Blog Archives
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Embrace Change? What’s the Alternative?
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Thursday November 5, 2009I saw a lot of heads nodding in agreement this morning when Jon Baron, president of Professional Software & Services, Tax & Accounting, for Thomson Reuters, asked the profession to “Forget Same-As-Last-Year; Embrace Change!” How many accountants does it take to embrace change? If you can’t count that high, then it’s too many. A bad joke, but it does prove a point. At the opening address of today’s TR Annual Users’ Conference in Orlando, Jon unveiled two new products, Accounting CS™ and Virtual Client Office™, as well as new enhancements made to TR’s Source Document Processing. These products are a direct result of his mantra to embrace change … to accept these new applications and software enhancements as the next... -
Thomson Reuters Hits Portal Milestone
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Monday November 2, 2009The client portal is alive and well, thanks to companies such as Thomson Reuters, whose strength in numbers was once again demonstrated. The company just announced its users implemented more than 300,000 client portals with NetClient CS®. The milestone is an increase of more than 100,000 portals in 16 months. “We introduced the profession’s first client portal solution in 2001, and it took us five years to get to our first 100,000 portals,” says Scott Fleszar, senior director of Strategic Marketing for Tax & Accounting, Thomson Reuters. “But times have changed. We now have thousands of users implementing hundreds of new portals every day. That says a lot about the technology advances taking place across the profession, and about... -
CCH Conference Delivers on SaaS Promises
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Thursday October 29, 2009The recent CCH Users' Conference in our nation’s capital was very successful, not only for all of us who use CCH products, but for the company itself. While there are lots of vendor/user conferences, it seems the CCH Conference outdoes itself every year with great sessions, announcements and networking. Were you there? I’d like to hear your thoughts about the conference. Here are the highlights I found: After four years and an investment of $70 million, CCH will launch five products on Oct. 30, including the new ProSystem fx Suite with new versions of ProSystem fx Tax, Document and Practice, as well as two new applications, ProSystem fx Workstream (the new workflow product) and ProSystem fx Portal. Following up on several of my blog... -
How Balloon Boy is Like Marketing an Accounting Firm
By Scott Cytron, ABC; President, Cytron and Co. - Wednesday October 21, 2009Following up on my posting, "How is Susan Boyle Like an Accounting Firm?," we entered the Ripley's realm of Reality TV once again during last week's Balloon Boy hoax. This got my mind to make parallels on how pop culture is similar to marketing an accounting firm ... OK - bear with me on this one. Putting aside the fact that the Balloon Boy family committed all kinds of crimes (and this one blogger hopes they'll be dutifully charged for them), the stunt attracted more attention than Dancing With the Stars, Survivor and all other televised events combined. Why? It not only made for good TV - it provided a fascinating view into the horrors of a small child floating in air in a device that could seemingly crash and burn at any... -
Death by Premium Text Messages
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Thursday October 15, 2009I do a lot of writing for the accounting community -- blog postings, "Tech2Go" podcasts, a monthly column, reviews and epiphanies. And I make it a point not to talk about the same topic in any two, just to keep the ideas flowing and my columns fresh. This is an exception. I was shocked last month to discover that one of my kids on the "Family Plan" had managed to rack up $1,100 in cell phone charges in just a few weeks. Since it is not possible to talk that much, even for young people, I investigated and found the culprit was something called "Premium" text messages. Sure, I have unlimited text messaging on all our phones. But these services are not covered by that fee. Instead, these "Premium" services charge $1 to $2 per... -
Podcast on Windows 7, Snow Leopard and Other Topics
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Wednesday October 14, 2009Just a friendly reminder that the latest Tech2Go podcast is up at Intersection Live. Listen as Darren Root and Randy Johnston discuss the new Windows 7 and Snow Leopard operating systems, Intuit's acquisition of Mint.com and the new technologies from CCH. You can also check out recent podcasts in the DMA2Go series(Document Management for Accountants), and SBC2Go series(Small Business Consulting). And don't forget to register for our upcoming webcasts, where you can get one hour of FREE CPE for attending a live, interactive event from the comfort of your own office. The next webcast is on Oct. 20th: The Next Generation of the Paperless Office -
CRM - Shelfware or Dynamic Lead Generator?
By Scott Cytron, ABC; President, Cytron and Co. - Monday October 12, 2009Are you using a CRM program? If you are, is it effective, or it is just sitting on a shelf gathering dust? CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is all about using a software program to identify and source leads for potential business or even potential referrals. I am most familiar with SageCRM because I have more clients using it than any other program, but there are several other programs that I'm sure work equally as well. Just a few short years ago, CRM was only for large companies because they were the only ones that could afford ERP systems - but that's all changed. Thanks to the needs of medium- to large-size CPA firms, software providers now have affordable CRM solutions designed to integrate with a suite of software to... -
Accounting Loses 6,000 Jobs in August
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Tuesday October 6, 2009This story on Trendline.com was all over the Internet late last week and over the weekend. According to the story by Rick Telberg, “the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a seasonally-adjusted decline in staffing by 6,000 positions to 928,300 in August. Coupled with downwardly revised figures since May, it represents the fourth straight month of decline. Earlier BLS reports had shown some gains.” I’ve always been the kind of guy who sees the glass as half-full – optimistic about the accounting profession and its infinite possibilities to be a true business partner to clients and customers. Although these kinds of reports certainly do their best to drain the glass, I remain completely convinced that accounting firms can pull... -
Accountants Must be Technology Consultants, Too
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Monday October 5, 2009Accountants are their clients’ most trusted business advisors, but what accounting professionals often don’t expect is how many of their clients will also turn to them for technology advice. For clients, it makes sense: Since clients ask their accountant which bookkeeping and other programs to use, they’ll also turn to him or her for advice on how to use it, and how to implement the infrastructure and business processes that surround the bookkeeping software. So if you’re an accountant, guess what? You’re also a small business technology consultant. And if you don’t feel up to the task of providing technology consulting, you have two choices. A) You can develop the knowledge and resources in your firm to deliver technology... -
5 Ways to Position Yourself as an Expert
By Scott Cytron, ABC; President, Cytron and Co. - Friday October 2, 2009Everyone's an expert in something - and accountants, by rote, are experts in a number of areas depending on your focus and services you offer. Clients ask me how they can become more well known for what they do or what they offer. It's not for vanity sake - it's to develop this notoriety to retain clients and turn prospects into clients. Try these five tactics: Blog. If you haven't started one, now is a great time to begin. Tools are free and pages function much like MS Word docs. You probably have a great deal to say, but may not know how to say it. I tell bloggers to make believe they are having a conversation with a friend or someone they just met. In a conversational tone, how would you convey your expertise? Tweet. Whether you...
