This post is written by Campbell King, founder of mi-fi, an Australian-based SaaS startup, offering live accounting support and services for small to medium sized businesses.

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No matter what sort of service in life you are looking for, you should always strive to find an expert. This is no different when looking for an accountant for your business.

You need to ask what makes someone an expert and when it comes to accounting, this means establishing their education level and determining the broad set of experiences they have picked up along the way. Professional accountants can bring solid, dependable skills to operating and improving businesses.

By opening doors to powerful new perspectives and keeping financials running smoothly, good accounting serves not only to propel a business forward, but to ensure strong functioning at a basic level. Does your advisor understand the fundamentals as well as the big picture?

No matter where you decide to seek your business consulting and assistance, make sure you assess them on these critical attributes:

1. Qualifications - How knowledgeable are they? Are they qualified to provide advice? True professionals should be forthcoming with their credentials. Be sure to look not only for depth of education and academics but breadth as well, because a well-rounded professional can bring unexpected assets to your operation. If they say that they are a member of a professional body, be sure to check the credibility of that organization.
2. Experience – Can they show you experience in delivering results for other? Have they been in business themselves and how successful have they been? You’ll also want to determine if they’re able to adapt their experience to your particular needs.
3. Accessibility - Can you get hold of them when you need them? Advisors vary greatly in terms of when, where, and how they can be reached. A great consultant may not be especially helpful if they’re nowhere to be found when needed.
4. Resources - An advisor with a good team behind them is also important. There will certainly be times when an answer will initially elude them but with the right people behind them, it won’t be far away.
5. Engagement - Do they offer suggestions and ideas and genuinely show an interest in your business? You’re purchasing a service – make sure you’re being served well.
6. Relationship - Finally can you get along with them? You need to be able to trust your advisor and a big part of this is the ability for you to have a good working relationship with them. Are you able to take direction from them and do you feel free to provide feedback and disagree where you need to?

Looking at these six areas will help you identify the best professionals for your business so you can expect results every time.

Who are your business advisers and how do they rank?

Campbell King

Campbell holds a Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship), a Masters of Professional Accounting and is currently completing his Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting (CA). Campbell has three years experience in corporate recovery and turnarounds at tier one insolvency firm, KordaMentha. Campbell has a record of strategic business plan development and concept realization winning the 2006 RMIT Business Plan Competition. Campbell also founded, grew and successfully sold his own business and brings experience and insight as a previous small business owner.

mi-fi

www.mifi.com.au

www.facebook.com/mifiaccounting

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2. Mi-Fi Customer Profile

Industry: Accounting

Website: www.mifi.com.au

Customer Since: 2012

Team Size: 10

Founded in 2010 and based in Australia, mi-fi is the next generation accounting firm—accounting 2.0. We’ve found that mi-fi shares many of the values we have at Nitro: they’re genuinely customer-driven, on the cutting edge of web technology, and intent on providing all the value that small and medium-sized businesses expect from financial services.

Their vision? To be the premier resource for tools and advice which increase the profitability of SME’s.

mi-fi wants to revolutionize how businesses view and use accounting services, and one of their key tools is Nitro. In the financial services industry, accountants run into PDF files on a daily basis and other PDF creators can add to the headache. According to mi-fi founder Campbell King, “The ability to quickly and easily create and modify PDF documents” finally became accessible with Nitro Pro 7’s “intuitive user interface.”

One of the key PDF workflows that mi-fi repeatedly leverages is the customization and securitization of standard reports to send to their clients, says Campbell. Using Nitro Pro 7, mi-fi is now able to “amend standard reports to reflect our company branding and layouts.”

Numbers are the foundation of any accounting service, so whether it’s large budgets or minor expenses, cost and value matter. mi-fi sets fixed prices for all its services, focusing on providing the highest value for the accounting packages they offer. So, it makes sense that an accounting 2.0 firm like mi-fi would choose the best bang-for -buck PDF software, with the same emphasis on value: Nitro Pro.

2012 looks to be an exciting year for mi-fi, and we’re thrilled to have them as a customer and champion. We’ll be keeping an eye on their future success, and we’d suggest you do the same!

New Features

• Print from right-click context menu in Windows Explorer. When Nitro is your default PDF viewer, clicking Print in the right-click context menu will open the PDF and automatically send it to your printer.

• doc.spawnPagesFromTemplate JavaScript function at runtime. This JavaScript function is used to add new pages to the active PDF document (based on a hidden template created at time of form design).

• Keyboard input language detection. Text insertion tools (Type Text, Form Fields, etc.) will automatically load a font based on the user’s preferred input language set on the operating system. E.g. Japanese characters will be automatically available when using text insertion tools if Japanese is set as the default input language.

• Disable line width when rendering path objects. Enabling this preference (from the Page View preferences section) will ensure line widths are ignored when path objects are rendered. This is useful when working with very complex and line-heavy architectural or engineering documents.

• Rich text annotation / form field support. Annotations or form fields using rich text (bold, italics) will be rendered accordingly.

Updates

• Edit Tool  no longer switches the view-mode back to Single Page when selected

• Keyboard shortcuts are no longer overwritten.  Improved storage management of shortcuts preserves

• JPEG2000 image rendering.  Color rendering accuracy for some JPEG2000 encoded images has been greatly improved.

• Many bug fixes and improvements.  Many improvements in PDF rendering, printing and general application quality have been included in this version

If you already have Nitro Pro, the software manager will start on its own but if you want the update immediately, you can get it here.

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1. Download Nitro Reader 2.2!
2. Introducing Nitro PDF Professional 6
3. Nitro PDF Reader: first there was one, and now… 2.0!

Best Dressed Milo

Starting out the day, all of Nitro took part in the first annual “Best Dressed Milo” Competition.  With 16 entries ranging from the likes of “Occupy Milo” to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Milo” the creativity was certainly flowing.  The winning entry came from our Technical Support Representative, Fred Rizardo, who made Wombatman, a not-so-undercover superhero fighting against the evils of other PDF software.

Graffiti Day

The Melbourne Nitronauts then moved outside and teamed up to create two awesome graffiti murals depicting our values.  Despite being mostly indoors all day, the guys threw  some really cool ideas down on the canvas and they came out looking great!  You can check them out below.

After finishing their spray-painting, the team was surprised by an actual wombat and a semi-real Wombatman!  The guys got to hang out with Chloe the wombat, a big softy who ended up being very cuddly.

Then Andrew Holmes, our QA Manager, showed up donning a black cape and mask as the infamous Wombatman!  Although he’s not quite as soft and cuddly (depending on who you ask!) Andrew was able to get a few laughs and even managed to join a dance contest at the restaurant where the team ended the day with good food and great drinks.

Like the sound of life as a Nitronaut?  We’re hiring rockstars every day and have some great positions open on our careers page.  Check them out here.

New Features

• Print from right-click context menu in Windows Explorer. When Nitro is your default PDF viewer, clicking Print in the right-click context menu will open the PDF and automatically send it to your printer.

• doc.spawnPagesFromTemplate JavaScript function at runtime. This JavaScript function is used to add new pages to the active PDF document (based on a hidden template created at time of form design).

• Keyboard input language detection. Text insertion tools (Type Text, Form Fields, etc.) will automatically load a font based on the user’s preferred input language set on the operating system. E.g. Japanese characters will be automatically available when using text insertion tools if Japanese is set as the default input language.

• Disable line width when rendering path objects. Enabling this preference (from the Page View preferences section) will ensure line widths are ignored when path objects are rendered. This is useful when working with very complex and line-heavy architectural or engineering documents.

• Rich text annotation / form field support. Annotations or form fields using rich text (bold, italics) will be rendered accordingly.

Updates

• Keyboard shortcuts are no longer overwritten.  Improved storage management of shortcuts preserves custom settings across application sessions.

• JPEG2000 image rendering.  Color rendering accuracy for some JPEG2000 encoded images has been greatly improved.

• Many bug fixes and improvements.  Many improvements in PDF rendering, printing and general application quality have been included in this version.

If you already have Nitro Reader, the update will be available through the application later this week.  If you want it immediately though, you can download it  here.

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1. Nitro PDF Reader: first there was one, and now… 2.0!
2. Introducing… Nitro PDF Reader 1.3
3. Nitro PDF Reader: The before and after

We contracted TNS, a global, independent market research firm to go out and quiz 1,000 adult Americans on our behalf, in a survey all about PDF files, digital documents, and paperless practices.

Needless to say, the results were shocking — both in the conventional (literal) context as well as in the “passing out from the sheer quantity of data sense.”

So, we brought in the awesomely talented guys at Column Five to distill all that data into one easily digested and conveniently shared infographic. Major props. It’s the first of a series we’re working on with them, and we’re pretty stoked with how it came out  – watch this space…

Click on the image below to view it in all its glory. After some bedtime reading? Click here to download your very own hi-resolution PDF.

Survey Methodology (AKA, required legal stuff)

This survey was conducted online, within the United States by TNS via its Express Online omnibus product on behalf of Nitro. The survey took place from September 29-October 2, 2011, among 1,000 adults ages 18 and older, using individual methodology. 

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1. PDF: Welcome to the paperless office

Portable Document Format (PDF) has been an ISO Open Standard since 2008, with an ever-increasing availability of alternative applications—many of which don’t allow their users to make the most of their PDF files.  With annoying updates, deliberately restricted functionality, in-application advertising, bundled third party toolbars, and so much more, free PDF readers seem all but freeing.

The Pledge

Here at Nitro, we’ve had enough.  For the month of February, we’re running a Facebook sweepstakes contest to spread the word and help our users declare their PDF independence.  All you need to do is join the cause and you’ll be eligible to win a brand new Sony Vaio E Series Laptop valued at $806.99!

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1. Congratulations, Adobe!

The Keyboard: Your new best friend

Take a (Keyboard) Shortcut

Regular users of any application tend to rely on a handful of keyboard shortcuts, and most of us are familiar with at least a couple. They’re are a great way to shave time off the tasks you perform most frequently—sidestepping the mouse, menu, and anything else that gets in the way.

Today, we’re listing five of our favorite keyboard shortcuts in Nitro Pro 7 and Nitro Reader 2 for those of you with nimble fingers that never leave the keyboard…

1.  Quick-launch Nitro 

Bypass the Start Menu or Desktop and launch Nitro Pro or Nitro Reader in nanoseconds using the Windows ‘Run’ command prompt.

1. Win+R to launch the ‘Run’ dialog
2. Type nitropdf (Nitro Pro) or nitropdfreader (Nitro Reader)
3. Hit Enter

2. Close Active Tab (Document)

Finished up with that PDF file? Close a single open tab without even looking at your mouse by hitting Ctrl+W

3. Enter Fullscreen View

Need to maximize your onscreen real estate and kill the clutter? Launch Fullscreen View with a single key: F11

4. Print Document

Sure, they’re digital documents—but most of us still make occasional use of the printer. Turn PDF to paper with Ctrl+P

5. View Document Properties

Want to know more about that PDF file, like where it came from? Check the author, initial view settings, security permissions, embedded fonts, and more. Just hit Ctrl+D

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2. Nitro Reader 1.4 – your favorite PDF viewer improved!
3. Nitro PDF Reader: Customize the user interface

2012 is here and we’re looking to hire 14 new Nitronauts across the business.  We’re on the lookout for rockstar engineers, top gun account executives, creative geniuses, and just about everything in between.  Got your head in the cloud all day?  You might be a fit for our Senior SaaS Engineer .  Brand enforcer with a keen eye for design?  We need a Creative Director to make us look good.

Check these (and more!) out and get your application in here!

Want to make sure that we get your resume the way you want it to be seen?  Then, submit it as a PDF file.  Aside from the obvious fact (it probably makes sense to submit a PDF-based resume to a PDF software company), there are some real-world benefits worth paying attention to, regardless of where you’re applying.

When sending your resume as a PDF file instead of a typical Word document, it will look the same on every machine, every time—and anyone can open it.  Plus, you can preserve your hyperlinks for your email address, Linkedin, and personal website.  You might want to leave that video showcasing your breakdancing skills out though (unless it’s really, really good).

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You can read all about it here.

On behalf of the millions of Nitro Reader users who’ve had digital signatures since 2010, we’d like to say congrats, guys! We love seeing a good idea get picked up.

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