Accounting Today - December 13 2010

case, ADP’s Taxware Enterprise or another vendor’s offering may be the way to go. Review FROM PAGE 23

Avalara
Avalara
(877) 780-4848
www.avalara.com

Vendors in the sales and use tax market tend to focus on one particular area — providing current rate and applicability tables for lookup or integration with a currently installed accounting system, or in-house or service bureau calculation and reporting. Avalara doesn’t try to be all things to all people, but it does a good job of covering a wide field with comprehensive product offerings, many of which are applicable to entry-level accounting systems like QuickBooks or Peachtree, as well as enterprise systems like SAP and Oracle. Avalara has integration with over 90 products, and a software development kit to enable integration with an application that it doesn’t already support.

In addition to sales tax filing services, and exemption certificate management (a real time- and effort-saver for your nonprofit clients), Avalara has sales tax automation software as a cloud-based offering, Ava Tax OnDemand, or an in-house application, Ava-Tax OnSite. Both of these offer comprehensive sales and use tax rate and jurisdictional table lookup.

AvaFile is a Web-based service that tracks your client’s sales and use tax liabilities and prepares and files the necessary returns, with TrustFile available for larger businesses.

of change orders. The biggest change in thinking will need to be internal, as most clients understand this model.

3. New technologies are available that provide 24/7 services based upon digital platforms. To be more specific, Web-based content management systems, including client portals, are affordable and reliable while increasing client privacy and security.

4. Multiplier leaders who can double the production of their people through increased training and improved technology will be able to increase margins and revenue per full-time equivalent substantially. Technology is the accelerator that allows you to produce more with fewer resources.

5. Mesh-based businesses are based upon network-enabled sharing — on access, rather

Boomer
FROM PAGE 26

Another offering from Avalara is AvaRates, which provides rate tables and current updates to your clients simply by entering a city or area code. These databases can be integrated with other applications that your client may be using, and you and your client can get a good idea of what is available by accessing the free rate database, which, with rates for over 12,500 taxing jurisdictions, is a much smaller database than the full paid version.

BNA Sales Tax & Use Tax
Rates and Forms
BNA
(800) 424-2938 opt. 3
www.bnasoftware.com

When it comes to recording and filing sales and use taxes, not every client will have the same needs. Clients with somewhat simpler requirements, perhaps collecting taxes in only a few taxing jurisdictions, can often rely on their accounting software, especially if they are using POS software, to calculate the requisite sales tax if the sale is taxable and if you know what the correct rate is for the particular taxing jurisdiction that the sale must be reported to.

Keeping abreast of what the correct rate is at the moment, and any changes in taxability of particular items, can be a chore, whether you perform it or your client does. These rates, and the items that they need to be applied to, change frequently, and checking the Internet frequently to track these changes is both time-consuming and inefficient. Explaining to a sales tax auditor that you or your client forgot to check the rates and applicability be-than ownership. The mesh-based business requires extremely high levels of trust and transparency. CPAs are the No. 1 trusted business advisor. The Web platform ( infrastructure) exists and firms already have their community of clients who respect and trust them. Clients are waiting for their CPA firms to provide value (leadership, relationships and creativity).

CCH CorpSystem Sales Tax Solutions CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business (866) 513-2677 http://tax.cchgroup.com

While CCH is well known to accountants for its practice-oriented ProSystem fx Suite, it is also very active in providing enterprise-level corporate solutions. These offerings do not encompass accounting software, but do by moving up the value chain to the role of trusted advisor. As I said earlier, the market and the technology are in place and growing. You need to position your firm to focus on this opportunity and leverage your strength as a trusted advisor.

provide ancillary features and enhancements to an enterprise-level accounting system that your client may be using.

Of interest to this review is CCH’s CorpSystem Sales Tax Solutions. With six offerings that comprise both research and compliance, CCH has your client’s sales tax needs well in hand. Of the six product lines, compliance issues are most directly addressed by the CorpSystem Sales Tax Returns Online. This directly creates required sales and use tax returns from data contained in your client’s ERP system, and allows your client to e-file them where applicable or download detailed filing reports so that your client’s accounts payable department can cut the required checks.

The other products in the lineup address tax applicability, jurisdictional issues and current rates. These include the CorpSystem Sales Tax Rates and Taxability Database, updated monthly and offered in subsets so that a client doesn’t pay for more than they need. CorpSystem ZIPSales Lookup makes it easy to find a specific rate and taxability rules by entering the ZIP code of a location.

For ERP systems that can accept sales tax tables, CorpSystems Sales Tax Load Utility provides a means to update rates into Microsoft Dynamics, and Sage MAS and Accpac. Finally, CorpSystem Sales Tax Online and Sales Tax Office offer up-to-the-minute tax rates, tax calculation and return preparation.

As with many of the applications and services included in this roundup, the CorpSystem applications and offerings aren’t targeted at small or even most midsized businesses. But for those clients of yours that have more robust needs, CorpSystem is very much worth looking at.

See REVIEW on 30

Talent does make a difference, and a learn-ing/training culture will allow you to meet the needs of the client. You can do more with less. According to Gartner, for every hour you train, you increase your capacity by five hours.

10. Today human resources exist at both ends of the spectrum. Baby Boomers who have relationships and business savvy are willing to work beyond normal retirement age, while the younger generations have skills and capacity. With a training/learning culture both groups can benefit. Compensation is only one of the motivating components. The old carrot-and-stick approach is no longer relevant for many people. They prefer training, recognition as a valued team member, increased responsibility, and flexibility. You can meet the needs of most individuals with communication and planning.