I was lucky enough to attend the Xero Conference on Friday the 3^rd of February with Glennis and Sandy.  This will be the first Xero Conference of many.

I found the speakers engaging and very educational.

I found it very refreshing to be with like-minded people and also realise that not all accountants are geeks.  …Or am I a geek that I get really excited about accounting software and fit right in???

I have worked in the IT industry for 10 years and it was a refreshing change to have a Software Developer that actually listened and delivers to its customers.

The Xero Team put on an excellent conference and every Xero Employee that I met was passionate, dedicated and excited about their company.

I feel proud and excited to be part of something, which is unique to New Zealand, which is growing into a Globally recognised brand, and being part of emerging leading edge technology.

A nice debate here about the bookkeeping profession being dead…   Righto!

Thanks to Salesforce for this excellent video which explains what cloud computing is.

All those Xero users out there, remember to enter 2011 for any dates for last year – including December.  If you are wondering why payables or receivables are showing, but then seem to disappear in another screen, a likely reason, if that you have marked it as paid in December 2012.  Go to the contact, or search for the invoice, delete the payment and re do it with the correct date.

We are very pleased to be listed on the advisor page of Tradevine.  If you haven’t had a look at their site yet, check them out.  ”Superb software for Trade Me sellers – list faster, list smarter.  Save money, save time”.  If you haven’t heard of Tradevine yet, it will only be a matter of time.

Tradevine Advisor

Wow, we had a combined Christmas Party with the girls from Jack Property Maintenance last week.  What a night!

Amanda put on a great night from Strike a Pose – www.strikeapose.co.nz.  Where you do ‘life drawing’… in a hens party format…  Great fun!  We got to polish up on our long dormant drawing skills and have a laugh at the same time.  I haven’t seen so many red faces for ages.

We had a great model called Logan, I believe you can choose a male or female life model, so the boys don’t need to feel excluded from this.  It is kind of hard drawing a … when making eye contact with the model…  I won’t say too much more.  Strike a Pose is a very affordable way to have a fun Christmas party or even.

Julia, Leigh, Sandy and Glennis

Strike a Pose

The girls were very pleased yesterday to welcome Baby Jade to the KOM office …along with her parents of course…  Jai and Sarah Ivarsson from MadeSimple and Jaijaz.

Sarah, Jai and Baby Jade

I would like to welcome Sandy and Michelle to the Katalyst team.

Sandy is based in the KOM office and has many years experience as an office manager and Michelle is our kind-of ‘trainee’ who is based on the North Shore.  Michelle is an excel guru, who is keen to learn everything about bookkeeping.  She maybe will pursue accounting a bit further down the track.

…and then there were six…

Yum, a Brownie made from 5 ingredients.  Definitely recommend a food processor over trying to use a grain mill…  And not a good idea to offer a piece to a guy with nut allergies…who owned a Macadamia company…

http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2011/04/raw-brownie.html