Category: News & Trends

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Peachtree Complete Accounting 2009 – A Winner

I have been using Peachtree Pro 2008 since April. I love the software and find it easy to use. By implementing an automated accounting and billing product I have streamlined my operations and have gained much more time to grow my business.

Just this week, I upgraded to Peachtree Complete 2009. I opted to upgrade to 2009 so that I would have the ability to run reports from any year range that I wanted instead of only a two year period. I opted to upgrade from Pro to Complete because with the $140 discount I got from Staples on the Complete version I was within dollars of just upgrading to Peachtree Pro 2009.

The reason for this post is to let you know what a time saver for me one of the features that Peachtree Complete has that Pro does not – Time Billing. Now I can track, notate, document, and bill my time without using a timer, a log sheet, or even creating a new invoice. I can do it all from the Time Billing interface.

I have to tell you that for my business web services – which is built around billing customers for time I expend on projects, this is a huge time saving improvement. I believe that I will be able to even increase my profitability by accurately logging my time on phone calls and email correspondence for clients with the integrate timer. But it is the integrated time logging and then customer billing that really has me going. Wow, I just cannot begin to state how effective this will be for again streamlining my business billing processes.

If you are like me, the majority of your income comes from time you bill clients, you need to automate this very important part of your business. As for me implementing Peachtree Accounting software was one of the very best things that I did this year. Not only do I have a better handle on my business and its profitability, but I have been able to minimize the time I spend on accounting and paperwork to run my business to doing the things I love which are selling and providing my services.

One quick note, I am not being paid for this review in fact Peachtree doesn’t even know I am writing it. I just wanted to share with you one of the great features that I have found and why I am so glad that I upgraded from Peachtree Pro to Peachtree Complete 2009.

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AdWords Ups the Ante

Google announced on the AdWords blog that they would be rolling out a number of changes and they are all happening this week.

First we saw on Monday the line next to the keyword that says something like you will need to pay $16 a click to be on the first page of results. It is interesting that some of the keywords that this phrase had been placed next to already showed an average placement of 1 to 3.

Next we saw on a number of account Tuesday and Wednesday a significant drop in ad position causing us to increase the CPC across the board and by keyword depending on the situation.

I have not yet seen a significant rise or drop in impressions yet in accounts. Some accounts I have started to notice that there is more activity on more keywords, but not across the board on all accounts.

Clearly Google is working to tweak AdWords.  To find out exactly what AdWords has announced, please visit this post on the AdWords blog.

In a nutshell here is what the changes are about:

  • Quality Score is now more accurate — because it is calculated at the time of each search query
  • Keywords are no longer marked ‘inactive for search‘ — all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query
  • ‘First page bid estimates’ replace ‘minimum bids’ in your account — providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers

    • Remember when Google recommends a budget or a cost per click this is called add-on selling. It does not mean that you need to act on the advice!

    Clearly from what we are seeing across many sectors there is an upwards price adjustment happening, but will this impact an account with more impressions and a lower CTR. It is all too new to know exactly, but one thing for sure is that CPC is moving up and strongly on some accounts.

     

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    Your Subs Should Always Be First

    Take care of them and they will take care of you… that’s how it goes in the subcontracting world. If you subcontract out work to independent contractors make sure to treat them the way you want to be treated by your clients.

    One of the biggest gripes that subcontractors have is not being paid on time. So if you hire subs yourself make sure to pay them on time. Once you create a corral of dependable sub contractors you can focus on growing your business. In fact using sub contractors can dramatically grow your business while keeping your costs low and leveraging your profit. But if you don’t keep your sub contractors happy and have a revolving door of staff, you can eat up any profits with retraining and having to follow behind unqualified helpers.

    The key is to find excellent contractors, train them, and keep them. The longer a contractor stays with you, the more valuable they can become to your business. I’ve found these tips to keep subcontractors happy.

    1. Pay on time.
    2. Value their efforts.
    3. Give feedback and provide training.
    4. Be generous with your time on questions.
    5. Make sure you are paying a fair rate based on experience and effort.

    If you’re a sub contractor, what do you hate most. Here’s my short list.

    1. Not being paid on time
    2. No feedback given on my efforts
    3. No training provided.
    4. Ideas and suggestions for improvement in services never enacted.
    5. No contact with the decision makers in the main office on policy that impact my work.
    6. Not being paid a fair rate based on experience.

    If you have others leave them in the comments below I welcome you input.