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Special Reports

Special Reports (155)

The Progressive Accountant is the leading online communit of public tax and accounting professionals focused on using technology to better manage and grow their practice.

Meeting the Needs of Small Businesses (and their Accountants) Is No Small Feat

confusingWhen talking about small business accounting software, the key word (or more precisely, phrase) has to be “ease of use.”  That’s what each of the vendors in this space is trying to accomplish.  What’s interesting is the diversity of approaches they take in achieving this goal.  Apparently one man’s “ease of use” is another man’s bloated screen; one woman’s need to pull out the right information is offset by another women’s desire to have everything at her manicured fingertips; and one accountant’s need for complete system access is another auditor’s independence nightmare. In short, there are competing needs for different users but thankfully, these vendors deliver something for everyone.

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2009 Tax Preparation Software Review

"'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." – quote by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789, (re-printed in The Works of Benjamin Franklin, 1817)

Two-hundred twenty years later, we can be certain that tax practitioners must have tax preparation software.  Since the 1980s, tax software has continued to mature. It now serves practitioners of all sizes. Currently, we have evolved to the point where it would be unproductive to work without tax software as evidenced by this statistic: tax professionals e-filed over 57 million individual tax returns with the IRS in 2007.

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TPS Software

TPS Software Time and Billing is a local-install application designed for firms with moderated growth and 15 to 20 timekeepers.  While it may not have the best first impression with some design elements going back five to ten years, accountants don't really need the eye candy found in some of the competition.  Users can quickly recognize that the application is all about professional service business: record time, manage time, bill time, and collect money.  Dedicated to accountants, TPS has created a software package that meets the needs of its users by adding in those features most relevant to their needs (as gathered through an annual users' survey) and maintaining a strong client connection.

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Timeslips by Sage

Timeslips by Sage is a local-install time and billing application developed for professional-service providers. An additional web application subscription is available for online time tracking and expense slip entry; data entered via the web must be synchronized with the local application.  The central emphasis is case management, so it can be adapted for providers with engagements, but may not be a perfect fit.  Typically, firms using Timeslips have 3-7 users.

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Imagine Time

If you are already familiar with the Imagine Time application, the just-released update is a significant improvement over the previously available version.  For those looking at it for the first time, you’ll be introduced to a product that gives a remarkably unique look to time and billing that can quickly be recognized as accountant-specific.  Retaining functionality that makes it a good fit for small businesses in need of a desktop time and billing application, Imagine integrates new navigation concepts from Microsoft while retaining the layout of the data entry screens from their previous version.   The application caters specifically to its small CPA firm client base, and would fit well in a firm with 10-15 timekeepers.

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Caseware Time

Caseware Time is the central component of Caseware's practice management product, Time & Today.  Intended for local installation (or hosted from a Terminal Server), a module called Time Web Sheets that provides web-based time entry from the client's web server is now available.   Mid-size firms and firms with branch-office locations can use the scalable back-end recently released and the Terminal Server compatibility.  Setup includes the ability to import balances, client lists, and other user-specified data through text files.

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BillQuick Software

BillQuick BQE Software has recently completed a major redevelopment and improvement project for its time and billing package.  With a more complex install, BillQuick runs certain services such as automated report generation, the SQL back-end, and Web services from a firm's servers and has a desktop component for all daily timekeeping, project management, and billing functions.

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Accountant's World - Practice Relief

As part of the Accountant's World suite of products, Practice Relief is a basic hosted Software-as-a-Service solution.  It is specifically intended for small to mid-size firms in need of an always-available application with little maintenance requirements.  While Practice Relief is an online Time and Billing application, the timer function is a desktop install.  This dual-nature requires firm timekeepers to have BOTH the installed component and an internet connection - a potential problem for some firm's workflows.  Firms can set security by timekeeper or client, allowing control over employee time entry to clients, and preventing access to reporting functions.  Regarding setup, for those already using Accountant's World products, the client list is common among the applications (such as Accounting Relief and Payroll Relief).  Client list import options also include tax applications such as Lacerte.

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Catering to a Demanding Generation of Timekeepers

Time and billing is a core administrative function for any accounting firm, where every staff member plays a vital role.  Much like an orchestra, every person must play their part at a specific point in time.  How easily that is accomplished is dependent on the difficulty of the tool.  Fundamentally, a time and billing application should support five core functions:  time entry, expense logging, billing, collections, and generating management reports.  Like our orchestra, some tools will be tuned better than others, and how they all play together can make or break a firm.  Our review criteria were kept fairly simple for this series:

1) Does the application support ease-of-use and adaptability to a firm’s workflow?
2) If integration is supported, does it provide solutions to common problems?
3) What tools are provided for reporting?

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Construction/Contractors Software– Review

Construction companies have struggled through this current mess of an economy. Whether you think this economy is a depression or a recession or a catastrophe, there are many things that CPAs can and should be doing to assist companies to improve and support their methods and procedures. The construction industry is one such group that CPAs can help with guidance and support.

CPAs have capabilities and talent to develop and implement systems that collect, categorize and analyze data from company operations. While this typically starts with the overall accounting system, the detail transactional analyses include all aspects of the company operations from historical analysis to long-range planning. Not every CPA has construction company clients and therefore may not be interested in this information. However, as the economy recovers over time, it is clear that construction of all types will recover – residential building, commercial building, highways, bridges and tunnels, transportation centers, local roads, and more. Renewable energy facilities will be undergoing major new development and building. And there are all over the remodeling and fixing of older buildings and facilities.

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