A roundup of new and updated hardware, software, books and services for accountants.
Deadlines aplenty
CCH International Tax Compliance Calendar
Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting US
We here at New Products were just saying to ourselves, “You know what the problem with this country is? Not enough deadlines!” That’s why we’re excited about the new CCH International Tax Compliance Calendar, an interactive tool that delivers key deadline dates from up to 112 tax jurisdictions around the world, and integrates with both daily workflows and the CCH IntelliConnect research platform. Now we can be nervous that we’re missing something important every second of the day!
Make bigger mistakes
Take Your Marketing Online! Proven Ways to Grow Your Firm in the Digital Age
AICPA; paperback — $69, e-book — $59 (member discount available)
When it comes to marketing, it’s all too easy to make mistakes, and the Internet is only making it easier to make even more. Mistakes like not having an regular presence online, not keeping your Web site up to date, being inconsistent in your branding and use of your logo (assuming you have one), or, worst of all, not having a marketing plan to start with.
Marketing guru Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk’s Take Your Marketing Online! can help you avoid a host of mistakes like this, as well as some of the not-so-easy ones, with good advice on everything from creating an online strategy down to lots of very specific tactics for social media, SEO, blogging and more.
Get the latest
2015 audit guides and practice aids
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters has released this year’s editions of its series of audit guides and practice aids for multiple industries, including commercial entities, nonprofits, local governments, and employee benefit plans, with fully updated checklists that incorporate all new and revised disclosure requirements.
PPC’s Smart Practice Aids — Disclosure, the latest addition to the Smart Audit Suite, lets users create a streamlined disclosure checklist, view new or changed disclosure requirements, link to related research on Thomson Reuters’ Checkpoint platform, create libraries of approved note disclosures and more.
The number spectrum
Fathom
You’re an accountant. You see things in numbers that most people don’t — it’s sort of like you can see in the infrared or ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. The problem is translating what you see there into something non-accountants will understand — and that’s where Fathom comes in. It’s a management reporting and financial analysis tool that helps you show your clients exactly what’s going on with their businesses in ways they can understand. It’s good for businesses using Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks, from which it can easily draw in information to produce easy-to-understand reports with visuals that encourage the kinds of insights that help companies grow.
Mistakes revisited
CRoPs and Net Promoter Score survey
The Growth Partnership
A few paragraphs ago, we mentioned the huge range of mistakes available to you as you enter the complex world of marketing. Fortunately for you, the Growth Partnership would like to help you avoid them (or, if it’s too late, mitigate their effects), with two new tools. First, there’s the CRoPs system, an online tool that helps you implement a marketing plan that involves your key clients, referrals, and prospects, build a pipeline, and establish yourself as a thought leader. Then there’s the Net Promoter Score survey, an online tool for determining just how loyal your clients are.
Bridging the Soft Skills Gap: How to Teach the Missing Basics to Today’s Young Talent
Jossey-Bass (Wiley); $26.95
We find it impossible to consider the issues surrounding Millennials in the workplace without hearing Paul Lynde asking the musical question, “What’s the matter with kids today?” But timeless musicals will not address the fact that young accountants seem to be lacking the exact sort of skills that will be most in demand in the profession going forward. This book, though lacking in hummable tunes and dance numbers, will help you help them overcome their deficiencies. (Read an excerpt
Services, not products
Service 7: Seven principles to help your professional service business deliver experience clients will love
A&A Book Publishing; $9.99
Much of the average person’s idea of marketing is derived from the kind of product marketing that inundates us every day, but professional services are not products, and require a different approach. Service 7 lays out seven principles that reflect that difference, and help you understand how to communicate your value, while at the same time sharpening your focus on client service.
Accuracy pays
Taxography Inc.
In both geography and tax compliance, it pays to be accurate and specific, which is why we’re mentioning Taxography’s online property tax jurisdiction tools. If you’ve got clients that need tax jurisdiction boundaries or to accurately relate property to the right authorities, their GIS maps, jurisdiction assignment and address standardization solutions are worth a look.
New and improved
Infinitely Virtual has introduced InfiniteApp QuickBooks, a virtualization platform for QB. Nvoicepay has launched its Payment Command Center, a package of services to complement its invoice payment process.
