Contributing Editors:
    Chuck Vigeant
    Andrew Muollo

Welcome!

Hello Everyone!  Please take a moment to Welcome three new Contributing Editors:

• Dave Bodnarchuck of eventIQ, inc. - each month Dave will be offering up event planning tips.
• Arlene Arlow of Addventive Academy - each month Arlene will be offering up tips on working with the QuickBooks Canadian Edition.
• Michelle Clermont of eBridge Software - join us over the next several months as Michelle shares her experience's in Marketing QuickBooks integrated applications.

Nancy will be away on vacation next month; but Roxanne will make sure that the March Newsletter gets put together and out!  Aloha! see you in April.

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
The IDNAC Forum/Site
Seeking Feedback & Suggestions
Etiquette Section
Email Etiquette - Questions to ask yourself before you hit "Send"
Dear Dear Danny Developer
This months questions for the "Dear Abby's of Integration"
Marketing & Website Tips
Tips on Developing a Marketing Plan - Andrew Muollo
Marketing Your QuickBooks Integrated Application: A Developers Journey - Michelle Clermont
Event Planning Tips of the Month
skOOchie Ideas - Dave Bodnarchuck
QuickBooks Canadian Edition
Common Bookkeeping Questions: GST Issues - Arlene Arlow
Articles
New Year - New QuickBooks File
Second in a Series of Articles - By Roxanne Brown
Developer Interview
Transaction Pro Exporter - John Magno, Baystate Consulting
Developer Interview
Invoice Duplicator - Karl Irvin, CPA

Survey's
Please participate in our survey's

The IDNAC Forum/Site
Seeking Feedback, Suggestions, & Help
I'd like to do some major improvements on the IDNAC site - especially in the area of how to handle all the previous articles from this newsletter - the Newsletter Archive page is just growing and growing and I'm wondering if you are having problems finding what you are looking for.  Would you like a searchable database?  Any suggestions for the forum?  New Forum sections, removal of current forum sections, organization suggestions?  Lastly, is there anyone out there that would be willing to donate a few hours over the next 3 months to help me set up a searchable database?  The site comes complete with SQL databases, but I simply don't have the time to configure and design one.  Feel free to send your thoughts to Nancy.
Thanks, Nancy
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Etiquette Section
Email Etiquette - Questions to ask yourself before you hit "Send"
Sending email that looks good is a reflection of your professionalism.  An email that is properly written not only makes you look good, but it is easier for the recipient to read, which will win you lots of points with that individual.  Read the rest of this article.
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Ask the Experts Column
Meet the "Dear Abby's of Integration" Meet "Dear Danny Developer" (written by Chuck Vigeant).  Each month "Dear Andy" and "Dear Danny" will answer integration related questions submitted anonymously from the website.  To view this month's questions......
Dear Danny Daveloper
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Marketing & Website Tips
Tips for Developing a Marketing Plan - Andrew Muollo, LeGrand CRM
Running even the smallest marketing campaign can seem daunting to a small business owner.
Questions like where to start, what message we are trying to convey, who are we targeting and how are we going to target these people, can appear too complex to your average non-marketing person.
However with the right plan these can be a breeze and very rewarding, if not allot of fun, by following these six simple steps, you too can experience the benefit of running a marketing campaign.  Read the rest of the article.

Marketing your QuickBooks Integrated Application: A Developer's Journey - Michelle Clermont, eBridge Software
There are over 3 million QuickBooks installations in North America.  Many of those users are small mom & pop shops that were used to pen and paper, or maybe an Excel spreadsheet to track the sales they made.  One day another business owner says "you really should go to the store and pick up QuickBooks."  Meanwhile, software developers are creating wonderful QuickBooks integrated solutions and know that not all of those 3 million users will need those products.  Read the rest of the article here.
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Event Planning Tips of the Month
skOOchie Ideas - by Dave Bodnarchuck
Are you planning an event or a get together?  Let these tips help you out!
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QuickBooks Canadian Edition:
Common Bookkeeping Questions - Arlene Arlow
Goods and Services Tax issues.  Arlene is asked if you should rely on the default "GST" or the "PST Liability Report" that QuickBooks prints.  Read the complete answer here.
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New Year - New QuickBooks File
Cleaning Up Files & Getting Automated! - Part II
Roxanne sure has been busy the last month and you'll understand why as you read this installment which features using both of the tools in this months Feature Developer Articles.  Click here for the entire article.
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Transaction Pro Exporter - John Magno, Baystate Consulting
Meet John Magno of Baystate Consulting and learn about Transaction Pro Exporter (just one of several products available).  John's products require no programming skills!  Read the complete article here.....
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Invoice Duplicator - Karl Irvin, CPA
We met Karl last month when we introduced the Data Transfer Utility.  He's back this month to talk about Invoice Duplicator, another very cool automation tool.  Read the complete article 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 on 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 kinds 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.

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