A Great Opportunity to Support the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal - And add some great software to your business tools at the same time.

A friend and fellow MYOB consultant, Matthew Jones from Accounting Power has been very pro-active in his approach to helping the people who have lost so much in the devastating bushfires in Victoria this past week. Mathew has taken one of his great MYOB add-on software products, Perfect  and is generously donating the proceeds to the Red Cross Fire Bushfire Appeal. At the price of $27, the perfect review software is an absolute bargain and I would highly recommend you grab a copy while it is discounted, you will be helping your business and the victims of the Victorian Bushfires.

Follow this link to buy a copy now and support the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire appeal.

These fires are the worst natural disaster Australia has had in 110 years and they are now predicting over 300 lives have been lost. Let do as Australia has always done and pull together to help each other in times of need.

Please support this fundraising campaign by buying the software and alerting as many of your friends, associates and clients of this very generous offer.

If you need to know more, please review the email Matthew sent me below, or visit his AccountingPower website  

Finally! We now have stated to populate our site with the QuickBooks 2009 range of accounting producting including QuickBooks EasyStart, Quickbooks Accounting, Quickbooks Plus, QuickBooks Pro and QuickBooks Premier. Soon we will have the complete range listed, including QuickBooks Retail Point of Sale products.

I really like this quote from the Quicken website

Keep your finances in order

When there’s a financial crisis its good to know that your personal and business finances are all in order. That’s why there’s never been a better time to get the new Quicken 2009 software. Packed with great new functionality and improved features, Quicken 2009 can help you manage your money, whatever happens in the rest of the financial market.

MYOB are currently offering some awesome deals as part of their “Secure Start to 2009″ Promotion.

Buy MYOB Accounting or MYOB Accounting Plus and receive a Bonus Full Version of Norton Internet Security 2009

Buy MYOB Account Edge and receive a Bonus Full Version of Norton Internet Security 2009 for Mac

And here’s the absolute best one! Buy MYOB premier or MYOB RetailManager and receive a Bonus Full Version of Norton Internet Security 2009 PLUS a Verbatim 500GB External Hard Drive!

This offer is via redemption from MYOB. We are currently updating our listing to reflect this offer, but if buy now you will still receive this great Bonus!

I commonly receive questions from customers confused about their options for Point of Sale hardware.

The most common three items for a computerised Point of Sale system are a Barcode Scanner, Docket Printer and a Cash Drawer. My favourites for these items that I recommend to my customers are:

• Epson TM-T88 Thermal Docket Printer, a fast, quiet, reliable printer with long warrany and a good track record
• Symbol/Motorola LS2208 handheld laser barcode scanner which offers fast reliable handheld scanner from a reasonable distance. These have a quality feel and have proven reliable inmy stores and for my clients over the years. If  client is looking for a quicker solutions I like the Symbol/Motorola LS9208 omni-directional laser desktop barcode scanner, these sit on the POS desk and allow scanning of the code at any angle which usually increases the sales processing speed.
• A BCD410 or PT410 all metal cash drawer. Cash drawers are simple units and there is not much difference in user features, I do however prefer to supply units that have all-metal bodies and metal cash clips, these normally last longer than other units.

There are a few important considerations with all hardware:

• Which items do you need for your particular business?
• Which type of unit do you need eg. Thermal Docket Printer or Impact Docket Printer? CCD Barcode Scanner or Laser Barcode Scanner? Handheld Barcode Scanner or Omnidirectional Scanner? Standard Cash Drawer or flip top cash drawer?
• Which interface do you need to your computer and is that compatible with your software: USB? Parrallel? Serial? (serial is getting harder to find on most PC’s now)
• Which colour do you need. Might sound minor but do you really want an ivory docket printer in a mechanics workshop? Or a charcoal Barcode Scanner sitting on your gloss white Point of Sale Desk?

Over the coming week or two I intend to write some articles detailing the common options available in POS hardware and some of the considerations you should think about when deciding upon your purchase. Stay tuned to this blog and to the hardware categories of my website over the next few weeks for more information.

In addition to this some installations also require equipment such as Customer Displays, Scales and progammable keyboards or touch screens. There is also lots of add-on systems that can assist to speed business operations, such as portable stocktake scanners (also know as PDT’s - Portable Data Terminals, PDE’ Portable Data Entry, and, Wireless Scanners), label printers and RFID products.

I will also be discussing these items a little down the track.

I have been thinking about what I should include in this Blog to make it useful and informative for my customers and thought I might as well post my ideas here where I can readily find them!

• A series of posts on selecting Point of Sale hardware. A general overview, then a topic on each type of major POS component; Barcode Scanners, Docket Printers, cash drawers, Touch Screens, Programmable Keyboards, Customer Displays, Scales, then on any other components as the need arises.
• A series on Retail Business manangement and how you can use your POS system to improve your sales, profit and reduce your workload.
• A series of hints and tips for MYOB RetailManager
• Gather the ideas of business consultants I have had contact with and create a guide for Australian Businesses to Thrive in 2009 where it looks like we might be faced with a global recession.
• Perhaps also a series on time management. Something I have been wanted to write some notes on for a while now.