Shift Computer Solutions

Shift Computer Solutions We provide small to medium business clients access to professional I.T. solutions. PH: 3814 1131

Today we were in the room to hear a presentation from a leading local Book keeper, Samantha Vale from First Class Accoun...
05/08/2026

Today we were in the room to hear a presentation from a leading local Book keeper, Samantha Vale from First Class Accounts.

Many business owners think of a bookkeeper as someone who simply reconciles accounts and enters transactions. In reality, a quality bookkeeper helps keep your business compliant, supports payroll and GST obligations, monitors cash flow, and works alongside your accountant and other advisers to help you make better decisions.

The real value isn't in recording what happened last month. It's in having accurate financial information that helps you understand what's happening in your business right now.

Thanks to Samantha Vale for the fun quiz and the reminder that good bookkeeping isn't an overhead. It's an investment in better business decisions.

This morning Mathew had the opportunity to listen to a short presentation from Dr Steve Sulewski owner of Limestone Natu...
28/07/2026

This morning Mathew had the opportunity to listen to a short presentation from Dr Steve Sulewski owner of Limestone Natural Therapies Centre in the heart of Ipswich.

His presentation was titled "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree."

He was of course talking about his Chiropractic care, and showing those in the room how making sure your body is in top condition early in life can pay dividends later on.

It was a great reminder of how the same principle can apply to your business. Small stresses, minor bad habits, little things that aren't quite right can end up making a huge difference a business owners stress level and income down the road.

Big problems don't usually "just happen", the are the culmination of things that could have been corrected if we just had the right viewpoint or the right person to give us an outside view of how things are going.

Mathew's key takeaways from this presentation were pretty simple;

✅ Pay attention early.
✅ Make small corrections often.
✅ Don't wait for a minor issue to become a major problem.

The best outcomes usually come from early action, not heroic recovery.

What's something small in your business that you could improve this week?

Xero and Microsoft - Exciting Announcements but less so in the ex*****on.Xero recently announced they are working with M...
13/07/2026

Xero and Microsoft - Exciting Announcements but less so in the ex*****on.

Xero recently announced they are working with Microsoft to bring their "Jax" AI assistant to Microsoft Copilot, meaning in theory that business owners can ask questions about their financial data while staying in the one CoPilot experience.

It will take me a while to think of a good use case for this (got one already? Drop it in the comments!), but I suspect I will, as there was a time I couldn't see myself using AI at all, but now I use it every day.

However, despite the fanfare and both Copilots and Jax's assertions that it is ready to go, I'm not seeing much evidence that it has actually rolled out, at least for my tenant. Xero's documentation is pretty thin too.

For now, though, this feels more like a "watch this space" announcement than a "go and turn it on today" feature.

I'll be keeping an eye on it and testing it again once the rollout appears more complete.

Have you managed to get the Xero integration working in Copilot yet, or are you seeing the same thing?

A great opportunity for business owners and leaders to join me on July 8th at the Terrace Cafe in Ipswich for an informa...
30/06/2026

A great opportunity for business owners and leaders to join me on July 8th at the Terrace Cafe in Ipswich for an informative business networking event.

I'll be speaking at the event, presenting for the first time my "Nothing is Impossible" presentation - I'm looking to inspire our local small business leaders to take on the challenges of running a business in these uncertain times.

When I started my business nearly 30 years ago I was told what I was attempting was impossible; I'd love to share with you my journey and the biggest lesson I learned along the way - that Nothing is in fact Impossible.

All the details;
Wednesday 8th July
7am to 8:30am
The Terrace Cafe, Ipswich
Register Here: https://shorturl.at/HCWE4

I was on an online call this afternoon with 35 other business owners, and something stuck out to me; Most of the people ...
25/06/2026

I was on an online call this afternoon with 35 other business owners, and something stuck out to me; Most of the people on the call had what I thought were issues with their camera setup.

Like it or not, what your image on an online meeting looks like gives people an impression of you; You wouldn't show up to a business meeting with a ripped shirt on, so you probably shouldn't show up online with a weird camera angle either!

Luckily for us, it's 2026 and looking like a professional TV presenter is easy!

✅Get a great background
If you don't have a great set to sit in front of (and who does?), create yourself a background for your online meetings, ideally slip your business logo into it as well.

✅ Centre yourself in the frame
Having a camera in your laptop is great but it rarely presents a great angle for your online meetings; Invest in a seperate camera that you can mount at the right height to get you framed beautifully.

✅ Face the camera front-on
Position yourself so you’re square to the camera, not side-on. It creates better engagement and makes it feel like you’re actually talking to the person on the other end.

✅ Size yourself up
Even with the above things in place you can easily end up as a tiny head in a huge empty frame. I've found Logitech cameras have a great companion app that lets you tweak things on the fly to get your head the right size for the occasion.

In a world where first impressions often happen through a screen, these small changes can give you a clear edge.

“End of Financial Year doesn’t create problems… it reveals them.”This line came from a chat with Samantha Vale this morn...
24/06/2026

“End of Financial Year doesn’t create problems… it reveals them.”

This line came from a chat with Samantha Vale this morning; She's a superstar book keeper and is always giving me nuggets of gold, but this one really stuck because its so right.

EOFY has a way of shining a light on what’s really been happening behind the scenes all year:

Inconsistent bookkeeping suddenly turns into confusion
Missed reconciliations turn into stress
“I’ll deal with it later” turns into a pile you can’t ignore

But these problems didn't start in June; They've been building up all year.

I see this a lot in IT as well. Businesses don’t usually have “sudden” system failures — they have small issues that build up quietly until something forces attention.

EOFY is just the financial equivalent of that moment.

✅ Clean data all year = smooth EOFY
✅ Clear processes = confidence in your numbers
✅ Regular reviews = no surprises

If you are feeling like June is that month when your problems multiply, you have a systems problem, and the great news is that systems can be fixed!

Thanks heaps to Samantha for the reminder and valuable insights!

𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁- AI Tools and Software Supply ChainsYou might be conditioned to believe that cyb...
22/06/2026

𝗖𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁
- AI Tools and Software Supply Chains

You might be conditioned to believe that cyber attacks are all about dodgy emails or weak passwords, but as technology moves forward, so do the ways the criminals find to attack your small business.

Recent security researchers have uncovered:
- Malicious plugins posing as legitimate AI agent tools
- Malware hidden in software packages and developer tools used by businesses every day

Attackers are increasingly targeting the AI ecosystems and busines software to find ways to get into your business easier and faster without having to target you specifically.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀?
If your team is using AI assistants, browser extensions, software integrations, or cloud-based business tools, every additional connection potentially increases your attack surface.

Here are three things you can look at today to help protect yourself;

✅ Review AI tools and plugins
Make sure you know what software your team are using, and make sure you've thought about the quality, reliability and security of those tools. Get rid of tools that are not up to the right standards or not really required.
✅ Seek good advice
Don't just take the marketing hype from software vendors, have a trusted advisor who can look deeper and make sure the software is a good security fit for your business.
✅ Control software installation
Implement software controls in your business. Ideally you should be whitelisting what code is approved in your business, but if you don't have any controls at all, at least put in a place a policy for staff to request software tooling so it can be documented.

As AI adoption accelerates, businesses need to pay just as much attention to what connects to their environment as they do to the AI tools themselves.

💡 The question every business owner should ask is: "Do we know exactly what software and integrations are running in our business?"

The Outcome of the Subnautica 2 lawsuit caught my eye, and not because its a gaming industry story, but because it's an ...
14/06/2026

The Outcome of the Subnautica 2 lawsuit caught my eye, and not because its a gaming industry story, but because it's an AI story.

During the case it was uncovered that the Krafton CEO had used AI to build his justification for trying to back out of a $250 million deal. Despite his advisors telling him the deal was solid, he just kept prompting ChatGPT until it told him what he wanted to hear.

The lesson business owners need to take away from this story is that AI does not replace your team of professional advisors. You might use it to identify specific pieces of legislation and laws, and get a basic idea of where things stand, but before you sign a contract or engage in legal proceedings, you must get real, qualified advice.

I bet you get a ton of emails every day like I do. Something I have noticed is a lot of those emails roll in with very v...
14/06/2026

I bet you get a ton of emails every day like I do. Something I have noticed is a lot of those emails roll in with very very small text.

I opened one today to see what size, and it was 10.5! I know my eyes aren't as young as they used to be, but that seemed a bit on the small side so I did a little googling;

Turns out the reccomendation these days is to use 14 or 16 size text for the copy, and bigger for headings if your email warrants them. It even says the "fine print" should be 12!

It made me think, are you sending out emails that people struggle to read and thus don't bother?

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Suite 7, 59 Roderick Street
Ipswich, QLD
4305

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Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
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Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
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