1. TOPICS / TECHNOLOGY

Information management

Basic Excel time-saving tips

This column offers tips on features, shortcuts, and tools that can save time, improve the integrity of workbooks, and simplify data analysis.

Scanning the scanner market

Q: I’ve finally decided to break down, buy an inexpensive scanner, and go paperless; what type of scanner should I get?

How small businesses can keep data secure

Lisa Traina, CPA/CITP, CGMA, president and owner of information technology security firm Traina & Associates, suggests ways for organizations with limited IT budgets to keep their data secure.

Excel: The power of mapping

CPAs often have to produce recurring reports, such as quarterly balance sheets, from datasets, such as trial balances. The process can be tedious and prone to error, but an Excel technique called mapping can show the way to better results. Learn more in this Technology Workshop.

Embracing the automated audit

Technology is changing the way audits are being performed, with greater access to data but also more data to sort through. Auditors can remain efficient and effective by employing applications designed to help automate some procedures.

Cloud Security Alliance endorses AICPA SOC report

The AICPA’s framework for assessing the reliability of a cloud provider’s technology and systems controls has won the endorsement of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), a not-for-profit coalition with members including Google, Microsoft, Ernst & Young, Deloitte, and PwC. The AICPA is a CSA affiliate member. In a position paper

Online shopping sends business productivity down the Amazon

With the arrival of the holiday shopping season, the analysis of a particular work email account serves as a cautionary tale to employers. Barb Bowes, a human resources consultant and president of Legacy Bowes Group in Winnipeg, Manitoba, offered the example of a company that found an average of 35

COSO sheds light on managing cloud risks

Management should begin control-related activities before an organization contracts with a cloud-computing service provider (CSP), according to guidance provided in a new thought paper released Wednesday by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). The paper, Enterprise Risk Management for Cloud Computing, provides a thorough examination of

Data breaches emerge as tech sector’s fastest-rising risk factor

Concerns over technology breaches and data security are soaring among the largest U.S. tech companies, according to a new report from accounting and consulting firm BDO. An examination of the most recent SEC 10-K filings for the 100 biggest publicly traded technology companies found that 71% listed data-security breaches as

Safeguarding Data: Requirements and Resources

Editor's note: This is a sidebar for "Protect Your Portable Data - Always and Everywhere." CPAs should understand their ethical, legal and regulatory responsibilities to safeguard data. The following listings direct you to primary sources: LAWS, REGULATIONS Federal laws Federal Trade Commission, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Disclosure of Nonpublic Personal Information, tinyurl.com/8k3e6

Execs Facing Discovery Challenges

A Deloitte online poll found that two out of five executives felt data volumes in their organizations are becoming unmanageable. Almost 20% of executives said their companies are not ready to handle complex discovery requests. Their greatest concerns about document discovery included: Expensive vendor or in-house costs to go through

Minding One's Own Business

I find it ludicrous that your article, “Software Revenue Recognition on the Rise” (Dec. 07, page 50) not only insinuates but even goes so far as to actually state that companies are changing their business practices because of SOP 97-2. While the accounting profession, of which I am part, is

SPONSORED REPORT

Taking stock of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is either the greatest thing to ever happen to human work or the dread of our existence. This independently written report explores how AI will reshape the workplace and how analytically minded individuals can stand out.

PODCAST

How tax reform will impact individual taxpayers

Amy Wang, a CPA who is a senior technical manager for tax advocacy at the AICPA, answers to some of the most common questions on how the new tax reform law will impact individual taxpayers.