Earned Wage Access has been added to the Wisely payment platform from Automatic Data Processing. EWA is being offered through a partnership with DailyPay.

ADP says its research shows EWA is important to 91 percent of millennial workers and 82 percent of Generation Z workers and 57 percent of Generation X and baby boomers.

Wisely, which integrates with enterprise resource planning and payroll systems, offers employees  secure digital accounts to access their pay, putting all sources income in one place, It is accessible to both W-2 and 1099 workers.

Wisley also offers members the ability to snap a photo of a bill within the myWisely App and have payments deducted through their accounts via BillPay. In addition, members can utilize Cash Back Rewards to earn cash back on spending with the cash going to the savings envelope in the mobile app.

Members can add Wisely accounts to their digital wallets.

SafeSend has redesigned the. lower and file of its SafeSend Exchange secure file transfer application. It is also now available within the SafeSend Suite Preferred Pricing Tier, the company said this week.

In a prepared statement, CEO Scott Fleszar said that Exchange’s “inclusion in the SafeSend Suite further distinguishes our tax workflow automation platform from anything else in the marketplace.”

Exchange offers a client portal, file sharing system, and automated PDF encryption in one application with direct Microsoft Outlook integration or accessibility through the online platform.

The product automatically encrypts email attachments from within Outlook and offers s customizable “question & answer” based authentication.

SafeSend Organizers have also been enhanced with improvements including combined Proforma and Batch Organizer reporting, new Organizer reports and expanded capabilities around Source Documents,

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 

It was a good year for the 2022 Class of Bob Scott’s VAR Stars. It could have been better for many if they could have found more consultants. Finding qualified staff was the major problem facing all of the mid-market channel with both resellers and software publishers grappling with ways to get fresh bodies into the channel. The good news behind the problem is that many businesses have not made the move to the cloud and the future looks brigh for sales. Download our special report and view the list of 100 VAR Stars and read about the factors shaping the industry.

The issues surrounding payroll have changed dramatically over the last two years. With a significant percentage of the population working away from the office—and like to stay away, many businesses now have a work force in more than one state, meaning tax compliance is more complicated.

 The Great Resignation in which millions have changed or are changing jobs having clients asking accounting firms questions about hiring and employee retention. Fortunately, payroll software and service providers are responding with tools to answer these challenges. These include employee self-service that can improve the accuracy of employee records and payroll. Read about the trends that are reshaping payroll and drawing accounting and payroll firms into providing people services in the special report “Self-Service Reshapes Payroll”.

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.

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.

 An online portal has been established for the filing Form 1099 series information returns. The Internal Revenue Service has opened the Information Returns Intake System (IRIS), for free electronic filing of the forms.

Iris currently accepts 1099s only for tax year 2022 and later

Uers can create, upload, edit and view information and download completed copies of 1099-series forms for distribution and verification. Information can be keyed in or uploaded via the use of a downloadable template.

Returns can be acknowledged in 48 hours or more. Automatic extension can be submitted while corrections to filed returns can be made through the platform.

Filers can submit automatic extensions and make corrections to information returns filed through the platform.

The launch of IRIS can help reduce the millions of paper Forms 1099 we project will be filed in 2023 and demonstrates our commitment to finding useful and innovative ways of reducing paperwork on the business community and others issuing 1099s,” IRS Acting Commissioner Doug O'Donnell said in a prepared statement.

 Robert Lawyer has introduced Rocket Tax, which matches taxpayers with professionals who can prepare their taxes.

The company notes this is not a do-it-yourself system.

Rocket Tax includes questions for the taxpayers in order to match them with professionals who can handle their needs. Source documents can be uploaded to tax pros via phones. Once documents are complete, the individual can sign return via RocketSign and the professional hands state and federal filings.

Statuses, outstanding tasks, and completed tax filings are all stored in the Rocket Lawyer dashboard and are available any time.

Rocket Tax is available to Rocket Legal Plan and legal benefits members for half off list price. Standard delivery time is seven days after documents are received. For an additional fee, taxpayers can use one-day and two-day expedited options.

Rocket Tax is available to all members of Rocket Lawyer, and annual members get half off. Three packages are available with annual member prices as follows: Personal, $199 Self-employed, $399; and Business, $499.

The Internal Revenue Service has begun accepting tax returns as the 2023 tax filing season begins. The deadline for federal individual returns this year is April 18.

However, storm victims in Alabama, California and Georgia storm victims have a May 15 deadline for filing federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

The agency notes it cannot issue refunds for returns involving the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February to give it extra time to prevent fraudulent refunds.

The IRS expects most of these refunds will be available in taxpayer bank accounts or debit cards by February 28

This year’s tax deadline is April 18 because April 15 is on a weekend and the Emancipation Day holiday in Washington D.C. is on Monday, April 17.

Nine new members have been appointed to the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. The IRS has named the individuals to serve three-year terms beginning this month.

The body is s an organized public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss a broad range of issues in tax administration Itl provides the IRS commissioner with feedback, observations and recommendations and  submit its annual report to the agency at a public meeting. The next report will be presented in November.

The new members are the following:

*Joseph Bender a partner with Washington D.C.-based Difede Ramsdell Bender. He has practiced federal tax law or nearly 30 nears and over the last 15 years his practice has focused on investments by tax-exempt organizations, including leveraged and unleveraged investments, unrelated business income tax, unrelated debt-financed income and real estate investment trusts.

*Christine Freeland, president of Christine Z. Freeland, CPA PC, of Chandler, Ariz., \has volunteered her tax services at the local and state levels. She served as president of the National Society of Accountants and was the NSA presenter for the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum in 2020 and 2021. She has developed continuing education events for IRS Tax Security Awareness Week. She also teaches Circular 230 Ethics annually and participates in roundtables.

*Aidan Hunt, a student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science and linguistics. Hunt has volunteered as a tax preparer through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and has received an advanced level tax law certification and prepared returns for families and individuals.

*John Kelshaw serves as director of tax compliance at the Sarasota, Fla.-based operations of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Sarasota, Florida. Prior to his current position. He came to that company with almost 40 years year experience at the IRS working on complex tax issues. An Enrolled Agent, Kelshaw has also worked as a senior appeals officer, serving as an independent arbiter to resolve unagreed, complex tax issues

*Anthony Massoud, VP of corporate finance and tax for Van Metre Companies, Fairfax, Va., began his tax career at a CPA firm, working with high net worth individuals and international businesses. Massoud has also served as a tax manager for a real estate company.

*Susan Nakano, senior manager of corporate tax for Discover Financial Services, of Riverwoods, Ill. is experienced in operations, audit, risk and information technology, helping those in the company develop tax-compliant processes. She is an expert in federal and state tax codes as well as regulations and guidance requirements. 

*Annette Nellen professor of accounting and taxation, San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.., serves as the director of the university's graduate tax program and has designed and taught continuing education tax classes to tax professionals.

*Brayan Rosa-Rodriguez, senior policy analyst, of UnidosUS, based in Washington, D.C., has executed tax credit campaigns focused on Latino taxpayers in key states such as California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. He has also supported the production and dissemination of research related to economic policy, poverty, tax credits and program implementation, as well as public policy briefs and educational materials regarding tax policy and the job market. 

*Brian Yacker, partner of nonprofit services for Baker Tilly in Irvine, Calif., r has focused on working with tax exempt organizations. He is a member of the AICPA Exempt Organization Tax Technical Resource Panel, a board member for the IRS Tax Exempt/Government Entities EO Council and is on the National Association of State Charity Officials Public Day Planning Committee.

The 2023 IRSAC Chair, Martin Armstrong, is VP of payroll shared services, Charter Communications,  based Charlotte, N.C. Armstrong is accounting and finance area chair at the University of Phoenix, where he was named 2018 Distinguished Faculty of the Year. He is a former vice president of the American Payroll Association/

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 Nine new members have been appointed to the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. The IRS has named the individuals to serve three-year terms beginning this month.

IRSAC is a public forum for IRS officials and public representatives to discuss issues in tax administration. The Council provides the IRS commissioner with relevant feedback, observations and recommendations. 

The members are the following:

*Joseph Bender a partner with Washington D.C.-based Difede Ramsdell Bender. He has practiced federal tax law or nearly 30 nears and over the last 15 years his practice has focused on investments by tax-exempt organizations, including leveraged and unleveraged investments, unrelated business income tax, unrelated debt-financed income and real estate investment trusts.

*Christine Freeland, president of Christine Z. Freeland, CPA PC, of Chandler, Ariz., has volunteered her tax services at the local and state levels. She served as president of the National Society of Accountants and was the NSA presenter for the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum in 2020 and 2021. She has developed continuing education events for IRS Tax Security Awareness Week. 

*Aidan Hunt, a student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C., is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in computer science and linguistics. Hunt has volunteered as a tax preparer through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program and has received an advanced level tax law certification and prepared returns for families and individuals.

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*John Kelshaw serves as director of tax compliance at the Sarasota, Fla.-based operations of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Sarasota, Florida. He came to that company with almost 40 years year experience at the IRS working on complex tax issues. An Enrolled Agent, Kelshaw has also worked as a senior appeals officer, serving as an independent arbiter to resolve unagreed, complex tax issues

*Anthony Massoud, VP of corporate finance and tax for Van Metre Companies, Fairfax, Va.. began his tax career at a CPA firm, working with high-net-worth individuals and international businesses. Massoud has also served as a tax manager for a real estate company. 

*Susan Nakano, senior manager of corporate tax for Discover Financial Services, of Riverwoods, Ill. is experienced in operations, audit, risk and information technology, helping those in the company develop tax-compliant processes. She is an expert in federal and state tax codes as well as regulations and guidance requirements. 

*Annette Nellen professor of accounting and taxation, San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.., serves as the director of the university's graduate tax program and has designed and taught continuing education tax classes to tax professionals.

*Brayan Rosa-Rodriguez, senior policy analyst, of UnidosUS, based in Washington, D.C., has executed tax credit campaigns focused on Latino taxpayers in key states such as California, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. He has also supported the production and dissemination of research related to economic policy, poverty, tax credits and program implementation, as well as public policy briefs and educational materials regarding tax policy and the job market. 

*Brian Yacker, partner of nonprofit services for Baker Tilly in Irvine, Calif., focuses on working with tax exempt organizations. He is a member of the AICPA Exempt Organization Tax Technical Resource Panel, a board member for the IRS Tax Exempt/Government Entities EO Council and is on the National Association of State Charity Officials Public Day Planning Committee.

The 2023 IRSAC Chair, Martin Armstrong, is VP of payroll shared services, Charter Communications, based Charlotte, N.C. Armstrong is accounting and finance area chair at the University of Phoenix, where he was named 2018 Distinguished Faculty of the Year. He is a former vice president of the American Payroll Association.

 Miller Kaplan, a CPA firm based in Los Angeles, Calif., has promoted three individuals to partner. The three CPAs are Marijane Kantzabedian, Kelly Pollard, and Liel Shemtov.

Kantzabedian has been with the firm since January 2008, serving as an audit manager from August 2018 until her promotion. She specializes in audits for private companies and exempt organizations in the technology and service-oriented sectors, radio and television, as well as start-up organizations

Pollard, based in the firm’s office in San Francisco, Calif., joined Miller Kaplan in 2021 as audit and assurance manager. Prior to she, she was with San Francisco-based BPM from 2011 where she served as assurance senior manager in the firm.

AbacusNext, which owns the Office Tools practice management system, has hired three new executives. These included Arik Moav as CFO

The others are Greg Reynolds, chief technology officer, and James O’Connell-Cooper, SVP of marketing. Linked in profiles shows Reynolds joined in October and O’Connell-Cooper in November.

It is the latest in new executive hires since Keri Gohman became CEO in January 2022. Joining in January 2022, were Jennifer Sherman, chief product and experience officer, and Mike Summers, chief people officer. In September, the new hires were Andy Burner, SVP of people strategy, and Stephanie Johnson,

In its prepared statement, the company said, “these latest additions round out the company’s executive team and demonstrate its dedication to taking professional services firms further with modern technology solutions.:”

Moav’s joins the AbacusNext from GoodRx, where he held senior financial positions from 2019 through this year. Prior to that, he was co-founded and CFO of EquityBee from 2017 through 2019.  Moav steps into the position left vacant when Mike Skelly left to become CFO of FirstUp in February.

Reynolds was previously CTO for Businesssolver from February 2020, until taking the new job and worked at DealerSocket for the prior five years three months, serving as CTO with that organization from May 2017 through January 2020.

O’Connell-Cooper ran his own organization as partner and co-founder as Similar but Better from January 2021 until joining AbacusNext. He worked at Xero from April 2013 through March 2022 and was director marketing for Xero America for nearly three years in his last position there.

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LBMC Technology Solutions has a new CEO with the retirement of Jeff McCorpin. Stacy Schuettler takes over from McCorpin, who has retired after 26 years with the Brentwood, Tenn.-based firm.

Schuettler was managing partner of the technology business from 2005 through 2007 and has served as president since then. LBMC Technology resells Microsoft’s Dynamics GP, SL and 365 Business Central, along with Sage Intacct software

. LBMC also promoted Kenneth Sims to chief delivery officer, business applications, making him responsible for the firm’s portfolio of financial and operational business software. Robert Powell, promoted  named chief delivery officer, network engineering, is running the managed services practice. VP Bryan Wilton, who has stepped into the real of chief revenue officer, is focusing on expanding customer segments and business partnerships. 

 QuickBooks Online can now recommended appropriate sales tax item categories for products and services.

Part of the November enhancements to QBO, the ability means when clients map a product or service to an item category, the rate will always be correct—even when the rate changes.

When items in Products and Services are setup, QBO will make category recommendations when sales tax machine-learning model has high confidence in the sales tax item category. It will prompt customers to edit categories for recommendations when the model has medium-high confidence in the selection.

In addition, Intuit said it has made it easier to migrate desktop QuickBooks data to BQO via the addition of a view-only mode feature. Clients can use this to view their data up to one year after their desktop subscriptions end.

The QuickBooks Online app for Windows QuickBooks Desktop uses who are using a QBO Essentials, Plus or Advanced subscription. The app must be downloaded by December 31 or before 25,000 app downloads have been reached whichever comes first.

 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.