If you’re like me, you think of things you have to do at the least convenient times – in the car, during dinner, in the middle of the night.

Did you know that accounting websites with CPA Site Solutions help you capture those important tasks and add them to your to-do list from anywhere?

Update the list in one place and it updates everywhere, including your iPhone.

As long as you have your iPhone, Blackberry, or any cell phone, you’re plugged in to your to-do list.

No more slips of paper with a messy scrawl that you wrote in the dark at 3:00 in the morning. No more rewriting the same list by hand every few days. No more updating a list in Word on your computer.

This means your to-do list stays up-to-date and is actually useful. And your productivity soars.

Small Improvement, Big Payoff

With our Workteam Collaboration Suite, you have a simple to-do list at your disposal. It’s called Tasks, and it’s right on your email page.

Simply check off items when they're complete.

It seems like a small thing, but having an easy way to keep your to-do list up-to-date makes a big difference – because you actually use it.

And when you use a to-do list on a regular basis, you greatly increase productivity.

Here’s why a to-do list helps you increase efficiency:

• It allows you to prioritize your tasks, so you’re sure to get the most important jobs done.

• When you see the list laid out in your Tasks, you see how some tasks can be done together or back-to-back.

• If an emergency arises – and one always does – a to-do list helps you get back on track once you’ve handled it.

• Finally, it’s a stress reliever. Getting it out of your mind and onto the computer takes a big load off.

Your Task List Is Super Easy to Use

The Task list included with your Workteam Collaboration Suite is totally intuitive. It’s not fancy – but that’s why it gets the job done.

Here’s what it can do:

• Simply start typing to add a new task.

• Reorder tasks by dragging and dropping.

• Check off completed tasks to cross them out; view completed tasks if you want.

• Pop out the list so it sits on your desktop.

• Create multiple lists – perhaps one for each type of client – and easily switch among lists.

• Convert an email into a task with the click of a mouse.

To convert an email to your tasks, choose "Add to Tasks" from the More Actions menu (Click to Enlarge Image).

• Best of all, your Task list is synced with your cell phone – an iPhone, Blackberry, or any mobile phone. Update it from anywhere and keep the list relevant and dynamic.

There’s No Charge for the Task List…

…with accounting websites from CPA Site Solutions.

Use a to-do list to maximize your time – and take advantage of the Task list that comes with your Workteam Collaboration Suite.

To get started with our Workteam Collaboration Suite, call 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com.

Do you use a to-do list? Has it increased your efficiency? Let us know with a comment.

You know one sure way to retain clients?

Show them you care about them.

Accounting websites with CPA Site Solutions allow you to do just that – with no extra time, effort, or expense.

Our Free Offer – QuickBooks Backup

Offer Free QuickBooks Backup to Clients

When you have a website with CPA Site Solutions, you can sign up for online backup of 2 GB of your QuickBooks files.

Now, you can extend this free offer to your clients, too. When they sign up, they receive online backup of 2 GB of their QuickBooks files – or other accounting software – absolutely free for 3 years.

With this free offer, you exceed their expectations for service from an accountant.

Simply put, you demonstrate a level of caring that’s far above average.

This translates into a stronger bond with your clients – and a sure path to higher retention rates.

Online Backup Offers the Best Protection

I’m willing to bet that a majority of your clients do not back up their computer files. Of those who do, many use traditional backup methods, like an external hard drive.

That means by and large, your clients are putting their financial security at risk.

They might have no idea how serious the risk is. But if they lost their accounting files, their lives would be deeply disrupted. It would take lots of time and money to restore their data, if they could at all.

The only way to ensure your data is fully protected is to use online backup. With our offer, your clients get state-of-the-art online backup for their most important files.

Clients Stick with Accountants Who Care

Impress Your Clients with Our Free Offer

Be the service professional who goes above and beyond for your clients by protecting them from this disaster.

Here are all the ways this offer shows your level of caring:

• It saves clients money. Online backup costs up to $99.50/year (IBackup).

• It protects their financial data with the best technology available – preventing the unpleasant fallout from a natural disaster or hard drive crash.

• It gets you in front of their needs, providing a solution to a problem they might not know they had.

It’s unlikely other accountants offer this service. Set yourself apart by caring more than the competition.

And hold on to your precious clients.

It’s easy to do: give us a call at 800-896-4500, or send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com. We add the “QuickBooks Online Backup” page to your site, clients visit the page and sign up right there – and you do nothing. We take care of the rest.

Do your clients back up their data regularly? Leave a comment below.

Seminars not only make money for your firm, but are also a great way to advertise your services. The seminar process is a whole lot easier using online tools.

Here are 6 ways to improve the next seminar for your firm.

Easily Change the Order in Which Seminars Appear

Seminar Page. Adding a seminar page to your CPA website provides you with a built-in registration system (see tutorial). Once you have several seminars in place, reordering the seminars is easy via the editing screen (see figure to the right).

Free Slide Presenter. Use a free slide presenter to add clarity to your ideas. The tool is online and easy to use.

Advertise and Communicate. Once you have a seminar page set up, you need to advertise to get people to attend. Use the Email Marketing System to advertise to your existing contact list. Once people have signed up, use the EMS to further communicate to the list of attendees reminding of start dates and requirements to attend.

Events Blog. You can advertise your seminar for free on the CPA Site Solutions events blog. If you have a seminar ready to go, send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with the date, time, and – if it’s not online – the location.

Consider Giving Quizzes. Online quizzes help to reinforce what you are teaching. The quizzes don’t have to be hard and often provide interaction from your audience as they engage with a prompted Q and A session.

Post-Seminar Interaction. Consider doing a survey of your attendees once the seminar is over. This is a great way to get feedback and incorporate suggestions for the next one. Survey Monkey is a great free resource for up to ten questions.

Doing seminars is easier using some of the online tools available to any website hosted by CPA Site Solutions. If you have suggestions about the seminar or any other tools, send an email or comment below.

Don’t miss out on tips for your CPA website. Sign up for weekly updates sent directly to your inbox (see the newsletter sign-up form on the right). Your email is used for these updates only.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Great designs mean nothing without solid content

The copy on your accounting website is important. Your words are your marketing voice. You want to attract prospective clients by telling them what sets you apart from the competition.  A nice looking site alone can’t do that.  Here are some tips for making sure the text on your site doesn’t get overlooked.

No underestimation for your punctuation

Those grammar rules you learned so long ago STILL apply on the Internet. Do you know the difference between their vs. there vs. they’re?  What about your versus you’re?  If not, you should probably brush up, because being accurate adds credibility to your site.

If you promise me you’re going to do my taxes right, but you don’t remember which witch is which, then I’m less likely to believe your promise of carefully filing my taxes. You want to market yourself as a reputable and accurate CPA who goes the extra mile to get it right.

Put in the time to read over your site, ask a trusted friend to check it for spelling, punctuation and grammar. Show your clients that you’re willing to go the extra step to make accuracy a top priority.

The Break-Up

Even newspapers, known for their text-heavy pages, break up their paragraphs with spaces, bullet points, photos and graphics.  The same should apply to web writing, perhaps even more so. Online readers are accustomed to glancing at headlines, and are often drawn towards small blocks of text as opposed to larger ones.

Don’t overwhelm visitors to your accounting website with paragraph upon paragraph of text without using something to break it up.

• Bullet point information that lends itself to being in a list.
• Don’t be afraid to hit the enter key each time you being a new thought.
• If you’ve got a visual, throw a small photo or graphic icon on the page to break up all those words!

Some readers are turned off by a page of static text, no matter how well-written it is.  Take that same page of text and jazz up the layout just by using some simple spacing.

Why Should They Care?

Why should your potential client care what you have to say?  The answer should ring loud and clear throughout your copy (see point #3 in this post). It’s not about all the tools you have on your accounting website. It’s about why those tools save your clients time, money and energy.

You want the content on your site to excite potential clients. Let clients know, for example, that a secure file exchange system means instant access to their tax documents 24/7.  Now the client sees the value behind a service you offer.

Think about the “why should I care” idea each time you write about the services you provide. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and think about what they’d be most excited about if they were looking for a CPA and came across your website.

Any CPA website hosted by CPA Site Solutions has access to website statistics via the Webalizer. These stats give you reporting on such things as how many visitors you are getting to your CPA website. Google also offers reporting via Google Analytics. You now have access to adding Google Analytics code directly to your CPA website within the Site Manager.

Why Use Stats. Seeing what traffic comes to your CPA website helps you interact more with potential clients. For example, not everyone comes to your accounting website from the homepage. Website stats gives you a chance to see what website pages a visitor came in on, how long they stayed, and where they go next.

Responding to Stats. Having website stats gives your accounting firm a chance to respond to visitor habits. Your have the potential to keep visitors longer by making changes to pages that have a high “bounce rate.” Visitor reports lets you know which pages visitors are leaving right away and which pages retain visitors longer.

Free Analytics. Google Analytics is free, see a previous blog post that gives more details. You also have the website analytics from the CPA Site Solutions Webalizer.

How to Add. There is now a video and screen shot walk through in the help section. Each shows just how to add the code you get from Google directly to your accounting website.

Best Practices. Viewing your accounting website stats is addicting. You get to see exactly what visitors are doing and how many are coming. You really won’t get a good idea of trends until you let the data go for a number of months. After some time passes, get a much better idea of averages and make more complete and informed decisions.

Do you already use accounting website statistics? How has it worked to improve your own website? Send a comment below.

This is the last part of a three part series looking at using PDF files to get new subscribers to your accounting website newsletter. Part one looked at using PDF files and part two creating the PDF. This last part looks at linking to the PDF file in your Email Marketing System welcome message.

Uploading the PDF. There is a great video tutorial on how to upload the PDF document to your website. You need to do this before you are able to link to it from your accounting website newsletter welcome message.

Linking to the PDF. The key to linking to the file you created is to use the full URL. The help directions are for adding a file link to your website page. The newsletter is different so the link needs to be a full link. For example, the tutorial has the path as being “/images/NameOfFile.pdf” and you need to change that to “http://www.yourwebsite.com/images/NameOfFile.pdf”

Changing the Welcome Message. All that remains is to view the help section on changing your newsletter welcome message. You are going to add the link to the PDF file within the message. You also want to add some text that talks a bit about what is included within the PDF. For example, “Thanks for subscribing to our newsletter! Here is the link to the free PDF packed with information on such and such and such and such.”

Future PDF Content. Over time the information you gathered for your free PDF may need to be updated. There are always more articles to pick from making the overall process easy to duplicate. Just keep an eye out on the article websites.

That is the end of this newsletter series. If you have any questions about any part of the series please email support@cpasitesolutions.com or call 800-896-4500.

Do you have other sources of free online content? Share in comments below.

Offsite backup of critical files is essential for any CPA firm. Your Quickbooks files are some of the most critical. Now there is an easy solution to just backup Quickbooks files. It is called the Protector and is included free with any accounting website hosted by CPA Site Solutions. Below are the details. Eager to just get started? Click here to sign up.

Why Offsite Backup. Disasters strike anytime, anywhere. The best way to go into a disaster is being prepared. Offsite backup ensures that your CPA firm has the critical data it needs to keep running should disaster strike at anytime. You sleep better knowing those files are secure and you retain your clients confidence.

50 Gigs of Storage. When you have a website hosted by CPA Site Solutions you automatically get 2 gigs of storage free for all your Quickbooks files. After signing up an email comes with a license key and link to download the software.

Virtual Computer Drive. Once the software is installed a virtual drive should appear alongside your other computer drives. This is a virtual drive and functions in much the same way as your regular hard drive. Placing files in this drive means they are automatically backed up offline.

Automatic Backup. There is an automatic backup feature. The software scans your files and automatically backs up any Quickbooks files. You don’t have to do anything to make this happen, it is all done for you.

All Files. You have the option, at anytime, of upgrading to a plan that automatically does the same for all your computer files, not just Quickbooks. This works well if you have a number of other files that you need to backup offsite.

Already have your own offsite backup solution? How has it worked out for you? Comment below.

Fresh and unique content on your accounting website is great for your potential clients and search engines. Getting people to your blog though is an ongoing project. One way to make that project a little easier is to work with other people. Start right now by requesting to write a guest blog post on CPA Site Solutions. Send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with the subject line of “Blog Post.”

Guest Blogging. When you write a post for another website you increase traffic to your own. Your guest post introduces a new set of readers to your accounting website.

Finding A Blog. Once you know that you want to write a post for another website, the next key is finding a blog. You want to find one that has a similar audience.

Similar means that it is in the same realm or subject. The intent is less about targeted traffic of potential clients and more about overall traffic.

This Blog. Consider writing a blog post for the CPA Site Solutions blog. The blog is read by over 4,000 CPAs and other tax professionals each month. Why would you want to write to be viewed by potential competitors?

Would you present your ideas at a conference of like minded individuals? Of course. It is the same with writing a guest post. There is a benefit to learning and collaborating together. In an ideal sense that is what they Internet is about, making connections and relationships. Send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with your request to write a guest post.

Branching Out. Once you have branched out as a guest blogger, invite others to write on your own blog. This not only lends a different voice but again builds an ongoing online collaboration. When your post is good then a lot of people send it around to read.

Think of the root system of a tree. It is stronger and able to gather more resources to survive the more it branches out. Writing a post on another website becomes another small branch of your accounting firm’s root system.

Social Media. Once you write as a guest blogger or have someone write on your own blog, be sure to use your social media channels. Do a short Tweet or post on Facebook about the post. This leverages the millage you get from it.

How has your blog been useful on your own accounting website? Send a comment below.

Any CPA website hosted by CPA Site Solutions automatically has the benefit of email, online documents and more via the Workteam Collaboration Suite. Email integration is easy enough however using online documents, part of a paperless office solution, is sometimes a longer process. The integration of online documents within Microsoft Office through Officesync is easy. It also makes your accounting firm efficient and is one more step towards a paperless office.

Integration. A quick free download gives you access to your Google docs via Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007. The free version gives you the ability to collaborate using Office and Google Docs. There is a premium version that allows collaboration via Google Sites that could be worth it.

How It Works. Officesync shows up directly within your Microsoft Office software. Right below the Save As button you should see an Officesync option. From here everyone in your accounting firm has the option to open, create, or share an online document.

The Benefits. If your accounting firm collaborates on documents between team members, then you have the benefit of instant updates. This shortens the time it takes to work on a project between accounting firm team members. All team members have instant access to any and all updates that have been made to a document, while never leaving Microsoft Office.

Most accounting firm’s are used to using Microsoft Office. Having Officesync means no one in your accounting firm has to learn much more. Accounting members do get the benefits of Google docs within their existing workflow. These benefits include being able to share documents online, access a document from any browser, and team collaboration.

More and more accounting firms are recognizing the benefits of a paperless office in terms of efficiency. Since Officesync integrates with Microsoft Office, there is little or no learning curve.

Do you already use Google Docs within your accounting firm? How has it helped your accounting firm get things done? Comment below.

When a potential client performs a search for a CPA or accounting firm, they are typically looking for a local firm. Searching on “CPA” or “accounting firm” yields mostly irrelevant search results. More likely searches are made with a location and service, such as “Miami Accountant”  or “Fort Worth TX CPA”.

Google, Yahoo and Bing recognize such local searches. When they detect a local search, they will show the local listings above the organic listings. These listings are often significantly more relevant then the organic listings.

Local Directories. There are other local directories such as YellowBook, AT&T Yellowpages, Kudzu, and many others. Many of them may already have a listing for your CPA firm.

The source data for your listings probably originated from a variety of third-party sources. There may very well be variations in your listing name, address and phone number. This potentially creates multiple representations of your business online. This hinders the ability of the various local search engines to know which of your listings is the true identity.

Updating Your Contact Information. Change your address or phone number and update your CPA website? Unless you have control of your local directory listings, your updated data may never be reflected in the directories. The online directories do their best to ensure they have accurate data. However, if you were at your old address for 10 years, then there may be hundreds of sites and directories that show your business at the old address. All that information can influence the major local directories into believing that is the right data.

Going Mobile. In an ever increasing mobile world, people are relying on local data more and more. In fact 45% of local searches are performed by people who know the company they are looking for. These searchers rely on and expect to find your current address, phone number and driving directions. They are relying less and less on finding it via your website.

Taking Control. For these reasons it is important that your business controls and proactively manages your local business identity. This increases the confidence of the local search platforms that they have valid and accurate data. This also increases the local platforms ability to link other unique content such as customer reviews and social media.

CPA Site Solutions has a Local SEO service, that optimizes and manages your CPA firm’s local listing for you. Rest assured that your business identity is submitted to and consistent across over 100 directories, including all the major local search platforms. When you change your address or phone number, CPA Site Solutions makes sure your information is updated in the local directories. That ensures existing and new customers alike are able to find your CPA firm.