Do It Today, Do It Now!
Okay,
we all have it, that one stack of papers sitting on the far corner
of the desk that gets glanced at, and quickly looked away from, every day. It taunts us
and calls our name
in our dreams... You know the one. It's usually a task that we don't want to
do, something we convince ourselves we don't have time to do right now or that
"can wait a while". So today, right now, go to that stack and
choose ONE thing from it to complete in the next 24 hours, then do it! My
task? To get this newsletter out in the next 24 hours :)
In
this issue:
- "Tom's Tech Tip" talks about Purchasing a New Computer
- Learn all about date shortcuts in
the Quickbooks tips section
- Our spotlight this month is on Concrete Evolution, a company that provides
beautiful flooring at an affordable price
- My usual collection of quirky office and accounting humor.
- ... and those ever important upcoming tax deadlines
I
hope you enjoy this month's issue! I am always looking for articles. If you
have an article you would like to write, please feel free to email me at candy@offassist.com
So You're
Building Your Website... Now What?
I don't profess to be an expert on
websites, in fact I only offer clients very moderate website design inside of
FrontPage, but I have learned a few things along the way...
Do:
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Stay true to your
branding. Your color scheme, your fonts, the "feel" of your logo
and business cards.
-
Make sure the
keywords you want the search engines to pick up on are on the first page
of your website. I am told that using META tags aren't enough anymore. So,
think it through when writing your text and page titles.
-
Take a look at
your website on different browsers. Internet Explorer, Netscape, and FireFox
are the big three. Just because it looks great in Internet Explorer does not mean that
it looks groovy in FireFox.
-
Hire a
professional if you aren't 100% sure you can do it yourself, including
a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Specialist.
-
Check out CopyScape
every couple of months to make sure no one is plagiarizing your original
text.
-
Keep the content
fresh. You don't have to update the entire site often, but have a monthly
newsletter, a joke-of-the-week, a tip-of-the-month or something else that
will keep visitors coming back for more.
Don't:
-
Use MS Publisher
or Word to make your website. These are not true HTML editors. Publisher
is known to make fancy blocks of text into graphics which result in a
long loading time for the viewer
-
Use too many
colors or flash objects. These frequently detract from the important text
you are conveying to the viewer.
-
Make simple
grammar and spelling errors. Hire someone if need be to read through your
site for errors.
-
Use a
non-standard font. Stick to the stand-bys such as Arial, Times New Roman,
etc.
-
Make your
visitors spend precious time trying to find your contact information. Have
a navigational link on every page to your contact page or include it on
the bottom of each page.
These are just a few
tips for your website. Keep it fresh, on-topic, and, most of all, professional.
An accountant
is having a hard time sleeping and goes to see his doctor. "Doctor, I just
can't get to sleep at night." "Have you tried counting sheep?"
"That's the problem - I make a mistake and then spend three hours trying to
find it"
| Quickie
QuickBooks Q & A |
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If you've ever spent some time entering in multiple
journal entries you know one of the most tedious tasks is changing the dates
continuously. Ah, but Quickbooks has some nifty built-in shortcuts just for the
date field that may help save you a bit of time. Try these out, you'll love
the result!
Just type the first letter/symbol in the date
field to get the desired result.
+ (plus key) = Tomorrow's Date
- (minus key) = Yesterday's Date
T = Today's Date
W = First day of the Week
K = Last date of the weeK
M = First day of the Month
H = Last day of the montH
Y = First day of the Year
R = Last day of the yeaR
Bonus: Press and hold the Alt key and the down arrow
at the same time to bring up a date calendar.
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There are three kinds of accountants in the world.
Those who can count and those who can't.
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Have
an article you’d like to write for our monthly newsletter or want to be
spotlighted? Have a QuickBooks question or something you'd like to see in the
Tech Tip?
Email candy@offassist.com.
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A special thank you to our copyeditor and
all-around-language-geek, Dyanna Larson of Ink
Think - visit her website for more information about her services.
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A nervous taxpayer was unhappily conversing
with the IRS Tax auditor who had come to review his records.
At one point the auditor exclaimed, "Mr.
Carelton, we feel it is a great privilege to be allowed to live and work in
the USA. As a citizen you have an obligation to pay taxes, and we expect you
to eagerly pay them with a smile."
"Thank goodness," returned Mr.
Carelton, with a giant grin on his face, "I thought you were going to
want me to pay with cash."
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| Important Tax Deadlines |
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June 15 - IRS Monthly payroll tax deposits due
for May
June 15 - 2nd quarter 2005 estimated tax
payments due
June 15 - US citizens overseas 2004 tax returns
due (or file 4868) July 15 - IRS Monthly
payroll tax deposits due for June July 15
- Partnership Returns due for 2004 July
31 - Quarterly IRS 941s are due for quarter ending June 30 |
| Spotlight On... Concrete Evolution |
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In the limelight this month is Round Rock,
Texas-based Concrete Evolution, "The Next Evolution of Decorative
Concrete".
Concrete Evolution's revolutionary decorative
concrete overlayment is sold nationwide to residential, commercial, and
architectural sites through their network of specially trained and licensed
distributors and contractors.
Concrete Evolution's polymer-modified overlay is
available in a wide array of colors and can also be used to mimic the appearance
of natural stone, brick, granite, marble, tile, or stucco. Their product is
virtually maintenance-free and can be applied to floors, walls, patios,
driveways, or countertops, indoors or out.
Concrete Evolution offers customer care before,
during, and after the sale via their 24/7 customer service (via email, phone,
fax, or traditional mail), plus a proprietary software package that utilizes the
latest in digital imaging technology to allow their customers and contractors to
see exactly how a new Concrete Evolution surface will look before any Work is
ever done.
Co-Founder and CEO Ben Jordan, formerly of
Fortune 500 companies Aon and Cendant, is proud to run "The Company You'll
Swear By, Not At!"
For more information about Concrete Evolution, visit
them on the web at http://www.concreteevolution.com
or call 24 hours a day at 1-800-99-EVOLUTION. |
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| Tech
Talk with Tom... New Computer? |
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Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away the computer you bought
two years ago would still handle all of your office needs today.
Unfortunately, those days have been over for a while. With the rapid pace of today's software
improvements, upgrades, and, yes, even sloppy programming practices, the computer you bought last MONTH may be out of date and the computer you bought several
years ago definitely is.
So, how do you know to buy new, used, or upgrade what you have? That is what I am going to talk about.
Used Computers
If a friend gives you a computer that is better than the one you are currently using, I
say give it a try. Free is free. HOWEVER, be forewarned that this is most probably
a temporary fix. There was a reason that the computer was free. Within a year you'll
probably be back at this point, trying to decide what to do.
With that in mind, BUYING a used computer is almost never a good idea. You don't know
where its been, what has been done to it, and if you're not a computer expert, what it has on the
inside. I've seen several good deals go bad when it comes to buying a used computer,
and my recommendation is to stay away from this option.
New Computer
This is always a great choice. I mean, who DOESN'T get a warm, tingly feeling pulling
a shiny new computer out of the box and setting it up for the first time. You know the
wonderful sense of fulfillment you get knowing that you are moving all of your files over to the
new machine and that everything will be OK.
What? You've never set up a computer? You don't know HOW to move your files to the new
box? You're not alone and these are definitely downsides of buying a new computer. On the
plus side, you usually get at least a 90-day warranty so if anything goes wrong you can get it
fixed.
If you have the money, buying a new computer is a great way to go. You can get
a great deal on
a machine almost anywhere these days and the prices just keep coming down. Just
remember the extra, hidden cost of getting all of your information up and running on the new
system.
Upgrading
This is most often the least expensive as well as the easiest and fastest method to get
your computer back on track with today's hardware requirements. If you don't know how to
do it yourself you can drop you computer off at a local computer store, come back a few hours
later, and WOW!!! Almost like new. That is the catch, its ALMOST like new. You'll soon find
yourself upgrading another component as you get caught in a constant upgrade struggle. But
for those on a budget, who are able to budget upgrade costs easier than one big cost for a
new computer, upgrading is the way to go.
Next month we'll talk about UPGRADES:
When, What, and How!
Tom
Beauchamp is the owner of LAN’s Edge in Austin, TX. LAN’s Edge is a computer
gaming center that offers PC and Xbox gaming as well as a high-speed internet
connections, and PC sales and repair. He
can be reached at daystar@lansedge.com.
Visit http://www.lansedge.com for more
information.
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