CPA_Practice_Advisor_April_2020 - 22

APPS WE LOVE

By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-in-Chief

Apps For Working From Home
SINCE SO MANY of us are now working from home, we thought it would be
appropriate to survey members of the CPA Practice Advisor community to find
out what apps they are using to make working from home more effective.
Earlier this year we covered meeting and calendar apps (www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/21124539),
and many of our readers agree that those apps are
helping them manage their businesses from outside
the office, so you might want to start there. And
then, we hope that some of these suggestions will
be useful to you.
Sandra Wiley, president of Boomer Consulting,
offered several suggestions:
* HyVee and Dillons: Our local grocery stores that
are delivering and/or offering pickup services. No
need to go into the grocery store!
* EatStreet: Home delivery of all kinds of food in our
community. Most are just leaving it at the front door
and no need to see a person.
* HelloFresh: Delivery of food to fix in our home. I
love this service. We get great recipes and all the
ingredients we need
* IMBD: I can check out movies before I watch them. :-)
* Wayfair and Amazon: I still need to shop and right
now I am doing lots of home projects. :-)
* WhatsApp and Facetime: So I can still socialize
while giving everyone their Physical Distancing!
Randy Johnston, executive vice president at K2
Enterprises and CEO/founder of Network Management Group, Inc., also presented us with an array
of suggestions:
Proper Pandemic Preparedness planning would
have had these tools in place:
* Remote access with Citrix
* VOIP system with either hardware handsets or
softphone software
* MFA - Cisco DUO
* Office 365, using Teams
* Workflow software to coordinate among team
members
In effect, with proper planning, full remote
access with security should have been in place.
* For those who had not planned for the pandemic
environment and desire interaction, I recommend
Seesaw. This tool is far better for remote instruction
than the traditional Zoom, GoToWebinar tool in
areas like dance or the arts.
* For professional webinars that need interaction,
you can use ON24. However, one of the best tools

APRIL 2020 ■

available right now is from Refined Training from
Refined Data, which enhances Adobe Connect.
* A tool that is very helpful in this new virtual world
is the TechSmith Bundle, which has both Camtasia
and SnagIt. I think these products are mandatory
for non-graphics professionals to produce higher
quality webcasts and graphics.
Jackie Meyer, CPA, CTS, CTC, CEO and founder
at Meyer Tax, said, "Instant Messenger is the end
all app for working from home. It helps the team
stay connected, have comradery, brainstorm, be
thankful, and communicate information quickly
and effectively. Your phone system may offer
instant messaging options, like Glip with our ringcentral subscription, or Slack is the most popular
platform at the moment. Use the away and busy
statuses while time blocking other priorities as to
not let messages overwhelm you.
Sarah Elliott, CPA, PCC, co-founder and principal at Intend2Lead, LLC, shared these suggestions:
* Insight Timer - I adore this app and use it every
single day! It has a timer feature for silent meditation
and thousands of guided meditations that help with
anxiety, stress, relaxation, sleep and more. I think
we could all use some support with this these days!
* Down Dog - They have some awesome yoga and
work-out apps that I love - Yoga, HIIT, Barre and 7
Minute Workouts. You can customize your workout
based on skill level, intensity, focus areas, duration
and more. An added bonus: they're offering free
access to everyone until May 1st so you can stay
healthy and well!
Megan Lewczyk, CPA, said, "One of my clients,
Beech Valley Solutions, is a tech-enabled staffing
firm platform that specializes in remote and gig
work, and now that's more important than ever.
Businesses need advice and may not know where to
look for the best accounting, finance, or IT professional. There are projects and needs that businesses
didn't even imagine would be a concern a month
ago. Beech Valley is a great resource during this
very uncertain time and can match people quickly."
Garret Wagner, CPA, CITP, founder/CEO of C3
Evolution group, tells us, "My most used app right
now is YouTube: for some working from home

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break and a little mid-day
entertainment."
Brian Friedman, director at EisnerAmper, said,
"I love Twitter. It's my
news and entertainment
all wrapped into one that
provides me an up to the second pulse on the
things that matter to me."
Rick Telberg, president and CEO of CPA Trendlines Research and Bay Street Group, LLC, recommends using Alexa: "She makes a great secretary,
reminding me of appointments and to-do items.
And she has a some really bad jokes. Say, 'Alexa,
tell me an accountant joke,' or, 'Alexa, tell me a
lawyer joke.'
Stacy Kildal, owner of Kildal Services, LLC,
uses Upwords 2 for break time: "Back in the mid
2000s, my best friend and I played Email Upwords.
It was amazing, but alas! they shut down the server.
Behold - we now have Upwords 2 for mobile! Available for iphone and android. It's so great to take a
quick break from work and take my turn! (For the
record, Gail Perry has repeatedly beat me.)
Kevin Bong (full disclosure - he is co-founder
of AuditFile) suggests, "AuditFile which is 100
percent cloud based. Right now we are offering free
Premium Support for 1 year! ($1,500 value) with
unlimited 1-on-1 onboarding and support sessions.
Moreover, users can speak with a dedicated CPA
with 35+ years audit experience for free. We are
also bumping everyone to free unlimited cloud
storage to help all those working remotely!"
Caleb Jenkins, leader of client accounting
services at RLJ Financial Services, Inc., shared
these apps:
* Breaking Headlines: Apple News gives a great
assortment of the breaking headlines.
* Music: Spotify gives the ability to play my predefined
playlists of music.
* Food Delivery: DoorDash gives me the ability to
schedule delivery of my meals.
* Focus: StayFocusd gives me the ability to set time
limits on various websites in order to get work done.
* Finances: Apple Card to manage personal spending.
Doug Sleeter, founder of Sleeter Consulting,
wants to remind us to check out Zoho Remotely
- all of its tools for working remotely are free to
small businesses until July 2020. ■

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