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
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Information management and technology assurance
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
U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy available for 2012
The 2012 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy, which is awaiting final acceptance by the SEC, has been made available, FASB announced today. The taxonomy contains updates for accounting standards and includes other changes to the 2011 taxonomy being used by SEC issuers. The taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags
Board of education: Client advisory board implementation action plan
Editor’s note: Also read “Board of education: CPA firms, businesses can profit from clients’ advice,” in the Jan. 2012 issue of the JofA. Here is a step-by-step client advisory board implementation plan developed by the AICPA’s Private Companies Practice Section. More client advisory board tools are available to PCPS members
The Thomas database
Q: Is there a good source for following proposed tax law changes pending in Congress? A: Since January 1995, the Library of Congress has posted virtually every word uttered in Congress to the thomas.gov website; this information is usually posted by the following morning. Named for Thomas Jefferson, the Thomas
Board of education: CPA firms, businesses can profit from clients’ advice
It’s no secret that CPAs take pride in their standing as trusted advisers to their clients. What’s not so well known is that CPAs can gain—and in many cases, literally profit—from the advice of those same clients. Client advisory boards offer CPA firms and other businesses the opportunity to
A super footnote reference
Q: We’d like to print our financial statements from Excel, but we can’t get the footnote references to appear the way we would like. We want to display the footnote references in the superscript format, but to do this we have to enter the footnote reference in a different column,
An aggregate answer to two Excel questions
Q: Two reader questions: 1. Is there a way to subtotal large volumes of numbers in Excel 2010, while ignoring the values contained in hidden rows? 2. What is the best way to subtotal data in Excel 2010 that contain divide-by-zero errors? A: The answer to both questions is to
Bridging compensation gaps in a merger
Accounting-firm mergers must overcome numerous obstacles. One of the most common—and challenging—involves compensation and benefits for partners and staff. Merging firms usually have differences in compensation levels, compensation methods and benefits packages. It’s crucial for staff and partner retention that the merging firms combine the varying systems into one without
The right sort
Q: I receive large amounts of data that need to be sorted both vertically and horizontally in Excel. I typically accomplish this task by transposing the data onto a separate worksheet (using the Paste Special, Transpose command), where I sort the data vertically (which is actually a horizontal sort because
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