Contributing Editors:
    Andrew Muollo

Welcome!

We Need Your Help!

Many of you have contacted us over the last several months to say what a great resource the IDNAC Newsletter is; and how valuable you find the information that it contains.  Roxanne and I would like to say "Thank you" for the compliments, we appreciate the wonderful feedback!

However, we are in need of your help!  In order for this newsletter to continue to thrive and provide valuable resources and information, we need volunteers who are willing to take an hour or so of their time to contribute an article.  Many of you have said, "What can I do to help", so we hope you meant it!

As most of you know, Roxanne and I volunteer our time, and we are glad that we have been able to do so up to this point.  However, we are spending approximately 20 hours each, per month, in order to produce this newsletter.....which includes, but is not limited to:

• Develop a newsletter schedule and theme topics for each quarter
• Contact Developers for interviews
• Follow-up with Developers for timely interview article submission
• Contact Advisors for interviews on Developer products
• Follow-up with Advisors for timely interview article submission
• Editing, reviewing, & proofing all articles submitted - Adding additional documentation or validation of information as needed
• Sending revised articles back for final review
• Actual creation (layout, themes, etc.) of the newsletter
• Distribution and List Management of the newsletter
• Updating the web site with the newsletter content

All in all, it's a BIG JOB!  And honestly, we could REALLY use some help!

When we originally started the the IDNAC site as well as the newsletter, we were hoping that it would become a community-wide endeavor......with willing participants who would help us make IDNAC "the most valuable QuickBooks integrated application resource" available, by offering a collection of items and resources that are not available elsewhere.  We thought if we worked hard to provide the initial resources; that community members who found them to be valuable would be willing to offer up additional resources; thereby making the site grow from community based effort.   Unfortunately, it's not turning out that way, and it's taking a serious amount of time away from our own respective businesses, which simply cannot continue.

At this time, we have newsletter content scheduled through April, 2006 - however, we need volunteers for the upcoming months.  Everyone has commented time and again that this resource is greatly needed; not only for information, but to open the lines of communication between Developers and Advisors.  Sadly, if we do not receive some assistance from the subscriber base soon, we will have to consider reducing the frequency of the newsletter to a quarterly basis, so our own businesses do not continue to suffer from neglect.

We certainly do not expect anyone to commit to the number of hours that we have been volunteering up to this point; we realize that everyone is busy and has their own business to manage, as we do.  However, please consider an hour or two a month; just 2-3 times in 2006 would make a huge difference.  If you do not feel you can write an article, please consider:  proof reading, ideas, layout, or contact/follow-up assistance, or doing a bit of research and collecting data/notes for the person writing the article.  All of these things add up to several additional hours each month for us.

You can volunteer for just a single month, or for a few months.  We need people to make a commitment, and we need to firm up the rest of the schedule for 2006 in order to continue moving forward and possibly expanding the content of the newsletter.  Let us know what month/months you can help out, what you would like to do, or what your are willing to help with.  Please contact Nancy or Roxanne via email.

In this Issue
Etiquette Section
Email Etiquette - Spelling, Grammar & Attachments
Dear Andy Advisor & Dear Danny Developer
Seeking volunteers for the "Dear Abbey's of Integration"
Marketing & Website Tips

Articles
The Start of a New Year - And a New QuickBooks File
Second in a Series of Articles on when it's appropriate to create a new QuickBooks company file and various reason why it is or isn't a good idea - By Roxanne Brown
Developer Interview
Data Transfer Utility - Karl Irvin, CPA
Developer Interview
QDataImport Tool - Chuck Vigeant - FLEXquarters.com LLC
Advisor Interview
Lizz Cuba of Lizz Cuba Enterprises talks about How a ProAdvisor Benefits from Using the Data Transfer Utility.

Survey's
Please participate in our survey's

Other Items
Becoming an IDNAC Newsletter Contributing Editor - OR - "What's In It For Me?"

Etiquette Section
Email Etiquette - Spelling, Grammar & Attachments
Over the last few newsletters we have been discussing Email Etiquette - because let's face it - most of our communications are done via email and it's important that both sender and receiver knows who they are dealing with....and there is just way too much junk mail that we all have to deal with on a daily basis.  To read this months installment, click here
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Ask the Experts Column
Seeking additional volunteers for the "Dear Abbey's of Integration"
"Dear Andy Advisor" (written by Bruce Andersen) and "Dear Danny Developer" (written by Chuck Vigeant) could use some assistance with this column on a monthly basis.  Each month "Dear Andy" and "Dear Danny" will answer integration related questions submitted anonymously from the web site.
Unfortunately they are a couple of months behind due to their own busy schedules..... would someone like to volunteer to help?  If so, please contact Nancy or Roxanne via email.
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Marketing & Website Tips - by Andrew Muollo, LeGrand CRM
Andrew has been out of the country and will be back with the next newsletter.
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The Start of a New Year - And a New QuickBooks File
In Part II of this series, Roxanne talks about some "traditional" ways to start a new file, and the importance of having a "Plan of Action" based on client needs, and discusses some awesome 3rd party applications, some of which are featured in this months newsletter, that will make the transition from old file to new easier and more profitable than you probably imagined!  To read the complete article, click here
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Data Transfer Utility - Karl Irvin, CPA
Meet Karl Irvin, CPA of Irvin Software Corporation and learn how an inability to easily transfer transactions from one QuickBooks file to QuickBooks to another QuickBooks led to the development of Data Transfer Utility.  To read the complete article, click here.
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QDataImport Tool - FLEXquarters.com, LLC
Meet Chuck Vigeant, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and Director of FLEXquarters Solutions and learn how 3 major pain points he encountered in his accounting practice when dealing with the import of data into any version of QuickBooks led to the development of the QDataImport Tool.  To read the complete article, click here.
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How a ProAdvisor Benefits From Using the Data Transfer Utility - Lizz Cuba
Meet Lizz Cuba of Lizz Cuba Enterprises from Savannah, GA who first used the Data Transfer Utility when she needed to clean up a clients file quickly; and why she's glad that she has found this program.  To read the complete article on how Lizz feels that ProAdvisors can benefit from tools such as Data Transfer Utility, click here.
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Please participate in our survey's
You may wonder why this particular section is part of every newsletter; it's because we are trying to gather as much information as possible from the newsletter subscriber base as to what their needs and wants are for future improvements of the IDNAC site.

Your participation in these survey's will enable us to define what kind of educational resources are of the most value to everyone, what the newsletter should contain, what new features we should make available on the IDNAC site, and most importantly what kind of tools and skills we will need to find to implement your requests.

• Developer Survey - Solving Customer Pain Points.  This survey contains basic questions about your product, the Solutions Marketplace, Website/Materials & Working with Advisors.
• Advisor Survey - Working with Clients.  This survey contains basic questions about the types of clients you work with, the pain points you are asked to solve, and Finding, Evaluating & Recommending Integrated Applications.

Becoming an IDNAC Newsletter Contributing Editor - OR - "What's In It For Me?"
Do you wonder what the "value is" by becoming a Contributing Editor?  If so, read the following article for some compelling insight, by clicking here.