Don's Quickbooks and Small Business Tips

Numbers you can count on!
Don Voltmer has been providing accounting/bookkeeping
services in the Roaring Fork Valley since 1974, first as Aspen  Computer Services, Inc. and now as Basalt Accounting  Services.

He has helped over 250 businesses and Individuals with their  accounting needs, like providing pay checks (payroll), paying the  vendors (accounts payable), providing the customer invoices and  statements (account receivable), providing the financial reports (bank statement reconciliations, Income Statements and Balance Sheets, etc.

If you would like to learn how to do any of the above book-keeping  jobs, Don can train you how to use Quickbooks to do them. If you  have one or more employees you need to pay and want the correct  taxes calculated, Don can call you with the net paycheck amount  and you can hand write the paycheck(s) or have Don print the  paychecks on your check forms. Don will also handle the federal  and state tax payments for you. 

Don is also an experienced user of Microsoft's Excel and Word programs, both of which interface with Quickbooks.
Maroon Bells near Aspen
  Visitors
Getting your free website -
When you purchase your own Quickbooks Pro 2009 or 2010 program, you can sign up for a "free for a year" Internet website like this one. Be sure you get the annual free website, not the "one month free" website. The first item you will have to pay for early on is your website's name (or URL). The intial fee is $5.00 and plus $2.00/month. The name you chose must be unique so that when someone wants to find it they will get your site, not someone else's. I chose my business's name, this website's name is www.BasaltAccountingServices.com . The amount of storage is 25MB. You can purchase more storage for $2.00/month for each additional gigabyte. You can purchase Email service for $1.00/month.

What is Homestead? -
Homestead is an Intuit (the company that also owns Quickbooks) company that provides the software, support and hosting service for your free website. Homestead is at www.homestead.com on the Internet and their phone # is 1-800-710-1998.

Using the free SiteBuilder program to create your website -
To get started creating your website you can click "Intuit.com services" on your Quickbooks Pro 2009 Home page, setup your e-mail User ID and your password, and (1) start using the on-line SiteBuilder Lite program or (2) download the free full SiteBuilder program to your computer and then start using it instead of the on-line SiteBuilder Lite program. With the full SiteBuilder program on your computer you by-pass having to run your Quickbooks Pro 2009 program before working on your website.

What do you get with your free website? -
Your first year free website comes with 3 pages. The Homestead Website has many, many sample (template) websites that you can choose one from to start with and modify to display your information. I chose this one because I liked the Flash based moving clouds above the building that was part of the sample website. Moving graphics on a website attract the visitor's attention. and that's why you see the cloud graphic on all 3 of my pages. Another reason is the moving graphic helps to give all three of my pages a consistent general look.

Other things you get with your free website -
  • You can add your own video, pictures, logos, etc. You can select images from Homestead's Image Library that you can resize. 
  • You add your own text and modify it by changing the font and font size, selecting bold, underscoring, italics, positioning (left, center, right), adding bullets (like this paragraph). You can also use some special text effects like Bouncing text, Dissolving text, Fading text, Horizontal & Vertical scrolling text, Retreating text, Zooming text, etc.
  • You can add links to other pages in your website and other websites.
  • You can select several items from SiteBuilder's special elements list like Mouseover, YouTube videos, Image effects, Sound files, Option buttons, Dropdown menus, Check boxes, Submit & Reset buttons, Hit counter, Time & Date, Last updated, Time counter, Countdown, Calendar, etc.

Support options -
Homestead's support seems to be very good. I called them about 6 or 7 times at 1-800-710-1998 and they were very helpful and goodnatured each time. Their support was free as of December 2008 and their support hours are 7:00 AM to 7:30 PM, MST, 7 days a week.

You can also call me with your questions. I charge my normal hourly rate so when you call me at (970) 704-9548 ask me for my current rate.







This page was last updated: March 8, 2010

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Song that's playing:
"Can't Smile Without You" by Barry Manilow, recorded 1978. Album: Ultimate Manilow on Arista. Only play one song at a time.








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Basalt Accounting Services