I know. It’s almost the end of tax season and here I go telling you to add another item to your to do list. But wouldn’t you rather have me messing with your workload than a state tax auditor?

Members of our profession have been burying our collective heads in the sand when it comes to sales tax. We just don’t worry about this bothersome, nit- picky tax and expect our clients to handle this one on their own.  Sure, we review their sales tax liability account at the end of the year. But paying the amount reported on the sales tax return is the easy part.

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Every year in Las Vegas, the world of Consumer Electronics gathers at the Consumer Electronics Show to talk about what’s new and exciting.  As a member of the press, I have attended the show for several years looking specifically for what may benefit accountants in the practice of public accounting.  That’s a fairly narrow focus and since the show is intended for the consumer side of electronics as the name suggests, every once in a while a gem is uncovered which really has the potential to benefit the practicing accountant.  If you’ve taken any time to understand the demographics of the practice of public accounting, you know that the vast majority of public accountant firms fall into the ‘small’ classification i.e. less than 10 people.  Many of these firms are less than 5 people.  With the firm size of this group, you can understand the total frustration at the prospect of spending tens of thousands of dollars to provide basic business infrastructure. 
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It’s that time of year again! As you read this review you’re knee deep into busy season and beginning to think about putting the finishing touches on another pressure packed tax season. So it’s a great time to begin the perennial exercise of exploring ways that you can improve the efficiency of your workflows so that you make next busy season more efficient and profitable. Or in other words, get more done by doing less. That concept should sound real good to you about now. This review of document management systems (DMS) is intended to help you down that path and to short circuit some of the research that can consume a lot of your valuable time.

Before we get into a discussion of specific vendor solutions, I would like to set the table by offering some insight into the benefits that firms that have gone down this path before you are experiencing. In order for you to believe that you are making the right decision for your firm to invest your time and money to deploy a DMS, you have to develop an appreciation for the benefits.

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The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants has launched a blog as part of its Economic Crisis Resource Center. The blog will be dedicated to helping CPAs navigate through tumultuous economic times.

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