By Eric Weinstein & Laura Popelka
Continue reading Preparing Students for the Intuit Certified Bookkeeping Professional Certification
By Eric Weinstein & Laura Popelka
Continue reading Preparing Students for the Intuit Certified Bookkeeping Professional Certification
By Ben Linford, author of Labyrinth Learning’s Microsoft® Word 2019 & 365 Comprehensive
Continue reading Responding to COVID-19: Transitioning to Online Classrooms
Tips for moving to online-only courses to help prevent the spread of COVID-19
Continue reading Coronavirus and Switching to Online Courses
By Alex Scott, author of Labyrinth Learning’s Microsoft® Excel 2019 & 365 Comprehensive
By Alec Fehl, author of Labyrinth Learning’s Microsoft PowerPoint 2019 & 365: Comprehensive
Labyrinth Learning would like to announce that our QuickBooks Pro author Pat Hartley has won the Top 100 Pro Advisor Awards for the second year in a row!
Pat is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor. She offers hands-on workshops, one-on-one training specific to the user both in-person and remotely, and cleanup services where she will clean up a QuickBooks data file, then provide the training needed to maintain it going forward. “My business is dedicated and passionate about providing the business owners and accounting professionals with the keys to success using QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online,” Pat says.
The Top 100 ProAdvisor Awards are presented each year. To qualify, nominees must hold a current certification in QuickBooks Desktop and/or QuickBooks Online and have an active practice with one or more clients. Open nominations begin in January, and once candidates are nominated, they complete a very detailed application providing information on their businesses and any other applications that they use or are certified in. Candidates must complete and submit this application within ten days of their nominations. The application is then scored by a committee. Once this is complete, all qualified nominees are announced, and a ballot is sent out for clients, associates, and friends to vote for their ProAdvisor.
As a QuickBooks expert, Pat sees the popularity of online banking and accounting rising in the near future, which would follow the trend of other online versions of apps and services taking off. “Small businesses are becoming more mobile,” she says. “They need to assess Customer and Sales data on the spot. I see less and less of business owners wanting to be tied to a computer at the office. Business owners want the info available on their phones or tablets.”
Pat is the author of our QuickBooks Pro 2015 books, and is currently authoring our upcoming title QuickBooks Online, which will be released next spring.
Everyone at Labyrinth Learning congratulates Pat on her achievement!
By Pat Hartley, MBA
I am asked almost daily, “What is the difference between QuickBooks for the desktop and QuickBooks Online?” Or “Are they different?” Or “Aren’t they the same?”
To give an answer is to be put in a quandary. You may as well ask, “What is the difference between the Windows operating system and the MAC operating system?” They both do the same thing – operate our computers – just differently!
Intuit’s QuickBooks desktop software has been one of the staples of accounting software for small- to mid-sized businesses since the late 1990s. It has grown, and new-and-improved features and images have been updated annually since then. Businesses and accounting professionals have become comfortable with QuickBooks for the desktop. Still, Intuit has recently increased its emphasis on and resources for QuickBooks Online, a different accounting software product. It does the same thing that QuickBooks for desktop does – our accounting – just differently!
QuickBooks Online is not a copy of the QuickBooks desktop software that has simply been enabled for the web. QuickBooks Online is new and different! Below are some features found in QuickBooks Online that you won’t find in QuickBooks for the desktop.
These are just some of the features that I use, and there are many more. Each month more features and improvements are made. There is truly a big difference in the general workflow.
QuickBooks for the desktop has some robust features that I miss in QuickBooks Online, like the multitude of reporting options and a more extensive inventory-management feature. However, QuickBooks Online has added features every day, noted on a monthly blog for users.
Below is a comparison, provided by Intuit, of a few key features between the two types of software. It’s a good idea to analyze your business and how it functions to make the best choice. You can even take a test drive of QuickBooks Online. Good luck!
Pat Hartley is a Top 100 QuickBooks ProAdvisor 2015, an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor, an Advanced QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and a member of Intuit’s Trainer/Writer Network. Pat teaches courses on QuickBooks at multiple colleges and runs her own business, www.accountingonthego.com. She is author of the Labyrinth Learning textbook, QuickBooks Pro 2015, and is currently authoring Labyrinth’s QuickBooks Online title.
Sleeter Certified QuickBooks Consultant
Member National Advisor Network
As internet usage has become so pervasive during the 21st century, it is highly beneficial to incorporate skills in navigating the World Wide Web into ESL courses. In additional to developing technology skills that will be critical to their success of ESL students in school and/or the workplace, the web is an excellent tool for enhancing their language and literacy skills, as well as their professional skills. Following are ways in which incorporating web use into your lessons can aid in developing your students’ language skills and employability skills.
Your students’ experiences with computers may vary, so before they can begin these activities, you may need to teach them the basics of computer and internet usage. Labyrinth Learning is releasing its fourth edition of Welcome to Computers for ESL Students textbook and workbook on Wednesday, August 12. Contact us today to learn more about our full solutions for this title.
As technology in the classroom and digital education become more common, the transition to digital teaching and learning means instructors need to develop the necessary skillset to effectively teach digitally. This is particularly true for ESL instructors teaching computer skills to English language learners. “Electracy” is computer literacy. Using electracy in combination with traditional instruction helps provide a format for students to engage in multimodal and hands-on learning and encourages them to become active learners. A combination of tradition teaching and digital technology can create an optimal learning environment for students.
Among the digital literacy skills students should be taught are: computer vocabulary; keyboarding and word processing; communicating using digital tools; and Web browsing and conducting online research. They will also need to develop their communication skills involving electracy, in addition to ESL skills like linguistic competence. With electracy skills, instructors will be able to help their students learn these skills though digital technology, which will involve them in class discussions and collaborations. Training in technology standards and keeping on top of new technological developments will help instructors provide students with a modern learning environment and support their educational needs.
Electracy development can be viewed in a sense as learning a new language. Just as ESL instructors are trained to each ELL students how to speaks a new language, ESL instructors themselves are learning a new language when they learn new technology skills and strengthen their digital literacy.
Our solutions for ESL computer classes include activities and resources that fulfill all of your students’ learning needs. To learn more about our Welcome to Computers for ESL Students, 4th Edition textbook and workbook, coming out in August, contact Labyrinth Learning today.
In the classroom, there are often a few students who readily and willingly raise their hands to answer questions and contribute to class discussions, while other students hold back and listen passively. Some of these students are shy and uncomfortable speaking in front of large groups of people. Others may be reflective learners who prefer to think about the material they have just learned before they volunteer to contribute their thoughts to the class. By contrast, more vocal students may be active learners who participate, in part, because they learn by thinking out loud.
Encouraging all of your students to participate in class engages students with the lessons more, gauges how well they really understand the material, and adds a greater variety of viewpoints to discussions. Here are several strategies for encouraging more class participation.
Labyrinth Learning’s full solutions provide a variety of resources to facilitate class discussions on the concepts taught in our textbooks. To learn more about our solutions for computer science and accounting courses, please contact us today.