Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/116963
THOUGHT LEADERS Participants at the 2013 Thought Leader Symposium. they hoped to gain further insight at the exclusive event. Tis is the third year the Thought Leader Symposium has been held, and Tomson Reuters has participated each year. A fter a brief over v iew of the company���s products and services for the accounting profession, including their core focus areas of Taxation, Accounting Management and Firm Ma nagement, F lesza r a nd t he Tought Leaders focused on where the company believes the greatest changes w i l l be in accounting technologies and frm needs in the near and long term. ���Tomson Reuters wants to be a holistic provider of the solutions that tax and accounting professionals in public practice need,��� he said, and noted their latest tax preparation o f f e r i n g , A g i l eTa x , w h i c h i s designed for tax preparers running 1040-only practices or high volume tax prep businesses focused on the needs of less sophisticated clients. Among the topics discussed were broader trends afecting accounting professionals and their business clients, which were identified as globalization, the commoditization and relevance of some professional services like tax preparation, and generational shifs. ���Every year the world gets smaller and even smaller businesses are engaging in a global economy,��� Fleszar said. Small and mid-sized businesses are increasingly in need of international compliance and planning expertise, and CPAs and other professionals serving them need to realize it���s now a necessary role for accounting frms in this new global market.��� ���Future Ready Firms��� As professional accounting firms move to the cloud in greater numbers, companies that make the technologies that frms use need to enable greater integration within the programs, as well as with other systems that professionals use. Tat was one of the core messages that executives from CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, presented during several hours of discussion with the Tought Leaders. Teresa Mackintosh, the Executive Vice President/ GM Software for CCH in North America, represented the company and fielded questions as thought leader panelists discussed how CCH can best support firms and their needs in the coming years. Having anywhere-anytime access to client data and collaboration with clients, however, is only one of the many trends that CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, sees as challenging tax and accounting professionals in the years to come. Mackintosh also identified the commoditization of traditional tax a nd accou nt i ng ser v ices, a nd broader compliance issues as focuses that CCH and practices need to focus on as more businesses go global and governments at every level seek additional revenue. ���Accounting firms are facing pressure from ever y angle and changes in business and technology are impacting frms faster than ever before,��� Mackintosh said. ���Our goal at CCH is to deliver solutions for frms today and tomorrow that help them be ���future-ready.��� One of the core areas that Mackintosh and the other CCH executives shared was the Open Platform system the company started developing three years ago as a part of the launch of its collection of online, sofware-as-a-service (SaaS) professional tax and accounting programs. Now called CCH Suite, the program includes systems for Tax, Document Management, Portals, Practice Ma nagement, Sca n n i ng /OCR functions, Workstream for workfow optimization and KnowledgeConnect, for managing a frm���s internal knowledge. 2013 THOUGHT LEADERS: Practice Management for the Small Firm ��� John H. Higgins, CPA.CITP On the fnal day of this year���s Symposium, the CEO of Office Tools Professiona l a nd t he T hought Leaders spent nearly four hours discussing the needs of smaller practices, particularly when it comes to improving practice management. OTP is a developer of workf low technologies for small and mid-sized accounting and other professional services frms. Mike Giardina opened with the message that while good workfow technologies and processes can improve not only productivity, but also work-life balance, those technologies can also make work and workf low more difficult and time consuming, if they are done wrong. The key, he said, is automating as much as possible. However, while some accounting firms have made a lot of progress toward automating their internal management processes, he says many still need to find a solution that can help them operate more efciently. ���I believe practice management program is the most important system in a frm, because it brings everything together, allowing frms to operate to their potential,��� he said. Te apps in the program must also be not only useful, but also immediately accessible. ���People need to be able to fnd and use the parts of the system they need in a mater of one or two seconds, so that they can get work done.��� Since founding Off ice Tools Professional in 2000, he���s focused ��� M. Darren Root, CPA.CITP ��� L. Gary Boomer, CPA.CITP ��� Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP ��� Jim Bourke, CPA.CITP ��� David Cieslak, CPA.CITP ��� Gale Crosley, CPA ��� Chris Frederiksen, CPA ��� Michelle Golden ��� Tom Hood, CPA.CITP ��� Randy Johnston ��� Roman Kepczyk, CPA.CITP ��� Allan D. Koltin, CPA ��� Mark Koziel, CPA ��� Barry C. Melancon, CPA ��� Jim Metzler, CPA ��� Edi Osborne ��� Rick Richardson, CPA.CITP ��� Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP ��� Doug Sleeter ��� Bob Spencer, Ph.D. ��� Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP ��� Geni Whitehouse, CPA.CITP ��� Sandra Wiley ��� Jennifer Wilson on designing a system that is easy to use, but also ofers the real functiona lit y that sma l l and mid-sized practices need. From time tracking, contact management and client invoicing, to document storage, project management and scheduling. Te company is in the process of developing a SaaS version of the program, which thus far has been available installed or as an online accessible solution via hosting providers that include Right Networks, Cloud9 RealTime and other partners. Tey currently serve more than 1,500 accounting practices across the U.S. ranging from sole practitioners to firms with up to 80 staff members. April 2013 ��� www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 5