June 4, 2013
New York, NY

Leading Online Platform for Professional Training and Education is Powered by CPA2Biz

CPA2Biz, the technology subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, today announced that AICPA Navigator—a state-of-the-art learning management system for the accounting profession—was named a finalist for CPA Practice Advisor’s 2013 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards.

Created by CPAs for CPAs, AICPA Navigator is the perfect tool to ease compliance monitoring and expand a firm’s skills and knowledge base.It automates tracking of compliance and competency requirements to help individuals and firm administrators spot gaps in training and map career development paths.

“The Innovation Awards are designed to highlight technologies that significantly benefit accounting firms or help them streamline engagements,” said Isaac M. O’Bannon, editor of CPA Practice Advisor. “AICPA Navigator gets directly to the heart of professional development, providing a streamlined, cloud-based educational management system that helps firms build their staff expertise. The system is exceptionally deserving of recognition in this year’s awards.”

The winners were selected from a large pool of nominees based on balloting from more than 40 of the profession's thought leaders. This is the second consecutive year that CPA2Biz has been honored in the competition—CPA.com Email Services won an award in 2012.

With AICPA Navigator, subscribers gain access to an extensive catalog of high-quality, authoritative AICPA courses that firms can easily incorporate into their own in-house training programs. This interactive online platform is easy to use, delivers education in manageable, targeted segments and also allows employers to monitor progress.

CPAs can access cloud-based AICPA Navigator content whenever it is most convenient for them, and firms can also schedule on-site training. Administrators can set up alerts, assign state-specific requirement courses and suggest appropriate programs to build skills for staff members and groom promising employees for leadership posts. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to speak to several chief learning officers at top firms this year, and there is great demand for innovative professional education and development platforms,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA2Biz. “AICPA Navigator fills this need, and we’re glad to receive this endorsement of its capabilities.”

For more information about AICPA Navigator, please visit www.aicpastore.com/navigator.

About CPA2Biz
CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, provides best-in-class marketing and technology services to support accounting professionals throughout the U.S.  Its Trusted Business Advisor solutions are web-based tools that enable small- and mid-size accounting firms to build more collaborative and strategic relationships with their business clients or employers. For more information, visit www.aicpastore.com, the leading e-commerce site for the accounting profession.

Febuary 21, 2013
New York, NY

Almost 2,000 Customers Have Signed Up for CPA.com Email

CPA2Biz has made several improvements to CPA.com Email Solutions, its award-winning email service for members of the American Institute of CPAs who want to highlight their professional designation in digital communications. Almost 2,000 CPAs have signed up for the service since it launched a little more than a year ago.

CPA.com Email Solutions offers a more professional alternative to consumer services such as Yahoo!, Hotmail or AOL Mail. Available exclusively to AICPA members, users get a personal email address that combines their name with the CPA.com domain (YourName@CPA.com). The service is available in two variations: a business-class offering for $95.95 a year, and a $29.95 a year message-forwarding option that works with an AICPA member’s existing email account.

“We’re pleased with the growing number of members taking advantage of this service,” said Erik Asgeirsson, president and CEO of CPA2Biz, the technology subsidiary of the AICPA. “A strong digital brand isn’t an option in today’s competitive environment, it’s the starting point. We’ll continue to work to build a better product and a better value for AICPA members.”

Recent improvements to the full-featured version include:

• Five gigabytes of free online storage through Google Drive, which allows users to store and share files. This is in addition to the 25 gigabytes of mail storage space that comes standard with an account.
• Access to Google Talk, which enables video and message chat functions from your desktop and the ability to send and receive files. When using either Google Drive or Google Talk, files are delivered through your CPA-branded account.

In addition, subscribers to the forward-only service can now upgrade to the full-feature version at any time.

CPA.com Email Solutions won a CPA Practice Advisor Innovation Award for 2012, and was also named a Top New Product the same year by Accounting Today. The business-class offering includes full Contacts and Calendar functionality, anti-spam and antivirus protection, and the ability to access and manage messages from Microsoft Outlook, webmail and mobile devices.

For more information, visit www.cpa.com/email.

About CPA2Biz
CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, provides best-in-class marketing and technology services to support accounting professionals throughout the U.S. Its Trusted Business Advisor solutions are web-based tools that enable small- and mid-size accounting firms to build more collaborative and strategic relationships with their business clients or employers. For more information, visit www.cpa2biz.com, the leading e-commerce site for the accounting profession.