Blog

Christmas Carols for the Psychiatrically Challenged

"Maad" Rants & Other Stuff
Hopefully this will brighten your day! Schizophrenia - Do you hear what I hear? Multiple Personality Disorder - We Three Queens Disoriented Are Dementia - I think I'll be home for Christmas Narcissistic - Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me Manic - Deck the halls and walls and house and lawn and streets and stores and office and town and cars and buses and trucks and trees and fire hydrants and..... Paranoid - Santa Claus is Coming to Get Me Borderline Personality Disorder - Thoughts of Roasting on a Open Fire Personality Disorder - You better watch out, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna Pout, Maybe I'll tell you why Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle bells,Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle bells, Jingle…
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What does the Sunburst Support Area need?

The "Sunburst" Website
As our website evolves and our customer and newsletter subscriber base grows, we wonder what else our website needs. We've noticed that an increasing number of "QuickBooks consultants" {ProAdvisors, CPA's, Intuit Solution Providers, etc} have been signing up for our newsletter; and that has got me to "thinking" about a "Consultant's Corner" section of the Support Area - but what types of articles do you need? For all who visit our Support Area, please feel free to post comment/requests on what types of articles and training you would like to see made available. Nancy
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Building/maintianing a website

The "Sunburst" Website
Building and then maintaining a website can be (and sometimes is) a full time job! Back in January of 2001, when we first launched an "official" website, it was like 5 pages as we just had the certified payroll add-on {OH, THOSE were the days!}. Back then, I knew nothing about website design or the"dreaded HTML" that was required to create one.  Ben did our original website, and I'd very carefully open it up with NotePad and edit it, always looking for "something" in there that looked like REAL words and text.  Nine times out of 10, I'd do something to "break" the website and he'd have to fix it.  OOPS! After about 3 months of that, I decided it was time that I really learned how to do it…
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QuickBooks Error ps077, ps034, or ps032

General QuickBooks News
Error Title:  QuickBooks is having trouble installing payroll tax table update ps077, ps034, or ps032. From qb_guru_pat on the Intuit Community Forums. Overview: After getting QuickBooks payroll updates, when attempting to access federal forms, OR during a payroll update you may be the following error: QuickBooks is having trouble installing payroll tax table update [ps077, ps034, or ps032]. Cause: The QuickBooks company file MAY be damaged. Detailed Instructions: The error message should include an option to to online to complete the update.  If prompted, click YES to go online and retrieve the update. Error ps032 may ONLY have the option to click OK to go online.  Clicking OK will run the download again and amy come back with the same error message. If  your data file is on a server,…
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Synching data on two computers

Cool "Stuff"
I seem to constantly be working on two computers. I usually work on my laptop in the wee hours of the morning at the comfort of my dining room table and then I come to the office to really start my day and work on the "big computer". The problem always had been on how to keep the two computers synched, not an easy task.  I was driving myself nuts using Window's "briefcase", but the folders that I store my most often used "stuff" were so big that "briefcase" didn't always do the trick. Low and behold, one day I'm reading the latest issue of PCWorld and there is a full page ad for a program called GoodSync (https://www.goodsync.com/). According to the article,  GoodSync was specifically designed to keep 2…
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Intuit/QuickBooks Payroll Year-End Center

Be A Better Bookkeeper
Visit the QuickBooks Payroll Year-End Center for help with the following: Year-End Basics - how to close out your books and your payroll How to make sure that you have the latest QuickBooks updates AND Payroll updates Payroll news, alerts, and tax information I haven't had a chance to look through everything that is there, but what I have looked at is very good. Visit https://www.payroll.com/support/yearend.html to look around.
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I want unlimited free training…

"Stuff" that drives me insane
but I'm charging my client Ok, this one just totally drives me "INSANE"! We come into contact with some ProAdvisors and the like that have never dealt with a commercial construction client and know absolutely nothing about certified payroll, aia billing, or using QuickBooks in the commercial construction industry. Ok, so I know that there isn't much in the way of QuickBooks training out their for this kind of situation - what I know I learned the hard way with lots of long, hard unbillable hours....but PLEASE don't call us up wanting free training and for us to teach you everything we know for FREE while you bill your customer for your "training time"! That is just so wrong! If you want to become knowledgeable about using QuickBooks in the…
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Playing games….

"Stuff" that drives me insane
Most Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors (CQA), Intuit Solutions Providers (ISP), Enterprise Solutions Providers (ESP), Certified Public Accountants (CPA), what-have-you's are really decent people---but the ones that drive me crazy are the ones that "play games". What do I mean by playing games?  Good question, let me explain! On our main website I'm pretty clear (ok BLUNT) about "How Sunburst Works with ProAdvisors, CPA's, etc."; as a matter of fact sometimes I feel I've been pretty harsh and really need to tone it down a bit.  Well every time I get to feeling like this, something like this happens: Ben, Linda, or I get an email or a phone call from one of these folks asking for a commission or referral fee for recommending our software.  We go through the "sorry, we…
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Owning your own business…

"Stuff" No One Ever Told Me About...
Owning your own business is great, but there are drawbacks: You can't fire yourself because you own the business. When you are the boss, nobody will fire you (even if they might like to!) If you could fire yourself, you wouldn't be able to collect unemployment (at least not here in Vermont). Your business consumes you, you think about it, talk about it, work on it, 24 hours a day/7days a week. Your customers think they own you, and that's just not right! You no longer have a life, just a business.
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Turn just about any document into a PDF file

Cool "Stuff"
and reduce your ink and paper costs too! Are you tired of printing reams and reams of paper, or sending your Word documents/Excel spreadsheets as email attachments, and then worrying if the recipient is going to change something that they shouldn't? If so, the CutePDF is the tool for you!  Visit https://www.cutepdf.com and download their free version (you'll see advertisements) of CutePDF. CutePDF is nothing more than a fancy "printer" which you'll select when you go to print something, choose a location to save the document, and give it a name and "poof" you've got a .pdf file. Just as an aside; if you use our software, you can print your certified payroll reports and aia billing to .pdf files and then send them as email attachments. Download and install…
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