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Business Tools Blog

Convert Numbers to Currency for MS Word Mail Merge

September 2, 2010 – 12:44 am

Did you ever try to use numbers in an excel spreadsheet to populate a Word document using mail merge?  If you have then you probably noticed that MS Word loads any number in general format.  Number formatting problems in a mail merge occur when the cells that contain the numbers in the Excel worksheet are formatted as Number, Currency, Date, Percentage, etc.

Example, $1,000.00 in Excel will load as 1000 into a mail merge document.

One way to make the number look like currency in your Mail Merge is to create a new column in excel that converts the number $1,000.00 into Text. Use the following formula: =TEXT(A1,”$#,##0.0″)

Before you use the mail merge, hard code the column with the =TEXT(A1,”$#,##0.00″) formula.  When you import the new column into your mail merge document it will appear as currency.

Sandi Mays | Excel | Comments (2)

Calculate the number of Years, Months, Days between two dates

August 19, 2010 – 2:09 pm

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Rachelle Haid is a  an Excel wiz and came across this snazzy feature that finds the number of years, months, or days between two dates.

If you want to know the number of days between 2 dates, just type: =DATEDIF(CELL1,CELL2,”d”).

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If you want to know the number of months between 2 dates, just type: =DATEDIF(CELL1,CELL2,”m”).

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If you want to know the number of years between 2 dates, just type: =DATEDIF(CELL1,CELL2,”y”).

Sandi Mays | Excel, Rachelle Haid | Comments (1)

Top 5 Corporate Gifts

August 15, 2010 – 1:40 pm

“What should we give to say thanks to our loyal customers and employees?

  1. Tickets - Who doesn’t appreciate taking a little time for themselves or time with friends?  consider giving tickets to a local event, the theater, zoo,  or if you live in Colorado, consider ski lift tickets.
  2. A luxurious pen - We use pen’s all the time at work.  A snazzy pen makes you feel better about your workday.  If you are in the UK, try The Pen Company – supplier of pens - for a wide range of choices.
  3. Homemade desserts - Grab a fancy tin and start baking your fave cookies.  Everyone loves homemade treats, just add your business card inside the tin and your gift won’t be forgotten.
  4. USB flash drive - you can get these with your company’s logo and trust me, they will be used and shared!
  5. Classic Board Games - every time the giftee plays the game, she’ll think of you!
Sandi Mays | Financial Management, Office | Comments (0)

Hen and Stag?

August 13, 2010 – 12:56 am

I love it when I hear new slang … well at least new to me.

I came across the Hen and Stag concept at Sauce Communications – restaurant PR company website.  They have a blog post on their website that describes a hosted an evening to showcase the cookery school’s hen and stag packages.

As you probably guessed, a Hen is a woman and a Stag is a man.  There are entire websites devoted to Hen vacations and activities for Stag weekends … which include Karting, Quad Biking, Rally Driving, Paintball, Clay Pigeon Shooting, Tank Driving, Archery, and more… Aghhh Stag parties.  I have heard of these before!

But here’s where I was surprised.  In addition to being a Hen or a Stag, you can be part of a Hen and Stag Team if you bring your husband or boyfriend.   We’ll see if it catches on in the USA.

Sandi Mays | Financial Management, PR | Comments (0)

7 tips to build a great office environment

August 10, 2010 – 3:26 pm

We just moved into a new office and the office furniture really makes a difference in how you feel about work. Our team did an excellent job picking furniture that make coming to work even more fun! Here are a few tips when picking out office furniture:

1. Keep crowding to a minimum. Make sure that there is enough room to open cabinets and drawers, and that people have enough room to comfortably move around

2. Choose the right furniture for the job. A café style chair might look great in a catalog, but might be a bit uncomfortable after sitting for 8 hours and running spreadsheets?

3. Make sure that your office furniture is ergonomic. Think about health and safety requirements to avoid work related ailments

4. Create a great flow using different colors

5. Keep in mind that fashion changes … if you choose something ultra trendy, it might be out of fashion in 5 years (did avocado green refrigerators ever make a comeback?)

6. Use a design agency like Office Furniture Express offers a range of office furniture to create a design that works for your company … ie a firm of accountants needs to be different look and feel than a marketing company or a call center.

7. Think about the future, will you be able to expand the office layout, using your new furniture? New employees, technology, or processes might call for a change sooner than you think. Will you be able to move desks yourselves, or do you need experts to take the desks apart so they can be rebuilt in a different part of the office?

These tips should help you to decide which office furniture is best for you and your team.

Sandi Mays | Office | Comments (0)

Save on Toner by switching fonts

July 17, 2010 – 6:54 pm

A University of Wisconsin study found that switching to the Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner than most other fonts.  Century Gothic’s lines are slightly thinner … which can save big bucks!

Sandi Mays | Save Money | Comments (1)

Microsoft Excel - How to round numbers in the same cell without a formula

July 15, 2010 – 12:56 am

Microsoft Excel - Round numbers in the same cell without a formula

Micorsoft Excel has a neat feature called Precision As Displayed. Using this function automatically rounds all of the numbers in the spreadsheet to equal the number displayed.  You can round without using the “=Round(number,round to number of digits)” formula.

For example, the number in cell C1 is 12.5467 and the number displayed is 13

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Turn on Precision as displayed by selecting Tools > Options > Calculations tab, then and checking the Precision as displayed box

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Miscrosoft Excel will warn you, that by changing the Data, you will permanently loose accuracy.  If you click “OK”, all of the hard coded numbers in your spreadsheet will be rounded to the number displayed in your spreadsheet.  The formulas will not be changed.

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The result, in our example, is that the 12.5467 becomes 13.

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Sandi Mays | Excel | Comments (5)

Congrats to Chloe Mays

July 13, 2010 – 7:09 am

Chloe Mays was elected as Chairman of the Westminster Westminster Colorado Youth Advisory Panel last night. She will serve as Chairman for 2010/2011 where she will as liaison between the Mayor’s office and City Council and the Westminster Youth Advisory Panel.

The Youth Advisory Panel is made up of two or more representatives from local area high schools as well as “at large” members who are home schooled within our city.

The Westminster Youth Advisory Council’s purpose is to advise City Council and city staff members about matters that concern youth and teens. These matters include development of citywide community and/or neighborhood programs that address both the short- and long-term needs of Westminster’s youth and teen population. In addition to advising city leaders, they give back to our community by taking part in monthly community service projects which consist of food and clothing drives and running city events, as well as other projects.

Learn more on the YAP Blog. external link

Good luck Chloe!

Sandi Mays | Financial Management | Comments (1)

Training Camp

July 5, 2010 – 7:21 pm

Every July we start to think about football training camp.  Elite, highly skilled athletes, who’ve been honing their craft since they were 8 years old start four weeks of intensive practice designed to  improve their ability to play football.  My 13 year old son attended FBU (football university) this summer and will be attending 2 more football camps in July.  If you want to play sports, attending camps and learning from coaches is just part of the game.

Here’s the question.  When was the last time you went to a training program?  Do you have a coach?

Unless you are a CPA, the answer is probably not in a long time.  After all, we know what we are doing, right? What on earth could we learn … isn’t training once we reach this level, just a waste of time?

I’m being sarcastic.  Training is an ongoing process.  Sales training and management training are probably the most important professional training processes.  Having a coach is equally important.  Many times you don’t know what you are doing wrong or where you can improve, without new ideas and open feedback channel.

For example, my daughter debates.  The way her coaches help her improve is by recording her when she speaks and then offering feedback after she watches the video.  For sales people, recording their sales pitch and then getting feedback seems like a no-brainer.  But I wonder how many take advantage of this simple method to improve their results.

Sandi Mays | Training | Comments (0)

How to turn off the Scroll Lock function

July 4, 2010 – 12:16 am

Something went terribly wrong today, and I couldn’t get my scroll lock to turn off.  It was seriously maddening!

If this ever happens to you, follow these simple steps to turn off the scroll lock.

Use the keyboard to screen function:
Press Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> Accessibility –> On-Screen Keyboard

Then, click SLK

That’s it … your scroll lock should be gone.

And now that my screen is working again, I have to ask … who uses this function?  Why would you ever want the scroll lock function to be on? Can we just vote this button off the keyboard?

Sandi Mays | Financial Management | Comments (0)