Blog Archives
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Congrats to Our 2009 "40 Under 40"
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Thursday September 24, 2009The CPA Technology Advisor has just announced its annual 40 Under 40 honorees. Each year, we recognize up-and-coming professionals who show the leadership and technological savvy that will help guide the profession into the future. The honorees come from across the country (even one from Hawaii). A list of this year's 40 is below- you can also read a little more about it here: www.cpatechadvisor.com/go/2589 40 Under 40 Honorees – 2009 Chadwick Bordeaux, CPA, CFE | Bordeaux & Bordeaux CPAs PA | Lake Wylie, SC Donna Bordeaux, CPA, PFS | Bordeaux & Bordeaux CPAs PA | Lake Wylie, SC Dawn Brolin | Premier Business Services P.C. | East Lyme, CT Ronald Burg, CPA | Lillian & Burg | Minneapolis, MN Michael A. Bush, CPA.CITP | Microsoft | Denver... -
Why Backup? Examining the Basics of Backup and Planning a Basic Strategy Before Disaster Strikes
By , - Monday September 14, 2009By Guest Blogger, Gary Parker If someone asked you “Did you backup today?”, your reaction might include: Getting a little personal, aren’t you? No problem – the reverse in my car’s transmission works fine. I’m macho, dude – I don’t back up or down for nobody! Do you mean my computer system? Well, I’ve been meaning to get around to it, but I don’t really want to think about it. Let’s discuss why and how you should backup your computer systems. Why? First, we tend to treat computers like the electric utility, our bank or our car – we expect them to be there and available whenever we need them. Our computers are the same and they resemble our bank because they maintain very valuable or... -
Why SaaS Makes Sense For End Users
By Dave McClure, Contributing Writer/Columnist - Saturday September 12, 2009One of the benefits of being a dinosaur is that you've seen enough change to know when change is real. I've been tapping on the keyboards of personal computing devices since the days when we hand-built our own motherboards, loaded programs from cassette and lived with a whopping 4K of RAM. The point isn't that I am old, but rather that I have some sense of when the light in the sky is a massive asteroid coming to wipe out the world as we know it...and when it is just a reflection off a piece of micah. Software as a Service is a world-changing flash of light. I've only recently come to this conclusion, because I have only recently understood why it makes sense for end users to trade their relative security, flexibility and freedom... -
Making Retirement a Reality Even in this Economy
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Thursday September 10, 2009An interesting article by Bill Losey, a CFP and CSA, offers some pointers for those who may be retiring in the next few years. According to the AICPA, more than half of the profession is likely to do so within the next 12-15 years, so not only is this information potential good advice for your clients, but it might also hit a little closer to home. Even for those of us with 20 or more years of work ahead of us, there are some good longer-range thoughts. According to a recent report from The Hartford Financial Services Group, nearly 75% of American's don't fully understand their retirement plan and as many as a third have almost no understanding of it. Well, the Retirement Fairy isn't magically managing your... -
CCH Clearly Focused on the Web
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Tuesday September 8, 2009Were you at last week’s Midwest Accounting and Business Finance Showcase (formerly the Business and Technology Solutions Show) in Chicago? I had the welcome opportunity to attend a dinner hosted by CCH for various people in the media and was blown away by CCH’s upcoming plans. Mike Sabbatis, president of CCH, unveiled the strategy and vision his company has worked toward for the past four years. In late October, CCH will launch several new SaaS-based products – software truly written to run in a Web browser, not an add-on program or something that doesn’t entirely use the Web. The products are very exciting because they mean that the end user can be platform-independent (I could use my Mac ) and be accessible, anytime and... -
Are you a Mac or PC? The Lines for Accounting Firms Continue to Blur
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Wednesday September 2, 2009Last week, Apple introduced Snow Leopard, its latest operating system. The real news for those of us living double lives with PCs are the new features in the mail, calendar and address book (contact) programs that now integrate with Microsoft Exchange 2007. Admittedly, I’m an early adopter of most anything because I enjoy the challenges of playing with technology. When Apple touted Snow Leopard as a leaner, meaner operating system, I knew the company would live up to its reputation – but also knew accountants would really like these new features as well, something I’m sure Apple didn’t think about too much, but an attribute very important to accounting firms. Prior to last Friday, I used Entourage, Microsoft’s Mac version of... -
Transparency Transcends Print, Social Media
By Scott Cytron, ABC; President, Cytron and Co. - Monday August 31, 2009If you publish content for your firm, company, or even blog, Facebook, Tweet or have a LinkedIn profile - and don't think people are listening and watching to what you do or say - you need to wake up! Microsoft pulled a fast one when it took a photo of an African-American man and changed the person's color to White. Plain and simple, this was a huge no-n0, and did not go unnoticed by the bloggers who pounced on Microsoft for inappropriate ethical behavior. Advertising Age was one of new news media to report the story; the altered photos are included in the story. Although the fact that Photoshop can change skin color is a huge, separate discussion in itself, I think the larger story is whether Microsoft thought the stunt might go... -
Intuit to Announce Something Big? - My Prediction: Online Professional Tax Prep
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Sunday August 23, 2009Intuit's corporate communications guy Rich Walker used his Facebook page to tease the accounting community on Sunday night with a post that said: "Intuit innovates again with a new, web-based application for accounting and tax pros. Details coming soon!" While I have no confirmation for this, I'm pretty confident that it is related to my July prediction that Intuit was working on a web-based professional tax prep system www.cpata.com/go/2403). There are a few other providers out there, but only the hosted version of UltraTax CS by Thomson Reuters and the Global fx-enabled version of CCH's ProSystem fx Tax have notable followings in the mid-sized and larger markets (the Thomson Reuters GoSystem RS/ES system dominates web-based pro prep... -
Reading the Fine Print
By Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Friday August 21, 2009People often scoff at others who find themselves in a predicament because they didn't read "the fine print." But almost all of us are guilty of this error in judgement, and not just occasionally... we do it every day. I'm talking about EULAs (End-User License Agreement), Terms of Use Policies, Privacy Policies and other contractual agreements we consent to, either with a cursory glance or not at all. Only a few years ago, when most of our interaction with technology was through disc-based software installed on a home computer, workstation or network server, the EULAs were at least easier to manage. And even if we didn't fully read the legalese then, either, at least the information was static- once you installed a program, the agreement... -
"Speed of Sound" is Almost Too Slow
By M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP; Executive Editor - Monday August 17, 2009I’ve blogged about how technology has the ability to transform our firms and businesses in ways that are almost super-human. Validating my thoughts is a new article on WSJ.com that talks about how companies are using technology to connect to customers in speedier ways: “Technology is transforming innovation at its core, allowing companies to test new ideas at speeds—and prices—that were unimaginable even a decade ago. They can stick features on Web sites and tell within hours how customers respond. They can see results from in-store promotions, or efforts to boost process productivity, almost as quickly.” I understand Fortune 500 firms have the means and money to do this, but why can’t CPA firms also use technology to more...
