When it comes to tax and accounting research, you no longer need to worry about whether you'll be able to find a particular piece of information -- it's all out there, on one research platform or another.
As these different research platforms grow more comprehensive in their offerings and more complicated in their structure, though, the trick becomes picking the one that will best fit your practice, in terms of both your research needs and your overall research budget. To that end, we took a look at the leading research providers for accounting firms, as well as a newcomer or two.
Bloomberg BNA Tax and Accounting Center
BNA Tax and Accounting
Bloomberg BNA
Arlington, Va.
(800) 372-1033
Pricing: Contact vendor.
The Bloomberg BNA Tax and Accounting Center offers expert analysis and practice tools from over 1,000 of the world's leading tax and accounting authorities, along with news, commentary and primary source material all in one integrated place to streamline tax research. Bloomberg BNA's coverage spans the full range of federal, state and international tax issues, as well as financial accounting topics.
Bloomberg BNA has more credentialed reporters on Capitol Hill than any other news organization, providing breaking news and insight directly from the source. Breaking news is customizable for state, federal and international tax areas, with quick reference charts designed to inform on hot topics such as sunset tax provisions, presidential candidates' tax plans, and corporate tax reform. BNA also provides continuing education to help you understand changes in the industry, with expert analysis from tax practitioners presented in a variety of formats -- webinars, interactive e-learning courses, live training and live conference events.
The Bloomberg BNA Tax Practice Series now has Fast Answers: Federal Tax, a Q&A that covers more than 3,000 questions facing tax practitioners on a daily basis, including tax rates, and relevant charts and election statements. The Bloomberg BNA Premier State Tax Library has been expanded to include expert-written state-by-state tax analysis. And Bloomberg BNA has added the International Tax Chart Builder to its platform. This new feature gives easy access to international tax topics for more than 100 countries.
Bloomberg BNA's collection of over 500 tax and accounting portfolios, written by the world's leading expert tax and accounting practitioners, provides practical analysis of specific topics and problem areas, evaluates the consequences of various courses of action, and offers practice tools including working papers, client letters and other model documents.
Separately, just as we were going to press, Bloomberg BNA announced the launch of a new research platform aimed specifically at accounting standards. The new Financial Accounting Resource Center will include source material from all the major regulators -- such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, the International Accounting Standards Board, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the American Institute of CPAs -- as well as analysis and explanations, hundreds of sample disclosures, and a customizable daily newsfeed.
CCH Accounting Research Manager
CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business
Riverwoods, Ill.
(888) 224-7377
Pricing: Varies; starts at $200.
The CCH Accounting Research Manager is an online research tool that offers a comprehensive collection of resources and practice tools about tax, accounting, auditing, governmental, Securities and Exchange Commission and internal controls standards, the Financial Accounting Standards Board Codification, FASB Codification Topic 740 (FIN 48), Sarbanes-Oxley and other pertinent topics.
The Accounting Research Manager database is updated up to five times per day, and includes Daily News, the latest accounting, auditing, international, regulatory and governmental news, delivered via e-mail. In addition, it helps address a variety of issues through add-on libraries, such as public and private audits, knowledge-based audits, accounting, internal controls, fraud and forensic accounting, 10-K lookup, and financial reporting in the Asia-Pacific region.
To keep current, subscribers receive a Weekly Summary, an e-mail newsletter highlighting the key developments of the week that provides links to a comprehensive range of authoritative and proposal-stage regulatory literature, plus insightful guidance from financial reporting experts.
It offers direct integration with ProSystem fx Engagement within the ProSystem fx Office suite of software, as well as with ProSystem fx Knowledge Coach, CCH's digital audit manager.
CCH Essentials
CCH Small Firm Services
Kennesaw, Ga.
(866) 345-4171
Pricing: Starts at $449 per year.
CCH Essentials is an online research package aimed at small to midsized tax and accounting firms. The package includes primary source materials such as the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations, court cases and letter rulings, plus the popular CCH U.S. Master Tax Guide.
Powered by IntelliConnect, an online platform, all of CCH Essentials can be searched at once and the results can be filtered, saved, printed and e-mailed. CCH Essentials through CCH Small Firm Services includes the U.S. Master Tax Guide; the Internal Revenue Code; federal tax regulations; letter rulings and Internal Revenue Service positions; IRS publications; Circular 203; and Tax Court and federal tax cases.
CCH IntelliConnect
CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business
Riverwoods, Ill.
(800) 344-3734
Pricing: Starts at $200.
IntelliConnect, part of the Wolters Kluwer global online content delivery and publishing platform, provides accountants and other tax professionals access to the content available from CCH and other sources for more effective management of resources and research.
It offers an online platform from which to access appropriate related content by linking directly from documents to additional information such as the Internal Revenue Code, CCH Explanations, regulations and more; to navigate via a Browse Tree and Favorites linked to the homepage; a fast and intuitive search filter system; to print any portion of a document in one step; to view a searchable, alphabetical list of all publications subscribed to; to search selected practice areas; and to search up to eight different topics at any time.
IntelliConnect not only enables the accountant to conduct searches in a myriad of ways - browse/menu walk for specific content, search selected content by keyword, search all content by keyword, search by citation -- but integrates smoothly with ProSystem fx Tax and IntelliConnect Search Express.
Checkpoint
Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting
New York City
(800) 950-1216
http://yourcheckpoint.thomsonreuters.com
Pricing: Starts at $105.
Checkpoint, Thomson Reuters' online research platform, offers fast access to a variety of content from Thomson Reuters' RIA, WG&L, WorldTrade Executive and PPC brands, along with that of many regulatory agencies, as well as case studies and best practices, with additional practice development tools such as calculators, sales tax lookups and client letters. The system also provides firm management utilities, including built-in time tracking.
Beyond its core features of database management, search, information organization and practice management, Checkpoint offers such unique capabilities as a charting program to create and compare tabulations such as state and local taxes; e-filing for tax returns; international tax rates; and SECPlus financial fundamentals. A State Search Wizard reduces the complexity of multi-state searches, allowing searches by specific tax types and tax documents in a single search. StateNet Legislation and Regulation databases provide the full text of approved and pending legislation, as well as adopted and proposed regulation. And the Sales and Use Tax Rate Lookup gives access to more than 41,000 sales and use tax rates from over 6,500 jurisdictions, by Zip code, city or county.
Checkpoint thoroughly integrates both tax and accounting information, melding content with Thomson Reuters' compliance software, including ONESOURCE, Ultra Tax CS and e-Form RS, as well as the Thomson Reuters CPE platform, Checkpoint Learning. Checkpoint also integrates with Microsoft Office for output, and has been optimized for use with the iPad and selected smartphones.
Upgrades are made directly to the platform for immediate access. Recent enhancements include the addition of The International Trade Laws of the U.S.: Statutes and Strategies; PPC's Guide to the Clarified Auditing Standards; Essential International Tax Solutions powered by Orbitax; and enhancements to the state and local tax practice area.
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