March 2nd Meeting Minutes, Chuck Palmer, Heartland

/

Melissa Barton, our vice president, started the meeting.  She had those present introduce themselves.  Today’s guest speaker was Chuck Palmer with Heartland who discussed the timely topic of professional liability.  Chuck owned a business performing outsourced CFO services.  Chuck provided a real-life example from his personal experience of a roofing company that needed bookkeeping services.  The relationship with the roofing company was positive until a general manager was later hired.  As the relationship was ending, a final bill for $6,700 was submitted by Chuck’s company but the bill went unpaid.  The roofing company filed a lawsuit against Chuck’s company alleging 26 points in a letter.  Of the 26 points, 25 were incorrect and the one correct point was already addressed.  The case went to court.  In the end, the lawsuit was dropped and the bill was written off.  In many cases, litigation has more to do with emotions than facts. Two questions were raised.  First, how do we prevent litigation from occurring?  Secondly, how do we resolve litigation?  One critical step in preventing litigation is screening clients during the client acquisition phase.  Questions you may wish to ask a potential client include:

  1. Why are you looking for a new accountant?
  2. Ask for a copy of the QuickBooks file to review the file for problems.
  3. Use a professional services engagement letter and be as specific as possible
  4. Be clear that business management is not included
  5. Recommend an automated payment policy for payment of fees
  6. Have a solid insurance company. Understand what is covered and what is not.  Sit down with your agent to review your insurance coverage.

Communication and documentation are key.  Email your understanding to your client.  You may also wish to run a bank reference check before acquiring the client.  Document retention is very important.

Linda Lagraff asked how to deal with liability in an engagement letter for clients that provide bank account and credit card access to bookkeepers and accountants.  One suggestion was to recommend password security in an engagement letter.  Another comment recommended use of read only access for bank and payroll for bookkeepers and accountants.

We are looking for speakers for upcoming meetings.  Kim will be the speaker for April and the topic is “What is your Super Power/Niche?”  If you don’t know, we’ll help you discover it.

Our group will continue to meet at the Meals on Wheels site until we have space on the eastside of Portland for 25 to 30 people.

Bullet Points:

  • Melissa Barton, our vice president, started the meeting. She had those present introduce themselves.
  • Today’s guest speaker was Chuck Palmer with Heartland who discussed the timely topic of professional liability. Chuck owned a business performing outsourced CFO services.  Chuck provided a real-life example from his personal experience of a roofing company that needed bookkeeping services.
  • The roofing company filed a lawsuit against Chuck’s company alleging 26 points in a letter. The case went to court.  In the end, the lawsuit was dropped and the bill was written off.  In many cases, litigation has more to do with emotions than facts.
  • Two questions were raised. First, how do we prevent litigation from occurring?  Secondly, how do we resolve litigation?
  • One critical step in preventing litigation is screening clients during the client acquisition phase.  Questions you may wish to ask a potential client include:
  1. Why are you looking for a new accountant?
  2. Ask for a copy of the QuickBooks file to review the file for problems.
  3. Use a professional services engagement letter and be as specific as possible
  4. Be clear that business management is not included
  5. Recommend an automated payment policy for payment of fees
  6. Have a solid insurance company. Understand what is covered and what is not.  Sit down with your agent to review your insurance coverage.
  • Communication and documentation are key.
  • Linda Lagraff asked how to deal with liability in an engagement letter for clients that provide bank account and credit card access to bookkeepers and accountants. Suggestions included recommending password security in an engagement letter and use of read only access for bank and payroll.
  • We are looking for speakers for upcoming meetings. Kim will be the speaker for April and the topic is “What is your Super Power/Niche?”
  • Our group will continue to meet at the Meals on Wheels site until we have space on the eastside of Portland for 25 to 30 people.

 

 

 

February 2nd 2017 Meeting Minutes -QBO Tips and Tricks

/

ALL STAR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS, INC. Meeting Minutes

February 2, 2017

Kim Boaz opened the February meeting asking each attendee to introduce themselves, provide shout outs to those members who helped them during the last month or so and allowing each member to state a goal they have for themselves for the year.

Our presenter today was Alicia Katz Pollock and she provided a slide presentation on QuickBooks Online.  Alicia is a QuickBooks trainer with Royalwise.  Training services offered include one-on-one, group, beginner, advanced and webinar classes.  She is in business with her husband, Jamie Pollock and they are Microsoft and Apple certified trainers.  She specializes in QuickBooks accounting setup and questions.

Alicia mentioned that QuickBooks Online (QBO) does many of the same functions as the desktop but in different places.  She explained that the QuickBooks Labs option, selected by clicking on the “gear” at the top right side of the screen, allows the user to turn on or off experimental features that QuickBooks is deciding whether to incorporate in future program releases.  The Audit Trail allows the user to see which prior user made changes, when the changes were made and the transaction before and after the change.  You can filter the changes as well to help locate specific information.  The Audit trail works best if each user has their own login.  You can also select the “More” button at the bottom of the computer screen to access the history of the transaction you are viewing.

The cost per month for QBO is $40 for the Plus version, $30 for Essentials and $15 for Simple Start.  Wholesale pricing for clients is available to bookkeepers and accountants, where the client pays you instead of Intuit.  Alicia provided a helpful tool for cleaning up errors in billable expenses.  Use QBO.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense.  She also went over how to manage rules so that the software helps to classify transactions for Bank Feeds.

A common question asked is “Can QBO be backed up?”  Yes, but you must use Internet Explorer.  Select the “gear” icon, then export data.  It is also possible to convert QuickBooks Enterprise to QuickBooks Pro or Premier if none of the Enterprise features were used previously.   Use //royalwise.com/?p=9793 to help convert your file.   Alicia next explained several keyboard shortcuts including “Ctrl-Alt-?” for a shortcut list, +++ to advance the date, --- to reverse the date, “Y” to advance to beginning of Year, “R” to advance to end of Year, W/K for week and M/H for month within the date fields.  In addition, you can have the software be used as a calculator by doing a calculation in an amount field.

When working between different areas of QuickBooks, you can open multiple tabs by right clicking on the tab and duplicating a tab.  You may need to hit the refresh button if you make changes and want to see the results.  To see two different files, you would open two separate files, each one in a different browser, such as Chrome and Firefox.  Using Chrome incognito allows for a cleaner experience.  You can use your browser’s search function (Ctrl-F) to search within QBO as well.  To make a memorized transaction, select “recurring” on the bottom of the transaction.

Alicia’s contact information is as follows:  Alicia@royalwise.com; info@royalwise.com; 503-406-6550.  You may also sign up for their newsletter on the Royalwise website.  Thank you, Alicia, for a great presentation!

February 2nd 2017 Meeting Minutes -Bullet Points

/

ALL STAR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS, INC. Meeting Minutes- Bullet Points

February 2, 2017

  • Kim Boaz opened the February meeting asking each attendee to introduce themselves, provide shout outs to other members and allowing each member to state a goal they have for 2017.
  • Alicia Katz Pollock was today’s presenter and provided a slide presentation on QuickBooks Online. Alicia is a QuickBooks trainer with Royalwise and offers QuickBooks training and classes.    She specializes in QuickBooks accounting setup and questions.
  • Alicia mentioned that QuickBooks Online (QBO) does many of the same functions as the desktop but in different places. She discussed the QuickBooks Labs option and the Audit Trail.
  • The cost per month for QBO is $40 for the Plus version, $30 for Essentials and $15 for Simple Start. Wholesale pricing for clients is available to bookkeepers and accountants, where the client pays you instead of Intuit.  Alicia provided a helpful tool for cleaning up errors in billable expenses  and discussed management of rules to classify transactions for Bank Feeds.
  • QuickBooks Online be backed up but you must use Internet Explorer. Select the “gear” icon, then export data.
  • It is also possible to convert QuickBooks Enterprise to QuickBooks Pro or Premier if none of the Enterprise features were used previously.   Use //royalwise.com/?p=9793 to help convert your file.
  • Alicia next explained several keyboard shortcuts including “Ctrl-Alt-?” for a shortcut list.
  • You can have the software be used as a calculator by doing a calculation in an amount field.
  • When working between different areas of QuickBooks, you can open multiple tabs by right clicking on the tab and duplicating a tab. You may need to hit the refresh button if you make changes and want to see the results.
  • To see two different files, you would open two separate files, each one in a different browser, such as Chrome and Firefox. Using Chrome incognito allows for a cleaner experience.
  • You can use your browser’s search function (Ctrl-F) to search within QBO as well.
  • Alicia’s contact information is as follows: Alicia@royalwise.com; info@royalwise.com; 503-406-6550.  You may also sign up for their newsletter on the Royalwise website.  Thank you, Alicia, for a great presentation!