And an Honorable Mention goes to the AICPA's eXacct, which takes the institute's venerable Accounting Trends & Techniques and makes it an online, interactive guide to financial reporting.

Tablets

iPad2

Apple Inc.

The business world is getting turned on to tablets in a big way, and while the competition is fierce, the new face of this trend is clearly the iPad2. Accountants are taking notice of the product's ease of use and, despite earlier reports of it being almost strictly a consumption device, are finding new and unique ways to use the mobile product. More important, there is a clear trend of business applications being designed for the iOS platform more than any other mobile operating system.

Tax Reporting

W-2 & Manager App for iPhone

Greatland

As states increasingly look for ways to boost revenue shortfalls, 1099 reporting has come under increasing scrutiny. Add to that myriad regulatory changes and additions to reporting requirements, and that invariably adds up to an overworked AP department looking for ways to ease the burden. Never fear, as our Top New Product in this category goes to the W-2 and Manager App for iPhone from Greatland, a mobile solution to help rein in year-end employee and contractor reporting. The product allows users to file 1099-MISC forms to the IRS and have them mailed to recipients all via their smartphones.

An Honorable Mention goes to AvaTax 1099 from Avalara, an online application that automates the annual 1099 print, mail and electronic filing process.

Tax Planning

BNA Income Tax Planner Web

BNA Software

When you're engaged in tax planning, you'd better get it right, or you'll face a cadre of unhappy clients. That's why the Top New Product in this category for 2012 is the Income Tax Planner Web from Bloomberg BNA, which not only helps clients ascertain their tax status via analysis and comparison for federal and resident states, as well as more than 30 non-resident states, but its Web-based platform helps reduce IT and tech infrastructure costs. And inevitable security concerns are reduced since all sensitive client information is hosted on audited SSAE16 facilities.

Honorable Mention in the category goes to the Small Business Tax Credit Calculator from Tax Credits LLC, which helps employers take full advantage of the Small Business Tax Credit by computing calculations through algorithms based on more than 20 variables per employee.

Tax Workflow

Beyond415

New River Innovation

Clients rely on you to handle their problems with the IRS - and you can rely on the Top New Product in the Tax Workflow Category, New River Innovation's Beyond415. It'll help you streamline and improve how you deal with your clients' IRS issues, with expert guidance on finding the right response, and tools to automate the process and pre-populate the appropriate IRS forms, cover letters and worksheets.

More Honorable Mentions

Accountants are constantly expanding their areas of practice, and so the universe of tools available to them is also expanding. Here are a number of Honorable Mentions we thought worth bringing to your attention.

For those looking for help in the Corporate Tax Category, CCH makes handling sales taxes easier with its new cloud-based CorpSystems Sales Tax SaaS, while Thomson Reuters' ONESOURCE Audit Manager helps corporate tax staff manage the increasing number of tax audits coming their way.

For the security-conscious, Large Software's docLock lets you encrypt and password-protect individual files, without having to create or install a whole elaborate security system. On the other side of security, forensic accountants will appreciate Red Flag Reporting, a turnkey ethics hotline program that teaches employees how to recognize fraud and gives them a tool to report it.

Government accountants, meanwhile, will find a use for CaseWare's GASB Financials, which easily and automatically creates CAFR- and GASB-compliant statements.

Finally, we'll note two products that can benefit your business clients: First, in the Small Business Software Category, there's inDinero, a cloud-based financial management solution that gives businesses more control and more insight into their financials. And second, in Payroll, there's the latest version of ADP's Run Powered by ADP Payroll for Accountants, which now offers all sorts of integration with the payroll giant's retirement services and human resources offerings.

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