A couple months ago, FreshBooks added an awesome feature to its online billing and accounting software: attaching expense receipts to invoices. I am a big fan of the integrated document management, which makes digital documents always available for quick and easy retrieval. Plus, receipts can be attached in several file formats from whatever device is convenient. Check out this video from FreshBooks showing users taking pictures of receipts with smartphones and tablets.
Since it looks so easy in the video, I tested attaching receipts from each of my devices.
On my desktop computer, I clicked on the “attach image of receipt” link while adding a new expense. A “choose file” button appeared below the link, and after I clicked on it, a file explorer window opened. I navigated to the file’s location on my computer and double-clicked it. That was easy enough to meet my expectations.
After tapping my finger on the “attach image of receipt” and “choose file” buttons on my tablet (a 10.1″ Samsung Galaxy Tab 2), it prompted me to select an action from several options as shown in the screenshot below. I chose the camera function. After I took a picture of the receipt, it was automatically uploaded and attached to the expense in FreshBooks. I don’t think it can get any easier than that!
My smartphone, which runs on Android, is capable of doing the same thing as my tablet. However, I can’t quickly launch FreshBooks, enter the details for a new expense and attach a receipt with my smartphone’s small screen and cellular connection. My solution is to use Evernote, one of my favorite mobile apps for taking digital notes. The Evernote widget includes a camera button for quickly uploading pictures. I uploaded a picture of the receipt with the Evernote app on my smartphone, and when I was later on my desktop computer, I downloaded the image from Evernote’s web application. I then went to FreshBooks, added a new expense and attached the receipt image.
If you have questions or are seeking the help of a FreshBooks Certified Beancounter and CPA in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact me.
Just as a GPS is a handy gadget for a stubborn guy who refuses to ask for directions, Excel’s Go To Special feature quickly finds and selects cells in a spreadsheet without all of the U-turns and dead ends. The Go To Special window can be launched under the Find and Replace button in Excel 2010 and it offers a plethora of options to choose from.
One of the most useful abilities of Go To Special is selecting blank cells. For example, I first select all of the cells in a table (A1:D6 shown below). In the Go To Special window, I select the Blanks option. After clicking on OK, the empty cells in the table are selected.
With the empty cells selected, I can then change the cells’ background color to yellow, for example. I can also enter a value for the cells, such as zero, making the value apply to all of them at once by holding the Ctrl key while pressing enter.
The Errors option (under Formulas) in the Go To Special screen will select all of the cells with errors. It’s a fast and effective way of making sure a spreadsheet is error-free. After all, few things are more embarrassing than giving someone a spreadsheet with errors where there are supposed to be numbers.
How have the other Go To Special options been helpful for you? Please share by leaving a comment below.
For many years, I’ve used Excel as my 10 key adding machine. Since I can add and subtract numbers on my computer, I have never wanted clunky and noisy equipment taking up space on my desk. I have used the built-in Windows calculator occasionally, but it lacks a traditional 10 key tape that accountants love, so I’ve preferred using Excel. That may be changing, however, since I discovered Moffsoft FreeCalc in a discussion in the CPA Tech Connect LinkedIn group. Moffsoft FreeCalc is freeware and adds several useful features to the standard Windows calculator.
Moffsoft FreeCalc’s tape feature is far more useful than the paper that comes out of 10 key machines. The figures on a tape can be copied, saved, printed and cleared. Some CPA firms are using FreeCalc to copy and paste the simulated paper tapes as annotations within PDF documents. Numbers on a tape can be “re-used” when double-clicked. As an added bonus, you’ll never have to replace the paper rolls or ink.
Out of curiosity, I occasionally enter my name in Google to see how I am doing in my goal to dominate the first page of Google search results. Today, I decided to take a different approach and see how Google autocompletes searches for my name. According to Google, its algorithm predicts queries based on other users’ search activities. These searches provide some insight into what phrases people have used to search for me and other lucky guys out there that share my name.
When I enter “Dustin Wheeler” in the search box, Google suggests the following:
The first one listed is Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Yes, that’s me! The next two are not me (though “Dustin Wheeler Chevrolet” has a nice ring to it – it’s a dealership in Hinton, Oklahoma).
Next, I went through the alphabet adding a letter after my name to see how Google autocompletes it. Here is the letter L:
Las Vegas is one of the few cities that comes up. People could have searched for me using the city where I live to narrow the search results.
Moving on to Q…
Yes, I am a member of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program.
Another fun activity is entering a company or product followed by the word “is.” Searches for “Google is” and “Facebook is” produces some really funny autocomplete suggestions, though they are mostly negative in nature. Google’s algorithm has some kind words for FreshBooks, however.
Hopefully, Google’s autocomplete will say the same about me someday.
A coworker stopped by my office seeking a solution to a dilemma. She had received a large PDF document in reverse order (page 1 of the document was page 100 of the PDF, page 2 was page 99, and so on). Since backwards workpapers are the type of thing that can drive an accountant to the brink of insanity, there was a lot at stake here.
We brainstormed a few possible ways to reverse the page order. In the past, I had just used the pages navigation panel to rearrange the page order for small PDF files of five pages or less. However, for a long document of about 100 pages, this idea didn’t seem practical. We also could have printed off the entire document and resorted the pages by hand, but that didn’t sound like fun.
Naturally, I turned to Google. I searched for “reverse page order in Adobe Acrobat” and ended up in this Adobe forum. The sixth post in this forum provides Javascript code, which I saved to my Acrobat Javascript Folder. After How to Create a Bodybuilding Diet uk roids central bodybuilding episode 37 | ironmag bodybuilding blog that, a new item called “reverse” appeared under the document menu (see screenshot below).
Within a few seconds, the script put the pages in the right order, and I literally saved one accountant’s world from turning upside-down.
Recently, I had one of those “how did you do that?” moments with a tech-savvy client. This client, like me, set up his domain with Google Apps. During a meeting, he told me he wanted to show me a spreadsheet he created in Google Docs. In the web browser, he typed d.(his domain).com and the browser opened his Google Docs login page. Not long after that, as we were scheduling our next meeting, he typed c.(his domain).com in the browser, and his Google Calendar instantly appeared. I could not help but look with amazement and say “wow, that was fast! – how did you do that?”
I love finding faster and more efficient ways of doing things, so I also set up my domain this way for the quickest access to Google Apps. Like many of Google’s products, I found it was incredibly easy to set up.
Go to your Google Apps domain management page and click on settings. Click on the product to the left that you want to change the URL for (Docs is shown below).
Click on the “Change URL” link which will take you to the page you see below. Click on the second button and change the subdomain to whatever you like. My client prefers the one letter subdomains, for example, “d” for Docs and “c” for Calendar.
I then had to go to my domain host’s DNS Management page and add a CNAME. Google has step-by-step instructions for this.
In a prior post, I wrote about how I set up a Gmail address with my domain. I also have a short URL for my e-mail. By typing mail.dustinwheelercpa.com, I go straight to my e-mail page.
It’s frequently asked questions time on Diving into the Details! With this one, we’re not diving too deep.
Having your picture (a.k.a. avatar) appear in my blog comments takes only a couple of minutes. Go ahead, time yourself and let me know if I’m wrong.
Gravatar associates your picture with your e-mail address whenever you leave a comment on a WordPress blog (and a few other blog platforms). If you have multiple e-mail addresses like I do, you’ll either want to confirm multiple e-mail accounts with Gravatar or make sure you are consistenly using the same e-mail address when you comment on blogs.
Ready to show off your avatar? Leave a comment below!
In addition to e-mail overload, I’ve been diagnosed with e-mail address overload syndrome. People usually say “whoa!” with their mouths wide open when I tell them that I have five e-mail addresses. Of the e-mail addresses I currently use, I created my first with Hotmail many years ago. Shortly afterwards, I tried Yahoo. A few years later, I created one with Gmail. After I add my work and school e-mail addresses to those, I’ve got five that I use somewhat regularly.
Recently, I created yet another e-mail address, adding to my misery. This one, though, is different.
When I bought my domain (dustinwheelercpa.com), I thought it would be really, really cool to have an e-mail address with that domain. I won’t type it out here for the spam bots to harvest, but for you humans out there, it’s (my first name) @ (my domain). That’s easy to remember, isn’t it? It’s definitely easier for other people to remember than my Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail addresses, which contained a cryptic combination of letters and numbers. Also, people might check out my blog out of curiosity when they see my domain at the end of my e-mail address.
The reason why I haven’t done this sooner is that I haven’t liked the webmail interfaces from a few web hosting providers I have tried. Gmail has been my favorite interface among the e-mail addresses that I use, so I set up my domain with Google Apps Standard. With Google Apps, I have my e-mail hosted by Google’s servers with the features of Gmail and also can use Google Calendar and Google Docs with my domain. Since Google Apps Standard is free, it can be a good alternative to an Exchange server for small bootstrapping business.
Google has an easy setup guide which took me less than an hour to complete. The guide kept referring to me setting up Google Apps for my “organization,” which seemed funny since my domain is just a blog, not an organization. In the process, though, I discovered how easy it would be for an organization such as a business or non-profit entity to get started with Google Apps. The only mildly brain-racking part was configuring the MX records on my webhost’s control panel, which I figured out thanks to Google’s instructions.
Now I have a professional-looking personal e-mail address with the Gmail interface and my data is where I like it – on the cloud.
Last week, I attended the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It was tons of fun seeing and getting a hands-on experience with the latest technologies and gadgets. The hard part is that I’ve added about fifteen things to my wish list, but I’ll only be able to afford and have time to play with two or three.
During the show, I took notes of what I liked on Twitter. Below are my tweets (and some commentary):
Checking out the 3D home video cameras at Intel’s displays… and I had thought an HD video camera was all I needed.
Watching people play with Kinect for Xbox 360. Motions controls the characters- no joysticks required! Cool! (I got to play the obstacle course game which was also quite a workout)
Motorola has a cool laptop device that connects to and runs off a Droid phone. Too bad they don’t have one that works with the X. (I’m referring to the Motorola laptop dock)
Samsung’s interactive whiteboards are really cool. I hope I can do a presentation on one someday.
Fifty TVs in Samsung’s 3D arena. I put on the glasses and wow! Amazing experience!
Checking out the Toshiba mobile monitor recommended by @bftcpa. No external power required. Nice display!
It is really fun watching teleconferences via Skype on big TVs. It may be a more common way to communicate in the near future. (I saw this on a Google TV, which is near the top of my wish list)
Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, two hundred, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty … aarrgh! Where was I?
In my previous post, I blogged about all the fun I am having in a Visual Basic class that I am taking at UNLV. My most recent project is a simple cash and coin counting program. I will use it for a position I hold in an organization in which I help count cash. Hopefully, this program will ease the occasional pain and frustration I feel when counting stacks of twenty dollar bills.
The user enters the amount of each type of coin and currency. The program performs the calculations for each type and returns the total amount of coin and currency as seen in the screen shot below.
My smartphone, which runs on Android, is capable of doing the same thing as my tablet. However, I can’t quickly launch FreshBooks, enter the details for a new expense and attach a receipt with my smartphone’s small screen and cellular connection. My solution is to use Evernote, one of my favorite mobile apps for taking digital notes. The Evernote widget includes a camera button for quickly uploading pictures. I uploaded a picture of the receipt with the Evernote app on my smartphone, and when I was later on my desktop computer, I downloaded the image from Evernote’s web application. I then went to FreshBooks, added a new expense and attached the receipt image.
If you have questions or are seeking the help of a FreshBooks Certified Beancounter and CPA in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact me.
