CPA Firm Technology Blog

Some Tech Sites and Some Updates to Google Docs

I follow a lot of tech blogs so I can know what's going on and keep lots of crisp, fresh tech goodness in front of you, the gentle reader..... but seriously, some of the better sources out there are:

• Merlin Mann, personal productivity guru - www.43folders.com
• Lifehacker.com - Gina Trapiani's superb tips blog
  
• This Week in Tech (podcast) - www.twit.tv - good general tech news
  
• The CPA Tech Advisor has some good podcasts as well (most notably, their round table podcast called "Tech to Go")

Speaking of Merlin Mann, The King of 43 Folders recently reported that Google has added 300 templates for various kinds of documents.  Like most templates, some are nice and some are campy.  My vote:  Stick with the MS templates - there are more of them, and there are more you could actually use at your office as opposed in your role as a member of the PTA.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: Lifehacker, 43 Folders, This Week in Tech, TWIT, Tech To Go, Web

Accounting Blog Festival

I'm sponsoring my first "Accounting Blog Festival" over the next month or so.  If you are a CPA, CA, or otherwise blog on topics related to accounting, accounting technology, or other topics related to being a practicing public accountant, I'd like to hear from you and have the opportunity to drive more readers to your blog or site.

To submit your blog, please just drop me a line to blogfest@bftcpa.com with the information about your blog, and I'll consider it for the Festival....

[And remember - it's not just a blog listing - it's a Festival]

Blog to Book Converter

I suppose it was just a matter of time - there's now a service which will turn your blog into a book.  This may warrant some review for some of my projects......

http://www.blurb.com/partner/typepad/

Where in the World is Brian???

Dan Meyer has mentioned the CPA Firm Tech Blog in his update to the 12 Blogs of Christmas (see http://tickmarks.blogspot.com/2006/11/revisiting-2005-twelve-blogs-of_29.html). Dan writes a great blog, and is a professor at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN.

Sorry the postings have been so thin lately. I just made Platinum Medallion with Delta and Diamond VIP in the Hilton Honors program, so the travel has been nuts. I'm returning from a three day swing through Seattle, Spokane, and am now headed for Nashville, and a much needed office day on Friday.
I'm counting down until the cessation of 2006 travel on December 15th. The next two weeks will see me in Nashville, Knoxville, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Fargo, Indianapolis, D.C., Greensboro, Louisville, and Milwaukee- definitely a record for me.

I have a forthcoming post on the free accounting software revolution- the war between Peachtree, Office Accounting 2007 (SBA), and QuickBooks has heated up to the point that there are free versions of all three products targeted at new businesses. Smart CPA firms may make the decision to favor one or two of the products over another, but you should be thinking now about what your strategy is going to be for dealing with each of the 'Big Three' small business financial management applications.

I am also working on a comparison of the big three partner programs. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and I'll be discussing how you can use these programs to reduce your total cost of application software. Sage, Microsoft, and Intuit all throw huge benefits to members of their partner programs, which are priced comparably to retail versions of software, and include training materials, technical support, reference materials, and copies of software for your firm's internal use. Good stuff, Maynard.

Greetings from Tulsa

Here's the famous praying hands at Oral Roberts U in Tulsa, OK. I am trying to get home from Tulsa now- let's pray that I can.

Posting Plans / 2006 Schedule / Other

Well, it's been too long since the last post.  Sorry for the delay, guys.  I had some errors in my HTML for the template for the site which were causing posts to not go through,  My apologies.

We recently had the K2 annual meetings in Nashville, and I'm working on some projects which are pretty interesting (to me at least).  They include:

• Working on materials for financial reporting and Excel.
• Working on documenting and preparing presentations for some tech conference sessions, including:
  • My version of the gadget roundup / latest tech tools
  • Working on a best practices document on supporting accounting software - including summaries of their partner programs.  If you would like your product to be listed, please contact me.

I'm also working on a number of confidential client projects.  Many of these are really cool, and I think the experiences are going to help their business grow - which will help my business grow.  It's tax season as well - so I'm working hard to get all of the required filings out for clients right now.  Definitely time for me to be a coffee achiever.

I've been in Knoxville quite a bit lately - but that's going to change.  I have about 70 teaching days scheduled this year, which will put me on the road a LOT.  Hopefully Delta won't go broke or anything crazy so I can reap the rewards of my travel.  Major destinations include:

• Denver (7 days)
• Metro NYC (a LOT)
• Texas (Fry's, here I come!).

I've also got some coordination trips coming up, including a swing across the US the week of 3/13.  I'm definitely going to oil the wheels on my suitcase and my laptop bag!

My plan is to have at least one post per week for the next few months.  For those that don't know, many times I compose my posts on my Treo 650 while waiting for taxis and airplanes, so my extended home time has put a pinch in the posts (but my son and I are having a good time).

Finally, I have a new logo (it's spiffy!) with some stuff from cafepress.  The website will have a new look soon - and I'm looking into taking a lot of the stuff I do for my customers (AICPA, Becker, and K2), and making some of my extended materials available on the web through blogs like this one, social bookmarking like del.icio.us, and possible sale of some PDF files to non-participants for some of the materials I generate.  I'm probably also going to join a number of additional accounting software partner programs in addition to the Quickbooks ProAdvisor membership and the Microsoft Professional Accountants' Network to which I currently belong.  The most obvious one here is the Peachtree Accountcare Program.  I have seen some good stuff lately from them, and since I already support their product, I probably should jump off the cliff and join the program.

Best regards, and thanks for reading.

Brian

EFF has Guide for Bloggers

Read EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers

PDA Blogging Tool / Treo 650

I've been on the road quite a bit and had guests in the last couple of weeks, so I've been derelict in making posts to my blog.  After seeing my blog mentioned in the Journal of Accountancy, I had to fix that problem, so I'm trying out a program called HBlogger on my Treo 650.  This program works with Blogger, Typepad, and most of the major blog engines to let you compose posts on your smartphone and submit them via wireless data connection.  It seems pretty cool.

Here's what's on my Treo 650 right now:

• Agendus Mail, SSL edition (from www.iambic.com)
• Agendus Professional
• ThinkOutside Bluetooth Keyboard Driver
• Quicknews RSS reader (especially cool for waiting rooms)
• Tetris and Solitaire (free on the Treo CD)
• Handzip Lite - lets you zip and unzip files on your PDA
• Natara Comet - archives your phone call records from your PDA
• RealPlayer for PalmOS (along with the headphone adapter - lets you listen to some Dave Matthews stuff while chilling out at the airport)
• Acrobat Reader for Palm
• Documents to Go Professional - included with the Treo
• eReader - Document reader.  The jury is still out on this one for me.
• Billquick 2003 for Palm
• ZLauncher for Palm - the bionic launcher program for PDAs.

I love this device - it rocks!

CPA Tech Blog mentioned in the Journal of Accountancy!!!

Eva Lang's article, "Would You, Could You, Should You Blog?in the June 2005 Journal of Accountancy has been posted on the www.aicpa.org site.

The article mentions THIS BLOG in its discussion of accounting blogs.  Wow.

Eva, I'll look you up next time I'm in Memphis.  I want to thank you in person for the publicity....