CPA Practice Advisor - 18

APPS WE LOVE

By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-in-Chief

Meeting & Calendar Apps
WE LIVE IN an era of convenience, and that goes for meetings as well as everything
else. There's simply no excuse to insist that everyone gather in person for a meeting,
nor is there reason to be frustrated with the chaos of a conference call when too
many people are on the line, like the one depicted here: https://bit.ly/38nP6fy.
Instead, we reached out to members of our CPA
Practice Advisor community for recommendations
for their favorite meeting apps - we wanted to
hear about apps for scheduling meetings as well
as the meeting apps themselves. Our response was
tremendous, so here is a sampling, and you can
follow the URL at the bottom of the article to find
more recommendations on our website. Happy
2020 meetings!!!
Paul Kersten, owner of Kersten Accounting &
Tax Professionals, uses Google Calendar to schedule
meetings. "The reason we use it is because it syncs
and can do real time so all our staff can schedule
meetings. It also is very helpful for working in real
time with our two office locations."
Michelle Walsh, vice president of client services
at XCM, told us about the meeting apps she uses:
"We use Eventur - I love it because they are a great
partner and willing to do a little extra for customers.
We've also used ConferencesIO and Double Dutch
- both are super user friendly!"
Tony Chan, CFP®, EA, principal at Crossroads
Planning, LLC, uses Calendly, "It is user-friendly,
easy to set up and customizable." That was just the
start of the Calendly fan club. Here are several more
recommendations for the app.
* Vince Porter, president and CEO of Porter & Company
CPAs, said, "I absolutely love Calendly. It's very easy to
use. It allows clients to book appointments to see me
without me having to play the back and forth game
of availability. It allows us to set it and forget it and
clients book their own appointments."
* Arline Welty, principal consultant at DataQuest
Solutions, said, "Oh gosh. Calendly is the best! It's
so fast and works great when integrated to Outlook.
Totally does away with the long email exchanges.
Also a fan of Doodle for larger groups. Even the free
version is pretty useful.
* Samantha Bowling, CPA, CGMA, owner, Garbelman
Winslow CPAs, told us, "I love Calendly, it links to
my Outlook and allows me to customize when I am
available to meet and how many meetings I want to
have in a day. Saved my life last tax season. It also
allows my receptionist to book appointments without

FEBRUARY 2020 ■

seeing the details of my calendar. I also love Zoom
for virtual meetings and there is an Outlook plugin
that allows me to schedule virtual meetings from
my calendar. Zoom allows you to also share and view
other user screens. Great for showing client's how to
fix software issues."
* Scott Hoppe, CPA, principal at Why Blu, agrees with
the rest: "Calendly - Easiest to use UI & comes with
excellent webpage integration for people to book all
sorts of ways (pop up window, link, or integrated
calendar). Very slick."
And there are more - but let's continue with
some other recommendations.
Alina Nikishina, co-founder and program
architect at The Mastery Network, told us: "I like to
use Doodle when I need to figure out if more than
one person has availability on certain dates/times
for a meeting. Doodle lets me enter-in a few dates/
times as options, and then I can send out a link to all
the people that need to be in the meeting. Everyone
then votes on which dates/times work for them. After
everyone has voted, I can easily make a final decision
by seeing which date/time was the most popular."
Stacy Kildal, founder of Kildal Services, LLC,
recommends Boomerang Calendar. "I'm a control
freak about scheduling and hate having online
scheduling options. Boomerang Calendar allows me
to suggest meeting times for multiple people (who
can then choose with one click) and add an event to
my calendar from an email."
Megan Thomson, CPA, CVA, CFF, at Thomson
Accounting, said, "Our team uses Slack. I really
like that I can communicate with one or multiple
employees at a time and we can exchange ideas
quickly. We are able to organize meetings, discuss
tasks we are working on, or just talk about what to
have for lunch and there is no long string of work
texts mixed in with my personal texts on my phone."
Clayton Oates, founder of QA Business Pty Ltc.,
said, "Its Zoom all the way for me. Ease of use for
both us and the clients is key, the ability to easily
record and distribute the meeting recording is also
valuable and also the mobile app is simple to use and
the Outlook plugin enables you to easily schedule

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and manage meetings. I never see requests for
meetings via Skype anymore, mostly now Zoom or
Google Meetings."
Caleb Jenkins, EA, CQP, leader of client accounting services at RLJ Financial, told us, "I use Zoom &
Acuity Scheduling for my meetings:
* Acuity Scheduling - I love this app because I can
create different meeting types (I have over 30 of
them) and that allows the client to find a time on my
calendar that works for them, fill out all the details
that are necessary for that meeting type, and that
links to my Zoom app to auto-create the meeting links
on Zoom. This also allows the client to be in control
of rescheduling their meeting, etc.
* Zoom - I also love this app because there is absolutely
zero time that it takes to prepare for a meeting. Zoom
allows me to share my screen and record the meetings
which is a huge booster for my clients in their ability
to remember our meeting details and the ability to
interact with me more closely around the data that I'm
presenting. Zoom is the closest thing to an in-person
meeting as possible without requiring the client to
drive to our office and it is still completely personal."
Sandra Wiley, president of Boomer Consulting, Inc., said, "We LOVE Box.com - Box Notes.
Box Notes allows everyone to collaborate on the
agenda, as well as add notes during the meeting
at the same time. It has been a game changer for
us. We use Zoom for all of our meetings. Great for
seeing each other, screen sharing and ease of use.
Miro Board is also terrific. Another collaborative
way to organize by using virtual sticky notes for
brainstorming and education"
Richard Roppa-Roberts, owner of Quasar Cowboy Consulting, is also a fan of Zoom. "Hands down
the best meeting app I have ever used. Personally, I
use Zoom each and every day and cannot imagine
using anything else. As a host you can set all the
parameters when scheduling the meeting - start
with video on or off, use computer audio or phone.
Screen sharing is easy peasy - you can share an
entire screen or a single window - you can also chat
in-app and annotate screens during screen sharing.
One of my favorite hidden features is the ability to
share an iPhone or iPad screen right through the
zoom interface. Recently, Zoom introduced a virtual
background option that is 95% perfect even with
no green screen. Once you use it, you will never
look back."
Randy Johnston, executive vice president at K2

https://www.bit.ly/38nP6fy http://www.Box.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

CPA Practice Advisor

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