Hey, it’s Terry here. Happy Tuesday!
After a super long break, it’s great to be back!
So for the last eight years I’ve had a side hustle doing bookkeeping and business management for a few clients, while working full-time and writing this newsletter.
Guess what? My side hustle has just gone full-time and I’m now my own boss! 🍾
My new title is Business Support Professional! I’m still tweaking my elevator pitch but it will go something like this:
I work with business owners who are overwhelmed with their finances and admin, so they can sleep better at night.
If you know a business who needs my help please tell them about me, I’d be most grateful. My website is qwertyplus.com.au, check it out if you like. I’m also on Facebook. Many thanks in advance for your support 🙏🏼
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In this week’s issue:
Tech tips:
Change boring bullet points to colourful symbols
Outlook templates to save time
Excel - quickly join first and last names into one cell
Xero - dashboard too busy?
Claiming meals as an expense - is that allowed?
Plus more…
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TECHNOLOGY
✨Spark up your bullet points!
Did you know you can change how bullets look? These black dots are boring!
1: Create your list of points using the standard black bullets. Highlight the list.
2: Click on the dropdown arrow next to the bullet point menu item and select Define New Bullet.
3: In the Font field at the top, you can keep Symbol or change to a Wingdings font for more options.
4: Select the symbol for your bullet list and click ok, then ok again to go back to your document.
5: Highlight the symbols and change their colour using the font colour menu.
Works in most Microsoft apps
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🚮Outlook Templates
If you regularly use the same content in emails, eg for sending reminders or sending recurring documents, create a template to save time.
Start with a blank email
Select View Templates in the main menu
Click the blue +Template and enter a title for it (it won’t be the email subject) and enter your content, and Save.
In future, click on View Templates to select one to use, edit it or delete it.
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🔢Excel - Join first name and last name
🔗When column 1 has the first name and column 2 has the surname - here’s how to quickly make column 3 contain the full name.
Formula in column 3: =concatenate(A1,” “,B1) Note there is a space between “ “ that puts the space between the first name and the last name.
Drag the formula down if you have list of first names and surnames.
🎯Use this formula for any text you want to string together, eg city and state.
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Xero - busy dashboard?
If you find the new dashboard too busy, click on the Edit homepage button at the top right of the homepage.
Click the grey circle at the top left of each widget to remove them, or at the top, click on +Add widget to add others. Then click Done.
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Claiming meals as an expense
Many workers and business owners are on the road or on site all day.
Can they claim their lunch or snacks as a business expense? Sorry that’s a big fat NO. Even more so if they bought it at KFC. Get it? 🤣
But seriously, the ATO says “You can't claim a deduction for the cost of food, drink or snacks you consume during your normal working hours, even if you receive a meal allowance. These are private expenses.” As for purchasing a meal between jobs the ATO says “you can't claim the cost of a meal or snack you buy when you are going between different jobs.” Read more…
What about an overtime meal expense? Yes you can claim it if you meet specific requirements. Read more…
As for meals while on overnight travel well that’s a totally different beast. 🐂 Too big to cover in this newsletter. Here’s an ATO link for some light reading 🙃
🗣️Alternative phrases
Small tweaks to phases helps your email sound less robotic.
❌Just following up - ✔️Would you kindly share a quick update on ….
❌ASAP- ✔️By (specify a deadline) eg by 3pm today
❌As discussed - ✔️Folllowing on from our call (this morning), the next steps are…./I wish to clarify
❌Quick question - ✔️Would you kindly clarify….
❌Please respond - ✔️Please let me know your thoughts on …
❌Do you have an update… - ✔️Please let me know your thoughts on …
TUESDAY VIBES
Non-productive but 100% boss-approved (maybe)
🐝6 Foods that never expire:
Vinegar, white rice, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and honey
🧓🏼👶🏼👦🏽Age range by generation
Interestingly generation names are based on when people of that generation become adults. That’s why it currently ends at 2012.
1997 – 2012 Gen Z
1981 – 1996 Millennials
1965 – 1980 Gen X
1955 – 1964 Boomers II (aka Generation Jones)*
1946 – 1954 Boomers I*
1928 – 1945 Post War
1922 – 1927 WWII
Before you go…
🍵My new habit you might like to try
Rather than having a coffee first thing, I make a nice cup of tea with a teapot from T2, and sit out in the early morning sunshine and listen to the birds. It’s so refreshing and a great way to start the day.
💻 Want to share a thought or tip with our readers?
Click on the Comments button at the top of this post!
Well it’s great to be back, take care and be super grateful for your family, colleagues and friends.
Terry-Anne
Founder & Editor, Qwerty Plus Newsletter
What’s the first thing I do when I turn on my laptop? 💻
Log into my password manager app called Keeper.
When I log into Keeper it then helps me log in to other apps really quickly, and it helps protect me from cyber-attacks on both my laptop and mobile phone. Try the free version!
Don’t get hacked. Get Keeper.
