Daily Archives: March 7, 2013

The 10-Step Recipe for Engagement Disaster

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Tasty tips from a lousy cook.

by Drew West
@DeltekDrew

Drew West
Drew West

You know why I like writing articles?  It keeps me out of the kitchen, where from bachelorhood through fatherhood, I still make any culinary task a bumbling trip down a path of missed ingredients and inaccurate measurements – right to the doorstep of “didn’t-turn-out-like-I-expected.”

Why is our local pizzeria on the speed-dial? For those (thankfully infrequent) times when my wife is traveling, and I’m on the hook to keep my two youngsters relatively nourished.

Unlike my cooking endeavors, yours in public accounting surely go beyond the simplicity of cold cereal or the occasional peanut-butter sandwich.

Today’s modern engagements require delicate management of people, their work, the client’s demands and the firm’s expectations.

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The Newest Top Ten Tech Trends in Tax and Accounting

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Beyond paperless: CPA firms launch a new arms race for cloud and mobile technologies.

by Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research

Leading CPA firms have clearly broken the going-paperless barrier and are adopting cloud and mobile technologies at a record pace, according to new data obtained by CPA Trendlines Research.

Indeed, the question for practitioners is no longer “have you gone paperless yet?” or even “how paperless have you gone?” It is now “how much of your workflows have you moved to the cloud and made mobile and accessible everywhere and any time?” And the rest of the firms are asking themselves, “can I catch up?”

The trend is, of course, a daily challenge for the profession, which CPA Trendlines covers in depth: CPA Trendlines Analysis: 40% of Firms Going to the Cloud  |  How Apple Is Changing Your Business  | Accounting Firm Leaders Agree: The Cloud Is Here  |  11 Things You Take for Granted Today that Technology Will Kill within Six Years  |  Top 10 Tech Predictions for Your Business Clients  |  Cloud & Mobile Technologies Drive Change in Tax and Accounting  |    Five Questions to Ask before Going to the Cloud  |   “The Cloud is Real”  |  The Powerful Mega-Trends Behind the Upheaval at Sage Software  |   CPAs in Top 100 Accounting Firms Get an “A” for Adoption of Cloud, Portable Document Scanners and Workflow Management Technologies    |    Top Tech Habits of High-Performing Firms  |  Seven Tech Lessons for Busy Season   |

But the pace is astonishing. A new survey of 115 of some of the best-managed firms in the business shows:

  • Smart phones for handling email, contacts and schedules are all but universal.
  • Email now dominates client communications, not the phone call.
  • Paper W2’s and 1099’s are practically extinct, having been scanned at first touch.
  • And if you’re using only two monitors on your desk, you’re getting left behind. Most of the advanced firms are now using three per person. And that’s not counting the smartphones or iPads that are always nearby.

The survey shows, for instance: READ MORE →

Tax Pro’s Slammed with Sloppy Software and Federal Sequestration

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Will this be remembered as another “tax season from hell?”
Join the survey; get the updates.

Busy Season Barometer

by Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research

The last time tax professionals slogged through a tax season from hell, it was 2008, the financial world was crashing into a million little pieces, and 1 in 4 accountants was reporting disastrous operations.

Before that, long-timers might recall 1995, when the IRS deployed a filing fraud crackdown that delayed millions of refunds.

MORE TAX SEASON RESEARCH: Tax Pro’s Turn Negative on Busy Season | Busy Season Outlook 2013 | Top Tax Season Trends, Issues and Opportunities

This year, with the IRS opening the filing gates not until March 4, could 2013 become another one for the record books?

In the latest update to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer, topline findings include:

  • The number of practitioners reporting a worse season this year, as compared to last year at the same time, is surging month to month.
  • The top 15 issues causing concern, led by IRS operations and software and technology problems
  • Verbatim reports from practitioners around the nation, including one who is seeing a 20% fee decline in his practice.
  • How practitioners are responding to clients’ lack of understanding, including resorting to discounts.