Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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April 2015 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 3 5 • w w w . C P A P r a c t i c e A d v i s o r . c o m 3 800-547-7377 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com The opinions given by contributing authors are their own and are not the opinions of our staff. All trademarks used are the property of their respective owner. ———————————————————————————————————————————— Practice Advisor, (ISSN #2160-8725 (print), ISSN #2160-8733 (digital); USPS #017-576) is published six times a year (February, April, June/July, August, October and December) by Cygnus Business Media, Inc., incorporating two editions known as CPA Practice Advisor and NSA Practice Advisor, 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and at additional mailing offces. Printed in the U.S.A. Send all subscription inquiries or change of address to: Practice Advisor, PO Box 3258, Northbrook, IL 60065-3258. Phone: (877) 382-9187 (toll free); (847) 559-7598 (local) Fax: (847) 564-9453 Email: Circ.CPA@omeda.com Subscription Rates: The basic annual rate is $3, based on qualifying associations of 10,000 or more public accountants that may also subscribe for all their public accountant members (certain restrictive covenants apply) for a basic subscription rate of $9 per member for a three-year subscription. One year subscription for all others: USA - $48; CAN $70 GST; INT'L $99 GST #842773848. POSTMASTER, please send address changes to: Practice Advisor, P.O. Box 3258, Northbrook, IL 60065-3258. Canadian address changes to: Canada Post PM40612608. Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Practice Advisor, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Publisher: Jim Baker Editor-in-Chief: Gail Perry, CPA Managing Editor: Isaac M. O'Bannon Assistant Editor: Taija Jenkins Columnists: David McClure Doug Sleeter Jim Boomer, CPA.CITP Kristy Short Randy Johnston Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP Art Director: Rhonda Cousin National Sales Manager: Barry Strobel Site Manager: Lester Craft Media Production Representative: Barb Evenson Audience Development Manager: Angela Kelty Editorial Advisory Board: Bob Cedergren, CPA.CITP, CISA, CISM, CISSP, CGEIT Chris Fraser, CPA.CITP, CISA, MCP Jason Lawhorn, CPA.CITP Gary A. Masino, CPA Ryan McCowan, CPA.CITP Linda O'Neal Troy Patton, CPA David Primes, CPA.CITP Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP Doug Sleeter Sandra L. Wiley CYGNUS BUSINESS MEDIA CEO: Paul Bonaiuto PRESIDENT: Chris Ferrell CFO: Ed Tearman VP, Human Resources: Ed Wood VP, Technology: Eric Kammerzelt CYGNUS PUBLISHING Executive Vice President: Gloria Cosby Vice President of Production Operations: Curt Pordes Director of Digital Business Development: Lester Craft VOLUME 25, NUMBER 3 For reprints and licensing please contact Nick Iademarco at Wright's Media 877-652-5295 ext. 102 or niademarco@wrightsmedia.com. Gail is the Editor-in-Chief of CPA Practice Advisor and a CPA. She is the author of over 30 books (including "Mint.com for Dummies" and "QuickBooks 2014 on Demand") and she maintains a small tax practice. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism fom Indiana University and studied accounting at Illinois State University before starting her professional career at Deloite. Gail is the former publisher and editor-in-chief at AccountingWEB and is a former columnist for the Indianapolis Star newspaper. By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-In-Chief FROM THE EDITOR Looking Forward: It's Not Too Early to Get Ready for 2016 Busy Season! Here are some questions to address w ith your co-workers, and don't forget that your family should have a say in some of these issues – like the ver y frst one. • HOURS – Did you work more hours this spring than in past busy seasons, fewer, or about the same? More importantly, are you content with the number of hours that were logged since January 1? If not, start on a plan now to make changes that will impact the number of hours spent in the early months of 2016. • SOFTWARE – Is your tax sofware up to the task of helping you work as efciently as possible? Check out this month's ta x preparation software reviews if you are thinking of making a change before next year. • DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT – How are you processing all of the paper work that comes through the office during tax season? Scanners? Por tals? Document management sofware? Are you using the best pro- cess for the money you are spending? Could you be more efficient with a better system? Now is the time to retrace your document footsteps and think about how you can improve the process. Our reviews of document storage and document management systems should help point you in the right direction. • CLIENT SERVICES – Are you providing the right services to your clients? Tink about that for a minute. Maybe you're going through the motions of doing the same thing for your clients that you've been doing for a decade or more. Is it time to restruc- ture your service oferings so that your clients know what services you have to ofer, what those services will cost, and how they will provide beneft? • CLIENT COMMUNICATION – W hat is the best way for you and your clients to communicate? You need to set the rules for how information will transfer between your team and your clients, keeping in mind what will be easiest and least of-puting for your clients. In a world of new technology, you might find yourself communi- cating with clients through email, social media , web chat , and tex t messages. It's imperative that you have a procedure in place whereby you can document and save important client communications. • HEALTH, HYGIENE, APPEAR- ANCE – I'm not kidding – these are important too. Did you start to slack of on these key elements as the busy season days turned into weeks and months? Start working out a plan now for your whole team to make sure ever yone i s in top shape before, during , and after next year 's busy season. And get busy now geting back to your best form! — Gail Perry, Editor-in-Chief Follow me on Twiter at @gaperry S o, you've got another busy season behind you. How did it go? Beter than in the past? About the same? A new level of disaster? While your busy season is fresh in your mind, this is the time to reassess as we take a breather and recap the past few months.