CPA Trendlines

Time for a New PC or Laptop?

Should you upgrade or replace?

By Rick Telberg
Bay Street Group LLC

When do you know it’s time to replace that aging desktop or laptop?

One definite sign is if the unit simply drops dead.

It refuses to power on at all or delivers an error message instead of a boot screen. With diagnostic and repair labor charges hovering between $75 and $100 an hour, if the cause for your problem isn’t readily apparent and easily (and inexpensively) repairable, a replacement rather than repair is often an easy choice to make.

But the decision isn’t quite as cut-and-dried if the computer still works, and is several years old. In many cases, the system seems to have gotten slower and slower over the years, and you are finding it annoying and distracting using the PC. READ MORE →

Porter Keadle Blogs for Recruits

Your days as a college student are almost numbered. The working world is calling. As you get ready to embark on your career, you have to be thinking, “What am I going to do when I graduate?” “Is a job in public accounting right for me?”

… So begins Off the Ledger, the blog created by Porter Keadle Moor in Atlanta to start a dialog with college accounting students. If blogs are good for anything to CPA firms, they’ll prove their mettle first as recruiting tools. Hat’s off to PKM for the venture. And hat tip to Public Accounting Report for reporting it.

And just in time for recruiting season! READ MORE →

SOHOs: A Market Too Big to Ignore

Millions of businesses, billions of dollars crying out for business services. Are you a part of it?

by Rick Telberg
At Large

Some tax and accounting professionals, including solo practitioners, may think that sole-owner home-office businesses are too small to pursue actively as clients. Well, think again.

In fact, the small-office/home-office (SOHO) market is gigantic, and needs all sorts of management advisory services that are being overlooked by business service professionals.

There are between 10 million and 14 million home-based businesses generating $102 billion in annual revenue, and prevailing demographic and business trends could fuel growth by leaps and bounds in the years ahead, according to a new U.S. Small Business Administration study, “Impact of Location on Net Income: A Comparison of Homebased and Non-Homebased Sole Proprietors” (free PDF). READ MORE →

TaxWise Falls to CCH

CCH adds 9,300 users and $53-million revenue stream; Follows August acquisition of ATX/Kleinrock

Riverwoods, ILL. (News Release from CCH) – CCH has agreed to acquire the stock of TaxWise Corp. Terms were not immediately disclosed.

CCH said it heralds the company’s new strategy to attack the the market of small- to mid-sized tax-prep businesses.

TaxWise and its subsidiary, Universal Tax Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rome, Ga., provide tax and accounting software solutions to more than 9,300 CPAs, accounting professionals, enrolled agents and tax preparers across the U.S. TaxWise has 300 full-time employees and annual revenues of approximately $53 million.

TaxWise serves the small- to mid-size tax and accounting markets with tax compliance software, efiling services, bank products and training, primarily marketed under the TaxWise® brand. CCH says it will maintain the TaxWise product offerings as a separate business line.

With the August acquisition of ATX/Kleinrock, a provider of tax preparation, accounting and tax research software solutions, CCH announced its commitment to serve the small- to mid-size markets with an expanded suite of solutions. The plan to acquire TaxWise further demonstrates CCH’s commitment to serve these professionals with an even wider range of products and services designed for their specific requirements.

“CCH has long been a leader in the tax and accounting market and TaxWise customers will be well served by CCH as it focuses on providing a full suite of market-leading solutions for professionals in the small- and mid-size market,” said Bill Anderson, TaxWise CEO.

CCH already fields market-leading products such as are The ProSystem fx Office, CCH Tax Research NetWork, Accounting Research Manager and the U.S. Master Tax Guide.

CCH is owned by Wolters Kluwer, a multinational publisher and information services company serving the health, corporate services, finance, tax, accounting, law, regulatory and education sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2005) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. READ MORE →