CPA Technology Blog

CES 2012 Wrapup

As happens every year, I ran out of caffeine, battery power, or both toward the end of CES 2012.  As such, I’ve been looking through my notes to clean up some of my writing for various sources which will discuss what I saw there. Some of the things which I found very interesting included:

• DocuSign Ink, which is electronic signature service used by millions.
• iTwin’s simple file sharing device, which now supports multiple paired keys to a single shared location.
• Encrypted storage from Imation and Ironkey, as well as the future of authentication.
• Two Factor Authentication from a credit card, with PIN authentication (!)
• Kingston’s WiDrive flash-based file sharing device
• New scanners from Visioneer/Xerox, LG, and Canon to fill niches in the portable scanner market
• Security and filtering tools for smartphones from Absolute Security and NetNanny
• Home automation tools such as the Nest Learning Thermostat and smart garage door openers from providers which can (1) tell you what the condition of the monitored system is (e.g. temperature or whether or not the door is currently open) and (2) change the temperature or close the door from you using a smartphone app.
• Elder care devices from some providers which use your cell phone instead of the Lifecall (“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”) device, and which will tell you if your senior didn’t take their medicine, as well as if they haven’t checked in when they’re supposed to.

Since I’m selling the stuff I’ve written on this to someone, I’m going to withhold the data from this space, but I’ll post the link (and the content, if the contract permits it) when the story goes live.

CES 2012 Coverage

Your humble editor (@BFTCPA) is at the Venetian in fabulous Las Vegas for the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show.  I’ll be providing coverage of the event for the next three or four days, and will try to filter the content to items that have direct implications for members of the accounting community.  If you have comments, concerns, or thoughts, please share them with me on Twitter (@bftcpa). I’ll try to address them in my posts, which will include more than one post per day in most cases, but the bandwidth is… a little dicey.  140,000 nerds use a LOT of spectrum.

So far, Wired has the best logo for their CES coverage:

Credit: Wired.com

There are a number of things which I expect to cover:

1. There are a wide array of press events today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday) where companies will be making announcements.  I’ll be attending some of these, but  don’t expect me to go off the deep end on home theater technology.  The coverage here has and will always be about getting more done with your time.
2. The PepCom Digital Experience! is Monday night, and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft will be presenting a keynote around the same time.  Decisions, decisions….
3. iTwin has a big announcement Tuesday morning, and I’ll be attending that one at The Venetian in late morning, and will be working the floor most of Tuesday.
4. ShowStoppers is Tuesday night, and I’ll be over there with a few thousand of my closest friends and neighbors (including the guys from Mobile Monitor Technologies (mmt2.com)).
5. I’m having dinner with some other accounting tech experts on Wednesday night (@GLafollette, @BGaby, @DCieslak, and others), and it should be very interesting to trade notes with them on what they saw which caught their eye in the two days of the show to that point. (No word from @RHSpencer on whether or not he is going to attend that dinner).
6. I intend to stomp as much of the trade show floor as possible, focusing on things that you’re not going to get from most traditional outlets.

Again, if you have questions or feedback, you can contact me (@BFTCPA) using either a public or a private message on Twitter.

The Passing of Newt Becker

As many of you know, I’ve taught the Becker CPA Review for the last 15 years.  I learned this morning of Newt’s passing in the following e-mail from the Becker organization, which I am publishing in its entirety.

It is with sadness that I’m sending you this message. Newt Becker, the founder of Becker Professional Education, died Monday evening in Los Angeles after being ill for quite a while. Newt was 83 years old.

Newt started Becker CPA Review in 1957 in Cleveland, his home town. From humble beginnings and with a handful of students, he found a successful formula for dedicated CPA candidates to pass the difficult CPA exam. He was a pioneer in interactive learning for exam preparation, engaging his students in every facet of mastering the curriculum – through lectures, mnemonics, homework, etc. Most importantly, he truly cared about each student who selected the review course that bears his name. His goal was fulfilling their dream to earn the CPA credential and to ultimately enrich their lives.

All of us at Becker owe Newt our gratitude for the painstaking effort that he and his early team of colleagues expended to produce the best product for CPA exam preparation. His legacy of putting the student first resulted in the Becker culture that thrives today. We care about our students and we care about each other.

Newt devoted his life to making the world a better place. When he handed over the CPA Review reins to DeVry in 1996, he immersed himself in charitable and altruistic social endeavors, including the exploration of clean air alternative energy resources. He was truly a generous and good man.

So let’s remember Newt Becker for what he gave to us… A thriving business for sure, but also a commitment to excellence and caring about student success. We honor his legacy.

John P. Roselli

President, Becker Professional Education

At the CPA Tech Blog, all of our thoughts and prayers are with Newt’s family in this difficult time.  Many CPA’s I know are very grateful to Newt and the Becker organization for helping them pass the CPA exam, and I am thankful to have worked in his organization.

Preparing for CES…. and Apps

I’m preparing to go to my third CES as a member of the media next month, and it looks like it will be the last for Microsoft.  I’ll be proving a thorough review here, and will also be providing some coverage for www.CPAPracAdvisor.com, the magazine’s website.

I’m starting to write more about mobile apps as part of my work with the magazine.  If you have items that you like or don’t like, please drop me a line and let me know (brian at bftcpa dot com or via Twitter (where I’m @BFTCPA)).

Accounting Technology Fashion Weeks, 2011

The last week of October and the first week in November each year is where many of the major conferences are held.  National conferences from CCH, Thomson Reuters, and the Sleeter Group take place this time of the year, and many state CPA societies have large conferences for their members.  These conferences are also where publishers announce new products and services for the coming year.  Most of us in the accounting technology business are running around the country trying to speak on various topics, take webinars on the big announcements from the publishers, write up what we learn, and in our spare time, travel to the next site and, occasionally, sleep.  (Nah – we don’t really sleep.  It’s a blur of receipts, airplane peanuts, taxicabs, and caffeine this time of the year.)

Some major trends have emerged from these announcements.

• Mobile is the new “must have” product offering.  CCH and Thomson Reuters both had big announcements (CCH, TR) about mobile strategy in the last week, and both promise more to come in the year ahead.  The new apps work on smartphones and tablets, and have expanded to include not only Apple’s iOS (iPad and iPhone) platform, but also includes the popular Google Android smartphone platform. 
• Hosting will be the way many locally-installed applications first move away from on-premises installation.  Many hosted offerings are helping organizations move to the cloud without giving up the option of running an application on their internal servers in the future.  Some notable examples include:
• Microsoft’s Office 365 bundle of hosted Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync
• Intuit’s hosting provider program and Sage’s hosting programs (PT, Simply, MAS 90) are making on-premises accounting software available from anywhere.
• CCH announced a new hosted version of its ProSystem fx Scan tax document automation application.
• Cloud-based offerings are moving from the “hot and trendy” category to the “must have wardrobe basics” section.  We are seeing the cloud-based offerings from many of the publishers mature, and there are a wide range of new, on demand offerings from every publisher. 
• Yesterday Intuit announced a new version of its QuickBooks Online product targeted at accountants (the aptly-named QuickBooks Online for Accountants).
• Doug Sleeter’s keynote address yesterday detailed many major cloud offerings, and his conference is the ground-zero for the web-based accounting revolution.  Major releases from Sage, Intuit, Xero, SmartVault, and many others will all be announced at this event, which continues through Wednesday in fabulous Las Vegas.
• Thomson Reuters announced a new product to be launched next year – Workpapers CS.  This tool will be a new cloud-based integrated workpaper management system, and although I didn’t get a chance to see it during my trip to San Diego for their conference, I’m hoping to see it in the near future.
• CCH announced the integration of Speedtax’s SaaS applications into the CorpSystem product line, and also highlighted how the newest versions of their solutions make it possible to rapidly develop, create, and deploy applications such as the new CCH Tax News Highlights App, which was designed, created, and deployed to mobile devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android OS reportedly in just six weeks.

There is some consolidation going on in the marketplace, especially for venture-funded companies.  This summer, major acquisitions include Drake’s purchase of tax document automation provider Copanion, CCH’s purchase of sales tax provider SpeedTax, Sage purchased Alchemex (the publisher of most of the Sage business intelligence offerings), and enterprise computing giant Citrix purchased secure portal provider ShareFile.

Where in the world is Brian?  Well, I spoke at the Thomson Reuters User Conference in San Diego and at the PA Institute of CPA’s Emerging CPA’s Conference last week.  This week, I’ll be speaking at the Tennessee Society of CPA’s Accounting & Auditing Conference (today), then jumping on a plane to the CCH User Conference in San Antonio, and wrapping up the week at the Arkansas Society of CPA’s Technology Conference on Thursday and Friday.  (I really wanted to go to the Sleeter Conference in Vegas, but there were not enough hours in the day for me to make all of that happen). For more information about the goings-on, follow me on Twitter (@BFTCPA).  There’s some really fabulous stuff rolling out to the profession this week, dah-lings.

(Now, where’s that sugar-free Red Bull I just opened….)

Current Events, July 25, 2011

Well, it’s been a very busy couple of months for me, your reporter.  I’ve spoken at AICPA TECH+Practitioners, Sage Summit, the Office Tools Pro Conference, and the XCM conference.  I’ve also taught CPE events around the country – from PA to AZ to North Dakota and finally in Oregon.  Here’s a summary of some of the interesting news which has come across the wires lately:

1. Sage to Rebrand – As will be detailed in my September CPA Practice Advisor column, Sage is rebranding most of its products to have a new, number-based naming scheme.  For example, Peachtree and Simply accounting will have a name similar to “Sage 50”, and other products like MAS 90/200 and ACCPAC will have names like “Sage 100” or “Sage 200”.  There has been some coverage from the press on this lately, but beyond the fact that they’re going to rename over the next 18 to 24 months, there really isn’t that much to report related to the rebranding (an article from a Canadian press source is here).  There are a lot of interesting things going on with Sage lately – new online offerings, a new user certification for Simply Accounting, some interesting training initiatives to help partners transition to cloud services, and SDATA.  Since the rebranding is more of a long term play, I’ll let you wait for my column to come out.  No names have been announced yet, but I’ll keep you up to date on Twitter (@BFTCPA) as announcements come out.  There’s also some other interesting stuff coming  – more about that when the announcements come out later this year.

2. Concur Breeze implementation at K2 - We’ve been using Concur Breeze at K2 for a while, and it seems to be working out nicely.  The ever-present Joe Martino and Bob Lewis have been very helpful in our transition, and other than a few hiccups, I think it’s a keeper.  (BTW, they have an Advisor program for accountants with free CPE as well as a number of free accounts if you would like to learn more about their product.)

3. Field Monitor Pro Update – Despite the best efforts of both me and the TSA, my Field Monitor Pro from Mobile Monitor Technologies is holding up very nicely, and has survived a number of events which would have been career-ending injuries for other, less rigorous gear.  I’m very pleased with how well it’s working out, and I’ve actually sourced a few for others who are all thrilled with the product as well.  I have subjected the device to a fairly rigorous travel schedule in the last three months (If it had to buy tickets, my mobile monitor would already be Gold Medallion on Delta), and it keeps working like a charm.  Good stuff, people.

4. Google+ has been informally launched, and is rumored to have over 18MM users already.  Ho-hum.  With the recent announcement that Google is closing down much of their engineer playground, Google Labs, I’m in “wait and see” mode – especially since I can’t put users of my Apps Domain (HINT HINT) in Google+ yet.  Plus is till bleeding edge, not leading edge – but that may change in the next 60-90 days.

5. Lots of new writers coming on for projects at the CPA Practice Advisor – more on that at their site in the coming weeks.  @DustinWCPA, @deductme, and @jasonmblumer will be adding some new perspectives to our reviews and our existing authors over the next few months. 

6. Microsoft has released Office 365, and I think it’s going to give Google Apps a run for its money.  I’m not handicapping the race between the two to the pot of gold at the end of the Yellow Brick Road, but it seems like Google is the Scarecrow here (“If I only had HIPAA/GLB”), and Microsoft is the Tin Man (“If I only had some buzz”).  I think the Microsoft product is better for most business customers, but they need some “cool points” to cement this offering as better for SMB.  It will be interesting to see how Google+ fits into Google’s strategy here.  (Who are you backing, Dorothy Reader?)

That’s about it for right now.  If you have comments, please say so in the form below, or send a message at @BFTCPA on Twitter.

Motorola Xoom Review

I bought a Motorola Xoom dual core tablet about six weeks ago in Philadelphia.  The Xoom runs Android 3.1 "Honeycomb", and is a little different from what I've seen in the iPad.  I had to speak on tablets at a number of conferences this year (including AICPA TECH+, Office Tools Pro, and others), and since the iPad2 didn't blow me away, I decided to do something different.  I'm glad I did - the Xoom is a great tool, and I like the form factor (16x9 10.1" LCD) better than the iPad (which is a 4x3 10.1" layout).

Key observations:

1. I actually think the Honeycomb UI is better than the iPad UI, as you can create a "dashboard" with your appointments, mail, social media, etc. with widgets on the grid.  The Xoom can be upgraded to Android 3.1, and I have done so.  Some applications, like the Prey Project anti-theft tool don't work on it yet, and it’s still missing some apps – but a nice device.

2. Video is a problem.  There's nothing like the iTunes video, but I've not spent much time fretting about it.  Solution for media sync appears to be DoubleTwist, which will actually copy your iTunes files (although the DRM is not supported).  You CAN sync with DoubleTwist over WIFi, but it's an extra $10.  The tablet supports Flash, so the issue of video is probably one of me not spending enough time working with the tool to make the Flash video work OK.  I hope Amazon makes their video work on it soon.  You can buy some content in the Android Market, and it’s relatively painless to use.

3. The Economist is available on the Android Kindle application, and I use the new Zinio app for Android to look at my magazines (PC World, The Economist, Bloomberg Business Week, etc.)  As such, if you have subscriptions to periodicals on your iPad and thinking about doing something different, you may want to see how you will be able to consume the content on the new tool.  I miss my Wall Street Journal application, but the browser supports their website remarkably well, so I'm not completely locked out of the Journal.  The new WSJ Android app isn’t working yet on Android 3.1, so I’ll have to review it later.

4. Battery life is so-so.  Will spend some time working on this and report back on it later.  I've not been turning it completely off, and the Wi-Fi in sleep mode seems to use up some battery life.  I’d estimate the battery life (with the screen at “somewhat like the sun” brightness) at about 8 hours of active use. 

5. The Google integration is awesome, and it performs notably faster than my phone (as you would expect).

6. There aren't many apps for the tablet, but you can do pretty much anything you would need an app for on a phone in the browser on a tablet.  Firefox for Android rocks, and is really nice on a dual core processor.  The accounting software publishers have largely adopted iOS and BlackBerry OS for their vertical applications, but I think the rumored entrance of Amazon into the tablet market will shift some significant momentum to Android.  You can get the BNA Tax Rates app, and all of the publishers I've talked to this year want to do something with Android.

7. Accessories are limited and hard to find (as you would expect).  I'm currently using a pleather Motorola folder, and would like to get a nicer leather case, but can't find one that doesn't look cheap.  Like any good engineering company, Motorola has developed a range of sturdy, useful, and hideously ugly accessories (think: digital pocket protectors) to go with the Xoom.  Hopefully the third parties will jump in - but who knows?  My Zagg bluetooth keyboard for my original iPad works fine, but it doesn't fit well in the slot to hold it up. 

8. My family (who hasn't drank the Apple Kool-Aid) likes the Xoom better than the iPad 1 we have.  No Skype video yet, but I've not spent much time looking for an effective video chat solution.

9. There is an Adobe PDF creator for $9.99 which will convert Office files and images to PDF - very cool.  I have not located a suitable PDF markup tool yet, but I'm sure there's one out there.  If any of you know of one, please let me know.

The device charges with this needle-like proprietary plug, so you can't charge it effectively with MicroUSB.  It does have a built-in Micro-HDMI port, and I've been racking my brain to figure out how to get that over to an analog VGA cable for presentations, to no avail.  It probably can be done, but would likely require a Rube Goldberg-type combination of adapters to accomplish.  (I will play with it on the TV set later.)

The thing which I think would make a killer application for this would be something which would let you pair your Android phone to your tablet for places where you would like to have some synergy between the two devices.  For example, if you were on the phone with someone, I'd like the tablet to be able to securely poll the name/info of the party you're talking to and bring up their contact information in a CRM system.  I understand that this was the idea with the Playbook, but I can't wait for it to get Android compatibility or even something as simple as a calendar application.

In summary, it's a great device, but you have to work harder to get it to do the same things as an iPad.  There are some things, like the widgets, which are better than anything I've seen on the iPad, but the device isn't saddled with the "it's so uncool" mantra that plagues Windows slates.  If Amazon comes out with an Android tablet, I think it will make Android a more robust competitor with iOS.

Comments?  Either respond below, or send me a tweet (@BFTCPA).

Tax Research, Rethought and Mobile Apps for Practitioners

There are a lot of questions about how social media outlets will change the way practitioners do tax research in the future.  While practitioners need access to authoritative publications and interpretative guidance, there is also a need to ask a peer a question.  In the past, we might have done this at the water cooler, or over lunch with a peer, but in the age of the virtual office, these opportunities may be more difficult. 

While Intuit is a long-time provider of tax tools for individuals and practitioners, they have shown some fresh thinking in their professional tax research offering.  The tool, ProLine Tax Research, includes authoritative content from BNA and IRS Forms/Publications.  Peer to peer advice is facilitated on a virtual community.  Questions and answers can be searched and retrieved at will from a user community.

The White Paper is available for download from CPAFirmSoftware.com at the following link:

• Intuit White Paper - Tax Research is Changing

Another place where innovation is taking place is in the mobile space.  Many publishers are creating mobile applications or websites which support mobile browsers for their product offerings.  Mobile applications for practitioners include:

• IntelliConnect Mobile/CCH Mobile from CCH, a Wolters Kluwer Business (iOS, BlackBerry)
• BNA Quick Tax Reference App (iOS, Android, BlackBerry)
• Mobile CS from Thomson Reuters (iOS)
• QuickBooks Connect from Intuit (iOS)

There are many other applications out there related to tax & accounting.  These include the recently announced IRS2GO application, vendor provided tax refund checkers, and many others.  Many authors have written about mobile applications for practitioners in The CPA Practice Advisor, my favorite publication for the tax & accounting space.

Office 365 Offers Hosted Exchange, SharePoint. I Like It.

I like Microsoft’s Office 365 solution - it works well, and I'm reasonably comfortable with Microsoft's hosting (although they did have a major outage last Tuesday)

The major issue I worry about with cloud services for CPAs is compliance with laws and regulations. Microsoft has a page which details how you can use their cloud services, including Office 365, for health services, which would get you to HIPAA compliance. I think they are probably going to be adequate, but I would get the documentation in the file before I switched over. If you are doing e-mail archiving, or would ever do e-mail archiving, you will want to get the Enterprise version of Office 365 instead of the Small Business (P1) version.

As far as using SharePoint, it's a great tool, but I would call your malpractice carrier about putting client tax information on the hosted SharePoint with Office 365. The penalties for noncompliance with IRC 7216 are so severe that I would be positive that it's compliant before I put any client information out there on it, and I've not done enough homework on it to confirm its compliance with these and other regulatory requirements. There are some deployment readiness and overall deployment guides/checklists for Office 365 at http://community.office365.com/en-us/f/183.aspx, but I haven't had time to go through them for HIPAA/FINRA/GLB compliance. I think the hosted solutions are probably more compliant than what you would have installed locally in your office, but I haven't read the security audits.

Here's what PCWorld/ZDNet said about Office 365 - and it's consistent with what I've read on the application:

Compliance with government and industry regulations is a big deal in today’s business world. Microsoft Office 365 services have been certified as compliant with ISO 27001 standards, completed SAS70 Type I and II audits, and achieved the EU Safe Harbor seal. Microsoft has also added controls for helping customers comply with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).

Wow.  Pretty impressive “alphabet soup” of regulatory compliance.

I think the real risk to compliance in Office 365 is someone e-mailing tax returns or sending payroll or benefits data over e-mail without encryption. Worrying about compliance of Microsoft's servers without addressing these basic risks is somewhat like smoking a cigarette while putting gas in a fire truck. The vehicle is designed to provide fire suppression, but you have to use good judgment in how you use the tool.

Bottom line - I have some hesitation with cloud services from people other than tax software providers (since they don't necessarily know the requirements for a CPA firm), but given Microsoft's focus on the needs of enterprises and everything I've read about the service, I think it's as good or better than any other hosted e-mail service.

Sage Peachtree 2012 Formally Launched

My friends at Sage recently released Sage Peachtree 2012, the latest version of their easy to use business management application.  The product has versions which handle businesses from startups through mid-range businesses who need up to 40 users.  Major new/improved features include:

• Sage Peachtree Business Intelligence, powered by Alchemex, is one of the best new features.  (I wrote about this tool for my April/May CPA Practice Advisor column)
• Sage Advisor Technology gives you tips on how to improve your workflow based on your actual usage (this is one of the topics for my June column), and helps tech support know how you actually use the product.
• The Workflow Management in Sage Peachtree Quantum has been enhanced to allow tasks to be automatically assigned to certain individuals.  This is one of the strongest, least used features in the product, but IMHO, it’s a game changer for the people who use it.
• New components for the My Dashboard tool, which permits customizable dashboard reporting on key indicators.

The application still has unmatched reporting capabilities, including a bundled version of Crystal Reports and a serious Business Intelligence tool  (PTBI)bundled with some higher end versions.  In particular, an optional connector should permit combined reporting with data from ODBC-compliant data sources like CRM systems.  This could get very interesting, and I have some research in progress on this now.

The grid comparing the major versions of Sage Peachtree is at http://www.peachtree.com/productsServices.

Another interesting thing that Sage is doing with Peachtree 2012 is bundling of additional benefits beyond support and upgrades with their Business Care maintenance plans.  For example, two of the three offerings include payroll tax table updates, and all of the offerings include the PT Business Intelligence tool mentioned above, as well as online training and an HR resource center.

There are five releases issued yesterday (5/18/2011) targeted at different markets.  The releases are on the Sage Peachtree website (at http://www.peachtree.com/newsroom/InTheNews), and cover the following topics:

• General SMB topics
• Construction Companies
• Non-Profits
• Business Intelligence
• Manufacturers and Distributors

I’ve been a big fan of Peachtree for a long time, and I think it’s worth any small business checking it out who is considering changing accounting software.