April, 2023

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Our Obsession with Hours Is Destroying the Accounting Profession

CPA Practice

By Blake Oliver, CPA, and Chris Vanover, CPA. CPAs have always been passionate about numbers, using various metrics such as revenue, profit, headcount and realization to measure success. However, this focus on numerical indicators is contributing to the decline of the CPA profession itself. A talent shortage is affecting accounting firms across the demographic spectrum.

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A Simple Way to Differentiate Your Firm

Ryan Lazanis

Ready to set your accounting firm apart from the rest? In today’s episode, learn how you can stand out from other accounting firms and charge more while providing added value to your clients. Listen below. 0:34 – In this episode, I discussed how labeling and monthly packages devalue accounting services and create competition among firms. 1:15 – Many accounting firms use a 3-tiered approach with Gold, Silver, and Bronze plans, but the issue lies in labeling services as a list of

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CPAs, Financial Advisors and Lawyers, Oh My

Insightful Accountant

The seventh annual "401(k) Plan Benchmark Report" shows the leading industries for 401(k) plans, with accounting professionals at the top of the list.

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7 Questions to Ask About a Business Valuation Report

RogerRossmeisl

Business valuation experts will usually provide formal written reports that explain how they arrived at their conclusions. Asking seven questions can help you determine whether an expert’s report is comprehensive and on-point. (1) Did the expert properly define the engagement? Most valuation reports start with a detailed description of the assignment.

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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The High Cost of Business Email Compromise: Protecting Your Company from Financial Fraud

Withum

Business email compromise (BEC) is one of the most financially damaging cyber crimes currently facing businesses. Organizations often experience losses in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars before this exploit is discovered. According to the FBI Internet Crimes Complaint Center, there were almost 22,000 complaints of BEC, resulting in over $2.7 billion in losses in 2022, which was over 25% of total financial losses due to cyberattacks. 1 Google and Facebook collectively lost

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Academics Pitted Human Accounting Students Against GPT-3, Students Won

Going Concern

As aspiring lawyers everywhere learned with horror that GPT-4 is capable of passing the bar exam (in the 90th percentile of test-takers, no less) a whole bunch of academics were not-so-quietly putting GPT-3 to the test on accounting. Literally. Published in Issues in Accounting Education, a total of 328 authors from 186 different institutions in 14 countries sought to answer the question: how well does ChatGPT answer accounting assessment questions?

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The CPA Shortage Compels Accounting Firms to Embrace Digital Transformation

CPA Practice

By Cameron White. Despite high demand for CPAs, accounting firms struggle to hire accountants. In 2021, there was a 17 percent drop in employed accountants and auditors from a 2019 peak, according to a Bloomberg Tax analysis. Deloitte ranks the talent shortage among the top challenges that are expected to influence or disrupt businesses this year. With an onslaught of economic disruptions and complexities on their plate, a CPA shortage proves especially burdensome for middle market companies.

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Are You (and Your Clients) Ready for Disruption?

Insightful Accountant

The bi-annual 'Global Crisis and Resilience Survey' takes a deep dive into why you need to anticipate and respond to disruption proactively—not only to survive, but to thrive.

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4 questions to drive your audit firm’s evolution

ThomsonReuters

The accounting and audit profession is undergoing significant changes as a result of the rapid advancement of technology. While some have expressed concerns that automation may replace human auditors, the reality is that technology is here to enhance the profession rather than replace it. Automation tools can help streamline processes , reduce inefficiencies, and free up human auditors to focus on higher-value tasks.

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How Safe Are Your Business’s Paper Checks?

RogerRossmeisl

Recently, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) told U.S. financial institutions to exercise caution when processing paper checks because they might be fake. Paper checks? Didn’t those go the way of the dodo? Jokes aside, electronic transfers have indeed replaced paper checks for many consumer and business payments. Yet paper checks are still used at many businesses and check fraud has been increasing.

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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A sneak peek into what’s next for reports in Xero

Xero

Our team hit the ground running in 2023, introducing a number of exciting features to new reports that we know you’ve been waiting for — including the addition of foreign currency to new reports. Here are some of the highlights and a sneak peek into what’s coming next. Don’t forget, the older versions of our reports will be retired on 31 July 2023. We urge you to start using new reports now , so you have plenty of time to get used to them before the older versions are retired.

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Don’t Be A Victim of Fraud – Protect Your Organization

Withum

Having discussed fraud schemes , trends , and fraudster characteristics identified in the ACFE’s Occupational Fraud 2022: Report to the Nations , let’s shift our focus to the industries with the highest fraud risk and how all organizations can safeguard themselves from fraud or investigate actual or suspected incidents of fraud. It is essential for organizations to prioritize fraud awareness and internal controls to minimize the risk of fraud.

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The CPA Shortage Compels Accounting Firms to Embrace Digital Transformation

CPA Practice

By Cameron White. Despite high demand for CPAs, accounting firms struggle to hire accountants. In 2021, there was a 17 percent drop in employed accountants and auditors from a 2019 peak, according to a Bloomberg Tax analysis. Deloitte ranks the talent shortage among the top challenges that are expected to influence or disrupt businesses this year. With an onslaught of economic disruptions and complexities on their plate, a CPA shortage proves especially burdensome for middle market companies.

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EY US Just Fired 3000 People, Totally Not Related to Everest Falling Apart

Going Concern

Well we knew this was coming. Reuters : Ernst & Young’s U.S. arm said on Monday it was shedding 5% of its workforce, less than a week after the unit’s objection torpedoed the global accounting giant’s plan to break up its audit and consulting units. The layoffs will affect around 3,000 of the company’s U.S. employees. The decision was taken after assessing the impact of current economic conditions, strong employee retention rates and “overcapacity” in part

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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Customizing the Icon Bar in QuickBooks Desktop

Insightful Accountant

Check out some of the cool customization features you can use with the icon bar, complements of internationally renowned ProAdvisor Esther Friedberg Karp.

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Some Taxpayers Qualify for More Favorable “Head of Household”Tax Filing Status

RogerRossmeisl

When preparing your tax return, we’ll check one of the following statuses: Single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household or qualifying widow(er). Filing a return as a head of household is more favorable than filing as a single taxpayer. For example, the 2023 standard deduction for a single taxpayer is $13,850 while it’s $20,800 for a head of household taxpayer.

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What ChatGPT and the acceleration of AI means for small business

Xero

If you ever worked with Office 97, you’ll remember Microsoft’s iconic assistant Clippy. The animated AI-based paperclip would pop up in your document and offer to help you format whatever you were working on. Clippy would analyse and structure words in your document and help you format it according to what you were working on. For example, if anything vaguely resembled a resume, you would be prompted with: “It looks like you’re writing a resume!

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Volunteering and Campaigning for a Great Cause With The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Withum

Explore Other Episodes #CivicWarriors #WithumImpact The post Volunteering and Campaigning for a Great Cause With The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society appeared first on Withum.

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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

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3 Ways ChatGPT Can Help Accounting Firms

CPA Practice

By Andrew Antos, Co-founder and CEO of Klarity. If you’ve been following recent news in even the most cursory fashion there’s a good chance you’ve heard about ChatGPT, the Large Language Model (LLM) technology that’s primed to revolutionize business operations. It’s an innovation that holds such disruptive promise that it has already begun to impact long-standing industries and left more than a few big incumbents spinning.

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The EY Split Is Officially DEAD

Going Concern

Called it ! Financial Times reported moments ago : EY has called off the plan to break up its audit and consulting businesses after months of internal disagreement. The decision is set to be communicated to partners in a note on Tuesday, said people with knowledge of the matter. More to come shortly. The post The EY Split Is Officially DEAD appeared first on Going Concern.

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Payroll errors and how to avoid them

ThomsonReuters

For business owners, payroll is complex and often their greatest expense. For accounting professionals, payroll services have long been viewed as a time-consuming, high-risk loss leader. Payroll errors are certainly a real concern, but with the right tools and resources in place, payroll services can be a growth opportunity for firms. Today’s global workforce, remote and hybrid work environments, and the ever-changing regulatory landscape have added additional layers of complexity to payroll.

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Choosing an Entity for Your Business? How About an S Corporation?

RogerRossmeisl

If you’re starting a business with some partners and wondering what type of entity to form, an S corporation may be the most suitable form of business for your new venture. Here are some of the reasons why. A big benefit of an S corporation over a partnership is that as S corporation shareholders, you won’t be personally liable for corporate debts. In order to receive this protection, it’s important that: The corporation be adequately financed, The existence of the corporation as a separate enti

CPA 203
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Harness the Potential of Your Enterprise Knowledge

The first Market Momentum Index: AI and Unstructured Data Management, conducted by Deep Analysis with support from AIIM and M-Files, surveyed 500 enterprises across various industries to assess their readiness to employ AI. The results reveal that AI is already far more embedded into organizations' operations than previously realized. These findings and more insights have been brought to you in the "Market Momentum Index: AI and Unstructured Data Management.

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How this plasterer laid the foundations for a booming construction business

Xero

Since he was young, Johnno Green has had a penchant for construction. So one day when a guest speaker at his high school came looking for apprentice plasterers, he knew he’d found his break. Johnno cut his teeth working on residential builds before the Global Financial Crisis hit the housing market (and his employers), forcing a pivot into the commercial sector.

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Unlock Your Firm - May 11-12

Insightful Accountant

Will Hill, of Will Hill Consults and Ryan Conn, President, Shelton & Associates CPS's are hosting a 2 day immersive event to help you re-arrange and execute so that your work becomes rewarding, not exhausting.

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Partnerships Face Increased Tax Audit Risk

CPA Practice

With the IRS laser-focused on enforcement, many partnerships will find themselves subject to their first IRS audits under the new procedurally complex partnership audit rules. Under these rules, the default is that the partnership pays an entity-level tax called an “imputed underpayment” (IU) on any adjustments. This means, unless certain steps are taken, the current partners would bear the tax even if they weren’t partners for the year under audit.

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What in the Bullying Hell is Happening at KPMG Australia?

Going Concern

Last August, Australian Financial Review reported that eleven people had been “exited” (tossed, kicked out, told to F off, however you prefer to phrase it) from KPMG Australia for misconduct including bullying, sexual harassment and policy breaches in the past year; during the same period, internal misconduct complaints doubled to 88. This may have been due in part to the firm purposely Before that, AFR dug deeper into misconduct complaints at the firm from 2014 and 2019 and reveal

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Solve Your Firm's Automation Complexities Once and For All

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.

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Canopy Launches ChatGPT AI in Accounting Practice Management Software | Canopy

Canopy Accounting

If you've spent any time near a screen lately, you’ve heard of ChatGPT — a language model trained by OpenAI. Every day, a new thread appears of someone who has figured out the next thing ChatGPT can do. With the evolution of AI and OpenAI-based architecture, almost every industry must decide how to incorporate AI into their work models, including ours.

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That Investment Opportunity Could be a Pyramid Scheme

RogerRossmeisl

The “investment opportunity” someone just pitched could be a legitimate way to get in on the ground floor of a soon-to-be profitable business. However, it could also be a pyramid, Ponzi or similar fraudulent multi-level marketing scheme. How can you tell the difference between a real investment and a scam? Don’t get scammed Pyramid schemes can be relatively straightforward, such as recruiting people to sell vitamins or cleaning supplies and recruiting family and friends to also sell the products

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How apps can make it simple to take climate action in your business

Xero

More and more businesses are focusing on sustainability, and for good reason. Not only do many small business owners personally feel it’s important to play a role in protecting the environment, doing so is proven to have a positive impact on their bottom line. We understand that taking the first steps toward sustainability in your business can feel overwhelming.

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Intuit Launching Rest-of-World App Store

Insightful Accountant

Intuit is launching a rest-of-world app store as part of the QuickBooks Ecosystem to help app developers build apps to meet the growing demands of SMBs and accountants globally.

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Travel and Expense Policy Success: Your Essential Checklist

Setting the stage for successful organizational change always begins with clear, thoughtful communication. When it comes to rolling out a new travel and expense (T&E) policy, establishing a well-structured communication plan is key to ensuring that all employees understand the changes and their impact. By following a step-by-step approach, you can guide your organization through the transition, fostering smooth adoption from the outset and improving compliance.