technology

survey: how accountants keep up with tech trends

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top strategy: compare with peers.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 exclusive

the pace of change in technology is leaving accountants so dazed and confused that about half of all practitioners say merely “keeping up” is one of their biggest technology-related problems. cost comes second.

accountants are so fed up with the staggering pace of developments that you couldn’t pay them enough to try a new software product “while drinking umbrella drinks on a beach at vendor expense,” according to randy johnston and leslie garrett, writing in the new accounting firm operations and technology survey. they caution, however, that “if you dislike change, you’re going to dislike irrelevance even more.”

the survey reveals the top tactics accountants are employing to stay up to date and make informed decisions – starting with keeping close tabs on their colleagues and competitors. read more →

where laptops rule at cpa firms today

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three top laptops in firms today, from left: for the bookkeeper, for the auditor, for the partner.
three of the leading laptops in accounting firms today, all business-class dell latitudes. from left, for bookkeepers, the e6430 14-inch; for auditors, e6540 15.6 inch; and for partners, e6330 13.3 inch.

also: save up to 26% on your hardware spending with four smart strategies.

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless

kepczyk
kepczyk

getting the right mix of mobility is critical for firms today. today’s rule of thumb is that everyone who works out of the office one day or more per week should have a laptop as their only machine.

laptops should be scheduled for replacement every three years, whereas desktops are often functional for a fourth year. in firms that utilize workstations only as “dumb terminals” via tools such as citrix, windows terminal server and workstation virtualization (vdi) in the future, the functioning life of a desktop computer can be five or more years. read more →

step 1 in building the paperless firm: scanners

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fujitsu fi-6110 desktop scanner
fujitsu fi-6110 desktop scanner (click for more)

survey: 78% of firms scan at the front end – and it’s not just an admin job.

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless 

one of the keys to optimizing accounting firm production processes is capturing information at its “root” source – the moment data enters your firm, regardless of the format – mail, fax, email or on a flash drive.

ideally, documents would be delivered already in a digital format such as email attachments or preferably through a portal, but the reality today is that a significant portion of accounting firm source documents arrive from clients in a physical paper format. your firm will need to develop processes to efficiently scan, name and store these documents.

the best firms start with the right scanners. scanners come in three flavors, capturing data at three levels: production, workgroup and individual.

read more →

how many computer monitors do you need?

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computer monitorsthe new norm: 63% of firms now use three or more monitors per desk.

by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless

the best place to start a conversation on computer hardware is with monitors – the easiest place to see an immediate return on your it investment.

kepczyk
kepczyk

your computer monitors are your windows into all digitally stored information and are the foundation for improving every aspect of firm production. transitioning tax production processes from physical to digital requires that all input screens and source documents be simultaneously viewable in a convenient format, which today means more screens per workstation.

  • 90% of accounting firms utilized dual monitors for the 2009 busy season. today, 63% use more than two traditional monitors. – aaa 2013 paperless benchmarking survey read more →

3 ways amazon’s new fire phone hints at the future of accounting

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amazon fire phone
amazon fire phone

new tech breakthroughs fuel client expectations.

by hitendra patil
pransform

addressing the question “why would amazon want to sell a mobile phone?,” the harvard business review says the basic principle behind any disruptive innovation is that the fundamental things people try to do in their lives actually change relatively slowly.

the accounting profession has been witnessing a hammer and tongs message about disruptive technologies in the form of cloud-ifying practice management. accounting and tax software long ago debuted on tablets and cell phones. and just when we start to think that nothing really new is coming into the technology market, we start getting hints toward the future.

here are three things that the amazon fire phone can potentially tell the accounting profession and technology vendors: read more →