CPA Practice Advisor

FEB 2012

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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ENGAGEMENT & TRIAL BALANCE Thomson Reuters – Trial Balance CS Reviews For Your Firm Trial Balance CS is the working trial bal- ance component within the T omson Reuters CS Professional Suite. Trial Balance CS may be purchased and used as a standalone product or directly integrated with other CS Professional Suite products. T e system is adaptable to a wide variety of business types and allows users the ability to generate full custom fi nancial statements. Journal entries may be made through a A key feature of Trial Balance CS is the ability to customize nearly all aspects of the soſt ware. From trial balance views to reports to fi nancial statements, users have the ability to specifi cally tailor these to each client fi le. Individual client fi les may have several dif- ferent trial balance views as determined by the user and switching between these views is easily accomplished. T is allows users to display financial and tax trial balances as isolated sets of numbers, for instance. Each custom view may also be shared with other client fi les. Trial Balance CS has a strong set of reporting options included. User-generated custom report functions are not available, however all natively included reports may be modifi ed as needed. Multiple reports may be grouped together and saved under a report profi le for recalling at a later time. Any saved report profi le group and all of its customiza- tion options may be shared with other client fi les as well. Financial statements are a strong compo- nent within Trial Balance CS. A handful of preformat ed fi nancials are included, but users will most likely need to modify these reports to fi t client needs. While the trial balance aspect is fairly intuitive, the fi nancial module does take some getting accustomed to. Although it has a spreadsheet feel about it, the underlying formatting and formula options may cause frustrations for some users. Support for cash, book and tax basis, among others, is included and users may easily switch the basis by changing the respective fi eld codes as appropriate. Once fi nancial state- ments are created, however, very lit le modi- fi cation is necessary and the statements may be easily shared with other similar client types. 800-968-8900 variety of ways. One method unique to Trial Balance CS is the ability to use a split screen while in the trial balance view. T is method allows users to see the eff ects of a journal entry in real time as each account is adjusted. T is helps prevent multiple edits on journal entries to arrive at the desired result as well as alter- nating between numerous screens. Journal entries may also be made directly to tax codes instead of specifi c accounts, preventing the need to set up a contra account for certain tax adjustments. Any tax adjustments are properly isolated and included in the import fi les for the supported tax soſt ware solutions. As part of the CS Professional Suite, Trial Balance CS is designed to integrate with other product off erings in this lineup. Each of the products in the CS Professional Suite share a common database and this allows data and balances entered in one product to flow seamlessly to other programs. T is may aid in drastically reducing any unnecessary data entry. Trial Balance CS also has several import integrations built in and supports the most recent versions of QuickBooks and allows copy and paste import from nearly any spreadsheet program currently available. Once users are ready to start tax return preparation, Trial Balance CS data can be easily exported to many major tax preparation packages. In addition to fellow CS Profes- sional Suite products, UltraTax CS and GoSystem Tax RS, Trial Balance CS integrates with Lacerte Tax, ProSystem fx Tax and ProSeries Tax. Direct tax data import is natively provided for the UltraTax CS and GoSystem Tax RS products, while the non CS products are only supported through export fi les which must be manually imported into the respective tax soſt ware solutions. Trial Balance CS also has specifi c reconciliation screens and reports to help record and recon- cile any diff erences between adjusted book net income and tax net income. Trial Balance CS off ers a very intuitive user experience and most users should be able to use the product with lit le training required. With the simple interface and strong custom- ization options, it may easily be adapted to any client or fi nancial statement reporting requirement. Pricing starts at $900 for a non-network license. cs.thomsonreuters.com 12 February 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com CCH Small Firm Services – Trial Balance CCH Small Firm Services (SFS) produces a Trial Balance solution designed to integrate with their two fl agship brands, ATX and Tax- Wise. T e product acts and works in identical ways and integrates interchangeably with the respective tax and accounting suite off erings. Titled simply "Trial Balance" SFS developed the product with the accountant in mind and off ers an easy and straightforward interface as well as fl exible workfl ow method capabilities. Although intended for fi rms with 25 or fewer users, Trial Balance is scalable to fi t the needs of most fi rms. SFS includes Trial Balance as part of their respective write-up soſt ware solution but the program may be purchased as a standalone module. T e standalone module is a scaled down version of the write-up solution off ering, but still retains much of the capabilities. T e interface is simple in design and intuitive in navigation. T e navigation is done through the typical series of drop down menus. Upon entering the soſt ware, a shortcut list of the most common tasks is displayed and most data entry screens are displayed in a familiar spreadsheet format. When set ing up new clients, several wizards are available to step users through the process. T e process consists of entering general and demographic client information. Aſt er set ing up a client fi le users may import data through a variety of methods. Data import and conver- sion is available for many popular third-party accounting packages, including QuickBooks, Peachtree and Creative Solutions as well as through Excel and CSV files. One feature unique to SFS Trial Balance is the Trial Balance Pick-Up. T is feature allows current balance data to be imported and automatically adjusted to account for the net diff erence from prior periods. T is helps prevent the time necessary to run multiple reports and manual adjustments to the data prior to import. T e program also allows all data to be segmented based on department or location. Small Firm Services' Trial Balance provides capabilities to perform book, tax and recurring journal entries. Journal entries may be entered through account numbers as well as account descriptions. Journal entries may also be made directly within the On Screen Working Trial Balance module included within the soſt ware. T is allows users to immediately see the impact of a journal entry on specifi c accounts. Users also have the option to toggle tax basis entries on or off to see the net eff ect of any tax journal entries made. Reporting options are available through the Reports drop down menu and while the default reports are limited in nature, theygenerally center on the trial balance and chart of accounts. Users may, however, customize these reports based on need and save the custom layout for future use. Although the customization options are limited, they significantly increase the reporting capabilities. Financial statements may be generated from default templates or through program tools to create custom financial statements. Practitioners performing compila- tion reports may generate required cover let ers within the soſt ware, reducing the reliance on word processing soſt ware to produce these statements. All reports may be exported to Excel, PDF and a variety of text formats as well as directly to clients via email. Direct integration is also provided with PaperlessPLUS, Small Firm Services new paperless document manage- ment system. As an added benefi t, Trial Balance provides adjustment export integration with QuickBooks and Peachtree. This allows practitioners to adjust data within the program and then provide a file for the client to import into their accounting system. This also reduces the responsibility for clients to enter any necessary adjustments. Tax system integration is limited to solutions off ered through CCH Small Firm Services and is currently designed only for their ATX and TaxWise soſt wares. For practitioners utilizing third-party tax solutions, reliance on tax reports will be necessary along with manu- ally keying in data. Help and support is included with the license cost and all phone based support is off ered through a dedicated call center located in Georgia. Online based support is available and includes a searchable knowledgebase and practitioner community site. Pricing for the standalone trial balance module is $250, with an annual renewal price of 50% of the current retail pricing. Pricing is all inclusive and allows installation on a network structure with multiple users. www.atxinc.com; 877-728-9776 www.taxwise.com; 800-755-9473

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