Here’s what you’re looking for: Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey
SURVEY: Outsourcing IT
Should You Email or Phone Clients?
Firms reveal preferred methods for communicating with clients and prospects.
SURVEY: Workflow, Security the Biggest Tech Challenges
SURVEY: Using Portals to Deliver Tax Returns?
Less paper, more digital. But email remains a problem.
SURVEY: Accountants’ Three Wishes
Time off is No. 1.
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Referrals, Referrals, Referrals
Trend Watch: Referrals are the top three ways firms get new clients, and professional referrals have increased notably.
Firms Name Their Top 3 Challenges
Trend Watch: Recruiting talent issues are back with a vengeance, while focusing on managing the practice has come to the forefront.
Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey READ MORE →
‘Going Cloud’ Requires More, Not Less, Cybersecurity

It's a team approach, not a handoff.
By William Murphy
Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey
It seems that everyone is "going cloud," or soon will be. If you are not already in the cloud, chances are you are working your way toward getting there, or you are at least thinking about it.
One reason you are thinking about abandoning those servers in your back office is to avoid the possibility of cyberattack and the loss of your data, or a "holdup for your data" in the form of ransomware. You think that moving to the cloud is going to give you the ultimate in cybersecurity when it comes to protecting your data and the confidential information within it. You had better think again!
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SURVEY: Are You Reading This in the Office?
Odds are, you may be working from home.
Compliance Is Not Dead, It’s Evolving

Personal education is key.
By Seth Fineberg
Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey
For all of the talk of automation taking away basic accounting work and the bell tolling for any practitioner not moving toward more advisory work, the fact is compliance is not going away.
If anything, the evolution of technology has made compliance work easier – and I dare say more profitable – for particularly small accounting firms that rely on this work as an annuity, their “bread and butter” if you will. The point is, and particularly for the small firms that make up the majority of the accounting profession, compliance is not going away but it is evolving.
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SURVEY: Practice Management by the Numbers
BONUS: 6 charts, including most and least effective ways to control costs.
Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey
Our survey respondents were asked practice management questions that explored how much time is spent working from remote locations, the top challenges of managing the firm, channels to bring the most new clients to the firm, time spent managing tasks, and methods for controlling costs.
They were also asked about initiatives that generate revenue, their biggest technology challenges, security in the cloud, communications with clients, mergers and acquisitions, wireless networking and plans for the firm’s website.
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SURVEY: Centralized Scanning on the Upswing
Trend Watch: There is a notable shift toward centralized scanning.