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Posts tagged Software Tool
Comparing Top Online Accounting Software Packages
Oct 25th
Posted by admin in Business Tips
Accounting and bookkeeping are two important aspects of running any type of business, whether its a small retail store or a large corporation. Any business owner knows that these tasks can become a painful experience and if not managed correctly the tax man may end up knocking on your door.
We recently were advised by our accountant that we should invest in an accounting software tool so we can better track our expenses and project future financial growth of the company. There are many off the shelf accounting software products on the market. If you walk down to Office Works or search online, you will find software packages that could either be affordable or just too expensive. Some are easy to use whilst others are just too complex but to be honest with you, there isn’t a perfect product out there that does exactly what you want. Every user and business has different processes so a one size fits all approach to accounting software cannot be used here, but what I can say is that if you have basic accounting requirements then you may be in luck. What I’ve done is compared and detailed some of these software packages so we could make a suitable decision of which product we should be using and hopefully at the same time we can also help our readers find a solution that meets their needs. We decided that using a SaaS (Software as a Service) online package would be the most cost effective solution since you are not required to pay extra for software upgrades – everything is done online. Here’s our list, it’s not the most comprehensive but it’s a start (keep in mind we compared product versions that had similar benefits and costed roughly the same):
| Software Package |
|
Zoho Invoicing (premium) |
||||
| Price | AU$25 per month (includes GST) +11c for each bank transaction over 100 | US$29 | AU$25 per month (min 3 months) 12 months gets 1 month free | US$29.95 per month | US$25 per month | US$20 per month |
| Number of accounts | Unlimited | 5 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Number of users | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | N/A – 1 for each additional account | 3 + US$5 per additional users | Unlimited |
| Contacts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Number of Invoices and expenses | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 500 | Unlimited |
| Link Bank accounts | Yes – unlimited | 20 reconciled bank statements per month | Yes – beta test | Don’t think so | No | No |
| Support | Yes – unlimited | Yes – unlimited | Email only | Customer Support Mon-Fri / 9am-6pm ET | Yes | Yes – unlimited |
| Backup | Yes – data is safe and backed up | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free Trial | Yes – 30 days | Yes – lets you raise a maximum of five new invoices and reconcile 50 bank statement lines. The trial is also limited to a maximum period of 180 days. | Yes – 20 Transactions per month | No – 30 day money back guarantee | Yes – 5 invoices per month, 2 users | Yes – 30 days |
| Mobile access | Not sure | iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile | Not sure | Yes, iphone | Not sure | No |
| Payroll | No | No | 25 employees | No | No | No |
| Other Features | accept credit card payment, invoice workflow status, resend invoices, API support, multi-currency | multi-currency, point of sale hardware + software, items and inventory, connectors, CRM/Activities, time based timesheet, inventory, ebay connector | access online payments, Timesheets, Document Sharing, Support Ticketing | Remove Zoho logo from outgoing emails | UK Based company (not ideal for Australia), timesheet, |
| Number of accounts | Unlimited |
Now based on the above comparison we decided to trial the SaaSu (pro) package.
Attached Files:
Be careful when geotagging your photos
Sep 6th
Posted by admin in Announcements
How many of you are geotagging your photos without even realising it. Geotagging basically means using a GPS (Global Positioning System) to work out the exact location you took the photo. People are using this to showcase where they’ve taken pictures of their favourite location but there’s something you need to be careful of. If you don’t switch off geotagging on your mobile phone for private pictures (ie like your home, food you’ve eaten for dinner, your favourite pets) you’re actually giving away your location – where you live.
Cyberstalking is growing dramatically due to the increase usage of social networking tools + GPS enabled phones and by uploading or sending your images, you’re actually revealing your location. So we just want you to be careful and before uploading any pictures to any website on the Internet or sending photos to friends, make sure you’ve disabled geotagging unless you specifically want to use it.
I’ve done some testing and it’s quite scary – most websites like facebook strip this information from the file before publishing it so you’re quite safe. But sending emails with images from the iphone is a different story.
As an example, I picked up my friends Iphone4 and showed them this issue. I went to their photos and selected places… then I showed them on the map where they lived and they freaked out. Imagine losing your phone or if someone borrowed your phone without you realising… there goes your identity which I find very scary.
Still don’t believe me? You can download a software tool called ExifTool that read meta information in files (this will include GPS co-ordinates) and open up a photo you took on your iphone.
If you want to disable geotag on your iphone these are the steps I have found on the Internet (I don’t have an iphone so don’t know whether they work):
- On your iPhone, and select “Settings” from the menu screen.
- Press “General,” and then select “Reset”
- Select the “Reset Location Warnings” option
- Press “Reset Warnings”
- Press and open your camera application on the menu screen. Select “Don’t Allow” when prompted.
So be careful and don’t ADVERTISE your location! You might be leaving footprints without you even realising.
