Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/53322
ENGAGEMENT & TRIAL BALANCE REVIEW SECTIONS Reviews For Your Firm BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS • General navigation & ease of use • Trial balance features • Templates/guidance • Analytics & detail analysis • Customization ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT • Security & authentication of users, user restrictions, integration w/windows signin in, sso tools • Electronic workpaper organization • Review notes/tickmarks • Financials creation • Managerial reporting • Document management integration, records management/audit trail, lockdown rule compliance WORKFLOW & COLLABORATION • Multi-staff w/data checkout/overwrite protection • Engagement checklists/practice aids support • Storage of data fi les • Cloud/SaaS/hosting options and/or mobile options • Collaboration w/clients (client portals, automatic request and receive documents w/status tracking) • Where does document management/fi le cabinet tools ends & engagement tool begins • Project management features • Direct "send to" integration w/scanners • Integration w/other workfl ow systems INTEGRATION/IMPORT/EXPORT • Integration w/portals and/or internal audit tools • Supports consolidated statements, multiple funds & different bases of accounting (gasb 34, tax basis, etc.) • Productivity integration (ms offi ce & adobe acrobat) • Integration w/corporate & partnership tax applications/special features • Export to tax (one time or multiple w/out having to start return over) • Special tools for fi n 48/tax provision calcula- tion • Special tools/formats for reporting on hud audits or other products w/specifi ed forms as output • Integration w/research & practice aids HELP/SUPPORT • Built-in support features • Training options • Support website/documentation • Live support E ngagement and trial balance software solutions have evolved significantly over recent years. Engagement programs have grown at a steady pace and at this point are a practical solution for most accounting fi rms, since the systems are starting to mature and help tie together tax, audit and accounting work and integrate directly with document storage solutions. Trial balance soſt ware, however, is slowly vanishing from as the larger soſt - ware vendors move toward including man of the features traditionally found it them into engagement solutions. ENGAGEMENT SOFTWARE Vendors have introduced a wide array of improvements in engagement management systems and are now evolving their products to suit more practitioner needs. T ese solu- tions are primarily focused on audit engage- ments, though many systems may be adapted to fi t accounting fi rms primarily focused on tax compliance, as well as managing book- keeping engagements in many instances. Most products are fully scalable to meet the needs of the sole-practitioners as well as the very large accounting fi rms, and nearly all practices in between. Vertical software integration is still the standard with each engagement product off ering, meaning that, with the exception of CaseWare Working Papers, most engagement programs tie directly into the tax and accounting systems within each respective vendor suite. A key diff erence provided by all engagement solutions is that vendors typically off er some level of import and export func- tionality of competitor products. T is allows practitioners to select the solution that best fits their needs and still not miss out on integration with other key tax and accounting Steven M. Phelan, CPA Steven is a tax manager for North Bay Associates, a family group offi ce, and 10 February 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com manages a tax and technology consulting practice in Oklahoma City. He has served on the Board and has recently served as chairperson for the Oklahoma Society of CPAs' (OSCPA) Technology Committee. Steven has given numerous presentations and training sessions on various technology topics for the OSCPA and other organizations throughout Oklahoma. Engagement & Trial Balance Systems Streamline Workfl ow solutions currently implemented. T e engagement solutions reviewed in this section generally had intuitive navigation, with most vendors relying on a Windows Explorer layout design. T is should ease much of the conversion process as most users have a high comfort level with the folder tree layout. File type support should not be a concern as virtu- ally any fi le type is supported throughout each system. T e typical Microsoſt Offi ce and PDF fi les are supported in all cases and allow users to fully edit these fi les within their native pro- grams. With PDF becoming the standard document storage fi le format years ago, most systems also have built-in PDF generation capabilities and even rudimentary editing capabilities, which may save smaller fi rms the cost of PDF editor licensing. Most engage- ment solutions also rely heavily on templates which are available upon installation or may be created by each respective firm. These templates aid in replicating engagements which ultimately saves valuable time and eff ort in set ing up future engagements. With tight integration with tax and accounting soſt ware solutions, engagement soſt ware is becoming a large platform for staff collaboration. Due to advances in syncing technology, practitioners required to work outside the offi ce are no longer burdened with complicated setups to synchronize data with the corporate network. Most engagement products allow users to check out engagement fi les to take out to the fi eld and sync up later, or when there is a connection available. Live data is typically pushed throughout the fi les when a connection is present, even if the user is not in the offi ce but has an Internet or VPN type connection. T is allows all users currently working on an engagement to see data and any related changes in "real time". Security should not be a signifi cant concern for most accounting fi rms as staff controls are typically strong. User controls within the engagement solutions generally allow manage- ment on the program level all the way down to individual fi le access rights. T is allows fi rms to tailor each engagement as necessary based on staff requirements. As hosted solutions, engagement products are still not quite there. Only one product, Engagement CS, is available as a fully hosted product. T e other systems reviewed only allow portions of the soſt ware (if any) to be hosted, such as the underlying data fi les. T is will evolve over the next couple of years, though, as all major accounting vendors are putting a large amount of resources into developing web-based platforms. Strong help and support options are pro- vided with each product, with many functions moving online and leaving users more to self-troubleshoot system diffi culties. While most online database help systems are ade- quate, sometimes the time spent searching is more than ideal due to diff erences in how the user views the problem versus how the vendor views the problem. Although not specifi c to engagement solutions, this is a trend that unfortunately will not be going away anytime soon. TRIAL BALANCE SOFTWARE Trial balance solutions have peaked in their functionality and most practitioners prefer today's soſt ware to provide more functions and integrations, and therefore, the solutions reviewed this year were not rated due to these limitations. Trial balance systems, however, are still a necessary component for small fi rms and simpler engagements, providing a viable option for accounting fi rms that have not yet converted to a paperless document manage- ment system. Typically, trial balance solutions are utilized by fi rms to aid with tax compliance. However, all the trial balance solutions reviewed provide a variety of tools to perform other functions, such as fi nancial statement generation. In many instances, the vendor trial balance stand-alone product is not the same as the native trial bal- ance product included within engagement solution. Some features are reserved for the stand-alone product while others are reserved for the full engagement integration. ●