By Samiha Khanna
Americans’ personal financial standing continues to rise, according to the Personal Financial Satisfaction Index (PFSi). A third-quarter analysis released Oct. 27 reports a net index value of 19.0. This represents the highest standing for the PFSi since the first quarter of 2007, when prerecession home values and job opportunities contributed to a net value of 19.1. The third-quarter figures represent a 1.7-point increase from the previous quarter and a 3.3-point increase compared with the same period last year. The index offers perspective at a time of political uncertainty, said Kelley Long, CPA/PFS, a member of the AICPA’s Consumer Financial Education Advocates group. It suggests that many consumers have indeed recovered their personal financial standing since the recession, she said. “The index gives consumers permission to feel satisfied about their situation when times are objectively good, instead of always worrying about what’s wrong,” said Long. The PFSi is a proprietary measure of the financial well-being of the average American, assessed quarterly by the AICPA. It is calculated as the difference between two subindexes: the Personal Financial Pleasure Index and the Personal Financial Pain Index. The Pleasure Index uses four equally weighted indicators to measure the growth of assets and opportunities: job openings; home equity; the PFS 750 Market Index, a proprietary stock market index; and the CPA Outlook Index, a measure of CPA executives’ sentiment of their companies’ economic prospects. The Personal Financial Pain Index measures four equally weighted factors that suggest economic decline: inflation, personal taxes, underemployment, and loan delinquencies. This quarter’s improvements in the PFSi value can be attributed largely to an increase in all four of the Pleasure Index indicators, including a 2-point gain in the PFS 750 Market Index, a 1.3-point gain in home equity, and a 0.9-point boost in the CPA Outlook Index. The increase in home equity is the natural result of the rebound of the housing market, Long said. It means that many families may be able to refinance loans they could previously not afford. Loan delinquencies are down 3.4 points from last quarter. However, underemployment held steady, remaining at 20% behind the average value before the recession, which continues to contribute to personal financial stress. Americans saw minimal gains in job openings per capita last quarter with a 0.3-point increase in job openings, largely in professional and business services and durable goods manufacturing. “The PFSi shows that Americans’ financial satisfaction is back at prerecession levels, which is great news. However, the slow climb to get there has been frustrating for people who are looking for work and may still be underwater with their mortgage,” Michael Eisenberg, CPA/PFS, a member of AICPA’s National CPA Financial Literacy Commission, said in a press release. “While there have been substantial improvements in the job market, many of the industries and regions hit the hardest are not back to their 2007 levels.” - See more at: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2016/oct/personal-financial-satisfaction-201615396.html#sthash.tjKjI2jM.dpuf s the IRS, taxpayers, and tax practitioners get ready for the 2017 tax filing season, the IRS touted the successes that it and its Security Summit partners have had in reducing tax return identity theft during the 2016 filing season and described how it will expand its efforts in the fight for 2017 (IR-2016-144). Security Summit partners include state tax authorities, tax preparation businesses (including tax preparation software companies), and banks.
For the first nine months of 2016, the number of tax return identity theft victims was reduced by half from the same period in 2015, from 512,278 down to 237,750, the IRS reported. In addition, many more fraudulent returns were identified and intercepted before processing, the number of fraudulent refunds paid by the IRS and identified by banks fell greatly, and information shared with states and tax preparers and new data elements reduced fraudulent returns and refunds even more. For the 2017 filing season, the IRS and its partners announced additional "trusted customer" features that would help reduce this crime even more. Those plans include:
The IRS also announced that it is forming an Identity Theft Tax Refund Fraud Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which will be an improved early warning system that identifies new identity theft schemes and quickly shares that information among Summit partners so that all participants can enact safeguards. The IRS also reiterated the role taxpayers and tax practitioners can play in stopping tax return identity theft by being aware of data security issues—especially avoiding phishing schemes. Read Article: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2016/nov/expanded-identity-theft-safeguards-201615469.html In 2016, Some Tax Benefits Increase Slightly Due to Inflation Adjustments, Others Are Unchanged11/9/2016
For tax year 2016, the Internal Revenue Service today announced annual inflation adjustments for more than 50 tax provisions, including the tax rate schedules, and other tax changes. Revenue Procedure 2015-53 provides details about these annual adjustments.
The tax items for tax year 2016 of greatest interest to most taxpayers include the following dollar amounts:
Read Article: https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/in-2016-some-tax-benefits-increase-slightly-due-to-inflation-adjustments-others-are-unchanged Victims of October's Hurricane Matthew in parts of Virginia may qualify for tax relief, the IRS said.
Following the recent disaster declaration for individual assistance issued by FEMA, the IRS has said that affected taxpayers in the independent cities of Chesapeake, Newport News, Norfolk and Virginia Beach will receive tax relief. Individuals who reside or have a business in those cities may also qualify for relief. Some deadlines falling on or after Oct. 7 and on or before next March 15 have been postponed to March 15. This includes the Jan. 17 deadline for quarterly estimated tax payments and the 2015 individual returns on extension to Oct. 17. Also included are the Oct. 31 and Jan. 31 deadlines for quarterly payroll and excise tax returns. The IRS is also waiving the failure-to-deposit penalties for employment and excise tax deposits due on or after Oct. 7 as long as the deposits were made by Oct. 24. If an affected taxpayer receives a late filing or late payment penalty notice from the IRS that has an original or extended filing, payment or deposit due date that falls within the postponement period, the taxpayer should call the telephone number on the notice to have the IRS abate the penalty. The IRS automatically identifies taxpayers located in the covered disaster area and applies automatic filing and payment relief. But affected taxpayers who reside or have a business located outside the covered disaster area must call the IRS disaster hotline at (866) 562-5227 to request this tax relief. Read Article: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/tax-practice/tax-relief-for-matthew-victims-in-va-79778-1.html Unless you've been living under a rock—or in the town of Bedrock—you are no doubt aware of the growing threat posed by cybercriminal activity. As a CPA, however, you may not know the role you can play in bolstering your organization's cybersecurity efforts.
Whether in public accounting or business and industry, CPAs are key stakeholders in cybersecurity. Public accountants, of course, are responsible for safeguarding their clients' most sensitive financial data. Management accountants such as CFOs often oversee risk management, under which cybersecurity typically falls. And in organizations of all types, CPAs play crucial roles in developing budgets that help determine how cybersecurity measures areimplemented. Improving cybersecurity starts with accepting that your organization is not immune from cybercrime and educating yourself on the biggest threats to your computer networks and data. You can then begin taking concrete steps to shore up your cybersecurity defenses. This article looks at the five biggest cybersecurity risks CPAs and their organizations face, then offers a five-step battle plan for the fight against cybercriminals. 5 TOP CYBERSECURITY RISKS FOR CPAs Ignorance You might think that most business leaders are well-aware of the threat posed by cybercriminals. After all, high-profile breaches at Sony, Target, and innumerable other organizations have generated a flood of media coverage and social media chatter. Despite that, far too many business professionals still don't grasp the size and severity of the threat. One of the toughest mindsets to overcome is one that believes the organization either has nothing worth stealing or is too small to be targeted—or both. Wrong. Everyone is at risk. Still think you're too small to be a target? Hackers usually target anyone with a vulnerability in their IT systems. And when they do pick a target, hackers sometimes choose small organizations solely to gain access to other organizations. The bottom line is that you don't know what you don't know. If you don't realize you are at risk, you are not likely to take steps to identify and subsequently mitigate the risk. Passwords Passwords continue to be a major security risk for organizations. The Verizon RISK team's 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 76% of corporate network breaches directly resulted from lost or stolen credentials. Weak, easily hacked passwords are also a concern. SlashData's annual "Worst Passwords" report, which is compiled from millions of leaked passwords, has found that since 2011 the most frequently used passwords are "123456" and "password." And not only do people use simple, weak passwords, but they also often use the same one for everything, further magnifying the risk. A breach exposing passwords on a social networking site might seem unrelated to your business. But what if an employee's password was exposed in the breach and his or her place of employment or bank was identified on a profile page? The compromised password could be used to attempt to log in to other systems (see the sidebar, "An Approach to Strong Passwords"). The impact of weak and repeated passwords is magnified now that so many cloud systems are in use, because the bad guys no longer have to be inside the network to use discovered passwords. Add in what is now standard remote access to systems by vendors, and the problem again grows larger. Several major breaches have involved compromised vendor credentials. As hard as it is to believe, Sony actually had a folder called "Password" on its breached network. It's hard to imagine how this could happen in an organization so large, but during our IT security audit work, we routinely see not only passwords written down in all kinds of places, but also unsecured password documents stored on employee computers and mobile devices. Don't do this. If you are overwhelmed by the number of passwords you need and just can't remember them all, you might want to consider using a password manager that securely stores your passwords for various sites. With this approach, you need to remember only the strong password you create to access the password manager. You can find dozens of password managers with an online search. I recommend device-based managers as opposed to cloud-based ones, provided you have device security protections in place. I also lean toward the paid managers, though there are several well-reviewed free ones. Phishing The purpose of a phishing email is to entice the reader to click on a link or an attachment, opening the door for hackers to steal data or infect systems with malware. The Target breach and many others started with a phishing email. Phishing emails come in many forms, notifying you of a package shipment delay, potential fraud on your credit card, or a lottery win, just to name a few. While many phishing emails are filled with misspelled words and grammatical errors, others are very well-written and look quite believable. A targeted phishing email is known as spear phishing. This occurs when the email is not completely random but has relevance to the recipient. For example, if you receive a message that looks as if it came from your bank warning of possible problems with your account, you are more likely to heed the request to click on a link than if you receive a random message supposedly from a bank where you do not have an account. The ability to craft spear-phishingattacks to specific targets is why seemingly harmless breaches of email addresses can be dangerous. Organizations use filtering to prevent many phishing emails from reaching employees, but some slip through in even the best systems. And it is quite difficult to get users to slow down and think before opening emails and clicking on links and attachments. My company performs phishing tests for many of our clients, and even when the employees have been trained on the dangers of phishing, the click rate is still surprisingly high. In organizations with no training, the click rate can be alarming. And, remember, all it takes is a single click to potentially infect an entire network. Malware Malware, or malicious software, is installed without the user's knowledge, typically from an attachment in a phishing email or a visit to an infected website. The user usually has no idea his or her computer has been infected, and the malware can stay dormant for months before it is used to steal data, including passwords, or to take over systems. Another scary fact is that the bad guys no longer need technical expertise to write the malware. That's because virtually anyone can purchase malware online; all that is needed is malicious intent and a few hundred dollars. Vulnerabilities Misfortune Cookie, Poodle, Shellshock, Heartbleed, Freak, Venom, Logjam. This isn't the band lineup for the latest Lollapalooza rock concert. These are the names used to identify recent computer vulnerabilities that millions of computer users are exposed to. A vulnerability is a flaw or weakness in a system that hackers can exploit. In today's world, software is written and released much more quickly than ever before, so the risk of security holes is naturally greater. The vendor must provide an update or patch to close the hole, and then systems must be updated. For many years, most vulnerabilities were found in operating systems (Windows XP, Windows 7, etc.), but individuals became accustomed to setting systems for periodic updates, somewhat diminishing the number of weak systems. So the criminals took a new approach and began to look for vulnerabilities in applications including Adobe Flash and Java, a common application module. Many individuals and organizations never update these applications because they are unaware of the risk. The vulnerabilities discovered each day are astounding. These are known as zero-day vulnerabilities because a remedy is not available at the time of discovery. Organizations must keep everything—servers, workstations, laptops, routers, switches, firewalls, and even mobile devices—updated all of the time. This is a daunting task. A 5-PRONG CYBERSECURITY BATTLE PLAN Cyberrisks are so great these days that management must get involved to ensure that appropriate mitigation strategies are in place. What can CPAs and other business leaders do? The following five steps are a good start. Accept that your organization is at risk This cannot be emphasized enough. CEOs, CFOs, boards of directors, managing partners, and other organizational leaders need to see cybersecurity as the huge issue it is and devote adequate resources to maintaining a secure environment. Executives don't have to become computer geeks, but they can certainly learn the basics and what questions to ask. Change starts at the top. The CEO should not be exempt from the rule that passwords must be changed periodically. Management needs to establish and embrace a culture of strong security. Educate yourself and your organization Everyone in every organization needs security training. This means more than just sending out an email telling people to use secure passwords and to not fall prey to phishing emails. The massive Target security breach started with an employee at one of the company's vendors clicking on a link in a phishing email. Do your employees know how easily they could inadvertently open the door to such a cyberattack? Get that message across with ongoing cybersecurity training that covers new and old threats, defines the organization's security controls, sets employee expectations, and explains the consequences for violating procedures. Implement strong IT controls Organizations need their IT department (or outsourced vendor) to implement and maintain a comprehensive list of data and network security controls. As a CPA, you usually won't be responsible for directly implementing these controls or knowing exactly how they work. But it is helpful to understand enough to at least ask the right questions of the IT folks. Among the basics you need to know are:
Stay current on updates and patches Updating and patching are the responsibility of the IT department and actually fall into the above category of IT controls, but they are such a critical security component that they warrant a separate discussion. Organizations must keep all systems up to date at all times. That sounds simple—until you see the list of items that need updating. Among the items are firewalls, routers, switches, servers, workstations, laptops, tablets, phones, and peripheral devices such as printers and copiers. Management needs to ensure that IT—whether in-house or a vendor—updates all operating systems (Windows 8, Windows 7, etc.) and applications (Java, Adobe Flash, web browsers, etc.) with vendor-supplied patches. In addition, anti-virus/malware protection is needed not only for desktops and laptops, but mobile devices as well, including employee-owned devices that connect to the network. Make sure IT establishes an inventory reconciliation, which ensures that all systems are protected. Encourage the IT team, or your vendor, to assign this role to someone—preferably not an IT "firefighter"—who has time to fulfill these duties. If you outsource your network support to a vendor, make sure that your contracts establish and assign clear patching and updating responsibilities. Test your security and controls To determine its cybersecurity risk level, an organization should rely on two types of periodic assessments—vulnerability testing and information systems (IS) controls testing. Vulnerability testing involves the automated scanning of systems to determine if known vulnerabilities (security holes in software) are present. The tests should assess protections against threats both external (outside hackers) and internal (insiders or hackers that gain internal access). Commercialized scanning software currently tests for more than 50,000 vulnerabilities. IS controls testing verifies that the controls described above are functioning properly. Many organizations undergo a review of select controls as part of their financial audit, but this does not typically look at the entire environment. High-level oversight should ensure that IT promptly remediates any issues discovered during testing. Organizations also need to regularly assess vendors that either host their data or have access to them via internal systems. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER The scope of the cybersecurity threat can be staggering. A good analogy is the story of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in a leaking dike, a small effort that helped prevent a huge disaster. What would have happened if the little boy had not acted? Even worse, what if there had been many more holes—ones no one realized were even there? The results could have been disastrous. That's the situation facing many, if not most, organizations of all types, including accounting firms, businesses, and other entities that employ CPAs. In my company's information technology security reviews for organizations, no matter what type of entity they are or what industry they are in, a first-time check of their IT defenses usually reveals 40 or more security holes that need to be patched. Cybersecurity is a daunting challenge—one without a foolproof solution. The good news is that you can help your organization take steps to bolster its defenses. In the end, your organization can't eliminate the threat of cyberattacks, but a mix of education, controls, and testing can significantly reduce the risk. An approach to strong passwords From Technology Q&A columnist J. Carlton Collins, CPA All of my passwords start with the same lengthy prefix, such as a childhood telephone number, for example, 9126364242 (this is not the actual prefix I use). Next, my passwords all include the name of the account, such as Delta, Amazon, or AICPA. Finally, each of my passwords ends with a four-digit personal identification number (PIN). The results are strong lengthy passwords that I have a good chance of remembering, such as the examples shown below (which are not my actual passwords): Delta account password: 9126364242delta7543 Amazon account password: 9126364242amazon9312 AICPA account password: 9126364242aicpa2209 Using this approach, the bold PINs are all I need to remember, and because hackers don't know the actual lengthy prefix I use, these passwords are very strong. With 263 active passwords on my list, this structured approach gives me a fighting chance of remembering many of them. Because uppercase and special characters are more difficult characters to type (especially on a smartphone device), I avoid these types of characters unless they are required. Read Article: http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2016/apr/how-to-fight-computer-hackers.html Ninety percent of the accounting industry is tied to compliance services in areas such as accounting, audit and tax, but don’t look there for encouraging signs of industry performance.
“If you look at those Level 1 services over the next decade, it’s a slow death,” says consultant Allan Koltin, who has been called the industry’s biggest deal broker. “A Level 1 service is a service a client doesn’t want but needs. A Level 2 service is a service a client both wants and needs, and hence, will pay value for.” He expects growth in Level 1 services to range from zero to no more than 3 percent in the next 10 years as technology continues to replace more of what accountants do when providing these types of services, and as clients look for the cheapest options because they need but don’t want them. “You can’t be in a business that only grows 0 to 3 percent, because your payroll and operating costs are going to grow much faster than that.” Instead, it will be services that involve advisory, consulting, wealth management and performing outsourcing functions (such as CFO duties) that offer the most opportunity for accounting firms during the next 10 years. These are the services offered by trusted advisors because it is these services that clients need and, more importantly, are willing to pay for, Koltin says. Helping with Business/Financial Problems--Whatever They May Be To illustrate the point, consider Koltin’s relationship with an accounting firm that serves Koltin’s consultancy, based in Chicago’s home of Cook County. “There are 3,000 CPA firms in Cook County, and every one of them can do a financial statement or tax return,” he says. Clients don’t really want these services, but they need them in order to get a loan or comply with tax laws. “It’s logical that I might as well take the cheapest one I can find, because it’s a service I don’t want but I have to have. We call this a commodity!” But Koltin hasn’t done that, because his CPA is a trusted advisor. “The partner on the account comes to my office once a month, and we spend 10 minutes talking about the financial statement. We spend the other 3 hours and 50 minutes talking about any business challenge or financial problem that I’m having in my business and sometimes in my personal life.” “What I like about this person and the firm is the mentality of ‘we’re in the business of helping our clients with their business and financial problems, whatever they may be.’ ” “There’s no audit checklist; there’s no agreed-upon procedures. It’s a blank pad of paper or iPad, and it’s almost like a resident psychologist: ‘Hey Allan, tell me how the month was. What’s your game plan for the next month? What things that we’ve been talking about are continuing to be a problem, and how do we reach a decision to do something?’ A lot of times we’re not talking about accounting, taxes or audits—it’s all business coaching and advice.” Instead, they’re discussing service areas that may be underperforming or discussing how to balance finite resources and finite time. “So when another accounting firm calls me up and says they can do a cheaper audit or tax return, I’m not moving for $10,000; I’m probably not moving even if it’s $20,000 less, because I value the trusted advisor relationship that I have with my CPA firm and I don’t know that I can get that business coaching and advice elsewhere.” It is these types of relationships and services that represent the best revenue-growth opportunities for accounting firms. Level 2, 3 and 4 Services Aside from Level 1, or compliance services, here’s how Koltin sees growth rates breaking down over the next decade among the various levels of services provided by accounting firms: Level 2 services: 5 percent to 10 percent growth. These are services that clients want and need and will pay value for—services that many firms can do in-house, such as estate planning and tax solutions (like helping with international tax, SALT and transfer pricing issues), business valuations, feasibility studies and budgeting. Level 3 services: 10 percent to 20 percent growth. These include advisory work, consulting and outsourcing services, such as CFO work, and accounting firms often need to partner with a third-party expert or hire that expertise in house. Level 4 services: 20 percent to 200 percent growth. These services focus on wealth management: helping the client accumulate, protect and grow their wealth. “The legendary story goes that a firm resigned from the $100,000 audit so they could represent the client in the sale of their business,” Koltin says. “The client gets $50 million, and $40 million of that gets parked with the CPA firm’s asset management, and that annuity is worth five to 10 times what the audit was bringing in.” “Accounting firms are starting to get religion and understand that Level 1 is dying, and they’re quickly migrating into Level 2, 3 and 4,” Koltin says. “It reminds me of the old adage: If the railroad industry knew they were in the transportation business, they would still be around today.” The railroad industry became entrenched in doing what they knew and what they always did, whereas the transportation industry offered more advanced forms of service that were valued by the customer, who became more willing to pay greater fees, Koltin says. Accounting firms that only do what they’ve always done and what they’re most comfortable with—Level 1 services—will lose out to firms offering more advanced forms of services—Levels 2, 3 and 4—that are of more value to the client. Impact on Dealmaking The expected growth in Level 2, 3 and 4 services is also affecting industry consolidation, says Koltin, who in addition to his consultancy, also advises CPA firms on mergers and acquisitions. About half of deal activity is related to succession activity or older partners looking to unlock goodwill value built up by the firm, but the other half is strategic. Many firms are looking to build out product lines for the future but recognize that building those organically could take years and a lot of capital, accompanied by uncertainty and risk, so they choose to merge with a larger firm that already has the playbook. There’s also a tremendous trend of local firms rolling up into regional firms, regional firms rolling up into mega-regionals, mega-regionals into nationals and nationals into global firms. As a result, Koltin expects industry consolidation to continue apace. “Today, firms with no succession issues are doing upstream mergers because strategically, it makes sense,” Koltin says. “They realize it’s good for their people, partners and clients.” Read Entire Article: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/firm-profession/what-services-are-driving-accounting-industry-growth-79762-1.html The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced the annual inflation adjustments for a number of provisions for the year 2017, including tax rate schedules, tax tables, and cost-of-living adjustments for certain tax items.
These are the applicable numbers for the tax year 2017 - in other words, effective January 1, 2017. They are NOT the numbers and tax rates that you’ll use to prepare your 2016 tax returns in 2017 (you’ll find them here). Rather, these numbers and tax rates are those you’ll use to prepare your 2017 tax returns in 2018. If you aren’t expecting any significant changes, you can use the updated tax tables to estimate your liability for the 2017 tax year. If, however, you are expecting to make more money, get married, buy a house, have a baby or other life change, you’ll want to consider adjusting your withholding or tweaking your estimated tax payments. Read Entire Article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2016/10/25/irs-announces-2017-tax-rates-standard-deductions-exemption-amounts-and-more/#624a1706387a When we talk about cloud accounting, we shouldn’t be talking about it as an option, but rather an inevitability. A recent AICPA study revealed that 90% of accountants believe that delivery of digital services will be a key differentiator for practices by 2020. With 2017 fast approaching, leading accounting practices are getting a jump on the competition and migrating clients to the cloud at a rapid pace.
When it comes cloud accounting adoption, there’s no time like the present. Here are the 5 reasons now is the right time to switch your practice over to the cloud. 1. You’re Already There What’s the first thing you do when you login to your computer in the morning? Maybe you sign into Gmail to check your inbox. Perhaps you check Facebook to see your friends’ photos from the weekend. Or hey, maybe you were in the mood to watch a cat riding a Roomba on YouTube. Whatever you do, if it’s in a web browser, it’s almost guaranteed to be powered by the cloud. One of the most confusing things about the cloud is the name itself. We’ve assign a buzzword to a technology we interact with multiple times per day, multiple times per week. But strip away the nonsense, and what once seemed scary and exotic suddenly seems remarkably commonplace – because that’s exactly what it is. 2. Cloud Bookkeeping Software is Better Than Ever When you’re in charge of handling a company’s financial data, you had better be confident in the capability of your software and the integrity of your data. When the very first cloud accounting software hit the market around the turn of the century, well, let’s just say early adopters had their hands full. But today is a new day. The first version of QuickBooks Online was released in 2001. The first version Xero hit the market in 2006. In 2016, cloud accounting software is every bit as safe and reliable as desktop and accounting software. What’s more, cloud accounting software is fast, beautiful, and built to handle most of the accounting challenges you throw at it. Certain clients with more complex accounting needs may need to remain on the Desktop version of your bookkeeping software, but the vast majority of your clients can make the switch to the cloud in a matter of minutes. And since all the leading cloud accounting software companies provide free trials of their services, there’s really no reason not to see for yourself just how easy migrating can be. 3. The Cloud Helps You Do More There are enormous benefits to putting your financial data in the cloud. The first and most obvious is the speed at which you can reconcile books. When your bank can talk directly to accounting software, you can see cash flow, at a glance, whenever you want. Not only does this help you do your job better, it gives your clients better insight into health of their company. The second big advantage is the single ledger. No more hunting for the right file. No more sharing back and forth. No more confusion. There is one book and everyone is on the same page, because everybody has the same information. The last major advantage is that when your data is in the cloud, your other software can interact with it. Migrating your data to QuickBooks Online is just the first step – QuickBooks can be quicker! Using add-on software like Receipt Bank you can cut the time it takes to do things like bank reconciliation and records management in half. 4. Younger Clients Demand It While your oldest clients probably won’t be chomping at the bit to migrate to the cloud, there’s guaranteed to be a contingent of your client base that has been ready to go for a while. Any guesses as to which contingent? If you guessed millennials you’d be absolutely right. Millennials are a strong driving force for cloud adoption in companies big and small. That’s because millennials are no longer kids. Gen Y has finally reached management level, with many holding senior management positions. According a recent Google study, nearly half of all B2B solutions researchers are millennials meaning that even if the decision makers in a company skew older, the ones doing the research, vetting, and recommendation are increasingly likely to favor firms with a strong grasp on technology. What’s more, there is a whole subset of business decision makers who won’t even consider using your services if you don't offer cloud integration. Startups tend to prefer cloud technology as it cheaper and more scalable than enterprise desktop solutions. Plus, they are used to the integration and interoperability that comes with cloud software, and will balk at the prospect of having to manually transfer data from an offline data source to the rest of their online systems. There’s a smarter way to work, and your savvy millennial clients are all about it. 5. There Will Be Winners and Losers RIM saw iPhone’s fancy apps and shrugged them off. Blockbuster once looked at Netflix’s online offering and dismissed it as impossible to scale. The halls of history are littered with companies who stood idly by and watched other companies innovate around them. None of them escaped the disruption unscathed. Think the bookkeeping business can’t be disrupted? It’s already happening. Cloud-only providers like Bench and inDinero are offering compelling cloud accounting packages at cut rates, and business is booming. Like, 2686% YOY growth booming. What’s more, there are thousands of practices across the country who have already made the move to cloud accounting solutions. And even if practices in your city haven’t made the move, because cloud accounting practices run their business online, there could be an online bookkeeper based in Flagstaff that competes directly with your business in Des Moines. One of the most compelling reasons to switch to cloud accounting is because, frankly, your competitors have switched already. Don’t get left behind. Make the switch today. It’s Not Easy, But It’s Worth It Switching to cloud accounting will revolutionize the way you do business, and like most revolutions, it won’t come easy or fast. We know transitioning your practice to the cloud can be a difficult endeavor, but it doesn't have to be. There are 5 big pitfalls most practices encounter when going to the cloud, and we'll show you how to avoid them. Read Article: http://www.accountingtoday.com/partner_insights/articles/5-reasons-to-make-the-switch-to-cloud-accounting-today-79412-1.html |
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