Software

The reviews are in

AuditWatch Productivity Locator for Review Engagements

Thomson Reuters

www.auditwatch.com

Good reviews can make all the difference to a movie, book, play - or accounting firm. The new Productivity Locator for Review Engagements consulting program from AuditWatch aims to gauge the strength of your firm's review engagements, and identify ways to improve their quality, efficiency and consistency. And while the average movie, book or theater reviewer is a failed director, author or playwright, AuditWatch's consultants are experienced experts who will examine two of your review engagement files, and then give your practitioners feedback through a Web-based conference call on areas including planning and risk assessment, engagement management, performing inquiries, performing strong analytical procedures, avoiding unnecessary procedures, reviewing evidence and documentation, differentiating between bookkeeping procedures and review procedures, and more. Not only will it help youmake your firm's engagements better and more profitable, it'll help make sure you're complying with the new and significantly revised requirements of SSARS 19, which makes the service a lot more useful than the average five-star review or thumbs-up/down.

 

Know thy firm

ProSystem fx Practice Intelligence

CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business

http://cchgroup.com

Numbers don't lie, but if the numbers aren't around, they can't tell you the cold, hard truth. That's why, if you're worried what the numbers buried in your firm systems might reveal, you should steer clear of CCH's new ProSystem fx Practice Intelligence, which drills deep into that data to quickly and unflinchingly report all sorts of data on your firm's performance, from who your most profitable clients are to (gulp) who your most productive partners are. This type of analysis gives proactive firms the information they need to hone their operations, prune their client (and partner) lists, and boost overall productivity and profitability, but for those that are, shall we say, less forward-thinking, it may lead to nothing more than fear and squabbling among the partners. Best to know what kind of firm you are, before you find out what kind of firm you are.

 

Where is everyone?

TripIt for Business

TripIt Inc.

www.tripit.com

Hectic travel schedules and the growing reach of mobile computing mean that the average office is increasingly empty. Although those of us who are left behind enjoy the peace and quiet, things can get complicated when we need to find one of our more mobile colleagues to answer a client question, attend an important meeting, or lend us money for lunch. TripIt for Business is an online tool that lets the office-bound keep track of gadabouts simply and easily - administrators just forward flight and other travel confirmation e-mails to TripIt, and it creates itineraries that travelers can view any time and anywhere; at the same time, the TripIt for Business dashboard lets the administrator see at a glance exactly where everybody is at any given time - and if they're ever coming back. How much they have to lend us, however, is not tracked.

 

Calculable losses

ACL Calculator

ARCSys

www.arcsysonline.com

In response to the new standards on accounting loan and lease losses, ARCSys has released its new ACL, or Allowance for Credit Loss, Calculator. The Web-based calculator simplifies and streamlines the process of adhering to the new regulations, with enough flexibility and power to handle a huge range of variables and risk factors.

 

Kiwi accounting

CashManager Business

Accomplish

http://us.accomplishglobal.com or www.handytech.us

There's an interesting story behind how Accomplish's CashManager reached the U.S. Originally developed in New Zealand, where it has a strong user base, the inexpensive small-business accounting software came to the attention of Handy Tech, a U.S. distributor of solutions for the visually impaired, which discovered that it worked extremely well with screen-reading technologies. Handy Tech used the software itself, and liked it so much that now it distributes it in the U.S. Designed to be easy for non-accountants to use, it handles all the basic bookkeeping functions and includes invoicing. There's also a not-for-profit version, and the company has plans to introduce its Plus version in the U.S., with a full general ledger system that's designed for accountants.

 

Forms for functions

doForms

Mobile Data Technologies LLC

www.doforms.com

Form may follow function, but forms rarely do - unless their function is to confuse and annoy, in which case they're a huge success. The new doForms mobile data collection solution aims to bring the process of creating forms and getting them filled out into the 21st century. First off, a drag-and-drop interface and library of customizable pre-built forms make it easy to create a digital form for collecting exactly the information you need, from simple multiple-choice answers right up to sketches, signatures, and even audio and video clips. Then it lets you deploy the forms you've created to PCs, tablets and smartphones wherever you like. Finally, it gives you a personalized Web site for viewing, mapping and managing the data you receive, as well as publishing it to the Web or exporting it for use in other applications. It's currently available for a range of Android and BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, with iPad and iPhone versions scheduled for release this summer.

 

Horses for courses

Scanjet Professional 3000 and LaserJet Pro CM1415FNW

HP

www.hp.com

Once you start the move to the paperless office (and you will soon, trust us), you'll realize that different types of scanning require different types of scanners, from the lightweight ones you can carry with you, to the back-office monsters that can handle giant piles of documents. Aiming square in the middle is HP's new Scanjet Professional 3000, a 600-dpi scanner that will fit on a desktop, but can still handle up to 20 pages a minute, and 50 at a time. It integrates with leading content management applications; scans in a variety of file formats from PDFs to TIFFs, JPEGs, and MS Word files; and can detect misfeeds on its own. The LaserJet Pro CM1415FNW color multi-function printer, meanwhile, is good for smaller scanning jobs or the occasional one-off scan, but also offers high-quality color printing and fast black-and-white printing, as well as fax capabilities.

 

Sources of courses

Compliance CPE Package, Professional CPE Package and Premier CPE Package

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters

https://checkpointlearning.thomsonreuters.com/bundle/index

Other than an angry summons from the SEC or the IRS, there are few things more terrifying to the proud CPA than discovering that they've endangered their license by somehow failing to keep up with their CPE requirements. Thomson Reuters has begun offering three different bundled subscriptions to its Checkpoint Learning courses that include tools to automatically track certification requirements from 100 different regulators.

 

New and improved!

Nelco has released new tools for its Nelco Software Developer Suite, including the new Web Reporting Center, a portal interface with complete federal, state and recipient e-filing, printing and mailing services; the Wage and Information Reporting Engine, or WIRE, which takes raw data from any software application and merges it with government reporting forms; and the Wage Filer, to allow developers to add e-filing and automated form printing and fulfillment to applications. ... CCH has achieved Oracle-validated integration for its CorpSystem Sales Tax Rates 1.0 and CorpSystem Sales Tax Office 3.5, so it can now offer the CorpSystem Sales Tax Solutions for the Oracle E-Business Suite. ... Perceptive Software has released an advanced enterprise content management solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

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