Yesterday Will hosted a webinar on QuickBooks Point of Sale 2013 Fundamentals to a group of attendees from all over the country, literally from the East to the West Coast. You’ve got to love modern technology. It was almost like they were in the room with him. We used the GoToMeeting application which allowed each person to view and listen to the presentation in real time as well as interact by asking questions. Each person was provided with a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation. We raffled off a couple of items such as a copy of the QuickBooks Point of Sale Store Operations Handbook co-authored by Will English and a Starbucks gift card. Please check our website store for upcoming training classes.

Whether you are in the market for a home repair company or a business consultant, it is important to do your research to make sure you are choosing a reputable company to work with. Once you decide who that will be, a business relationship starts to form and you are inviting that representative into your home or company. This is not a decision to take lightly.

Dateline NBC recently aired an episode in which NBC News' Jeff Rossen went undercover to investigate air conditioning repair contractors. Their point was to see if the contractors would do an honest job or pull some sort of scam. You may be very surprised at the results. Watch episode here.

As a small company that was formed by a husband and wife team a little over 10 years ago, we at English Management Solutions, Inc. realize the value of integrity and good customer service because our company was built one customer at a time. Whether you are currently using the QuickBooks software or want to implement it at your company, it is an investment. With all of the competition in the marketplace, how do you choose a reputable consultant to work with? Here are a few tips:

1. Ask around. Talk to friends, colleagues, or other business owners who you trust to find out who they have worked with and what their experience was like. 

2. Go to the Intuit QuickBooks Find a ProAdvisor website. Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors are typically CPAs, accountants, and small business advisors who have been tested and certified on QuickBooks. ProAdvisors help businesses customize QuickBooks for their unique needs and help them get the most out of the software. Their network of approximately 20,000 Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors can address your QuickBooks needs, so you can get back to doing what you do best - managing your business.
You may want to choose an advisor in your area or if a company comes highly recommended that is out of your area, talk to them and find out how far their services span. They should be able to do remote work. At English Management Solutions, Inc., we assist clients across the United States including Hawaii.

3. Choose a company that specifically has experience with the QuickBooks software. It is more convenient to work with just one company for the purchase, installation, training, and ongoing customer support. If the consultant is not able to provide assistance in all of these areas, find out if they have reputable resources to introduce you to, or do you have to find someone to fill the void/s?

4. Ask for a company reference list. Call the businesses listed to learn more about their experience with the company you are considering working with.

5. Ask the consultant specific questions about the support your company requires. This will tell you if he/she has real experience in those areas or not.

6. Find out about the company and its representatives.
How long have they been in this industry? What does their experience include?
Does the consultant continue to learn and participate in training events, conferences, and online forum groups to collect and share best practices? You can also tell a lot about his or hers reputation by the comments and feedback the group participants give.
Do they have a professional online presence? Is their website up-to-date and informative?
Are their certifications current?

7. How personable is the representative?
Take notice of how the person speaks to you. Does he/she interrupt or allow you to finish before speaking?
Does he/she answer your questions or avoid them and get off topic?
Do you feel rushed through your consultation or does the consultant give you his/her undivided attention?
Do you find the person to be personable, knowledgeable, and thorough?
How responsive have the consultant and the company representatives been?
Even if you’re meeting with someone remotely, you can still get a good impression on how thorough, organized, and knowledgeable they are.
Do they offer a no charge product demonstration to show you the features and functionality of the software you’re considering for purchase?
Is there a charge for the initial consultation or is it complimentary?
Is an alternative solution discussed if the initial product is not feasible or is not the best solution for your company?

8. Be upfront and honest with the consultant and set accurate expectations. A few things that you should tell the consultant at the first meeting are:

• Give him/her a truthful budget range for how much you can and are willing to invest.  Don’t be shy, and don’t give an amount that is way under what is feasible for you. That will save both of you time because the consultant will know whether or not their recommendations can be accomplished within your budget. If it can’t be, then the consultant can discuss ways to possibly scale back or an alternative solution. On the other hand, the consultant should be able to tell you a realistic ballpark estimate for the products and services that you are discussing. 
• Give the consultant a realistic time frame for purchase and implementation. For example, if you are opening a new store or additional location, there is a forecasted opening date.
• Tell the consultant what products and services you foresee needing. You should have some idea of what you want and need to purchase (software, hardware, installation & training services, payroll service, merchant services, etc.) and what you need the program to be able to do for the daily operations of the business. You may not know all of the specifics but that’s ok. Most likely you are not the professional when it comes to these areas so at least let the consultant know so he/she can provide you with the most accurate and detailed information.

9. When you are ready to get a proposal. Find out when you can expect to receive it, and also make it clear if you need it by a certain date.
Verify the format in which you will receive the document/s. You should be given a contract outlining the consultant’s proposed work, items to purchase, the timeframe for the start and completion, how much of his/her time is included, etc. If you have additional information that you would like to have included, explain that to the consultant.
What happens after you purchase the product/s and the services have been rendered? Do you get a certain amount of time included for support after the go-live date?
Who will you contact with your future support questions and needs? If it’s the consultant, what is their charge, and is there a minimum?

10. After you receive the proposal and any additional documents. Plan a time to thoroughly review and discuss them with all of the decision makers at your company.
Then, contact the consultant for either a follow up phone call or meeting. During this time you should get your additional questions answered, receive clarification on the items included in the documentation, and discuss the ordering and implementation. Any considerations, hesitations, or deterrents you have should also be promptly addressed.
Don’t hesitate to ask questions, no matter how big or small they may seem. You are doing yourself a favor by being thorough, and the consultant should not mind this. By the same token, it isn’t reasonable to drag the consultant around either, so-to-speak.

These are some of the important things to consider when choosing a reputable consultant. This is your time to gather information in order to make an informed decision for what best suits your business needs. Both yours and the consultant’s time is valuable so use it wisely!

We appreciate you considering EMS for your business needs.
 

William English prepared a PowerPoint on What's New in QuickBooks 2013 to present at this year's Scaling New Heights Conference. We want to share this to give you more insight into the new version of QuickBooks Point of Sale, 2013. Here is the main agenda and the pdf document is below for your viewing.

What's included?

1. Why QuickBooks POS 2013?
2. Overview of the new functionality
3. Overview of the new features
4. What still needs to be improved

We also posted a blog titled Introducing the Intuit QuickBooks POS 2013 v11 that includes a link to an Intuit article and video in which you can learn more about the product

I apologize for the delay in writing. We have been extremely busy this week with our existing clients as well as several new clients. We are definitely glad to have plenty of work and that our business is not only growing but we’re maintaining the business relationships with our existing clients.

Today we are providing a simple step-by-step guide on doing a physical Inventory count with the CipherLab 8000-C Portable Data Collector.

You do not need to print spreadsheets containing your inventory prior to scanning.  Here are the steps:

To start a physical inventory, click on the Inventory menu and start Physical Inventory.

Then find an item with a zero quantity and type zero into the counted field and press the Save and Continue button.  This sets the start flag.

Load items into scanner.

Put scanner into the cradle after changing the scanner from scan to upload.

Go through the Upload Wizard.

Accept the scans.  If you have bad scans, print the worksheet of unrecognized scans and try to find them manually.

Save and continue to save the Accepted Scans.

If any items counts (i.e. I have sold some) have changed, a flag will be set. Review all flagged items and correct as needed.

Once you are certain that everything has been counted, check the box “Set all items counted to zero”
then press the Apply Changes to Inventory.
 
Print the reports you need.

That’s it.

We have a client who uses QuickBooks Financial 2012 and QuickBooks Point of Sale. They are soon to start their inventory and asked the following:

Hey Will,
I don’t want to close the store for inventory. I would rather do it by Vendor or Department. So my question is: can I just use “Quantity Adjustment Memos” to accomplish this instead of “Start Physical Inventory”.

I am assuming that I cannot run the Physical inventory from my computer upstairs while the store is open for business downstairs. Most of the counting will take place after hours but there are Vendors that only have a few items so I want to count them during regular business hours if possible. Thank you!

Will’s response: You can start a physical inventory and still have the store open. What happens is that if something changes during the inventory, it flags that item for later adjustment.  Go into the start physical inventory and save a change.  That sets the flag.

Learn QuickBooks Point of Sale from a leading expert, Will English! Our next class is on Tue. June 5th from 9am-1:30pm. Don't miss this opportunity to join via webinar or in person at our San Diego office. See our Seminars page for all of the details and to register.

A colleague of Will's has a new Point of Sale (POS) client who would like to have some type of Training Manual after the software install and training. She informed Will that she hasn't seen training materials that would qualify for this, nor does there seem to be a book out yet on POS version 10.0. He directed her to the QuickBooks Point of Sale v10.0 Store Operations Handbook that he co-authored with Steve Green of SDG Business Solutions, an ISP working in the SF Bay Are. It is designed to be a day in the life of a retailer starting with sales, returns, PO's, and receving. It is the leave behind that Will uses with our clients when he performs a new installation and it allows the end user to move through their tasks more efficiently.

While you can use the Intuit Service to do the store exchanges, I find it faster and easier to use Dropbox to share the store exchange files. It is free and if you have any problems, you have complete control. Use the network file option when setting up the store exchange and set up the number of folders for each store in your dropbox folder. One for Store one, Store two, etc. Then you can set on the send and receive locations for the appropriate folder in dropbox. I use dropbox but any file sharing service will work.

Recently, a client purchased the QuickBooks financial software (Point of Sale) and the necessary hardware for their new retail store. They had just completed the purchase of the building. The site will be under construction/remodeling for about 1 month. They prefer that William perform the install, configuration, etc. to ensure that it is done properly from the beginning. The client doesn't have the room for William to perform the set-up at their current site but didn't want to miss the great sale Intuit was offering. Our solution? The client purchased the items before the sale expired and William is going to install the software and configure the hardware at our office. He will then take everything to our client's current office so they can input all of the data such as Item #, employee info, and so on, prior to the opening of their new store. We work with our client's based upon their needs, and every client and situation is a little different.

Will is going back to Los Angeles next week! Our client base in the LA area is really expanding. We have a potential client who Will spoke with over the phone several months ago, discussing the features and implementation of QuickBooks Point of Sale but due to different reasons, no more steps were taken to move forward with implementing the system at his company. We have now reconnected with this customer. Will is going to provide an in person Point of Sale version 12 product demonstration for the customer at his store in LA. In this case, Will prefers to meet in person, providing that personable level of customer service that sets us apart from many others. It is our goal to provide the business owner with all the information necessary to make an educated decision on which accounting software to purchase and implement..