For the past few decades, the path to success and leadership positions for most has been characterized by being a lead “producer” and out-performing others in your chosen field of endeavor. In competitive environments, leadership touted the ...

Another busy season is under our belts and one of the most productive things a firm can do in the next few weeks is to take time to formally debrief the past few months, acknowledging what worked well and identifying where there were bottlenecks that ...

The next two months offer great opportunities to research, acquire and pilot new tools and processes so they become the new firm standard before the September and October deadlines. Below we outline 10 tips to optimize your post-busy season debrief ...

Over three days I racked up 71,200 Fitbit steps in an attempt to cover the more than 1.8 million square feet of show floor, 2,200 exhibitors, and the multitude of onsite presentations and virtual announcements.

We hope our 2022 predictions will provide some insights and hopefully a little inspiration for improving your technology outlook in the New Year. However, before we unplug the proverbial crystal ball, we also want to share our 2021 predictions and ...

At the end of July 2021, the accounting profession took a big step towards post-COVID normalcy with the return of the AICPA ENGAGE conference to Las Vegas. The program allowed for face-to-face mingling of 1,700 on-premise attendees along with ...

With NFT sales skyrocketing, it won’t be long before tax ramifications come into play which accountants need to be prepared for. Considerations such as whether a sale is subject to short or long-term capital gains become increasingly complex as ...

The International CES (Consumer Electronic Show) kicks off each New Year by showcasing the latest gadgets and technology trends projected for the coming year. While COVID forced the program to be 100% digital, it still provided a flood of product...

Not one of us could have predicted the year 2020 would turn out to be, but almost everyone would agree that we are hoping 2021 will bring a return to some degree of normalcy in our day to day lives. The good news is that throughout the ongoing ...

While no one can predict the long- term impact of the pandemic, accounting firms are finding that remote work capabilities are not only a required, but highly viable solution and may well become the new norm as long as it can be done effectively and ...

From all indications, the transformation of the accounting profession to a more advisory focus is already well under way. Taking a learning organization approach will help ensure that your firm develops a comprehensive client advisory mindset.

This past June, the AICPA was awarded the .cpa (dot CPA) top level (worldwide) domain which has been reserved exclusively for entities confirmed by the AICPA to be affiliated with the CPA profession. This was done to promote long term confidence when visiting a website with the .cpa extension or receiving an email from a person with an email address ending in .cpa instead of .com.

Natural disasters and cybersecurity concerns have pushed most firms to develop a disaster response plan in the event of a catastrophic office or systems loss, but few have considered the potential impact of a massive influenza (flu) outbreak, such as ...

Natural disasters and cybersecurity concerns have pushed most firms to develop a disaster response plan in the event of a catastrophic office or systems loss, but few have considered the potential impact of a massive influenza (flu) outbreak, such as ...

The new decade got off to an exciting start with our attendance at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas January 6-9, 2020. CES is the largest trade show in the world with an excess of 4,500 consumer product/service ...

With technology evolving at an increasingly breakneck pace and impacting literally every aspect of today’s accounting practice, it has never been more difficult to separate the tech hype from the reality of workable solutions.

Merging or acquiring another firm is one of the most effective methods of growing an accounting practice. Potential candidates are usually vetted based on partner and practice compatibility, desired location for expansion, niche specialization ...

Each January over 180,000 electronics enthusiasts converge on Las Vegas for the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which is the largest technology event in the world. CES is the launchpad for thousands of new products ranging from home, ...

The increasing rate of technological evolution and of software vendors attempting to integrate with that evolution continues to happen at a fever pitch. With that in mind we offer our predictions as to those items that we believe will have the highest ...

Whether it is capturing data from credit card receipts, reconciling bank statements, reimbursing expense reports, or automatically updating IRS tax statuses, these tools utilize a combination of machine learning, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), ...

The upcoming conference season and lull before the extension season provides a great opportunity for firms to evaluate the current status of their production processes and target areas for improvement. The above highlighted findings of the ...

Each January, over 170,000 technology and electronics enthusiasts descend upon Las Vegas to attend the world’s largest Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to see the latest consumer technologies. While a significant amount of the media attention ...

University professor John M. Richardson summed up his view of the future by stating: “When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”

Has the IT role within CPA firms finally come full circle? I began the IT portion of my career providing support for IBM XT personal computers that were used by accountants to produce spreadsheets and word processing, while all the “real” data ...

With CES Showcasing 3,800 vendors spread out over 2.8 Million square feet of show floor (43 football fields), it was impossible to see everything, so our efforts focused this year on hardware that could improve mobility. For most accountants ...

With another year end (and tax season) rapidly approaching, it’s time to once again dust off the magic crystal ball and cobble together our 2017 CPA Firm Technology and Production predictions. This listing will hopefully provide you with fresh insight ...

More than two decades ago, industry auditing staples such as GoSystem Audit, Fast-Governmental, and Accountant’s Trial Balance were quickly replaced by a new generation of more robust audit engagement binders including CaseWare and CCH Engagement ...

Five IT Infrastructure and workstation trends for firms to consider as they evaluate system upgrades this summer.

The year started off with a bang as we cruised the aisles at the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas with 170,000 other technology adventurists. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world where the latest gadgets are launched ...

It’s that time again to provide you with our CPA Firm Technology and Production predictions for the year ahead, as well as to recap the results of our 2015 guesses. While this article was written two months before year end as the US political ...

Eliminating Muda is one of the most effective byproducts of Lean Six Sigma analysis techniques which make any process more efficient and profitable. So what exactly is Muda? It is the Japanese term for waste, which is defined as “any human activity ...

The application of Lean Six Sigma principals has helped countless organizations objectively re-evaluate and streamline their production processes. Lean Six Sigma is a consulting methodology gaining favor in the accounting profession for its focus not ...

Each January, we conduct our pilgrimage to the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which puts on display the latest electronic technology and trends for the world to see and decide if they are a “hit” or a “miss.”

It's prediction time again, where we dust off the proverbial crystal ball and share our technology thoughts ahead of the curve, as well as fess up on how our previous year’s guesses fared.

Audit re-engineering has been around for decades and delivered significant increases in firm productivity and is now making another quantum leap in improvement by integrating the key tenants of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) into today’s digital audit workflows.

At the beginning of each year, we make our annual trek to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to look specifically at computer hardware, peripherals and trends that could impact the accounting profession in the year ahead.

Another busy season is under our belts and one of the most productive things a firm can do in the next few weeks is to take time to formally debrief the past few months, acknowledging what worked well and identifying where there were bottlenecks that could be improved upon.

2014 started off awesome with my annual pilgrimage to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas where future trends and bleeding edge products are announced.

Winston Churchill once said “It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than we can see” which is applicable to many CPA firm partners that are so busy and focused on getting today’s work done that they seldom take the time to think about how they can improve their practices to operate more effectively in the future.

Most organizations today assume that their IT personnel do an adequate job of protecting the firm’s network and data by implementing and monitoring firewalls, keeping their operating systems/applications up to date, and mandating password changes on a scheduled basis.

Most of us have read about “lean” processes increasing efficiency while reducing waste, and six sigma setting the highest standards for quality production, but these terms have mostly been applied towards large scale manufacturing environments.

Roman gives his update on technology from the 2013 CES trade show.

Wayne Gretzky’s famous quote on achieving greatness was in “knowing where the puck is going to be,” which allowed him to move in that direction before anyone else. CPA firms are no different and by knowing where the “Accounting IT Puck” could be going in the future...

The “Cloud” and hosted solutions continue to garner interest amongst accounting firms, but there is a lot of confusion about the types of hosting, available applications, and the overall reasons for firms to consider hosted solutions.

There’s no doubt that information technology impacts every aspect of today’s accounting firms and most firms do a pretty good job of identifying opportunities where new technologies can improve their practice.

The benefits of email are a two edged sword as they can both improve a firm's effectiveness with enhanced collaboration, and can cause great embarrassment and financial loss in cases of litigation.

CES is one of the largest trade shows in the world with over 153,000 attendees reviewing thousands of new consumer gadgets in venues covering 1.8M square feet (or to put that into perspective-37 football fields).

Column: Technology IN Practice

If you are like most accountants, email has become one of the primary tools utilized to communicate with clients, internal firm personnel and external resources on business matters. While there are a variety of email systems available, most of the major accounting application vendors have integrated their products with Microsoft Office, which includes Outlook as their email client, making it the most prevalent tool we see utilized in accounting firms today.

Column: Technology IN Practice

Column: Technology IN Practice