Accounting software package FreshBooks is now integrated with SurePayroll’s payroll application. The companies said this month a new application program interface enables users to automatically synchronize payroll expenses and liabilities.

SurePayroll said the EPI automatically transmitts general ledger information once payroll processing is complete.

Owned by Paychex, SurePayroll is designed for small businesses. Besides offering payroll, SurePayroll offers 401(k) plans, workers' compensation, and health insurance to these businesses.

RSM US has won a global partner of the year award and two partner of the year awards for the United States from Microsoft. The awards, announced recently, include product and industry honors for a wide variety of Microsoft products and platforms.

On the global scene the account firm was name Partner of the Year for the nonprofit industry and was a finalist in the government market.Its U.S. awards are partner of the year for Dynamics 365 Customer Service & Field Service and for Power Apps.

The Big Four accounting firms scored in both the global and U.S. honors.  KPMG International was the U.S. and global award winner for Dynamics 365 Finance. Ernst & Young was given the American and worldwide honors for Dynamics 365 Sales, Azure AI, Advisory. Services and Security. 

Ernst &. Young Brazil was the worldwide award for Power Automate

On the global side, KPMG International and Pricewaterhousecoopers were finalists in the Business Advisory segment. EY was a finalist for Customer Experience. KPMG International was a finalist for Global SI & Advisory Digital Transformation and as Sustainability Changemaker; EY Chile for Defense & Intelligence 

Wolters Kluwer’s CCH Tagetik operation has introduced a free online buyer’s guide to Corporate Performance Management Software. The guide is designed to enable finance leaders to compare a variety of CPM software features.

CPM features compared include budgeting and planning, analytics and reporting, close and consolidation and pricing.

Designed for finance leaders, the practical playbook includes a step-by-step process for conducting a successful software evaluation, including assessing and defining the current needs of businesses, creating a project timeline and building a buying committee.

Four tools area aare vailable to create a short list of products.

First is a CPM software checklist. The second includes vendor comparison features within the following analyst reports: a Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Cloud FP&A Solutions; Nucleus Research: CPM Technology Value Matrix and Dresner: Advisory Services Technology Innovation Awards. There is a Business Case Checklist and Sample RFP questions.

Users of QuickBooks Online Accountant can now tag clients or team members in Notes. The feature was among those added by Intuit to QBO in May.

Notes mentions can alerts others of notes that contain information relevant to a client or staff member.  If someone is tagged @ mention, they receive a notification about notes needed their review.

Intuit noted other recent enhancement to Notes include threaded notes, private notes, and Rich Text Format/

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to most segments of business. That includes payroll where remote work, staff shortages and resignations have steered businesses to their advisors to increasingly ask questions about human resource issues. And there is the complexity of businesses that have unexpectedly found themselves with worker in many different jurisdictions. This special report examines the significant changes faced by accounting professionals who deal with the payroll and people issues faced by their clients.

The last two years have been like nothing else the mid-market has experienced--indeed like nothing most peope alive have experienced. But for the ERP channel, the pandemic produced opporuntity as remote work accelerated the move of businesses to the cloud

But new opporunties and new problems usually go hand and hand and the demand for web-based financial products has been accompanied by a shortage of the consultants needed to install and implement them. This Special Report "Beyond the Pandemic" discusses these issues, as it announces the 2022 edition of Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs. It tells you where the leaders rank and examines how several of them have addressed the problems and the opportunities.

The title of this special report "Reselling the Era of COVID" sounds even more relevant with the recent outbreak of the Omicron variant. But one thing is for sure, the move to the cloud was accelerated by the pandemic in a way no one could have anticipated.

It has not beneftied everyone in the midmarket who sells ERP software. But a large number of resellers and software publishers have benefited, even as they work around issued such as remote work. So within that framework, we are pleased to announce the 100 resellers who have been chosen as
VAR Stars for 2021 and share some of their experiences of the last year. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had changed the world of payroll. It put a premium on using cloud-based products since most employees were working remotely.

It forced accounting firms into offering human resource advice as they helped clients obtain Payroll Protection Plan loans and then pursue forgiveness of those loans, along with dealing with questions of possible furloughing employees and also bringing them back to the office. This special report, ”Payroll Moves into a New Era” examines issues involved in a new way of doing things.

Jeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingJeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingQuickBooks to over 300 clients. Jeff knows what it takes to grow a business: efficiency of scale, real-time insights thatbuild strong customer relationships, and a secure data environment. He gets all three from Right Networks.

In this ebook, we’ll examine:In this ebook, we’ll examine:

• Why DIY (Do-It-Yourself) accounting systems created forsmall businesses cause undue pain for both small businessowners and for accountants
• How the right cloud-based professional accounting systemcan not only eliminate that pain, but also open up newopportunities for accountants to better serve their clients

Steven Brewer, CPA is the President of Steven Brewer and Company, CPAs, located in Salem, IN. He talked to AccountantsWorld about how he’s grown his accounting practice without needing to increase his number of clients – and how those improvements have eased his tax season crunch.

BooXkeeping: How White Label Bookkeeping Services Provide Scalability to Your Firm When it comes to running a business the main thing that every business owner wants to do is sell their products or services, create brand awareness and generate profits that they can enjoy later in life. The last thing a business owner wants to do is to worry about bookkeeping, taxes, and the rest of time consuming accounting tasks needed to run a successful business, with limited resources and time, often the bookkeeping ends up being the last on the list of things that need to be completed.

The Internal Revenue Service noted this week proceeds from loans under the Paycheck Protection Program are taxablei if they are improperly forgiven . The IRS issued the guidance recently dealing with forgiveness based on taxpayer misrepresentations or omissions.

The agency said taxpayers must include the portion of loan proceeds that was forgiven based on these problems in income. It encouraged those to whom this guidance applies to file amended returns.

The IRS noted the criterion that recipients must meet to have proceeds excluded from income. These include the requirements the recipient was a small business concern, independent contractor, eligible self-employed individual, sole proprietor, business concern, or a certain type of tax-exempt entity that was in business on or before Feb. 15, 2020  and had employees or independent contractors who were paid for their services, or was a self-employed individual, sole proprietor or independent contractor.

Proceeds must have been used to pay eligible expenses, such as payroll, rent, interest on the business' mortgage, and utilities and the loan recipient needed to apply for forgiveness.

The IRS asks those with information about tax-related should submit Form 3949-A, Information Referral.
 

Ryan has acquired OneSource Property Tax from Thomson Reuters.The software line includes a system for managing property tax, including real and personal property. 

Onesource also includes a suite of transfer pricing products. 

“This acquisition makes Ryan the largest property tax software provider in North America,” CEO G. Brint Ryan said in a prepared statement. The company noted itw as already a “significant user” of Onesource.

Terms were not disclosed. About 25 employees will move to Ryan with the deal, which is said to include more than 600 customers.

Ryan offers products in the areas of indirect tax for Canada and the United States, unclaimed property and property tax.

A tax preparer who made $1 million a year on selling stolen IDs has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $14.6 million and pay restitution of $44.8 million. 

Ariel Jimenez, a/k/a Melo. was convicted for his role in a tax fraud and ID theft conspiracy that involved stealing the IDs of children and using those to prepare fraudulent tax returns.

The Justice Department said from the beginning of his tax return business about 2007 in Bronx, N.Y., he obtained the IDs of minors. He and his co-conspirators sold those to customers for $1,000 to $1,500 each so customers could claim the minors as dependents.

He made $1,000 in cash for every ID sold and in some years sold more than one thousand IDs. He additionally made hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for preparing tax returns for these customers.

Jimenez used profits to acquire millions of dollars of real estate and to fund a lavish lifestyle. He admitted spending $5.5 million in business proceeds for properties in the United States and abroad, jewelry, cars and gamblingAround March 2016. He transferred several of these properties for little or no value to conceal the source of the funds he used.

Jimenez was arrested in November 2018, along his sisters, Evelin Jimenez and Ana Yessenia Jimenez and other co-conspirators Ireline Nunez, Leyvi Castillo, Cinthia Federo, Guillermo Arias Moncion, Marcos De Jesus Pantaleon, and Jose Castillo. The other eight defendants pleaded built to fraud and other charges.

 A Texas preparer, who spent more than $114,000 for entertainment, has been convicted of hiding more than $1 million in income.

Raymond Griggs, age 51, of Plano spent “tens of thousands of dollars for jewelry, travel, and flight lessons”, according to the Department of Justice.

Griggs, who was convicted of making a false statement on his income tax return, operated a tax preparation business, Griggs Financial, in the Dallas, Texas, area. While the firm had more than$1.3 million in income in 2013, he only reported. $340,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Evidence showed he underreported the business’ gross receipts by about $1 million for both 2011 and 2012.

Griggs faces up to three years in prison.

Kevin Cumley has retired from the accounting profession after leading the accountants program for Sage Intacct from September 2014 through August this year. The announcement was made this week  in a LinkedIn post

Cumley spent 35 years in the accounting profession, which included more than 22 years with Forepoint, a Helena, Mont.-based value-added reseller he founded in January 1992. Active with the membership group, the Information Technology Alliance, he served as chairman of its board of directors from  August 2020 through August 2014.

Cumla was VP of strategic alliances for the former Abila from August 2011 through August 2014. 

Crowe has named Sheila Enriquez as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. The accounting firm also named two other leaders in the areas of DE&I and purpose and sustainabiliy.

.

Rachel Gibson was picked as deputy chief and firmwide leader of DE&I and Farrell Calabrese was selected for the newly created role of purpose and sustainability leader 

Enriquez joined Crowe in January as Texas Market Leader and a member of the firm’s management committee as a result of a transaction with the former Briggs & Veselka where she worked for 15 years and served as managing partner and CEO from July 2018 through the merger in January this year.

Gibson came to Crowe from Marcum where she was director of DE&I from September 2020. She joined Marcum via its merger with Raffa, where she started in July 2014.

Calabrese was the global corporate sustainability manager special materials company, Eastman, for the past five years and worked for its predecessor Eastman Chemical Co. for 10 years.  The company changed its name after a spinoff.

Dark Horse CPAs has promoted Riana Linsky to principal this month. The firm said Linsky, who entered the Dark Horse Principal Accelerator Program when she was hired in December, quickly built a six-figure book of business.

Based in Tucson, Ariz., Linsky, who is also a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, provides tax and accounting services to small businesses.

She was previously a senior accountant with Talley LLP from September 2020 through October 2021. Before that she was a tax manager for the Royce CPA Firm for one year 10 months, both in Arizona.  She worked in Eugene, Ore., for Emge & Whyte CPAs from one year nine months and with  Isler CPA for three years one months.

Wave Financial, which markets small business accounting software, is changing CEOs effective July 1. CEO and cofounder, Kirk Simpson, is stepping down after 15 years in the position.

Simpson is being replaced by Zahir Koja, with Simpson remaining through September as an Advisor. According to the announcement, Wave recently surpassed $100 million Canadian annual revenue—about $77.2 million.

The company is owned by H&R Block and Khoja will report to Block CEO Jeff Jones as a member of the company’s senior leadership team.

Khoja was most recently general manager for North America for Afterpay since  April 2021. Before that, he was with MasterCard for eight years 10 months, the last two years as EVP of global merchant solution and partnerships

 Indirect tax specialist Avalara is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $8.3 billion. At $93.50 per share, the all-cash deal is 27-percent higher than the closing share price on August 6.

CEO Scott McFarlane heads Avalara, which he founded in 2004.

At the same time, it reported a loss of $55.8 million second quarter ended June 30, up from a loss of $31 million a year earlier. Revenue for the most recently ended period rose 23 percent to $208.6 million, from $169.1 million a year ago. Subscription revenue of $189.8 million increaed  24 percent from $152.4 million in last year’s corresponding period

Avalara has introduced Transfer Pricing Reports for Accountants. The indirect tax software company this week said the product is designed for use by both transfer pricing experts and non experts at accounting firms.

The system automates the production of U.S. and OECD transfer pricing reports, documenting the process andenabling firms to produce reports for clients in three steps: data collection, documentation review and report generation. 

The application creates templated reports by combining predetermined, fixed benchmarks with a guided questionnaire, which prepopulates data based on transaction types selecied.

Transfer Reports covers both local file and master file for countries that have adopted OECD guidelines. Built-in databased on best practices from publicly available data, covering the Americas, Europe, and Asia.  Reports included built-in, noneditable date and time stamps, benchmark-related appendices, and analysis.

The software also offers management tools with built-in visibility and tracking.

Sales tax vendor Avalara has laid out its plans for Crush Global, its annual conference. The free virtual conference, the company's sixth annaul event, will be held May 17 and 18, the company said this week as it opened registration

Besides offering breakout sessions about industry topics, the conference will again feature Crush City, described as “an experiential activity center with access to a variety of on-demand resources, including videos, podcasts, downloadable guides and reports, and more, specific to the needs of different industries and business sizes.” Attendees will have experiences based on their country or region.

Major sessions include “Managing Growth in the Global Economy”. Moderated by global economist, Todd Buchholz, ecommerce experts on the panel are Craig Cohen, CRO at WooCommerce, and  Miriam González Durántez, international trade lawyer with Cohen & Gresser, and founder and chair of Inspiring Girls International,

Siri Bulusu, former tax reporter with Bloomberg Industry Group, will moderate “Staying Ahead of Shifting Government Regulations” with panelists Daniel Bunn, VP, global projects at the Tax Foundation, Gino Dossche, principal, U.S. VAT practice at EY, and  Dr. Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Stifel Financial,

The moderator, Mickey North Rizza, program VP, Enterprise Applications and Digital Commerce at IDC, is hosting “Discover the Value of Embedding Tax Within Finance” Panelists fopr this session are  Catherine Barba, a digital revolution pioneer and expert in omnichannel retail and digital retail, Dara Meath, Ddvisional CIO, Digital/Ecommerce at Conair Corporation and Avalara customer, and Paul Farrell, VP, product management at Oracle NetSuite.

 Thomson Reuters has introduced Indirect Tax Determination Anywhere. The company this week said the platform sits on top of private and public cloud or on-premise applications to provide tax calculations.

The company said the application, gives tax professionals “the power of a tax determination engine at any point of transaction, within any channel.”

Determination was launched in conjunction with the Thomson Reuters Institute’s new2021 Tax Technology Report, Indirect Taxes – Much More than Just a Process, The inaugural product “shows how the growth and complexity of indirect taxes continues to impact compliance and operational efficiency across the global business landscape.”

The company said “Determination Anywhere's proprietary cloud-based technology ensures that tax rates and jurisdictional regulations are current and accurate, enabling reliable tax compliance, a frictionless customer experience and increased revenues for businesses. “