An app, at last
Mobile Accountant
Techselect Consulting Inc.
www.tech-select.com and itunes.apple.com
There's an iPhone app for everyone and everything under the sun - including, now, accountants, with the release of Mobile Accountant. Designed specifically for accountants, it lets users track time and expenses, client information, professional certifications, CPE, schedules, deadlines and more, with selection lists and pickers customized for the profession. So now you can sit in a Starbucks and look cool with your iPhone, and still get some work done.
The middle of wisdom
Checkpoint Learning Competency Model
Thomson Reuters
https://checkpointlearning.thomsonreuters.com
We're not sure if it was Socrates or Yoda, but a great philosopher once suggested that the beginning of wisdom was to recognize that you know nothing. Thing is, that's just the beginning - in the middle (and harder) part, you have to start learning some of the things you don't know. Remember, though, that you know nothing, so how are you going to know what you need to know? The answer, at least when it comes to CPE, is to let Thomson Reuters tell you. The new Competency Model on its Checkpoint Learning platform lets accountants assess their proficiencies and identify gaps in their knowledge and skills. It covers four career levels (staff, senior, manager and director) in finance, tax, audit and accounting; lets users standardize or customize competencies across a firm or department; lets management review staff assessments and learning plans; and, naturally, points you to courses on Checkpoint that will teach you all you need to know.
Security you'll use
AVG Internet Security 2011 and AVG Anti-Virus 2011
AVG Technologies
www.avg.com
The annals of technology are filled with instances of security breaches that took place because the systems designed to prevent them were deemed too complicated or time-consuming for users to bother with. Bearing in mind the time and resource constraints of small-business owners, AVG's recently released Internet Security 2011 Business Edition and Anti-Virus 2011 Business Edition are designed to be easy to use, while still providing serious protection for online transactions, e-mail, sensitive customer data and more.
XBRL inside
Crossfire 3.0
Rivet Software
www.rivetsoftware.com
Rivet Software has released Crossfire 3.0, the latest version of its Software-as-a-Service platform for Securities and Exchange Commission reporting and filings. It makes full use of the Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL, that the SEC has begun mandating for filings; among other things, it now preserves existing tags and comments when rolling forward to a new filing, applying them to data that matches, as well as letting users change XBRL-tagged data in one place, and then apply that change to matching data throughout the filing document. Crossfire 3.0 also includes a number of features to make collaboration and document control easier, and to streamline the whole process.
Confirmative
Confirmation.com
Capital Confirmation Inc.
www.confirmation.com
It's tough to single out any one particular part of the audit process that's more annoying than the rest, but getting confirmations certainly ranks high - though Confirmation.com is making it less annoying by allowing auditors and organizations to ask for and deliver confirmations electronically, and thus much more efficiently. They recently added 17 new types of confirmations that can be processed through the system, including alternative investments, commercial real estate, Canadian assets and liabilities, derivatives, letters of credit, money market funds, mortgage debt and pension plan assets. Fortunately, auditors can still complain about the terrible coffee at their clients' offices.
Workers' comp help
XactPay Web
The Hartford
If you've got clients who use QuickBooks for payroll, The Hartford is offering a $50 referral fee for each one you refer to its XactPay Web solution for workers' comp premium payments. Payments are broken down into weekly installments and tied directly to payroll data, so they're both more accurate and less burdensome, and large upfront premiums are eliminated, with significant benefits for your clients' cash flow.
New and improved!
Audimation Services has released SmartExporter, which lets users extract data from SAP for review and analysis. ... Lyquidity has released a 64-bit version of its ComplyXL Enterprise spreadsheet control and management software. ... Credenza Software has released a new version of its Credenza practice management software, with support for Outlook 2010 and the ability to work with much larger work groups. ... Epson has released three new all-in-one printer/scanner/fax machines, the WorkForce 635, 633 and 630, all with 250-sheet input trays, extra-high-capacity ink cartridges, and 2,400-dpi scanning.
