During the holidays, any accounting firm worth working for is taking a short break to celebrate its employees, its clients, the adventures of the year and the joys of friends and family. But after the celebration are over and firms will begin to ramp up for the tax and early audit seasons that begin in January. And sometime before those seasons begin, there are a few checklist items that will help them to be smoother.

Just so nobody misses the point - there's no evidence that the incidence of spam and malware being generated is improving. "What we have seen is a significant uptick in the area of malware related to the expanded use of social networking sites. Although we are isolating the malware, it blows my mind how significant it has become," says Jim Bourke, principal with Red Bank, N.J.-based WithumSmith+Brown.