Category: Computers and Internet
-
PDF document handling in 2018
The Internal Revenue Service, state revenue departments and many other branches of government and industry rely heavily on the Portable Document File (PDF) format handling electronic documents. It follows then, that a tax professional needs to be up-to-date in handling PDFs with maximum security and efficiency. According to Wikipedia, the Portable Document Format (PDF) is a…
-
An experiment in password security
Back in 2012 I published a few educational articles reviewing and promoting the use of password management software. The message in short: we should all be using separate, randomly generated passwords for each our online accounts that are not written or recorded in non-secure online locations and are changed periodically. One of these articles is still…
-
Encrypted Email, Secure Messaging and Secure File Transfer
“Encrypted Email”, “Secure Messaging” and “Secure File Transfer” are three terms that most people doing business online should know about today. This seems like a good time to review the options as we begin the tax filing season. While these security measures are probably not needed for most people most of the time, I include…
-
Product review: Trim
I’ve written often about the fast-paced evolution of consumer finance software. In summary, our best programmers and artificial intelligence resources are focusing on this field for a number of reasons and consumers stand to gain. he field is highly competitive and exected to continue to evolve so that the value of product reviews like this…
-
Manage these five key relationships for a happier 2018
Recently there’s been a media blitz about the power and influence of what the New York Times calls the “Frightful Five”: Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. Despite this media blitz I suspect that most of us know little about this topic. The more we learn, the more we are likely to know why they…
-
The Paperless Office
I began the move toward a paperless office more than 20 years ago. Back then I operated a 5 person inter-discipline office with technology dominated by cables running from one machine to another. I was the the firm owner as well as the ‘technology guy’ by virtue of my early adoption of PC technologies1. By…
-
Why Use QuickBooks Online?
Occasionally I am asked why I use and endorse QuickBooks Online small business accounting platform. There are at least six ways to answer that question: Market share. QuickBooks. is the #1 most popular platform used by 4.3 million small businesses. There is strength in numbers. Support resources and integrations are limitless. It isn’t what you…
-
Rant against desktop accounting
I’ve been critical of accountants and business managers who have not adapted to online hosted accounting platforms. Their logic in using local desktop-based accounting software programs just does not make sense to me because almost all the sources of accounting data are already hosted online and almost all the output of accounting data are already hosted online. Why…
-
My Friday client communications
Good communication is key to effective tax and financial planning! In today’s complex environment it is too easy to miss a communication and lose momentum. I try to review the status of all time-sensitive open issues weekly.