New version released today!

We’ve just released a new version today. Technically, it’s called v1.48 but that’s boring. So we’re also calling it “Whoa!” because that’s what you’ll shout with excitement when you see what we’ve come up with for this version. (It’s also what you’d shout if you happened to be in this carriage in Salt Lake City this past Saturday).

So, here’s what’s exciting about this release:

User interface upgrades
Lots of user interface improvements: Some are tiny tweaks; some are a little bigger. But we always make lots of them because we love to find ways to make it just a bit easier for you. We’ve tested these changes, of course, but occasionally someone uses a rare browser configuration that we haven’t tested, so let us know if you have any complications while you’re clicking around.

Freshbooks enhancements
We made two major changes with Freshbooks.

• The one you’ll notice is this: You can import an assigned vendor when you make Freshbooks expense import.
• The other one you won’t notice is this: We’ve made some changes to the Freshbooks utility to improve how things sync up. It’s one of those tweaks that you may never see but it will improve your Freshbooks/IAC-EZ experience.

New features
We’ve got a few new features that will make your bookkeeping even easier:

You can now see sub-category details on reports! When viewing your P&L report, you used to only be able to see the main categories. That’s okay for an overview but not useful if you want to see a breakdown. So now, your P& L details that out for you. (For example, if you’ve created a sub-category for paper clips, it used to be lumped in with other office supplies in the main office supply category but now it will show up in your P&L report as “paper clips” to make it clearer for you.)

We’ve added another currency: United Emirates Dirhams (AED) is now included so all of the United Emirates oil exporters who use IAC-EZ can finally use their own currency!

When you import a CSV file, you can now process multiple items at once.

Sometimes when you need help, it can be hard work to describe what you were doing when an issue arose. So you can now grant access to customer support to take a look at your account and help you. It’s a checkbox you can click to give Customer Support access to your account to help you. You have full control so you can click it if you want to grant access and then unclick it when you don’t.

There’s also a new message center that allows you to mark messages as viewed so you can keep your screen clear of messages you’ve already read. (And don’t forget, you can choose your preferences to receive status message under “edit your account”).

Minor fixes and adjustments

• You asked for less scrolling, so here it is! We’ve implemented resolution supporting 1024 x 768.
• Drop down menus are now sorted by date so you can find what you’re looking for faster.
• We’ve added new accounts in the Chart of Accounts payroll section to make it more useful to those of you who have employees.
• We’ve developed a new Flash uploader so you can upload multiple attachments at once. (Talk about multitasking!)
• Unassigned entries will no longer remain in the list after being processed.
• Payments will show up on the edit screen so you can see all of the information at once when you edit an invoice.
• Protection is now in place from changing vital data on a saved item: So, no worries about making changes where we don’t warn you first!
• We updated the headers on the PDF report downloads. Looks nicer now.

State taxes estimates
We’ve added tax estimates for Vermont, South Dakota, Utah, Rhode Island, Wyoming State, and Washington DC (so Obama can do his bookkeeping if he wants to).

And guess what! We’re done with the states. All of them have tax estimates now. Yippee!!!

And there’s more coming!

We have a whole bunch more improvements, changes, and upgrades in the pipeline. Version 1.49 will include SurePayroll integration, as well as lots of other exciting features.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Mom would be proud: You can clean your room!

In a lot of small business offices, papers are sorted into piles and left around on (and under) tablea and desks and chairs. As I write this, I have a stack of papers to my left that include notes and ideas I have for future blog topics and projects I’d like to work on around the house. But among those stacks (at least in a lot of small businesses) is a pile of receipts that you intend to some day get around to inputting into IAC-EZ.

C’mon, admit it! We know you do. In fact, you can probably see it from where you’re sitting right now and recently you said to yourself “I really should input those”.

Well here’s the good news: Someone can do it for you.

Shoeboxed.com is a site that takes all of your receipts and business cards and scans them in for you. It works like this: You mail your receipts to them. They scan them in. Then you get the files (in PDF, Excel, CSV, and other formats) that you can use and save and upload.

That means you can:
1. Get your receipts from purchases
2. Send them to Shoeboxed.com for scanning
3. Get the files back from Shoeboxed
4. Import them intto IAC-EZ

Time spent? (Well, whatever it took to stick the receipts into an envelope and lick the stamp).

We called up our friends at Shoeboxed and asked them to make a deal for the very special folks who use IAC-EZ. They were happy to oblige and they’re offering you $10 off their annual plans plus 250 free catch-up scans (to help you get through that giant stack on your bookshelf).

So here’s what you need to do to get the deal: Go to http://www.shoeboxed.com and check out which plan is right for you. Then email or call and when you sign up for an annual plan, just tell them that you’re a client of IAC-EZ!

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

Giving Back Report

There is a lot of need in our world! Those of us who are privileged to be able to work, run businesses, and live (relatively) carefree lives need to step up and give a little for those who cannot enjoy what we enjoy.

Each month IAC-EZ donates a portion of proceeds from the sign-ups in that month to a charitable organization for that month. These organizations have been specifically chosen as organizations that do the most good for the dollars donated and that invest in a more successful future.

In July, Oprah’s Angel Network was the charity we highlighted. This organization has 3 major initiatives: O Ambassadors is a program to encourage children to become global citizens; Rebuilding the Gulf Coast is an effort aimed at helping recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina; and the Creating Schools project helps to build schools in South Africa.

Thanks to the sign-ups from July, $171 was donated to Oprah’s Angel Network and went to help fund these valuable programs.

Jessica Routier, IAC-EZ

FAQ: Why are my entries not being assigned to their categories? They are just showing up in the memo field.

This could be a couple different things:

First you need to make sure that you have the categories set up in your chart of accounts. If it’s not there, the system won’t know where to put them.

Second, the categories have to match EXACTLY to the category in your IAC-EZ chart of accounts. If they are misspelled, or do not match, the system will not know where they are suppose to go. (The system will put your unmatched category label in your memo field for your convenience).