We thought it might be fun to share with you a list of our top ten, most-read articles of 2012. Overall, it looks like technology topics are of the most interest to you and your colleagues, followed by career and tax-related stories. Enjoy! 

 

 

As part of its "Office Endangered Species" study, LinkedIn surveyed more than 7,000 professionals and asked which office tools and trends will most likely not be seen in offices by the year 2017 and what tools they dream of having.

 

Here are seven quick Excel tips for: converting data, amortizing tables, spanning Excel across multiple monitors, filtering for blank rows in Excel 2010, recovering unsaved workbooks in Excel 2010, identifying duplicate values in Excel 2007/2010, and recovering damaged Excel workbooks.

 

The "customer preview," or public beta version, of Office 2013 became available July 16. Here's a quick read on what Excel expert David Ringstrom found in his first spin through Excel 2013. 

 

As our world becomes more and more connected, the terms used to describe online services blur into abstraction. In this article, David Ringstrom clarifies the terms "Cloud computing" versus "software as a service," often referred to as SaaS. In some ways, it's like describing two sides of the same coin. However, there are some clear distinctions, along with risks and rewards to keep in mind.

 

 

Accounting grads in 2011 earned starting salaries that exceeded those in nearly every other field except engineering and computer science. Overall, the average salary was $41,701, but accounting majors earned an average of $50,500, which is up 3.7 percent from 2010, according to the 2012 NACE survey.

 

Baker Tilly's annual Spend a Day program is designed for college sophomore and junior accounting majors to experience the culture and atmosphere of a successful accounting and advisory firm.

 

By day, Kate Hashimoto is an employed New York CPA. By night, she's a self-confessed "extreme cheapskate." In fact, she spends so little money that TLC featured her in an episode of its new show Extreme Cheapskates.

 

 

Glenn Reeves of Burlington, Kansas, recently released his fifteenth annual spreadsheet-based version of the US Individual Tax Return, commonly known as Form 1040. Since 1997, Reeves has pursued this "labor of love," which means he allows any taxpayer to download and use the spreadsheet for free.

 

In IRS Revenue Procedure 2012-26, the IRS has announced the new inflation-adjusted increases for Health Savings Account (HSA) contributions and high-deductible health plan (HDHP) deductibles. These amounts apply to the 2013 calendar year.

 

Ending several weeks of uncertainty, Congress passed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 shortly before adjourning for a long President's Day weekend. President Obama is expected to sign the bill as soon as it reaches the White House.