BillQuick Advisors in Action

BillQuick Advisors are out working with their clients. New and upgrade sales in May 2009 were over 158% higher than April. This continues the trend of month-over-month higher sales by BillQuick resellers.

This indicates the economy is turning around for professional firms. Not only accounting firms are investing in BillQuick, but also law firms, engineering firms, architectural firms and others.

In April, BillQuick’s most active resellers were

• Kara R. Haas, CPA (top seller of the month)
• Paul J. Davidian & Company
• Technology Solutions Associates

In May, the most active resellers were:

• The Attivo Group (top seller of the month)
• Being in Balance, Betty Van Dyck (close second for May)
• Balanced Bookkeeping, Heidi Triezenberg Morgan
• Deemer Dana Froehle, CPAs

Thanks to all of you for great advising!

Computing the Ideal Bill Rate

Many firm owners and managers do not take into account all the key elements that make up an ideal bill rate for an employee. As their advisor, you want to impress them with the depth of value you bring to the table . . . and that you are practical in your approach.

This short video identifies the key elements, including overhead multiplier and utilization rate, and show you how to compute the ideal rate using information that’s readily at hand. It is practical, proven way to compute the ideal bill rate without getting so deep into concepts and details that your clients’ eyes gloss over.

After watching the video, proactively talk to your clients. Help them not only survive the current economic times, but thrive now and more so when the business cycle turns up again. Of course, fine tune the approach to their needs.

Click here to watch the video.

Getting a Quote for Customized Invoices & Reports

(Part 2 of a 2-part post)

Part 1 discussed:

• What does “Customization” mean
• Why you might customize BillQuick invoices, statements and reports
• Customization options
• Which option is best for your client

For the do it yourself/let the client do it options, a quick summary of requirements and consulting services was included.

Advisors: Remember that you are commissioned on all product and service sales delivered to BQE Software. This includes consulting services.

When will a customization situation arise?

There are several situations when your client might consider customizing an invoice, statement or report.

1. You raise this as an option when doing a needs analysis, workflow analysis or when working through a quote with your client. Invoices, statements and reports content and how they are laid out (presentation) should be part of every needs analysis.
2. Your client tells you that BillQuick invoices or reports “just aren’t right” or “are not adequate” during a follow-up visit or call.
3. Your client tells a BillQuick Support Rep, BillQuick Certified Trainer or BillQuick Certified Consultant invoices or reports “just aren’t right” or “are not adequate”.
4. Your client learns about the customization option through BillQuick Help, the BillQuick Reference Guide, or the BillQuick eLetter.

To maximize your client’s satisfaction with you and with BillQuick, the best time for customization to come up is the needs analysis or quote. Your client does not feel like there was a “gotcha” hidden from them. During the early stage of a new relationship, clients are more open to what they will invest to gain desired benefits. Learning about this option later can sometimes frustrated clients.

How to get a quote for report customization?

The BillQuick Report Team can customize standard BillQuick invoices, statements and reports, as well as create customize output to your client’s specifications. Templates can be defined for output to a printer, as PDF file, in an Access database file, in a comma separated value file, and other formats.

Follow the steps below to obtain a quote:

1. Review the standard templates (invoices, statements, reports) included with BillQuick to determine if one is close to what your client wants. Print a sample copy of the invoice, statement or report. Customizing an existing template takes less time than creating one from scratch – for you, your client and for the BillQuick Report Team, thus reducing the overall investment.
2. If there is no standard template like what your client needs, create a mock up or obtain an existing sample from your client’s files.
3. Mark up the sample template. Note where changes should be made. If special process is required, such as presenting a subset of data or presenting details in a summary form, make a note of this.
4. Fax or scan and email the marked up template to the BillQuick Report Team Manager or the BillQuick Reseller Channel Manager.
5. The BillQuick Report Team Manager will review the customization needed. If necessary, he will contact you with questions. Typically, you have a quote within 72 hours.

How to submit a sales order for report customization?

To ensure proper credit – both for your commission and addition to your accumulated sales, do the follow when submitting a sales order for report customization.

1. After confirming with your client to go ahead, use the quote to complete the BillQuick Advisor Order Form.
2. Submit the form to the Channel Manager.

Custom templates will be delivered within 10 business days.

NOTE: If you verbally accept the quote and give the go-ahead to the BillQuick Report Team Manager after discussing the work, be sure to inform the Channel Manager.

NOTE: The BillQuick Advisor Order Form is included in each Advisor’s Welcome Pack. Also, you can download a copy from the Marketing & Consulting Resources blog page.

Advisors: Remember that you are commissioned on all product and service sales delivered to BQE Software. This includes consulting services.

The BillQuick Report Team Guarantee

All work will be to the client’s satisfaction.

If BQE Software changes the run-time version of Crystal Reports built into BillQuick and this impacts any custom invoice, statement or report, the template will be updated at no charge to the client.

Customize Invoices & Reports?

(This is Part 1 of a 2-part post)

Any BillQuick invoice, statement or report can be customized.

What does “Customization” mean?

Customization means some aspect of a standard BillQuick invoice, statement or report, called a “template,” is changed in some way. This might involve:

• Adding a special-size company logo
• Replacing the entire company “letterhead” area with the company’s standard letterhead
• Adding or removing columns of data
• Rearranging invoice memos or detail time and expense memos
• Adding or removing a billing and payment history block
  
• Add or removing an invoice aging block
• Creating a new summary invoice page with details on a second page
• Adding a profit percentage column
• Adding a profit multiple column
• Adding a bar or pie chart to a report
  

Customization also means a template is created from scratch. A sample or mock-up of an invoice, statement or report is used. Also, instructions (specifications) define the data to pull from BillQuick and how to process it before placing it in the right place in the template. These instructions also describe the presentation (text, graphic) and desired output (printer, database file, etc).

In short, there is a lot the BillQuick Report Team can do for your client.

Why Customize?

Invoices and statements sent to customers of your client reflect the firm’s professional image. This is no small part of their marketing and branding with clients. Also, clients want invoices and statements that clearly and effectively communicate the work done and financial information.

For reports used in a client’s firm, the greatest benefits are gained when information matches their  management style. Because styles vary among firms, this can be a major source of efficiency and time savings. Always remind your clients about this. What information is presented and how it is laid out is often an unconscious expectation among clients.

What are your customization options?

1. Outsource to the BillQuick Report Team.
2. You do it yourself for a BillQuick customer.
3. A BillQuick customer does it.

Which option is best for your client?

If your firm or your client has a Crystal Reports programmer on staff and they have time to do the work, then using them is the best option. See Do It Yourself or Client Does It below.

In most situations, you will want to outsource the work to the BillQuick Report Team because:

• No one has adequate skills.
• Time to do the work is in short supply.
• Crystal Reports experience is not used everyday, resulting in more time for the relearning process and doing the work.

In short, there is a real, often overlooked, cost for doing. Whether done by you or your client, time that is otherwise billable at a good rate can be lost.

To get a quote from the BillQuick Report Team, see Part 2 – Quote for Customized Reports & Invoices.

Do It Yourself or Client Does It

All standard invoice, statement and report templates included with BillQuick can be customized.

To work with a template you need Crystal Reports 10 or later. Also, you need to know how to use Crystal Reports. If you do not, please obtain training and other Crystal Reports services via the Web and a local resource.

BQE Software does not provide technical support for Crystal Reports. However, members of the BillQuick Report Team do provide for-fee consulting services.

Advisors: You are commissioned on all product and service sales delivered to BQE Software. This includes consulting services.

Updated eBooks Now Brandable to Advisors

Three BillQuick eBooks for Business Managers, Billing Managers and Project Managers have been updated. Advisors can now brand these marketing pieces with their logo and contact information.

Use the eBooks to target information to key individuals within a company. Each eBook provides sample reports and invoices important to owners, principals, partners, accountants, office managers and project managers.

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

Do you have ideas for other BillQuick marketing pieces or advisor tools?

Updated 25 Reasons Brochure

The 25 Reasons Why QuickBooks Users Need BillQuick brochure is now brandable by BillQuick Advisors. Drop your logo and contact information into the brochure.

Use this small brochure to help clients view their management needs, daily activities and other “pains” in a new light. Rather than twist and wedge QuickBooks or punt into Excel and Word to capture information, help them learn about BillQuick’s flexibility and critical project and business management information. And remind them that BillQuick tightly integrates with QuickBooks.

This new marketing piece comes in two formats:

• PDF ready for download and viewing from the web or an email
• PDF ready for your printer, including color bleeds

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

If you have an idea for other marketing pieces, please add a comment to this post.

New Brandable BillQuick Datasheet Brochure

Available immediately, the new BillQuick Datasheet can be branded by BillQuick Advisors. Drop your logo and contact information into the brochure and you’re ready to go.

Let them know you are thinking about their future success. Keep a few printed copies of the brochure in your briefcase to give to clients. Also, keep a PDF copy on the Windows Desktop of your laptop and desktop. Be ready to send it to anyone with a few clicks.

Hey, you’re on the road. Keep a PDF copy in your smartphone ready to send to a prospect or client.

This new marketing piece comes in two formats:

• PDF ready for download and viewing from the web or an email
• PDF ready for your printer, including color bleeds

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

If you have an idea for other marketing pieces, please add a comment to this post.

BQE + Advisor = Collaboration

When you sign up to work with BQE Software, you should not subjugate your company identity to BillQuick. At the same time, you should not subjugate or hide BQE Software or BillQuick from the relationship either. In fact, there is no way to hide us from your client. Your client – our BillQuick Customer – sees BillQuick every day. They see phone numbers within the software. And they receive regular communications from us, including:

• The monthly BillQuick eLetter with how-to user and business demos and articles
• Announcements of new and updated products and services
• Announcement of white papers, demos and other useful information
• Announcement of special information webinars
• Marketing promotions
• Technical support renewal letters and email
• Software upgrade letters and email

It is important that you work to establish a strong working relationship with your client. They should view BillQuick products and services as an extension of your expertise and company. For example:

1. During Information Collection (an initial buying stage), you can leverage your clients and your own time by signing them up for a BillQuick Walk-Thru. Delivered by a BillQuick Expert (BQE employee), your client is introduced in a positive way to BillQuick and BQE Software. It demonstrates you have resources behind you.
2. You would perform a needs analysis and discuss workflow with your client. As needed, you would call on the BillQuick Channel Manager to help you (this assistance is called Pre-Sales Consulting). Again, your client’s experience with BillQuick and BQE Software is positive and have shown you have resources to call on. Your client see a solid, substantial collaboration. You and BQE are a team working for their benefit.
3. You would prepare a price estimate. Again, the BillQuick Channel Manager is available to assist as needed.
4. After completing the sale, you would manage the implementation. Again, you have BillQuick Certified Trainers and BillQuick Specialists ready to assist you. You look good to your client because the BillQuick resources you call on help them move forward.

Another benefit of establishing a collaboration image between BQE and your company with your clients is your client is not confused. BillQuick and BQE Software are not nebulous names floating around their desktop. They know you can call on these resources and that they can call on BQE Software directly and receive the assistance they need. Your light shines a little brighter each time they have a positive experience with BillQuick and BQE Software.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes? Small firms can benefit from time and billing software.

Back in 2005, a technology survey done by the American Bar Association shows that 41% of attorneys in 2 to 9 lawyer firms and 53% of lawyers in firms with 10 to 49 attorneys, used time and billing software.

Why is this a big deal? Well, if you don’t capture your time:

1. You will fail to collect all earned revenue,
2. Profitability will be skewed because you did not account for all the costs associated with generating the revenue, and/or
3. Hidden costs among administrative staff involved in processing and tracking billable hours may increase.

These are real problems within small law firms. AND IN OTHER FIRMS TOO.

Many small architectural, engineering, consulting, accounting and other firms do not track hours with discipline. Some charge a recurring or fixed fee and as long as the bills are paid, they don’t worry about it. These professional are fixated on “count the $$ in my wallet,” an attitude essential in the start-up phase. Of course, cash flow is critical but so is other management information. It is the difference between treating your professional firm like a hobby business or street vendor business and like a solid concern you want to be stable and growing.

Think about this the next time you talk to a client or a prospect. It is never too late for them to use technology for its maximum benefits to their firm.

There is no FREE BillQuick Support

When one of your clients purchase BillQuick or any add-on module, they receive 30 days of support with it. This is not Free Support. It is a start-up support contract bundled with the software and included in the price of the software.

There is no free. Free has no value.

There is no FREE!

(This advice applies to you as well as to your customers.)

Get the word FREE out of your daily business talk. Relegate it to a locked place in your modus operandi that requires at least 10 seconds to unlock while you consider the short-term and long-term consequences.

You do not provide services for free. You provide some services at no charge or choose to not charge for some work. And when you bill the client, NEVER, NEVER forget to include these items on the invoice and have it say “No Charge,” NOT “$0.00.”

When you put “$0.00” on an invoice, it means the service has NO VALUE. What does that say about your expertise and your investment in time and money to gain that expertise? How will a client value what you do for them when you don’t?

In contrast, when you say “No Charge,” you are telling a client that the service has value but that you CHOOSE NOT TO CHARGE them for it. In other words, you did the client a “favor.” It also puts the client on notice that if they ask for too many “favors”, they can expect to be charged.

When your invoice invoice one or more No Charge items, ALWAYS include a note that explains WHY. For example, tell them you were able to absorb the change to the project this time because other parts of the project went a little better than expected. Or say the No Charge is a goodwill gesture. Or if they have referred business to you, that it is your way to say thank you.

In the same vein, if you charge less than your full bill rate or your cost, include that fact on the invoice – add a note to clearly say this. You might decide to charge less than your full rate because you want to shift part of the value of the work into goodwill for the client. Or you might decide to eat part of the cost because the task took longer than planned, and billing the full amount might raise eyebrows or make a client wonder about your competence.

Whatever the reason, document it on the invoice. Make sure they know what the discount is for (IMPORTANT: Review Page 19 of the BillQuick Reseller Handbook). Refer to it as a Goodwill Discount. If appropriate, explain that what you learned in helping them will allow you to help others. This implies you are a smart businessperson and will get your investment back many times over.

Bottom Line: “Free” has no value unless you tell the client it has value. You deliver value, thus your business talk should include No Charge and Goodwill Discount. And your invoices should always have an explanation for both of these to ensure the client knows the value you provide. They will NOT “get it” unless you include an explanation.

New Marketing Tools for Advisors

BillQuick Advisors now have 3 new marketing tools to help them better communicate BillQuick’s benefits. The new tools are role specific. The 3 tools are:

1. BillQuick for Billing Managers eBook
2. BillQuick for Business Managers eBook
3. BillQuick for Project Managers eBook

Each eBook identifies key problems of the the target user. Summaries along with sample reports and invoices illustrate how BillQuick handles each problem.

By being role specific, the main influencers and decision-makers get information that helps them understand what BillQuick does for them as well as for the company overall.

These new tools are available to Advisors on the Marketing Resources page (password protected).

The BillQuick Advisor Business Model

Before launching the newest upgrade of the BQE Software’s reseller program, we talked a lot with BillQuick Advisors, other resellers, and industry experts. The conclusion was that advisors today are far less inclined to invest substantial time and money in every product they need to help their clients.  They want product and market knowledge. They want to be comfortable with a company’s solution, but they do not want to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.

Most advisors today reserve such investments for their core or “primary” solutions. They view products and services for “non-primary” solutions as resources to tap as needed. “Non-Primary” solutions are ones critical to a client’s business, but that the reseller has not invested substantial time and money. The application may become “primary” over time.

Of course, other advisors want to make a new solution part of their “primary” or core solutions. They want to expand their skills and knowledge to include BillQuick as a key focus in their business.

BQE Software offers partnership paths for both types of advisors.

Certified Advisor Partnership

The BillQuick Reseller Program is for the large majority of companies as noted above. These companies want fast, efficient and effective certification training that focuses on making its BillQuick Advisors comfortable with BillQuick. Their advisors should:

• Know when BillQuick is a good candidate.
• Know what products and services are available and where they fit with target markets and in various situations (e.g., remote and outsource staff).
• Understand the basics of time and expense entry.
• Understand billing options and flexibility.
• Understand how BillQuick’s time, expenses, billing, and other features save time and effort.
• Understand target market differences so the right products and services, their benefits and features are emphasized.
• Understand the basics of integration between BillQuick and QuickBooks, Microsoft Office Accounting, Peachtree Accounting and MYOB Accounting.

In other words, a reseller’s Advisor should know what BillQuick resources can serve their a client.

So, how does an advisor make money?

1. Commissions – BQE Software commissions advisors on products as well as training, consulting and custom report/invoice services. Once certified, advisors also receive commissions on technical support contracts and upgrades. Advisor training focuses on what’s needed to recognize opportunity, give good advice, and close the sale.
2. Value-Added Consulting – BillQuick is the not beginning and end of what a client needs. An effective advisory engagement with a client involves workflow discussions and needs analyses to make sure BillQuick is right for the client and to a great extend, layout a good part of the plan for implementation (optimizing BQ, customization, etc). A certified advisor’s training plus direct and indirect experience (e.g., blog articles, webinars) provides a solid foundation that facilitate value-added consulting.
3. Implementation Management – BillQuick needs to be implemented. More than simple installation of software, this involves data conversion, setting preferences before deployment, training and more. Some advisors do most of the implementation process using internal resources and available documentation. Most manage the process while outsourcing implementation tasks to leverage their time and compensate for less experience. Outsourcing may be to a local IT or other expert and/or to BillQuick Consulting (which can handle most consulting on-site or remotely). Your client pays you for the valuable service of expertly managing implementation (rather than them assigning someone to do it, taking time away from billable activities).

Value-added consulting and implementation management are natural parts of being a client’s advisor.