I have ten years of accounting experience and ten  years providing end-user documentation including user guides, procedural and training manuals and online help for:

  • Financial software including payroll, rostering, tax, accounting, banking and other financial systems.

  • Telecom industry.

  • Government departments.

  • Web software documentation, content and interface design.

  • End-user documentation including user guides, training manuals and online help.

I can provide documentation services on  the basis that works best for you - on a contract, part-time, or even full-time basis. Much of the work I do is for interstate and overseas clients, so location is never an issue.

User guides and reference manuals

I can produce  any kind of documentation you need, from simple quick-start guides and complete user manuals to comprehensive reference and procedural manuals.  I write all documentation with the intended audience in mind and  designed to make your software or processes easier to understand and use.

Accounting, payroll and GST consulting

Your software project can benefit from my public accounting background and experience in developing and documenting accounting, tax, GST and payroll software.

Accounting and Auditing

Ten years of public accounting experience combined with two recent overseas contracts for specialised audit assistance qualifies me for helping you meet your public accounting firm's audit deadlines.

Training manuals

Training guides and tutorials are often a new user's first experience with your product or organisation.  It is important to make sure that  experience is a good one and that the user feels that their time was well spent.  I write training manuals that are more than just a simple "walk-through" description.  A good training manual must  be written in a way that makes learning easy and non-confronting, and should ensure that the student retains as much information as possible. In the case of training manuals, the method is at least as important as the content.

Online help files

The biggest problem with most help files is that users have a hard time finding what they want. I make it easy for users to find what they want by ensuring that the  information can be accessed in a number of different ways and making full use of WinHelp features such as indexing, contents, browse sequences, navigation tabs, and carefully designed structure.

Another  problem common to many help files is they are short on content.  My approach is to ensure that all of the information in the manual is also accessible in the help, although wherever possible in a  condensed format that focuses on step-by-step instructions.

I can write your help documentation, or I can quickly convert  your  existing documentation to help format. I can build your help files in a number of formats - WinHelp, HTML Help, WebHelp, or PFD format.

PDF conversions

Most documents can be easily converted into PDF format. Portable Document Format (PDF) has become a very popular format for distributing documents because of it's  advantages over other document formats:

  • Universality - PDF files can be viewed across a broad range of hardware and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Linux, IBM, OS/2 and others'.

  • Hypertext linking - PDF files contain hypertext linking which allows users to quickly jump to cross-referencing, or from the table of contents or index to the relevant document page.

  • Document integrity - a PDF version of a document retains the same layout, fonts, styles, page numbering and images as the original document. You can lock the document so that users cannot alter it. You can even lock the document so that users cannot copy from it.

  • Web compatible - PDF files can be viewed in most web browsers, downloaded or emailed. Most Internet users already have the PDF reader installed, often as a standard browser plug-in.

Upgrading existing documentation

Sometimes your existing  documentation is adequate but the look and feel of it is a bit dated. Maybe it doesn't project the professional image you want. An easy solution is to upgrade your existing documentation without having to  re-write it.  You can specify as much or as little as you like - you would be amazed at the difference a day or two can make to a user manual.  Some upgrading ideas include:

  • Reformatting your documents so that the format is consistent within the document and between documents.

  • Reformatting to improve the look of your documents, make them more colourful, easier to read and better presented.

  • Creating document templates that can be used for new documents and applied to existing documents.

  • Developing document naming conventions that are easy to understand and apply whilst conveying significant document details. This greatly enhances documentation accessibility.

  • Developing systems to enhance documentation accessibility . This includes creating file structure standards. simple document databases and web-based document listings. 

  • Converting documents to a different format, such as PDF or Word.

  • Improving grammar and spelling.

  • Reorganising content so that it flows more logically.

  • Localising to reflect local terminology (for example, converting an American document to reflect Australian terminology and spelling).

Software testing and interface

My extensive experience in software testing and interface design adds to our documentation abilities and allows me  to provide an additional quality control resource.  My documentation experience allows me to view your product or systems through a user's eyes and make recommendations to improve your user's experience.