december2022january2023 - 7

FROM THE TRENCHES
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE
TOP TOOLS?
You can find up-to-date information
on the website CPAFirmTech.com.
Consider the K2 Quality award
winners in the announcement at
https://tinyurl.com/t7abrj84. All,
some, or none of these may help
solve issues in your firm. In his latest
book, " Starry Messenger, " Neil
deGrasse Tyson suggests that there
are fewer discrete issues (yes or no,
black or white), but problems tend to
be along a continuum. Beyond (and
including) these winners, consider
these best-of-breed solutions sorted
by these categories:
■ Portals, document management,
and PBC (prepared by client lists)
* Doc-It Suite Cloud
* e-Courier
* Liscio
* SafeSend
* ShareFile
* SmartVault
* Suralink
■ Automation
* CCH Axcess IQ (now with state
information)
* Corvee (tax planning)
* Forms gathering and
recognition
¤ Dext
¤ Hubdoc
¤ Sage Autoentry
* Ledgible Crypto Tax Pro by
Verady (for cryptocurrency)
■ Payments
* Corpay One
* CPACharge
* QuickFee
■ Tallyfor (for Trial Balance)
■ Practice Management
* AccountantsWorld by IRIS
* Aiwyn
* Clarity Practice Management
* CCH Axcess Workflow
* Digilence
* TPS Cloud Axis
* Jetpack Workflow
■ Accounting Software
* Accounting Power
* AccountingSuite
* Acumatica
* NetSuite
* QuickBooks Online
* Sage Intacct
* Spire Systems
* Xero
* Zoho
■ Services from others
* Hosting
¤ Ace Cloud Hosting
¤ Cetrom
¤ Right Networks
¤ Network Management Group,
Inc.
* Outsourcing
¤ AdvanceTrack
¤ BooXkeeping
¤ SurePrep
¤ TOA Global
¤ Taxfyle
¤ Xpitax
* CPA.com
¤ BILL
¤ Biz2Credit
¤ .CPA top-level domains
¤Jirav
¤ LukkaTax for Professionals
¤ OnPoint A&A Suite
¤ Paychex
¤ RIVIO
¤ Sage Intacct
¤ Vertex
These issues and these solutions
may be reasonable short-term AND
long-term solutions. While The Technology
Lab podcasts can give you a tactical
view of product solutions, co-host Brian
Tankersley and I have many strategic
discussions and thoughtfully advance
individual solutions for your technology
stack. Please listen in to hear our
latest takes on solutions of all kinds.
In the last few years, innovations,
consolidations, and strategic changes
have occurred. It has become apparent
to my colleagues and me that it is
time to rethink our technology stacks
from top to bottom. While a December
column would frequently predict or
suggest changes for the coming year,
it is time to take a longer view. 2023
will become the year of the stack as we
make strategic recommendations that
we believe will be different from what
you have seen in the past. We expect to
build toward the new technology of the
future, including the business use of
the metaverse, which includes evolving
concepts like self-sovereign identity,
Web 3.0, blockchain, and augmented
reality. Most important will be the business
reasons accounting professionals
should use the technologies with their
clients.
Of course, we'll add sprinklings
of the latest and most significant
advancements and other announcements
at the Consumer Electronics
Show. But we'll also be mindful of the
practical use of the technologies while
being innovative.
SO, WHAT DO I
DO NOW?
OK, I understand you have a firm to
run and another season to prepare
for. But first, if you have not taken
some downtime at a conference, on
vacation, or in some other way to
disconnect, do it now. The holidays
are upon us, and schedule some
time now to take extra days off with
family and friends.
Look at your most pressing issue
or the item taking you or your team
the most time. How can you solve or
eliminate that problem? Consider if
fewer tools that you learn to use better
would serve you better. The annual
Wolters Kluwer survey suggested that
26% of firms use less than 50% of the
software products they own. In my
experience consulting with firms, I
think it is far less. How do you solve
your most pressing problem? Focus on
solving just that one item before your
busy time.
Secondarily, consider one item
you would consider helpful to know
more about. Then, either schedule a
CPE course or time to focus on learning
more about that one item. While
your newfound knowledge may save
you time, I'm confident that learning
something new will help recharge your
batteries for your coming workload.
Finally, consider something you
are doing that you should stop doing.
Ceasing a time-consuming activity can
be done either from work or at home.
The goal of eliminating something is to
immediately net more time in your day.
One friendly piece of advice I received
40+ years ago was not to watch the
news. It can take 30-60 minutes, is frequently
bad, and will depress you, and
if something is noteworthy, others will
tell you about it anyway. Alternatively,
consider one highly summarized news
briefing like Semafor, 1440, the Skimm,
or Axios. Don't read the details of any
more than one item.
You'll be surprised that you'll know
" the big stuff " and have extra hours
back in your day. While I enjoy reading
The Wall Street Journal, The Financial
Times, The Economist, Time Magazine, and
National Geographic, these can all be
time-consuming. Perhaps a better use
of your time is spending your reading
time on books you have thoughtfully
selected. Years ago, I was taught that
the value of printed material declined
with the frequency of publication. In
other words, newspapers are less
valuable than magazines are less
useful than books. Consider the effort,
thoughtfulness, and thoroughness of
what you are reading in today's digital
world.
With the three pieces of guidance
above, I hope you'll still find my columns
and podcasts of the past and
future providing valuable ideas. You
see, I want the time you spend reading
one of my columns or listening to one
of our podcasts to save you more time
than you spent or to give at least one
or more executable ideas. So, for now,
celebrate, relax, and have a profitable
future. ■
DECEMBER 2022/JANUARY 2023 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
7
http://www.CPAFirmTech.com https://www.tinyurl.com/t7abrj84 http://www.CPA.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
december2022january2023

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