Randy and Brian review OnceAccounting, a single hub for accounting firms to manage all of their clients' books, even on different systems.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Guilded.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Fieldguide, an engagement platform for audit and advisory firms.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Zoho Expense.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Zoho Expense, which helps businesses streamline travel, automate expense reporting ...

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Uncat, a tool that helps accounting pros fix uncategorized expenses, income and assets in QuickBooks.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Uncat, a tool that helps accounting pros fix uncategorized expenses, income and assets in QuickBooks.

Randy and Brian review the Rewind SaaS and Cloud Data Backup System.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review AuditMiner.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA look at trends affecting CPA firm software providers.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA discuss New Technology Tools for Accountants.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Calendly, an online appointment scheduling system.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review BizEKG from 4ImpactData.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review the Liscio client experience platform.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Avalara's sales and use tax compliance systems.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Inflo.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Suralink.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Pascal Workflow.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA discuss the 2022 Thought Leader Symposium, hosted by CPA Practice Advisor.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA discuss the 2022 Thought Leader Symposium, hosted by CPA Practice Advisor.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review the LivePlan business planning system.

Part 2: Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review IRIS Software and AccountantsWorld.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review IRIS Software and AccountantsWorld.

Randy and Brian discuss the new technologies they discovered at CES 2022, the largest annual technology show in the world.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review CaseWare.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Paychex.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Gusto Payroll.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Intuit Payroll.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review OnPay Payroll and HR services.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review the Corpay One automated payables system.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review the Lucion FileCenter document management system.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Rippling Payroll.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Accounting Power from AccountantsWorld.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Spire Systems inventory, wholesale and distribution management system.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review ADP Payroll Services.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Oracle NetSuite.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review AccountantsWorld Cloud Cabinet.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Path, by Simplex Financials.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review AccountantsWorld Payroll Relief.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review eFileCabinet.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Intuit ProConnect Tax Online.

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review Clarity Practice Management.

The K2 Quality Awards are in their nineteenth year and the are among the most well respected and longest standing awards in the Accounting industry. In announcing this year’s award winners, Randy Johnston, Shareholder and VP at K2 Enterprises was ...

Many RPA solutions are designed to be used by business users like accounting professionals, and while some tasks will still require the assistance of an IT professional, with some training, these “low-code/no-code” tools can bring the power of ...

RPA is not an entirely new technology – in fact, many concepts included in RPA are descendants of older technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) of scanned documents, zonal OCR, the “screen scraping” tools used for decades to extract data ...

E-mail based malware and phishing attacks are frighteningly simple to create. Last fall, an international CPA firm association commissioned me to create some materials and resources for their firms.

The internet has brought many changes to our office work environment, and one of the most significant areas where I see firms not ready to meet client expectations is being ready to participate in effective virtual meetings. Virtual meeting platforms ...

While most of our firms have transitioned away from paper-based records, many of us still struggle to digitize the business processes in our firms. As I write this, we are in the late stages of conducting the 6th Annual CPA Firm Operations and ...

December has come again, and it’s time to predict the big stories for 2019. Here are the seven trends I think will have transformational impact on practitioners and their firms in the coming year:

Two major methods of accomplishing this are using Wireless Network Encryption or creating a Virtual Private Network (VPN) with another computer, perhaps using the internet to connect a device to a server at your office. We will discuss Wireless ...

Accounting firms face challenges today which are more formidable than those faced in previous generations. With margins shrinking, competition increasing, constant technology and security challenges, as well as the twin threats of artificial ...

Protecting data in transit is harder than encrypting data at rest, since it must allow users to transmit data to a remote user, regardless of the computing platform or internet connection method used by the recipient. There are many ways that data ...

When working papers and confidential information were stored on paper, it was enough to physically secure the paper records you had so others couldn’t view them. Just as our society is adapting its laws, regulations, and definitions of terms like ...

In the future, we will move beyond simple data integrations between applications toward workflow automation tools and with data from many different mainstream systems consolidated in a business intelligence tool. My research shows that most mid-sized ...

One of my personal goals this year is to increase the amount of automation I use in my work so that technology is working for me instead of me working to maintain the technology. I’ve used cloud-based accounting packages along with Receipt Bank, 1Tap ...

This column will go through some of the gear I carry with me when working out of the office. As someone who spends over 100 days a year traveling, I don’t have the option of waiting until I get back to the office to deal with most things.

One of the more interesting areas for new offerings in accounting technology has been the emergence of toolsets to automate the analysis of data sets. Whether we’re learning about end user tools for accounting firms like InformationActive’s Active ...

One of the more interesting areas for new offerings in accounting technology has been the emergence of toolsets to automate the analysis of data sets. Whether we’re learning about end user tools for accounting firms like InformationActive’s Active ...

There is a mania surrounding the blockchain technology which underlies cryptocurrencies– it is surrounded by a boundless enthusiasm, and based on the breathless excitement, one might believe that it is the cure for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and the ...

One of the ways successful firms are continuing to grow during the current economic downturn is by finding new and existing clients with targeted, personalized service. Large firms have used customer relationship management (CRM) and contact management systems for years to manage sales activities, track correspondence, and log contact with current and prospective customers, but these systems are frequently not used by small firms that don’t have dedicated marketing departments.

eFileCabinet is a mature, flexible general document management system (DMS) which was introduced to the market in 2001. Since that time the solution has been used by accounting professionals and others who need a flexible system for indexing and retrieving documents.

Conarc’s iChannel is a comprehensive document management system which is designed to cut across multiple areas of an organization. The application provides functions for customer relationship management (CRM), client portals, document management, and workflow management. The application is targeted at firms of 25 or more, and is designed to work in a complex, multi-site technology environment.

Document is the name of the CCH application which is used to store, retrieve, and publish information within an accounting firm. There are three versions of the product...

Cabinet SAFE CLOUD is a flexible document management system which was originally designed with accountants and tax professionals in mind. The product is still used and sold to clients by many accounting firms and value added resellers, but the company has expanded its vertical industry support to include law firms, financial services, manufacturing, and health care.

Drake Document Manager (DDM) is the document storage tool which is integrated into the Drake Tax Suite. The application is designed to provide basic document filing and retrieval capabilities from within the Drake Tax application, and has some integration with the other parts of the Drake Tax suite of solutions. Users can access the application’s data in two different ways – either the Working Cabinet mode, where DDM is embedded into the tax software, or in Archive Cabinet mode, where DDM is accessed through a separate shortcut on the Start Menu.

Practice Management Workspace by Office Tools Professional is an integrated application for document storage, workflow tracking, practice management, and client appointment management. The product’s user interface has been redesigned for 2013, and now offers e-mail synchronization with Microsoft Outlook 2007, 2010 and 2013. Documents can be added to the application by dragging and dropping the file into the application or by printing the document using the product’s new PDF printer. PDF files can also be marked up with the product’s built in annotation tools. It also comes with a built in client portal for document transfers.

The Doc.It Suite is a comprehensive document management solution for small to mid-sized firms. This solution is based on the concept of “binders”, which are reminiscent of the paper notebooks used to file engagement documentation. The Company’s software is designed to manage data associated with pending and active projects using the Work Binder module.

Cloud Cabinet is the integrated document storage service in the AccountantsWorld Power Practice System. The application is completely cloud-based, and the application is hosted from multiple secure Amazon data centers in the US. AccountantsWorld was founded by the Bhansali family, which has a long history of creating on-premises and cloud-based solutions for accounting professionals. Cloud Cabinet is designed for use by accountants and their clients to store, index, share, and archive documents in real time from anywhere. Cloud Cabinet has a new user interface which is cleaner, and seems to load and preview documents faster than the version which was reviewed in 2013. The user interface is logical, and we were able to find all major functions without having to refer to any documentation.

FileCabinet CS by Thomson Reuters is the document storage application associated with the Thomson Reuters CS Professional Suite of applications for professional accounting firms.

GoFileRoom is a web-based document management system designed to be used primarily from within the Internet Explorer web browser. The software has traditional features like version control, check-in and check-out, and supports bar-code scanning to help streamline document organization. Workflow and document routing are available using the integrated FirmFlow workflow engine, and documents can be routed to clients using the ClientFlow feature within the optional NetClient CS portals.

The last 18 months have been a period of significant change for the document management systems of many accounting professionals and their firms.

Selecting a small business accounting package is, in some ways, like purchasing a piece of home exercise equipment. The solution needs to meet your needs, be easy to use, should fit within your budget, and should be pleasant enough to use that the client will actually keep their books after the first week or two.

Sales and use tax is a key source of government funding in most states. Unlike property tax and state income tax, however, the legislators and regulators have adopted a patchwork of different rules which affect the taxability of the items. In addition to dealing with statewide tax rates in 45 states, 38 states levy sales taxes based on the borders of cities, counties, and special districts.

In addition to its publishing products, Bloomberg BNA offers two software tools which are designed to help companies and practitioners stay up to date on tax rates and prepare accurate forms.

CCH’s sales tax compliance applications are priced based on a range of factors, including the number of entities, the number of returns, and the features purchased. Specific pricing is available upon request.

Avalara is a company that specializes in creating end-to-end solutions for helping organizations of all sizes comply with transaction-based taxes like sales and use tax, value added tax (VAT), and Canada’s GST/HST in over 100 countries, including thousands of state and local special tax districts within these countries.

Our review of SaaS accounting solutions has focused on tools to help manage a general ledger and create financial reports, but many self-employed individuals and micro-businesses need a more basic day-to-day solution to help them bill customers, track receivables, and manage projects. While many applications can meet the needs of this segment, including the lower tier versions of QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Kashoo, two popular applications which are designed for non-accountants who need to accumulate transaction data are FreshBooks and Sage One.

These applications are low cost or free, and are supported with in-application ads and other special offers provided based on the user’s personal profile. Since they are stored online, the data can be shared with outside advisors, including the individual’s accounting firm.

Xero is a micro-business SaaS accounting platform which is well established in Australia and New Zealand, and was launched in the U.S. in 2012. The company has made significant investments in personnel to compete with other small business accounting software providers in the U.S. market, and has hired a long list of industry veterans to manage its U.S. operations, including Peter Karpas (U.S. CEO), Jamie Sutherland (U.S. President), Ian Vaicin (U.S. VP- Marketing and Product) and many more.

Wave Accounting is part of Wave Apps, which is a suite of free or low-cost apps for self-employed individuals and micro-businesses to accomplish traditional accounting tasks like billing customers, recording payments, writing checks, and downloading transactions from financial institutions.

Intuit QuickBooks Online was one of the first online small business financial management applications when it was launched in 2000. The application has expanded to include many new features over the years, and it is now available in more than 10 languages and 100 countries.

Intuit’s QuickBooks is a product most accounting professionals encounter during their careers, and there are a wide range of available versions of this solution.

Acclivity’s AccountEdge Pro 2014 is a U.S. small business accounting software application for both Windows and MacOS which originated as the U.S. version of global small business management system MYOB. AccountEdge is now available in three versions (AccountEdge Basic, AccountEdge Pro, and AccountEdge Cloud) with three localizations (U.S., Canada, and a generic international version). Acclivity also offers solutions for point of sale, a free mobile version of AccountEdge (AccountEdge Mobile for iOS), a web store service, and a time tracking application

Sage 50 Premium Accounting (U.S. Edition) is one of the most well developed accounting products included in this review. The application is more debit and credit oriented than some competitors, but retains forms for simple, quick data entry. Templated charts of accounts are available for more than 50 different industries, users can create their own chart of accounts, or settings can be copied from an existing Sage 50 company.

When I look back on my time in practice, some of the biggest lies I ever told myself related to shoebox clients ever getting more organized on their own. I always wanted to believe that the client wanted to have a more structured organization system for their finances.

As the space for practice management applications has changed over the last year, we have changed the applications which we cover as part of this review to reflect the desire of many mid-sized and large firms to implement staff scheduling tools.

Unlike traditional applications where it is very clear where one module begins and another ends, CCH Axcess users can perform many tasks from a wide range of menus throughout the solution. This flexibility may be confusing to new users, as the time capture functions are accessed from the user’s dashboard and not from within the Axcess Practice application.

ProSystem fx Practice Management was originally built as CPASoftware Visual Practice Management on the Microsoft Access database, but has been updated to support the Microsoft.net and Microsoft SQL Server platforms.

APS Advance Practice Management is a customizable solution which best meets the needs of large accounting firms. The solution is built on the Microsoft SQL server platform. The application is flexible enough that the firm will need to know how they want to work with the application, and should not be expecting a “standard” implementation with this very powerful and flexible tool kit. A number of stock dashboards are provided with APS Advanced Practice Management, but users will want to configure the metrics tracked to meet their firm’s specific requirements.

PowerPM from Commercial Logic, Inc. is a straight-forward module-based practice management application which is offered as a hosted solution for a monthly charge. The PowerPM Suite includes five core modules which provide users with the system. These modules are:

Empire Suite by WSG Systems, Corp. is a high-end practice management tool designed for large firms. Empire Suite includes an optional staff scheduling module called Empire Resource, and is one of the stronger automatic scheduling tools in the industry. The application is delivered as software as a service through the company’s website, EmpireSuite.com, and is sold on a subscription basis.

Practice Management 2014 by Office Tools Professional is a time and billing application which offers a comprehensive suite for managing a small firm including workflow management, client portal, document management, and light customer relationship management (CRM).

Practice CS is designed to be the hub managing to work in an accounting firm running the Thomson Reuters CS Professional Suite. When combined with the optional modules for managing projects, clients, and employees, Practice CS provides a comprehensive toolset which meets the needs of many small and midsize firms.

A new class of “digital plumbing” applications are helping many firms and small businesses solve another seemingly “impossible” task – automated synchronization and universal exchange of data between applications written by different software publishers.

Accounting Power is the new name for the collaborative bookkeeping and client write-up solution which is part of the Accountants World Power Practice suite of applications.

Xero Accounting, along with the Xero Partner Platform multi-client interface for accountants, is a cloud-based platform for those working with multiple clients. The product is best used by service-based organizations, is easy to use, and provides a platform for automating the classification of transactions.

Intuit’s QuickBooks Online (QBO), along with the QuickBooks Online for Accountants (QBO4A) multi-client tool for accountants using the application, provide a capable cloud-based platform for managing small business finances for multiple organizations.

The transition away from traditional, after-the-fact client write-up systems and to collaborative, real-time financial reporting systems has taken many years, but we are starting to see the outline of the systems of the future. Cloud-based software will be used to help practitioners and clients work together on a business, and will yield results which are more timely and less compliance-oriented than traditional write up products.

The current write-up application for the Thomson Reuters CS Suite of applications for professional accounting firms is a relatively new product called Accounting CS.

Cloud accounting application Xero announced new partnerships today with personal bill tracking application Manilla and web hosting company Squarespace. The company’s announcement comes close after the December launch of Xero Payroll, the announcement of the product’s support for file attachments, and integrations with non-traditional lending sources like Kabbage and FundBox.

2013 Review of Time and Billing Programs

Cloud server based hosting of applications which have historically run on desktop or laptop Windows computers is a hot trend with accounting professionals.

Sales and use tax is one of the three primary areas which legislators use to fund state and local government (the other two major areas are income taxes and property taxes). The concept is relatively simple: if you buy something tangible, you pay a fixed percentage to the local government as a tax.

Sage North America formally kicked off its annual Sage Summit conference this morning. The convention, which brings thousands of Sage customers and business partners together every year, is being held at the Gaylord National Resort just outside Washington, D.C. from July 21-26.

Document Storage Solutions are one of several types of applications which accounting professionals may use in a firm to store, organize, search, and retrieve their digital documents.

Over my 20 year career, I’ve spent an eternity in queues for tech support from a variety of companies. As I write this, I’ve been on hold for 80 minutes during business hours on a weekday to speak to a human about an issue. Dealing with hardware and software support is a hidden cost of doing business in every organization.

This month’s mobile column features the CPA Practice Advisor app, as well as solutions for when your mobile device is “running on empty”.

Because different firms need different capabilities in their document storage and management systems, we typically break tools for working with documents into five separate review categories.

Many accountants need or want to capture documents outside of the office. Whether you have an audit team working in the field or you just need to capture an image of a W-2, there are many hardware and software tools which can be used to create PDF versions of paper documents.

One of the real challenges associated with selecting portal solutions is the way the product fits into a company’s workflow. We selected eleven portal products for this year’s review (and could have easily located and reviewed 50 solutions, assuming unlimited money and caffeine were available).

The ability to check on the status of cash, receivables, and payables from anywhere is a critical business need.

Xero to Simplify Accountants Work by Building Out Export Capabilities

The Sage Group PLC announced the sale of three North American products to KKR-Accel and Swiftpage today for a total of $101.2 million, including $91.2 million in cash.

There are a number of major trends in the mobile space which will change the way software providers deliver applications and services to us mobile devices in 2013. Two of these trends are the move toward Mobile Websites instead of apps, as well as customizable apps which allow a firm to brand a client-facing app with their name and logo.

Summary: Microsoft has revitalized its mobile offerings and created an integrated computing ecosystem to compete with Apple and Google.

The strategic decision to move outsourced client bookkeeping processes into the cloud offers accounting professionals a choice on how they will work with client information. Practitioners in the cloud experience a wide range of benefits, which include direct importing of transactions...

Brian Looks at Two Apps for Microsoft Office and the CCH Mobile app.

This month, we cover major changes to standard mobile plans by AT&T and Verizon, a data speed testing utility, the Flipboard visual social media app, and the Confirmation.com audit inquiry mobile tracking tool.

One of the major changes taking place in the mobile publishing arena is a move away from having true dedicated “apps” to accomplish tasks on the go.

Maintaining a healthy balance between career and family is important for long-term success in both areas.

Column: Monthly Micro Apps

A very challenging demographic for many practitioners is the “micro business.”

Column: Monthly Micro Apps

Column: Monthly Micro Apps.

One of the most helpful sites for end users of Sage products is the Year End Centers for the various products, including Sage Peachtree (www.peachtree.com/yearEnd) and Sage Simply Accounting (www.simplyaccounting.com/yearEnd). These sites have year-end checklists, detailed instructions on how to perform annual maintenance on databases, links to resources to assist with tax report preparation, and many other helpful tips and tricks that can make the year-end process go more smoothly.

Four Tips To Getting The Most Out Of Your Research

Column:The Sage Peachtree Perspective

Column: The Sage Peachtree Perspective

The accounting software model is in the midst of a major transition toward the use of hosted, on-demand services. Some experts are advocating a switch to a purely online Software as a Service (SaaS) model, where data and programs are hosted in secure data centers.

Tax practitioners such as CPAs and EAs have begun to take a more active role in offering financial services to tax clients from personal financial planning to retirement plans to insurance.