On Wednesday, October 28 @ 1:00pm EST, Valbon Shabani will guide you through the initial installation of Method and provide some basic troubleshooting steps to prevent you from getting stuck along the way. This will be followed by a few of our Frequently Asked Questions on installation.So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 14: Method Troubleshooting 101
       
Date:        Wednesday, October 28, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/989839363

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Looking for a solution that will take QuickBooks to the cloud?  Do you love the freedom and accessibility you have with Method and wish your QuickBooks could also be hosted and backed up by a reliable provider?  Wouldn’t it be fantastic to no longer worry about server crashes and the stresses that come along with not being able to access your data?  With Method and QuickBooks in the cloud, you’d have no installations to worry about and no frustrations accessing QuickBooks and Method company files from remote locations, enabling staff, clients and accountants to access data from absolutely anywhere with an Internet connection.

Look no more.  You’ve found the solution with Method and Right Networks because you can take your QuickBooks to the cloud with Right Networks, the largest and most trusted provider of desktop QuickBooks hosting.  With Right Networks your data will always be online, accessible from any location with an Internet connection, with high security protection to keep your data safe.

We are proud to announce that we are officially partners with this outstanding desktop QuickBooks hosting provider. 

What sets Right Networks apart from the competition?  Right Networks uses enterprise-class servers that are load balanced, meaning that if a server ever goes down, another server will be up right away, so your data is always online.  Be at ease knowing that offsite backups of your data are made on your behalf, and your hosted storage comes with banking-class encryption to keep your data secure and protected.  Right Networks’ service is reliable, efficient, and ideal for companies with remote staff and accountants.

By hosting your QuickBooks with Right Networks in conjunction with Method Integration, your entire business system is in the cloud, accessible from anywhere in the world via the web, without any downloads and installations taking up valuable space on your computer.  Right Networks has the Method Integration Engine preloaded on their server, so the real-time synchronization between QuickBooks and Method can take place 100% in the cloud.  With no downloads and installations to worry about, you can get up and running in no time using Right Networks with Method.

Multiple people can access the same QuickBooks and Method company files simultaneously, making it a convenient solution for remote staff and accountants.  While Right Networks makes it possible for business owners, accounting department personnel and/or accountants to login and access QuickBooks desktop without any fuss at all, admin, sales, marketing, support and remote staff login to Method to access the business and QuickBooks data that their user permissions allow.  Since QuickBooks and Method synchronize data in real-time, both company files are always up-to-date.  With your entire business system in a controlled environment, you can trust that your data is safe, secure and accessible 24/7.

"My firm is the first user on Right Networks with Method and QuickBooks integrated for a fully hosted solution.  We have been delighted to have all our data in one place, which has greatly improved our time and contact management, and reduced duplicate data entry.  We now have more time for our customers and the confidence that all our data is secure.” - Method & Right Networks user, Judith Valese Syms

Here is how it works:

Right Networks manages your back office- your QuickBooks desktop data is accessible by owners, managers and accountants who need to access QuickBooks directly.

Method manages your front office- All other data entry for admin, sales, marketing, support, CRM and industry-applications, including QuickBooks-related data.

Here are some examples:

Company: Erin’s Mobile Spa

Before:

Erin owns a small mobile spa company that is quickly gaining popularity.  Erin needs to be able to schedule her 3 estheticians as calls come in and also have her estheticians track their time and products used at each client’s location.  Erin emails her estheticians their weekly schedules and calls to let them know if there are any changes.  The estheticians only swing by Erin’s office periodically when they run out of products.  Erin would like to avoid having to manually enter in the estheticians’ timesheets.  Erin also has an accountant that comes in on a monthly basis to do her accounting using QuickBooks.

After:

Erin now has her QuickBooks desktop hosted with Right Networks.  When she needs to access her QuickBooks information, she logs into the Right Networks server, and appreciates knowing that her data will always be accessible thanks to their load balanced servers.  She has also setup an additional user so her accountant can login to do the accounting and no longer needs to come into the office to do it on a monthly basis.  Erin also setup her Method account and schedules work through Method Field Services.  She is able to add new customers through Method and dispatch work for her estheticians.  The estheticians also login to Method to view their schedule, enter in their times and check for newly scheduled work.  Erin can also see which products her estheticians are running out of, so she can ensure she has everything in stock and ready for pickup in advance.  The service times being entered and customers being added by Erin and her staff appear in QuickBooks in real-time and the only people having to access QuickBooks directly are Erin and her accountant.  Erin knows that her data is safe and secure using Right Networks and Method and is able to focus on business expansion.

Company: Jacob’s Accounting Firm

Before:

Jacob is a QuickBooks ProAdvisor.  Typically, Jacob logs in remotely to his client’s computers to do their accounting work.  He usually calls the client in advance to ensure they are not using the PC he is logging into, and if they are, he calls and tries again later.  Understandably, Jacob finds it bothersome when he has to rearrange his schedule to wait for the user to get off the computer before he can login and provide his services.  Jacob also has some clients that send him a copy of their QuickBooks file on a monthly basis, so he has to make sure he and his clients are using compatible versions of QuickBooks.  Most of his clients utilize basic functions in QuickBooks like creating invoices, bills, entering times or receiving purchase orders.  Ideally, Jacob would like to manage the QuickBooks files for his clients while allowing them access to necessary information, in a way that would allow them to carry on with business as usual.  Jacob would prefer not to host the QuickBooks files at his office since the infrastructure and security are not in place.  He is looking for a reliable, efficient solution to ease his frustrations.

After:

A colleague recommended Method Integration to Jacob and he was delighted at the prospect of hosting the QuickBooks files for his clients and having his clients do their data entry through Method.  Not only did Method provide a solution to his remote access needs, but all the business functions his clients needed were available using the Method interface.  By using Method with QuickBooks, Jacob would always have access to the QuickBooks desktop data, even when his clients are entering QuickBooks data via Method.  Even better, Jacob now uses Right Networks to host all of his clients’ QuickBooks files so he doesn’t have to worry about security issues.  Right Networks hosts the QuickBooks files and runs Method, so he logs onto the Right Networks server to do his work, while his clients logon to access Method.   Jacob’s clients are pleased that they no longer have to get off the computer in order for Jacob to do the accounting, or send in copies of their company files, and love being able to access to their business data via an internet connection. 

To learn more about Right Networks and their excellent hosting solutions, please visit their website:  http://www.rightnetworks.com/

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Exciting news- there will be an official presentation on Method Integration at The Sleeter Group’s Next Generation Accounting Solutions Conference in Orlando, Florida, November 9-12.

None other than Danny Do Couto will be presenting “Going beyond just QuickBooks & making your dream application with Method Integration” on Tuesday, November 10th from 4:45 – 6pm in the Lemon Room.

The Sleeter Group Conference is the premier event for the small business accounting consultant community. The Conference offers over 50 sessions packed with information plus numerous networking activities. In addition to offering 32 CPE units for CPAs and Enrolled Agents, there will 50 Accounting Solution providers to meet with in the Exhibit Hall. Visit www.sleeterconference.com. When registering for the main Conference use promotion code “TSG150” and receive a $150 discount.

Also be sure to come by and visit us at Booth #B7 to check out Method’s exciting developments!

Hope to see you there

Katie

On Wednesday, October 14th @ 1:00pm EST, Ryan Bell will be exploring some of the more advanced features in Method Warehouse.  He will be covering receiving of bins, creating bins and entering of serial numbers.

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 13: Method Warehouse: Level 1
       
Date:        Wednesday, October 14, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

On Wednesday, October 7th @ 1:00pm EST, Amanda Mahadeo will introduce Method Professional Services.  During this basic introduction, Amanda will define and create projects, schedule project activities, enter time and expense entries via an approval process. Lastly, invoices will be generated according to the project types.

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 12: Introduction to Method Professional Services
       
Date:        Wednesday, October 7, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/702887314

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

On Wednesday, September 30 @ 1:00pm EST, Valbon Shabani will introduce Method Field Services.  This basic introduction will demonstrate how to create a new work order and turn an estimate into a new work order. Continuing on to add service items and enter details and cost information before turning the work order into an invoice.

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 11: Introduction to Method Field Services
       
Date:        Wednesday, September 30, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/856232683

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

On Wednesday, September 23 @ 1:00pm EST, join Ryan Bell as he dives even further into Method's CRM Edition.  He will be discussing how to use the List Builder, create e-mail templates and using Method's Outlook Plug-in.  

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 10: Introduction to CRM: Level 4
       
Date:        Wednesday, September 23, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/912848611

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

On Wednesday, September 16 @ 1:00pm EST, join Amanada Mahadeo who will be covering Customer Portals.  She will discuss how to use and setup Portals and how to help your company make the most out of using this convenient and cost effective medium.  

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 9: Introduction to CRM: Level 3 - Customer Portals
       
Date:        Wednesday, September 16, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/366016603

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Good afternoon,

This is the 4th installment in a series of 6 Method CRM movies, so if you haven’t been tuning into the movies so far and would like to watch them in order, view the Sales Center, Call Center and List Builder movies before proceeding on.   

Movie #4 – Customer Portal

The Method customer portal is a bridge from your company website that connects a customer to their account information found in QuickBooks.   Portals do more than just making your company look fortune-500 professional – they also take your customer experience to a new level as they are able to use self-service options 24 hours a day 7 days a week without having to contact you or your staff directly.  Portals are like having a full time salesperson and customer service person working for you around the clock. 

Third party portals can also be customized for vendors and partners to sign into your system.  As with everything in Method, the Method CRM Customer Portal is completely customizable, and lets your customers login to view account details, such as recent transactions and invoices. 

View CRM Movie #4 on the Customer Portal

If you have any questions after viewing the Customer Portal movie, please post them in the Method Forum where a Method Consultant will be happy to respond.  

Next up is CRM Movie #5 on real-time integration with QuickBooks, so stay tuned for my next entry.

Have a nice day,

Katie

On Wednesday, September 9 @ 1:00pm EST, join Valbon Shabani will introduce the topic of Method reports.  This basic introduction will cover launching the Method Report Designer, creating a simple report, adding fields and displaying the newly created report in Method. 

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 8: Introduction to Designing Reports: Level 1
       
Date:        Wednesday, September 9, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/214219338

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

It was brought to my attention this week that we need to do a much better job at telling everyone about all the features we keep adding!

A little background: we were at the Midwest Accounting & Finance Showcase in Chicago this week, and we were lucky enough to be picked by Greg LaFollette for his walking tour where he brings a large group of accountants and consultants to a selected group of booths, and gives us 11 minutes, a microphone and a loud speaker.  While Danny was speaking and listing features, Greg turned to me and said “now, how come I didn’t know you guys had document management in there now?”.  Good point, I told him.  We’re so focused on listening to feedback, adding features and capabilities to Method that we forget to stop and tell the rest of the community what we’ve done.  I guess it is pretty cool that you can upload scanned receipts and attach them to QuickBooks transactions!  Oops...we should have told everyone a few months ago when that capability came out!

So here are a few big things that are brand new in the platform this week:

1. Multicurrency
We now support multiple currencies!  QuickBooks 2009 introduced the currency option to US versions of QuickBooks this year.  This enables you to set a currency in your Chart of Accounts, Customers, Vendors and most transactions (for example Invoices, Bills, and Item Receipts).

You'll need to install a new Method Integration Engine to get this feature.  It will not automatically update.  In Method, go to QuickBooks > Customize, click Show Installations Steps, and then click Install now for Step 3.

Also, you will have to customize the screens in Method that you want to see the currency on. By default, your currencies will be synced, but will not actually show up in Method until you customize your screens and drag the Currency and Exchange Rate fields onto the screen.

2. “Select PO” on Bill and Item Receipt
We added the "Select PO..." button to the standard Bill and Item Receipt screens, allowing you to associate an existing Purchase Order to a Bill or Item Receipt just like you can in QuickBooks.

To use this feature, just go to Vendors > Bills, or Vendors > Items Receipts, choose the Vendor you have a Purchase Order for, click the Items tab, click Select PO, and then follow the on-screen steps.

3. Escape key closes Popups

I personally am so used to clicking the Escape key in QuickBooks that I found myself time and time again clicking Escape in Method before remembering I have to use my mouse to click "Cancel" or click the "X" in top right.

That's why I'm psyched about the fact that you can now click Escape in all popup up screens and the popup will close as if you had clicked the "X".

4. Complete Save, Close on CRM

This one actually come from internal feedback from our team, since we use Method CRM for our own use.  When closing a CRM activity, rather than changing the status to Completed, and then clicking Save & Close, we added a new button called, "Complete, Save & Close".  We also added this to the other tabs (Send an Email, Schedule a Follow Up), to save from always having to go back to the first Add / Edit Activity tab.  We've been using this internally for weeks now, and love it, so we pushed it out to all Method users.

5. Up to 20 new lines in a grid

Previously, on an Invoice, Bill, or any other screen where you list line items, you had only 3 new lines of data entry before you clicked Update, and then clicked New Line again.  This is fine most of the time, but in scenarios where you need many lines, you will find clicking Update and New Line inefficient.  You can now edit the screen, edit the grid, and in Step 6 of the grid wizard specify the number of new rows you want to see when New Line is clicked.

6. Show / hide grid columns

You can now customize grids so that they include a number of hidden columns that can be shown on-demand.  This is a big deal in case you sometimes need more information for searching, filtering or data entry, but these fields aren't always needed, so they don't need to clog up your screen.

For example, in the screen below, I added a "Location" column and a "Class" column to my Existing Invoices grid, so that I can quickly search for all invoices in a certain inventory control Location, for a certain Class - but I default them to be hidden since I normally don't need to do this.

That's enough for today.  There's really another 20 or so little improvements that didn't make my list........but we don't need to show off!

What's next? Right now we’re working heavily on making Method work on Windows Mobile browsers.  Let me tell you, we’re in a time warp - like it’s 1998 over here and Microsoft has just realized that the "Inter-web" is for real. In other words.....it's a big coding challenge since IE Mobile is extremely behind the times.  If you are interested in signing up for a beta of this, please reply to this post, or send an email to method@methodintegration.com. We're especially interested if you are in the field services industry.  There are goodies in it for you.  I'll explain when you email....

Paul

On Wednesday, September 2 @ 1:00pm EST, join Ryan Bell as he continues to dive into Method's CRM.  This webinar will touch base on creating cases and solutions. 

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 7: Introduction to Method CRM - Level 2
       
Date:        Wednesday, September 2, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/470573074

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

The Method Team is thrilled to be attending this year’s Intuit Solution Provider Summit 2009 in Chicago, Illinois @ The Fairmont Hotel.  The ISP summit is a yearly event that is held for Intuit’s Solution Providers.  This year’s summit is intended to be an intimate event, focusing on business and innovation.
 
I work directly with Method’s Solution Providers and there has been an overwhelming request for our presence at this event.  I absolutely love the theme for this year’s summit - “Winning Together” - and when I think about Method’s Solution Providers and Intuit’s Solution Providers working together to provide complete solutions to Intuit customers, I see us “Winning Together” in our business visions.  Using Method with QuickBooks allows ISP’s to capture more market share and seal the deal with enterprise level sales. 

I welcome all ISP’s to come visit me and the rest of the Method Team at our booth at the conference.  If you haven’t heard about Method before, this is a great time to check it out and ask other ISP’s for their feedback on the product. 

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Good morning Method Community, 

For those of you who are just tuning in to the CRM movie series, please note that this is a 6-movie series highlighting the benefits and features of Method CRM.  The first two movies showcased the Method CRM Sales Center and Call Center, so you may wish to view these before proceeding on with today’s movie.

Movie #3 – List Builder

The List Builder is a Method CRM feature that enables you to build mass mail and email lists with ease.  You can utilize this feature for marketing, collections and creating batch follow-up activities for your sales team.

More specifically, the list builder is a way for you to:

• Mass email customers or leads for a marketing campaign.
• Create a batch of follow-up activities for your sales team, which may or may not be related to a campaign.
• Mass email customers for overdue balances.
• Send customers a customized e-newsletter.
• Mass email customers that have recently received an estimate.
• And finally, a way to customize this screen to perform any other purpose that requires batch processing.

The List Builder makes it easy to touch base with your customers and saves you time through batch processing.

View CRM Movie #3 on the List Builder

After viewing the movie, if you have any unanswered questions about the List Builder, please post your questions in the Method Forum so that they can be addressed.  

In the coming weeks I’ll be posting the next movie, so keep an eye out for CRM movie #4 on the Customer Portal.

Have a nice day,

Katie

On Wednesday, August 19th @ 1:00pm EST, join Amanda Mahadeo as she introduces you to the world of CRM using Method!  This webinar will touch base on creating campaigns, opportunities and recording activities.  This is something you don’t want to miss!

So how do you join and participate in the webinar?  Simply follow the directions listed below.

Title:         Community Webinar 6: Introduction to Method CRM - Level 1
       
Date:        Wednesday, August 19, 2009
       
Time:        1:00 PM - 1:30 PM EDT


After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/276554763

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration