Office stationery prices dropping across the site

With all of the hype around Apple’s much-hyped announcement later today, you’d be forgiven for not having noticed a significant price drop across our office supplies range earlier this week.

Here are some fantastic office stationery discounts waiting to be snaffled, but be quick!

• Box files, just £1.49 (save 81%)
• 500 DL envelopes, just £4.99 (save 87%)
• 500 DL window envelopes, just £5.29 (save 89%)
• 10 Lever arch files, just £6.29 (save 88%)
• 80gsm A4 copier paper, just £2.15 (save 87%)
• 10 Spiral notepads, just £1.59 (save 82%)

December Newsletter

Technology You Can Trust.

The festive season is upon us. We'd like to wish you a relaxing holiday and a prosperous new year. Below we have must-read information for our British users on VAT changes that are coming into effect on January 1st and some useful advice on the value of focus which will help you shape plans for the year ahead.  As ever, please give us your feedback and comments.

http://www.businessitonline.com/

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Thanks to our sponsors:

Hewlett-Packard Store

Office customers - Buy direct from HP.

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HOT TOPICS THIS MONTH...

VAT changes back to 17.5% on 1st January 2010

If you are based in the UK and VAT registered, you will no doubt already be aware of the VAT rate changes that are occurring on 1st January 2010. When using our online invoicing software to manage your company invoicing process, there are a few things for you to be aware of in order to transition smoothly to the new rate within the system: i) Change your default tax rate back to 17.5%, ii) Modify your stored line items, iii) Be careful when copying invoices!  Read more.

 

Why focus is critical to profitability

An extremely useful illustration of why focus delivers profits faster. It's a simple model but how many of us fall foul of this simple rule, especially as we try to consume greater and greater volumes of distracting information. A must read.  Read more.

 

The Accidental Salesman

An accidental sales person is someone who would not take a job as a sales professional if it were the last job left on the planet! Yet by virtue of setting up a business for themselves, they have found themselves in a sales role. If that sounds like you then you've found the right place! This site is packed full of resources to help business owners succeed in sales without losing their integrity or needing a personality transplant!  Read more.

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SPECIAL OFFERS!

Office paper (500 sheets)	Envelopes (500)	Lever arch files (10)
£2.79	£8.89	£10.87

VAT changes back to 17.5% on 1st January 2010

If you are based in the UK and VAT registered, you will no doubt already be aware of the VAT rate changes that are occurring on 1st January 2010.  If you are not up to speed on these changes and would like to know more, here are some useful VAT guidance notes from the HM Revenue & Customs.
When using our online invoicing software to manage your company invoicing process, there are a few things for you to be aware of in order to transition smoothly to the new rate within the system:

1. Change your default tax rate back to 17.5%
2. Modify your stored line items
3. Be careful when copying invoices!

1. Change your default tax rate back to 17.5%
When the time comes (for goods and services supplied in the new year), you will need to start applying 17.5% VAT to your invoices again, instead of 15%.  Here are some simple steps for how to change your default invoicing VAT rate back to 17.5%:

1. Sign in to Business IT Online
2. Click on the Documents module icon
3. Click the ‘Create document’ link
4. On your invoice template, click ‘Sales tax setup’
5. In the bubble that appears, change the rate to 17.5 and click ‘Save & set as default’
6. Simples!

All new invoices will be created with the new tax rate.
CAUTION: If your procedure is to create invoices by copying previous invoices then you must be very careful that you haven’t copied an invoice with 15% VAT applied (see point 3 below).
2. Modify your stored line items
When you create line items for invoices, the system provides an option to store the line item for future reuse.  If you have taken advantage of this time-saving option, you must be aware that the system also stores the VAT rate against each stored line item and these will need to be changed for line items that are stored with a 15% VAT rate.
Here are some simple steps for how to delete and then recreate stored line items:

1. Sign in to Business IT Online
2. Click on the Documents module icon
3. Click the ‘Create document’ link
4. On your invoice template, click ‘Click to add a line item’
5. Click on the drop-down menu, ‘Existing product / service line items’
6. Review the VAT rate against each line item.  Where a line item has 15% stored, click ‘Delete reusable item’
7. Recreate line items by entering new data in the bubble and checking the box ‘I would like to reuse this line item’ and then clicking ‘Save’.
8. Even more simples!

3. Be careful when copying invoices!
One way of quickly and easily creating invoices for a regular client is to click ‘Make a copy’ from the document preview page.  This will copy the key elements of the invoice to a new template and increment the invoice number by 1 (and adjust the invoice date).
CAUTION: Copying an invoice will also copy the invoice’s line item VAT rate.  If you copy invoices that contain line items with an outdated VAT rate, you will need to delete the line items and then re-add line items with the correct VAT rate.  (See point 2 above for updating your stored line item list).

November Newsletter

Technology You Can Trust.
Business is all about sales and sales is all about influence, so we've brought you some great tips on how to influence people online. With that and two incredibly useful time and cost saving tools, this month's newsletter is a must-read for the small business owner.  As ever, please give us your feedback and comments.
http://www.businessitonline.com/
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Thanks to our sponsors:
Hewlett-Packard Store
Office customers - Buy direct from HP.

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HOT TOPICS THIS MONTH...
11 Ways to influence people online and make them take action

"Influence can be defined as the power exerted over the minds and behavior of others. A power that can affect, persuade and cause changes to someone or something. In order to influence people, you first need to discover what is already influencing them. What makes them tick? What do they care about? We need some leverage to work with when we’re trying to change how people think and behave", from DoshDosh.com  Read more.


Two fantastically useful tools for your small business
MIKOGO is a free desktop sharing tool perfect for any web conference, online presentation or remote support situation. With Mikogo you can invite up to 10 participants to view your screen live over the Web. Quick, easy to use, and free for business use, Mikogo provides a solution suitable for anyone looking to collaborate online.  Read more.


VIAPOST is an alternative mail service that allows you to send physical post direct from your PC. It is a secure, high-quality and confidential way of printing and posting that saves you both time and money. Viapost allows you to send physical letters to any UK address simply by pressing print from within any Windows application. Rather than selecting your local laser or inkjet printer from the printer list, you select 'Send It Viapost'.  Read more.




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SPECIAL OFFERS!

Office paper (500 sheets)	Envelopes (500)	Lever arch files (10)
£2.79	£8.89	£10.87

ViaPost – the impact of a letter, with the ease of an email

Today we’re evangelising about ViaPost, an awesome way to save money AND carbon when sending good old-fashioned snail mail.  From the site:

What is ViaPost?

ViaPost is an alternative mail service that allows you to send physical post direct from your PC. It is a secure, high-quality and confidential way of printing and posting that saves you both time and money.

Viapost allows you to send physical letters to any UK address simply by pressing print from within any Windows application. Rather than selecting your local laser or inkjet printer from the printer list, you select “Send It Viapost”.

We print it at a location close to where it needs to go, and we print it out ready-sorted and barcoded for the Royal Mail to take the final few miles. Because we bypass a lot of the mechanical sorting and a lot of the trucking, our service actually costs less than the price of a first class stamp. There is no need for printers, ink, envelopes, stamps or franking.

You can use ViaPost in the following ways:

ViaPost Driver
free software that installs on your Windows computer. Ideal for lower volume mailings (up to several thousand letters at a time). Acts just like a print driver, you select "Send it ViaPost" from your printer list instead of printing to your local inkjet or laser printer.

ViaPost Portal
allows bulk upload of a document and a list of addresses from any computer connected to the web, including Macs. Does not support mail merge functionality (yet), so you can only send the exact same document to each addressee. The driver does have full mail merge functionality. Enter here.

ViaPost API
The API integrates with your current IT systems and allows your current enterprise software (Sage, Oracle, SAP, etc.) to send documents direct into our system without any user intervention. This is intended for higher volume users for whom the print driver may not be the best route into our service.

 

ViaPost is rated 46 out of the top 100 startups in the UK, according to Startups.co.uk.  Give it a try!

MIKOGO – Free online meetings, web presentations & remote support

A short while back, we wrote about our friends at Yuuguu and some of the exciting stuff they have been up to with their screen-sharing and unified instant messaging application.
Recently, we came across a similar offering, Mikogo who offer a desktop application for meeting with up to 10 participants over the web, for FREE.  Here’s some more info:
What is Mikogo?
Mikogo is a free desktop sharing tool perfect for any online meeting, Web presentation or remote support situation. With Mikogo you can invite up to 10 participants to view your screen live
over the Web. Quick and easy to use, Mikogo provides a solution suitable for anyone looking to collaborate online.
Meet – Present – Support – Teach – Share
Mikogo eliminates the need to make on-site visits for tasks that can easily be achieved via screen sharing over the Internet. Provide online technical support for customers. Conduct product demos or make sales pitches to prospects. Use Mikogo to discuss and edit a current team project. Teach and train your pupils regardless of distance. Or simply share recent holiday photos with your friends and relatives.
Why Mikogo?
Free: Mikogo is a high performance free screen sharing solution for all to enjoy, business and private users included. There are no hidden catches, no credit card details required, no trial periods and no feature restrictions.
Anytime, Anywhere: You can host an unlimited number of meetings for as often and as long as you wish.
Save: With Mikogo you will instantly save yourself valuable travel time and money.
Easy-to-Use: Mikogo’s ease of use makes the software a breeze for any user, regardless of technical ability. The clean uncluttered user interface will keep your screen free, allowing you and your participants to focus on the presentation or meeting at hand.
How it Works
Mikogo is quick and easy. Just start a meeting with two mouse clicks from your desktop and receive the unique meeting ID. Using this ID, participants can then join from Mikogo.com without having to register nor install any software. Users can then enjoy free screen sharing with all Mikogo features included.  Thanks to globally distributed servers, Mikogo is available for everyone from anywhere at anytime, 24-7.

SIGN UP FOR MIKOGO HERE

October Newsletter

Technology You Can Trust.

October's news includes the announcement of a huge landmark for us and some great tips on social media marketing from the experts.  As ever, please give us your feedback and comments.

http://www.businessitonline.com/

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Thanks to our sponsors:

Hewlett-Packard Store

Office customers - Buy direct from HP.

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HOT TOPICS THIS MONTH...

50,000 users and counting

In the last week, we have reached 50,000 users registered on Business IT Online. It's an exciting landmark of which we are very proud.  Read more.

 

10 Small business social media marketing tips

"Capacity - especially to plan and execute effective marketing strategies - is a big challenge for every small business. In this post, I’ll offer 10 suggestions for how small businesses can supercharge their marketing efforts by leveraging social media.", from Mashable.com.  Read more.

 

Quicker and easier than ever to find the office supplies you need

We have released a major improvement to our online office supplies store which makes it even easier for you to find the office stationery items you need. The enhancement is in two parts. The first is an improvement to our on site search facility and the second is an enhancement to the navigation structure.  Read more.

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SPECIAL OFFERS!

Office paper (500 sheets)	Envelopes (500)	Lever arch files (10)
£2.79	£8.89	£10.87

Quicker & easier than ever to find the office supplies you need

Today we released a major improvement to our online office supplies store which makes it even easier for you to find the office stationery items you need.

The enhancement is in two parts.  The first is an improvement to our on site search facility and the second is an enhancement to the navigation structure.

On site search improvements

• Enter a search term and you will now be able to narrow results by category, brand and / or keyword from the search results page that loads
• If you narrow your search results by category first, then brand, and keyword last, you can use all three parameters to find the product you need.
• You can go straight to a search result by directly entering the following URL (where ‘copier paper’ is the search term) http://www.businessitonline.com/office-products-search.aspx?s=copier+paper
• You can go straight to a search result, refined by brand, by directly entering the following URL (where ‘copier paper’ is the term and ‘5 Star’ is the brand) http://www.businessitonline.com/office-products-search.aspx?s=copier+paper&b=5+Star
• You can go straight to a search result, refined by brand AND keyword, by directly entering the following URL (where ‘copier paper’ is the term, ‘5 Star’ is the brand AND ‘A4 White’ is the keyword) http://www.businessitonline.com/office-products-search.aspx?s=copier+paper&b=5+Star&kw=A4+White
• And if you’re a real direct URL fan, you can go straight to the above page, sorted by price too! (by adding ‘&sort=price’ on the end) Which would give you the page for the cheapest 5 Star A4 copier paper
• You can also undo narrowing parameters by clicking on the X beside each selection to help you go back if you make a mistake

Navigation improvements

• One way to find a product is from our master office supplies brand list by clicking on the brand you are looking for (they’re all sorted alphabetically)
• You can also go straight to a brand’s products list by directly entering the following URL (where ‘Compucessory’ is the brand) http://www.businessitonline.com/office-products-search.aspx?b=Compucessory
• From a brand page, you can narrow further by category, e.g. Compucessory headphones and speakers…
• …and / or by keyword, e.g. Compucessory headset
• Alternatively, you can find products by navigating through the category hierarchy on the left of the page.  When you get to the 3rd level category down, you will see a choice of ‘type’, ‘brand’ or ‘keyword’.  Use these to narrow your results until you find the product you need
• Click on a product name or image from a listing to load a detailed product page with specifications (e.g. Compucessory noise-cancelling foldable headset)
• On a product page, you can navigate back to the category listings by clicking on the nav trail at the top of the page
• Click ‘back’, or use the back button in your browser, to go back to a previous page
• Bookmark a product page by clicking on the service of your choice from the Bookmark link in the top right corner of the product page

That’s most of the changes for now.  There’s some more great stuff in the pipeline.

50,000 users and counting. Are you one of them?

In the last week, we have reached 50,000 users registered on Business IT Online.  It’s an exciting landmark of which we are very proud.

We have invested a huge amount of effort into making our online business software and office supplies service the best it can possibly be.  Continuous improvement (or ‘Kaizen’, as the Japanese call it) is an ongoing obsession of ours and your feedback continues to be the main driver of our development programme.

THANKS FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT

September Newsletter

Technology You Can Trust.

This month we are very excited to announce our affiliate programme and take a look at some of Europe's most exciting startups from Seedcamp.  As ever, please give us your feedback and comments.

http://www.businessitonline.com/

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Thanks to our sponsors:

Hewlett-Packard Store

Office customers - Buy direct from HP.

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NEW FEATURES

Become a Business IT Online affiliate

If you are a business that sells products and services to other businesses, this is a great opportunity to enhance your revenue-generating capabilities, by referring customers to us. We are launching with a fantastic 10% commission on all referred sales.  Read more.

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HOT TOPICS THIS MONTH...

Seedcamp's six winners announced

Seedcamp, the European startups programme, has announced the winners of its year-long programme to find the best startups in Europe, finally judged over an intense week of mentoring by a long line of fellow European entrepreneurs (via Techcrunch UK).  Read more.

 

Successful pay per click advertising for small businesses

Bytestart reports that, used properly, digital advertising space can be likened to an all-singing, all-dancing virtual billboard, equal to the glitziest displays in London or New York. Unlike the billboard on Times Square or Piccadilly Circus, a pay per click marketing campaign can be precisely targeted according to dynamics such as age, gender, martial status, geographical location or time of day.  Read more.

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SPECIAL OFFERS!

Office paper (500 sheets)	Envelopes (500)	Lever arch files (10)
£2.79	£8.89	£10.87