Online video is seeing massive growth presenting digital marketers with a new way to reach their consumers, pulling on their heartstrings and entertaining them like never before.  In the United States, 89 million people are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today. Unbelievably, only about 24 per cent of national brands are using online video to market to consumers.

It's time to jump on the video bandwagon.  If you don’t know where to start when it comes to video marketing, we’ve put together these steps to creating a business YouTube Channel.

Create a Google Account
If you don’t already have a Google account you will need to create one.  Your YouTube account will automatically link with a Google+ account, so if you already have a business Google+ page, be sure to use the same email address for your YouTube account set up.  Once you are logged into your Google account, navigate your way to www.YouTube.com.

Create a YouTube Channel
Once you make your way to YouTube, you should see your name in the top right-hand corner, showing that you are logged into your Google account.  Click on your name and a menu will drop down.

You will have the following two choices:

I don’t have a Google+ business page. Click on “My Channel” and a prompt will come up for you to create a new YouTube channel.  At the bottom you should see where it says “To use a business or other name, click here.”  You will then be asked to Name Your Channel and select which category it best fits under.  Then click “Done.” 

I already have a Google+ business page.  Click on “Switch account” and you should see your business Google+ page pop up in a dropdown box.  Click on your business name and a prompt should appear to create a channel for the name of your business.  Click “Ok” to get started.

Customize Your New Channel
You will want to start by adding some Channel Art.  You can add a photo across the top (similar to a Facebook cover photo) and you can also add a channel icon (similar to a profile picture).  To do this you will need to click on the small "pencil" icon in the corner of either the icon box or the channel art box.  You will also see the option to edit links.  This is where you can add links to all of your other social media channels and your website if you want. 

Add Your Business Information
Click on “About” under your Channel Name. You will see here that you can add a channel description so people know what you business is and what people should expect to see on your channel. 

Start Uploading Videos
You are now ready to start uploading videos.  If you already have some, great!  If not, there are many different online programs out there such as http://www.Animoto.com that you can use to create videos from photos that you have.

Now you can start using YouTube to show off your expertise, share knowledge, market your products or services and connect with customers, colleagues and prospects.  In addition to uploading your own videos, be sure to interact with others on YouTube much like you would on other social media channels.  YouTube is not just a platform for sharing videos, but is one of the most popular search engines and is the third most popular website in the world. That means using YouTube for your business has the potential for not only improving your search engine rankings, but also engaging your current customers and attracting new ones.

A few resources:

• 15 Stats Brands Should Know For Online Video
• The Complete Guide to Using YouTube for Beginners
• YouTube.com

WHO WE ARE

Novera Payment Solutions is a provider of credit and debit card payment services for businesses across America, transparently guiding business owners through the complicated world of credit & debit card acceptance. Novera delivers a unique combination of value, integrity and price transparency that is unparalleled throughout the payment processing industry.

WE BRING VALUE TO OUR CLIENTS

The value lies in both our solutions and our pricing model. Novera delivers an integrated credit card payment solution for QuickBooks® called InstantAccept® that allows users to automatically have credit/debit card payments made on invoices post into their QuickBooks® accounting software.

QuickBooks accounting software was designed to make your business accounting run smoothly and help organize financial records for your CPA when tax time rolls around.  While QuickBooks is a great solution to your daily accounting needs, it can save your business money too! 

Check out these 7 ways QuickBooks can improve your business bottom line:

1. Basic Book-keeping Can Be Done In-House
   QuickBooks makes accounting simple enough that any business owner or employee can do it.  You don’t have to pay a fortune to hire a bookkeeper to do the mundane daily work for you. Basic accounting tasks can be completed in house, and you can have everything ready for your accountant as tax season approaches.
2. Payroll  and Payroll Taxes Can Be Done In-House
   QuickBooks allows you to easily do payroll and payroll taxes yourself rather than having to hire a third-party payroll service.  By cutting out the middle man, you can save money on one of your largest expenses.   
3. Eliminate the Need to Overstock on Pre-Printed Checks
   By printing your checks in-house, you save both time and money.  Using good check printing software makes the entire process seamless. You can even modify the checks to match your business, giving it a professional touch.  You will save money by not overstocking pre-printed checks from the bank.  
4. Reporting Helps Identify Issues Before They Get Out of Control
   Not only can you see how you are performing in the current year, but you can compare that data to the previous years.  By comparing reports you can easily find any inconsistencies or unusual changes and fix them before they start costing your company money.
5. Automatic Back-up Capability Saves Time & Money When Your Computer Crashes
   It’s happened to us all; you computer randomly implodes and you lose all of your data.  The QuickBooks software allows for easy backup to removable hard drives or cloud storage.  You will save time and money by not having to recreate all of that data. 
6. Tax Documents are a Breeze to Create
   When tax season rolls around, you will have all the documents you need to present to your CPA.  Rather than hunting all the information down to give to your CPA, you will be able to quickly hand over the documents saving your CPA time and you money.   It saves you time from filling out the CPA’s questionnaires and saves you money that your CPA would have been charging you to get the answers to those questions.  
7. Credit Card Processing Can Be Integrated to Eliminate Double Entry
   Novera Payment Solutions provides an integrated QuickBooks plugin to simplify  and automate credit card processing, as well as the tasks associated with accepting credit cards.  The plugin allows you to process transactions at the point of sale; and without even opening QuickBooks you can assign payments to an invoice or customer. The time savings from eliminated double-entry is great, but Novera's flat fee merchant account pricing model is where you'll immediately see the improvement in your busineses bottom line.

For more information on using QuickBooks to save your business money, check out these resources:

• How Printing Check Through QuickBooks Save Your Business Money
• QuickBooks Short Cuts to Save Your Business Money
• Streamline Your Accouting Process to Save Your Business Money
• Users Speak Out ... How QuickBooks Save Me Money
• Integrate Your Credit Card Processing with QuickBooks

You may know that QuickBooks offers a terrific cloud-based solution, as well as a desktop solution, but how do you decide between the online version and the desktop version? 

Where will you be doing your accounting?

To make a smart decision for your business, take into consideration where you will be doing most of your accounting work and what kind of remote access you will need. Will you be working from an office or traveling a lot?  Are you the only one that will be accessing the program? 

Check out the comparison below to help you decide what’s right for you!

QuickBooks Online (Cloud Version)

• Anytime/Anywhere Access
• Mobile Access
• Simultaneous Users from Multiple Locations
• $12.95 - $39.95 Monthly Fee
• 3 – 5 Free Additional Users
• Up to 25 Additional Users (Additional Cost)
• Phone and Chat Support Included
• Automatic Upgrades Included
• No Software Installation
• Requires Internet Connection
• Backups Occur in Real-Time
• Online Only Features
• Location Tracking
• Integrates with Online Banking
• Delayed Customer Billing
• Automated Email Reports
• Activity Log

QuickBooks Pro – Hard Copy

• Stationary Access from your Desktop
• Remote Access App is Available for $3.95/Month
  (you can also remote login to your computer using something like GoToMyPc.com and access your desktop QuickBooks)
• No Simultaneous Users from Multiple Locations
• $249.95 - $399.95 Product Purchase Fee
• No Free Trial
• Limited to 3-5 Additional Users
• Upgrade Every 3 Years on Average
• Software Installation Required
• Does Not Require an Internet Connection for Desktop Access
• Requires Periodic Manual Backups
• Superior Functionality to Online Version
• Prepares 1099s
• Budget vs. Accrual Job costing
• Balance Sheet by Class
• Mileage Tracking
• Advanced Excel Export
• Supported by More 3^rd Party Apps than Online Version
• Offers Approx. 40 More Reports than Online Version

Either version of QuickBooks may serve you and your business well.  Analyze your business strategy to select which QuickBooks platform will be most beneficial to you.  Each business is unique and what works best for one company may not for another. If you require remote access often and multiple user accounts, the cloud solution may be a perfect fit! If you don't travel often and only need access to QuickBooks at your desk, the desktop version may be the more cost effective solution for your company. Ultimately, as a business owner, it is your decision and you need to determine which features will help your business grow and thrive!

3 Quickbooks Resources to help you compare!

• FishBowlInventory QuickBooks InfoGraphics
• OSYB Number Crunch Blog
• QuickBook-Training.net

WHO WE ARE

Novera Payment Solutions is a provider of credit and debit card payment services for businesses across America, transparently guiding business owners through the complicated world of credit & debit card acceptance. Novera delivers a unique combination of value, integrity and price transparency that is unparalleled throughout the payment processing industry.

WE BRING VALUE TO OUR CLIENTS

The value lies in both our solutions and our pricing model. Novera delivers an integrated credit card payment solution for QuickBooks® called InstantAccept® that allows users to automatically have credit/debit card payments made on invoices post into their QuickBooks® accounting software.

Looking for QuickBooks online credit card processing?

Consider InstantAccept

How it Works

InstantAccept provides an application that integrates with QuickBooks® and allows you to process transactions as the point of sale either online or via a mobile device or tablet.  Customers can pay however they like, cash, credit or debit cards, ACH, electronic check or Check21.  Without even opening QuickBooks®, you can assign payments to an invoice or customer.  The seamless two-way data exchange allows the data you create in InstantAccept to automatically generate a corresponding record in QuickBooks®. 

Bookkeeping is a Breeze

InstantAccept takes care of all the behind the scenes bookkeeping making sure all the details are taken care of.  The application can create new accounts and new invoices, update accounts as needed and generate reports in real time. You don’t even need to reconcile or rekey data because all of it happens automatically. The bookkeeping that used to take you hours is much quicker and more efficient when you use InstantAccept. Rather than opening QuickBooks®, looking up the customer and creating a new record, InstantAccept makes it easy to maintain your QuickBooks, while freeing you and your customers to complete transactions quickly, simply and securely. 

Robust Reporting Functions

InstantAccept also allows you to generate daily, weekly, monthly or annual reports so you can keep close tabs on transaction processing issues and gain quick insight into payment status and activity.  In addition, you can use the executive dashboard to view a visual representation of key customer metrics on the entire database or you can filter it by active or inactive customers, customers with open balances, customers with overdue balances, etc.   

Novera Integration

The great thing about InstantAccept is that you can easily use Novera Payment Solutions as your payments processor and take advantage of our money saving flat fee merchant account pricing model.  We provide the InstantAccept plugin for  our customers who are QuickBooks® users!  We are committed to helping your business improve the bottom line, and Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry.

LinkedIn Groups are powerful online forums that QuickBooks® users can take advantage of.   By joining or creating groups, you can not only engage your customers, but interact with industry peers, and QuickBooks power users.

A Quick Overview of LinkedInGroups

Features of LinkedIn Groups

Through LinkedIn Groups, you can collaborate with like-minded professionals and join in discussions about your interests.  Not only can you read and share content, but you can find answers to questions, post and view jobs, make business contacts and establish yourself as an industry expert.  By starting your own group, you can create customer relationships, gain access to an audience of professionals, raise brand awareness and position yourself as a thought leader. 

Creating and Joining LinkedIn Groups

From geographical location to industry trends, you can create or join a group on just about any topic you want.  Some groups are set up so the manager has to approve new members, but others are open to anyone who wishes to join.  Members can start a discussion on any topic, but occasionally the manager will have it set up to be approved before it is publicized. 

Finding LinkedIn Groups

You can join groups by browsing the suggestions LinkedIn has picked for you through the “Groups” tab.  Another way to find groups is by using the search tool with relevant keywords for groups you are interested in.  You can also see a complete list of LinkedIn groups by selecting “Group Directories” under the “Groups” tab.  

QuickBooks® users have six active LinkedIn Groups that are worth checking out!

1. QuickBooks Tips & Tricks

Having problems with QuickBooks? We're here to help!  This is a public group that you can join to ask questions and get answers about QuickBooks.

2. Expert QuickBooks Help

This is a public group featuring QuickBooks tips, tricks and expert advice from the author of QuickBooks Solutions Guide, QuickBooks on Demand and QuickBooks Essentials DVD Live Learning Series.

3. QuickBooks Aficionados

This LinkedIn Group is composed of loyal users and product evangelists of Intuit and QuickBooks products.

4. QuickBooks Online Users

This is a public group for QuickBooks Online users, trainers, and partners. It’s a place for people to post questions about the software and share their tips & tricks.

5. QuickBooks Solutions for your Business

There are hundreds of integrated 3rd party solutions developed for QuickBooks. This group aims to help Members find the best solution for their specific business needs.

6. Integration with QuickBooks & Third Party Apps

This LinkedIn Group features questions and discussion about integrating other programs and 3rd party applications with QuickBooks, like Novera Payment Solutions InstantAccept plugin.

Sample Third Party App : InstantAccept

Novera Payment Solutions offers a QuickBooks® plugin called InstantAccept®.  InstantAccept processes transactions easily at the point of sale, takes care of all the back-end bookkeeping and integrates seamlessly with your payment processing.  InstantAccept provides fewer bookkeeping hassles, better security and the freedom to grow your business.  With such simplicity and flexibility at your fingertips, InstantAccept frees you to do what you really want to do: run your business.

WHO WE ARE

Novera Payment Solutions is a provider of credit and debit card payment services for businesses across America, transparently guiding business owners through the complicated world of credit & debit card acceptance. Novera delivers a unique combination of value, integrity and price transparency that is unparalleled throughout the payment processing industry.

WE BRING VALUE TO OUR CLIENTS

The value lies in both our solutions and our pricing model. Novera delivers an integrated accounting solution for QuickBooks® called InstantAccept® that allows users to automatically have credit/debit card payments made on invoices post into their QuickBooks® accounting software.

Many businesses struggle with getting essential company data from manual processes, varied software programs, and employees who work remotely. The result is lost information, poor customer service, and management decisions based upon inaccurate client and financial data.

The Solution is an Integrated Accounting Payment System

By integrating your accounting system with your business processes, credit card processing,  and other programs, you can dramatically improve the effectiveness and profitability of your business. Eliminating manual processes, connecting remote employees and having accurate customer and financial information automatically updated within your accounting system will have a positive impact on your bottom line.

QUICKBOOKS ® INTEGRATED ONLINE CREDIT CARD PROCESSING with NOVERA

The Novera Integration for QuickBooks® payment processing for credit and debit cards, ACH (Automated Clearing House), EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer), and Electronic Check conversion using a powerful and secure Payment Gateway and Secure Vault Software.

Process credit cards and checks for invoices seamlessly in QuickBooks®.

NO NEED FOR “DOUBLE-ENTRY”

• Process your recurring credit card payments on a monthly schedule.
• No more need to ever perform a double entry.
• Our solution also offers you the ability to choose any merchant account provider, however with our revolutionary FLAT FIXED FEE credit card pricing model, were sure you’ll want to review the Novera Payment Solution for merchant services as well.

SETUP IS EASY

Our QuickBooks® online credit card processing is easy to use and is up and running within minutes. It is guaranteed compatibility for automated integration within QuickBooks®, so you  don't have the need to use old outdated, unreliable, standalone credit card terminals.  If your business  has  customers present to make a payment, then a simple USB mag-swipe reader can be attached in seconds for card swiped transactions.

100% SECURE

The Novera Payment Solutions product is also 100% secure, and both PCI and PADSS certified. When transactions are sent from the software to the gateway it passes all data through a secure socket layer (SSL) which ensure all data is properly encrypted and that it cannot be compromised. Neither QuickBooks® nor Novera itself ever store any cardholder data; data is securely stored in a "Secure Vault". This makes the software PCI and PADSS Compliant so you never have to worry about your payment processing being up to the standards of the cards brands MasterCard/Visa/Disc.

FLAT FIXED FEE CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

In addition to an easy to use turnkey solution for QuickBooks® users, Novera Payment Solutions has also developed a simple, transparent pricing model utilizing a FLAT FIXED FEE for merchant services.

By utilizing a Flat Fee pricing structure for your business merchant services, you can rest assured you will never pay more than you should for credit card processing.

The Flat Fee never changes and rates will not artificially creep up over time. 

WHO WE ARE

Novera Payment Solutions is a provider of credit and debit card payment services for businesses across America, transparently guiding business owners through the complicated world of credit & debit card acceptance. Novera delivers a unique combination of value, integrity and price transparency that is unparalleled throughout the payment processing industry.

WE BRING VALUE TO OUR CLIENTS

The value lies in both our solutions and our pricing model. Novera delivers an integrated accounting solution for QuickBooks® called InstantAccept® that allows users to automatically have credit/debit card payments made on invoices post into their QuickBooks® accounting software.

QuickBooks is one of the most widely used bookkeeping tools out there, but it can get complicated when accepting multiple types of payments at multiple locations.  InsatantAccept is the solution to simplifying those transactions, while ensuring that all the behind the scenes work is still getting done. 

InstantAccept provides a standalone, single user desktop application that can process transactions at the point of sale, whether the customer is paying with cash, check or card, from your computer, mobile device or tablet.  You don’t even have to launch QuickBooks to assign these payments to an invoice or customer, create new accounts and invoices, update accounts as needed and generate reports in real time.  There’s no need to reconcile or rekey data because InstantAccept makes it automatically happen. 

Key benefits of InstantAccept

No More Hassle.

InstantAccept updates QuickBooks immediately allowing you to accept and record payments simultaneously, in real time, with no extra data entry on your part.  You can manage customer data, invoices and payments all from a single userface.  You can even allow your customers to pay invoices directly through their email.  And you can do all this from your mobile device, tablet or computer. 

Guaranteed Security.

You can allow your employees to execute transactions and update books without them being able to access your private financial and customer data.  The program also meets all current compliance standards, including PCI-DSS and SAS 70.  InstantAccept also works with some of the most cutting edge fraud solutions out there to protect your Quickbooks databases and records, keeping every transaction safe and secure. 

Grow Your Business.

With InstantAccept, you can accept multiple types of payments and consolidate all your transactions no matter where they originate.  The program also allows for payments from multiple store locations, websites and mobile devices.  If you have a merchant account or payment processor you like, you can keep everything the same, eliminating the need for multiple merchant accounts. 

Don’t worry about all your hard work going to waste; InstantAccept integrates with QuickBooks to update your records in real time.  The simplicity and flexibility of InstantAccept allows you to do what you really want to do, run your business.  For more information about InstantAccept contact Novera Payment Solutions.

Keyboard shortcuts can be a lifesaver in a time crunch.  The ability to keep your hands on your keyboard rather than switching back and forth between it and your mouse can increase productivity.  You also won’t have to search through all the buttons in the program to find what you need.  Take a look at this list of QuickBooks keyboard shortcuts from the QuickBooks User Guide to make your work simpler. 

General

To start Quickbooks without a company file – Ctrl (while opening)

To suppress the desktop windows (at Open Company window) – Alt (while opening)

Display product information about your QuickBooks version – F2

Close active window – Esc or Ctrl+F4

Dates

Next Day –  + (plus key)

Previous Day –  - (minus key)

Today – T

First day of the week – W

Last day of the week – K

First day of the month – M

Last day of the month – H

First day of the year – Y

Last day of the year – R

Date calendar – Alt + ↓ (down arrow)

Moving Around a Window

Beginning of current field – Home

End of current field - End

Next word in field – Ctrl+→

Previous word in field – Ctrl+←

First item on list or next month in register – Ctrl + Page Up

Last item on list or next month in register – Ctrl + Page Down

Activity

Create invoice – Ctrl + I

Delete check, invoice, transaction, or item from list Ctrl + D

Find transaction Ctrl + F

History of A/R or A/P transaction – Ctrl + H

Memorize transaction or report – Ctrl + M

New invoice, bill, check or list item in context – Ctrl + N

Open account list – Ctrl + A

Open Customer Center (Customers and Job list) – Ctrl + J

Open Help for active window – F1

Open list (for current drop-down menu) – Ctrl + L

Open memorized transaction – Ctrl + T

Open split transaction window in register – Ctrl + R

Open transaction journal – Ctrl + Y

Print – Ctrl + P

QuickReport on transaction or list item – Ctrl + Q

Show list – Ctrl + S

Write new check – Ctrl + W

Editing

Edit transaction selected in the list or register – Ctrl + E

Delete line from detail area – Ctrl + Del

Insert line in detail area – Ctrl + Ins

Increase check or other form number by one –  + (plus key)

Decrease check or other form number by one –  - (minus key)

Keyboard shortcuts are fast and efficient.

Some people may not care for shortcuts because they can be hard to remember; but once you get the hang of it, you realize just how much they can help.  We’re not saying you will never have to use your mouse again, but you can definitely quit reaching for that mouse every other second and actually get some work done!

The Novera Advantage

Novera Payment Solutions is a leader in the credit card payments industry. We are committed to helping businesses improve their bottom line by providing significant savings on credit card processing fees through our innovative flat fee merchant account pricing model.

Contact Novera to learn more about how we work with businesses to provide the most fair and transparent pricing structure available on the market today for credit card processing and our QBPlugin for QuickBooks!

Our powerful QBPlugin saves your busineses an incredible amount of time and money in reduced labor. When you pair that with Novera's innovative flat fee merchant account pricing model, it's even better!