What is best to keep in your practice, and what needs to go away? For many firms, getting the fundamentals right will help you pick the right ...

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.

The first half of the conference season is behind us. We have had a chance to look at new strategies, tactics, and offerings from most major publishers.

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.

The past two years have been anything but simple. So, it may seem ironic that simplification is the new way to navigate the increasing complexity of the business. Automated, digital solutions provide a pathway to alleviate this pressure while helping ...

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.

Prepare to replace all your end-user hardware. The value proposition became clear when presenting at a conference in the past week. 2022 is the start of a massive wave of technology innovation. I have seen this type of wave a few times in my career.

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.

Having a somewhat "normal" tax season behind us certainly feels good. While it would be nice to have COVID behind us and the IRS caught up, these issues may be part of our "new normal." Unfortunately, staffing issues also seem to be part of the new ...

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.

Many of us have used our skills and expertise to keep clients in compliance with tax and audit regulations. Others have expanded by reducing clients’ workload handling transactional accounting through Client Accounting Service offerings.

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.

Most CPAs I know are incredibly smart, hard-working, have high integrity, and genuinely care about their clients. While these attributes result in a lot of hard work, the rewards continue to be great. We want you to have the resiliency and stamina ...

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.

It is nice to see the last few stressful years fade in the rearview mirror. With the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), handling the pandemic, PPP, PPP2, and the changes in tax deadlines, most practitioners report that these years have been among the ...

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

Pundits in the profession continue to promote the thinking that audit and tax compliance are gone and that your firm needs to pick a new service line to survive. But, did you look at your firm’s financial success last year? And the year before that?

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

Few topics are as near and dear to me as Client Advisory Services. Those of you who have followed both my teaching career around the world for decades, and this column for almost 20 years, know that I’ve tried to bring you the latest in software and ...

The technology tools available to assist in this area led me to prepare my first estate plan. When I ran my first personal financial planning models and estate plans in the Kettley Publishing and Back Room Technician, now Advisys solutions with over ...

Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP, CGMA review the small business accounting platform Xero.

Effective Document Exchange, gathering, management, and distribution with clients is a significant friction point for many firms. Possibly because of the COVID-19 pandemic, client collaboration, workflow, and document management systems (DMS) came to ...

Although none of us know the future, I believe we now have the opportunity to create it.

Vision for the future comes from a variety of sources. Clear vision and sources of inspiration can come from colleagues, friends, quiet time, struggling with an issue, conflict, relaxing on the beach or vacation, meditation or attending a religious ...

During the last half of this year alone, we've seen outages from Microsoft, Wolters Kluwer, Intuit, and many other applications that are critical for our profession. Are they only ones? Certainly not! If we look back two years, the list becomes onerous.

2020 has been such an unusual year that I did not expect to have such a pleasant Labor Day weekend. After spending one on one time with my oldest daughter, we reaffirmed something that many of you may mistakenly take for granted.

The more this year of clear vision has progressed, the more it has been blurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, frantic reactive thinking, and desperation. However, some firms have continued to look to the future, and have been proactive at choosing their ...

What do you think happens to your firm when you feed it the right tools and training? What is your future vision of your tax practice? Do you want to be fit and competitive, or do you prefer the alternatives?

In these challenging times of pandemics and work-at-home, tools to manage the practice, team members, and workload help. Most firms report that advisory work has currently exploded while helping clients manage cash flow, apply for SBA and PPP loans ...

Are you thinking about improving your effectiveness or efficiency? Education helps you with the big picture, and training enables you to do something better. Both proactive education and reactive training serve a purpose.

Are you thinking about improving your effectiveness or efficiency? Education helps you with the big picture, and training enables you to do something better. Both proactive education and reactive training serve a purpose.

This post summarizes the developments of the most massive stimulus bill in American history, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The CARES Act will provide billions of dollars of relief to individuals, businesses, state and ...

When we look at the services offered by firms of differing sizes, smaller firms tend to produce about 80% of their revenue from tax and about 20% from Advisory and Consulting services. Larger firms tend to split their revenue as 40% from tax, 40% from ...

Most impressive at CES this year were hardware solutions to real world problems. We’ll discuss each of them, but I was particularly impressed by new generation laptops, monitors (including a second portable monitor), scanners, keyboards and mice.

If you are in the market to replace or add tools for your tax practice, there are several considerations. Vendors want to sell you new products, and they want you to be happy with the products you select. There are important characteristics that you ...

In the gig economy, how important is payroll? Just as much as ever! While many firms make the majority of their profits from compliance work in tax and audit, the firms providing Client Advisory Services (CAS) have discovered that payroll can be a ...

The accounting profession will change more in the next five years than it has in the last ten years. At a recent conference where I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel of other consultants and pundits in the accounting profession, the statement was ...

The key selection questions for small business accounting include: which product to use, what are the benefits to my clients, how many third party tools are needed to create a complete solution, who supports the implementation, when should an ...

A Top Technology Initiative Article.

While there are obvious advantages to having your CPA license, a Series 7/65/66 RIA, CFP, ABV, CVA, CBA, or ACFE to validate a particular level of accounting or financial competence, in the information technology world, the certifications are ...

April 2019 Issue Many of you have put off reading this issue and article until after a hectic tax season that changed your processes and rhythm because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). One of the advantages of being a consultant to the ...

While thinking about the time management theme of this issue, I believe my favorite quote about time was used by my Mum that, “We all have the same amount of time in the day, and we have the choice of how we use it.” While I know that’s not quite true ...

The culture of most CPA firms supports excellent client service. While we can’t do everything perfectly, partners and team members routinely provide services that have value to the client. Determining your client needs is not something you can read ...

We’ve been through a year together learning about Emerging Technologies. While there will always be new technology, we are not likely to go through a period of time again anytime soon where the algorithms are changing so rapidly and the new ...

You are likely to have seen all the information you need on the new iPhone, Google Pixel 3, Surface Pro 6, and Office 2019 as well as the outcomes of the CCH, Thomson and Intuit conferences, although if the reviews are not factual enough for me ...

Engagement with clients and leveraging your brand is done easier and made stronger with Bots. This emerging technology has promise today and in the future. While applying some Bot technology may be more technically difficult for you to apply without ...

Cryptocurrency has made a lot of millionaires and multi-millionaires in the last three years. That said, remember cryptocurrencies are highly speculative, and you may want to think of this as a form of gambling. While I know many CPAs who love ...

Blockchain seems to be everywhere in the press and conferences related to accounting. There is clear merit to this coverage and blockchain is a technology with long-term importance. Applications have only been developed in a few pilot projects ...

If Cognitive Computing drives much of the emerging technology computer science research, most of the data science research is focused on Big Data. Big Data can be analyzed to produce actionable business information. This data analysis need may explain ...

We see a number of products that are running crude AI today and vendors that are pretty far along in their use of AI. Getting products that apply to small and medium businesses are more of a challenge, but we see efforts at Intuit, Xero, BQE Core, ...

One of the hot areas of emerging technology is Artificial Intelligence or AI. You know a topic is hot when products use the terminology in their name or in their marketing materials. We’ve see this done with “ease of use”, Cloud Computing, and Blockchain.

Machine Learning is still in its infancy and is making progress rapidly. Almost every provider to the profession is coding algorithms to learn about transactions. Every innovative company has a Machine Learning project to help learn and make very ...

Emerging technologies have always changed the practice of accounting. Further, your clients’ businesses also change based on their choices to use technology. Emerging technology is no long “emerging” when it becomes mainstream.

Over the last two to three years we have watched pundits and consultants promote ideas around emerging technologies. Some of the claims are ludicrous, loony, and ill-informed. Others are trying to position, parlay and learn. You’ve seen this column ...

As you wrap up another successful year, you may be reflecting on the best techniques and tools you can use to manage your firm. While people and their skills are your most important asset, you can help your team by providing the right technology tools. It

New technology tools are frequently showcased first at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas every January. While many innovative products have been initially introduced during CES, there have been a number of useful hardware and software ...

The concept of cloud computing that we were discussing 20 years ago around products like QuickBooks Online, Intacct and NetSuite, followed shortly thereafter by Accounting Power, SAP Business by Design, Acumatica, Financial Force, Zoho, Sage One, ...

With so much focus on Cloud and Mobile, can you imagine using your technology with no hardware? Hardware has become so cheap, reliable and generally good, many of us take this part of our technology experience for granted. It has been ten years since ...

Over the past years, we have discussed paperless techniques, 1040 workpaper products, optimizations of processes, streamlining workflows, the use of portals, encrypting email, as well as other tools and techniques to make our work easier, faster and ...

If your firm intends to be a trusted advisor in accounting, it is time to consider the myriad of changes made in the past year and announcements to be made in 2017. There are so many pending announcements from significant publishers and vendors ...

Most accountants I know like helping people and contributing to making their businesses successful. Even though many accountants deal with the details of compliance through financials, tax and audit, most aren’t fans of the drudgery of the work that ...

Portals have been in existence in the accounting profession for around 20 years. Many public practice firms set up proprietary portals that had integration benefits to their practice management systems and were integrated into early web sites.

We use technology tools to solve client problems and our own problems. Whether these are generic tools like Microsoft Office, Citrix ShareFile, or Square, or specific tools like Wolters Kluwer CCH ProSystem fx, Intuit Lacerte or AccountantsWorld ...

I’ve promoted value billing and hotel billing as worthwhile approaches to increasing revenue by getting paid what your advice is worth and missing less billable time. Several pundits have jumped on the value billing band wagon and are promoting this ...

The fundamentals are the same as they have always been: ample margin, adequate top line sales, minimize expenses, collect cash quickly, and if you choose, make the best of OPM (other people’s money) by creative bill payment, financing and special ...

It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. The old adage that time flies when you’re having fun has certainly applied to our family with the addition of three new grandchildren this year! While we often track time in our lives by birthdays ...

A simple reminder to get you started: all of these products scan, incorporate from a portal or from pictures snapped on client’s cell phones all of the documents for a 1040 tax return. They tend to sort them in tax preparer/IRS form order in a PDF ...

What works best in the cloud? Some would simply say everything. During August at multiple conferences I heard presenters make claims that if you weren’t completely in the cloud, you were “missing out” and “foolish”. While listening to the presenters ...

Expense reporting can be painful, complex or simple, but rarely would I hear anyone suggest that expenses are pleasurable. Even those of you who avoid expense reporting have others in your organization who wind up doing the paperwork and accounting ...

Observing the new normal of slow business growth raises the question: what’s the next big thing? Likewise, it is reasonable to ask if we are doing the right thing. In other sections of this month’s publication there is coverage on both document ...

For some of your organizations, this is the time you are upgrading to Windows 10 and the latest Office 2016. For others, you have decided to stand pat with your Windows 7 and Office 2010 implementation. Part of my purpose in writing this column month ...

Most of you who know me understand that I’ve had the privilege of having a long career in technology. The opportunities to help vendors build hardware products, as well as networking, productivity, accounting and document management software have been som

Probably more important than the tool is the culture of business development, discovery meetings, referral clients and omni-channel marketing. Since many accounting professionals have not been trained in marketing, this leads to common errors and ...

We have three primary technology ecosystems to support our computing needs: Microsoft Windows, Apple OS & iOS, and Linux & Android. With SaaS products improving, the operating systems make less difference and future mobile versions of the products ...

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held annually in January in Las Vegas, introduces new products and technologies for consumers and businesses alike. Many consultants and authors use this event to find new products that can help clients ...

Notable changes are ahead in our future. We have just passed the “future” date that Marty McFly targeted with the DeLorean in Back to the Future II, and I have enjoyed immensely seeing the entire trilogy with my wife again this year as well as noting ...

Software as a Service (SaaS) is making great progress. However, if you can’t solve your business needs with all SaaS tools, and you want to live in the cloud, how do you do that? We’ve discussed in prior columns the advantages of private cloud and ...

This year we’ve had the pleasure of recommending software programs for accounting, payroll and other critical areas of your practice. Now is the time to consider your paperless or Document Management Solution (DMS) needs. You’ll find that our ...

Get a Life! This was a popular saying when I was younger. I have a concern about people who can’t disconnect from technology. Unfortunately, being a technology innovator or being a Luddite has very little to do with physical age, but with attitude.

Accounting software choices have never been more numerous, full-featured and capable than the products offered today. Some of you are brand new to the accounting space and some of you grew up purchasing mini-computers to run software you had to write ...

The NFP segment of the U.S. market has historically been 5% of all businesses. This market share has grown to over 10% in the last decade. While business may be doing charitable, human interest or targeted work, this does not mean that the ...

A firm's management programs and client offerings have to match its strategies. During your annual retreat, you should consider the business you are in today, the business you’d like to be in in the future, and who your clients are.

Many consultants to the profession attend the annual Consumer Electronic Show (CES) to look for the latest gadget and gizmo for themselves and their clients. The 2015 version of the show did not have sufficient reporting on useful business tools for ...

Accountants in public practice have traditionally referred payroll to major providers such as ADP, Ceridian and Paychex because of the complexities, risk and deadlines involved in processing. With additional requirements for small business with the ...

Every year at this time, I reflect on the success and failures of the past year, and the opportunities of the year to come. It is also the time that I reflect on the recent introductions of new products and announced strategies from vendors to determine i

Expectations from business owners and clients have changed. This is particularly true with accounting software and the impact on traditional write-up services.

Expectations from business owners and clients have changed. This is particularly true with accounting software and the impact on traditional write-up services.

Risk mitigation when your practice is attacked is an economic consideration. What will breach reporting cost? What will recovery cost and time lost be? Although we are not likely to be terminated by our clients or our firm, even this type of loss ...

Payroll is not a four letter word. Human Resources (HR) is an additional opportunity to help clients and tie them closer to your firm and services. While many CPA firms use outsourced services for payroll and HR, technology has made providing these services easier and more profitable.

Is this the year of the Tablet? Has the mobile Internet finally arrived? What business purposes are served by using mobile Internet devices, and how can they help us serve clients better? Whether you are working with products from Apple, Motorola, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung or a myriad of other providers, access to the Internet, and applications or “Apps” drive the mobile world.

For most accounting firms, choosing a software provider and staying the course is an easy and safe decision. Only when there are traumatic events in pricing changes, software not working and not getting fixed, technology changes or regulatory changes that the software doesn’t keep up with will we even consider a change.

This year is the year of delivery for many new hardware and software products. Which are ready for production? Which should be implemented first? You know that every technology does not need to be implemented.

Most of the time in this column, discussion of the best or most promising technology tools is a primary source of interest. However, every once in a while a return to fundamentals is needed. One fundamental that has been consistently problematic for all size of firms is training. Frequently the need for training is either ignored, put off, or simply done poorly. Rarely do we see training done right. Why is that?

It is impossible to think too much about protecting your data. If you are the business owner, responsible for Information Technology or an IT professional, protecting data has to always be top of mind. Backup and recovery is not an area you can leave to chance. The January installment of this column spoke about alternative approaches and pitfalls of backup and recovery. The options are worthy of review if you are interested in backup and business continuity.

This year is a great year to watch for improvements in procedures and processes supported by maturing technology tools. We can look for revolutionary changes to make in our practices. However, evolutionary change can be taught and assimilated in day to day work.

Cloud technologies equal convenience for you and your team. You can run cloud technologies from public cloud providers or choose to build private cloud access yourself.

Data is king. Keeping it stored safely and securely is critical. Whether you are operating in the cloud, from an office, or from your home you need to be thoughtful about your data. In my professional life, strategies for keeping data safe have been mandatory for over 40 years.

Many of us spend the majority of our time in the office with a few meetings around town. Others are road warriors that spend much of their life on the road and in hotels.

Both accounting firms and industry accountants ask me regularly about opportunities for their firms. One area that has been avoided by industry and public practice CPAs alike is payroll. We’d prefer to transfer the work, liability, risk, schedule commitment and governmental reporting to someone else.

Cloud definitions, strategies, and marketing messages continue to shift. What is most important is the business problem you are trying to solve and the solutions available.

Someone in your firm needs to be literate on security and managing your risk. The number of security risks are increasing.

There are a number of strategies being promoted as the latest, easiest and/or best way to run your practice. Current thinking includes value billing, recurring flat billing, niche strategies, international, and so on.

At the risk of insulting your firm, it is rare to see a document management project implemented correctly. Further, I don’t believe a document management project is ever complete. Let me explain why.

Over the past 20 years we have had the pleasure of assisting many firms down the paperless path. In the last five to ten years, portals have become popular.

I’ve had the privilege of helping developers of many of the mainstream accounting software products in use in the U.S. market and the opportunity to follow many more over the last 30 years.

A Top Technology Initiative Article

Firms tend to build their strategic plans around the times of their annual meetings. For some of you, that is now, and for others of you this planning process falls at different times of year. However, many of your clients do their strategic planning between October and December in preparation for the coming year.

Workflow remains one of the biggest incremental opportunities in most firms to improve realization. Using the right workflow tools can make a paperless implementation work so much better.

A Top Technology Initiative Article. If you reflect on your progress in using software, you’ll find that you have become more collaborative year after year.

You need to be thinking about your clients, firm and the technology you use to serve those clients. Hardware, software, data, procedures and people all work together to transform data into information.

Randy Johnston offers his annual Technology Update, pointing out the key trends and technologies that professionals should be aware of and prepared for.

Security of client information has always been a top concern for Information Technology (IT) teams. Even with a security focus, education and the right tools, security is frequently weak.

Choosing the right digital strategy can improve your bottom line.

2012 promises to be a big year from a computer hardware perspective with new Ultrabooks, tablets and phones, but the real news for 2012 will be in software.

Many companies offer significant discounts and benefits to accounting firms so the firms will recommend their products and services to their client base.

Back in 2007, the EEE series from ASUS, the netbook line, was released. It was exactly what people needed at the moment: something small, portable, light, and it could run Windows or Linux. Even if it was slow, all they wanted to do were basic computing tasks. After the release of the EEE series netbook, people instantly wanted more performance out of this new line of laptops.

Your business web presence speaks volumes about your capabilities and focus. Your purpose and abilities should be clear on the public side of your website. And once a client logs into your site, the additional features of the private side should impress even more.

First, I’d like to say thank you to those of you who have followed my columns and presentations for years. I look continuously for companies and products that will help your practices serve clients better while producing better revenue for the firm and the partners.

Now that extensions are behind us, and we are helping clients with tax planning, some of you are beginning to look ahead to the coming year and your own personal and business plans. Although a single article won’t necessarily help you build an entire business plan, a few ideas that are incorporated and well executed could make a world of difference for your firm and your clients.

Most of us have built our businesses based on relationships. Some have built a reputation around a specific expertise. Others have built a business based on service levels. All of these strategies are still extremely important, but an increasingly important factor in the last 15 years is being found on the web. Many of us are not trying to build a national business, but as new, younger clients look for services, they are often turning online. Potential clients with more specific needs are also using Internet search to find new sources of expertise.

Column: From the Trenches

From the Trenches

Column: From the Trenches

Column: From the Trenches

Column: From the Trenches

Column: From the Trenches

Column: From the Trenches