Accounting technology news and resources

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April 13, 2015

Carlton’s pondering

Why is it that as CPAs we mastered the 10-key calculator with number pads numbered from the bottom up, but our smartphones display number pads numbered from the top down?

March 20, 2015

Accountants prefer problem-solving over number crunching, survey says

Accounting and finance professionals said solving problems gives them the most career satisfaction, ahead of working with numbers, according to a new survey.

March 9, 2015

The 2015 GAAP financial reporting taxonomy has been adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and will be supported immediately. The taxonomy is a set of computer-readable tags for data included in financial statements.

March 1, 2015

Weird Word tip

You can select a specific rectangular block of text in Word by pressing the Alt key, dragging an area with your mouse cursor on your Word document, and then copying and pasting the results.

March 1, 2015

Will the next Windows be a 10?

We want to upgrade our older computers. Should we wait for the next edition of Windows to ship, and if so, what new features can we expect?

March 1, 2015

Hover pictures

I maintain an organizational chart in Excel, and I’d like to know if it is possible to have a picture of each employee pop up when I hover over his or her name?

March 1, 2015

Free backup gets easier

Windows 8/8.1 includes a new backup solution called File History. Here’s how to set it up.

March 1, 2015

A defining moment

I know that Word 2013 contains a thesaurus that can be accessed by selecting a word and clicking Shift+F7, but is there a similar function for accessing the definition of a word?

March 1, 2015

Don’t make it count

My Excel 2013 PivotTables sometimes default to using the COUNT function instead of the SUM function. Is there a setting adjustment that will always make SUM the default PivotTable result?

March 1, 2015

Technology

CPA firms have a long way to go before they are making effective use of social media, according to a new survey report.

March 1, 2015

Accounting firms moving slowly toward cloud

CPA firms have their eyes on the cloud, but most of their accounting software remains loaded on their own computers and servers. A new section of the 2014 AICPA PCPS Management of an Accounting Practice (MAP) Survey uncovers the who, what, how, and why of information technology decisions in public accounting.

March 1, 2015

Expanding your app-titude

MobileDay makes conference calls easier on the road … Lost in translation? Try Abbyy’s TextGrabber

March 1, 2015

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.

February 1, 2015

Bringing analytics to life

The use of analytics has been recognized as a crucial part of any decision-making process in businesses. The explosion in transactional and nontransactional data that organizations have access to has made the need for new tools and technologies vital for organizational success.

February 1, 2015

3 iPhone camera tips

1. When operating the iPhone camera, the volume buttons can also be used to take a picture. 2. You can also take a picture using the volume buttons on your iPhone headphones. 3. Holding the camera’s picture button down will take a series of pictures. J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is

February 1, 2015

5 iPhone tips

1. When typing on the iPhone, double-tap the space bar to insert a period. 2. Your iPhone will charge faster in airplane mode. 3. Shake your iPhone to undo what you recently typed. 4. Swipe the iPhone Compass app to the left to use your iPhone as a level. 5.

February 1, 2015