As accounting firms increasingly rely on cloud-based technologies and services, they are also seeking tools that can help them optimize their workflow and streamline and automate client services.

The winners and finalists for the 13th annual Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards reflect this focus on workflow and automation, which allow firms and their small business clients to operate more efficiently and profitably. The awards were presented on June 1, 2016, by CPA Practice Advisor during a reception and ceremony at the California Accounting and Business Show & Conference in Los Angeles.

CPA Practice Advisor provides a variety of independent digital and print resources for accounting professionals, including practice resources, technology reviews, interactive tools and content that helps firms achieve greater productivity.

The 2016 Innovation Award winners are:

• Avalara, for TrustFile,
• Bill.com, for the new Bill.com iOS App,
• CPA.com and Confirmation.com, for the Rivio Clearinghouse,
• cPaperless, for SafeSend Returns,
• Sage Software, for Sage View,
• Sageworks, for its Electronic Tax Return Reader, and
• Thomson Reuters, for Onvio.

Six Innovation Award Finalists were also recognized by CPA Practice Advisor:

• Confirmation.com for its Legal Confirmation Services,
• Doc.It for the Doc.It AutoFiling Service,
• Karbon, for its Task Management system,
• Sage Software, for Sage Impact,
• Fujitsu, for the ScanSnap iX100 mobile scanner, and
• Xero, for Xero Tax Touch.

The Innovation Awards were first presented in 2004, and honor new or recently enhanced technologies that benefit tax and accounting professionals and their clients through improved workflow, increased accessibility, enhanced collaboration, or other means.

“We are constantly seeking new technologies that can benefit tax and accounting professionals, and their clients” said CPA Practice Advisor Editor-in-Chief Gail Perry, CPA. “As the profession continues to embrace new workflows and processes that optimize the potentials of these technologies, firms are improving their efficiency and focusing their practices on more profitable service offerings that, at the same time, are more beneficial to the small businesses that rely on them for advice and strategy." Perry also manages a tax practice and is the author of more than 30 books, including Mint.com for Dummies, and Idiot's Guide to Introductory Accounting.

In addition to the winners and finalists, more than 40 technology products and services were nominated for this year's Innovation Awards:

ATX Integrated IntelliConnect Browser Search Tool and Tax Research Menu

BEPS Global Currents

BigTime IQ Pro

BNA Income Tax Planner Web

BNA State Tax Analyzer

Canopy Tax, Inc Tax Resolution

CCH CodeConnect

CCH iFirm Practice Manager

Client Centric Communications

Depre123 Depreciation System

Eaglefiling

eFileCabinet SideKick

Exact for Accountants

FloQast

Gravity Software LLC

Industry Newsletters

Intacct Subscription Billing

Intelligize

Intuit Trial Balance

ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Certificate Manager 2.0

PPC’s Guide to Tax-Related Identity Theft

QuickBooks Self-Employed

ReceiptBank Practice Platform

Credits and Incentives Pinpointer: Statutory and Discretionary

Thomson Reuters myPay Solutions Direct

TSheets Scheduling

Winners of the Innovation Awards are selected from nominated products by CPA Practice Advisor’seditorial board and awards committee, which include thought leaders and professionals from across the country. The digital resource and print publication is the leading independent source of practice management resources and technology information for tax and accounting professionals in public practice. www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com.

The nomination period for the 2017 Innovation Awards will open in February 2017.

For several years now, the specter of change has hovered over the accounting profession, driven largely by shifts in how its clients work and, of course, in technology and processes. But what haunts the profession most these days is not just change itself, but change management.

This was one of the main themes on accountants’ minds and discussed by CPA profession leaders, including AICPA Chairman Barry Melancon, here at the association’s Practitioners Symposium and TECH+ Conference.

In his own words, “change management, not just change itself, has become a major concern among CPAs,” said Melancon. He also stressed that, for small firms in particular, the AICPA and CPA.com were doing their best to ensure they enable relevancy in the marketplace.

As for how firms can best adapt and specifically manage the changes impacting the profession the most, Melancon advised that “the evolution of CPA core services is a must in order to keep position of trust relevant in a changing world.”

It has been hammered on accountants time and time again that simply providing compliance services may not be enough to sustain their relevancy to clients. But what tools are they given outside of trying out new products that will, in theory, help expand their service offering and “evolve,” as Melancon noted? This is likely where so-called “soft skills” or “success skills,” as some are calling it here at the conference, comes into play.

Author, speaker, and CPA Bill Reeb of the Succession Institute regularly works with accountants on the aforementioned skills and took the time to address attendees in a keynote here at the event. He touted CPAs as “natural overachievers” who often can’t get out of their own way and, ultimately, “get stuck.”

“Common wisdom is to develop your strengths and surround yourself with people whose strengths are your weaknesses,” said Reeb. “You can’t go through an evaluation of things you do when you are frustrated. As soon as you think I should be further along or I’m failing, that’s when you get stuck.”

Reeb went on to note that accountants need to take the time to understand what they are trying to achieve, and more importantly, if they do decide to make changes in their firm, to be realistic regarding expectations.

“If you are not failing at the things you try, you aren’t getting better,” said Reeb. “There will never be a ‘right time’ to make the changes you need for your firm.”

Useful sound bites aside, the fact still stands that no one in the profession is coming to a conference to say the same. In the same right, accountants don’t necessarily want to be constantly told “to change.” They want to know how and, moreover, how to manage that change. This again was a major theme here at the conference and I suspect at more to come.

As ever, your thoughts on the issue are what matter most.

Auditors and financial advisors have a new resource to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of financial documents.

CPA.com and Confirmation.com today announced the launch of RIVIO Clearinghouse, which delivers CPA source-validated financial documents such as audited financial statements to bankers, shareholders and other investors. These documents are available through a secure, cloud-based platform that offers stronger fraud prevention and more sophisticated controls than existing delivery methods.

Private companies are the backbone of the U.S. economy, making up the overwhelming majority of the nation’s 28 million businesses. Unlike with public companies, whose key data is accessible through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system, there is no central repository for private company financial information. As a result, many private businesses still rely on outdated methods to distribute financial statements, tax forms and other key documents, such as mailing or hand delivering paper copies or emailing unsecure files. Banks, private equity firms and other users of this information have little way of knowing if the data they receive has been altered.

The RIVIO Clearinghouse transforms how private company financial information is exchanged by:

• Validating that a financial document has been uploaded by a licensed CPA firm
• Eliminating the possibility that company management can change data once it is uploaded by the CPA firm
• Allowing companies complete control over who can view the information, so financial data remains private and protected
• Providing anytime, anywhere access to the information, which can speed lending decisions and other business transactions
• Protecting private company information with encryption and an IT architecture tested by rigorous security audits

“In today’s digital world, bankers and investors are expecting authenticated sources of data,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “The RIVIO Clearinghouse uniquely provides a system where only licensed CPA firms can upload audited and reviewed financial statements used by lenders, private equity firms and others.”

The online clearinghouse was developed jointly by CPA.com and Confirmation.com, a company that offers a market-leading solution for electronic audit confirmations and is well known in both the accounting profession and the banking industry. RIVIO—an acronym for Repository of Intelligent Validated Inputs and Outputs—has been in a pilot phase with leading firms for the past year and was named a 2016 Top New Product by Accounting Today. The clearinghouse does not replace or compete with firm or bank portals, since it was designed specifically for transferring information between three distinct user groups with features relevant to each. In time, the RIVIO Clearinghouse can be integrated into these portals.

“One of the key benefits of the new clearinghouse is fraud prevention,” said Brian Fox, CPA, president and founder of Confirmation.com. “It’s easy to alter a paper financial document or create a bogus PDF, but the RIVIO Clearinghouse prevents changes once a CPA firm uploads a financial statement. That provides piece of mind for lenders and other interested parties.”

For more information about the clearinghouse, please visit RIVIO.com

“There are legal and reputational issues that can impact a CPA firm when a fraudster misuses their name or unscrupulous executives alter numbers in an otherwise legitimate audit report,” Asgeirsson said. “The RIVIO Clearinghouse eliminates many of these concerns while also maintaining the privity defense for firms.”

Last week, CPA.com and Confirmation.com announced the launch of RIVIO Clearinghouse, which delivers CPA source-validated financial documents such as audited financial statements to bankers, shareholders and other investors. These documents are available through a secure, cloud-based platform that offers stronger fraud prevention and more sophisticated controls than existing delivery methods.

Private companies are the backbone of the U.S. economy, making up the overwhelming majority of the nation’s 28 million businesses. Unlike with public companies, whose key data is accessible through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system, there is no central repository for private company financial information. As a result, many private businesses still rely on outdated methods to distribute financial statements, tax forms and other key documents, such as mailing or hand delivering paper copies or emailing unsecure files. Banks, private equity firms and other users of this information have little way of knowing if the data they receive has been altered.

The RIVIO Clearinghouse transforms how private company financial information is exchanged by:

•   Validating that a financial document has been uploaded by a licensed CPA firm

•   Eliminating the possibility that company management can change data once it is uploaded by the CPA firm

•   Allowing companies complete control over who can view the information, so financial data remains private and protected

•   Providing anytime, anywhere access to the information, which can speed lending decisions and other business transactions

•   Protecting private company information with encryption and an IT architecture tested by rigorous security audits

“In today’s digital world, bankers and investors are expecting authenticated sources of data,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “The RIVIO Clearinghouse uniquely provides a system where only licensed CPA firms can upload audited and reviewed financial statements used by lenders, private equity firms and others.”

The clearinghouse does not replace or compete with firm or bank portals, since it was designed specifically for transferring information between three distinct user groups with features relevant to each. In time, the RIVIO Clearinghouse can be integrated into these portals.

“One of the key benefits of the new clearinghouse is fraud prevention,” said Brian Fox, CPA, president and founder of Confirmation.com. “It’s easy to alter a paper financial document or create a bogus PDF, but the RIVIO Clearinghouse prevents changes once a CPA firm uploads a financial statement. That provides peace of mind for lenders and other interested parties.”

CPA.com and Confirmation.com have launched RIVIO Clearinghouse, a secure, cloud-based platform for the exchange of CPA source-validated financial documents.

RIVIO—an acronym for Repository of Intelligent Validated Inputs and Outputs—was built for private companies, which lack a central repository for financial information like the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR system for public companies. Bankers, shareholders and investors can deliver financial documents like audited financial statements through RIVIO, which was built with the same rigorously audited encryption and IT architecture that supports secure online audit confirmation platform Confirmation.com.

CPA.com provides validation that a financial document has been uploaded by a licensed CPA firm and the system prevents companies from changing data once uploaded. Companies have control over who can view information and are also able to recall documents, so that if a financial statement or tax return is withdrawn, RIVIO notifies anyone who has downloaded the document it is no longer the recent version.

CPA.com and Confirmation.com have been piloting the platform with large and midsized accounting firms, banks and private equity firms over the last year. During that process, participating companies have appreciated the clearinghouse’s ability to prevent fraudulent activities like the altering of financial documents or Photoshopping firm letterhead.

“One group that really seems to be overly excited are private equity and venture capital firms,” explained Brian Fox, a CPA and president and founder of Confirmation.com. “They see it as an obvious tool to request financial statements through when investing millions of dollars in a business.” Those companies also tend to be on the bleeding edge of technology, Fox said, with one user describing RIVIO as “effectively like the last mile.” With everything else automated, the executive viewed secure file sharing as the last mile in automated, collaborative tools.

RIVIO is intended to serve a range of firm sizes, from sole practitioners to large firms, with the basic service free for those users that would be, for example, conducting a few audits a year, and the ability to scale up to the business level for $499 per year, professional level for $999 per year, and enterprise level providing unlimited projects (per share) at a price available to firms upon request.

Bankers and investors “want source documents, in today’s digital world,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA.com. “They are expecting authenticated sources of data and are excited [to use RIVIO] as a primary source for financial statements, but also to use it for the IRS. Today, with the tax transcript service, you have to go out and ask for a tax transcript from the IRS, and the IRS does not follow up if there are amended returns—our system has that capability.”

RIVIO’s cloud-based platform also provides anytime, anywhere access to the financial information and a “key distinguishing piece, in a paper world,” according to Fox, of signature protection.

“The auditor has no way to protect the signature… RIVIO gives auditors the full ability control their signature, have access to the signature, and for RIVIO to contact third parties [like investors and banks] on their behalf” if financial fraud has been committed.

One question CPA.com and Confirmation.com have encountered since unveiling RIVIO is how it differs from firm portals. The platform “complements existing portals, it doesn’t compete,” Asgeirsson explained. “Firm portals have a different purpose, for firms to collaborate on work products, client audit information, back and forth, and tax information. That is not what this system is about, but financial documents and sharing them in a secure, validated fashion, with the key users.” Soon, the RIVIO Clearinghouse can be integrated into these portals.

Fox estimates about half of the more than 10 firms involved in the pilot process of RIVIO had stories of financial fraud, which, along with various other fraud cases he and Asgeirsson have explored, have proven the need for RIVIO.

“There has been continuing reinforcement for the need for this for the private company market in the U.S.,” Asgeirsson explained. “We’ve brought to light some of the fraud that has occurred due to companies putting out fraudulent financial statement documents to investors.”

More information about RIVIO is available here.