The qualities necessary for success in the fields of accounting and tax have always included a natural inquisitiveness, a keen eye for details, being comfortable working with complex inter-related data, and sometimes working long hours, either due to reporting seasons or project deadlines. These traits are still necessary, but several other factors have grown critical over the past two decades.
Once seen as technologically static or reluctant to change, the most successful professionals are now those who embrace technology solutions that streamline virtually every aspect of their practice, from client reception, to tasking, to deliverables, as well as office management and data analysis. Many of the advancements in technology in recent years have reduced tedious tasking, or allowed practitioners to handle more clients, in less time, and with fewer staff.
Whether you’re performing audits, providing client consulting, or preparing compliance-focused tax returns for businesses and individuals, the right technologies not only simplify the work that these professionals tackle, but often can do so more accurately, as long as the experienced human professional retains oversight and the ability to drill down into the underlying data. Just as even the most experienced tax professional would never try to memorize the 6,800-plus pages of the Internal Revenue Code, accounting professionals know they can’t possibly provide accurate planning across every possible scenario. But the right technologies can do these functions, and so much more.
CPA Practice Advisor’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards, now in their 21st year, allow tax and accounting professionals from various specialties to identify the technologies they have found to be essential to their practice, whether that includes performing client service functions, staff management, collaboration, resource management, payroll, communications, or other tasks. The AI, automation, machine learning, and other advanced functions in these technologies are enabling professionals and their firms to be more productive than ever, reaching greater success.
The Readers’ Choice Awards also let professionals see the technologies and best workflow practices their peers are using, which can help them stay competitive in the constantly-evolving tax and accounting space. Thank you to the thousands of readers who participated in voting this year. Now, on to the results!
While this is, by no means, a formal scientific survey, it is reflective of the enthusiasm of professionals for specific programs and brands.
IN-FIRM TECHNOLOGIES
Federal/State Income Tax Preparation
Insight: The tax prep system category is always the most voted-on, with nearly all respondents selecting a preferred system. In this year’s results, as in recent years, Drake Software users continue to praise Drake’s tax prep, planning, management and other systems by voting in high numbers. The result: Drake wins this category again this year.
WINNER: Drake Tax Software (58%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit Lacerte, ProSeries or ProConnect Tax (15%)
- TaxAct Preparers’ Editions (5.25%)
- Wolters Kluwer: CCH Axcess Tax, CCH ProSystem fx Tax (4.8%)
- Thomson Reuters UltraTax or GoSystem RS (4.8%)
- ATX or TaxWise (Wolters Kluwer) (4%)
- MyTaxPrep Office (1.7%)
- TaxSlayer Pro (1.6%)
- Crosslink Professional (0.7%)
- Others (4.15%)
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Tax Planning Systems
Insight: Major tax law changes seem to be an almost annual occurrence, which can make tax planning a challenge, especially for higher net worth clients, or those planning major life events. But even basic tax planning can make a big difference in reducing future tax liability. This makes having a reliable tax planning system that can look forward several years a valuable addition to a practice. Drake Software’s supporters turned out in full-force once again to cast their votes. Only about half of our voters reporting using a planning system, but of those who did, the voting results were:
WINNER: Drake Tax Planner (58.5%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit Lacerte Tax Planner or Intuit Tax Advisor for Lacerte & ProConnect (14.9%)
- TaxPlanIQ (4.9%)
- Thomson Reuters Checkpoint or Planner CS (4.9%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH ProSystem fx Planning (4.8%)
- Bloomberg Tax Income Tax Planner (2.6%)
- Corvee Tax (2.3%)
- Others (7.1%)
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Specialty Systems & Tax Prep Tools
Insight: Sometimes a professional tax preparation system still lacks a few specific functions, such as for niche industries, less common returns, or for certain firm workflow preferences. We call these tools that fill in the gaps or help increase your firm productivity, “specialty systems.” This is another area where only about half of firms report using such a system. Of those who did, the votes were:
WINNER: GruntWorx (21.8%)
Runners Up:
- QuickBooks Self-Employed (21%)
- CCH Axcess and ProSystem fx Products (Wolters Kluwer) (7.7%)
- Avalara 1099 & W9 (7.3%)
- SafeSend Returns (5.9%)
- Canopy Tax Resolution Services (4.8%)
- Thomson Reuters UltraTax CS Source Doc Processing (4.7%)
- SurePrep 1040SCAN & TaxCaddy (3.1%)
- Taxfyle (2.6%)
- CFS Tax Tools (1.9%)
- DynaTax (1.8%)
- Others (17.4)%
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Tax & Accounting Research Systems
Insight: Professionals can’t prepare taxes or help clients plan for future scenarios unless they know some tax code, case law, and strategies. Of course, nobody can know everything, so it’s important to have access to comprehensive tax research tools. This includes primary source material such as the Internal Revenue Code, and state tax laws, as well as Tax Court rulings and expert analysis of these materials. Some of the available tax research systems integrate with tax preparation programs, while others are used separately and can be used alongside any system. TheTaxBook once again handily won the category this year for its popular and inexpensive system. About 34% of our readers noted a preference in this category.
WINNER: TheTaxBook – Tax Materials Inc. (48.4%)
Runners Up:
- QuickFinder Tax Handbooks (10.1%)
- Intuit ProSeries/Lacerte Tax Research or ProConnect (5.9%)
- Thomson Reuters Checkpoint (5.8%)
- TaxSpeaker (5.7%)
- CCH IntelliConnect or Accounting Research Manager (Wolters Kluwer) (5.3%)
- Parker Tax Pro Library (4.8%)
- Tax Talk Today (3.9%)
- Bloomberg Tax or Financial (3%)
- Others (7.1%)
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Tax Document Automation
Insight: The impact of AI, automation, and machine learning has dramatically improved the speed and accuracy of tax prep, and has thereby driven greater productivity at tax and accounting firms, helping them do more with less.
WINNER: TaxDome (39.1%)
- GruntWorx Populate (21%)
- Intuit Tax Import for Lacerte, ProConnect & ProSeries (12.1%)
- Wolters Kluwer CCH iFirm or ProSystem fx Scan (5%)
- Thomson Reuters Source Document Processing & Workpapers CS (3.6%)
- Canopy Tax (3.3%)
- SafeSend Returns (2.9%)
- SurePrep 1040Scan Pro, 1040Scan Organize (2.4%)
- Karbon (1.5%)
- Corvee (0.9%)
- Others (8.2%)
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Sales & Use Tax Preparation
Insight: – Keeping up with the thousands of sales tax jurisdictions and rules across the U.S. is a daunting task for most small and mid-sized businesses. States have also increased their sales tax audit activity as court rulings have extended sales tax taxability to online purchases. This means it’s more important than ever for businesses and their advisors to adopt technology that can automate the application and filing of sales taxes across these jurisdictions, while also accounting for special taxation rules. About 39% of our 5,000+ voters cited use of such systems, but most of those (apx. 60%) say they rely on the sales tax functions within their accounting system, or report client sales via their state’s website. Of those who chose a specialized system, which often includes much more detailed tax holidays and databases compiled by sales tax experts, the following systems scored best.
NOTE: [Those using state agency websites or tools already built into their accounting system were 57% of the total votes. The below results are from voters who selected a specific sales tax system.]
WINNER: Avalara AvaTax, Avalara Returns (19.3%)
Runners Up:
- CFS Tax Software (14.2%)
- CCH Wolters Kluwer (SureTax/SalesTaxOffice) (12.3%)
- Thomson Reuters ONESource Indirect Tax (8.6%)
- eFileSalesTax.com (8.4%)
- TaxJar (8.1%)
- Bloomberg Tax Sales Tax Rates (3.9%)
- Vertex Inc. (3.5%)
- Karbon (2.8%)
- Drake (2.3%)
- Sovos Tax Solutions 1.6%)
- Others (15%)
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Sales Tax Exemption Certificate Management
Insight: One of the most easily scrutinized areas by sales tax auditors are exemption certificates, which are often poorly managed by businesses. Although most firms in our survey did not express a preference or personal use with these products, those who did voted as follows:
WINNER: Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE (32.5%)
Runners Up:
- Avalara CertCapture (20.9%)
- Vertex Inc. Exemption Certificate Manager (15.2%)
- Sovos Tax Solutions (13.6%)
- Others (17.8%)
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Accounting Write-Up Systems
Insight: The widespread adoption of online business accounting systems has fundamentally changed the write-up process, but the basics are still the same: Periodically reconciling a business’ bookkeeping to ensure accuracy. More than half of our survey respondents reported use of one of the systems noted below.
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Accountant (47.2%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Accounting (23.5%)
- Xero (6.6%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS (4.3%)
- Sage Intacct or Sage One (3.3%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS AccountingPower (1.7%)
- Client Accounting Suite by Wolters Kluwer (1.2%)
- AccountingSuite (1.1%)
- Others (11.1%)
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Audit Engagement Tools
Insight: Automation, AI, and machine learning technologies have also greatly streamlined audit engagements, which used to take weeks or months of on-site visits, but now can be completed much faster, and these tools offer greater controls and accuracy.
WINNER: AuditFile (49.4%)
Runners Up:
- Thomson Reuters- Workpapers CS, AdvanceFlow or Checkpoint SMART Audit Suite (8.6%)
- CCH ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach, CCH ProSystem fx Engagement, CCH Accounting Research Manager or CCH Audit Accelerator (7.5%)
- Suralink (5.1%)
- CaseWare IDEA (4.8%)
- Audit Confirmations (4%)
- Confirmation.com (2.2%)
- Audit Dashboard Automated PBC (2%)
- Capital Confirmation (1.7%)
- Wiley Advantage Audit (1.5%)
- OnPoint PCR (1.3%)
- Rivio Clearinghouse (1.3%)
- Dynamic Audit Solution (DAS) by CPA.com (1.2%)
- Teammate Analytics (1.2%)
- Others (8.2%)
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Business Valuation
Insight: Accounting and tax professionals involved in business transfers, divorce litigation and family wealth planning often find a need for assessing the value of a business entity. This is one of the smaller niche specialties among firms, with about 10% of our voters reporting a preference in this category.
WINNER: SageWorks Valuation Solution (29.9%)
Runners Up:
- ValuSource Pro, BVM Pro & Express Business Valuation (20.4%)
- ValuAdder (17.3%)
- MoneySoft Corporate Valuation Pro, DealSense & Business Valuation Specialist (16.9%)
- Others (15.5%)
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Fixed Asset Management
WINNER: Intuit ProSeries/Lacerte/ProConnect Fixed Asset Manager (25.5%)
Runners Up:
- Thomson Reuters Fixed Assets CS (21.3%)
- CCH Fixed Assets Manager or CCH ProSystem fx Fixed Assets (13.6%)
- Drake Software (6.6%)
- Pro-Ware Asset Keeper (5.8%)
- Sage FAS Asset Accounting (5.7%)
- Open Systems TRAVERSE (4.2%)
- Bloomberg Tax Fixed Assets (3.4%)
- MultiView (2.4%)
- Real Asset Management (1.9%)
- Wasp Barcode Technologies (1.1%)
- Others (8.5%)
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Payroll
Insight: The cloud and automation revolution have greatly altered the role accountants play regarding payroll services for their clients. What once could be a tedious process, is now mostly a matter of review of automated pre-run reports, ensuring accuracy of the runs, and performing periodic reconciliations. Almost everything else is, or can be, automated. This also provides for greater employer and employee self-control and anytime access. There are several dozen products on the market, but for our rankings, we will only report those that received at least 1% of the votes.
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Systems (22.4%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Accounting (17.5%)
- ADP Payroll Solutions (13.7%)
- Gusto Payroll (11.9%)
- Paychex (4.6%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Payroll Relief (2.8%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS Payroll or myPay (2.7%)
- Sage 50 (2.5%)
- AMS 1099-Etc Payroll (1.9%)
- SurePayroll (1.8%)
- CFS Tax Solutions (1.8%)
- OnPay (1.6%)
- Patriot Software (1.2%)
- Others (13.6%, among 20+ vendors)
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1099/W-2 Compliance
Insight: Year-end payroll and contractor compliance systems that prepare W-2 and 1099 forms and can automatically file them, can help relieve much of the burden of processing hundreds or thousands of forms for your clients each year. Some systems also help streamline the entire process, including mailing of copies to recipients and filing forms with government offices. Due to the large number of products in this space, only those receiving 1% or more of the votes are listed.
WINNER: Drake Accounting (22%)
Runners Up:
- eFile4Biz (9.8%)
- CFS Tax Solutions (7%)
- Track 1099 (6.5%)
- Tax1099 (4.2%)
- 1099 Pro (3.9%)
- Avalara 1099 & W-9 (3.6%)
- AMS 1099-Etc (3.3%)
- Greatland Yearli (3.3%)
- Thomson Reuters Accounting CS Payroll Compliance (3.3%)
- QuickBooks Online (3.2%)
- W-2 Mate (Real Business Solutions) (3.2%)
- EagleView Filing Solutions (2.7%)
- W2/1099 by Wolters Kluwer (2.5%)
- ATF Payroll by IRIS AccountantsWorld (2.5%)
- Tax Bandits (2.1%)
- Payroll Compliance Reporting Wolters Kluwer (1.7%)
- Adams (1.2%)
- Others (14% among 15+ vendors)
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Time & Billing
Insight: Managing time for firm staff and projects is critical for firm efficiency, with the end product of invoicing helping ensure steady revenue flow. Effective time management is essential even now that many firms have ditched time-based billing.
WINNER: TaxDome (36.4%)
Runners Up:
- QuickBooks Time (16.1%)
- Karbon (9.2%)
- BILL (5%)
- Sage Timeslips (2.9%)
- TPS Software (2.6%)
- Canopy Practice Management (2.3%)
- CPACharge by AffiniPay (2.3%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS (2.2%)
- BigTimeIQ (1.7%)
- OfficeTools by AbacusNext (1.5%)
- Others 17.8%
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Practice Management
Insight: CPA Practice Advisor defines practice management solutions as those with more extensive functions for managing firm productivity and workflow management, automation of tasks, and record maintenance. Products that received at least 1% of votes included:
WINNER: TaxDome (48.1%)
Runners Up:
- Karbon (11.2%)
- CCH Axcess Practice, CCH iFirm Practice Manager, CCH ProSystem fx (6.6%)
- Thomson Reuters Practice CS (6.6%)
- OfficeTools (4.3%)
- Canopy Tax Practice Management (3.9%)
- Financial Cents (2.4%)
- ClientWhys/TaxBuzz.com (1.2%)
- Abak Time and Billing (1.1%)
- Mango Practice Management (1%)
- Others (13.6%)
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Online Invoicing/Bill Payment Solutions
Insight: Cloud-based, integrated invoicing tools can help firms improve AR functions and cashflow, while bill payment systems can help streamline AP. Voters were allowed to select multiple products, resulting in more than 100% total. Products receiving at least 1% shown.
WINNER: TaxDome (29.1%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit Payments (20%)
- Karbon (6.9%)
- BILL (6.5%)
- CPACharge by Afffinipay (6.3%)
- PayPal (4.8%)
- Xero (2.9%)
- Invoiced (2.5%)
- OfficeTools (2.3%)
- Drake Software (1.9%)
- Bill & Pay (1.8%)
- Square (1.7%)
- Zoho Books (1.4%)
- FreshBooks (1.2%)
- Others (10.7%)
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Client Portals
Insight: Client portals make sharing data with clients easier. They make it easier for clients to submit documents to the firm and to retrieve documents when needed. Products receiving at least 1% of the votes included:
WINNER: Drake Software Drake Portals (33.7%)
Runners Up:
- TaxDome (29%)
- Karbon (5.6%)
- DropBox (3.7%)
- Verifyle (3.1%)
- Citrix ShareFile (2.9%)
- Canopy (1.9%)
- CCH Axcess Portal / CCH ProSystem fx Portal / CCH iFirm or XCM Solutions (1.9%)
- Thomson Reuters- NetClient CS or Onvio Client Center (1.9%)
- SmartVault (1.5%)
- Suralink (1.5%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS (1.2%)
- CPASiteSolutions (1.2%)
- Others (10.9%)
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Document Management & Document Storage
Insight: This category includes a wide range of solutions, with functions ranging from basic file folders, to advanced options that include client collaboration tools, automatic archiving, retention functions and multi-worker productivity features. Products receiving 1% or more of the voting included:
WINNER: Drake Document Manager (39.3%)
Runners Up:
- TaxDome (28.1%)
- Karbon (5.5%)
- Intuit ProSeries & Lacerte DMS or ProConnect Document Management (4.2%)
- Thomson Reuters FileCabinet CS/GoFileRoom (3.1%)
- CCH Axcess Document or CCH ProSystem fx Document (2.9%)
- SmartVault Document Storage (1.4%)
- Suralink (1.3%)
- eFileCabinet (1.2%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Cloud Cabinet (1.0%)
- Doc.IT by IRIS (1.0%)
- Others (11%)
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Other Document Management Tools
Insight: Document management also requires special tools that sometimes work with the scanner or work with the document management system directly for functions including OCR.
WINNER: Fujitsu (29.2%)
Runners Up:
- HP (23.4%)
- Canon (11.4%)
- Kofax (6.2%)
- ABBYY (6%)
- cPaperless TicTie Calculate (5.5%)
- Nuance (5.4%)
- Others (12.9%)
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Comprehensive Firm Workflow Systems
Insight: We divide Workflow into two categories: Comprehensive Workflow, and Other Workflow Tools, which are designed for aiding in specific tasks and engagements and for smaller firms.
WINNER: TaxDome (59%)
Comprehensive Firm Workflow Solutions
Runners Up:
- Karbon (11.5%)
- Thomson Reuters – FirmFlow or Practice CS Project Management (6.5%)
- CCH Axcess Workstream, CCH iFirm Practice Manager (5.9%)
- Financial Cents (2%)
- TaxWorkFlow (2%)
- Autonomy iManage Workflow Manager (1.3%)
- XCMworkflow (1.2%)
- Pascal Workflow (0.6%)
- Qount (0.5%)
- Others (9.5%)
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Other Workflow Tools
WINNER: TaxDome (36.1%)
Runners Up:
- GruntWorx (12%)
- Karbon (8.1%)
- Intuit Tax Advisor for Lacerte and ProConnect Tax (4.8%)
- Bill (4.3%)
- Various CCH ProSystem fx Systems (3.9%)
- OfficeTools WorkSpace (3.7%)
- Thomson Reuters GoFileRoom/Practice CS/Workpapers CS (3.6%)
- Citrix ShareFile for Accountants (3.3%)
- Canopy (2.5%)
- Suralink (2.4%)
- eFileCabinet (2%)
- SmartVault (1.8%)
- Expensify (1.3%)
- Audit Dashboard (1.2%)
- SurePrep (1.2%)
- Doc.IT by IRIS (1.2%)
- Others (6.6%)
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Website Builders & Services for Accounting Firms
Insight: There are several website services and tools that make it easy and affordable to create a firm website and keep it up-to-date. Options range from doing most of the work yourself with a variety of templates, to solutions where the vendor does all the work you want them to do.
WINNER: TaxDome (18.7%)
Runners Up:
- Drake Software SiteDart Website Services (17.7%)
- GetNetSet (14.9%)
- CPA Site Solutions (10.3%)
- CCH SiteBuilder (4.1%)
- CPASites.com (4%)
- CountingWorks/ClientWhys/TaxBuzz (3.4%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Website Relief (3%)
- Thomson Reuters Web Builder CS (3%)
- Build Your Firm (2.5%)
- Wix (2.4%)
- Practice Panda / Integer (2.1%)
- GoDaddy (1.9%)
- Network Management Group (NMGI) WebCare (1%)
- Others (11%)
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Favorite CPE Provider
Insight: Need CPE? Well, there are many ways to earn it these days, and it is little surprise that professionals increasingly turn to online options.
WINNER: CPA Practice Advisor (19.4%)
Runners Up:
- Drake (16.4%)
- CPAAcademy.org (8.8%)
- AICPA (8%)
- State CPA Societies (5.5%)
- NATP (4.2%)
- MyCPEwebinars (4%)
- Surgent CPE (3.7%)
- TaxSpeaker (2.6%)
- Western CPE (2.6%)
- Earmark CPE (1.7%)
- Becker CPE (1.2%)
- Canopy Tax CPE (1.2%)
- Sequoia (1.1%)
- IRS (1.1%)
- The Tax Book (0.9%)
- Lorman (0.8%)
- Spidell (0.6%)
- Others (16.2%)
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How Do You Prefer to Earn CPE?
WINNER: Live Online Classes/Webcasts (52.8%)
Runners Up:
- Self-Study with Tests (24.6%)
- In-Person Seminars/Workshops (20.2%)
- Others (2.4%)
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Which Conferences Do You Attend?
Insight: Many state society shows are listed in the “other” category. Many respondents chose more than one event.
WINNER: AICPA ENGAGE Las Vegas (18.8%)
Runners Up:
- IRS Nationwide Tax Forums (14.3%)
- QuickBooks Connect (7.5%)
- NAEA National Conference (2.9%)
- Digital CPA (2.9%)
- Scaling New Heights (2.9%)
- NATP (2.8%)
- XeroCon (2.7%)
- CPA Practice Advisor’s Ensuring Success (2.6%)
- CCH Connections (2.2%)
- Thomson Reuters Synergy (2.1%)
- Others (38.3%)
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SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS
There are several sub-categories in this group: Below are the top vote receivers in each category.
Small Business Accounting – Installed Programs
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Desktop (78.4%)
Runners Up:
- PC Software Accounting Inc. (4.3%)
- Drake Software (2.2%)
- A-Systems Visual Bookkeeper (1.7%)
- CheckMark Software MultiLedger (1.7%)
- RealEasyBooks (1.3%)
- Acclivity (1.2%)
- Red Wing Software – CenterPoint Accounting (1.1%)
- Cougar Mountain Software (1%)
- Others (7.1%)
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Online Small Business Accounting
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Online/Online Accountant (66.4%)
Runners Up:
- Xero (7.9%)
- Thomson Reuters OnBalance, Client CS, CS Client Access (3.2%)
- Sage Intacct or Business Cloud (2.8%)
- Wave – By H&R Block (2.5%)
- Zoho Books (2%)
- FreshBooks (1.7%)
- NetSuite (1.7%)
- AccountantsWorld by IRIS Accounting Power (1.6%)
- Kashoo (1.3%)
- Drake (1%)
- Workful (0.9%)
- Others (7%)
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Expense and Travel Management Solution
WINNER: Expensify (22%)
Runners Up:
- Zoho Expense (9.7%)
- Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) (7.5%)
- Concur Expense (6.5%)
- Tallie (6.2%)
- CorPay (5.1%)
- Certify (4.3%)
- Xpenditure (4.3%)
- ExpenseWatch (4%)
- SutiExpense (3%)
- Chrome River (2.7%)
- ExpensAble (2.4%)
- SpringAhead (1.3%)
- Others (21%)
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Retail Accounting/Point-of-Sale Systems
WINNER: Square (37.3%)
Runners Up:
- Intuit QuickBooks POS (23.5%)
- NetSuite OnSite POS (3.1%)
- AccuPOS (2.9%)
- Radiant Systems CounterPoint (2.9%)
- Database Creations (2.5%)
- Celerant (2.4%)
- CAM Commerce (2%)
- Cougar Mountain Denali POS (2%)
- Keystroke POS (1.6%)
- Wasp Barcode (1.6%)
- Vend POS (1.3%)
- AddSum (0.9%)
- Others (16%)
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Not-for-Profit Accounting
WINNER: Intuit QuickBooks Premier Nonprofit (53.6%)
Runners Up:
- Sage Intacct (7%)
- Aplos (4.6%)
- Abila MIP (3.8%)
- Blackbaud Financial Edge or Fundware (3.8%)
- Fund E-Z (3.4%)
- CYMA Systems (2.7%)
- Cougar Mountain FUND Suite (2.1%)
- GMS Software (2.1%)
- AccuFund (1.9%)
- Open Systems TRAVERSE (1.9%)
- OneNFP (1.7%)
- Serenic Software (1.7%)
- Araize (1.5%)
- Others (8.2%)
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REMOTE TECHNOLOGIES
ASP/Hosted Solution Providers
WINNER: Rightworks (29.7%)
Runners Up:
- Cetrom CPA Cloud (14.1%)
- Ace Cloud Hosting (13.8%)
- Thomson Reuters Virtual Office CS/SaaS (11%)
- Private Cloud and Cloudnine Realtime by CARET (4%)
- Verito (3.7%)
- Network Alliance (3.3%)
- LeaseCrunch (2.9%)
- CPAASP/InsynQ (2.6%)
- Network Management Group Inc. (NMGI) (2.6%)
- Others (12.3%)
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Outsourced Technology Services
Insight: These companies offer a variety of hosting and outsourced business process services.
WINNER: Rightworks (34%)
Runners Up:
- Cetrom (14.9%)
- Ace Cloud Hosting (14.6%)
- Network Management Group Inc. (NMGI) (5%)
- CollBox (4.7%)
- CPA2Biz Email Solutions (3.8%)
- InsynQ/CPAASP (3.8%)
- AppRiver (2.8%)
- Verito (1.9%)
- Cloudnine Realtime by CARET (1.7%)
- Others: 12.8%
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GENERAL OFFICE TECH
Printers & Scanners
Top vote recipients: (More than one selection was allowed).
- HP (32.2%)
- Brother (21.6%)
- Canon (10.8%)
- Fujitsu (10.5%)
- Epson (8.9%)
- Dell (4.7%)
- Xerox (2.8%)
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OUT-OF-OFFICE
Favorite Form of Physical Exercise During Tax Season
WINNER: “Who has time to exercise during busy season?” (41.3%)
- Weightlifting (8.5%)
- Walking (8%)
- Jogging/Running (7.7%)
- Yoga (6.9%)
- Jumping to Conclusions (6.4%)
- Bicycling (6.2%)
- Aerobics (3.9%)
- Team Sports (2.4%)
- Racket Sports (2.1%)
- Others: 6.6%
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Do you regularly listen to any accounting podcasts?
If yes, please name them.
- No (88.9%)
- Yes (5.6%)
- No Answer (5.5%)
Favorite podcasts listed:
- Jason Staats (Jason on Firms)
- AICPA (Town Halls and others)
- The Accounting Show Podcast
- The Concierge CPA
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How “social” are you? Which social media tools do you use in conjunction with your work?
About 48% of our voters said they don’t use any social media tools for business purposes. For those who do use them, multiple responses were allowed.
- Facebook (32.8%)
- LinkedIn (31.8%)
- YouTube (17.6%)
- Instagram (15.8%)
- WhatsApp (10%)
- X / Twitter (8.7%)
- TikTok (5.4%)
- Reddit (4.7%)
- Pinterest (4.6%)
- SnapChat (2.8%)
- Yelp (2.2%)
- Others (1.5%)
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Julia May 10 2025 at 4:50 pm
Great