Authored by Angie Gentry

Small business owners are required to wear many hats. This means having to balance many tasks efficiently and effectively. If a business’ systems are not properly organized, tasks pile up, paperwork gets lost and valuable time is spent on finding information that should be readily available. Good organizational skills can save a business owner time and reduce stress.

Time is Money

Disorganized business owners may find themselves searching through piles of paperwork for that one invoice, bank statement or human resources file. This problem can extend to the virtual office as well. Using neatly organized folders to keep track of important bills or emails, for example, can save time. Good organizational skills can free up much-needed minutes every day for you to spend on more important tasks.

Keeps the Taxman Happy

At tax time, finding the appropriate documents can be stressful and time-consuming for a disorganized business owner. Missing documents can even turn into a legal hassle if the company undergoes an audit. Filing receipts, invoices and statements properly, and using basic accounting software to track sales, expenses and receivables, will make the entrepreneur (and his accountant) much happier at tax time.

Planning the Cash Flow

Organization is the root of a good financial management program. Systems that monitor receivables can help business owners keep track of their money and plan cash flow. With no system for organizing sales and invoices, balances can go unpaid without notice. If vendors aren’t paid and the supply chain shuts down due to a delinquent balance, business suffers. Staying on top of how much money is going in and out can help the owner make adjustments to reduce spending or increase sales.

Winning Repeat Business

Problems with organization can lead to a drop in customer service. For example, if an online store’s order processing system is not properly organized, customers may not receive orders on time. Customer satisfaction is the key to earning repeat business, and if the company is not well organized in this area, revenue will also suffer. Poor billing systems can potentially result in customers being charged multiple times for one item or not at all, which is also bad for business.

Reducing Stress and Overwhelm

Working in an unorganized environment can make a business owner and employees feel constantly on edge. Not knowing where to look for information, sorting through unorganized paperwork and dealing with the consequences of poor organization create a stressful workplace. That stress may extend into the rest of a business owner’s life and lead to job burnout. Implementing good organization systems can help reduce this stress and give a business owner more time to enjoy life outside work.

The post Why Organization Skills Are Important appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

• Separate your business expenses from your personal expenses
  
  

  • Have separate personal and business checking accounts, credit cards, and PayPal accounts
    
    
  • Have separate personal and business Amazon accounts, or use a personal credit card to charge your personal purchases, and a business credit card to charge your business purchases using one Amazon account
    
    
  • When personal purchases are mixed with business expenses in a checking account or on a credit card, assign the personal expenses as Owners Draw
    
    
    
    

• Use a bookkeeping software program such as QuickBooks or Quicken
  
  

  • Quicken is okay for personal bookkeeping and also for a simple business
    • Sometimes there are bank and credit card downloading issues, and the program is not good at creating rules
    • It costs about $65 to purchase, and needs to be upgraded every year in order to continue downloading
      
      
  • QuickBooks is excellent for personal and business bookkeeping
    • It costs $35 a month to purchase the Simple Start online version, $65 a month for the online Essentials version, and $99 a month for the online Plus version
      
      
  • To track profit and loss for multiple locations, sections, and grants, use classes in QuickBooks and tags in Quicken
    
    
    

• On a regular basis, download and categorize your expense and income transactions for your bank accounts and credit cards
  
  

  • When you download and categorize often, it is easier to remember what you purchased, and it is not overwhelming
    
    
  • Use rules to categorize transactions faster
    
    
  • Download at least once a month, and reconcile these accounts monthly
    
    
    

• Enter business transactions into your bookkeeping software program that were paid by cash, checks or debits from a personal checking account, and charges that were made using personal credit cards
  
  

  • Set up a Cash bank account, or use Owners Investment, or Owners Draw and Investment, to record expenses that were not paid from your business checking or business credit card accounts
    
    
    

• Keep paper or electronic receipts for all cash purchases and all check and credit card purchases over $75
  
  

  • You can attach electronic receipts to the matching transactions in QuickBooks
    
    
  • Paper receipts can be scanned and attached as well
    
    
    

• If you file paper receipts, file them in date order for easy access
  
  

  • There is no need to file receipts by vendor or by expense category
    
    
  • If you need to find a filed receipt, which is rarely necessary, you will have a record of the purchase date in QuickBooks or Quicken, which makes it easy to find the receipt
    
    
    

• Make sure you know the total interest you paid on all business loans
  
  

  • You should receive a document from the company that you borrowed from, which shows how much interest you paid on your loan during the previous year
    
    
  • You will need to make a journal entry in QuickBooks to record this interest, or just provide this document to your accountant
    
    
    

• Keep track of your mileage for each business trip
  
  

  • You need to track mileage for all business related travel, or track all automobile or truck expenses
    
    
  • Tracking mileage usually gives you the biggest tax benefit, but some people are not organized enough to do this effectively
    
    
  • You can enter the mileage and destination directly into QuickBooks
    
    
  • There are phone apps available to track mileage, or just jot down the mileage in a small notebook
    
    
    

• Keep track of all utility costs, rent, and home insurance if you have a home office
  
  

  • Determine which room is your office, and what percentage of your home’s total square footage is your office square footage
    
    
  • You can deduct this percentage of your rent, utility costs, and home insurance as office expenses on your tax return
    
    
    

• Keep bank and credit card statements in paper or electronic form
  
  

  • You need to keep business records for four years
    
    
  • Don’t count on your bank to have copies of bank and credit card statements because you may have changed bank accounts or replaced a credit card, and then the statements are no longer available online
    
    
    

• Use a cloud backup service to protect your computer files
  
  

  • A cloud backup service automatically stores your Quicken and QuickBooks backup files every day outside of your home
    
    
  • Backing up to your computer or to an external hard drive or flash drive is not as safe or efficient compared to using a cloud backup service

The post Steps to Take Before Filing Your Taxes appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

People who are super organizers — they’re often easy to spot at business meetings: they’re the ones who check their electronic organizer and, if you really want to know, they can tell you exactly what appointments they had yesterday, what assignments they have due today (and at what time) and what’s on tap for tomorrow. Just don’t try to speak to them while they’re updating their calendar or they might get snappy. They prefer to stay focused on one task at a time, and have always viewed the trend toward multitasking as one of the most misguided concepts they’ve ever heard of. These “uber organizers” make setting priorities look effortless — but in truth — it took time, commitment and discipline to hone their organizational skills. They’d probably freely admit that nobody is a “born organizer;” it’s an acquired skill, and one that requires steady nurturing. This admission should come as good news to disorganized small business owners, especially when you consider that 10 dividends can flow directly from this one powerhouse ability.

Organization Breeds Focus

When you know exactly what you should spend your time doing, you’re more likely to focus on that task with precision and clarity. Distractions, although irksome, serve to elongate most tasks. For this reason, people with good organizational skills tend to be “single-taskers,” rather than multitaskers.

Organization Breeds Productivity

This isn’t a math equation, but it could be: prioritizing + focus = greater productivity. Good organizational skills naturally feed productivity, enabling small business owners to cross off more items from their to-do lists.

Organization Breeds Efficiency

Call it “time management,” if you prefer that term to that of “efficiency,” but since organized people have developed many good habits, they tend to “work smarter.” Small business owners may decry that they “never have enough time in the day.” But organized small business owners know how to make the most of the time that they do have on the clock.

Organization Breeds Goal Attainment

Many small business owners are natural goal setters, always thinking ahead to what they want to accomplish today, tomorrow, next week, next month and beyond. People with good organizational skills are in a much better position to attain these goals.

Organization Breeds Deadline Accuracy

Good organizational skills do not dispense with the need for rushing; everybody rushes. But an organized business owner is more likely to finish that new client proposal or polish that weekend speech on time. Often, organization means the difference between finishing a task in a timely manner (even if it means rushing) and needing a new deadline.

Organization Breeds Freedom From Panic

It’s called “chaos” – that running-by-the-seat-of-the-pants feeling that many people try to conceal from others. It’s often triggered by “technical difficulties” such as misplaced papers, lost contact information, forgotten meeting times and missed conference calls. Highly organized people are all about eliminating technical difficulties from their lives, because they know the problems that can ensue. One important side note: organized people are not necessarily neat people. So says Julie Morgenstern, who wrote “Organizing from the Inside Out.” She told the Business Insider: “Being organized is not about being neat. You can be messy and organized, and you can be neat and disorganized.”

Organization Breeds Professionalism

It’s a natural surrogate of organization: an improved professional image. Although it’s nice to think that people are forgiving of a harried, disorganized business owner who can never seem to show up to a meeting on time with all the documentation he needs — the reality is that an organized person never has to worry about leaving a sloppy impression. The calm, assured professional demeanor that he projects is the real deal.

Organization Breeds Relief from Stress

Small business owners can no more avoid stress than they can add hours to the day. Stress comes with the responsibility of owning a small business. An organized business owner can significantly ratchet down the stress by eliminating the natural stressors that accompany a disorganized, disconnected and yes, sometimes, dysfunctional work life.

Organization Breeds Balance

Balance is seldom a 50-50 proposition. It may not even be 60-40 or 70-30. But an organized person is more likely to enjoy a work-life balance. How she defines balance is besides the point; it’s the ability to enjoy pursuits away from the workplace that matter.

Organization Breeds Confidence

Most adults know that good things spring from confidence, including energy, enthusiasm, determination and a positive attitude. It may sound esoteric, but because organized people often feel better about themselves – they control their work life; their work life doesn’t control them. Additionally, highly organized people often reap the “professional endorphins” that can create a beguiling recursive benefit stream.

I hope you liked this article by M.T. Wroblewski, and maybe it inspired you. Now if you want to become more organized, perhaps I can help you achieve that goal. Over the years I have used a number of tools that help keep me organized, and I would love to share those tools with you. Please contact me for a free consultation; and we can then discuss ways that I may be able to help you become more organized.

The post The Importance of Good Organization Skills appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

This morning I looked at my desk in disgust. I haven’t cleaned it in ages, and the mess continues to grow. I tried to talk myself into getting organized to no avail, until I started considering health benefits of being organized. When there are health benefits involved in something, I instantly become far more interested. To my surprise and delight, there actually are health benefits associated with being organized, and they make the hard work of cleaning up seem totally worth it. As it would appear, by being organized and open to cleaning our homes, desks, yards, etc., we’re actually doing our bodies really good.

I’m someone who has a very difficult time keeping things clean and organized. I’d much rather watch a Netflix marathon, or read a book, or pet my dog, or do pretty much anything that involves me not cleaning. However, when things get too unorganized, I start to immediately feel overwhelmed. It’s only then that I will finally consider getting my act together and getting things in order. Now, however, I feel like there is much greater of a push to get organized then I could have imagined — and I’m about to bestow those bits of information on you as encouragement for you to clean, too. Here are five health benefits of being organized.

1. It Can Boost Your Energy

Getting organized has the ability to give you that much-needed energy boost, according to WebMD. If you’re feeling a slight slump in your day and can’t seem to shake it, try taking a few minutes to organize your desk and work area. Sort those papers that have been piling up, file your emails, throw away the garbage around you, etc. According to WebMD, taking this time to get yourself organized can help you to work more energetically for the rest of the day.

2. It Can Lead To Better Eating Habits

A study from Psychological Science found being organized can actually have a positive input on what you’re eating. Specifically, the study found people who worked in a neat space were two times as likely to pick an apple to eat versus a chocolate bar when compared to those who were working in an organized, messy work space. Want to avoid snacking on junk food at your desk? Keep it organized, and that urge to choose foods that make you feel groggy or bloated might soon diminish.

3. It Can Improve Your Sleep Habits

In need of some Zs? Aren’t we all/ Keeping yourself organized can also play a role in ensuring you’re getting a solid night of sleep each night. According to the Huffington Post, clutter in your bedroom can be stressful to you, even if you don’t realize it, causing you to lose out on precious sleep. To combat it, use this spring-cleaning time of year to overhaul your room and organize it in a neat and clutter-free manner. The outlet suggested moving items out of your room that are necessary for rest. Then, watch as your sleep habits slowly change for the better. Aside from decluttering, stay organized, too, by making your bed every morning. According to Reader’s Digest, those who make their bed report a better night’s sleep than those who don’t.

4. It Can Reduce Stress And Make Us Happier

According to Shape, a study conducted from Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found people with cluttered homes, or homes filled with unfinished projects, were more depressed, fatigued and had higher cortisol levels than their counterparts who described their homes as restful and restorative. For those who aren’t aware, cortisol is the body’s stress hormone — so when that goes up, our feelings of stress are amplified. Surely, none of us want that. Based on the study, if we want to prevent these negative effects, we should strive to keep our homes organized. According to Shape, after decluttering and organizing, you should feel happier and more relaxed.

5. It Can Lower Your Heart Attack Risk

Get this — cleaning and organizing can truly lower your risk of having a cardiovascular event, according to Reader’s Digest. The outlet reported on a Swedish study that found people who did the most yard work, housecleaning, and DIY projects had about a 30 percent lower risk of a first-time cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack or stroke versus those who were the most sedentary. Yet another excuse to get up off your rear end and get to organizing and moving. It seems cleaning can literally help save your life.

While we’ve all heard the traditional benefits of being organized — such as its ability to help up feel more productive or clear-headed — now we can see there are a few bona fide health benefits as well. With this in mind, I’m off to organize my desk, and I hope you’ll be doing the same, too.

The post 5 Health Benefits of Being Organized appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

• Separate your business expenses from your personal expenses
  
  
• Use a bookkeeping software program such as QuickBooks or Quicken
  
  
• Download and categorize your expense and income transactions for your bank accounts and credit cards on a regular basis
  
  
• Reconcile your bank accounts and credit cards monthly
  
  
• Enter business transactions into your bookkeeping software program that were paid by cash, personal check, and personal credit cards
  
  
• Make sure you know the total interest you paid on all loans
  
  
• Keep track of your mileage for each business trip
  
  
• Keep track of all utility costs and home insurance if you have a home office
  
  
• Keep receipts for all cash purchases and all purchases over $75
  
  
• File receipts in date order for easy access
  
  
• Keep bank and credit card statements in paper or electronic form
  
  
• Use a cloud backup service to protect your computer files

The post What You Need To Do To File Your Business Taxes On Time appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

Gmail is an excellent email program, and you can customize it to make it work more efficiently and effectively for you.

Let’s begin by looking at some of the features of Gmail

Appearance

With Gmail, to change the spacing between emails, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and then click “Display density.”  Then “Choose a view” by clicking on one of the three choices.  The “Default” spacing between emails provides the most spacing.  The “Comfortable” spacing provides a little less space between emails.  And the “Compact” spacing provides the least spacing between emails.  The less spacing between emails, the more emails shown on a page.

If you want your Inbox to list the emails by categories, then click on the gear icon, and click “Configure inbox.”  All of your incoming emails will be in one category when “Primary” is the only tab that is enabled.  When you click on the other tabs to enable them, then all of your emails will still show under “Primary,” but you can also see your emails broken down into the following categories: Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums.  When you move your cursor over a tab, you will see a description for that tab.  Then you can decide whether you want to enable that tab, which you do by clicking on the square to the left of the tab name.

General Settings

To edit Gmail settings, click on the gear icon, and click on “Settings.”  The first tab in Settings is the “General” tab, in the upper left corner.  This is where you set your language, country, maximum number of emails per page, and the “Undo Send” setting.  For “Undo Send,” you can change this setting to give you 5, 10, 20, or 30 seconds of time to stop the sending of an email that you just sent.  So if you have second thoughts about sending the email that you just sent, you can stop it within the time frame you set here.

Also under the “General” tab, you set whether your email reply goes to the one person who sent you the email or to all of the people included on the email.  You click “Reply” for your reply to only go to the person who emailed you.  You click “Reply All” to reply to all of the people included on the email.  What you set here is the default setting, but when you reply to an email, you can always change “Reply” to “Reply All,” or “Reply All” to “Reply.”  This will not change the default, but it will change how that specific email is sent.

The next important setting under the “General” tab is “Default text style.”  This is where you set the font type, the font size, and the color of your text.  When you modify these settings, you will see a sample of what the modified text will look like, before you save the change.  If you are not happy with the look, just keep modifying the text until it is just right.  Further down the page is “Desktop notifications.”  This is where you indicate whether you want to have a notification pop up on your computer when you receive a new email, or you can indicate that you don’t want any notifications.

Stars

The next setting is “Stars.”  You can use stars to categorize by importance the emails that you received and sent.  You can pick multiple colored stars to indicate different levels of importance.  Once you have marked an email with a star, you can find that email and other emails that you marked with a star, by scrolling down the left side of Gmail until you see “More.”  Click on “More,” and then you will see “Starred.”  When you click on “Starred,” all of your starred emails will be shown.  Another way to view all the starred emails is to click on the drop-down arrow that is above the emails, on the left side, to the left of “Refresh.”  Then when you click on “Starred,” all of the starred emails will be highlighted in blue.  To no longer highlight the starred emails, just click on the drop-down arrow, and click “None.”

To star an email in your Inbox, click on the star icon to the left of the sender’s name.  If you decided to use more than one star color, then to get to the color you want to star this email, just keep clicking on the star until that color appears.  To add a star to an email in your “Sent” folder, or in “Trash,” or in any other folder, open the email, and click “More,” which is listed above the email.  Then click “Add star.”   To un-star an email, just click on the star until it no longer has a color.

Signatures

The next important setting is “Signature.”  By default, there is No signature.  To create a signature for one of your email addresses, just pick that email address from the drop-down list below “No signature.”  Then type in the signature you want.  If you add your website URL (www._____), you can link it to your website by highlighting the URL, and then clicking on the link icon, which is a circle with a line in the middle.  You can also add a photo or logo by clicking on the two mountains icon; then click “Upload.” Now click “Select a file from your device;” then click on the image you want to add.  Finally, click on the image that was uploaded, and you will have the option to make the image Small, Medium, or Large, or to Remove it.  You can then drag the image to a place where you want it displayed.

The next important setting is “Personal level indicators.”  By default there are No indicators.  If you click on “Show indicators,” then Gmail displays arrows next to messages in your inbox so you can tell if a message was addressed to you, a group, or a mailing list.  A single arrow (>) appears next to a message when it is sent to you and other people.  Double arrows (>>) indicate that a message is addressed only to you.  Arrows won’t appear next to messages sent to a mailing list.

“Vacation responder” is the next important setting.  By default, the vacation responder is off.  You can turn it on by clicking on “Vacation responder on.”  Then fill in the “First day” and “Last day” of your vacation and the “Subject.”  Now type a message in the rectangular box.  Then during your vacation, when anyone emails you, that person will get an automatic reply, and they will see the message that you typed into the rectangular box.

When you have finished making changes in the “General” tab, click “Save Changes” to save all of the changes you just made in the “General” section in Settings. 

Label Settings

Now click on the “Labels” tab in the upper left corner, to the right of the “General” tab.  The first grouping is “System labels.”  This is where you show or hide the labels that are folders for storing emails on the left hand side of Gmail.  The labels are “Inbox, Starred, Snoozed, Important, Chats, Sent, Scheduled, Drafts, All Mail, Spam, and Trash.”  You certainly want to show “Inbox, Sent, Drafts, Spam, and Trash,” as these are the folders that you are going to go into on a regular basis.  If you star an email, then you will want to show the “Starred” label.  You may want to show the “Important” label, and use it as a folder to keep emails that are important.  The “All Mail” folder shows all of your emails in one place.

The next group under the “Labels” tab is “Categories,” and this is where you show or hide “Categories.”  The “Categories” are “Social, Updates, Forums, and Promotions.”  If you want to show any of these categories, you need to click “show” to the right of the word “Categories.”  Then you can decide whether you want to show any or all of these categories.  If you decide to show a category, Gmail will automatically put all emails in that category that it thinks belong there.  If you want to try this out to see what happens, then show the categories.  Then click on each category on the left side of Gmail to see which emails Gmail put into each category.  All of these emails are still in your other folders, such as “Inbox,” “Sent,” etc., and they are also shown here.

The last group under the “Labels” tab is “Labels.”  This is where you create additional labels.  I created labels for organizations that I volunteer with, clients that I email a lot, and a folder for emails that I want to save for the long term.  So for example, when I get an email from a client that I created a folder for, once I have finished with reviewing and responding to that email, I drag it to that client’s folder.  Then I can find it easily if I need to.  To make a new label, click on “Create a new label” box, and type in the name of the label.  You will also see here that you can nest the label under a different label if you want to.

Inbox Settings

The next tab in “Settings” in the upper left corner to the right of “Labels,” is the “Inbox” tab.  Listed first is “inbox type.” This is where you set the order of your inbox emails.  “Default” puts your emails in order by arrival date and time.  Your other options are to order your inbox emails by “Important first, Unread first, Starred first, or Priority inbox.”  If you pick “Important first,” your inbox emails will be ordered based on which emails are the most important, and Gmail will decide which emails it thinks are important.  If you pick “Unread first,” the emails that have not been read will be shown first in your inbox.  If you pick “Starred first,” the emails that you starred are listed first in your inbox.  If you pick “Priority inbox,” Gmail will list first in your inbox, emails from individuals or organizations that you interact with the most.

Below this is “Categories.”  By default, “Primary” is checked.  If you check other categories, then Gmail will create tabs for those categories in your inbox, and it will sort your emails into those categories, which are “Social, Promotions, Updates, and Forums.” 

Below this is “Importance markers.”  If you are going to allow Gmail to determine which emails are important, then you have the option of having Gmail put a colored marker in front of those emails it deems as important.  You do that here by clicking on “Show markers.”

When you have finished making changes in the “Inbox” tab, click “Save Changes” to save all of the changes you just made in the “Inbox” section in Settings. 

Accounts and Import Settings

The next tab is “Accounts and Import.”  This is where you can change your password, import email and contacts, and do other important things.  Under “Send mail as:” you can add other email addresses to send your email from.  Then you decide which email address is your default email address to send from, but when it comes time to send an email, you can always change which email address the email is going to come from.  So for example, I have my business email address as my default email address to send from, but when I send an email to friends, I just change the email address that I am sending from to my personal email address. 

This is also where you can indicate to Gmail that it should check additional email addresses for email.  I use Gmail for personal emails, and I use a different email program for my business emails.  But I have Gmail check my business emails, and add them to my inbox, so that I can see all emails in one place.

Filters and Blocked Addresses Settings

The next tab is “Filters and Blocked Addresses.”  This is where you can see all of the email addresses where you set up filters.  You can edit or delete the filters you set up here.  To search for a particular email address, click “ctrl f”, and then type in the full email address or just some of the letters in the email address, to search for all filters that are set up with those letters in the email address. 

So what are filters?  You set up filters to indicate to Gmail what it should do with emails that you receive.  Every time that I receive spam email in my Inbox or in Spam, I create a filter to indicate to Gmail that this email should automatically be sent to Trash.  I will explain how to set up filters later when I review the options you have once you have opened an email.

Final Settings

The next tab is the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.  This is where you can set up the forwarding of your email to another email address.  When you have finished making changes in the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab, click “Save Changes” to save all of the changes you just made in the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” section in Settings. 

The next tab is “Add-ons.”  This is where you can add applications that extend the functionality of Gmail.  The final tab is “Chat.”  If you turn Chat on, then you can chat from Gmail.

Themes

Now that you have finished making changes in “Settings,” let’s look at “Themes.”  After you click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, click on “Themes.”  This is where you set the background photo for Gmail.  Scroll through the photos and background images here.  If you want to see additional images, click on the “More Images” photo.  Then click on whichever photo or background image you want to be the background for Gmail.  Or if you prefer, you can click on “My photos” in the lower left corner, and pick a photo from here. 

At the bottom of the screen, you will also see an “A”.  This is where you can change the background behind the emails from Light to Dark.  To make the corners of your background image darker, click on the circle in the square icon, and slide the circle to the right.  To blur your background image, click on the dotted image icon, and slide the circle to the right.

Tabs

The next areas of interest are the tabs that show after you open an email.  You will see above an opened email the following tabs: Back, Archive, Spam, Delete, Mark as unread, Snooze, Move to, Labels, and More. 

When you click on the “Back” tab, the email that is open will now close, and you will see all of the emails in your Inbox.  When you click on the “Archive” tab, the email will disappear from your Inbox, but it will still be shown in the “All Mail” folder on the left of your screen. 

When you click on “Spam,” the email will move to your “Spam” folder.  When you click on “Delete,” the email will move to your “Trash” folder, where they will remain for 30 days.  After 30 days they will be automatically erased by Gmail.  When you click on “Mark as unread,” the email will now show in your Inbox with a light background as if it has been unread. 

When you click on “Snooze,” you can indicate the day and time you want the email to reappear, and the email will disappear until that time.  When you click on “Move to,” a box will open up where you can indicate which folder you want the email moved to.  Once you click on the folder, the email will be moved to that folder.

When you click on “Labels,” you can pick whichever folder you want the email assigned to.  The email will now appear in that folder as well as the Inbox.  When you delete the email in the Inbox, it will remain in the other folder you assigned it to.

When you click on “More,” there are a few things you can do.  You can mark the email as unread, important, or starred.  You can add it to tasks or create an event.  If you mute the email, it will only show in “All Mail,” and any future emails in response to that email will only show in “All Mail.”

Filtering Spam

For me, the most important thing you can do in “More” is to create a filter.  I create a filter whenever I receive an email that is spam.  To create a filter for spam, click on “Filter messages like these.”  Then click on “Create filter,” “Delete it,” and “Create filter.”   As a result of this, when you receive an email from this email address, the email will not show in your Inbox, but will automatically go into the Trash folder.

Final Note

When you right click on an email that is in one of your folders, you have the same options no matter which folder the email is in (Inbox, Sent, Drafts, All Mail, Spam, or Trash).  The options are: Reply, Reply All, Forward, Archive, Delete, Mark as unread, Snooze, Move to, Label as, Mute, Find emails from this sender, Find emails with this subject, and Open in new window.

The post Using Gmail Effectively appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

Google Chrome is an excellent browser, which can be used to search the internet, maintain your email, and keep track of your contacts and calendar.

Let’s begin by looking at some of the features of Google Chrome

New Tab, New Window, and New Incognito Window

Click on the three vertical buttons in the upper right corner.  The first item that appears is “New tab.”  When you click on this a new tab appears on the top of your screen, to the right of any tabs you currently have open.  You can also open a new tab by clicking on the plus (+) sign to the right of any tabs that you currently have open.

The next item is “New window.”  When you click on this, a new Google window will open.  The previous window you were looking at is behind this window.  To get back to it, just click on the “X” in the upper right corner to close this window.

The next item is “New incognito window.”  If you click on this, a new window will open with a black background.  Any websites that you look at in this window, are not stored in your browsing history.  The previous window you were looking at is behind this window.  To get back to it, just click on the “X” in the upper right corner to close this window.

History and Downloads

 “History” is the next item listed.  When you click on it, a tab opens on your browser, which shows the web pages you recently opened in Google Chrome.   You can scroll down the screen and view the web pages you looked at in the past.  When you stop scrolling, if you want to search for a particular word or words, type that word or words in the “Search history” box at the top of your screen.  Google will list all of the web pages that you looked at in the area you just scrolled, which contain that word or words in the web page description.  If you want to clear your browsing history, click on the box on the left side of your screen, to the right of the words “Clear browsing data.”

Next is “Downloads.”  When you click on it, anything that you downloaded over the past week is shown here.  To look further back than that, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, and then click on “Open downloads folder.”  Now you can see all of the downloaded items that are in your Downloads folder.  I routinely remove the downloaded items from this folder, as I no longer need them stored here, and they take up storage space on the computer. 

Bookmarks

Move your cursor over “Bookmarks,” and click “Bookmarks manager.”  This is where you can set up folders to organize your bookmarks.  By setting up bookmarks folders, you can easily find a particular web page when you want to open it.  To set up a folder, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner, and then click on “Add new folder.”  Type in the folder name, and click “Save.”  Once you have set up a few folders, to organize a folder alphabetically, hold down the left clicker on the folder you want to move, and drag the folder so that it fits alphabetically.  When you right click on a folder, you have the option to rename or delete that folder.  This group of folders is your Bookmarks bar.

To show the Bookmarks bar near the top of Google Chrome, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner; move your cursor over “Bookmarks,” and then click on “Show bookmarks bar.”  If you don’t show the Bookmarks bar there, then you can access it by clicking on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner; move your cursor over “Bookmarks,”  and then the Bookmarks bar is visible.  You can also access the Bookmarks bar by clicking on the yellow star near the upper right corner of Google Chrome.  I access the Bookmarks bar a different way, by adding it as a saved tab at the top of the screen.  I will explain how to do that later in this article.

Now that you have created a Bookmarks bar, let me tell you how to add bookmarks to the Bookmarks folders that are in the Bookmarks bar.  When you have opened a web page that you want to add to the Bookmarks bar, click on the uncolored star symbol near the upper right corner of Google Chrome.  When the “Edit bookmark” box opens, type in the “Name” and the “Folder” where you want to store the bookmark.  Then click “Done.”  This particular web page shortcut will now be stored in a folder where you can easily find it.  Then you just double click on it, and the web page will open.  When you add a bookmark to a folder, it automatically is stored at the bottom of the folder you added it to.  To move it so that it is alphabetically listed in this folder, hold down the left clicker on the bookmark you want to move, and drag the bookmark so that it fits alphabetically.

To search for a bookmark, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of Google Chrome; move your cursor over “Bookmarks,” and click on “Bookmarks manager.”  Then in the “Search bookmarks” box at the top of the page, type in the word you want to search for.  As you type, all bookmarked web sites that have that word will appear.  When you see the one you want, just double click on it to open it.  If you want to see where that bookmark is stored, right click on it, and click “Show in folder.”  You will now see where it is stored.  If you want to move the bookmark to another folder, just drag it to the folder you want it moved to.

Zoom, Print, and Find

“Zoom” is the next item in Google Chrome.  This is where you increase and decrease the magnification for a particular web page.  When you have a web page open in Google Chrome, you click on the plus (+) icon to increase the magnification, and you click on the minus (-) icon to reduce the magnification.  The magnification will remain at that level until you change it.     

“Print” is the next item in Google Chrome.  If you want to print the web page you have open, you click on “Print” to print that page.  Or you can hold down the “ctrl” button on your keyboard, and while doing that, hit the “P” key on your keyboard. 

“Find” is the next item in Google Chrome.  When you click on “Find,” a search box will open up on your screen.  When you type a word into the search box, Google Chrome will search for that word in the web page that you have open; and that word will be highlighted in the text.  If that word is found more than once, the search bar will indicate how many times that word was found in the text.  When you scroll down the text, you will see that word highlighted each time it appears in the text.  Or you can click the up or down arrow in the search box, and Google Chrome will show you each instance of that word, one after the other.

More Tools

“More tools” is the next item in Google Chrome.  Move your cursor over “More tools,” and then click on “Clear browsing data.”  There are two tabs here – Basic and Advanced.  In the Basic tab, you can clear browsing history, cookies and other site data, and cached images and files. You can set the time range for clearing this information to Last hour, Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 4 weeks, or All time.  Most people will pick “All time.”

 If you check “Browsing history,” then the record of all the websites that you have looked at will be deleted.  If you check “Cookies and other site data,” then when you go to a web page that has stored your login information and other data, you will now have to enter your login information.  If you check “Cached images and files,” then it may take a little longer for images to appear on a website.  Once you have checked what you want to clear, just click on “Clear data” to complete the process.

In the Advanced tab, you can clear browsing history, download history, cookies and other site data, cached images and files, passwords and other sign-in data, autofill form data, site settings, and hosted app data.  As I already spelled out briefly what happens when you clear browsing history, cookies and other site data, and cached images and files, I will now briefly explain what happens if you clear the other data.

If you check “Download history,” the history of items you downloaded from the internet will be deleted.  If you check “Passwords and other sign-in data,” any passwords that Google stored for you will be deleted.  If you check “Autofill form data,” then any saved information from forms you filled out previously, will be deleted.  If you check, “Site settings,” you are removing any permission you gave to a website to access your location or other permissions.  If you check “Hosted app data,” you will remove any data stored for apps you have added to Chrome.

Also under “More tools” is “Extensions.”  Move your cursor over “More tools,” and click on “Extensions.”  You will now see a list of all the extensions that you added to Google Chrome.  This is where you can look at details for each extension, turn the extension off, or remove it.  You may not have known that you added these extensions.  To turn off an extension, click on the blue dot for that extension, and slide it to the left.  Only turn off or remove an extension if you know you are no longer going to need it in the future. 

Settings

When you click on “Settings,” the first block is “People.”  When you click on the arrow to the right of “Sync and Google services,” you will see the heading “Other Google services.”  Services that are turned on are in blue.  This is where you can decide whether to turn off a service by sliding the blue dot to the left, or turn on a service by moving the white dot to the right.

Autofill 

The second block in Settings is “Autofill.”  This is where your passwords, payment methods, and addresses are stored if you have the autofill features turned on. 

The first item in “Autofill” is “Passwords.” Click on “Passwords” to see the passwords you have saved.  Or if you haven’t saved any passwords, and you would like to turn that feature on, this is where you do that.  To turn the autofill feature on or off for “Passwords,” click on the circle, which is to the right of “Offer to save passwords.”  The passwords are all listed in alphabetical order in the “Website” column.  The next column shows your “Username.”  And the third column has your password listed as eight black dots.  To see the password hidden behind the black dots, click on the eye icon to the right of the dots, and your password will then appear.  You can then edit the password here, if it is wrong, by clicking on the password, and typing in the correct password.  Click on the eye icon to have the password disappear again.  To remove a password, click on the three vertical dots to the right of the eye icon, and click “Remove.”  To see the full URL for a website password you have saved, click on the three vertical dots, and click “Details.”

The second item in “Autofill” is “Payment methods.”  Click on “Payment methods” to see the list of credit and debit cards that you have authorized Google to save for you.  Or if you haven’t saved any payment methods, and you want to turn that feature on, this is where you do that.  To turn the autofill feature on or off for “Payment methods,” click on the circle, which is to the right of “Save and fill payment methods.”  If this feature is turned on, Google will save your credit and debit card information here, which includes the name of the card, the credit card numbers, and the expiration date.  You can only see the last four digits of the credit card, but the full credit card numbers are stored by Google, and will fill in when you use your credit card to make a purchase online.  To add a credit card here, click on the “Add” box to the right of “Payment methods.”  Then fill in the credit card details on the lines.  To delete or edit credit card information for cards that are in this system, click on the box with an arrow in it, which is at the end of the line where the credit card is listed.  This will open a new web page that shows all of your saved credit cards.  Just click “Remove” for the credit card you want to remove.  Click “Edit” to edit the credit card you want to edit.

The third item in “Autofill” is “Addresses and more.”  Click on “Addresses and more” to see the addresses that you have saved.  An address you have saved will fill in automatically when you have to fill out a form on a website.  Or if you haven’t saved any addresses, and you want to turn that feature on, this is where you do that.  To turn the autofill feature on or off for “Addresses and more,” click on the circle, which is to the right of “Save and fill addresses.”  To add an address, click on the “Add” box to the right of “Addresses.”

Appearance

The third block in “Settings” is “Appearance.”  This is where you pick the theme, set the font size, customize the font, and adjust the page zoom. 

The first item in “Appearance” is “Themes.”  When you click on “Themes,” a web page opens where you can pick the background you want for your Chrome browser.

The next Item in “Appearance” I will review is “Font size.”  When you click on the drop-down box on this line, you can pick Very small, Small, Medium, Large, or Very Large.  The size that you pick will be the size of the font that you see when you look at a web page.

The next item in “Appearance” is “Customize fonts.”  When you click on this, you can change the font size by dragging the blue dot.  You can also pick the font style you want from a long list of different fonts.

The last item in “Appearance” is “Page zoom.”  When you click on the drop-down box on this line, you can change the zoom setting.  I prefer 125%.

Search Engine, Default Browser, On Startup, and Advanced

The next block in “Settings” is “Search engine.”  This is where you can indicate your default search engine.  When you click on “Manage search engines,” you will see a list of search engines.  After you click on the three vertical dots to the right of the search engine you want to be your default search engine, click on “Make default” to make that search engine your default search engine.

“Default browser” is the next block.  This is where your default browser is listed.

The next block is “On startup,” and this is a very important block.  If you click on “Open the New Tab page,” when you open your browser the next time, you will see a web page with the Google logo, a search bar, and thumbnails of your most visited web sites.  If you click “Continue where you left off,” after you close your browser and then reopen it, you will now see the web pages that were open before you closed your browser.

When you click on “Open a specific page or set of pages,” this is where you can set the specific web pages you want shown when you open your browser.  If there are specific web pages that you look at a lot, this is where you indicate that you want these web pages to be automatically opened when you open your browser. To add a web page to this list, click on “Add a new page.”  Then type in the URL for that page, and click “Add.”  Add as many web pages as you like, but know that the more web pages you add here, the smaller the tabs will appear at the top of your web browser.  To edit a web page that you added here, click on the three vertical dots to the right of the web page, and click “Edit.”  To remove a web page that you added here, click on the three vertical dots to the right of the web page, and click “Remove.”  If you want to add all of the web pages that you currently have open, click on “Use current pages.”

The last area to look at in “Settings” is “Advanced.” Click on the drop-down arrow to the right of “Advanced” to see all of the “Advanced” settings.  This is where there are more detailed settings for many of the features we reviewed earlier, as well as a number of new settings.  I suggest you review your options in “Advanced” to see if there are any changes you want to make.

To search for a specific setting in the “Settings” section, type in the setting you are looking for in the blue rectangle at the top web page where it says “Search settings.” Then when you scroll down, you will see highlighted in yellow everywhere that word is listed.

The post Using Google Chrome Effectively appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

Google Contacts is an excellent program for keeping track of your contacts on your computer and on your cell phone.  When you sync Google with your cell phone, whenever you add or edit a contact, the changes will appear on both your phone and on your computer, almost instantaneously.

Now let’s review how to use Google Contacts effectively. 

When you open the web page for Google Contacts, you will see the word “Search” at the top of the page with a magnifying glass icon to its left.  This is where you search for a contact.  Just type in a name or part of a name in the Search box, and every individual in your contacts that has those letters in their name or in their email address, will show up on a list that you can click on to see that person’s contact information.  Additionally, if you type in a word or part of a word and hit the Enter key on your keyboard, every contact that has those letters listed anywhere in their contact information will show up on a list that you can click on to see that person’s contact information.  For example, if you type in a street name, every contact that lives on that street will show up on a list. 

When you click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the Google Contacts web page, and click on “Change column order,” you will see the current column order for displaying your contacts.  When you click on a column name, you can drag it up or down to change the column order.  There are five columns that can be displayed, and there are seven column categories that you can choose from: Name, Email, Phone number, Address, Labels, Job title & company, and Birthday.  When you click on the down arrow to the right of a column name, you have the option of interchanging that column with another column category.

Create a Google Contact 

To create a contact, in the upper left corner of the Google Contacts web page, click on the plus icon with the words “Create contact.”  When the “Create new contact” page opens, you can fill in the person’s First name, Last name, Company, Job title, Email, Phone, and Notes. 

When you type in the email address, a Label field will appear to the right, where you can indicate whether the email address is for Home, Work, or Other.  If you want to add another email address, just click on the plus icon to add it.  You can continue to add more email addresses by clicking on the plus icon again.  Use this same process to add phone numbers.

“Notes” is a great space for you to put information about this contact that doesn’t have a specific field for you to put in that information.

To delete any entries you have made, just click on the circled X to the right of that entry.

When you click on “More fields,” there are more fields for you to add information about this contact.

After you have created a new contact, saved it, and then reopened it, all of the numbers and letters that are colored blue are now links.  So if you click on the email address, Gmail will open with an email addressed to this person.  If you click on that contact’s phone number, Google will call that number for you using Google Hangouts and your computer’s microphone.  When you click on an address, Google Maps will open, showing you that address on a map.  You can then get directions to that address, and even see a close-up satellite view of the location.

Google Contact Interactions

When you scroll down in Google Contacts, you will see an “Interactions” section.  Here you will see a list of all the emails and texts that you sent to this person over the past three months.  When you click on a specific email or text, it will open so that you can see what you what was written in that email or text, and all of the attachments will also be visible.

When you open a contact, you can “star” that contact by clicking on the star icon in the upper right corner. This will place that contact in the “Starred Contacts” list, which appears above all of the other contacts for easy access.

When you open a contact, you can edit that contact by clicking on the pencil icon in the upper right corner.

Assign Google Contact Labels

When you open a contact, you can assign a label to that contact.  Click on the three dots in the upper right corner, and pick the label or labels that you want this contact listed under.  Labels are a great way for you to categorize your contacts for easy searching.  For example, let’s say that you are trying to find a contact that is one of your health providers, but you can’t remember their name.  If you had set up a label for Health Providers, then you would just scroll through that list to find their name.  If you don’t have a label set up, then you would have to search through every name in your contacts to try and locate this person. 

For me, I have a label for my referral networking group.  Then when I want to email all of the members or just some of the members, I just start the email by clicking on “To,” followed by my clicking on the label for my referral networking group.  All of my referral network members now show up, and I can choose all of them or some of them to email.  This saves a lot of time, and now that I can see all of the people in that label, it is not likely that I will leave a member off of the email I am preparing to send.  All I have to do is click on “Select All,” or I can click on each name that I want to add to the email.

To create a label, click on “Create label” on the left side of your screen under “Duplicates.”  Then just type in the name of the label, and click “Save.”  To rename a label, move your cursor over the label you want to rename, and then click on the pencil icon to the right of the label name.  Rename it, and click “Save.”

To delete a label, click on the label you want to delete, and then you will see all of the contacts under that label.  Click on a contact to see which label or labels you have assigned this contact to.  This information will appear under the contact’s name.  If the label you are going to delete is the only label you have assigned to this contact, then I suggest that you pick another label for this contact before deleting this label.  Otherwise this contact will not have a label once you have deleted the only label assigned to this contact.  To add another label to this contact, click on the three dots in the upper right corner, and choose another label or labels.  Once you have done this for all of the contacts under the label you are going to delete, you then move your cursor over the label you plan to delete, and you click on the garbage pail icon to the right of the label to delete it.

Duplicate Contacts

Sometimes by accident, you may create duplicate contacts.  To find and combine any duplicate contacts, click on “Duplicates” on the left side of your screen below “Contacts.”  There you will see all of the duplicate contacts.  You now have the option to combine all of the information from multiple contacts into one contact.

To get to Settings, scroll down the left side of the screen, and “Settings” will be listed under “More.”  This is where you indicate whether you want your contacts to be sorted by first or last name.

Below “Settings,” is “Help.”  This is where you can search for answers to questions you have about using Google Contacts.

The post Using Google Contacts Effectively appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

Google Calendar is an excellent program for keeping track of your appointments, birthdays, and other important dates on your computer and on your cell phone.  When you sync Google with your cell phone, whenever you add or edit a calendar event, the changes will appear on both your phone and on your computer, almost instantaneously.

Now let’s review how to use Google Calendar effectively

You can use Google Calendar to keep track of appointments, birthdays, reminders, and tasks.  You can also use it to schedule an event, and invite guests to that event. 

Google Calendar Search Feature

To use the search feature, click on the search icon, which is the magnifying glass icon located at the top right of your screen.  This is where you search for calendar events by typing in a name or a word.  For example, if you want to search for all seminars that you had put in your calendar, you just type in the word “seminar.”  Or if you want to search for all events with the name John, just type in “John.”  When you do this, all of the events that have the name “John” in your calendar, will show up in a list in date order. 

Google Calendar Didsplays

To change the way that Google Calendar displays your calendar, click on the rectangular box to the right of the gear icon in the upper right corner.  Here is where you can change the display to Day, Week, Month, Year, Schedule, 7 days. 

I use the “7 days” display so that I can see all of the events for the current week.  Then I can either click on the left (<) or right (>) arrow at the top of the calendar to move to previous or subsequent weeks.  If I want to go more than a couple of months ahead or back, I just click on “7 days,” and change it to “Month.”  Then I only have to do a few clicks to move months ahead or back.  When I am done, I click on “7 days” and on the “Today” box, which is just to the left of the arrows, and that brings me back to this week.

To get to settings, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and then click on “Settings.”  This is where you set your time zone, and you have the option to check the box “Ask to update my primary time zone to current location.”  If you check that box, when you are in a different time zone with your computer and your cell phone, the time that is now showing on your calendar and on your cell phone will be the same as where you are now located. 

But be careful, because if you schedule appointments in your calendar for a future date when you will not be in the time zone you currently are in, the scheduled time will be based on the time zone you are now in.  For example, if you are on the East Coast, and you schedule an appointment for next Tuesday at 3:00 PM, when you get back to the West Coast, which is in a time zone three hours earlier, that appointment will now show on your calendar as Tuesday at 12:00 PM.

Google Calendar Event Settings 

“Event settings” is where you let Google Calendar know what time interval you want as the default setting for each event.  You can choose 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.  I chose 60 minutes as my default, and when I enter a new event, I just change the length of the event as needed.

Under “Event settings” you also can turn “Notifications” on or off.  If you want a pop-up window to appear on your phone and your computer that reminds you that an event is coming up, then choose “Desktop notifications.” 

Under “View options” you can set when you want the your calendar week to start.  You can choose Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.  You can also “Set the custom view” to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 days, or 2, 3, or 4 weeks.  Whichever number you choose here, that number will now show up as a display option.  I chose 7 days, so that is now an option that I can pick for my calendar display.

Add an Event to your Google Calendar

On the Google Calendar page, to add an event to your calendar, click the plus icon at the top left side of your screen.  Then add the title, and pick the date by clicking on the date that is already there, followed by clicking on the date of your event on the calendar that now appears. Then put in the beginning time by clicking on the beginning time that is already there; and then scroll up or down until you see the time when the event begins, and then click on it.  Do the same for the time when the event ends.

To add guests to the event you are creating, just type in the name of a contact that is already in your contact list, and when the name appears, click on it to add the name to guests to invite.  If you want, type in the location of the event, and add a description. 

Click “More options” if you want to repeat the event on other days.  Then click on “Does not repeat,” which gives you the following options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annually, Every weekday, and Custom. 

When you click on “Daily,” the event will reoccur every day at the time you set.  When you click on “Weekly,” the event will reoccur every week on that day of the week at the time you set.  When you click on “Monthly,” the event will reoccur every month on that day of the week at the time you set.  When you click on “Yearly,” the event will reoccur every year on that month, on that day of the week at the time you set.  When you click on “Every weekday,” the event will reoccur every weekday at the time you set. 

Click on “Custom” to repeat the event every _____ number of days, weeks, months, or years.  You type a number in the blank space.  Then you need to click that the event “Never” ends, or that it ends “On” a specific date, or that it ends “After” a set number of occurrences.  Then click “Done” to finish setting the custom recurrence.

Google Calendar Notifications

You then have the option to add a location and a notification.  If you add a “Notification,” you need to indicate how many minutes, hours, days, or weeks in advance you want to receive the notification to remind you of the upcoming event.  You can also add a description of the event, and invite guests.  Then click “Save” to save the event you just created.

Creating Additional Calendars

If you want to create an additional calendar, on the left side of your screen, click on “Add calendar;” and then click on “Create new calendar.” Then type in the name of your new calendar; put in a description if you want; and click “Create calendar” to save the new calendar.  You might want to create a new calendar for business events, which you can share with individuals you work with.  Let’s say you name that calendar “Business Calendar.”

Once you have created a new calendar, click on the left arrow at the top left of the page, which closes “Settings.”  Now open “Settings” again by clicking on the gear icon at the top right of the page, and click on “Settings.”  When you scroll down the left side of the page, you will now see “Business Calendar.”  Click on it to edit the settings, which now show up on the right.  You can share the calendar with other people and add notifications.

On the left side, just above the “Business Calendar“ that you just created, you will see “Google Calendar,” which is the default calendar.  If you want to rename it, click on “Google Calendar,” and then click in the box to the right that has the name “Google Calendar.”  Type in the new name here. 

Now that you have more than one calendar, whenever you create an event, you need to specify which calendar to add that event to.  Google automatically adds the event to “Google Calendar” unless you specify a different calendar.

Once you are finished editing the settings, click on the left arrow at the top left of the page, which closes “Settings.”  Now when you open an event on your calendar by clicking on it, you can edit it by clicking on the pencil icon.  You can now move this event is to the “Business Calendar” by clicking on the drop-down arrow to the right of “Google Calendar,” which you will see listed right under the words “Add notification.”  Click Save.  Now when you look at the calendar, you will see that the event you moved to the “Business Calendar,” has a different colored dot to left of the event name.

If you want to change the color of the dots for each calendar, click on the three parallel lines just to the left of “31 Calendar” at the top left side of the page.  Under this month’s calendar that is now visible, you will see “My calendars.”  Click on the arrow to the right of “My Calendars,” and you will see “Google Calendar” and “Business Calendar” listed.  Move your cursor over the calendar that you want to change the dot color, and you will now see three dots to the right.  Click on the three dots, and you will now see a palette of different colors to choose from.  Click on a color to change the dot color.

If you want to see only the events for a particular calendar, just click on the box to the left of the calendar name that you don’t want to see, and those events will disappear from the calendar, leaving only the calendar you want to see.  Click on the box again for those events to reappear on the calendar.

The post Using Google Calendar Effectively appeared first on QuickBooks Training by Shor Solutions.

That is, I love having a mess to clean up.  It is one of my favorite things to do.  I just love organizing things.  I love the challenge and the feeling I get when I have taken something that was disorganized and made it organized.

When confronted with someone’s mess, at first it can be daunting, as there is so much to do, and I have to figure out where to start.  This is where most people get stuck, and why they don’t clean up their mess, as the task feels overwhelming.  But after having cleaned up hundreds of messes over many years, I am confident that I can clean up almost any mess. 

Organization Game Plan

Once I know what my client wants organized, I work closely with them to straighten out the “UnstraightenedOutable.”  We come up with a game plan, and we start work on it one small step at a time.  Depending on the situation, sometimes I do all of the clean-up, asking them questions when I need clarification. 

Organizing Skills

Most times, we do the clean-up together, so that they learn the needed organizing skills so that this messy situation does not happen again.  We get a lot done together as I show them my system of organizing, and I coach them on applying this system to create order out of disorder.  Knowing they have me to answer their questions to help guide them through the clean-up, they don’t feel overwhelmed anymore.  They slowly gain confidence as they proceed, knowing that they can repeat the organizing procedures that I teach them, which will prevent this mess from reoccurring in the future.  I leave my clients with homework, to continue doing the organizing by themselves, and to write down any questions that they may have, which we will review the next time we meet.

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