CPA Practice Advisor

AUG 2013

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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THE BLEEDING EDGE By Dave McClure PRACTICE MANAGEMENT MULTIPLE WORKFLOWS S OFFICE AUTOMATION The Workfow Revolution CLIENT COLLABORATION ome of the greatest revolutions in technology arrive with a whisper rather than a bang. Te introduction of Microsof Word for Windows was released in 1989, it gave litle indication that it would – within just a few years – obliterate the market-leading WordPerfect and revolutionize word processing. Te Internet, as a commercial venture, was so pathetically crude that no one really cared – until the advent of the World Wide Web in 1990. Mr. McClure is a consultant and widely published writer on technology issues. He can be contacted at dave.mcclure@ cpapracticeadvisor.com 18 WORKFLOW This is relevant because the accounting industry is at one of those moments when we realize that a revolution is underway. A revolution in what we have been calling "workfow." It began two decades ago with a concept called the "paperless ofce." Great concept, but since the technology really did not exist to make it possible, it languished. Even the introduction of the Portable Document File (PDF) format in 1993 didn't make much of an impact. Tat changed when Adobe released PDF as an open format in 2008. Five years ago, we were wondering whether this new class of office automation sofware for accounting was even worth covering. Today we understand that this was the frst volley in a revolution that will fundamentally change how accounting is practiced. Office automation began as an extension of tax preparation, which required massive inputs of data, tall spires of paper and endless reviews by professionals within the office. Automation streamlined the inputs, eliminated the paper and made reviews August 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com faster and more efficient. But the concepts of collaboration and communication soon began to spread beyond the tax department, creating the concept of workfow within the accounting ofce. Workfow in and of itself is not a revolutionary concept, but its application within accounting frms is. Because we now understand that practice management is not about engagement leters and trial balances, but rather the management of multiple workfows within the accounting frm at the same time. The revolution is that when accounting is viewed as the efective blending of multiple workfows – tax, bookkeeping, payroll, audit, technology consulting and planning – it becomes easier to visualize how each member of the staf contributes to each fow. Te revolution is in a new-found way to eliminate inefciencies in each of the fows. It is in a beter ability to eliminate unnecessary steps and allocate human and physical resources more efectively. Partners within the frm are beter able to anticipate peak work periods and respond to them rapidly. Tis has evolved over the past fve years because the technologies have been created to enable it: • Sofware-as-a-Service • Cloud Computing • Small-footprint scanners • Client Portals. • Sofware to automatically populate forms • Sofware to track compliance measures • Hardware to support mobile computing. What this ultimately means is that accounting professionals spend less time populating forms and creating documents. And more time geting face-to-face with their clients. Tese technologies are bringing reality to the concept of accountants as a trusted business partner. Naturally, this brings about a major shift in how we will train the next generation of accountants. Because they will need to be experts not only in tax law and compliance, but also human resources management, health care, strategic planning and business management. And as much as you may want to think your firm has expertise in all these areas, chances are that you have only scratched the surface. Which is what is making the concepts of workfow revolutionary for accounting.

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