Podcast - Sales Form Customization Why doesn’t QBO have a Layout designer?
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Introduction and Announcements
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Dan DeLong: Well welcome everybody to another workshop Wednesday, where it's all about casual conversations for serious workflows brought to you by school of bookkeeping.com, where it's learning QuickBooks and more your [00:01:00] way. I gotta throw the and more in there now, because it's not just QuickBooks anymore.
Rachel Dauchy: No, so much more.
Dan DeLong: Right. And that's why we, I'm Yusef, uh, we have a blurry Yusef with us today.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, you're blurry. I was just gonna tell you that Yusef of,
Dan DeLong: there we go back. This is the, the, the challenge of, of doing live workshops and webinars is that technology either works or doesn't at the time that you're doing Exactly.
It just new. Right. And as we were saying before, we're not gonna let great be the enemy of the good here and we're gonna go with it. Yeah. Uh, we have a QR code for, uh, school of Bookkeeping on earmark as Blake was uh, mentioning before we went live, that we do have CPE credit available post con, uh, not post-conversion.
I'm, uh, tell me, uh, that tells you what I was talking about right before post. Workshop about [00:02:00] five to seven days after, uh, they make the, uh, course available on earmark and then you can get some TPE credit for that. So let me go ahead and hide at QR code.
AI and Accounting Cohort
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Dan DeLong: Uh, but another announcement, uh, we are in the midst of our four week cohort for, uh, AI and accounting.
We're calling it prompts for practices. Um, and, uh, it's okay if you didn't join us for the first two weeks. We have, uh, we have this, the sessions are recorded so that you can go back and watch week one and week two. Uh, but every day that we have, or every week we have a live session and then a. We have a, we have homework.
Wow. We actually have homework in the school. So there's assignments, learning activities, and then we follow up with that on Thursdays, uh, as well. And all those sessions are recorded, so if you wanna play catch up and, and learn a little bit more about how you can create prompts for your practice and actually [00:03:00] use AI and adopt ai, uh, into your practice, uh, that is the whole goal and focus of our premier.
Cohort that we have, uh, going on, uh, for all this month.
Rachel Dauchy: And it's with Ted, right?
Dan DeLong: What's that?
Rachel Dauchy: And it's with Ted, right?
Dan DeLong: It is, yes, it is with Ted,
Rachel Dauchy: who we had, we had on the workshop, and by the way, I still use some of the, um, tips that he gave us on chat, GBT. It was so helpful.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, it was very, it's very interesting 'cause our first, our first class or first session that we had.
Um, he did a self-assessment, you know, like, uh, we were introducing everybody and they were talking a little bit about, you know, their background and rating themselves on a scale of one to 10 as what they're familiar with. Chat, GPT, uh, and inevitably people rated themselves higher. At the beginning than they did at the end because there are, there are just lots of, lots of tricks, tips, tricks and [00:04:00] nuances, uh, to, to working with ai.
Um, and it, it is just evolving. Uh. Tremendously, right? Like, um, you know, probably by the, by the end of the cohort, some of the things that we talked about are already outdated, you know?
Yousif: Yeah. It's funny. So you, uh, Sam Altman made a, I don't know if every anyone's familiar with Sam Malman. He's the founder.
Yeah. He's,
Rachel Dauchy: uh, open ai. CO, right? Yeah. Have
Yousif: you guys seen his tweet where he basically mentioned after one of their big updates, he basically said the new programming language is now English. That was his, that was his tweet. Wow.
Alright.
Yousif: Basically, meaning you just have to learn how to prompt ai and if you know how to prompt AI, then you can do anything.
With
Rachel Dauchy: Alexa do this.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. One, one of the, uh, one of the, one of the jokes that actually came out of it is that Siri is Alexa's Dahmer sister,[00:05:00]
Rachel Dauchy: immediate,
Dan DeLong: and immediately it's starting to, uh. Flagship me. Uh, in like, whatcha talking about. Yeah,
I know when I've been insulted. Alright, well AI is nothing about what we're talking about. Uh, today.
Sales Form Customizations Overview
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Dan DeLong: Our topic today is all about sales form customizations or, or customizations of the things that you see and interact with. Inside of QuickBooks and we're talk a little bit about desktop. We'll talk a little bit about QuickBooks online.
We'll also talk a little bit about the conversion of desktop to online when it comes to those sales form customizations, and then we have and beyond. Right. So we have the bed, we have the bath, and we have the beyond part where Yusef will come in and we're talking about the things that are outside of the QuickBooks world, being able to, sorry, I got excited there with my, [00:06:00] my, uh, my, my, my, my teenage, uh, Fri.
Would you like fries with that?
Um, with outside of the QuickBooks world when, um. When you need more than what, what you get outside of QuickBooks Desktop online or, um, need, need a little bit more than that. So for those that have, uh, not seen use of joining us before, good friend of the show, uh, give us a little. A little, uh, idea of who
Yousif: you are and why you're here.
Yeah. So thanks again, Rachel and Dan for having me. It's a, it's a pleasure. And, uh, basically I was an employee at Method CRM for six years. Uh, for half of that time I was their lead solutions engineer, where I basically helped a team of solution engineers. Uh, try to get the most out of method when it comes to delivering solutions for their clients.
And, um, you know, that's where I got my most exposure to QuickBooks and understanding what QuickBooks can and can't do. Then I moved on, [00:07:00] uh, with working as a consultant for Salesforce. Uh, and decided that I actually like the method in QuickBooks realm a lot more, so I decided to leave Salesforce and come back.
I know that's not a popular thing to, to hear. Right. But, uh, well, just to show that,
Rachel Dauchy: you know, something like Method is maybe a lot more customizable than, you know, Salesforce is and. No, a lot of people really like that,
Dan DeLong: Rachel. So Matthew, Matthew McConaughey is not happy about you saying, yeah. Yeah, that's
right.
Dan DeLong: And you know what? I drive a Lincoln too, so he might
Yousif: be a little conflicted
Dan DeLong: there,
but, uh, uh, yeah,
Yousif: Salesforce in the Lincoln. The Salesforce Lincoln. Yeah. No, but you hit it right on the head there, Rachel. Like when I went there, I was expecting kind of more of the same. With, with Method and Salesforce, I thought Salesforce was gonna be very similar, and I quickly found out how the smallest and simplest things you really couldn't, uh, just configure on the front end.
You had to hire a developer that's often [00:08:00] offshore and then you have to wait for them to get back to you the following day, and it was just a, it was just a lot of that and it causes a lot,
Rachel Dauchy: not ideal. Yeah,
Dan DeLong: not ideal for sure. Yeah. All right.
QuickBooks Desktop Customizations
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Dan DeLong: So let's talk a little bit, let's set the stage a little bit, uh, with regards to sales form customizations and desktop.
And I have two things sharing at the same time, so I wanna make sure I grab the right thing. Okay. This is, uh, desktop, right? Um, I know it's hard to see sometimes I can't make it. Too much bigger because it's a desktop application and it's not as easy as a keyboard shortcut to make things bigger. Uh, but this is what's called, uh, in, in QuickBooks called the, uh, template list.
Uh, so you have a list of, um, of transactions or, or documentation documents that you, that you'd be working with. Transaction types. Probably the easiest way to describe it. Um, that can be customized. Um. Inside of, [00:09:00] inside of QuickBooks, right? So, um, this is just, uh, a small sampling of, of what's in there. And if you don't have the feature.
Um, available, like, uh, or, or turned on, I should say activated. Uh, for example, like purchase orders you don't see on this list, uh, because in this particular case, they don't have purchasing purchase order turned on, so you won't see that template if you don't have the function turned on. But anything that is, uh, visible on the screen as far as the transaction type, uh, that can be.
If that can be sent out, uh, or emailed, uh, we'll have a template to work with. Like you won't be able to see a check screen, uh, you know, in here and, and modify what you see on the screen as far as the check is concerned, uh, because you don't, you don't email out a check, you print it, right? Uh, so you, you really don't have the ability to change those types of things, uh, inside of desktop.
[00:10:00] Let's just open up, this is an attorney's invoice. It's a template, right? And you have some. Basic customizations available there, you know, whether you're gonna show certain fields or not, uh, what, what the fonts are. If you wanna apply a color scheme, uh, you can do that on the basic customization section.
And then you have this button down here at the bottom for additional customization, and it's gonna say you can't do a default. So I gotta make a copy of it immediately. It created a copy that I'm working in. Uh, and this is gonna have. Uh, several tabs, header column, uh, progress columns, uh, footer and print where you can further customize with, with some check boxes.
Um, you can change the labels of, of certain columns or fields, um, and, uh, as well as, you know, what, how, how these things are gonna print out. Um, what about
Rachel Dauchy: rearranging? Can you [00:11:00] rearrange? Oh yeah. Columns.
Dan DeLong: Absolutely. So it, here you have, this is interesting because you have what shows on the screen that you can check off, what shows on the printout, you know, what gets sent out of QuickBooks.
And then the order right is uh, is a column in here. So you can change the title of the column, right? So if you don't like the word description, you can just call it desk, right? D-E-D-E-S-C, or uh, you can. Change the title to, to whatever it is that you want here, and you can change the order to
Rachel Dauchy: interrupt you.
Um, Sarah's saying she can't see the screen.
Dan DeLong: Why not?
Rachel Dauchy: Are you, are you using dual monitors? She's saying, she's saying she can't see your screen. Uh,
Yousif: you may be frozen. I
Rachel Dauchy: can see it. I, I'm not sure. Am I
Yousif: frozen? You, you might be frozen. 'cause I think you were on this, uh, screen for a little bit and I'm not too sure if that was intentional or not.
Uh
Dan DeLong: oh, no. No, you're not. No. What? [00:12:00] Oh, oh. The additional customization is why is it not? Oh, you know what? You're right. You're on the wrong street. No, I chose, um, I chose window instead of whole screen, so, oh,
Rachel Dauchy: okay. Yeah, because I was like, I'm not really seeing what you're pointing out either. Okay. Okay.
Nevermind. I, I, I misunderstood, but, but yeah. Oh, no, no, she wasn't saying it.
Dan DeLong: She, okay. So where did it go? Uh oh. I gotta go over here, sorry. And share my screen again. And this time I'm gonna choose entire screen, even though I get that entire vortex sometimes share. There it's, yeah, but let me just pop over here.
There we go. Now there we go. Much better.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, because Yep. The little popup thing. Yeah, I, that happens to me too. And sometimes you don't see it unless you pick entire screen.
Dan DeLong: See that's, that's, that's why you're there. 'cause I'm staring over here [00:13:00] and I can't see what's actually sharing. So I appreciate the feedback there.
Um, okay, so yes, so you have the header, you have columns, you have the progress columns, footer and print that you can customize. Um, and to your point, or to your question, you have the screen. Column here you have the print column so you can check, uh, so if you want to see, uh, something on the screen, but not send it to the customer, you can have it show on the screen, but not.
Printed. Right.
Rachel Dauchy: Man, I wish we had this in QuickBooks online.
Dan DeLong: Well, you do kind of, and, uh, when we get to Yusef we'll, we'll talk about that.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah, yeah, yeah. With, yeah. With that. Um, quick question also, and mm-hmm. And sorry if we're only discussing sales forms, but, um, just does, uh, desktop have this type of customization with reporting too?
Dan DeLong: Not, not per se like this, right? Where you like changing the
Rachel Dauchy: font. [00:14:00]
Dan DeLong: Um, you can wait, you can change the font, um, in, in, in reports. And that, that sounds like a good workshop topic for Yeah. Let's do another one
Rachel Dauchy: on that one because I, I do have a lot of requests for that kind of thing and online. Yeah. And so, um, I'd like to know kind of the difference between those two.
Mm-hmm.
Dan DeLong: Yes. And um. You know, the madness, uh, that's the nicest way to put it. Uh, the madness of modern reports versus classic reports, uh, in, in QuickBooks on online. I do have that scheduled on as, as a specific topic, uh, I think in August or early September. So we will get into, uh, get into that, that kind of stuff while we're in this, uh.
I guess grace period of, of being on both sides of the, of the planet until, uh, one gets deprecated or, or discontinued. Yeah. But, but the last thing I wanna show here in the templates is this button down here called Layout Designer, [00:15:00] right? Which allows you to get very granular, uh, of how this. Information will appear and print.
Uh, so lemme zoom in a little bit here so I can,
yeah.
Dan DeLong: Out. Can't
see anything. There we go. And
Dan DeLong: of course, you can't change the width of the Oh man, the screen, right? Uh, but you have this toolbar across the top. But really the, the, the thing that I wanna show here is any field that's in here. You can move, right?
So I can use the directional arrows and just say, Hey, I need that over just a, just a sco, or, I need this to be a little bit bigger, right? I can, if I, you gotta play a little mouse surgery right? To, to make these things, uh, to work with these things, but. Anything that's visible in here, like if you wanna make the columns wider [00:16:00] or smaller, you can do that in here.
Um, and this will show with a grid, you know, how this would actually print out. Um. You know, or be sent, you know, when it's, when it's customer facing.
Yousif: Can you, uh, significantly change like just the design theme of the template? Like, can you add a different color scheme that matches the branding? Yeah. That's
Dan DeLong: gonna be in your basic customization.
Um, and then there's also the ability to download, um. Templates that pe that other people have created, and then you can just kind of make them your own, right? So you can, you can go in here. Let me go see. Okay. You gotta cancel about 14 times. Uh, where are download templates from the, from the menu here?
This takes you out online and then you can start to look at, uh, well this one's blue rounded border, right? So you can, you can't see it. You just have to [00:17:00] import it, you know, it downloads a template file and then you can import it and then, and then you can see and, and make those, make those tweaks. Right.
Nice. Can you make
Yousif: from scratch, like, can you just say, I want to start with a blank template. Mm-hmm. And I just want to design something that's completely different than everything else. Um,
Dan DeLong: it's gonna, it's gonna start with a. Let me close this here. It's gotta start with a template type, right? So if I just say new Yeah.
Uh, first it's gonna come up with, well, what form are you starting with? Yes. Is it an invoice, is it a credit memo? Is it, and then, and these are all of the types of, of forms that you can start with, and it's gonna have its general or defaults enabled. But of course at that point you can, you can modify it at any point.
Right. Okay. That's cool.
QuickBooks Online Customizations
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Dan DeLong: So let's, let's switch this to, I'm gonna stop sharing here because we're done with desktop and [00:18:00] we'll go over to QuickBooks Online. You'll notice here on the custom form styles I have. One option, right? I have the standard and the default. So, um, when I go in to create a new style, I have three choices.
Uh, invoice estimate, or sales receipt. So sadly, all of those other options of customizing your, uh, sales, uh, or, you know, a, a statement or a sales order. There's a reason that you don't, you can't customize a sales order 'cause it doesn't even exist in QuickBooks online. Uh, but you can't customize a purchase order.
Uh, the, the way things, uh, look and appear out of QuickBooks. You are somewhat limited. And, um, if you go and try to customize one, right, you have. You have things that you can do here, you can, you know, change the, the template, right? Which is [00:19:00] the general look and feel of, uh, of those, of those transac, uh, of the transaction type.
So you have six options to choose from, uh, in the, uh, oh. And you also have, you know, different colors that you can add. Uh, if you know the hex color, you can add your own, uh, custom color. But if you wanna choose just one of the defaults. Uh, you can change the, uh, font. Uh, but that is of course the font of everything.
So you're not, you, you all, not a lot of choices
Rachel Dauchy: with that.
Dan DeLong: You get an all or nothing. And these are the choices of fonts that you get to choose from all four of them.
Mm-hmm.
Dan DeLong: Right. Um. And then you've got, you've got some margins, uh, that you can work with in the content area. It's gonna break down the, the form in three sections.
So you have the header, what do you want to show on the header? And you can see essentially here you have the [00:20:00] basic customization, uh, of what we were showing out of, out of QuickBooks Desktop, right? You choose an option, you can put a check mark in there and you can change, um, you know, change the title.
Right. If you want your invoices to be called sales, whatever, you know, you can, you can change the, the title of it, um, or not even display it at all. Right? Um, and then there's custom fields that you can add, but all of those are in the header of the, uh, of the, of the sales transaction here in the body. Uh, you can change the, um, what shows as far as, um.
For as, as, as shows as far as how the line item detail appears. And you, you'll have some group options down here at the bottom if you want to group them. And then emails is what the, what the form looks like when you email it. Um, and that's essentially it [00:21:00] as far as what you have, as far as customizations are available.
And all of this is, and we had talked about this, uh. Before Rachel, uh, when we're talking about the new invoicing experience, there is only one option when it comes to the new invoicing experience, uh, which precludes all of this sales form customization that we've just talked about here. So yeah, you don't, you don't really get all of the, the, the new functionality in, uh, in your invoicing, customization.
And, um, only there was
Rachel Dauchy: a way that we could get customization, right?
Dan DeLong: So this is what you have to work with. And when you're converting from desktop to online, all that hard work of all the things that you've done, uh, doesn't transition [00:22:00] over because there is no. There is no apples to apples comparison when it comes to the sales form customizations in desktop as they are, and online you're, everything is kind of, um, sandwiched or, or smushed into what you have to work with, with inside of, with inside of QuickBooks online.
Rachel Dauchy: But if you've got like X amount of targets in, you know, in your forms and desktop, that'll all come over to online. Yeah. Oh, yeah,
Dan DeLong: yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, however, um, you know, and we just, um, I just did a, a, a conversion, uh, for somebody who was using the other column, which is a custom column inside of QuickBooks Desktop.
There is no such thing as an other column inside of QuickBooks Online, so they were using that as a, as as a specific line item custom. [00:23:00] Column, custom field. And lo and behold, all of that data never made the journey because there wasn't a place for it to go inside of, inside of QuickBooks. So that added, uh, some extra, uh, steps, right?
So being able to use what is available inside of QuickBooks, uh, as far as a column is concerned, because that was more important to them. Then, let's say the, the description field, right? Yeah. So they needed that. Um, and then we introduced to them method, uh, to this whole, um, issue.
Method CRM and Advanced Customizations
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Dan DeLong: And they're, they're finding that it's that, that they're much happier, um, with the sales form customizations inside of the method after converting from desktop to online.
So I'm gonna. Kind of toss it over to meth, uh, to no method. Yusef Yeah. To, to kind of discuss some of the things that [00:24:00] you can do inside a method when, uh, you know, and I, and I'm, I'm, I'm envisioning method as like a QuickBooks converter. Recovery package. Right. So all of those things that you were used to using inside of desktop that don't have a home in QuickBooks Online can ha find a new home inside of Method.
Correct. So talk about that concept.
Yousif: Yeah. So, so Method kind of bridges that gap between the missing functionality between desktop and online. For example, advanced pricing, right? Advanced pricing doesn't exist in QuickBooks Online, but it, uh, it exists in QuickBooks desktop. So that's where you can kind of use method and you can build your own custom advanced pricing solution.
And in fact,
Rachel Dauchy: do you mean like price levels?
Yousif: Price
Rachel Dauchy: levels, yeah. Okay.
Introduction to Customizing Sales Forms
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Yousif: Yeah. So basically with with price levels, if there was something that you didn't like in QuickBooks, but you still used it and you wanna now still use price [00:25:00] levels in QuickBooks online. Think of method as that opportunity for you to take that feedback that you had in QuickBooks and actually apply it and redesign it in method and now you're getting something that you really, really wanted.
You know, um, so for the sales form customization, and, and Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, um, but in my, my understanding, uh, of sales form customization is just being able to customize the areas both. In QuickBooks, so like the interactive transaction layout, but as well as the PDF, like the, right, right. So,
Dan DeLong: so there's an internal, what you see on the screen?
Correct. And then there's an external, what the customer or your vendor or supplier would see if you were to send that document to them.
Yousif: Correct. So, so basically, um, what I wanted to share with you was there's this, um, I want to give you the most extreme example or something very similar. Uh, something very, um, different than [00:26:00] what you would see in, in QuickBooks.
So in method, this is an estimate transaction. Uh, so think of it as being similar but different at the same time. You have your, your transaction header. Right, that's right at the top here. So all the header information, then you have the detail, the line item information, and then you got the footer, right?
So the, the structure of the transaction is the same in method as you would find in QuickBooks, but then you're able to add in layers and add in your own aspects of your specific business that you couldn't do in QuickBooks. So for example, this reminder schedule, this is a complete custom. Functionality that you know a business might want to automatically send out, estimate reminders for anyone who hasn't approved their estimate yet, right?
Then you also have this approval detail section. This is just custom information that you require the customer to fill out [00:27:00] before the estimate can even be approved, but you're able to see that custom information right there, right in front of you as soon as you open up the estimate.
Dynamic PDF Printouts in Method
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Yousif: But then the really cool thing with Method is, is that you can also just completely change your PDF printouts.
So if I go ahead and I just print this out, look at this, this, so this is for an actual company that I work with, and this is their PDF printout for their quotes. So they basically kind of have like, um, a brochure as the first page, and then as the second page is the actual estimate itself. It's completely different.
And look at her, Rachel, she's floor right now. I need that.
Right? This is completely different and I, I don't know, like I'm not familiar with QuickBooks Desktop, but I'm assuming that a lot of this. Could not be achieved in QuickBooks Desktop. I don't, it could be wrong.
Dan DeLong: No, you don't. You'd have to do, you know, something [00:28:00] like an attachment, and then you can, you can add those attachments, but it's not gonna combine them into one document.
They're gonna be separate. Separate attachments. Yeah. A QuickBooks desktop.
Yousif: So, so, so this is like the picture of, of one of the, the, the employees there. And this is dynamic based off of whoever's assigned to the estimate. So if I have someone else that's assigned to the estimate and I'll just show you something.
Let me put in, um,
gimme a second. Let me hit safe here. And let's just regenerate this. 'cause I wanna show you how it's gonna show now. So if I just go ahead and I hit print, look at that person. It's a different person and different name and different contact info. This is all dynamic. Right, and this is all coming from the estimate form internal, and it's just pulling into the customer [00:29:00] facing PDF.
Rachel Dauchy: Wow.
Yousif: Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Whoever happens to be, you know, if you've got a sales guy out there or a gal, they can go in and select the right one and. Send it.
Dan DeLong: Exactly. Oh my gosh.
Bidirectional Sync with QuickBooks
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Dan DeLong: And I think the, I think the, the, the most powerful aspect of, of, of method is it's bidirectional sync with QuickBooks. Yes. And that as soon as you've recorded this estimate, the estimate will show up inside of, inside of QuickBooks.
Almost instantaneously, I think it's like, what, five minutes? Or is it, or is it actually, um, instantaneously use?
Yousif: So for QuickBooks Online, it's every 15 minute cycle. So you may be making a change and you might be in the middle of that 15 minutes cycle, which means you have another eight minutes before it shows up in QuickBooks and vice versa.
Dan DeLong: Now, what's not gonna show up is this right? It's not gonna show up. Uh, you know, this, um. This is, is [00:30:00] not necessarily gonna show up in QuickBooks to, to view, um, but anything that has a. A home, you know, an apples to apples, uh, home inside of QuickBooks. So it's, it would be the estimate itself. Um, you know, the, the line item detail that's there, that's, that's on that transaction, correct.
Customer. Everything that is, that has a one-to-one relationship between, uh, QuickBooks and Method will populate. So it allows you to also then, you know, hand off workflows a lot smoother. Um, if you are using or app. Adding on method for maybe that one thing that it doesn't do exactly and then you know the rest of it.
You're fine with handling those workflows inside of QuickBooks
Yousif: and, and, and the great thing, I Say it
Dan DeLong: again, sorry.
Yousif: The great thing with this is that these PDFs are completely transferable. So if you want copy it to another, let's say you have someone else that likes [00:31:00] this template, you can go ahead and you can copy it from, from, from your account.
You can just say, Hey, I want to move this. Um, and, uh, it's, it's, it's very easy to transfer over. It's not hard. Now, um, this all comes from this report designer here. So this is an incredibly flexible web-based designer. You don't need to download anything locally to your computer. This is just accessible through the method platform.
It just shows up in a new tab. And you're a basically. It's like an empty canvas. You can just go ahead and you can just recreate whatever template you like.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. This is very similar to like what we were showing with the layout designer. Right, exactly. So you can, you can extend the, the form sizes in here, move things around.
You have a grid, uh, to kind of work with, uh, to be able to know where things are [00:32:00] going to gonna be seen. Um, but you also have this customization on what you see on the screen as well as what. Is ultimately the output, right? Correct.
Yousif: And I do see, Sarah has a question. Yeah. Has a customizable AR payment, which is handy for nonprofits where the payment needs a tax receipt format versus the invoice pledge to play.
Would method handle AR payments?
Nonprofit and Industry-Specific Versions of Method
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Yousif: Yes, it does. And in fact, method has a nonprofit donor version of Method where they have specific donor apps only exclusive to to, to nonprofit companies.
Dan DeLong: Wow. There's like three, there's like three, um, industry types that, um, that method kind of has, right. Like right out of the box.
Right. And it's the general, you know, general CRM, uh, there's field service management, you know, for, for people who have, uh, you know, hvac, uh, landscapers, you know, that have people on the field [00:33:00] that only need to do stuff out in the field, um, that you'll have. Give, give them kind of access to be able to do those types of things.
And then there's a, a nonprofit correct. Industry? Is
Rachel Dauchy: that one of the ones that comes standard in it, or is it one of the ones you have to buy?
Yousif: So, so the, basically you have, there's three different versions. So the, the third one being just the out of the box CRM package and then the donor one. All of these are versions that you have to eventually subscribe to.
They do offer a free trial, so you can try it out for 14 days If you don't like it, great. No strings attached. No credit card required. If you do like it and you like what you see, then you can subscribe. Okay.
They
Yousif: do come with a different price tag though.
Okay.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And, uh, Sarah, I know you're, um, you, you, you've been asking some, some, some questions As an accounting, as an accountant, partner, or referrer of, uh, of, of method, you actually get, [00:34:00] um, uh, uh, an instance for yourself, uh, to be able to, uh, integrate that into your own practice as well as a demo account.
To be able to show, uh, prospective clients or referers, uh, for free, that's correct. For two users, you don't, uh, you don't get it for your whole, whole team, right. So if you do have like a, a large team of, of multiple people, um, you know, you end up having to. Pay for those extra people. Uh, but it really allows you to drink your own champagne or eat your own dog food by including, by incorporating it into your own practice, um, to be able to see the true flexibility and functionality that method offers you as a, as a practitioner, as well as what it could do for your clients.
That's correct. Yeah. You're welcome.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. I have a, I have a complimentary [00:35:00] instance of method for my practice.
Yousif: Yeah. Amazing. Because
Rachel Dauchy: I'm a method partner.
Yousif: Yeah, the Harvard community is expanding rapidly and I love it. And it just shows.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. I can't say I really know how to do anything in it, but that's what I'm here for.
Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Well, and that's, and that's why we like having Yusef on because Yes, he is, he is the DANAL long of method, right? Yes. He's the, he's the guy who used to work for Method. Uh, headed up the, the customization team. So like, he was, he was the AI human right. Talk to, talk to Yusef, tell him what you want, and he'll, he'll try to make those, those, uh, a reality inside, inside of Met.
Yousif: Yeah. Feel free to just pick my brain. I'm more than happy to just have a conversation to kind of give you direction on what you should do. And method.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And if you want to, um, I don't know if you can see the chat on the, on the right side. Um, Joseph, if you wanna put your contact information in there, [00:36:00] uh, so that people watching this now or later.
Uh, I wanna reach out to you. Uh, you can, uh, you, uh, people can do that, uh, to maybe schedule up some, some consultations for you.
Yousif: It's, it's funny. I feel like, da, this is Dejavu. I swear we'd had the exact same issue last time where I couldn't even enter anything. In the chat it says private chat only. I don't see an area for you.
Oh,
Dan DeLong: yeah. It should be over on the right side. Um. But if you, if you wanna put it in there, I'll copy it in, uh, sure. To the, to the folks that watch it. And it says, you're typing so I can see you're typing and I can hear it too. Yeah. It's a loud keyboard. Must be a gamer. I used to don't have time for it anymore, unfortunately.
Right. There we go. I'll put it in the, uh, in the chat. So it, it should go out to Facebook. Uh, YouTube as well as, uh, LinkedIn maybe. We'll see. All righty. Um, so anything else that, uh, you know, [00:37:00] uh, you can think of, uh, Yusef as far as the, the customization, um, options that are, that are available inside of, uh, methods.
Advanced Customization and App Templates
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Yousif: Um, so I do offer like, uh, some, some pre, so I guess you'd call app templates or, uh, which I, I'm kind of building my own app marketplace. So, um, if you see here I have advanced pricing for QBO or price, price levels, uh, for QBO. Then we also have a time tracker for field services, which is. I find a, to be more user friendly than what method offers out of the box.
Um, and then there's something called a quick intake app. So this is kind of an app where you can go ahead, if you're on the road and you're busy and you have, you know, customers or leads calling you, you just essentially say, sorry, I can't get to you right now. Um, and you basically shoot off an SMS and if you want, I can [00:38:00] even put my phone number in here and I'll shoot me.
I'll shoot me. Uh. A text message with a link to a form, and that form will automatically, this, this is the form that you would want to fill out, that, that they would receive on their, on their phone. That's, so then it pushes that responsibility of having the business owner or the, the, the associate to have to fill out this information while they're on the road or not.
It kind of. Solves that problem for them, where now they're pushing that responsibility on the customer or the
Dan DeLong: lead,
Yousif: right? Yeah. And
Dan DeLong: that's, um, uh, we, we had, um, we had a marketer, uh, marketing consultant on the, on the power hour. Um, and he was saying some statistic that, um, you have, as a business owner, you have 20 seconds to respond to an, uh, an inquiry before they move on [00:39:00] to the next.
One on the list, right? Yeah. So, um, this being able to have some kind of interaction, um, which of course, you know, putting the, putting the responsibility for more information on the, on the person making the inquiry, uh, is again, it's more of a, it's more of a joined, um, experience as opposed to, um, you know.
Tennis match of, you know, we served the ball over in your court, we're waiting for the return.
Yousif: Yeah. Right. Yeah, no. So this, this solves a, a big problem for a lot of business owners where they just simply don't have time to capture, uh, those leads themselves. And it, it basically creates like a, a pipeline for them right here.
Mm-hmm. And then they can go ahead and they can just mark anything done that they've already attended to. Mm-hmm. Um, all within their mobile phone. So this is all mobile friendly. Over here, which is, um, pretty
Dan DeLong: neat. [00:40:00] This is, this is, I, I think this is another. Workshop that we need to have.
I need this
Dan DeLong: going into the, the, you know, because I, I am just, I'm kind of blown away by the things that that method can do.
Rachel Dauchy: I know. Me too. For,
Dan DeLong: for just for those. People who are, are missing something from desktop, right? Just
Rachel Dauchy: Yep.
Dan DeLong: The, the, the things that they're normally doing. You know, the, the custom columns on, uh, on, on invoices or sales transactions, the, the, the missing type of transaction of sales orders that can be now, you know, rebought back brought back in, but there's.
That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to, when it comes to method, the, the web to um, you know, the web to activities form. Um, you know, the customer portal somewhere that the customers can go in and see their own sales activity, download the transactions, you know, so that's a [00:41:00] great aspect for those nonprofits that Sarah was talking about where.
You know, somebody needs to download their statement of, uh, of, of their donations for tax purposes at, at the time that they need it, uh, without, you know, compiling all of their emails together. They can just go in and grab those things, move on with, you know, necessarily interacting with the company. As you know, time and opportunity are, are, may, may not allow for that.
Yeah.
Rachel Dauchy: Yeah. And not only that, it, I mean. It, it's a, I I'm dealing with a lot of people that, that want to convert from desktop to online and you know, a lot of times I, I'm sort of stuck saying, well, no, you can't do that in QuickBooks Online. You can't do that. Well, not only can, you know, as I learn more about what this functionality and method can do, I, there's an answer for that and.
To me, this even looks better. It's not, you know, it just can do it. I mean, it's better and [00:42:00] in the spirit of automation, I mean, it's probably a lot more automated. Right. Um, you know, it can automatically update other things and, you know, it's just, it's just really incredible.
Yousif: Yeah. No, uh, that's why I came back after going to Salesforce.
I was like, man, everything is not all. As it seems. And, uh, yeah, it, it
Rachel Dauchy: really though, it, it, for me, it, i, it takes an expert like you and that's why, um, you know, I'm so happy to talk to you and, and I'm gonna be referring you because a lot of this I would love to do on my own. But, you know, it's just, I can't do it all as much as I wanna.
So, um, you know that knowing that there's experts out there like you that really understand method inside and out. And, you know, um, can keep up with all of the changes.
Empowering Users with Method
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Yousif: Yeah, no, and, and that's why I love doing what I do, is just to help, you know, business owners such as yourself, Rachel, or you, Dan, is just, you know, you, you're not, you might not have [00:43:00] time to become an expert at something.
You're busy with your day-to-day. Right. And you also have families and stuff like that. And I just like. Providing a service that I know will help you save immense amount of time, an immense amount of money. That's where I get my passion from, is the fact that I'm saving you time and money. Uh, and that's why I came back to this job and, and that was part of my whole journey was, is Salesforce really my passion?
Am I actually making an impact here? And then I realized that I was making impact. At my old job and that's why I decided to come back 'cause I'm helping people such as yourselves.
Dan DeLong: Well, awesome. Well, I like it. Um, and, and as, and as a side note, and he probably doesn't want me to, to say this, um, Yusef is less costly than working with Method directly.
He doesn't know that yet and he needs to up his prices. I'm gonna, I'm gonna provide that feedback. Yeah. Um,
Rachel Dauchy: oh, I have to tell you guys something [00:44:00] funny. So like, I was just Eli emailing my client like, um, I have this incredible solution for the things you can't do in QB now. And, um. And I said, would you like me to set up a demo?
And she instantly responded, yes. And I also need a custom estimate. I was like, oh boy, here we go. Because you just showed that. And I, and I, yeah, I'm gonna respond with, oh boy, you have no idea what it can do. You can tell
Yousif: her she can put paint like pictures of cats all over. That's what my friend, uh, always says.
And that's it. You know, it's really up to you what you wanna put on there.
Rachel Dauchy: Incredible. Yeah. The,
Dan DeLong: the limits are your imagination. Yeah, basically.
Rachel Dauchy: And, and
Dan DeLong: as long as you can articulate that to someone like Yusef to be able to make that, make that happen, um, again, you know, you can do all these things your yourself, but, you know, because they do give you the, you know, completely [00:45:00] open.
Access to be able to do those things. It just, um, if you're not familiar with it, um, you know, you could potentially find yourself down this rabbit hole of, okay, well how do I undo what I, what I just did? Um, and that's why having someone like, uh, with the expertise, like, like Yusef is, is so valuable to have the.
Uh, you know, on, on hand or, or, or in your back pocket. Um, you know, when things go horribly awry because, uh, it is, I think that is probably methods, um, I don't wanna say downside, but the, yeah. But to all of that is, yes, you could do all this stuff and it's totally customizable, but if you're not familiar with, with using it, then it gets.
A little overwhelming, and I think a lot of people have, have reached that, that, that blockade is that I don't know what I'm doing and I don't wanna mess up, [00:46:00] mess it up. And that's where they need someone, like someone like you or the, or the method customization, uh, team, because they, they do include a free hour of customization.
Um, you know, as part of the trial process you can get through a whole hour. Um. Talking through, you know, what do you want to do? Um, and of course their, their goal is, you know, Hey, this is gonna take more than one hour purchase. A purchase a package. Yeah. That's where somebody, you know, talking to somebody like Yusef, uh, ahead of time, or at least after that hour, then going, okay, this is, this is what we really can do.
Yousif: Yeah, and, and, and to, what I really want to do is just try to help people to, to get as much out of method on their own as possible. So even if you have a question, you're trying to work out something in method and you just want to like figure out if it can be done, and if you're approaching it wrong, I'm more than happy just to even get on a call quickly and just go over it with you and tell you, you know, where, how [00:47:00] you should be approaching it.
You know? Because at the end of the day, if you can even work method. 50% of its full potential, you're already light years ahead of, of what you could do, uh, outside of QuickBooks. Right?
Dan DeLong: So, yeah, I think, um, somebody called me, uh, a QuickBooks empowerment coach. I think that is your, that is your ti that is your title for Method?
Method Method Empowerment coach. I might have to. Yeah. It's really,
Rachel Dauchy: really important. Dan's my QuickBooks empowerment coach. I have learned so much from. Just osmosis from Dan.
Yousif: That's
Rachel Dauchy: what you do. It's true. Um, ef true for method. Absolutely.
Yousif: Method empowerment. Coach. I'm I like that. Yeah. Nice ring to it. I'll, I'll, well, and like we talked about
Rachel Dauchy: last time, remember I, do you guys remember we talked about this, that it's a little, um, it's a little bit of a misnomer just to call it method CRM 'cause it can do so much more, right?
Yes. [00:48:00] So we've gotta, we've gotta, um, drop it in suggestion box for them.
Yousif: Hundred percent. I've spoken to 'em about it all the time. Uh, I don't know if they will. I know that if they remove the, the CRM from method, then it's, they're gonna be confused with the soap company. Right? I told you guys Yes.
Rachel Dauchy: Yes. So, but maybe they could call it method automation or method.
Method,
Yousif: exactly. Something Exactly. Method automation for accounting, something like that. There
Dan DeLong: you go. Yeah. All right.
Upcoming Workshops and Conclusion
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Dan DeLong: So, um, next time on the, on the workshop we're gonna be talking about, what are we gonna be talking about? Um. It's either one of two things and I, and I don't want to go out of the, uh. The, the studio to figure out what it is, uh, we're gonna be talking about in the coming two weeks there.
I'll put it that way. In the coming two weeks, we're gonna be talking about migrating payroll, uh, from desktop to online. Yes, it can be done. Uh, and, and two, we're, we're gonna be also talking about. The, the new AI [00:49:00] powered bank feed. Um, because no, nobody likes change more than those that are sitting in the, in the bank feed on the day-to-day basis to redo the whole thing for you.
Uh, so we'll be talking, uh, talking about the, the changes. What, uh. The good, the bad, and the ugly, uh, as it, as it comes to the, the, the bank feed. Uh, so look forward to those and we hope to see you next time on the quick, uh, oh, I almost said the wrong one, the workshop Wednesday. And we'll see you next time and I hope you have a great week.
Bye everyone. See you.
[00:50:00]
