Creating an expense report (or claim, as Xero calls them) can be tedious, especially if you have multiple receipts to add to it. With Xero you can add a bunch of files — like photos of receipts — all at once, and then attach them to your claim later. Here’s how:
Start by logging into Xero. From the Dashboard, you’ll see a file folder icon in the upper right corner. Click on that icon.
The Dropbox app for iOS devices (iPhone/iPad) has this neat little trick to help you keep up-to-date with your expense receipts. The great thing about this approach is that, once you’ve set it up, there’s no need to go any further than your lockscreen to snap a receipt when say, taking a client to dinner.
1. On your iOS device, Download Dropbox from the App Store.
Google Forms is an extremely handy application in the Google Drive suite. You can use Forms to collaborate on documents, transfer files to other users, and create web forms that submit the data right into a Google Spreadsheet. But Google Forms are even more powerful when you integrate them with Google Sheets.
For example, you can create a Google Form that automatically saves the data collected into a Google Spreadsheet. The obvious benefit is collecting the results into a single spreadsheet for your own analysis or what-have-you. However, the form/spreadsheet integration can help you create a dynamic chart that updates each time with every new form entry.
Let’s say, for example, we are managing a charity fundraising website that includes a request for the site visitor to make a pledge for a donation. Each sponsor can fill out the fields in the Google Form, pledging the amount of money to donate. So far, so good. However, in addition to a list of sponsors and their contact information, we would like to track how much money has been donated, and what regional location is raising the most — ideally with some sort of visual to show progress.
Read More
Slack, for most of us, is either a ridiculously effective messaging and organizational tool or an undeniably addictive platform for posting GIFs and procrastinating on the company dime. But for those afflicted by colorblindness, Slack is just another whirring and buzzing rectangle taking up space on the screen.
Thankfully, it’s easy to customize Slack’s palette to compensate for both the red-green deficiency that the majority of those with color blindness are affected by, and the far rarer blue deficiency.
Read More
Networking is all about connecting with individuals both in and outside of your field to expand your opportunities. But if reaching out to people you don’t know feels daunting, focus on the people you already know by using the Rapportive Chrome extension.
To start, click here to install Rapportive. Once installed, restart your computer.
Read More
Trello may be one of the the best platforms for organizing your tasks, but it has one glaring flaw: no baked-in “priority” indicator for task cards.
While this is an oversight I hope the team fixes in the future, there is a simple workaround — Trello’s “Labels” feature. With labels, you can color code each task and assign unique names to each color. Each board can even have an entirely different set of labels if you want to get that specific. Here’s how:
Read MoreYou may already know that Google Sheets can insert images into the document using the “Insert Image” option, but it has limitations. In particular, you cannot control the display very well, and the image shows above the cells in the document.
Instead, by using the =IMAGE formula in Google Sheets, you easily can add images within the cell and managing how the image sizes.
Let’s say we have a series of photographs from a recent trip that we’d like to manage. We want to capture each image’s unique date, where the photo was taken, and notes about its purpose. By using the =IMAGE spreadsheet formula, we can display each image in a cell, as well as organize the other information in the rest of the row.
This is a tip I wish I’d known back when one of my clients needed everything in Word 97 format: you can configure Word 365 to save all of your files in something other than Word’s default .docx format — automatically.
Here’s how:
Go to File > Options > Save.
Plenty of managers are smart enough to get help with their daily email traffic. But many people don’t realize that they can give assistants access to only part of the load. Private correspondence stays private, while delegated items are routed to an assistant immediately. Here’s how this simple Gmail automation works.
You’re busy! To manage your time, you’ve identified slices of your work that someone else can do, and you found someone to do them. You naturally assume that the way to delegate this work is to share your e-mail password with the assistant: not so good.
Filter, don’t share. Here I show you how to configure an appropriate Gmail filter. The tip below applies equally whether you rely on fee-free Gmail or G Suite. (Apple Mail, Outlook, and other services offer similar functionality, but about one in six messages are read in Gmail.) Moreover, the configuration below works without regard to the e-mail system used by your assistant.
Read MoreOne of the handier features of MailChimp is the ability to integrate with many of the common social platforms to grow your mailing list. In this tip, we’ll show you how to add a signup form to your Facebook Business Page.
The first step is to login at MailChimp. Now, click on your profile in the upper right corner of the screen (1), then drop down and select Account (2). Once in the account section, click on the Integrations menu item (3)and then the Facebook integration (4).
