You can use a domain alias to improve the chances of clients going to your accounting firm’s website. You can do this without having to purchase extra hosting. Here is a quick look at what a domain alias is and the reason’s you might want to use one.

A domain alias is an extra domain that you own (or need to purchase) and that displays your regular site. Some common reasons to use an alias are to purchase your domain’s .net or .biz and have that display your website, if a person misspells your website, or to have a shorter domain name.

This is different than a forward. A forwarded address will go from one url to another. A forward can be noticed by those concerned about going to the right website. If a person sees that the address is changing while they are going to your website they could be concerned about being on the right website. An alias has none of that, the website displays when you type in that specific address.

Use an alternative url ending. Although many people are used to using .com you can also purchase .net, .biz and more. Purchase these domains and then set them up as an alias.

You are then able to grab that traffic and prevent your competition from buying and using that alternative address. An example of this would be if you had the domain erikthomsencpa.com. You could also have erikthomsencpa.net or erikthomsen.biz.

Don't let your customers see this when they type in your url.

People go to your website even if they don’t spell it right. If you have a website url that is commonly not spelled correctly then an alias is an obvious solution. Lets say you have a website url of rikkcpa.com and people type in rickcpa.com by mistake. If you have an alias set up with that alternatively spelled domain then they will still go directly to your website without any confusion.

Shorter domain name from your main website. If you want or need a longer domain name but want people to still go to your website then use a domain alias. This allows you to have a website with erikthomsenaccounting.com with another thomcpa.com and they will both get the client to the right place.

E-Mail set-up with both the main and any alias. Unlike a forward you can actually have email set up for your main and your domain alias.

Up to five can be used. There is no extra charge for having a domain alias set-up. You can have up to five domain alias’s with any website hosted by CPA Site Solutions.

Interested in having a domain alias? Call 800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com to get help with any questions you might have.

Have an experience using a domain alias? Send us a comment.

One of the biggest perks of being a Gold or Platinum subscriber to CPA Site Solutions is the availability of Splash Pages for your accounting firm’s website. You may have heard them referred to as a “Splash” page, a “Graphic Introduction” page, or a “Landing” page.

The purpose of these pages is to offer the visitor a quick glimpse of what your accounting firm’s website offers, while simultaneously drawing them in with something attention-grabbing. In other words, it caters to the attention spans and behaviors of typical web surfers.

Style #260 - an example of a CPASiteSolutions Splash page with Flash animation

One way in which web-designers have typically accomplished this is through the use of Flash animation. Flash animation is very popular for designers and their clients alike. Designers like it because it makes their clients happy. It is a very easy method of creating impressive, “Ooh-factor” animations.

Clients love it because they feel it lends professionalism and pizzazz to their website.  However, since the explosion of Flash content onto the internet, savvy web-developers have been moving away from the Flash animation Splash page, and using some creative alternatives.  Here’s why:

1. Flash can be slow-loading.  One of the primary missions of any good web developer is accessibility.  This means keeping file sizes low enough so that someone with a slow connection can load your pages in a reasonable period of time. If your Splash page doesn’t meet this criteria, it’s not really accomplishing its stated purpose; to give the visitor a quick preview and draw them in.  If they have to wait around forever for the page to load, they are more like to click the “back” button.
2. Flash animation isn’t search-engine friendly.  A flash intro can be a great way to direct human visitors into your accounting firm’s website, but it does nothing to guide search engines.  Like a human visitor, search-engine spiders (programs that index your content for web searches) see your Splash page first. However, unlike human visitors, they don’t see anything that’s inside the Flash animation. It’s a big blind spot for them. If you are placing your five or six most important links on the Splash page, it’s important from an SEO standpoint that spiders are being directed straight to those pages.
3. 

   Extreme example of overuse of Flash (warning - may freeze up your browser!)

   Does it serve a purpose? Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Flash animation has its place, but frequently, it serves as more of a distraction than an asset. When deciding on whether or not to use a Flash intro page, ask yourself if it contributes anything meaningful to your site. If it doesn’t, and it’s the first thing a visitor sees, what does that tell them about the relevance of your accounting firm’s website to them?

It’s a fine line to walk. Visitors looking for a CPA don’t really want to be entertained or distracted by something overly flashy, but they also don’t want to have to read a lot of content if they aren’t positive it’s relevant to them. At CPA Site Solutions, we’re well aware of the dilemma, and have been busy creating Flash-alternative Splash pages to address exactly these concerns. These new CPA Website Designs feature eye-catching graphics, dynamic content, and pure html layouts that will draw in visitors and search engines alike.

Style 280 features creative javascript rollover effects, descriptive content, and attractive imagery.	Style 299 features a load of descriptive content, functionality, and inviting imagery
Style 301 features a clean, attractive layout, and large, inviting navigation links.	Style 307 features multiple navigation options, a contemporary layout, and eye-catching imagery

If you are interested in any of these new CPA Website Designs, or if you just have questions about the merits of Flash versus its alternatives, give a call at 1.800.896.4500, or email support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Online Accounting

Access to a powerful and fully featured online accounting system is offered to any accounting firm that hosts a website with CPA Site Solutions. There is an extra cost involved for access to the service but the integration couldn’t be easier and the system provides some great benefits.

Here is a breakdown of how online accounting works and why you should take a closer look.

Work anywhere. Online accounting allows you to work from anywhere you have access to a browser. The system includes access to a full version of Quickbooks (each user much have their own Quickbooks license).

This kind of remote access results in less travel time and cost of visiting clients while still enabling you to answer your client questions and solve problems fast. It gives you true anytime, anywhere access to your work.

Consult in real time. You can see exactly what your clients are doing on their computer. This allows for instant feedback and helpful tips and suggestions that not only help your client but saves you the time needed to usually perform retroactive fixes to client files.

Your data is secure. All data is virus protected, encrypted, and backed up everyday. The software applications are hosted on a secure server in a state-of-the-art high speed data center.

Additional modules: In future blog posts we will describe two additional modules for our online accounting offering, Online Tax and Online Workflow Manager.

To learn more, see the  Online Accounting page.

If you’re ready to give your accounting website a fresh new look, our design team has just completed ten new site designs to add to our existing gallery of 240 other ready-to-go website designs available for your website. Click on the samples below to see a full size version of these new designs.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 301.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 302.

There’s no cost to switch your accounting firm’s website to one of these ten new designs or any of our other over 230 designs. Give your firm’s website a completely new design in just a few minutes. Simply call 800-896-4500 to talk to one of our support representatives. Just mention the site design number of the website design you want, and your support representative will handle the rest.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 303.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for style Gold 308.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 304.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 305.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 306.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 307.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 309.

Want this design for your firm's website design? Ask for Gold style 310.

Would you rather have a design customized? Want a website design adjusted to reflect your business or brand? Talk with a professional designer who can build a custom website design just for you.

New designs are already in progress. In the coming weeks you’ll have even more choices available as our design team completes another batch of designs for your website.

CPA Site Solutions RSS Feed Icon.

Read news updates efficiently and get even more out of the time you have available. There are many different news readers out there. Here is where you learn briefly what an RSS feed is and then get a few readers to try it out on.

Subscribe to RSS Feed. An RSS feed is a quick way to keep track of updates on your favorite website. It is identified by the orange RSS image that when you click on you are brought to a list of the most recent articles for that website.

CPA Site Solutions Blog Feed

When you subscribe to the feed you need a reader to bring those feeds into one place. Many people use RSS readers as a fast way to skim through a vast amount of articles and find exactly what they want.

You can find accounting blogs and others interesting tidbits that can help keep up with flow of information out on the Internet. The following are a list of some interesting RSS readers to try. Each reader can be slightly different on how to subscribe to a new feed but all of them make it fairly easy.

Google's Fast Flip

Google’s Fast Flip. Fast Flip is a new fun way to read online news because it relies more upon the visual element.  Think of it as like flipping through a series of magazines looking at just the covers. If something looks interesting you can dig deeper, if not you can move on to the next set.

You don’t need to be logged in anywhere have anything downloaded to start using it. If you want to view more than the default articles though you will want to login to a gmail account.

Google Reader. You will need a gmail account for this to work for you also. Unlike Fast Flip Google reader relies more upon text rather than images (varies with feed). This way you can get a better idea of what is worth reading.

Feed Demon RSS Reader

What is nice is that you can flip through articles by just hitting the n on your keyboard. Depending upon the feed you can read the full article right there or click on the headline to go directly to the website.

FeedDemon. Easy to share feeds with others, sync between locations at office and home and more. There is a reason that FeedDemon was on the list of best RSS readers from PC Mag 2009.

Netvibes. Also on the list of best RSS readers from PC Mag 2009 Netvibes is not only a robust RSS reader but also adds networking features, 2 Gigs of web storage, and the ability to add other widgets. You may be overwhelmed if a first time user or feel right at home if you enjoy exploring to the fullest of what is out there.

At first glance RSS feeds may seem confusing and foreign but once you start using them you wonder how you ever did without. Using them allows you to get both a birds eye view of what is in the financial and other news while also being able to dig deep.

Have your own experience using RSS feeds? Send us a comment.

Intuit Online Payroll Website

Payroll services can be another source of income for your accounting firm with only a minimal investment of time. You can do this by using Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals (fomerly Paycyle) to do the work for you. Here are some highlights to what the service offers and how it integrates within any accounting website hosted by CPA Site Solutions.

Automatically withholds appropriate taxes. You can just enter the number of hours worked and the service withholds the right amount of taxes. This is done with the most up to date tax tables.

Payroll can be distributed on printed checks or via direct deposit. There is an option to print out checks if  pre-printed check stock is available. Alternatively there is an option for free direct deposit. There is a two day processing time but you can have a notification by email set up.

Integrates with Quickbooks. This a great time saver as there is less data entry. You can even export to Excel to manipulate further if needed.

Online Payroll Page

Offer as a service. Offering Payroll Services on your accounting website can increase revenue. The costs for using the service are minimal and can save considerable time and effort.

Integrate with your existing website. Intuit Online Payroll integrates with your existing accounting firm’s website. All you do is:

• Sign up for the service
• Add the Online Payroll Page to your website

If you are thinking about adding payroll processing as a new service for your firm, or if you are currently using another provider with less than satisfactory results, take a look at the Intuit Online Payroll offering.  It might be a great fit for you.

Have your own experience using Intuit Online Payroll for Accounting Professionals?  Send a comment.

Jennings October Seminar at 10% off!

In a previous posting there was an offer for 10% off a September Jennings Seminar. As promised CPA Site Solutions is offering 10% off a Jennings Seminar for October. This time the topic is  HSA’s & HRA’s and more and is scheduled for October 9th.

Limited seating! The seating is limited so you will want to sign up early for this event. Be sure to test your system to make sure that you meet all of the system requirements.

Two credit hours! If you attend this event and answer 75% of the polling questions at the conclusion then you will get two credit hours for this event. There are no prerequisites so this event is good for any level of expertise.

To get your 10% discount: Be sure to use the code octcpasite during the checkout process to get the 10% discount.

Event Description. “This exciting class leads the practitioner through the maze of employee leasing, HRAs, HSAs, Medical Reimbursement Plans, Healthcare Flexible plans and the advantages, disadvantages and uses of each.” This class has been one of the more popular offerings and is one of Jennings’ favorites to teach.

Jennings Seminars was founded by Bob Jennings CPA, CFP, CITP, a national and World renowned speaker. Jennings has published articles in such magazines as The Journal of Accountancy and The Practical Accountant along with authoring several accounting and technology seminar manuals.

If you can’t make this event look for another posting in October for a similar offer for a November seminar.

Getting things done effectively during the day can be challenge, whole books have been written on the subject.  Add in the complexity that comes with having multiple simultaneous projects to manage, each with multiple team members, and the possibilities for confusion start to multiply rapidly.  A project management/collaboration tool can help you stay on track and complete tasks on schedule while tracking time and resource allocation.

One such project management tool is the Basecamp application.  Here is a small breakdown on how Basecamp works (see the Basecamp website for more)  and a description of some of the application’s benefits.

The better way to get projects done. That is the tag-line on the homepage for Basecamp. When you see list of users from National Geographic to Adidas, Trek, and Patagonia you can guess they are not making an empty boast.

Safe and secure. First off any system that you use to share any data regarding your accounting firm should be secure and safe. Knowing that all Basecamp plans include SSL encryption and their servers are, “protected by biometric locks and 24-hour surveillance” is sure to ease anyone’s mind.

The Dashboard. There is a dashboard within Basecamp that allows you to get a bird’s eye view of milestones, projects, comments, to-do lists, files, and more. It is from here that you get an idea of where everything is at in one glance. Flying at 3,000 feet can give you a good overview but click on any of what you see and instantly be taken to a ground level view.

The base in Basecamp starts with projects. Projects are what every other tool within Basecamp are attached to. The amount of projects allowed get depends upon the subscription plan you select.

They do have a 30 day free trial but in small print they also offer a free plan. The free plan has enough limitations to make it prohibitive to use for any serious work. You may be able to get by with it though if you are creative enough.

Breaking it all down. As with any project it is good to break it down into small, manageable chunks that have a deadline. Basecamp does this via milestones that are date specific and attached to a particular person.

The projects also have messages, to-do lists, writeboards, chat, files and time tracking.

The key is collaboration. The collaborative nature of Basecamp is key to what makes it tick along so well. There is a flow of communication to those that are subscribed, via email, to any project.

Milestone messages. You can keep track of versions of files while keeping everyone up to date with milestone messages. When a message is created everyone who is subscribed can get an email.

Instead of having to login directly any person can reply via email to the conversation. Everything is still kept track of within the milestone in case there is another person added later in the conversation.

Larger projects can have several people working on several different milestones. Being able to keep track of all of these within one area can save a lot of time. It is also an effective way to keep communication open and up to date.

Basecamp has a lot to offer that is covered via video on their website. It is worth taking a look at and testing out on your next project.

Have your own experience with online project management tools? Send a comment.

Every page on your accounting firm’s website hosted by CPA Site Solutions includes a footer with your contact information. It is possible to make that footer much more than just a few lines of address information.

The footers are traditionally an easy way to provide contact information to users who might have arrived on an internal page of your site from a search engine. How you present that information can be key to how a potential client views your accounting firm.

You can leverage this small but important bit of real estate that shows on every page of your firm’s website. Here is a quick look at what the footer usually holds and the ways to change that.

Update All Footers

Edit to one can edit all. You can edit every footer on your site by simply making the change to one footer, and applying those changes to all the other footers.

If our default centered, single column of your contact information doesn’t appeal to you, there are endless other options for taking advantage of the footer field.

Lay out your contact information horizontally:

Lay it out horizontally on two lines. This is especially helpful if you have extra information:

Spread your information across two columns. You can take advantage of the editor’s table feature and spread the information using two columns. This is especially useful if you have two offices:

Include your accounting firm’s logo. If your logo will fit, consider including it in your footer. If it’s slim enough you can fit it in next to your contact information by using a table:

2911 Bond Street, Ste. 105 Everett, WA 98201 Phone: (425)252-6909 info@BauerEvans.com

If your logo is wider, center it above  your contact information:

2911 Bond Street, Ste. 105 Everett, WA 98201

Phone: (425)252-6909 info@BauerEvans.com

Include certificates and membership images. Have a Quickbooks certificate or a member of an important local organization? Including these images help’s to sell your firm.

Check out some of our sample sites to see how our other clients are using the footer:

Talley, Mauldin & Peet, P.C. use their footer as a secondary navigation bar, and to display their QuickBooks ProAdvisor badge:

stm-cpa.com Footer Example

If you have memberships to Accounting, business or other organizations and want to show your membership emblems, than the footer is an excellent place to do so. Check out Steven H. Mangan’s website for an example:

Steven H. Mangan's Footer

There are endless possibilities available for the footer section of every page of your site, much more than just the few examples above.  Just like the rest of your site, the footer’s content is entirely up to you.

To get started adjusting the content of your site and your footer, just log in to your Firm Portal, and start editing your site. To learn more, check out our SiteManager video walkthrough, and help page.

Have a comment about how to use the footer area effectively? Send along a comment to share your experiences.

Google Profiles are quickly becoming a popular tool for professionals in diverse fields to market their services and particular areas of expertise.   Google Profiles are free, easy to set up and offer many advantages given the fact that Google is the dominant player in Internet search.  Don’t have a Google Profile? Here are some easy tips on how to get a profile and why you should.

What is a Google Profile?  A Google Profile Page displays when a person searches for your name. So for example if I were to search for our Custom Web Designer Erik Thomsen his profile turns up on page one.

Erik Thomsen's Google Profile

Erik’s profile includes a description and links to different interests. The page can include descriptive text and links to a blog, or other profiles on Linkedln, Facebook and more. There is a huge potential to use this as a marketing tool for your accounting services.  For example, if you have a created a professional profile on your firm’s website, you can create a custom link directly to the page on your Google Profile.

Google Profiles are still new. This means that creating your Google Profile now can go a long way towards a search result bringing you up on page one. This may change as these become more popular.

More control of your online image. The use of Google Profiles is another way to ensure that when a search is made for you a potential client gets the information you want them to see. This is much better than having the potential client view random bits of information gathered from unknown sources.

Only display information you want. According to Google, “Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.” You can include links to your accounting firm’s website, services and other web content in one location.

Google's Profile Page Sign Up

Ready to get started? Here is how:

Create a Google Account. If you don’t already have one you need to set-up a Google Account. The account is free, easy, and quick to set-up.

Create your profile. Once you have the account you can create your profile. This would be a great place to put your accounting firm’s website and services along with contact information.

If your unsure or need inspiration you might check our some profile examples like Tim O’Reilly the CEO of O’Reilly Media or Jeff Huber an Engineer at Google.

See all those links on the right side of their profile? These are a sign of social media at work and other great ways to have online media work for you and your firm.

Advanced features to consider. Make your profile easier to find, add photos, share contact information, receive messages through your profile and more. You can find all of this under the Customizing section of Google Profile help.

Having a Google Profile page is another way to market your accounting services. When a person searches for you have the best possible information available for them via a Google Profile.

Have your own story about Google Profiles? Send a comment.