Michael Bianco

Get a Dedicated, Free, High Quality Conference Line

Premium services often end up being cheaper. This doesn’t meant that all premium services are expensive. Systems are being disrupted at such a rapid pace you can often find incredible services – like a free virtual fax machine – completely free. One of these services is UberConference. Even if you run a one man shop (like I do!) you should signup for UberConference and use it exclusively for calls. Here’s why: Hangouts is not reliable for phone calls. They have a great dial out feature, but I’ve been on a couple calls where the call connection kept dropping out. It was embarrassing and made me lool sloppy. Calling someone’s cell, or having them call you, often creates a coordination problem…

Why the Right Premium Services are Always Cheaper

By nature, I’m frugal. I love getting a great deal, and getting the most of out of my purchases. When I was fifteen I got a new MacBook Pro for free by working those “get a free MacBook pro” ponzi schemes online: my obsession with a great deal started early. I’ve learned that it’s often worth paying for premium services when your time is at stake. Not only your current time, but time that a premium service could possibly save in the future. Opportunity cost is a real thing: it’s important to consider what you can’t do or time that could be possibly spent on fixing a future problem with the service or product. Here are a couple of failures from recent memory: Low Cost HSAs…

Three Financial Automation Techniques

I’m a huge fan of outsourcing and automating everything, even rarely used tools like faxing. Time is my most valuable resource: and although I’m far from perfect at this, I try to eliminate, automate, or delegate everything that isn’t essential for me to do. Here is a snapshot of the toolkit I use to automate personal finance. Automate All Bill Payments Do you spend any time manually paying bills each month? YES! You can automate this and, if you are near a beach, you can write “relax” in the sand just like the above photo with all of your extra time. All credit card payments can be automated. Login to your credit cards online portal and setup auto-pay; pay the full balance off every month…

How to Find the NetSuite Web Services Account Number

Finding the account number for NetSuite’s SuiteTalk WebService API isn’t very straightforward. This number is required for any applications with connect to NetSuite via their SuiteTalk API. Navigate to the SuiteTalk preferences via "Setup > Integration > Web Services Preferences", by searching for "page: Web Services Preferences" in the global search bar, or by visiting this URL (may not work depending on your NetSuite data center). You’ll see the following screen containing the Account Number (also called the Account ID): Some things to keep in mind: The account number is not always a number. It can be a string of letters…

Resolving the NetSuite LIST_ID_REQD Deposit Record Error

Creating deposit records in NetSuite using the SuiteTalk API can sometimes result in the following error: This error is not well documented at all and does not point to a single issue. In order to properly handle and prevent this error from occurring you need to implementation validation before upserting (or adding, updating, etc) the record. Here are the various causes of the error: The included refund’s (CashRefund, CustomerRefund) account field is not set to the NetSuite instance’s “Undeposited Funds” account. The easiest way to determine what the “Undeposited Funds” account internalId is to search for the account by name and grab the first search result. The name of the “Undeposited funds account can be customized…

How to Close a NetSuite SalesOrder Using SuiteTalk

Many things in NetSuite’s SuiteTalk XML API are not intuitive or obvious: closing a SalesOrder is one of them. When you create a SalesOrder using upsert or add you can set the order_status to _pendingFulfillment or _pendingApproval directly through the order_status field. However, you can’t simply update the order_status field on a SalesOrder to close the record, you need to set is_closed field on each line item in the SalesOrder. Other SalesOrder states work in a similar way: _partiallyFulfilled, _fulfilled, etc are only achieved by modified the item_list sublist or by creating a separate record (ItemFulfillment, Invoice, etc).

How to Save Hundreds on Your Next MacBook Purchase

When it comes to something which requires a lot of my time on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, I purchase the best tools for the job. I’m a designer & software engineer: my computer is the most important tool in my craft and I make sure I have the best. However, the best doesn’t mean the most expensive: to me, it means the most utility for the dollar. I’ve always bought every mac I’ve owned used. A couple of people have asked me recently how to find the best price on a replacement MacBook. Here is the process I’ve used to save hundreds of dollars when I’m getting a new computer. Determine what you need. Most likely, unless you work in tech, 11″ or 13″ MacBook Air will work just fine. Hard drive space is not important…

Interrogate Your Reactions, Change Your Perspective

It’s easy to be negative, to feel busy, to perceive the current situation as mundane. Part of the reason that people that are consistently positive are often so enlivening is because it’s hard to be positive over the long term. It’s refreshing to meet those who are able to remain positive and magnanimous. My internal response to situations and tasks that arise can often expose thinking that needs to change. My reaction to when a client doesn’t understand a concept “yet again”, or when I feel like I just have to “deal with” a flaw in a friendship work relationship is a key indicator of where and what I need to change…

How to Transfer a Car Title in Pennsylvania

I recently purchased a new car and needed to transfer the title from the previous owner. For anyone else who hates digging through state and government websites or wasting time on the phone trying to determine the correct process, here is the cliff notes of how to transfer ownership of a car in Pennsylvania: How it works: You and the current owner of the car need to go to a tag/title notary service. Interestingly enough, you can transfer title without getting new license plates if the transfer is mother/son or father/son, but not between siblings…

Call Your Old Friends: Four Reasons Why It’s Worth It

I’m horrible at keeping in touch with people who aren’t in my immediate daily life. If someone isn’t involved in my work or my local social circle, I generally won’t remember to give them a call. It’s easy for the busyness of life to eat away at the time available to keep in touch with old friends. Old friendships are worth fighting for. Yes, it’s impossible to maintain all your old friendships, but it is possible to cultivate a intentional few. For me, although the time is definitely a limiting factor, the real blocker is the fear of loss. To be frank, for me, time is just an excuse. It’s these questions and thoughts that create the real resistance: What if the conversation isn’t as good as I remember it?..

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