March 2020 Meeting Notes

March 5, 2020 Meeting Notes

By Linda Lagraff

Niche Marketing       

President Kim Boaz opened the meeting with introductions.

The meeting was led by Summer Hiett on niche marketing.  Meeting was a group discussion

Different types of niche (areas in which a business can specialize

·                 Restaurants/Bars

·                 Non-Profit

·                 Construction

·                 Retail

·                 Legal

·                 Consulting

·                 Agriculture

·                 Trust

·                 Ecommerce

·                 Spa/Wellness

·                 Medical

·                 Real Estate – Short/long term rental, Agents

·                 Cannabis

·                 others

 A bookkeeper’s personality is am important part of which or any niche is the focus of their business including: Lifestyle (what is your pace for the day- are you a morning or evening person), Interest/Passion, Technical expertise and interest to use/learn, Paper or paperless.

Some of the members have defined niches that they focus on and others do not. 

Next meeting

·       April meeting will be a Zoom Video Conference  Thursday April 2nd 11:30-1:00 pm from the comfort of your home.

·       April Virtual Happy Hour – Zoom Video Conference Thursday April 16th 4-5 pm also from the comfort of you home.  Join us for an hour of good company and conversation.

February 1st 2018 Meeting Notes

February 1^st Meeting Notes Bulleted By Linda Lagraff

Technology: What's Working and What's Not.

February 1, 2018

Vice President Melissa Barton opened the February 1^st meeting with a discussion of what is working and what isn’t with technology.  She told about a small manufacturing company that was trying to do too much in QB, when what they needed was to only track finance in QB and move everything else out.  She got them using ShipStation.

• Discussion followed regarding other programs
• LightSpeed was recommended for restaurants and small to medium size retail businesses. It integrates with QBs
• Adobe, at the paid dues level, allows you to transfer pdf files to either excel or word programs.
• The pdf2qbo program makes transferring bank statements to QuickBooks easier
• com was highly recommended. It has authorizations features and allows clients to set up systems to assure those that need to see and approve bills prior to payment can.

Discussion then turned to 1099s and what worked or changes to consider for 2018

• Have all vendors fill out a new W9 in Jan every year. This way all information is current and not waiting until a vendor reaches the $600 limit before remembering to collect a W-9
• Clients should set up a policy that vendors will not be paid until the W-9 is received

As tax season is upon us questions were presented to the CPAs in attendance for their advice

• Most liked to receive back-up or portable QB files.
• Most liked that their clients used account numbers
• Most also agreed that they like to be able to discuss things with a client’s bookkeeper. If your clients allow it, introduce yourself to their CPAs

March 1^st meeting will be a demonstration of XERO software.  Presented by staff from XERO.  There will be time for questions.   Meeting will be at Meals on Wheels locatons at 7710 SW 1^st Ave., Portland, OR 97219.  11:30-1:00 pm and it is a bring your own lunch style meeting.

July 6th 2017 Meeting Minutes - The Cloud Ecosystem

ALL STAR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS, INC. Meeting Minutes

July 6, 2017

The June 6 meeting was held at the Meals on Wheels building located at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue in Portland.  President Kim Boaz opened the meeting by having guests introduce themselves.  Regular members then introduced themselves, giving shout outs to fellow members and mentioning any needs.

Renee Trump, membership & promotions coordinator of All Star Accounting Professionals, Inc. was the speaker for today’s meeting on the topic of The Cloud Accounting Ecosystem.  Renee is an owner with the firm of Pasaban Accounting Solutions and has a number of years of experience with accounting including experience at a law firm and in the hospitality industry.  Renee stated that collaboration allows us to do more than we can do ourselves.  Per research, 65% of users use the cloud for bookkeeping; 43% use smartphones to help run their business and 65% use the cloud for invoicing and payments.  The benefits include real time information for decision making and the ability to provide advisory services for clients.  Renee next discussed Defining the Workflow Adoption Curve which can be found at https://content.hubdoc.com/hubdoc-blog/defining-the-workflow-adoption-curve.  This site shows the six stages of the workflow adoption curve, including awareness, research, trial period, initial adoption, client migration and workflow mastery.  In the “Get Visual” portion of her presentation, Renee explained the main software her firm, Pasaban Accounting Solutions, uses to capture and report information.  Pasaban uses Bill.com which allows invoices to be entered quickly and easily, permits approval of the bill and scheduling of the payment, including the method of payment.  Hubdoc automatically pulls bills and statements into one secure hub so you don’t need to log onto multiple sites each month to gather recurring bills.  QuickBooks Online is used as the main accounting software and Futrli allows clients to visualize their financials with graphs and easy to use reports that are more business owner friendly. The final portion of the presentation discussed documenting and refining your processes.  Melissa Barton stated that there is an app called Transaction Pro Deleter which costs about $200 and can quickly and easily remove unwanted transactions from QBO and QuickBooks desktop. Kim was interested in an online ability to store and securely share files for multiple clients in one location.  Box.com was offered as a solution.

To wrap up the topic, we broke down into smaller groups to discuss one of more related questions that Renee included on the overhead screen.

Kim closed the meeting by mentioning our website which can be found either at ASAPPDX.com or AllStarAccountingProfessionals.com.  Meeting notes can be found on the blog tab of the website.  Meetings are the first Thursday of each month from 11:30 – 1:00.  The location is currently at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue in Portland but we are looking for an Eastside location as well.  If anyone is aware of a potential Eastside location to hold meetings, please email Kim Boaz at Kim@backtobasicsbookkeeping.com.  We currently pay $50 for a 2- hour timeslot at the Meals on Wheels location.  We also host quarterly social events with the most recent events including seeing the movie The Accountant and an after-hours social at The Punch Bowl Social in downtown Portland.  September 21 is our next quarterly event date so please hold that date open.  Terrie Marsh is working on this event.  We are interested in growing our membership so please remember to promote ASAP on social media.  We are also starting to offer short promotions to those who bring in a gift card or similar item of value for a business card drawing.

The next All-Star Accounting Professional meeting will be held on August 3 at the Meals on Wheels location at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue, Portland 97219.  We hope to see you there!

July 6th 2017 Meeting Minutes Bullet Points

ALL STAR ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONALS, INC. Meeting Minutes Bullet Points

July 6, 2017

• The June 6 meeting was held at the Meals on Wheels building located at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue in Portland.
• Renee Trump was the speaker for today’s meeting on the topic of The Cloud Accounting Ecosystem. Renee is an owner with the firm of Pasaban Accounting Solutions.
• Collaboration allows us to do more than we can do ourselves. Per research, 65% of users use the cloud for bookkeeping, invoicing and payments; 43% use smartphones to help run their business.  The benefits include real time information for decision making and the ability to provide advisory services for clients.
• Renee discussed Defining the Workflow Adoption Curve which can be found at https://content.hubdoc.com/hubdoc-blog/defining-the-workflow-adoption-curve. This site shows the six stages of the workflow adoption curve, including awareness, research, trial period, initial adoption, client migration and workflow mastery.
• In the “Get Visual” portion of her presentation, Renee explained the main software her firm, Pasaban Accounting Solutions, uses to capture and report information. Pasaban uses Bill.com, Hubdoc, QuickBooks Online and Futrli.
• The final portion of the presentation discussed documenting and refining your processes. To wrap up the topic, we broke down into smaller groups to discuss one of more related questions that Renee included on the overhead screen.
• Kim closed the meeting by mentioning our website which can be found either at ASAPPDX.com or AllStarAccountingProfessionals.com. Meeting notes can be found on the blog tab of the website.
• Meetings are the first Thursday of each month from 11:30 – 1:00.
• We are looking for an Eastside location to meet. If anyone is aware of a potential Eastside location to hold meetings, please email Kim Boaz at Kim@backtobasicsbookkeeping.com.
• Recent quarterly social events include seeing the movie The Accountant and an after-hours social at The Punch Bowl Social in downtown Portland. September 21 is our next quarterly event date so please hold that date open.
• We are interested in growing our membership so please remember to promote ASAP on social media. We are also starting to offer short promotions to those who bring in a gift card or similar item of value for a business card drawing.
• The next All-Star Accounting Professional meeting will be held on August 3 at the Meals on Wheels location at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue, Portland 97219. We hope to see you there!

June 1 2017 Meeting Minutes - Bulleted Points

• Summer Hiett, the owner of All Seasons Bookkeeping, was today’s speaker, discussing various apps of interest to bookkeepers and accountants. Summer received her Bachelors of Science in 2013 from PSU’s School of Business and started her full charge bookkeeping business in March of 2016.  Her office is located at the border of Beaverton and Hillsboro.
• Mileage apps discussed included Mile IQ, Triplog and Everlance. Mile IQ can track each trip and category and runs $5.99 per month.  Triplog is less expensive at $1.50 per month.  The first 40 trips of Triplog are free.  Everlance drains the cell phone battery quickly.
• Time tracking apps. Tsheets is free for one person though you need to look hard in the settings for this free feature.  There is a base charge of $15 and an additional charge of $5 per employee.   Tsheets works well with QuickBooks Online.  Shift to Work, another time tracking app, has amazing customer service, runs $1 per employee and offers integration with Heartland payroll.  Renee mentioned another app, which has “Shark” in the name and was user friendly.
• Expense apps. An app called “Expense” utilized taking pictures and integrated with QuickBooks Online.  It ran $10 per month.  Expensify works for expenses outside the normal accounting process, such as when employees use their own credit cards.  Hubdoc software allows you to take a picture of the receipt, upload and works with QuickBooks Online.  The user can identify separate locations if needed.
• Finance apps. FreshBooks runs $15, $25 or $50 a month but does not feature use of balance sheets.  ProAdvisor can use the app for free.  QuickBooks Self-Employed is $10 per month but is not able to be converted to QuickBooks Online.  QBox is cloud based and works on desktops.  You can lock files and share with clients.
• There is an upcoming All-Star Accounting Professionals social on June 8 from 5 - 8 PM at the Punch Bowl Social located at 340 SW Morrison Street in Portland.
• The next All-Star Accounting Professional meeting will be held on July 6, 2017 at the Meals on Wheels location at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue, Portland 97219.

June 1 2017 Meeting Minutes - Apps of Interest

  The June 1 meeting was held at the Meals on Wheels location in SW Portland.  Diana Chung facilitated the meeting.  Guests introduced themselves and then regular members.  Summer Hiett, the owner of All Seasons Bookkeeping, was today’s speaker, discussing various apps of interest to bookkeepers and accountants.  Summer received her Bachelors of Science in 2013 from Portland State University School of Business and started her business in March of 2016.  She was a corporate accountant for nearly 6 years and has experience with full cycle bookkeeping in many different industries. Her office is located at the border of Beaverton and Hillsboro.

Summer first discussed various mileage apps, including Mile IQ, Triplog and Everlance.  Mile IQ can track each trip and category and runs $5.99 per month.  Triplog is less expensive at $1.50 per month and has been used by Summer and Renee.  Both liked this app.  The first 40 trips of Triplog are free.  Everlance drains the cell phone battery quickly.

Next, we moved to time tracking apps.  Tsheets is free for one person though you need to look hard in the settings for this free feature.  There is a base charge of $15 and an additional charge of $5 per employee.  Summer noted that it could end up costing more with this app than using a payroll company in some circumstances.  Tsheets works well with QuickBooks Online.  Shift to Work, another time tracking app, has amazing customer service and runs $1 per employee.  It offers integration with Heartland payroll.  Renee mentioned another app, which has “Shark” in the name and was user friendly.

The discussion then moved to expense apps.  An app called “Expense” utilized taking pictures and integrated with QuickBooks Online.  It ran $10 per month.  Expensify works for expenses outside the normal accounting process, such as when employees use their own credit cards.  Hubdoc software allows you to take a picture of the receipt, upload and works with QuickBooks Online.  The user can identify separate locations if needed.  You can get into Hubdoc to reclassify expenses as well.

The last type of app mentioned were finance apps.  FreshBooks runs $15, $25 or $50 a month but does not feature use of balance sheets.  ProAdvisor can use the app for free.  QuickBooks Self-Employed is $10 per month but is not able to be converted to QuickBooks Online.  QBox is cloud based and works on desktops.  You can lock files and share with clients.

There is an upcoming All-Star Accounting Professionals social on June 8 from 5 - 8 PM at the Punch Bowl Social located at 340 SW Morrison Street in Portland.

The next All-Star Accounting Professional meeting will be held on July 6, 2017 at the Meals on Wheels location at 7710 SW 31^st Avenue, Portland 97219.