Flipping Your WIG: Go for Wildly Important Goals

Best Practices of Managing Partner

Squeeze More Time Out of the Day. Most Successful Managing Partners have a secret: weapon for getting important things done in spite of a busy day: They focus on a few Wildly Important Goals. Firm Practice Consultant August Aquila has helped mid-sized to larger practices succeed for over 25 years, and he takes that cumulative wisdom and breaks down this secret into its basic parts.

“Anyone can learn how to work smarter and not harder in managing their firm or practice,” August says. “All it takes is following four key disciplines.”

See how far you can take your practice by pursuing what’s wildly important.

Master Your Elevator Pitch

The Perfect Way to Introduce Your Services

A Few Well-Chosen Words. Sometimes you only have a minute or less to make a good impression on potential clients. An “Elevator Pitch ” is a short prepared response that you could deliver during a short elevator ride. But it comes in handy at any encounter or networking event, and successful practitioners have theirs ready. In a mid-sized firm, you can help everyone join the sales force as long as they have the elevator pitch primed for any opportunity.

CPA Sandi Smith shows you how you can have a great elevator pitch ready on the tip of your tongue.

Who Gets the Dependent?

When Taxpayers Vie for the Same Deduction

Only One Deduction. Your client base is likely to include a sizeable number of nontraditional families with children—divorced parents, multigenerational households, and unmarried parents. And in many cases more than one taxpayer may try to claim dependency exemptions for the children.

IRS Has Guidance to Sort Out Claims. Terry Myers and Dee DeScherer show how only one taxpayer can claim the deduction, and explain the new IRS guidance to resolve competing claims. Plus, we offer a draft client letter you can adapt as needed to alert your clients or prospects.

You Ought to Be in Pictures

The Opportunity for Mid-Sized Firms in Video Posts

YouTube and Other Sites. Intuit ProConnection Editor Bill Teague argues that mid-sized firms are in the sweet spot for leveraging posted videos to expand their marketing reach. We look at what accountants have done so far by way of videos, and look at the low barriers to entry. Read to see what you could accomplish for your mid-sized firm.

And see Intuit’s $5,000 video contest for QuickBooks Online Edition.

Mid-Sized Firms: Tell Us Your Rates

Win an All-New 4G or 8G iPod Nano

Tell us how you charge for services. We respect your time. You will be asked to answer no more than 30 questions. Intuit expects to publish results in January 2007. These surveys are among the most popular we publish.

Get Your Information Early. All respondents are emailed survey results before they are published generally if we have a valid e-mail address.

We need your data to reflect your practice. All answers are confidential; comments are quoted anonymously, and your results are reported only in the aggregate.

The 4G option comes in your choice of silver, aqua, light green, or, while supplies last, the special "Red" edition iPod nano. You can also choose the 8G option, available only in black. We also will provide you with the option of free etching (up to 46 characters) to personalize your iPod. Options are subject to availability.

Read the Rules and Regulations.

Take the survey now.

Master Tip from The Sleeter Group:

Refunds in QuickBooks Financial Software

Editor's Note: Many of you know The Sleeter Group's 2006 Mastering QuickBooks Consultant's Reference Guide as an advanced resource for solving complex problems in QuickBooks consulting. With permission, we are here reproducing one of the valuable sections from that guide.

If you’ve ever struggled with advising a client on how to refund clients by check or credit card -- or found yourself wondering the same while cleaning up a client's files, read the Sleeter Group’s step-by-step instructions on how to handle the chore, complete with screenshots.

Read Doug Sleeter's Master Tip here.

Special Tip from CPA 911

Managing Sales Tax Rates that Differ by Item Type

Sales Tax Rates that Differ. Some states impose one tax rate for alcoholic beverages, another tax rate for food, and yet another tax rate for hotel rooms.

Your Best Tips in November

Here are helpful tips from your fellow bookkeepers, accountants, tax preparers, and other practitioners in November.

• Ten Tips to Bring in New Business.
• Getting a Fringe Benefit into Box 14 of the W-2.
• Day Laborers and Form 1099.
• Keeping Mileage Expenses out of Payroll.

Find more tips  or share your own tips with others.

Handling Prepayments in QuickBooks Financial Software

Prepared by Doug Sleeter, The Sleeter Group, and Intuit technicians, this white paper is for you to share with your retail and other clients who deal routinely with prepayments.

Download this special white paper here.

Save a Call to Technical Support

If Users Can’t Start QuickBooks 2007

New Support Item in Knowledge Base. The new coverage covers these symptoms: When the Windows user has restricted – standard user permission, and attempts to start QuickBooks 2007, the software flashes onscreen and then goes away. (Sometimes QuickBooks displays a LicenseUtility.cpp (888) error message.)

Why? The folder permissions may have been changed by the domain policy so that QuickBooks cannot access some of the required folders under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users.

Note: This error sometimes occurs when users convert a QuickBooks 2007 Standard Installation (single user) to a Hosted Application (permitting access across a network).

See the steps for checking and correcting these folder permissions here.

Accountant’s Technical Support Schedule

Closed on Thanksgiving Day; Open on Friday. The QuickBooks Technical Support office which serves QuickBooks ProAdvisors and other accountants is closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. But the office will be open on Friday, November 24 from 6 a.m to 3 p.m. Pacific Time. Hours revert to the normal operating schedule on Monday, November 27.

Newly Updated QuickBooks Conversion Tool

Now Handles QuickBooks 2007 Files with New Capabilities

Intuit updated more than QuickBooks financial software for 2007. The company has also updated the free QuickBooks Conversion Tool, at www.QuickbooksDirect.com/convert.

The new version of the tool will

• Convert Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006 data files.
• Convert data files from Peachtree versions -- from the current 2007 all the way back to 2001.
• Create data files for QuickBooks 2006 and 2007 (for Premier, Pro, and Enterprise Solutions versions).
• Move data into a newly created QuickBooks file, so your existing Peachtree (2001-2007) or Microsoft SBA (2006) data is left untouched.
• Move over key lists, balances, and transactions. You can choose to convert Lists only or Lists, Balances and Historical Transactions.*

* Note: If you used a previous version of the conversion tool, you cannot "reconvert" and merge files to import your closed historical transactions. Note also that not all elements convert. Items such as Timesheets or Job Costing data do not convert.

Learn more about the QuickBooks Conversion Tool here.

Remember also that new users of QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition – or new members of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program -- receive the free New Accountant Start-up Services package, which includes assisted data conversion from many accounting software products.*

* Note: Works with all QuickBooks accounting software except QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, QuickBooks Simple Start, QuickBooks Pro for Mac, QuickBooks Online Edition, Invoice Manager, Easy Estimate and Time Tracker and requires at least QuickBooks 2007. Not all transactions can be adjusted.

Source Doc Auto-Entry for ProSeries and Lacerte

New Tax Solution Saves Time. "When people realize they can scan source document data directly into the tax return – their jaws are going to drop," says Steve Lohman, CPA and long-time Lacerte user. "This is going to help people save hundreds of hours."

With Source Doc Auto-Entry, scan your clients’ source documents and import the scanned data into Lacerte or ProSeries software with just one click. The software accommodates forms like the W2, 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1099-R, and SSA-1099.

• ProSeries version of Source Doc Auto-Entry.
• Lacerte version of Source Doc Auto-Entry.  

* Notes:

• Requires TWAIN-compliant and 300-dpi scanner and Lacerte tax software or ProSeries Professional or ProSeries Express tax software (not available with ProSeries Basic). Both (tax software and scanner) sold separately. To determine if your current scanner is TWAIN compliant, go to your scanner manufacturer's web site and conduct a search for your model's specifications. Terms, conditions, pricing, features, service and support subject to change without notice.
• Supported formats: W2 - most common payroll company formats and IRS 2-up laser printer format. Other forms - all IRS formats and other provider formats which are similar to the IRS format.
• Time savings are over manual entry of data from source documents.

My Business Manager: Business Reporting Dashboard for QuickBooks Software

Help Clients Make Quick Sense of Business Data in QuickBooks

My Business Manager is a QuickBooks add-on that rides on top of data in the QuickBooks company file.

Dashboards. My Business Manager contains a mix of pre-made management dashboards and reports, with variance, comparisons, forecasting and trends analysis.

Green Light, Red Light. The software includes easy-to-understand traffic light reports (showing green, yellow, or red) so clients can see immediately if their business is healthy or needs help.

Your Role.  You can set up the software and train clients to read and understand the dashboards as one engagement, and review the dashboards with clients periodically as another engagement. Or, you can recommend the software for clients’ own installation and use.

Learn more about the program. Or, explore VAR opportunities.

New Webinar on Using Google Adwords in Marketing

Valuable Marketing Tool for You or Clients. As part of the ongoing effort to help you and your clients market your businesses, Intuit is offering a Webinar about Google AdWords on December 13th, 2006. Slots are limited.

The Webinar will cover the basics of using AdWords, including how to select keywords and how to write an ad.

Register or learn more here.

Big Prize for the Best QuickBooks Online Edition Video

Intuit Launches $5,000 Contest

The QuickBooks Online Edition group is awarding a $5,000 Grand Prize and 14 additional prizes to finalists and semi-finalists for video ads to promote the fact that this Internet-based accounting software gives small businesses the freedom to manage their finances from anywhere – work, home or on the road.

Awards will go for the best, most memorable, outrageous and creative online video ads.

You don’t have to be an accounting professional to enter – but we’re hoping one of our readers takes the grand prize.

Hurry -- the deadline is December 15, 2006. Learn more about the rules of the contest and how to post your video at www.qboevideo.com.

Keeping You in Charge

We publish the Intuit ProConnection Newsletter for you each month to give you the information and tools you need to succeed as an accountant, bookkeeper, tax preparer, technology consultant, or related practitioner. You control your subscription, and we want to make sure it works for you.

For all of these, please write to the Editor, at IPC-Editor@Intuit.com.

For general matters or issues, you can mail letters and comments to Intuit Inc., Customer Communications, 2800 E. Commerce Center Place, Tucson, AZ 85706.

STAFF
Brandon Wilson, Publisher
Bill Teague, Managing Editor
Kevin Segedi, Web Production

WHY TWO NEWSLETTERS IN NOVEMBER?

For internal reasons, the previous edition, Issue Number 10, was released early this month instead of in October. We apologize for any inconvenience.

COMING IN DECEMBER: CALM BEFORE THE TAX SEASON STORM

For all of you dealing with tax returns, we take a look at the latest ideas on how you can organize for smooth sailing through tax season.

DID YOU KNOW?

If You're Thinking of Becoming a ProAdvisor. You have a chance to win a free year's worth of membership in the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program -- just for watching a short video.