Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/399112
October 2014 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 15 THE BLEEDING EDGE should be listed at the botom of every single page of the site. Ten get a good email flter to protect that address. 7 "CANNED" L AYOUT AND DESIGN. You can actually get a website design for free – from any number of places. The problem is that a thousand other frms are using the same design, and none of them look any beter than your site. Invest in a design suited to your frm and it capabilities. Te worst ofense is to present a one-page " busi- ness card" website – or none at all. 8 INSTALLING JAVASCRIPT. A decade ago it was a tech- nology that seemed destined to r u l e t h e o n l i n e w o r l d . To d ay, i t i s t h e s o u rce o f never-ending security holes and patches, placing the frm's site and clients at risk. Get rid of it – if JavaScript is required, there is a design faw in the site. 9 A U T O M AT I C A U D I O FILES. Tere is nothing worse than going to a website only to have a video or advertisement blare across the ofce. Visitors should have the right to choose whether to sufer through your audio or video message. Force them to listen, and they will fee. 10 T YPOS AND GRM MATICAL ERROR S. My editors w ill glee- fully atest to the fact that I am a dreadfully bad proofreader. But that is not my job, or that of the frm's partner, either. Have the site scanned for typos and grammatical errors every month – and buy lunch for anyone who fnds one. Tey will have earned it. Te frm's website is the cornerstone of the online media strategy, and cannot be ignored or overlooked just because it is no longer shiny and new. Chances are that a quick audit of that site will show what changes need to be made as frst steps. REALITY CHECK A compendium of ideas, products, rants and raves from the viewpoint of the author. The author has no financial i n te re s t s i n a ny o f t h e p ro d u c t s mentioned. Feel free to disagree, or to share your ideas by sending them to davemcclure@cpata.com . IN TER NET SITE OF THE MONTH. Website Tool Tester ( www.websitetooltester.com/en/ website-builder-reviews ). Tere are both too few and too many sites dedicated to building and testing websites for accounting frms. Tis site reviews 10 tools for testing a site, along with a book of ideas, and while it may not be perfect it is a starting place. CPA Practice Advisor's Review of Web Building Tools ( www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/collec- tion/11600550 ) Not to tout our own magazine, but CPAPA does an annual review of website builders designed for use by accounting frms. All the usual caveats apply, but the 2014 review by John Higgins is worth reading. Cheap document scanners. Te market is suddenly awash with cheap document scanners of ever y description – not Fujitsu, or Cannon, or new entrants like Ambir, but rather knock-of brands that are cheaper but have high failure rates and misfeeds. Tis might not be critical in reading business cards, but you don't want to be laying in the emergency room while they struggle with admission forms on a cheap scanner. Quality counts. Small Footprint Computers. A new generation of micro-computers (mini- ITX form factor) is hiting the market- place, driven by the need for fexibility and power in the same box. Tey need lots of cooling, but are very suitable for graphics, home theater, and light-duty applications like scanning support. Apple's iWatch. Is the third time the charm for this ultimate geek gadget? Only if you are too young to remember the frst two times a data watch has been proclaimed the latest and greatest tech- nology. Anyone else here remember the Timex data watch? You can bet Microsof does, which may be why they are a litle more cautious about this bandwagon. I personally would not be caught dead wearing one this time around – I will leave it to those who weren't born yet the frst two times around. Microsof Ofce Mix. It's still early to see if this new PowerPoint module will be as slick as its promotion says, but the concept is terrifc. Microsof says it's a new, free solution for PowerPoint that makes it easy to create and share online interactive presentations, or "mixes." Mixes play like YouTube videos, but with support for animations, live links and more. Get it at mix.ofce.com .