Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
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24 June 2016 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com APPS WE LOVE Tis month we are focusing on apps that f urther our education. We sur veyed our 4 0 Under 4 0 Class of 2015 along with members of the Tought Leader Symposium, and here is a sample of what we discovered. El izabet h Pit tel kow, CPA , CITP, CGM A, DTM, director of accounting and compliance w ith A rrowStream, recommends DUOL- INGO (free). "I took several years of Spanish classes while in school, but I have not used Spanish ofen enough since then to feel confdent in it. I use this app to refresh my Spanish sk ills. I like this app because the education is in the form of games. I play the games during my commutes and when I am waiting in lines." Mat hew Heggem, CEO of SU M I nnovation, and Donny Shimamoto, managing director of Intraprise TechK nowlogies LLC, agree. " DUOLINGO is great for new languages, I got 30% fuent in Span- ish (according to the app) in about 10 weeks using that," said Shimamoto. Kerri Gibson, v ice president, sma l l professiona l, at Wolters K luwer, CCH Small Firm Services shared two favorites with us. BAB- BEL : "Since I now live in a place where English is not the frst lan- guage my current learning adventure is French. Tis is not easy to squeeze into an already packed schedule. With the Babbel app I can grab a quick lesson anytime I have a few spare moments so learning ce n'est rien!" WIKIPEDIA : "I love the ability to be able to learn about anything at any time. Especially when traveling I am obsessive about learning as much history and culture of a location as possible. So I am constantly wiki'ing for information. I like it because it is so easy to use, has a wealth of information, and gives me fun facts to squeeze into a conversation. " Pitelkow also uses GRAMMAR GIRL PODCAST (free) and GRAM- MAR GIRL APP (ad-free). "I listen to the Grammar Girl Podcast through Apple's Podcasts App; people can download the Grammar Girl App for no ads. I am a big grammar person; this podcast helps keep my grammar skills sharp in language and writing, and it helps me to develop the skills of others. R ick R ichardson, CPA .CITP, CGM A , ma nag i ng pa r t ner at R ichardson Media & Technologies, sings the praises of online learning platform LYNDA.COM . "It is the best on-line training resource I use on a regular basis. Cost per year is $275 for the regular membership and $375 for the premium membership (includes streaming and copies of all the example fles)." A free 10 day trial is available. KAHN ACADEMY comes highly recommended by R ichardson, "As they say, you can learn anything for free. Particularly technical topics, sofware, math, science are the best!" and also Jim Bourke, CPA.CITP, CFF, CGM A, who commented, "Tere is no comparison with any other learning tool. Math, science, economics, fnance…. You get it all and you get it for FR EE!" Leslie Shiner, ow ner of The ShinerGroup, subscribes to podcasts from the HOWSTUFFWORKS app. "I particularly enjoy Stuf You Should K now as well as Stuf you Missed in Histor y Class. With my busy schedule, I don't have time to take classes. But I do have time to listen to podcasts while driving, traveling or taking a walk. Te podcasts are interesting and teach me lots of "stuf "! A nd if there's something I'm not thrilled about, I can just skip it and move on to the next one. Adam Burnet, director of sales engineering at Wolters K luwer, is also a fan of HOWSTUFFWORKS . "I'm the type of person that loves to know a litle (or a lot) about everything. W hen a good friend of mine turned me on to the HowStuf Works app, it was a perfect match. Essentially it's a collection of articles, podcasts and videos on an incredible array of topics that range from science to history, pop-culture to technolog y and everything in-between. Read- ing it on airplanes, listening to the podcasts while I mow the yard, I'm always on it and always learning something interesting." Dav id Ciesla k , CPA .CIT P, GSEC, principal with A rxis Tech- nolog y, recommends TED TALKS , ITUNES U , and STITCHER for stream- ing educational content on demand. If you enjoy the arts and want to learn more, Gar y Boomer, visionary and strategist of Boomer Consulting, Inc., recommends you check out ART AUTHORITY by Open Door Networks, Inc. for the iPhone and iPad - "$4.99 and worth more. It's like a museum on your mobile device." A nd don't forget YOUTUBE . Br ia n Fr ied ma n, C PA .C I T P, northeast div ision sales manager, sof ware, at Wolters K luwer, stated, "For almost any topic you might be interested in there are v ideos put together by ex perts in ever y feld imaginable." Education Edition By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-in-Chief W e all have stories about how information we fnd on the internet makes us laugh, makes us groan, makes us cry, keeps us more engaged with each other. Some call it information overload. We call it living. We love sharing apps that seem to make our lives more complete, and of course everyone has a diferent defnition of what that means, so each month we bring you a diferent collection of intriguing apps, contributed by our ever-growing community of technology savvy members of the accounting profession.