into slightly more difficult territory. Whether you’re totally new to Access or have been struggling for a while to learn it, these ten simple tips will help you on your journey to becoming more proficient with databases.
Access 2010 logo

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Accounting professionals are often considered to be the “trusted adviser”, working in the best interests of their client and helping overcome obstacles to business success. At the very minimum, business owners recognize that they need their accountant to get their taxes done, and that relationship alone requires a level of trust that no typical vendor can boast.

Bookkeeping in Bunny SlippersAccounting professionals are also often advocates for certain computer technology and/or software solutions, largely because they are viewed as tools which facilitate a better working relationship between the client and their accountant, and which may improve the quality of information available to both. Recommendations regarding the selection of accounting software packages and solutions to record and report on business activities may be made by the accountant, and those recommendations are often accepted by the business owner based on the belief that the accountant has the necessary understanding of the client business requirements.

Making software and other technology-related recommendations to clients allows the accounting professional to potentially influence the decision of the business owner, the result of which is often that the client ends up using a solution that the accountant is familiar with and can therefore assist with setup, training, and support services. Because the accounting professional simply made a recommendation to the client, there is some safety in the event that the recommendation ends up not working out. If the client purchases the wrong software or equipment, the professional retains a level of distance from the issue because they were not the vendor of the product. Recommendations are made based on the information available, and the accountant’s defense may be that they did not have all the necessary information to make a better recommendation.

But what happens when the accounting professional BECOMES the technology provider to their client? Accounting professionals should strongly consider whether it makes sense for them to be the technology provider to their client, or simply collaborate with the client on a recommended solution. The areas of concern may include operational impacts to the client business and cost, but one main area of concern should be in the client’s perception of their service provider.

As the accountant, the trusted adviser, you benefit from a high level of respect from your client. The client recognizes that you have knowledge that they need and that can help them. You have a high status level with the client.

When the accounting professional becomes the technology provider, however, changes begin to happen with the client’s perception of their once-trusted adviser. Rather than viewing their accountant as the provider of a valuable service, the client may now view their accountant as a technology provider, responsible for the performance and functionality of IT systems. Now relegated to the position of “technician”, the accounting professional must overcome a variety of obstacles, including those specifically and only related to the technology. Difficulties with technology may overshadow the other areas where the professional is involved, and will often become the focus of ongoing discussions. While the accountant may have been trying to improve their overall value proposition with the client, the actual result may be a reduction of confidence and trust. Where once the accountant was a trusted adviser, they are now simply an IT vendor (and a replaceable vendor, at that).

With accountants and their clients now embracing cloud computing models, many accounting professionals are recognizing the potential benefits of private-labeling and reselling cloud-based solutions to their clients. Particularly if a service becomes a key element to the workflow, or is an enabling feature of the accounting service, there are compelling arguments for incorporating the solution into the “package” offered by the accounting professional. Cloud solutions are, however, just another “flavor” of technology, and the same issues regarding reselling should be strongly considered.

Accountants provide a valuable professional service to their clients. While technology and information systems facilitate and enable this relationship, the relationship itself is not fundamentally IT-based. For this reason, professionals should use caution when considering how to involve IT solutions in their service offerings. Delivering a service under the accountant business brand communicates to the client who their service provider is, but it also communicates a level of responsibility that the firm may not be prepared to take on. When the systems are working well, the private-label model may work very well for the firm. But when systems fail, the risk to the professional is not only lost productivity, but a potential loss of faith and trust – and business – from the client.

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Top 10 Tuesday includes our favorite QuickBooks and business productivity tips for around the web.  We hope you’ll find these articles as interesting as we did.

  1. Top 10 TuesdayThe Real World:  Tax Tips for Summer Workers
  2. Davis-Bacon Rates Set Well Above Market Pay
  3. Government Inefficiency Part Zillion:  Tax Dollars Given to Contractors Who Are Delinquent in Taxes
  4. The Biggest Time Saving Tip of All
  5. How to Close an Open Sales Order in QuickBooks
  6. 4  Tips for Improving Your Home Office Environment
  7. Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
  8. Why is QuickBooks 2008 Not Working Right Anymore?
  9. How to Avoid Conflicting Copies in Drop Box
  10. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program Newly Proposed Scheduling Letter

That’s it for this week, be sure to check back next week to see what other helpful articles we’ve found :-)

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This week’s Freebie Friday is an eBook – from MakeUseOf.com – Microsoft Office 2010:  Ultimate Tips & Tricks.

Learn to get the most out of the latest version of Microsoft Office with the latest free guide from MakeUseOf! Office 2010 includes many improvements over 2007. As with all Office releases, however, these improvements are far from obvious to the average user.

Microsoft Office 2010 Ultimate Tips & TricksEnter Office 2010: Ultimate Tips and Tricks. This manual, by author Matt Smith, points out all the best new features of Microsoft’s latest office suite, and explains them all in one handy guide. In most programs, it’s not hard to find every single feature, but Office 2010 is so expansive that even veteran users will often find that they aren’t expert in even half of the capabilities the software offers.

Whether you recently purchased Office 2010 and want to get the most out of it, or are considering an upgrade, you don’t want to miss this free guide. There’s much to be learned here, so check it out!

This guide will show you how to:

  • Get the most out of 2010?s cloud capabilities.
  • Turn off the annoying file block feature.
  • Speed up document creation in Word with building blocks.
  • Present data at a glance with Excel’s new Sparklines.
  • Edit video from within PowerPoint.
  • Broadcast a PowerPoint presentation over the web, live.
  • Adding social functionality to Outlook.
  • and much more!

Download Microsoft Office 2010 Ultimate Tips & Tricks from MakeUseOf.com

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Thinking of developing a WordPress blog or a Joomla website?  Microsoft offers a free web development tool, called WebMatrix, which includes EVERYTHING you need for website development – all installed locally on your computer so you can learn how to use WordPress or Joomla before actually making your site live with a website hosting provider.

Microsoft WebMatrixI discovered WebMatrix a few weeks ago when I wanted to test some new WordPress plugins for this blog and I also needed to take a look at Joomla 1.6 in preparation for upgrading our website later this year.  Previously I had used another tool and was having issues installing it on my Windows 7 laptop; I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have found WebMatrix – it’s so much easier to use than the previous tool!

To begin the download and installation process for WebMatrix, go to http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/, click on the green Install WebMatrix button on the upper right.

NOTE:  If you can’t download WebMatrix, download the Microsoft Web Platform Installer 3.0 first from http://www.microsoft.com/web/downloads/platform.aspx

Download complete instructions by clicking here.

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