Technology news March 2006

Technology

VoIP Market Expansion Has Implications on Accountants

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telecommunications is becoming a more significant issue for accounting firms and their small business clients. Among the newest entries into the fast-growing market is a service designed especially for very small businesses, launched by a joint venture of VoIP services provider Covad Inc.
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Technology

Data Security Isn’t Just a Big Business Issue

High profile data breaches at major corporations have largely eclipsed the fact that, according to a 2005 survey by the Small Business Technology Institute, 56 percent of small businesses have experienced one or more security incidents in the past 12 months.Advertisement
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Technology

IRS Opens New E-mail Box for Reporting Phony E-mails

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has created a new electronic mailbox, at phishing@irs.gov, where taxpayers should send information regarding suspicious e-mails claiming to be from the IRS.
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A&A

New and Improved Web-Based Employee Scheduling Service

On of the most difficult tasks facing managers is employee scheduling. For managers who are frequently on the road or who attend to administrative tasks like scheduling at home, the challenges are compounded. Fortunately, Atlas Business Solutions, Inc.
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Technology

Backing Up Cell Phone Data

How often do you back up the data on your cell phone? If you have a smartphone, Blackberry or Treo type phone, your data, at least some of it, is backed up every time you synchronize your device with your computer.
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Technology

More Small Businesses Using Payment Cards

Results of the Visa Second Annual Small Business Cash Management Survey, released Tuesday, reveal that small business owners are increasingly adopting and more satisfied with the use of business payment cards as a tool for managing their businesses.
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Technology

Tax Compliance Vendor With Eye on SMBs Pioneers Access to Foreign Forms

Taxware, a developer of high-end corporate tax compliance software which has expanded into the small and midsize (SMB) and middle market segments recently, via connections with the likes of Sage Software and Microsoft Business Solutions, has rolled out the first tax reporting package that accesses forms of multiple European countries.Advertisement
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Technology

View from the Summit: Small businesses are mobile tech-savvy

The image of the American small business is a mom-and-pop shop where things are done with handshakes and face-to-face. So the Take Your Office With You Using Windows Mobile Technology session at the Microsoft Small Business Summit (in March of 2006) came as something of a surprise.When it comes to mobile technology, it seems small businesses are ahead of everybody else. In fact, small businesses buy more smart-phones than all other business segments combined, according to presenter Lawrence Kim, a Product Manager with Microsoft.
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A&A

View from the Summit: Microsoft’s Small Business Accounting

Not surprisingly, one of the first sessions on Day 2 of Microsoft’s Small Business Summit was a Small Business Accounting (SBA) Demo presented by Larry Garcia, a Small Business Technology Specialist with Microsoft.
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Technology

An Online View of the Microsoft Small Business Summit

Microsoft’s Small Business Summit got underway Tuesday. From the sounds of things, many people are attending the Summit in person. I am not one of them.
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Technology

Mark Your Calendar: IAASB Consultative Advisory Group Meeting

Paris in the springtime is a popular place to be. The Consultative Advisory Group (CAG) of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is offering a great excuse to visit Paris on May 11 and 12, by opening their meetings to the public.Opening the CAG meetings to the public provides organizations, other than the CAG member organizations, and the general public, an opportunity to observe the discussion and follow the various points of view put forward.
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Practice Management

Taxprep Integrates with CCH Practice, Linking Client, Project, and Time & Billing Information

Taxprep, CCH’s flagship personal tax, corporate tax, and trust return preparation software in Canada, is now integrated with CCH Practice, the practice management component of the CCH Accountants’ Suite. This integration, announced last week, provides users with workflow and time and billing efficiencies that improve productivity, accuracy and profitability.Advertis
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Technology

Mark Your Calendar: The Role of ERM in Today’s Compliance Environment

Many companies are turning to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) and risk profiling to help them achieve their strategic, performance and compliance objectives. John M. Farrell, KPMG Partner, Risk Advisory Services and Michael Rasmussen, Vice President -- Enterprise Risk and Compliance Management, Forrester Research, will describe today’s risk drivers and discuss the relationship between managing risk and compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) during a free webcast at 2:00 p.m.
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Technology

TurboTax Wants to Help Taxpayers Spend Their Refunds

Intuit’s TurboTax has added a new incentive for taxpayers to purchase their tax return preparation software, the chance to participate in the TurboTax refund bonus program.
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Tax

E-Filing A Hit with Taxpayers From Individuals to Large Corporations

E-filing is a hit across the board. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reports that more than 39.5 million individual taxpayers, representing 73 percent of the total returns filed, had e-filed by early March. More than 450 of the nation’s largest corporation have electronically filled taxes in advance of the March 15 filing date, as well.
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Tax

Debit Card Fraud Jumps

Thieves are finding new ways to steal from us. In stealing account information, they have made an end run around the PIN code system and started producing counterfeit ATM cards to steal money directly from related accounts.
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Technology

CCH Offering XBRL Capabilities to ProSystem fx Customers

Accounting profession software giant CCH’s decision to provide its customers the ability to render clients’ financial documents into an XBRL format, which allows for instantaneous access and collating of the most detailed information in business reports, could be a major boost to the XBRL movement nationwide, according to a top executive in an alliance with CCH.Advertisement
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Technology

Mark Your Calendar: SEC Enforcement Chief Leads Internet Fraud Discussion

The focus of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Historical Society’s inaugural “Fireside Chat” for 2006 is online fraud and the use of the Internet to perpetrate insider trading, market manipulations, and other securities violations. The free, one-hour, program will be broadcast live and online between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.
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Technology

Medicare’s New Accounting System Improving Agency Performance

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have a new financial management system that has generated $9 million in interest for the Medicare trust fund in just seven months. Mark McClellan, CMS administrator told Government Health IT, the new system also allows for more accurate reimbursements and faster reporting.
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Practice Management

PPC Expert Accounting & Auditing Guidance Available on RIA’s Checkpoint

On March 27, 2006, accounting firms can look to one platform for their research, guidance and workflow needs as PPC’s complete line of Accounting & Auditing guidance and e-Practice Aids become available on RIA’s Checkpoint ®. More than 90 PPC titles, including Guide to Public Company Audits, Guide to Audits of Small Businesses, Guide to Compilations and Review Engagements and the 1040 Deskbook will be integrated and linked with primary source material.“Customers tell us that the PPC engagement guidance and tools have become a critical part of their workflow.
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Pages

Voice of the Editor

Even though any accounting auditor would tell you it seems like there are an awful lot of tax accountants out there, surely one-third of the country isn't made up of tax preparers, so it's rather startling news to learn that one-third of Americans like to do their taxes. Who knew?
Read more
Gail Perry, CPA
Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, AccountingWEB
editor@accountingweb.com
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This Week on AccountingWEB

Bill Walter of Gross, Mendelsohn & Associates and Harold Gaar of TravisWolff LLP weigh in on mobile technology use while employees are at work.
WestArk RSVP and Fayette County Community Action Agency – organizations that received grant funding through the IRS Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) program – spoke with AccountingWEB about how they assist senior citizens in their communities.
CPA Robert Raiola, who heads the Sports & Entertainment Group of Fazio, Mannuzza, Roche, Tankel, LaPilusa, LLC, talks NFL player income taxes with AccountingWEB.
Retiring KPMG Centennial Professor of Accounting at the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business Robert May, PhD talks with AccountingWEB about his rewarding forty-three-year career.
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