Getting to Know... The Doc

 

Please forgive Howard George if he doesn’t immediately reply to your Community Forum post. He might have been called into emergency surgery with a neighbourhood dog or cat.

 

Known to both his four-legged and two-legged clients as The Doc, Howard works as a veterinarian in his own practice in south-west Sydney and is also an IT expert and MYOB Certified Consultant. Doc is also currently one of the most the prolific contributors to the Community Forum.

 

“My average day is a mixture of veterinary consulting, surgery, answering questions on the MYOB Community Forum, remotely attending to MYOB client work, consulting IT and developing packages for clients,” says the multi-talented gent. “I need this mix of vet, programming and MYOB to keep alert or else I go stale and lose interest.”

 

Doc has been using MYOB software since the early 90s. “I wanted accounting software in my vet practice. Someone mentioned MYOB, I had never heard the name, but it stuck and I’ve been using it since.”

 

He now loves sharing his experience on the Community Forum. “I like to help. I have almost 20 years of MYOB use and over 35 years of IT experience. It is burning a hole in my brain so I’ve got to help and share. It feels good.”

 

“The Community Forum It has everything a forum needs and more – and quick access to help for almost everything, day and night. You don’t feel alone when sharing.”

 

Doc’s top tip to new AccountRight users is “take a big deep breath”. “You are not alone,” he says.

 

“If it crashes, in 99% of cases it is unlikely to be bad software – it will be solvable. Write down exactly the steps that cause the crash or problem. See if you can duplicate the problem exactly.

 

“Take another deep breath. If you are still angry, don’t write on the forum. If you are calm, write your woes on the forum – clearly and succinctly - and someone will help quickly.”

 

Doc loves it when he does a MYOB integration project for a business and everything goes smoothly “and they are just constantly grateful”. “The nightmare scenarios are where you cannot get your foot in the door to get started, with hurdles put in your way by staff with little knowledge of systems and procedures. Very quickly you learn to walk away from these for your own sanity.”

 

The 61-year-old Doc clearly has a unique range of skills. He also has a fascinating past. Doc grew up on a New Zealand dairy farm but left at 20 to join the Air Force. He flew for over a decade as a navigator on long-range maritime aircraft. He describes it as a “fast and furious life - exciting, tiring, and often very stressful”. He left the Air Force in 1984 to start his veterinary studies.

 

Between jobs in the early 90s, the Doc stumbled into an even more unusual role – helping to look after 2000 racing camels for a Crown Prince in the UAE during the Gulf War. “A very, very different from life in Australia,” he says.

 

Other interests include health and fitness and gardening. Doc is also an avid reader, with typically 3-5 books on the go at once.

 

He’s most looking forward to continued good health for his family (his wife Christine and two adult children) as well as the chance to continue to juggle his demanding roles.

 

“(I want to continue) to give my veterinary and MYOB clients my knowledge and help well into my seventies”, Doc says. He’s also looking forward to more “exciting new software advances in cloud computing and business use of MYOB”. “And lots of integration jobs to keep my brain from going to mush in my old age.”