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Transforming Client Accounting Blog

03/20/2012

Phishing, Brand-hijacking and other Malicious Attacks, Part 1

Greg LaFollette, Vice President of Product Strategy, CPA2Biz, discusses and provides definitions for some of the most prevalent malicious attacks a firm or practitioner may encounter, including "phishing," "pharming," "twishing," "vishing" and "brand-hijacking."

For more information on online schemes, and how to stay secure, check out the following resources:

Posted by AICPA on 03/20/2012 in Client Accounting, Data Security, Video Blog  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)

10/10/2011

Efficiency is the Name of the Game—How one organization made it happen!

As a trusted business advisor, you can take advantage of infrastructure efficiencies that allow you to focus on what you do best – advising your clients. Consider moving to cloud-based solution, and how an integrated bill management system, combined with a solid financial accounting system, may improve efficiencies within your firm. But, how do you do it? What are the benefits? And, how do your clients benefit? 

Recently the National Associate of Water Companies (NAWC) outlined how it accomplished noticeable efficiencies by moving to cloud-based solutions.  Along with the help from the staff at LarsonAllen, LLP, this water company improved collaboration and workflow efficiencies, while witnessing an increased benefit in the audit trail process, which aided in its annual audits.

You see, the NAWC was spending precious time twice per month dedicating time to meet with their LarsonAllen representative, reviewing, approving, and signing checks. The manual process, for this company of eight, fatigued dedicated and important resources. Once LarsonAllen moved to an integrated solution, the staff at NAWC could review, approve, and schedule online payments via check, ePayment/ACH, or PayPal with more flexibility and efficiency than ever before. And, best of all, the audit trail was built into the workflow solution.

Before the automated solution was put into place, NAWC staff would have to pull documentation and either email or fax it to LarsonAllen. With its cloud-based solution, users store documentation online, and the LarsonAllen staff can find answers on contracts and bills quickly. As a result, NAWC experienced a reduction in discovery hours and were able to provide faster, cleaner, and a more cost-effective audit trail.

Further, there was no more guessing about if or when bills were being paid. Mike Horner,

Director of Administration and Membership at NAWC, says, “Before [our automated solution was in place], I’d be walking the dog or taking a shower and I’d wonder if a certain bill had been paid. Because our [bill-pay solution] is cloud based, I can find the details immediately, on my home computer.”

So, rather than focusing their time on bill payment and management, the staff at NAWC is now more able to focus on their role at hand—educating the public on the safety of private tap water.

Learn more about how you can automate not only your firm’s bill paying processes, but also that of your clients; so they too can focus on what they do best—their business.

Read more case studies on how firms and their clients are implementing cloud-based solutions so they can focus on the business at hand.

Visit the Trusted Business Advisor Solution paperless bill management site today.

Posted by AICPA on 10/10/2011 in Cloud Financials, Paperless Bill Management  |  Permalink  |  Comments (14)

09/28/2011

How Cloud Computing Prevented Rain on Your Parade

TBAS Blog - How Cloud Computing Prevented Rain on Your Parade

There was a two-week period less than a month ago when a hurricane, wildfire, earthquake, and electrical blackout gave business owners and financial professionals something to think about – disaster recovery and cloud computing. How could they keep their business running, when events out of their control were happening around them?

Millions of people were without power during those seemly one-on-top-of-the-other events, which could have put business at a standstill for many small business owners, accountants, and CPA firms. Below are stories from several accounting professionals who leveraged cloud-based solutions to prevent rain from falling on their clients’ parade during these back-to-back events.

Cloud Computing

“More than 85% of our clients, which are CPA firms, could have been impacted by the power outage,” commented Robert Chandler, President and CEO of Cloud9 Real Time. “It could have brought them to their knees. But with the cloud, there wasn’t even a blip on their radar screen. None of our clients experienced downtime during the power outage in Southern California. The cloud did not collapse.”

Carol Michaels, Director at The Finance Department, said her office was closed for four days after the hurricane that hit the northeast. “On Monday, we used smartphones to communicate with our clients,” she said. “On Tuesday all employees were working from their home or our partner’s home, which is also designated as our disaster recovery site. We got back in on Thursday, only to be evacuated again on Friday morning due to a gas leak. But, we didn’t miss a beat thanks to the cloud!”

Accountant Susan Bland, from William B. May, Jr. CPA PC, said, “Our office did not have power on Monday August 29, and I had two payroll clients who had to have their payrolls processed. I simply took my laptop and went to their offices to process the payroll where I had access to electricity and the Internet. It really worked out well.”

Why Move to the Cloud?
Cloud-based accounting solutions allow you the flexibility, freedom, and peace of mind to know you can access client data 24/7/365 from anywhere there is an Internet connection. Other reasons include:

  • Disaster Planning
  • Paperless Solutions
  • Technology Maintenance
  • Data Security

According to Tom Codington, CPA, disaster planning and avoidance were great reasons to move to a cloud-based solution. “I have not had a disaster…fortunately…but can tell you that disaster planning / avoidance is one of the main reasons I chose to move all of our accounting and tax files to a virtual server.  It is really great to be able to access all our office files and information from home or anywhere there is an Internet connection.”

“You are not held hostage by the elements,” claimed one accounting professional, “You can pick up and do the work someplace else.” Your clients will thank you for it in the end.

Nancy Smiegowski, Senior Manager at MeadWestvaco, commented that moving to the cloud helped to nearly eliminate paper files, increase efficiency, and reduce worry. “With select servers where only a few people could ‘touch’ the [electronic] files, the paper files have gotten much smaller. Our staff can access content during meetings, real time. If someone has a question, he/she can go to the server and get what they need without ever touching paper.”

When Lynnea Bylund, President of business consulting firm Catalyst House, launched their Quickbooks services division three years ago the focus was to build a California SMB client base. During the power outage, she was only slightly concerned about losing connectivity. She was more thankful that they had moved to the cloud and all their resources were no longer in one location.  “We wanted more security and 24/7 support, which we got with our cloud provider. The security is just unprecedented.”

Lynnea also mentioned that when her company had in-house IT, they were learning and doing and spending more with IT than they ever planned on.  When Catalyst House moved their processes to the cloud, they were able to better focus on their primary businesses.

Things to Consider
As you consider the testimonials above, think about how you are prepared for a natural or man-made disaster. In any of these events, would you be able to provide the client care and service you’ve been accustomed to providing if you were not using a cloud-based solution?

The Resources list below offers a list of books, webinars, and case studies to help you prepare for a disaster. As a trusted business advisor, there are also a few items on the list you may wish to share with your clients to help them prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

How did you fare during these recent events? Share your story with us on how cloud-based solutions and effective disaster recovery planning preventing it from raining on your client’s parade.

 

Resources

Disaster Recovery

Data Security

Cloud Computing Case Studies & White Papers

 

 

Posted by AICPA on 09/28/2011  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)

08/22/2011

James C. Bourke CPA.CITP on Workflow Automation and Data Security

Published August 22, 2011 
 
Posted by AICPA on 08/22/2011 in Client Accounting, Data Security, Resources, SaaS, Video Blog, Workflow Solutions  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)

04/06/2011

Comments on 2011 AICPA Top Technology Initiatives Survey

Published April 06, 2011 
 



Click here for results from the survey.

Posted by AICPA on 04/ 6/2011 in Client Accounting, Cloud Financials, Data Security, Resources, Video Blog, Workflow Solutions  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)

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