CPA Technology Blog

Doc.It® Announces the “Doc.It Stimulus Package” for Accountants

Public practices can take advantage of this offer between now and September 15^th, 2009.

April 22, 2009 – LAS VEGAS – Doc.It® (www.doc-it.net), a leading provider of a complete document and workflow technology, today announced the Doc.It® Stimulus Package (www.doc-it.net/stimuluspackage) for accountants. Public practices with up to 500 users can contact Doc.It® immediately to take advantage of this unprecedented 50 percent cost savings package.

“We understand that public accounting practices will need to become more efficient in order to survive, but many may not be in the position to make the investment into our technology at this time,” said Roger Mongeon, Vice President of Doc.It®. Accountants are taking write down requests, audits are being kept to a minimum work effort, and firms that may have handled real estate work in the past don’t have that workload today. The Doc.It® Stimulus Package for accountants provides public practices the opportunity to gain the entire Doc.It® Suite of technology and world-class Doc.It® Customer Support Services without incurring any Doc.It® subscription fees for six months. “Our Stimulus Package will help public practices to realize significant operational cost savings and tremendous productivity gains,” continued Mongeon.

The Doc.It® Stimulus Package includes:

1. Doc.It® Suite - Free Subscription for Six Months! This offer represents a 50 percent cost savings on the first year of Doc.It® subscription fees.

2. Doc.It’s Presidential Guarantee. Howard Brown, President of Doc.It®, guarantees that after six months, firms can move forward and continue with Doc.It®, or cancel their subscription at any time in the future without any penalty. Doc.It® allows firms to stay in complete control of their expenses and data, without ever requiring any long-term contracts.

3. Free Membership in Doc.It’s Virtual User Group. Firms will be given immediate access to join the Doc.It leadership team and their paperless practice peers in bi-monthly Doc.It® “Training Tuesday” webinars.

1. Guaranteed Pricing. Doc.It® guarantees their all-inclusive pricing, which has remained unchanged since 2001, will not change. The guaranteed all-inclusive pricing includes:
   • Doc.It® 2-way Web Portal
   • Doc.It® Workflow Manager
   • Doc.It® Scan and Form Recognition
   • Doc.It® Tax and Accounting Software Integration
   • Doc.It® PDF Editor
   • Doc.It® PDF Composer
   • Doc.It® Work-in-Process Binder
   • Doc.It® Publisher
   • Doc.It® Archive

Mongeon recommends managing partners, along with their director of IT and firm administrator, immediately register for a free Doc.It® 60-minute (1 CPE Credit) webinar at www.doc-it.net/stimuluspackage. Participants will be introduced to Doc.It® paperless and workflow scheduling technology and learn what it is like to work in a paperless practice. “We are anticipating a huge response to our Stimulus Package offer and recommend firms act now to accelerate the operational cost relief they need and the productivity gains our technology provides,” said Mongeon.

(Note: I don’t normally print press releases in their entirety, but thought readers might want to see that some software vendors have special deals they are offering to accountants)

Microsoft Office Accounting (UK) Webinar 4/22, Noon ET (5P GST)

John Thuneby of Microsoft mentioned in his blog that Microsoft is going to be talking about Office Accounting 2009 in the UK next Wednesday.  It should be a good session – I’ve known John for a while, and he does good work.

Free Webinar - Microsoft Office Accounting – why is this free software making such a splash?

Join Gary Simon (the author of Office Accounting to the MAX), fellow Microsoft Senior Program Manager Glen Altringer and I, as we discuss Office Accounting 2009 in the UK market and the impact on small and medium size businesses.

The 30 minute webinar is on Wednesday April 22nd at 5PM GST (9AM PST) and you can register using the link below:

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/733483201

Post on Tax Season at The Progressive Accountant

I wrote a piece for the Progressive Accountant on tax season 2009 with some stuff from industry people about things they noted this tax season.....  hop on over and read it for yourself.

The Obamas released their 1040 today.  Looks like he's going to qualify for those higher taxes he keeps talking about.... (tip o'the hat to Kerry at taxguru.net for the link)

Ran into Ben Franklin in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago.... he says that the only things certain in this life are death and taxes.... (I guess being over 300 years old makes you a little cynical....)

Sage Announces SageSpark, Releases Billing Boss

New Stuff Alert – April 8, 2009

There have been a lot of press releases lately with new and improved products and services vying for the attention of CPA’s after we all get past April 15th and get caught up on our much-needed sleep.  Some of the items I’ve run into include:

1. CCH has released IntelliConnect, the next generation platform for their research products.  It’s currently available on the products which were on Tax Research Network (and CCH is going to be migrating existing users starting in about three weeks), but it is a very simple to use platform.  One of the limiting things about the superceded TRN platform is that you need to select where you want to look for search results.  With IntelliConnect, by default, you search in all available databases – which means that you can find stuff in products you didn’t even know you had access to in your plan.  The user interface has been reconfigured to look more like the familiar three-pane split screen interface we all use in Microsoft Outlook or other e-mail programs.  I could go on about this for a while (and believe me, as NOT exciting as tax research can be, that’s saying something) – but you should check it out.  Think: Google for tax research, with authoritative literature.  (Now, if I could just get something like this for these shoeboxes I’m working my way through….  Search: BM&E, mileage logs +1099… (and then I woke up))

2.  Intacct and AICPA announced a deal to bring Intacct’s web-based accounting systems to AICPA members, and the two will develop a joint product that brings AICPA’s content together with Intacct’s systems for a new version of the product aimed at CPA’s.  I’ve done some work lately with Intacct, and have been very impressed with how easy it is to use, as well as the interesting ways you can use it to accumulate data the way you want to see it presented.  In the long run, I think there is a place for cloud computing – especially where people need to collaborate who are not in the same physical location.  The on-premises software model has so many capitalized costs as well as hidden maintenance costs, SaaS makes it possible for people to add capacity (and drop capacity) seamlessly as it is needed.  The financial flexibility associated with SaaS alone is a reason to consider it – before you consider the redundant data centers, real time backup, access from anywhere, etc.  While there are still some user issues to be worked out with any SaaS deployment (security validation, your backup, exit strategy if you want to change products, vendor due diligence, etc.), I’m glad to see the AICPA move toward the future with a SaaS offering as strong as Intacct.

3. CODA announced a new version of CODA 2go based on the Force.com platform.  While this press release just came out yesterday, Dennis Howlett from across the pond has some good interview video with a CODA representative talking about the solution.

4. ThomsonReuters announced updates to their PlannerCS product related to the new tax legislation.  They’ve got a scan & organize solution this year with both UltraTax and GoSystem Tax, and I’m looking forward to hearing from firms how well things are going.  I’m not hearing anything from firms right now – which must mean that things are going reasonably well, and they are pretty busy.  (Normal for this time of year in the tax world.)

5. Fujitsu is coming out with the updated ScanSnap S1500(the desktop model), and has some cool things going on with touch-screen, network based scanners(the fi-6010N).  I’m anxiously awaiting my 30 days with a demo unit, as I have about 10 Banker’s Boxes of files which need to be put into my DMS, and I’m looking forward to having a device which doesn’t tie up a PC and can scan 50 pages a minute.  Very, very cool.

6. HP has some production scanners coming out soon with a new, jam-resistant sheet feeder on them.  I saw one work at the AIIM show, and it looked pretty good.  I’m optimistic here, but would like to play with a demo unit for 30 days or so before I pass judgement here.  A shoot-off between their unit and a Fujitsu would be very interesting here – kind of a reality show for paper farmers like me…  Hmmmm… that gives me an idea.

As a side note, I ran into a contact from ThomsonReuters at the AIIM Info360 show in Philadelphia.  It’s always nice when you see professional contacts from the CPA industry attending shows like AIIM which are targeted at general use of technology – it reminds me that we’re all competing for the best ideas and technique to increase our productivity and output.  I don’t know about you, but I’m doing my best to not participate in the recession.  The economic doldrums will have to drag me to the party kicking and screaming.  While I’m not delusional here, I have discoverered that worrying is a largely non-productive emotion.

I’m getting into podcasting with some different groups.  I have two podcasts in development, and the first episode of each is now posted to the web (although I don’t think either are on iTunes as of yet.  The podcasts are:

• Focus on Gadgets & Gizmos is a monthly podcast where Greg LaFollette and I talk about leading (and sometimes bleeding) edge gadgets & gizmos you can use to enhance your digital lifestyle (work and play).  We’re still working on the list of material we will cover in future episodes, but the first episode is on the Amazon Kindle2 device. 
• The Bit Brothers is a periodic podcast that I do with Dr. Bob Spencer and Randy Johnston on general technology topics.  We’re still working on our material for future episodes, etc., but you can learn more about what we’re doing and listen to our very rough episode #1 at www.bitbros.com.

We’re working on increasing the production quality of each podcast – both were recorded using Skype and/or telephone call recording devices, and I’m learning more than I ever imagined I would about reverb, signal to noise ratio, licensing rights for music, audio mixing (I may be reaching out to my namesake, the record producer for some help here).  If you have comments, ideas, recommendations, etc., please send them to bftcpa [att] gmail/dot/com