Search Results

November 2009 |  BY SUSAN E. BRADLEY, CPA/CITP/CFF |  Article

Windows 7, the newest version of Microsoft’s desktop operating system, comes with numerous functional improvements over its widely used predecessors, Vista and XP. Some of these enhancements—such as more powerful hard drive search and data encryption capabilities—will save time and boost security others, including 64bit application support and Applelike multifinger touchscreen technology for resizing windows, will enable you to do things you couldn’t do on a Windows PC until now.

November 2009 |  BY Alexandra DeFelice |  Article

CPAs who find themselves on the go are turning to some of the latest phones and mobile applications to do much more than just stay connected to their clients. A CPA Trendlines survey by Bay Street Group LLC conducted for the AICPA during the summer and still open to respondents, posed the openended question, “What’s your favorite tech gizmo, gadget, toy or tool at the moment? And why?” Running down the list, the glaring trend was in mobile devices and other tools for working remotely.

July 2009 |  BY J.D. Kern |  Article

Many CPAs, frustrated by rigid and inadequate reports from their general ledger or other enterprise systems, turn to Microsoft Excel. Nimble but powerful, Excel often manipulates data faster and more effectively than less agile applications. But to perform certain tasks optimally, a CPA sometimes may have to bypass what apparently is Excel’s most relevant function and instead use another Excel function that at first may not seem suitable.

July 2009 |  BY J.D. KERN |  Article

Editor's note These are Webexclusive exhibits for Supercharge Your Excel Sum Operations. Click here to download sample Excel worksheets. Each of the article's four exhibits is an individual worksheet in a single downloadable Excel file. It includes Exhibit 1 Sales by person using SUMIF Exhibit 2 Basic functioning of SUMPRODUCT Exhibit 3 Sales by person and month using SUMPRODUCT Exhibit 4 TRUEFALSE values as ones and zeros

June 2009 |  BY SIMON PETRAVICK, STEPHEN G. KERR |  Article

Their widespread use sometimes makes relatively new technologies seem safer than they are. In fact, even popular and advantageous innovative devices may have significant risks. Prominent examples include datafilled laptops and flash drives. Recurrent headlines make it clear Your laptop could become one of the thousands lost or stolen every year.

June 2009 |  BY RAYMAN D. MESERVY, NICHOLAS L. BALL, MARSHALL B. ROMNEY |  Article

Spreadsheets contain many tools for analyzing and manipulating data. The trouble is much of the data CPAs need to analyze resides in company databases or on the Internet. So, after finding the required data, you may have to cut and paste them into a spreadsheet. This laborious and errorprone process is particularly troublesome if you are obliged to repeat it monthly or more frequently.

June 2009 |  BY TODD WEBBER, BOB WEINS |  Article

Every firm’s dream should be to have a free listing on a major search engine at the top of its first results page, allowing prospective clients to find the firm when they’re searching for accounting, tax or financial planning services. Imagine if this free listing also included the firm’s phone number, a description of its professional services, a map to the office and a link to its Web site (see Exhibit 1).

June 2009 |  BY J. CARLTON COLLINS |  Article

When it comes to technology, are you a leader or a laggard? Do you embrace technology or shun it? This article contains questions and explanations to help you determine how technologysavvy you really are, and identify where you could improve your technology performance. 1. Does your computer have more than one microcomputer processor (CPU)? Why this matters Newer computers use multiple processors to make them faster.

May 2009 |  BY STEVEN I. OSTER |  Article

In a typical home or small office the traditional wired phone line has undergone many changes. Highspeed Internet service and advances in voice and data compression have improved voice quality tremendously, making conversations possible without a telephone network while significantly lowering communications costs. Larger organizations have been using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for their phone needs for some time.

February 2009 |  BY by James A. Weisel |  Article

Your client, Dave’s BBQ, a local independent restaurant, is interested in determining the effect on sales revenue of certain advertising strategies. Dave has weekly data on advertising dollars spent as well as sales revenue from the restaurant and has come to you, his CPA, to help him determine the link between the two.