SOFTWARE
Absolute, not relative
Ordinarily, when we apply the word “cool” to
anything related to tax prep, it’s understood
that it’s “cool” in a relative way — not actually cool, but as cool as anything involved in
tax prep can be. This year, though, we think
it’s safe to describe some of the new tax-time
tools as actually, not just relatively, cool. For
instance, CCH Small Firm Services (www.
cchsfs.com) has teamed up with Versicom
Communications to let preparers offer Toll-Free Tax Infoline Plus, an automated service
to send clients automatic notifications by e-mail or text message regarding the status of
their returns and refund, or let clients check
their status by a toll-free number or Web site.
We think that’s legitimately cool, particularly
for small preparers. We also like CCH SFS’s
3Fund, which lets clients receive their refunds
in any of three ways — by direct deposit or
check, or on a debit card. More on the relative side of cool, but still hugely useful, is CCH
SFS’s new PaperlessPlus software, a document
management system for organizing and storing e-mails, spreadsheets, memos and other
documents. It features scheduled automatic
backups and electronic signature capabilities,
and comes in a Premier version with more
features, including bookmarking capabilities.
... Also legitimately cool is Sawhney Systems’
new TaxMode ( www.taxmode.net), one of the
more flexible and easy-to-use tax calculators
we’ve seen. It’s set up to look like an actual
calculator, and lets you run a wide range of
tax analyses and computations in a variety of
different modes, with the ability to drill down
to specific details (and get references to the
applicable IRS forms and line numbers), as
well as to make year-to-year comparisons. It’s
an extremely handy and flexible tool for all
sorts of tax planning and analysis. ... Anything
even vaguely app-like is definitely cool, and
the CCH Tax News Highlights app from CCH,
a Wolters Kluwer business ( www.cchgroup.
com), is also free, which makes it even cooler.
It lets anyone with an iPhone, iPad or Android
get the latest federal and state tax headlines
from CCH — even if they’re not a CCH research subscriber. Cool. ... OK, we’re not going
to pretend that J.K. Lasser is even relatively
cool. But its authoritative tax guide, Your Income Tax (Wiley, $22.95), is definitely useful
and, as it celebrates its 75th anniversary, totally venerable. And it’s at least working on the
whole cool thing, since it’s now available as an
e-book, and has its own Facebook page.
The accountants’ elves
CPA Express Program
BookKeeping Express
http://bookkeepingexpress.com/services/
cpa-express
The shoemaker was a fool. When he found the
elves making shoes for him overnight, did he
use the time thus saved to focus on expansion
strategies and high-level business analysis?
No; instead of building his business, he made
clothes for the elves — and tailoring wasn’t
even his area of comparative advantage!
Please promise that when you take advantage
of BookKeeping Express’ new CPA Express
Program, you won’t make the same mistake.
While their experienced bookkeepers handle
your clients’ bookkeeping and organize their
financials, you should be out developing and
selling new, high-value services. The CPA Express service is white-labelled, your firm gets
a cut of the gross revenue as long as the client
stays with BKE, and you’ll have easy, unlimited access to your clients’ financials to help
with all those fancy new analytical services
you’ll be offering. Best of all, the bookkeepers
all come with their own clothes, so you won’t
feel pressured to make any for them.
be more efficient and better for the planet by
getting rid of all the paper — but your desk
will also look a lot cleaner.
Pack in your dreams
Baseline Spinners
Briggs & Riley
www.briggs-riley.com
If you’re like most accountants, you’re not going anywhere for the next couple of months,
except maybe down the hall to scan another
W2. But while they can chain your body to
your desk for tax season, they can’t imprison
your mind, which is free (between calculations) to imagine all the places you’ll go after
April 16. To encourage your dreams, we’re
introducing you to the new line of wheeled
luggage, or “spinners,” from Briggs & Riley
— because once you file that last return,
you’ll want to move fast. The Baseline Collection is all about speed, with four double-swivel wheels so you can turn on a dime,
and “Speed Thru” outside pockets for quick
storage of items at security checkpoints. The
new spinners come in three sizes, and carry a
lifetime guarantee — though of course, you’ll
only need yours to last until the extension
deadline.
CyberCabinet;;;
Make tax prep
easier with
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2010
Client Portals
Call 888-999-1366 or visit
www.AccountantsWorld.com/CC
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Send your new products and books to Daniel Hood at daniel.hood@sourcemedia.com.
Neatness counts
NeatDesk and NeatReceipts
The Neat Co.
www.neat.com
With so many people preaching the paperless office as the Holy Grail of efficiency or
environmental consciousness, it’s nice to see
someone touting its benefits for the old-fashioned virtue of neatness. The Neat Co.’s NeatDesk and NeatReceipts give you either a small
desktop scanner or an ultra-portable scanner
that integrates with a digital filing system to
let you scan and organize documents of all
kinds, from receipts and business cards to tax
documents and contracts, whether at your office or on the road. The system lets you create
searchable PDFs, edit text, and organize and
store them in a digital filing cabinet, and is
available for both Macs and PCs. So yes, you’ll
New and improved!
The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson
Reuters has added a number of self-study
courses on sales and use tax issues to its
Checkpoint Learning platform. ... The Ac-countant’$ Accelerator, a sales and marketing training program developed specifically
for accountants by Sandra L. Levya Inc., is
now open for registration for its second year.
... Adaptive Planning has released the Fall
2011 and Winter 2012 releases of its corporate performance management solution,
with a variety of reporting enhancements.
... V1 Document Management and Unit4
Business Software have partnered to make
V1’s document imaging and data capture
solutions available to users of Unit4’s ERP
software, to speed the processing of invoices.
... Global payroll services provider
Patersons has released the latest version of its flagship payroll
solution, which is now named
CloudPay. ... Maxwell Systems
has released Version 9. 3 of its
Maxwell Systems Estimation estimating software for construction
contractors, and Version 2. 8 of its
ProContractorMX construction
business management software.
