I bet you are thinking, “Why are we discussing checklists? That seems like a pretty rudimentary topic?”

Yeah, um…no… 

Checklists are the basis for all our work.

We are living in an awesome cloud technology era. We no longer have to live in our spreadsheets and docs - we could, but they are awkward and inefficient. Plus, even though they are free, they may cost us more than the fabulous paid apps out there.

If people don’t love using an app, they simply won’t use it to its fullest - or perhaps not at all.

User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are essential considerations in deploying and embracing technology.

Running a successful business means email communication runs rampant. But what if there was another way? A way to run your business so that it doesn’t require your inbox to overflow with to-dos constantly? Would you do it? I would hope so!

I have been using RightTool since last Fall, and I am smitten with how it has taken so much of the “ughness” out of QuickBooks Online.

It’s no secret that I love QBO. It’s also no secret that QBO has some irritations, particularly with efficiency and user experience. This is a large part of peeps hesitation to move from QuickBooks Desktop; the smooth, efficient experience that desktop has. RightTool, by and large, solves this.

“RightTool creates the QuickBooks Desktop efficiency we crave in the QuickBooks Online we love.”

Oh, dear!

It may not look like it, but our golf-cart-child-wagon combo is heckishly convenient and fun for small jobs - and for my doggos - they love a golf cart ride. Heck, who doesn’t love a golf cart ride⁉️

But it’s not the most efficient setup for actual yard work. It is simple for small one-off jobs like taking away downed twigs and garden debris. Quick, no fuss, toss a bag of plant material in the back and off we go simple.

AI and automation are getting all the glory right now. They are amazing for productivity; there’s no doubt about that.

But our apps' batch (bulk), filter, and sort features rarely get their moment in the sun. Individually or a combination of them is one of the things I look for when choosing new technology.

In the end, payroll is not just about numbers and calculations. It's about people, their livelihoods, and their families.

As an accountant, you have the power to positively impact your clients' businesses and the lives of their employees.

So keep learning, growing, and striving to be your best payroll professional.

According to the fortune-cookie logic most people live by, the best things in life are free. That's crap. I have a gold-plated robot that scratches the exact part of my back where my hands can't reach, and it certainly wasn't free.

- Josh Lieb

I was invited to be on The Appy Hour earlier this week.

It was so fun to be hanging out with two of my dear APIAs*, Heather Satterly and Liz Scott. They are super bright, forward thinking, collaborating women. I love being in their presence!

The topic was discussing my app stack: how I choose it and what it does for me.

I had an Doc outline of what we were going to discuss, and I copied my thoughts into the chat as we were going through the webbie. Then this morning I realized it would be of value to share that outline here on my blog.

It’s point form, it’s somewhat messy, it’s incomplete in the scope of choosing your tech stack - but “done is better than perfect”!

don’t know about you, but I find adding a link to text in docs, sheets, emails, slide decks… tedious.

Soooo tedious…

And I do it often. So I looked up the keyboard shortcut - who doesn’t love shortcuts? Now I’m sharing it with you

I still need to do a RightTool deep dive, but I already love the few features I use.

And I want to share with all of you, in two parts, my RightTool journey.

I have barely scratched what this magical Chrome browser extension can do.

I have not taken the time to do a deep dive review on RightTool yet, as I’ve had a lot going on since it came out. I had to move playing with it quite far down on my to-do list.

My accounting friends and colleagues were raving about it, though, and I heard it solved a few QBO issues. I decided I could install the RightTool extension and implement only the issue solvers from which I knew I could benefit. I could put off the heavy lift to explore all the features.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Hector Garcia about RightTool, a QBO navigation tool he developed with Mark Corum and Patrick Cummings.

I recently had a quicky Zoom with a lovely woman from my FaceBook Group, The Workflow Wateringhole. She wanted to know the best steps to take to become a professional cloud based bookkeeper. We chatted, I gave her some advice which she said was great and she was going to follow up on it.

I decided to take that conversation from 1:1 and make it 1:many through this post.

If you are disorganized in the physical world, you will be disorganized in the cloud one.

Sure, you can search for many things in many ways in the cloud. But even the most robust of search options get dodgy if you don’t have systems in place to organize your digital world.

Operating digitally is as inefficient as operating physically if there isn’t an organized system for it.

It’s a frustrating, time-sucking dog’s breakfast either way.

Are you exhausted right now?

Most folks we know are, right?!

Together, we are all coming off a couple of tough years, and collaborating in an entirely (or mostly) virtual model requires us all to work differently. The old ways don't work as well anymore - we can't just pop our heads over the cubicle walls and ask co-workers “what’s up"?”. Instead, we have to peck things out in an email/Slack/Teams/WhatsApp… or schedule* a Zoom/call them to ask questions. It takes more work. And confusion can often reign supreme.

In the days of old, as in less than a decade ago, the technology was far different than today. And the mundane task load was heavy. Opening mail, entering transactions, cutting cheques, printing invoices, mailing stuff…and then filing, filing, filing!

Not anymore more. Cloud technology has changed all that.

I recently realized that not everyone knows about app-generated, copy/paste 2FA back up codes.

I was posting about sharing 2FA codes with team members in my FBGroup and an inquiry came up asking what these wee bits of magical security are (the inquirer didn’t call them “wee bits of magical security”, that’s all me). I couldn’t find a good article to reply with about them that wasn’t app-specific.

So I decided a quick overview - right here, right now - was in order.

Using tech to create 5 Star Client Experiences

We have had many renovations done over the years. Some went better than others.

The one thing that was consistent with the great experiences were great processes that were clearly communicated.

We have another one coming up in January and we are using a contractor that we used previously. We loved our experience with them and are happy to be having them do the work again.

What is the definition of an accountant?

Someone who solves a problem you did not know you had in a way you don’t understand.

Now back to the real purpose of this note…

Next week I am leading a session on branding and marketing for accounting professionals with the Dext Academy.

Last week I suggested some homework for it - visualizing your best you and what you want your business to look like.