Over the past several years I’ve developed about 50 products that sell on my website. Before you begin reading this, you may not know that I have been a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor for many years, writing a column for Intuit’s ProAdvisor Newsletter, speaking, and was even a QuickBooks trainer for the western region for about a half a year to cover for someone who left; and I’ve been beta testing and won top beta tester for my contributions to improving the software.
The Mastering QuickBooks Software series is for the serious QuickBooks student, either a bookkeeper or an accountant, who wants to make sure they’re getting the most out of the software from the perspective of internal controls, and staying out of a mess, by designing a system that works from end to end, to control their assets, liabilities, reconcile everything using the software as a very sophisticated tool that it is. This series was as a result of a PD session for CMA BC public practice group, for a day the year before. Belinda Lyons had me create this for CMA’s and the bookkeepers asked me for a webinar series on fixing a mess. This is what became of that request. These webinars for IPBC took 20 hours, in 2 hour segments that build on each other. It was presented over a period of 2 weeks for a limited audience of about 25 participants. It sold out.
I walk you through what you need to know to really use the software well. I took 3 months to write these 20 hours of content, and develop a data file, which you can download to play with while you watch. Most bookkeepers/accountants who buy the series tell me that it’s so content rich they watch it three times and play with the data file, stopping and starting the video on a laptop beside their desktop. I believe it takes about 100 hours to get familiar with the software, so 20 hours x 3 is a good ways towards getting very familiar. The biggest challenge with QuickBooks is that it’s too flexible. I take you right through the middle past the minefields, and get you past the start-up phase of not being at all confident, to being quite confident in your ability to use all of the program modules including payroll, sales taxes, multi-currency, AR, AP, reconciliations. It’s perfect for someone who feels frustrated by not using the software as well as it could be used, and for training staff.
Out of that, the participants encouraged me to create another follow up series, on using the QuickBooks reporting module to create working papers. The night before I started, Caleb suggested Microsoft OneNote was the perfect tool to showcase the working papers, paperless on screen, so that’s what I did. People bought the OneNote sample file for $19.95 afterwards and it still sells. This series is 5 hours, in 5 segments.
Then, over the course of the next year, I created a number of individual videos on topics when participants wanted more in-depth training. Units of measure for operating a bar, for example, Time and Billing, and Adjusting Time & Billing, here’s the complete list:
And in addition to the above, there are several other series on Opening balances, adjusting entries, transitions (as in S. 85 rollovers)
At that point I realized there was over $950 worth of products on my website and bookkeepers/accountants were whinging about the cost of training. No wonder.
That’s when I created a bundle of 44 things, at the end October 2012 (see the list as there’s more stuff than what’s above) and set it up to sell for $290.00 for all 44 things. It takes about an hour to download, so I sell a DVD for $20. http://www.taxdetective.ca/bundled-products.html
Then, in November 2012, I did a 3 part series on Inventory Parts, Again there’s a data sample file. And it sells for $134.87
In January 2013, a 4 part 4 hours over 4 weeks on Quicken, for Investments and for personal use. This was as a result of the Overview that’s included in the bundle of 44 products. They wanted detailed instructions. I have clients who are CGA’s who are controllers that use Quicken and have had me train their staff to use it to keep track of the portfolio of the company. They’ve been coming back for refreshers and to train new staff for years. Sometimes it is just because they’ve forgotten how to do something, or something new comes up, like they have ETF’s for the first time, or a stop loss, or superficial loss.
In February 2013, I did what was supposed to be a 4 part series on self-employment T2125. It turned in to 5 as there was no way to cover home office, meals and vehicles in 1 hour. Again there’s sample files from the first week as most of the rest of the series isn’t so much about using the software as it is about keeping records for tax and where to find the rules and what to watch for
Each of these one hour sessions from Nov/Jan/Feb is $54.95
If you were a member of IPBC, there’s a serious discount, the bundle is $145, and each of the hour sessions from Nov/Dec/Jan is $19.95.
And here’s a video you might find interesting if you’ve ever had to account for Quick Method of GST/HST or GST/HST on capital assets where there’s an ITC on CCA
What's next you ask? Great question. Keep an eye on the Mark your Calendar page on my website for an event near you.
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