Much has been written in recent years about wealth management services that call for practitioners, including CPAs, to have personal financial planning certification and to come under investment-adviser or other regulations. Much less attention has been paid to PFP services that don’t require specialization or additional licensing. One of these
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Information management and technology assurance
Secure your laptop
Q: I use a Windows password to protect my laptop computer (which runs Windows 7 Professional), but my colleague has advised me to set up a BIOS password, too. Is a BIOS password warranted? A: The use of BIOS and Windows passwords will prevent others from turning on your
Keep the best and brightest
The AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) recently completed a national survey about the attitudes and aspirations of the most promising young accounting professionals. The 2011 PCPS Top Talent Study (available at tinyurl.com/6tygubv) suggests how firms of all sizes can hang on to top talent. —By Yasmine El-Ramly, CPA/CITP, (yelramly@aicpa.org),
CPAs prioritize security, unsure how to best leverage new technologies
CPAs are confident that their organizations can secure their IT networks and manage data, but they doubt whether their employers will be able to generate revenue streams and other benefits from emerging technologies such as cloud computing and mobile devices, the AICPA reported Wednesday in releasing the results of its
A strategic approach to IT budgeting
Organizations of all types struggle with information technology (IT) budgeting. This often happens because the IT team doesn’t understand the budgeting process and the finance team doesn’t understand IT. CPAs, whether in public practice, business and industry, the not-for-profit sector or government, can remedy this disconnect by changing their organization’s
Daily money management
As Americans enter old age in rapidly increasing numbers, more accountants will run into situations like the one a Virginia CPA encountered last year. The CPA spent five hours rummaging through the home of a 94-year-old client, trying to find the paperwork needed to complete the man’s 2010 tax return.
Ready, set, Excel!
Q: I’ve just installed Excel 2010. Can you tell me which default settings, if any, I should change to make it easier to use? A: When I install Excel, I typically adjust the default settings as outlined below. (These suggestions tend to be more of a personal preference than
Monitoring the field
Q: I enjoyed the February 2011 JofA article “Increase Productivity With Multiple Monitors” (page 28), which addressed using multiple monitors with a desktop computer, but is there an easy solution that allows our audit staff to use dual monitors with their Windows laptops in the field? A: I applaud the
Heads in the cloud: Part 2
The rapid growth of cloud computing is whipping up a storm of change and challenges, opportunities and obstacles for CPA firms. While many firms have embraced the Internet as a place to conduct business more efficiently and effectively, others are holding back, often due to concerns about the security of
Watering your documents
Q: Is there an easy way to insert a prominent disclaimer on each page of a Word 2010 document that reads “For Management’s Eyes Only”? A: Word 2010, 2007 and 2003 provide a watermark solution that likely meets your needs. To use this feature in Word 2010 and 2007, click
Tagging along
Q: I see an increasing number of colorful square patterns popping up in magazines and newspapers, but I don’t understand their purpose. Could you enlighten me? A: Those colorful square patterns you see are Microsoft Tags. To use them, download the free Microsoft Tag reader to your smartphone and scan
Heads in the cloud
Editor’s note: This is the expanded version of the cloud computing round-table discussion from “Heads in the cloud: Part 1,” Feb. 2012, and “Heads in the cloud: Part 2,” March 2012. To help CPAs better understand the benefits and challenges of the cloud, the JofA invited five CPAs to
Keep those names flowing
Q: We have 170 hourly employees and, as part of my job, I prepare job assignment reports in Microsoft Word that contain several lists, sorted by name. As you can see in the attached example report, I use a three-column table in Word to list these names. The problem arises
Ready, set, action!
Q: We would like to produce and publish on our website a simple, three-minute movie clip featuring two people talking about the merits of our financial services. I don’t want to spend a lot of money or take a lot of time, but I am finding this task to be
PivotTable growing pains
Q: I have created several dozen PivotTable reports in Excel to meet our reporting needs. However, as new rows of data are added to the source data, I must constantly redefine the source data range for all PivotTables, which is very time-consuming. Is there a way to make my PivotTables
Help for people with dating problems
Q: I have a problem copying dates to a certain spreadsheet. After pasting a date from another Excel spreadsheet, the new spreadsheet changes the date to one day and four years later! However, if I enter a current-year date (such as 9/15) and hit enter, the date correctly defaults to
Pricing, billing and collecting fees
CPA firms provide invaluable advice to business clients but often struggle to run their own businesses effectively, particularly in the areas of pricing, billing and collections. Failure to set appropriate fees, deliver bills in a timely fashion and collect payment promptly—or even in full—cuts into a firm’s profitability, hurting the
Heads in the cloud: Part 1
Cloud computing creates unprecedented opportunities for CPA firms to do more chargeable work faster and with better client communications. But transitioning to the cloud and having confidential information accessible over the Internet raises implementation and security concerns that CPA firms must address. To help CPAs better understand the benefits and
The paperless business card
Q: I use Outlook 2010. What is the easiest way to send my updated address and telephone information to my contacts so they don’t have to manually re-enter the data into their contact management system? A: Microsoft Outlook provides the ability to create a paperless business card, which you can
IT budgets stagnant in 2012, according to survey
Worldwide IT budgets are expected to be flat in 2012, when IT budgets in North America and Europe are expected to decline, according to a global survey of chief information officers (CIOs) by Gartner Inc.’s Executive Programs. Conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, the survey of 2,335 CIOs, covering
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