Technology

6 Effective Tools for Tax Document Automation

A little pre-tax season planning and preparation can go a long way.

Tax and accounting professionals who start their own firms from scratch face benefits and significant challenges. On the pro side, they have the opportunity to build the firm as they wish, from internal practices to staffing and management styles. Of course, there can be significant startup costs, and the firm starts with a client roster of zero, presenting the very pressing hurdle of income generation.

Part 2 of Isaac's Annual Holiday Gift Guide. In our annual December Gift Guide, I wrote about a couple of dozen cool-to-quirky gadgets for business and personal use. There are always many more that I don’t get the chance to cover, whether because of space or time or other factors, so I’ve decided to share a few more of them here in the January issue.

While we all cherish the most trusted advisor status that accountants have earned, this status must be continually re-earned with clients. Ask yourself whether your clients want you to serve them or lead them to better success. I believe your clients desperately want you to lead them — and if you don’t, they may turn […]

8399 Jason Blumer knows that some people think he’s a little different than the typical accountant, or at least the stereotype of an almost middle-aged one. Those “some people” include the tax manager at his practice, his staff and some of his clients… even his wife. Maybe it’s the crazy eye glasses. Perhaps the jeans […]

Alongside professional tax preparation, write-up has long been a cornerstone client service for many full-service accounting firms, providing monthly, quarterly and annual engagements that equate to a fiscal checkup for client businesses. The core elements of account reconciliation, fixing improperly posted transactions and preparation of financial statements are critical to these entities truly knowing their health, and serve as a firm foundation for ensuring against employee fraud, as well as for planning, budgeting and valuation.

It’s interesting that that hottest electric car on the market, the Tesla Roadster, touts its 288 horsepower engine. It is an oxymoron in some respects when you think of the imagery. The thing is that you don’t think of 288 horses. Rather, you think of speed. So why is this unit of measurement from 1702 […]