Sherra

Yes, they even have a tool that sets it all up for you with a load balancer, elastic computer cloud, and relational database. Reliability I know would be off the charts, but for a small site that isn't expected to get tons of hits, I'm not sure what the expenses would be & if it would be worth it to go with Amazon vs. a standard hosting service.

Does anybody host (or manage) a web site on AWS (Amazon)? I'm not talking about just for file storage, but hosting. Just looking for feedback on how it compares with other hosting services. Thanks.

Most probably don't know about it. Another reason is that IPN transactions come directly from the client's bank account & many clients prefer to pay with credit card. I offer IPN, Visa, MasterCard, Discover & AmEx as payment options for my clients (they can also mail me a check, but only 1 of my clients mails me checks...he's a local QB client). I've only had 2 IPN payments in the past year. For the VA's with several clients who do pay with checks, it's definitely an option they should look into.

Although PayPal is not technically a bank it SHOULD be set up as a bank account in QuickBooks. You "can" even import PayPal transactions into QuickBooks like you do a regular bank - BUT I would suggest you practice importing into a sample company file several times first. Importing PP can be very tricky because when the file exports it often includes transactions that don't affect the balance and can throw of the balance in QB unless you know what to look for and what to "clean up" from the downloaded transactions.

For anyone who's considering replying to Candy...I don't work with her personally, but I've interacted with her in different venues (and yes, I've met her in person). I wouldn't call her bunch weird - I'd say eclectic. She's blunt (one ofthe things I love about her), funny, VERY knowledgeable in bookkeeping (you can learn a lot from her), and I know she treats her subs VERY well if they do right by her & OffAssit's clients. If you're looking to niche in bookkeeping & think you could survive Lanel's bite (LOL just kidding...???), definitely shoot her an e-mail & make it a point to spend at least a few minutes with her at Summit.

Ya lost me there chickie...

I'm looking for a source for a fun, funky client gift (for a referral). She's a "de-stress", fun-loving, mind/body/spirit type who's in her 50s (maybe 60??) but loves to do "fun" things (like hula-hoop & other silly things like that). So, a "typical" gift would just not be fitting! I'm looking for something ... well ... fun & funky! (I'm sick of googling & scrolling!) Thanks!

See what happens when I don't make it over to VAnetworking in ... well, forever?! I miss a whole conversation about my new favorite (but most frustrating) topic.

Unfortunately, you have to wait the 10 minutes for the email to work its way through the 1SC system, so it's not a quick process. That's one of the things I can't stand about 1SC (even though I'm certified in it - LOL). I mean, how hard should it be for them to make a "test" button? Geesh... Preview is only good for quick checks - it doesn't show you how it's going to render in various email programs!

Technically you can call yourself pretty much anything you want. I know one person here uses the title "Chief Number Cruncher". I have "owner" under my name on my business cards and that's how I sign my client agreements.

I've been using MyFax for almost a year, but after looking at TrustFax, I think I'm going to switch! I don't send or receive that many faxes, so TrustFax looks perfect!

What about Google Calendar? It's on-line, but he can either give you his Google log-in and you can manage it that way, or he can give you access to manage his calendar without giving you his log-in information. Plus, Google Calendar can be set up to automatically sync with iCal and many other calendar programs, so he'll never be more than a few minutes away from having up-to-date information.

Does the client use QuickBooks? Does he/she use QuickBooks Merchant Services? If so, they can use QuickBooks Billing Solutions to email the client's invoice & they can pay via a link in the invoice.

Yep, although I run my laptop "plugged in" most of the time, I run my battery down to "critical" level about once a week. My neighbor has a laptop that's newer than mine. She left it plugged in ALL the time - never removed the battery or let it run down very far. Within 6 months her battery would not hold a charge at all. My laptop is almost 2 years old and I can't tell a difference in the battery life from when I first got it.

Eh, just chalk it up to a learning experience. I've had freaky things like that pop up in newsletters (& even uploaded updates through SocialOomph) even when I copy into Notepad before copying into the HTML code area (I use Dreamweaver). I now always do a "find and replace" for all quote marks and apostrophes before I finalize any code to double check that I've removed all the "curly quotes" and "curly apostrophes" and replaced them with "straight quotes" and "straight apostrophes". If you're not doing so already, try to view all outgoing HTML ezines/newsletters in as many email programs as possible (my suggestion is AT LEAST Outlook - 03 & 07 if possible because they do render differently and Gmail). Here are a couple of sites that can make that a LOT easier http://litmusapp.com/ http://www.emailonacid.com/