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Welcome to the first edition of the Solstice E-Tips
Newsletter. It's taken us a little while to get
everything in place for sending the newsletter out,
so you may have already seen this edition on our
website. We promise, though, to have new editions
every month from now on.
In creating this monthly newsletter, our
goal is to give you a quick read, with news and tips
on the three subjects that are relevant to almost all
of our readers - QuickBooks, Pocket PCs, and
Solstice.
We've also decided to kick things off right by offering
you the chance to win something. Starting with the
next edition, all Solstice E-Tips subscribers will have
the opportunity to win a copy of Contractor's
Guide to QuickBooks Pro. Contest rules are
available here.
We hope you enjoy this first edition. Please feel free
to let us know what you think. You can send your
feedback to
newsletter@timbresoftware.com.
| Creative Backup Solution |
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The information contained in your QuickBooks
company file is among the most vital information you
have. Backing up that information on a regular basis
is extremely important. Here's an innovative method
for making backups quick and easy.
Use USB flash drives (sometimes known as "thumb"
drives or "jump" drives) as your backup media.
They're small, portable, quick to write to, increasingly
inexpensive, and can easily hold even the largest
QuickBooks files. 128 MB flash drives can frequently
be purchased on sale for under $25. You can either
use the backup utility in QuickBooks and simply
browse to the flash drive or just use the Windows
Explorer to copy the file.
For a complete backup system, purchase four flash
drives. Label them "even days," "odd days," "weekly,"
and "monthly." Rotate the backups and make sure to
store them in separate locations.
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| Re-assign the buttons on your Pocket PC |
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Most Pocket PCs have several buttons on the front
assigned to specific tasks/programs. For example,
one button might bring up the calendar, another the
e-mail inbox, etc. The default tasks assigned to
those buttons may not be the ones you use the
most, however. It's easy to re-assign the
applications launched by the buttons for your own
use (such as quickly launching Solstice.)
Tap Start > Settings > Personal tab > Buttons.
Select the button you want to change and then
select the program you want to assign to the button
from the drop down menu. You can always take the
buttons back to their factory settings by
tapping "Restore Defaults."
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| Upgrade to ActiveSync 3.7.1 |
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If you have an older Pocket PC and haven't already
done so, you should definitely upgrade ActiveSync to
version 3.7.1. You can see what version you
currently have by opening ActiveSync and clicking on
Help > About Microsoft ActiveSync. If it's older than
3.7.1, then you need to upgrade.
Version 3.7.1 includes a number of stability
improvements. Particularly welcome, it addresses the
issue of devices inadvertently going into "Guest
Mode" even when there should be an established
partnership.
You can get
the ActiveSync 3.7.1 update from Microsoft.
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Introducing Solstice 3.5 |
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We recently released
version 3.5 of Solstice. Now available in
Standard
and Pro Editions, Solstice 3.5 adds invoicing and
subcontractor time cards to the handheld and also
includes the new Solstice Data Manager (SDM) for greatly
improved synchronization with QuickBooks.
SDM runs in the background, managing and
monitoring the synchronization process. Since SDM
acts as an intermediary between QuickBooks and the
Solstice handheld, QuickBooks does not need to be
open in order to synchronize the handheld. Handheld
users can synchronize whenever they choose.
Version 3.5 retains all the popular features of
previous editions including employee time cards,
check & credit card registers, and job notes.
Find out more....
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