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TOPICS
Information management and technology assurance
Tax software: Ethical, legal, and professional liability risks
This column addresses a CPA’s professional liability exposures as well as ethical and legal obligations related to the use of tax software.
2014 tax software survey
Learn how CPAs in our annual survey assessed the performance, features, and technical support of eight major tax preparation software products.
10 Excel shortcuts
1. The SUM function. Pressing Alt+= in the cell below a column of numbers inserts the SUM function and highlights that column of numbers. 2. Select a range of data. Pressing Ctrl+A inside a range of data selects the data range. 3. Select an entire worksheet. Pressing Ctrl+A outside a
Remotely interested in supervision
Q: What technologies should we use to help monitor our “work-from-home” employees to make sure they are working productively and doing their jobs properly? A: According to the Telework Research Network, 30 million Americans (20% of the workforce) work from home at least part time, and Telework projects that number
What does it meta?
Q: How much does metadata (webpage titles, descriptions, and keywords) play into improving a webpage’s rating in Bing, Yahoo!, or Google searches? A: Metadata is an essential element to ranking higher in search engine results, and it is important to include relevant metadata in your webpage properties so your webpages
Combination charts
Q: Is it possible to overlay one chart atop another chart in Excel 2013 for comparison purposes? Create a 2-D Line chart. Start by creating a 2-D Line chart using the entire data range by highlighting the data (A3:C15 in this example) and then from the Insert tab, in the
CPAs have opportunities in financial planning and forecasting
Many accountants may have opportunities to expand their service offerings to small business clients by providing financial planning and forecasting, according to a new survey. Just one in three accountants offers financial planning or forecast services as part of clients’ business planning process, according to a survey of 150 accountants
Lessons from an $8 million fraud
Nathan J. Mueller’s fleecing of his employer, a financial services giant, is noteworthy because of the amount of money stolen, the many years the embezzlement lasted, and the internal control weaknesses that made the scheme possible. This article examines how the crime was committed and what organizations can do to protect themselves from similar losses.
What’s your fraud IQ?
Do you know how to spot the red flags of a fraudulent transaction? Can you evaluate the warning signs? Find out in our Fraud IQ quiz.
Expanding your app-titude
New column debuts with descriptions of networking app Fing and shopping assistant RedLaser.
Time’s up: The benefits and challenges of moving away from the billable hour
Transitioning away from a billable-hour model can improve margins and customer relations. But it also comes with plenty of challenges. Learn how one firm made the switch.
All in a dishonest day’s work
It’s difficult to believe, but sometimes CPA firm employees, and even partners, steal from clients. While a CPA firm’s leaders may believe this would never happen to them, claim experience in the AICPA Professional Liability Insurance Program demonstrates this does occur.
AICPA advises CPA firms to review state registration and compliance
CPA firms are being urged by the AICPA State Regulation and Legislation team to review their registration compliance procedures to ensure that they are complying with out-of-state registration requirements when performing attest engagements. The AICPA advisory was issued after recent activity by some state boards of accountancy to ensure that
Searching for privacy
Q: I’ve heard that search engines such as Google and Yahoo! keep a record of your searches and the websites you visit and that they often share this personal information with other companies. I don’t do anything illicit on the internet, but I’m still not comfortable with these search engines
Substantiating trust
Q: When introduced to new privacy solutions (such as DuckDuckGo or Disconnect), what assurances do we have that these solutions aren’t themselves stealthily tracking our computing or internet activities? A: Before trusting a lesser-known privacy solution, at a minimum make sure that it meets the following criteria: The company makes
Whiz kids
I frequently receive questions from CPAs concerned about their children’s use of computers. It is true that children can become overly obsessed with playing computer games, or worse yet, use their computers to access inappropriate content on the web. These risks can be easily mitigated with parental control software, firewall
High-functioning firms
High-functioning firms have leadership teams that assess situations, develop strategies, and make and execute decisions with relative ease, speed, and success. Others, however, function with a drag that pulls against their momentum, causing the business of leading, managing, and executing to take longer and produce less-than-stellar results. High-functioning firms seem
Excel reader challenge
August is traditionally a lighter time of year for CPAs, and in that spirit I’m offering another reader challenge designed to test your Excel skills. I’ve published an Excel workbook at carltoncollins.com/stockchallenge.xlsx that contains weekly stock price information for 10 stocks during 2013. Here’s the challenge: Download the workbook, start
How well do you know PivotTables?
Q: I was recently asked by a large client if I considered myself an Excel PivotTable expert, and I wasn’t sure how to respond. I have used PivotTables extensively, but by definition, it is difficult for anyone to know what they don’t know—if that comment makes sense. Is there some
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How to find the right CAS clients
The key to success with CAS is selecting the best clients. Tools like ideal client profiles (ICPs), buyer personas, and even artificial intelligence can help identify the businesses that best fit each CAS practice.
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