For the QuickBooks Users Out There

I received this email from QB today about a potential conflict between the 2008 version of QuickBooks and Windows:

Dear QuickBooks 2008 customer,
We have discovered that a recent Microsoft Windows update may be
triggering problems for some users of QuickBooks 2008 software. When
the problem occurs, QuickBooks does not open.

Common symptoms include the following:
1.The QuickBooks splash screen flashes, and then disappears.

OR

2.On launch of QuickBooks, an error message reports that the Web

Connector has failed to initialize and QuickBooks does not open.
It turns out that the Microsoft update introduced a problem in the
.NET 2.0 Framework.
To resolve this issue, please do not uninstall and re-install
QuickBooks. We do not recommend this, as it will not address
the problem.

The best thing to do is to go to the source of the problem, so you
will need to remove and reinstall the .NET 2.0 Framework. To help
walk you through it, we have provided detailed instructions in our
QuickBooks Knowledge Base that provides some easy to follow steps and
also includes additional links to the Microsoft site:
support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/pages/

We are continuing to work on this issue and if we find out anything
new, we will be sure to let you know right away.
Thanks for your patience,
The QuickBooks Team

Has anyone noticed any problems out there?

An IRS Phish

I think I wrote about this in earlier this year. The IRS doesn't contact you about rebates by email, please do pass these warnings on to the more trusting friends or relations of yours.

5th Annual "Stop Spam Today!" Campaign

Do you like Spam? No? Then the following from TechSoup may be for you:

Join the 5th Annual "Stop Spam Today!" Campaign at TechSoup Stock. Sign up for free anti-spam software from Mailshell.

For just 24 hours on December 5, nonprofit organizations and public libraries can request free anti-spam desktop software, donated by Mailshell, at TechSoup Stock. This special offer is part of the 5th annual "Stop Spam Today!" campaign.

You will need to register with TechSoup to get the free software. Sometimes that can take awhile so get it done in advance to be ready.

Protecting Your Good Name

This link goes to an article from the Nonprofit Times' enewsletter article about domain names (www.yourcharity.org/com/net) and what happens when they expire. It illustrates the importance of making sure they DON'T expire so some other group doesn't grab the registration and take advantage of your nonprofit's good name.

How does this relate to accounting? Well, two ways, one is that in a smaller organization one person may be doing all the admin stuff, finance, HR and IT so this is important info to them. But another way it affects accounting directly is reminding us to keep track of bills that do not come monthly or even annually. Domain name registration invoices, like other bills you may have, are cheaper if you buy multiple years at a time. "Great," you think, "I'll save us some money and register us for three years." But in three years when the renewal emails come, and they are almost always emails and not paper bills, will they get paid? Do you have somewhere where you track annual or irregular payments, maybe a vendor list that is easily accessible? Some thing to think about.

Keyboard short cut directory

In an bid for ever increasing productivity keyboard short cuts keep us from wasting all that time we spend reaching for the mouse. From the website AppScout I found out about KeyXL, a database of (reportedly) ALL keyboard short cuts for almost every program and operating system. Here is a link to the QuickBooks short cuts.

Alan

Email scams and security

Two interesting pieces from PC Magazine's security e-newsletter. Both deal with $$ scams so I think they fit in this blog, so spread the word.

1. Ransomeware - what is it? Read the article and find out.
2. The Nigerian Prisoner - Do you know someone held in a Nigerian Jail? Maybe, maybe not. One has to think that if anybody hears the phrase "Nigerian" and "email" in the same sentence they would be wary, but I guess enough people still fall for them.