The 2011 Tax Season Outlook: Busy, Bordering on Crazy [VIDEO]

Professional tax practitioners should be bracing for a difficult but potentially highly profitable tax season.

John Sapp, vice president of sales, marketing and education at Drake tax software, provides two reasons: Taxpayers never needed a professional’s services more and professionals rarely have had such an opportunity to prove their value.

What are accountants expecting for Busy Season 2011?
Join the survey, get the results.
Find out what your colleagues are saying.

“Preparers are going to succeed by selling their services and their knowledge,” says Sapp at the Illinois CPA society’s annual trade show.

Big question for workflows: Will the IRS be ready for full e-filing Jan. 15? Or will the agency push back some dates because of last-minute changes wrought by Congress?

Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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Posted on September 1, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 2 Comments

Is Social Media a Fad? [VIDEO]

You decide:

Connect:

facebook logo

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Posted on July 15, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 1 Comment

Five Top Tech Trends in 60 Seconds [VIDEO]

Number 1: “Everybody wants to be able to work from anywhere, all the time.”

We’ve been asking leading experts in the profession: What do you see as the top tech trends for accounting firms?

Byron Patrick, a leading edge CPA.CITP, and CEO of Simplified Innovations Inc.,  a hosted services provider, weighs in:

He lists a quick five:

  1. Mobile computing.
  2. The Ipad.
  3. Windows 7.
  4. Bringing your Mac to work.
  5. Office 2010 — in the cloud

Want to learn more about the tech secrets of the nation’s leading firms? Tune in to our Seven Keys CPA live webinar, Thursday, July 8, 1pm ET.

.

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Posted on June 30, 2010
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Bill Carlino: No Wonder Accountants Look Worried [VIDEO]

They’ve got a lot to worry about.

Accounting firms face a “perfect storm” of problems, according to Bill Carlino, the long-time editorial director of the venerable Accounting Today magazine. Here, he begins by talking about how Washington politics is shaking up the profession and goes on to note the revenue drop among the top 100 firms.

In looking ahead over the next 12 to 18 months, Carlino expects more firms to start poaching specialty players, adopting business intelligence dashboards, rebuilding their IT departments and getting serious about disaster recovery and business continuity.

Catch more of Bill’s thinking at Accounting Today on WebCPA.com.

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Posted on June 2, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 4 Comments

How to Overcome the Fear of Tech [VIDEO]

Thomson Reuters’ Jack LaRue says many accountants may be intimidated by the rate of change in technology.

As a result, they do nothing.

Here, LaRue explains a simple first step to get started.

When Jack talks, people listen. He has more than 25 years of marketing and sales experience. Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, Jack headed business-to-business marketing at FTD, the trail-blazing florist delivery service. Jack joined Thomson Reuters in 1993 when his unit was still Creative Solutions. Eventually he rose to vice president of sales and marketing for the whole tax and accounting business of Thomson Reuters.

Read more

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Posted on May 12, 2010
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[VIDEO] NetSuite Launches Mac-vs.-PC Parodies Against SAP and Microsoft

They were unveiled at NetSuite’s dealer conference, SuiteCloud 2010.

… and …

… and …

.. and then, from Australia, there’s …

The Bureau of the Endangered Species is a lighthearted look at why Enterprises should run their apps in the Cloud.

via NetSuite

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Posted on April 18, 2010
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Message to Accountants: Master the Pace of Change or Get Left Behind [VIDEO]

Thomson Reuters executive says time is running out for many firms.

Macro-economic, social, technological and demographic trends are combining to accelerate the rate of change for accounting firms. In this short clip, Teresa Mackintosh, senior vice president and general manager for workflow and service solutions in the Americas Professional Division of Thomson Reuters’ tax and accounting unit, explains why.

“We can’t take a decade to figure this out,” Mackintosh says. “If we don’t respond with urgency,  we won’t be there in a year, or two years, or three years.” It’s time to “take advantage of these underlying mega-trends,” she says.

Visit the CPA Trendlines video channel here.

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Posted on March 4, 2010
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 2 Comments

Video: Watch and Listen to CPA Scot Justice Talk about How His Blog Launched His Firm

You might have met Scot before, here…
Blogging and Twitter Send CPA 75% of His Business
and here…
What Are CPAs Doing Online? Answer: Serving Clients and Making Money

Or, you may know him from online as The Virtual CFO.

In this video, Scot is interviewed by Bil­l­ Seaver­ of­ M­­ic­r­oEx­pl­osion M­e­dia ab­o­u­t ho­w soci­al m­ed­i­a h­e­lps him grow his practice­.

Scot, a Na­s­h­v­ille­-ba­s­e­d CPA­ for­ s­m­­a­ll bus­ine­s­s­, s­ta­r­te­d a­ blog th­r­e­e­ ye­a­r­s­ a­go a­nd h­a­s­ a­ls­o be­com­­e­ a­ctiv­e­ on Twitte­r­ ov­e­r­ th­e­ la­s­t ye­a­r­. A­ccor­ding to S­cot, 75% of h­is­ bus­ine­s­s­ is­ ge­ne­ra­­te­d fr­om­­ h­is­ socia­l me­dia­ ef­f­o­rts­.

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Posted on March 11, 2009
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SURVEY RESULTS: CPAs Join the Online Social Networking Party

Roughly three in five CPAs are using LinkedIn regularly to advance their firms and their careers.

Here are some early results from our latest survey into how CPAs use online social networking and internet media: Read more

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Posted on February 23, 2009
Filed Under BSG [CPA TRENDLINES] | 9 Comments

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