Tech Views
Isaac M. O'Bannon

  • Opportunities Bright for Accounting Execs
    by Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Friday March 9, 2012
    Businesses of all sizes will always need accounting experts to help them see the present and plan for the future, and even in the still struggling economy, career opportunities for accounting executives has been growing. According to a recent article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution that cited the latest Cerius Executive Demand Index report, "Hiring has been brisk for executives with accounting skills ... and during the fourth quarter of 2011, 28 percent of the more than 1,100 top executive job openings nationwide were finance-related." Similar results in the AICPA's CPA Horizons 2025 report, show that the profession's prospects remain positive, "as long as firms can change to respond to today's technology-driven, increasingly...

  • ZZZZ ... The Most Sleep-Deprived Jobs
    by Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Thursday February 23, 2012
    Which jobs keep people away from the ZZZs the most? According to a new survey, tax and accounting pros aren't even in the top 10. I'm pretty sure they must not have conducted the survey during tax season. In a National Health Interview Survey commissioned by mattress retailer Sleepy's, the following occupations reported receiving the least average sleep per night: Home Health Aids (6 hrs, 57 min) Lawyers (7h) Police Officers (7h, 1m) Physicians/Paramedics (7h, 2m) Economists (7h, 3m) Social Workers (7h, 3m) Computer Programmers (7h, 3m) Financial Analysts (7h, 5m) Plant Operators (7h, 7m) Secretaries (7h, 8m) Would you edge out one of these averages? Here are the 10 professions that averaged the most sleep...

  • Ten Tax Benefits for Parents to Remember
    by Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Tuesday January 24, 2012
    How much is that little bundle of joy worth? Junior or your Princess may be priceless to you, but when it comes to taxes, there can be several very tangible monetary benefits. Here are 10 things the IRS wants parents to consider when filing their taxes this year. 1. Dependents In most cases, a child can be claimed as a dependent in the year they were born. For more information see IRS Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information. 2. Child Tax Credit You may be able to take this credit for each of your children under age 17. If you do not benefit from the full amount of the Child Tax Credit, you may be eligible for the Additional Child Tax Credit. For more information see IRS Publication 972, Child Tax...

  • Two Easy Options for Accepting Credit Cards
    by Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Tuesday January 10, 2012
    One of our readers emailed me today asking how they could easily (and I assume inexpensively) start accepting credit cards from their clients. This is also a good thing to know for when your small business clients want to accept credit/debit cards from their customers. The good news is, there are several options that are both easy and affordable. This was my advice for her: There are two really easy options for accepting credit cards.   First, if you have a smart phone (iPhone, iPad or Android phone) you can get Square ( www.squareup.com ), which has a little card reader that plugs onto your phone or iPad. There’s no cost for the card reader- the fees are per use, at 2.75% of each transaction when you swipe the card...

  • Franchisee Trends for 2012
    by Isaac M. O'Bannon, Editor - Tuesday January 10, 2012
    Here’s an idea for a franchise-based business I came up with, initially as a bit of a joke, but then I thought it had some real potential: Retirement community call centers. Not to be confused with nursing homes, retirement communities are often filled with younger and more active seniors, many of whom have uprooted from their original family communities. Combine their active minds and still-capable bodies with some level of boredom and perhaps, with the crunch economy, some may be looking to augment diminished retirement income, and I think there’s a good opportunity for some call centers to establish a presense in some of these communities. As with any call center, there would be training involved, and these...