Blog : Method Developer Network

Method will be Scaling New Heights in 2011!

Method_Danny — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:52:00 GMT

It might still be winter, but here at Method we’re already gearing up for and looking forward to this year’s Scaling New Heights Conference, taking place in a few short months.

From May 23-25, 2011, the third annual Scaling New Heights Conference, presented by Joe Woodard, will bring together QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Intuit Solution Providers from all over the world. And unlike in years past, this year’s conference will be taking place just 10 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.

For those of you unfamiliar with Scaling New Heights, it is an advanced, Intuit-centric training conference for Intuit Solution Providers and QuickBooks ProAdvisors . If you’re interested in learning more about QuickBooks and Intuit offerings, expanding the services you offer to your clients (like Method!), or networking with like-minded individuals, then you’ll want to look into attending Scaling New Heights 2011.

After exhibiting at Scaling New Heights over the past two years, as well as having a dedicated Method training and certification track in 2010, it was a no-brainer to return in 2011 as a Diamond Sponsor with a larger training and certification track. We’re very excited about our sponsorship at the conference and look forward to reuniting with some of our wonderful Method Solution Providers, as well as teaching some new friendly faces about the endless possibilities of Method’s implementation.

For more information about Scaling New Heights 2011, including sessions, information on the beautiful JW Marriott location, registration, and more, please visit www.scalingnewheights.com.

We hope to see you at Scaling New Heights in May!

- Danny

Empower yourself by attending Method Solution Provider University

Method_Danny — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:23:00 GMT

Starting this month, school bells will be ringing with the opening of the Method Solution Provider University (MSPU), presented by none other than Joe Woodard. Now if you haven’t heard, we had a packed house at the Scaling New Heights Conference last month and one thing we know for sure is that consultants are serious about expanding their knowledge in Method. We had over 150 attendees attend the level 1 certification training during the three-day conference and over 50 take the exam onsite. I want to throw a shout out to Susan Cook from Account Ability for being the first to pass the Method Certified Consultant exam for 2010!

I couldn’t be more thrilled about MSPU starting this month. As a consultant, this is a no-brainer, seeing as you are now given the tools and education to take your practice to the next level. You can visit the MSPU by clicking here. When I spoke to Joe about this over the last few weeks, here were his thoughts:

“I believe Method has real game changing potential within the QuickBooks community. Method has certainly changed the way we provide consulting for our clients. Sales of Method consulting and software over our first 12 months is just under $100k, and the opportunities keep coming. As charter members of the Method Solution Provider program we are thrilled to be working with Method to provide training for other MSPs - through both our annual conference called "Scaling New Heights" and through the newly formed Method Solution Provider University. The consulting opportunity around Method is tremendous, and through our partnership with Method we will empower countless QuickBooks consultants to expand their professional expertise, to provide powerful results for their clients who use QuickBooks, and to grow their practices.”

MSPU has options that can work for you depending on your schedule, budget and level of involvement. Level 2 boot camp classes are limited in size and those who attended the Scaling New Heights Conference got first dibs on enrolment. If you’re interested in getting in, sign up for classes today!

P.S. I’ll also be making my way around some of the Level 2 boot camps across the country, so stay tuned for further updates.

Cheers,

Danny

Method Integration - Scaling New Heights 2010 – Gold Sponsor

Method_Danny — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:49:00 GMT

In 5 months, we’ll be headed to Atlanta, GA as Gold Sponsors for the Scaling New Heights 2010 Conference. If you didn’t attend last year’s conference, you definitely want to get involved this year. Why? For starters, this conference is packed with intermediate and advanced training on QuickBooks products for consultants and accounting professionals. Better yet, new for 2010, Joe will officially be launching the Level 1 Certification training and has added a Method Training and Certification track. Excited now? I thought so.

I attended this conference last year and was very impressed, especially with it being Joe’s first swing at the conference. The new venue looks fabulous and is an excellent opportunity for Method Solution Providers to prepare for their Level 1 Certification.

For those consultants who are new to Method and wonder what added value it can bring to a QuickBooks user, check out this webinar Joe did a few weeks ago. It’s meant to be a teaser of what’s to come while at the conference.

Click here to view Joe Woodard's "Can you really do that in QuickBooks - Part 2"

For more information on the conference, you can click here. Or, if you’re ready to sign up and head to Atlanta in May, click here to register. If this is how you first heard about the conference, please be sure to let Joe know on your registration form under “How Did You Hear About Us?”

See you all there in t-minus 165 days.

Joe Woodard partners with Method Integration as the only endorsed trainer and writer for Method Solution Providers

Method_Danny — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:33:00 GMT

In June we announced the beginning of the Method Solution Providers Pilot Program at the Scaling New Heights Conference in Atlanta. The pilot program allows members from groups such as Scaling New Heights, The Sleeter Group, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, Intuit Solution Providers and Microsoft Certified Professionals to get involved with Method as a Consultant or Account Manager without being certified. Method Solution Providers are provided with Method accounts to use in their own business and are also granted access to exclusive webinars, conducted by yours truly. Since June, the Method Solution Providers Pilot Program team has grown very quickly. In fact, within one month of returning from The Sleeter Group Conference, our team of Consultants and Account Managers has grown by over 30%. Impressive? I’d say so.

Joe Woodard and I first connected over LinkedIn back in February of this year. Since then, Joe has been actively using Method in his own practice and providing it as a solution to many of his clients. Method has become a vital part of his consulting business. Joe has not only invested time in learning Method customization, but he has also developed Pendulum – an online timesheet application that integrates with QuickBooks.

I’m very happy to announce a new partnership between Method Integration and Joe Woodard, President of Creative Financial Software. Joe Woodard is now the only endorsed trainer and writer for the Method Solution Provider certification in the U.S. and the only recognized author of The Official Method Solution Providers Reference Guide. Starting in 2010, Joe will also be conducting a series of Method Certification Boot Camps, which will supply Consultants and Account Managers with the knowledge required to provide Method consulting services. Joe’s experience with Intuit products, strong consulting background and passion for learning Method, makes him an asset to the Method Solution Providers team and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have him on board. Electronic copies of The Official Method Solution Providers Reference Guide will be available, free of charge, to all members of the Method Solution Providers Pilot Program. The guide is meant to prepare Consultants and Account Managers for the certification exams.

The release of the guide and certification will help to launch the Method Solution Providers Program out of its pilot next year. During the remainder of the pilot, I plan on conducting new webinars and, of course, listening to your much needed feedback. For those of you who are not participating in the pilot program but would like to, please feel free to contact me directly at d.docouto@methodintegration.com or 1.888.925.6238 ext. 708.

Stay tuned for more information on the Method Solution Providers Pilot Program as it becomes available.

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Method awarded as one of Joe Woodard’s Top 5 IDN for 2009

Method_Danny — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:34:00 GMT

With today’s economy, businesses have to make difficult choices as to where they will spend their hard earned dollars. For anyone who attended the Scaling New Heights Conference in Atlanta last week, I strongly feel it was money well spent. This conference gave attendees a very unique opportunity to learn Intuit products, prepare for Intuit certification exams and interact with various ProAdvisors and Intuit Solution Providers. If that wasn’t enough, attendees at the conference received hands-on training from some of the top trainers of Intuit products like Joe Woodard, Laura Madeira and Mario Nowogrodzki just to name a few!

I feel extremely privileged that Joe allowed me to join the Scaling New Heights team last week, seeing as only 2 IDN products were invited to the conference. On Day 1, I led a class during the lunchtime break session, focusing on using Method for CRM (Customer Relationship Management). It was nice to see some familiar faces in a packed classroom. If anyone is like me, my stomach starts to feel a little funny when doing training sessions or presentations, but this time, it was also because I didn’t have a chance to touch my lunch. I was being pulled left, right and center by people wanting to have a few questions answered regarding Method. The training session went off without a hitch and for many people in the room, this was their first exposure to this product called “Method”.

This set the tone for the rest of the day on Monday, leading up to Tuesday when I helped Joe with presenting Method as one of his top 5 IDN (Intuit Developer Network) picks for 2009. I focused my presentation on 10 problems that could be solved by using Method. For anyone who is interested, Joe is offering a simulcast package with 5 of the classes that were at the Scaling New Heights Conference. For more information, please visit http://www.scalingnewheights.com

Scaling New Heights also marked the beginning of our Solution Providers Pilot Program which is going to help empower both Certified Consultants and Certified Account Managers with extensive Method product knowledge starting this week!

This was Joe’s first conference and was a major success. I look forward to attending Scaling New Heights 2010! Nicely done Joe!

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Method Xora Connector – Connects QuickBooks with Xora

Method_Danny — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:46:00 GMT

I love my gadgets. I really do. So when we started talking about making a connector that would allow Xora users to integrate with Method and of course QuickBooks, I was pretty pumped.

Haven’t heard of Xora before? Well, Xora is an alien creature from a distant plant named…..just kidding! Okay, all jokes aside, if you haven’t heard of Xora yet, it’s time you did.

Xora is a mobile workforce management solution used by more than 8000 companies. So how does Xora help you to track and manage your workers?

You can see exactly where your workers are, in real-time and what they are up to.
Workers can easily enter their time through their phone devices, and guess what? They can’t change the times they enter in, so you know it will be accurate.
Xora helps your company to be more “green” by eliminating paperwork since all time and job entries can be entered into the phone. We like “green”.
Want to learn more about Xora features? Speak to the experts at Xora by clicking the link below:
http://www.xora.com

So how does the Method Xora Connector fit in? The Method Team is all about making applications that seamlessly work with QuickBooks and solve your business needs. The Method Xora Connector does just that!

The Method Xora Connector is a bridge that connects QuickBooks with Xora for the purpose of sending start & stop times from Xora to the QuickBooks Timesheet. With this Method Xora Connector bridge, Xora Jobs and Users are paired with QuickBooks Customer:Jobs and Employees/Subcontractors. All job and shift times entered into Xora are then pulled into the Method Xora Connector, which in turn posts them to QuickBooks for payroll and/or billable time.

So how much does it cost? If you’re already a Method Full Blown Edition user, it’s free! Just go to your “My Account” tab in your Method account and add the app.

Not a Method user? The Method Xora Connector subscription is just $20.00 per month with an initial setup fee of $75.00. The setup fee includes a 30 – 45 minute installation and training session with a connector guru. To sign-up for the Method Xora Connector, click the link below.

Method Xora Connector Sign-up

Not a Xora user? Setup a demo with a Xora representative by visiting their website below:

http://www.xora.com

Kudos’s to Richard from our development team who has been working very hard on getting this app to where it is today. It’s awesome!

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Method App Library – Now Open

Method_Danny — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:05:00 GMT

I’ve never been one to spend time at the library. No offence to anyone who does that for their past-time. The library I’m about to talk about, I can handle. I am thrilled to announce that the much anticipated launch of the Method App Library is finally here. So why is this so exciting? Well you’ll have to read on to find out of course.

Picture the Method App Library being……well, a library, filled with specialized, industry-specific apps that are created by our team and 3rd Party Developers. The idea is that eventually there will be an app that meets the fundamental needs of nearly every major market segment, all under one roof. No need to go looking anywhere else when your business needs change or grow. See now you know why I was so excited to tell you about this.

The Method Application Library is broken into 2 core areas:

Base Method Editions

Includes the Method Starter, Method CRM and Method Full Blown Edition. Future editions to be released, in no specific order are:

Method Agriculture
Method Automotive
Method Construction
Method Education
Method Field Services
Method Healthcare
Method Manufacturing
Method Non-Profit
Method Professional Services
Method Property Management
Method Real Estate
Method Retail
Method Software Business
Method Studios
Method Wholesale/Distribution

Specialized Apps

These are industry apps that are tailored to very specialized needs. These apps will be made up primarily of 3rd party developer apps. You can choose to add 1 of these apps or several of these apps to your account and use them in conjunction with your existing apps.

The “Learn More” link on each app provides a detailed overview of the app including pricing information. You can also read up on reviews and ratings from current and previous users and contact get information for the developer. Soon you’ll be able to see screen shots for each app, plus view movies to help make your decision a little easier.

Worried about it being complicated to install an app? Don’t be. If you’ve ever talked to an iPhone user, you’ll know that installing an app is as easy as visiting the App Store and after hitting “Install”, the new app is installed. I have an iPhone and have several non-computer-literate friends who own them and they all did it the first time.

Clicking the “My Account” link in your Method Account will bring you to a page similar to what you see in the Method App Library. Simply click the “add this app now!” button and that’s it. Your app is now installed. Just as easy as installing your iPhone app, told you not to worry.

Stay tuned to our blog for news on new apps being released shortly!

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Method is Scaling New Heights

Method_Danny — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:27:00 GMT

Social networking is an imperative and extremely powerful tool in today’s business. December’s issue of Baseline Magazine ranked “Social Networking” #6 for “Top 10 Trends in IT for 2009”. I wasn’t surprised to see that “Software as a Service (SaaS)” came in at #1. If you haven’t taken advantage of social networking tools to keep in touch with other business contacts and partners, you should! If you’re already a Method user, well you’re ahead of the game and are already using a SaaS product, nicely done!

Case in point – I have been actively using my LinkedIn account to touch base with other consultants, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, QuickBooks Intuit Solution Providers (ISP’s) and other SaaS users. It really is amazing how many people you can meet and how quickly your connections can add up.

In mid-January, through a common group on LinkedIn, I came across a posting by Joe Woodard regarding a conference for accounting professionals, QuickBooks ProAdvisors and Intuit Solution Providers (ISP’s). I connected with Joe and we found out that we both had attended the QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions Conference in September but managed to somehow miss each other. We started to discuss Method and how it might help to solve some of his clients’ business needs. Joe and I were so excited about working together that he invited me to attend his “Scaling New Heights” conference being held in Atlanta, GA in May, 2009. Had it not been for LinkedIn, Joe and I may have never met.

Joe has invited me to lead a webinar on Method as part of his webinar series to promote the Scaling New Heights Conference. The best part is, the webinars are free! Free is always nice, especially in times like these.

To find out more about the “Scaling New Heights” conference, click the link below:
http://www.scalingnewheights.com/

To participate in the upcoming webinar, click the link below:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/254287014

I’m very excited about visiting Atlanta in May for this conference. I may be learning a thing or two from Joe after attending some of his classes.

Happy networking =)

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Hungry for information? Feed your appetite with RSS feeds!

Method_Danny — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT

2009 is here and if you haven’t jumped on the band wagon with using RSS feeds it’s about time you got started. Our blog has been around since 2007 and something I’ve noticed is that a large percentage of consultants, accountants, and clients have no clue what an RSS feed is, what its benefits are and how to set it up. Don’t worry though, after you finish reading my post today, you will be an RSS expert (at least let’s hope).

Before I dive into what an RSS feed is and why it’s so cool, I want to talk about how we used to access information before RSS feeds became so popular. Information is available in so many places that it’s crazy when you start to think about it. When starting your day you may check your local news website, look up stock information, check for responses on a community forum or read some of the interesting blog entries on the Method website (hey, I had to throw a pitch in there). The problem with the “old” way of doing things is it forces you to have to manually visit each site, see if anything new has taken place and when you’re done reading, move onto the next site. It may be that only 1 out of the 4 sites you’re visiting actually has new content to read. We all know how much free time you have right?

The beauty of the feed

An RSS feed is a fast way to get information from the internet sites you frequently visit, directly to you instead of the other way around. Sounds like a simple concept doesn’t it? It’s almost like your favorite website giving you a phone call saying “Hey I got new information you need to read and here it is!” In order for your websites to “call you” you’ll need to “subscribe” to their RSS feeds. It’s almost like being put on their calling list except you don’t get those annoying telemarketing calls. You subscribe only to the content that you want.

How to identify a website with an RSS feed?

A website that has RSS feeds will have the “RSS” logo either in the top toolbar of your internet browser or the RSS icon on their page. I’ve pointed out the RSS logo on the Method website in the diagram below but I’m sure you’ve also seen this logo elsewhere. It’s kind of hard to miss since its bright orange. Once you have identified a website you want to subscribe to you’ll need to make sure you have an RSS reader and actually subscribe to the feed.

An “RSS Reader” is like a newspaper that contains all the articles for the “feeds” you’re reading. This reader is where all the sites you subscribed to are going to be sending their information to. Hence, why they call it a “reader”. Getting it? A bunch of readers are available out there. I personally use the reader built-in to Outlook 2007 and for my iPhone the Google Reader. I am going to go through an example of adding an RSS feed for our Method Blog using Internet Explorer 7 since almost all PC users have this installed. Here we go!

Open Internet Explorer.
Go to the site with the RSS Feed. In our case we’ll be going to:
www.methodintegration.com/cs/blogs
In the top of the IE toolbar you’ll notice the orange “RSS” logo I was talking about earlier. Click the logo.
An HTML preview of the feed you are going to subscribe to now appears. Click the Subscribe to this Feed link.
A pop-up window will appear. Click Subscribe and that’s it!

Now Internet Explorer will be notified when new blog posts are available for you to read. To see if there is anything new to read, follow the steps below.

If Internet Explorer is already open, click on the star or Favorites Center at the top left of your screen.
Click Feeds.
The Method Blog will be listed there and will be bold if new information is available.

Personally, I love using Outlook 2007 as a reader especially on my laptop. I just find it easier to get my RSS feeds in email form vs. having to open up Internet Explorer. The nice thing is if you have setup the feed through IE it appears in Outlook automatically. I love things that are automatic and easy.

So now that you have setup your first RSS feed with Method and know how RSS feeds work, have some fun with it. Just remember to look for the orange logo! Just be careful because it’s addictive (speaking from personal experience).

So what’s your favorite RSS feed? I know, I know, it’s Method. I’d love to hear your second and third picks though, so, let me know via our comments section.

Till next time,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

‘Tis the season to be jolly…

Method_Danny — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:08:00 GMT

The holiday season is upon us and everyone here at the Method Team is in a festive mood. Heck, Katie and I even managed to put up our holiday tree after returning from our trip to the Sleeter Conference. This included us playing some good old Christmas tunes at 8:00am prior to anyone coming into the office (except poor Paul who was trying his best to focus on his work).

2008 has been a very exciting year for our team. We opened up our beta, launched the Method API, filed for a patent for our Method Integration Engine and made Method publically available in September. All of this was followed by a hectic series of conferences (QuickBooks Enterprise Conference, Sleeter Conference and The Financial Technology Show).

So what can you expect from us in 2009? We’ll keep you posted, but I promise there are only more exciting things planned in the pipeline.

Just a reminder that our offices will be closed on the following days:

December 25 (Christmas Day)
December 26 (Boxing Day here in Canada)
January 1 (New Years Day)

On behalf of the Method Team, have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy and prosperous 2009!

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Can poorly written add-ons to QuickBooks impose a drag on your QuickBooks’ performance?

Method_Danny — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:28:00 GMT

If you take a look at the Intuit Marketplace, several applications state they have “syncing” capabilities with QuickBooks. If you have ever shopped for an add-on to QuickBooks, you know that the degree in which these third-party applications can sync with QuickBooks varies depending on who created the application.

The QuickBooks SDK allows developers to also create “listening” add-ons to QuickBooks. So your next question is going to be, “What are listening add-ons” right? These are QuickBooks third-party applications that keep an open ear to activity that is taking place in QuickBooks while it is open. When something does happen in QuickBooks (such as adding a customer, creating a new item, etc.), it then notifies the third-party application that something has taken place. The third-party app can stay current with what is happening in QuickBooks without having to perform a manual sync process. Sounds good, right?

Here in lies the problem. Many of the developers out there are writing poorly written apps that use these “listening” abilities. As a result, they cause QuickBooks to slow down in performance and end up wasting any time that was saved through the automatic syncing process. Not only that, it gives us “good guys” a bad name. By “good guys” I mean, software developers who write properly written programs.

Naturally, when a person experiences this, they easily lose faith in “listening” applications and won’t want to use or recommend them to their customers. So here are some quick things you should know about well-written and poorly written programs.

First the “bad guys” or poorly written program:

The program acts ‘synchronously’, in that it will perform extra functions during the listening. This means QuickBooks has to sit there and wait for those functions to complete before moving on to do more important things.

So breaking that down into more detail:

QuickBooks provides the event details that are taking place to the third-party application.
App then performs one or more additional functions like getting more information from QuickBooks, updating its own database with changes, etc.
App then returns control back to QuickBooks so that QuickBooks can continue doing what it was doing before.

Now the “good guys” or well written program (like Method of course! WOOT WOOT!)

The program acts ‘asynchronously’, in that it will immediately return control back to QuickBooks and perform any additional actions on its own time.

So what does that mean?

QuickBooks provides the event details to the listening app.
App simply takes note of the event details.
App immediately returns control back to QuickBooks so that QuickBooks can continue doing what it was doing before.
App, on its own time, performs additional functions like requesting more information from QuickBooks, updating its down database, etc.

So there you have it! Next time someone asks you “Can poorly written add-ons to QuickBooks slow things down?” you’ll know exactly how to answer. Or at the very least, point them to this article.

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration

Method spotted on Facebook and LinkedIn

Method_Danny — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:09:00 GMT

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or don’t have a clue what the “Internet” is, you’ve probably heard of the sites called Facebook and LinkedIn. Both of these social networking sites have grown in popularity over the last few years.

Method now has a developer network group available on Facebook and LinkedIn. This is a great way to keep in touch with other Method users/developers, ask questions, hear about events and even find local help in your area!

Want to learn more about Facebook or LinkedIn? Click on the appropriate image to the left!

To join the Method Developer Network for Facebook, click the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39475389713

To join the Method Developer Network for LinkedIn, click the link below:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/879757

Cheers,

Danny Do Couto
Method Integration