Earned Wage Access has been added to the Wisely payment platform from Automatic Data Processing. EWA is being offered through a partnership with DailyPay.

ADP says its research shows EWA is important to 91 percent of millennial workers and 82 percent of Generation Z workers and 57 percent of Generation X and baby boomers.

Wisely, which integrates with enterprise resource planning and payroll systems, offers employees  secure digital accounts to access their pay, putting all sources income in one place, It is accessible to both W-2 and 1099 workers.

Wisley also offers members the ability to snap a photo of a bill within the myWisely App and have payments deducted through their accounts via BillPay. In addition, members can utilize Cash Back Rewards to earn cash back on spending with the cash going to the savings envelope in the mobile app.

Members can add Wisely accounts to their digital wallets.

SafeSend has redesigned the. lower and file of its SafeSend Exchange secure file transfer application. It is also now available within the SafeSend Suite Preferred Pricing Tier, the company said this week.

In a prepared statement, CEO Scott Fleszar said that Exchange’s “inclusion in the SafeSend Suite further distinguishes our tax workflow automation platform from anything else in the marketplace.”

Exchange offers a client portal, file sharing system, and automated PDF encryption in one application with direct Microsoft Outlook integration or accessibility through the online platform.

The product automatically encrypts email attachments from within Outlook and offers s customizable “question & answer” based authentication.

SafeSend Organizers have also been enhanced with improvements including combined Proforma and Batch Organizer reporting, new Organizer reports and expanded capabilities around Source Documents,

Accounting software package FreshBooks is now integrated with SurePayroll’s payroll application. The companies said this month a new application program interface enables users to automatically synchronize payroll expenses and liabilities.

SurePayroll said the EPI automatically transmitts general ledger information once payroll processing is complete.

Owned by Paychex, SurePayroll is designed for small businesses. Besides offering payroll, SurePayroll offers 401(k) plans, workers' compensation, and health insurance to these businesses.

RSM US has won a global partner of the year award and two partner of the year awards for the United States from Microsoft. The awards, announced recently, include product and industry honors for a wide variety of Microsoft products and platforms.

On the global scene the account firm was name Partner of the Year for the nonprofit industry and was a finalist in the government market.Its U.S. awards are partner of the year for Dynamics 365 Customer Service & Field Service and for Power Apps.

The Big Four accounting firms scored in both the global and U.S. honors.  KPMG International was the U.S. and global award winner for Dynamics 365 Finance. Ernst & Young was given the American and worldwide honors for Dynamics 365 Sales, Azure AI, Advisory. Services and Security. 

Ernst &. Young Brazil was the worldwide award for Power Automate

On the global side, KPMG International and Pricewaterhousecoopers were finalists in the Business Advisory segment. EY was a finalist for Customer Experience. KPMG International was a finalist for Global SI & Advisory Digital Transformation and as Sustainability Changemaker; EY Chile for Defense & Intelligence 

The issues surrounding payroll have changed dramatically over the last two years. With a significant percentage of the population working away from the office—and like to stay away, many businesses now have a work force in more than one state, meaning tax compliance is more complicated.

 The Great Resignation in which millions have changed or are changing jobs having clients asking accounting firms questions about hiring and employee retention. Fortunately, payroll software and service providers are responding with tools to answer these challenges. These include employee self-service that can improve the accuracy of employee records and payroll. Read about the trends that are reshaping payroll and drawing accounting and payroll firms into providing people services in the special report “Self-Service Reshapes Payroll”.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to most segments of business. That includes payroll where remote work, staff shortages and resignations have steered businesses to their advisors to increasingly ask questions about human resource issues. And there is the complexity of businesses that have unexpectedly found themselves with worker in many different jurisdictions. This special report examines the significant changes faced by accounting professionals who deal with the payroll and people issues faced by their clients.

The last two years have been like nothing else the mid-market has experienced--indeed like nothing most peope alive have experienced. But for the ERP channel, the pandemic produced opporuntity as remote work accelerated the move of businesses to the cloud

But new opporunties and new problems usually go hand and hand and the demand for web-based financial products has been accompanied by a shortage of the consultants needed to install and implement them. This Special Report "Beyond the Pandemic" discusses these issues, as it announces the 2022 edition of Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs. It tells you where the leaders rank and examines how several of them have addressed the problems and the opportunities.

The title of this special report "Reselling the Era of COVID" sounds even more relevant with the recent outbreak of the Omicron variant. But one thing is for sure, the move to the cloud was accelerated by the pandemic in a way no one could have anticipated.

It has not beneftied everyone in the midmarket who sells ERP software. But a large number of resellers and software publishers have benefited, even as they work around issued such as remote work. So within that framework, we are pleased to announce the 100 resellers who have been chosen as
VAR Stars for 2021 and share some of their experiences of the last year. 

Jeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingJeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingQuickBooks to over 300 clients. Jeff knows what it takes to grow a business: efficiency of scale, real-time insights thatbuild strong customer relationships, and a secure data environment. He gets all three from Right Networks.

In this ebook, we’ll examine:In this ebook, we’ll examine:

• Why DIY (Do-It-Yourself) accounting systems created forsmall businesses cause undue pain for both small businessowners and for accountants
• How the right cloud-based professional accounting systemcan not only eliminate that pain, but also open up newopportunities for accountants to better serve their clients

Steven Brewer, CPA is the President of Steven Brewer and Company, CPAs, located in Salem, IN. He talked to AccountantsWorld about how he’s grown his accounting practice without needing to increase his number of clients – and how those improvements have eased his tax season crunch.

BooXkeeping: How White Label Bookkeeping Services Provide Scalability to Your Firm When it comes to running a business the main thing that every business owner wants to do is sell their products or services, create brand awareness and generate profits that they can enjoy later in life. The last thing a business owner wants to do is to worry about bookkeeping, taxes, and the rest of time consuming accounting tasks needed to run a successful business, with limited resources and time, often the bookkeeping ends up being the last on the list of things that need to be completed.

Three tax preparers who are members of a Texas family have each been sentenced to multi-year prison terms. The father. Hugo Cesar Granados, manager of Columbia Tax Service, drew 14 years in prison, the longest term.

His daughter, Blanca L. Granados, was sentenced to six years eight months in prison; his son, Hugo Alberto Granados, to five and a half years.

 The three were convicted in August of conspiracy to defraud the United States and multiple counts of aiding in the preparation and presentation of false documents. They were found to have routinely doctored client tax returns to boost refunds. At the trial, prosecutors described the company’s tax preparation manual as a handbook that outlined exactly how to commit fraud.

Saul Garcia-Soto, a Columbia Tax employee who plead guilty prior to trial, testified in 2016 employees met with Hugo C. Granados becuase clients were not receiving their refunds from the IRS.

 The elder Granados asked employees if they thought the company was doing something illegal. Garcia-Soto reported that he, Blanca Granados, and Hugo A. Granados each replied Columbia Tax was doing something illegal. 

Hugh C. Granados smiled and returned to working on his computer, Garcia-Soto said.

A Nevada tax preparer has been sentenced to 13 years and three months in prison for a variety of crimes, including fraud.King Isaac Umoren, 41, has also been ordered to pay $9.7 million in restitution to the United States and his victims .

Umoren drew the sentence for aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, money laundering and impersonating an FBI agent.

Umoren owned and operated a Las Vegas, Nev.-based tax preparation business, Universal Tax Services, and conducted two separate tax schmes. First, from 2012 through 2016, Umoren prepared and filed with the IRS tax returns for clients that included false deductions and fictitious businesses in an effort to generate larger refunds than the clients were entitled to receive.

From 2012 through 2016, he filed tax returns that including false deductions and fictitious businesses to boost client deductions, but used the names and IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number sof other UTS employees without their knowledge. Umoren also required his clients to use refund anticipation check and would take fees out of refunds without their refunds.

Then on Feb. 7, 2016, Umoren posed as an FBI agent, and wearing a fake badge and tactical gear, drove to a client’s house with police lights attached to his vehicle to demand a tax preparation fee payment

In May 2016, he tried to sell UTS, using fraudulent documents to hike bids for the sale. These included forged bank statements, fabricated return preparation fee reports, false personal tax returns and other tax forms that had not been filed with the IRS.  Using the stolen identities of about 12,000 taxpayers who were not UTS clients, he induced a company to pay $3.8 million for UTS, using the sale proceeds to purchase land in Henderson, Nev., and an automobile.

Intuit has released information about enhanced feature for its tax preparation software packages for tax year 2022. It also this week outlined changes to the Intuit Tax Advisor, which was introduced this year.

Tax Advisor users can now select cost segregation study as a strategy and also can edit multiple fields in an activity, such as a W-2 or K-1, before recalculation occurs. Additinally,  Intuit has a provided more visibility to which tax fields are impacted by a strategy and more detail about the calculations.

Moreover,  there is enhanced error handling when users enter a strategy value that is not supported in order to easily identify and correct errors while strategies with errors will be excluded from client report. Intuit has also provided ways to customize and communicate client reports.

For its online ProConnect Tax, the company is providing the ability to export client data from standard tax return fields and query data based on common tax scenarios. Users can utilize with customized default print options for client, preparer and filing copies and to view and manage all documents, internal to the firm and shared with the client, in one place. Also added is a notification inbox for news and product updates.

An eFile Summary offers views of information before e-filing, including a list of the federal and state returns, payment method, and the refund amount or balance due.And users connect their Google Drive accounts to ProConnect to import tax forms directly to a tax return.

ProSeries users can now transfer prior year and current year TurboTax business returns to current-year ProSeries returns and efile superseded federal and California returns. Among other features—a ProSeries migration tool can back up and restore data between more than one computer; Basic users bill be able to create and edit standard client letters in their software; and the ability to import data from QuickBooks Online Accountant.

Intuit has improved forms help in Lacerte, providing the ability to find more information about a specific tax form or calculation without having to leave that form Users will also be able to sync client returns with Tax Advisor to build custom tax-having plans. 

Finally,  Intuit has removed 30-minute inactivity timeouts, users can leave Lacerte running for up to 12 hours without getting automatically signed out.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance on meeting prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements for enhanced tax benefits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Notice 2022-61 explains how taxpayers such as builders, developers, and owners of clean energy facilities receive increased tax credits or deduction amounts. This includes guidance concerning what constitutes a prevailing wage and determination of qualified apprenticeships.

Publication of the notice in this week’s Federal Register began the 60-day period in which taxpayers must begin construction of a facility or installation under rules for expensing energy efficient commercial building property

Jennifer Warawa has been named as president of QuickFee’s North American operations. QuickFee, based in Australia, offers payments services for professional businesses such as accountants and law firms.

The vendor also operates automated utility bill payments.

Warawa spent 11 years eight months with the Sage Group, holding executive roles in managing the company’s reselling and accounting firm channels during that time. She was most recently chief commercial officer of Dirtt Environmental Solutions.

QuickFee reported revenue of about $734,000 for the first quarter ended September 30, an increase of 21 percent over last year’s corresponding period.

QuickFee is undergoing management changes as CEO Eric Lookhoff resigned in August for personal reasons. A search for a U.S/-based CEO is underway. Also in October, executive chairman Barry Lewin said he would not seek re-election. He has been succeeded by executive director Dale Smorgon. The company also discontinued its Buy Now Pay Later operations in the U.S., but it continues to operate in Australia.

Xero will change CEOs in February with Steve Vamos retiring from the position he has held for five years.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, who is joining the company on November 28, will move into the top position for the New Zealand-based cloud accounting software company. Vamos said this week he is staying until the end of May as an advisor.

Previously, Cassidy was president of StubHub, an eBay subsidiary, from 2018 through 2020 where she was responsible for the platform’s operations its sites in the United States and internationally. Cassidy was founder and CEO of Joyus from January 2011 through February 2017. The company was purchased by StackCommerce in September 2017.

She has also served on the boards of Upstart, Canada Drives and Urban Outfitters.

 Maddox, Thomson & Associates, a CPA firm based in Houston, Texas, has named Rebecca McElroy as president and Jennifer Youngblood as VP.  They are taking over from Larry Maddox and Joe Thomson, who founded the firm in 1985.

McElroy, who joined the firm in August 2011, has been a tax partner since July 2013.  She came to the CPA business from Hines, a real-estate firm, where she was senior accountant from February McElroy will lead MTA’s accounting and tax practices and direct the firm’s future growth

Youngblood, who joined MTA in 2013 and was elected partner in January 2022, will co-lead MTA’s accounting and tax practices. Youngblood will continue to support individuals, trusts, family partnerships and closely held businesses with tax compliance and tax planning.

She was previously a manager with Calvetti, Ferguson, Wagner, and worked there for one year four months and prior to that was an associate with Kainer &. Co. where she was employed for 10 years one month.

 Anders CPAs has named six individuals who will become partners in the St. Louis, Mo.-based accounting firm.

 The six are Brent Kaniecki, Lesley Sanchez, CPA, Beth Schulte, CPA, Justin Marty, CPA, Luke Luckett, CPA/PFS, CEP, and Nathan Stoner, CPA 

Kaniecki, who joined Anders in 2004 and has served as director and strategic growth advisor. In his first 16 years at the firm, he helped build the technology practice. His industry experience includes manufacturing and distribution, real estate and construction,

Serving as an intern with Anders in September 2008, Sanchez was hired in July 2009. She primarily works with privately held companies, particularly those in banking and financial institutions as well as manufacturing, hospitality and construction, and  also specializes in conducting employee benefit plan audits for defined benefit plans and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).  

Schulte came to Anders in 2021 as a principal and outsourced CFO. Prior to that, she worked for five years with UHY where she was a principal. She also worked at the Stewardship Center for 15 years, where she was CFO. Schulte has experience in directing strategic planning efforts for companies in industries that include  real estate, construction, mortgage lending, manufacturing, health care, technology, e-commerce and not-for-profits.

After joining the firm as an intern, Marty worked his way through the Anders Tax Department, He has specific experience in labor, welfare, pension, vacation and other funds with experience in serving including real estate companies, startups, manufacturers and distributors,

Luckett started with Anders in October 2010. Prior to that, he was a tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt from January 2009 through April 2010. A Personal Finance Specialist and Certified Exit Planning Advisor, his specialty areas include individual and trust tax planning, estate planning, executive cashflow planning, business transition planning and stock option planning.

 Stoner came to Anders in 2011 as a tax intern and became a tax associate in November 2012. He works with high net-worth individuals, business owners, and flow-through entities on tax planning and advisory. Working within the Anders Health Care Group, he has served physician-owned health care practices. 

 QuickBooks Online can now recommended appropriate sales tax item categories for products and services.

Part of the November enhancements to QBO, the ability means when clients map a product or service to an item category, the rate will always be correct—even when the rate changes.

When items in Products and Services are setup, QBO will make category recommendations when sales tax machine-learning model has high confidence in the sales tax item category. It will prompt customers to edit categories for recommendations when the model has medium-high confidence in the selection.

In addition, Intuit said it has made it easier to migrate desktop QuickBooks data to BQO via the addition of a view-only mode feature. Clients can use this to view their data up to one year after their desktop subscriptions end.

The QuickBooks Online app for Windows QuickBooks Desktop uses who are using a QBO Essentials, Plus or Advanced subscription. The app must be downloaded by December 31 or before 25,000 app downloads have been reached whichever comes first.

 Indirect tax specialist Avalara is being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for $8.3 billion. At $93.50 per share, the all-cash deal is 27-percent higher than the closing share price on August 6.

CEO Scott McFarlane heads Avalara, which he founded in 2004.

At the same time, it reported a loss of $55.8 million second quarter ended June 30, up from a loss of $31 million a year earlier. Revenue for the most recently ended period rose 23 percent to $208.6 million, from $169.1 million a year ago. Subscription revenue of $189.8 million increaed  24 percent from $152.4 million in last year’s corresponding period

Avalara has introduced Transfer Pricing Reports for Accountants. The indirect tax software company this week said the product is designed for use by both transfer pricing experts and non experts at accounting firms.

The system automates the production of U.S. and OECD transfer pricing reports, documenting the process andenabling firms to produce reports for clients in three steps: data collection, documentation review and report generation. 

The application creates templated reports by combining predetermined, fixed benchmarks with a guided questionnaire, which prepopulates data based on transaction types selecied.

Transfer Reports covers both local file and master file for countries that have adopted OECD guidelines. Built-in databased on best practices from publicly available data, covering the Americas, Europe, and Asia.  Reports included built-in, noneditable date and time stamps, benchmark-related appendices, and analysis.

The software also offers management tools with built-in visibility and tracking.

Sales tax vendor Avalara has laid out its plans for Crush Global, its annual conference. The free virtual conference, the company's sixth annaul event, will be held May 17 and 18, the company said this week as it opened registration

Besides offering breakout sessions about industry topics, the conference will again feature Crush City, described as “an experiential activity center with access to a variety of on-demand resources, including videos, podcasts, downloadable guides and reports, and more, specific to the needs of different industries and business sizes.” Attendees will have experiences based on their country or region.

Major sessions include “Managing Growth in the Global Economy”. Moderated by global economist, Todd Buchholz, ecommerce experts on the panel are Craig Cohen, CRO at WooCommerce, and  Miriam González Durántez, international trade lawyer with Cohen & Gresser, and founder and chair of Inspiring Girls International,

Siri Bulusu, former tax reporter with Bloomberg Industry Group, will moderate “Staying Ahead of Shifting Government Regulations” with panelists Daniel Bunn, VP, global projects at the Tax Foundation, Gino Dossche, principal, U.S. VAT practice at EY, and  Dr. Lindsey Piegza, chief economist for Stifel Financial,

The moderator, Mickey North Rizza, program VP, Enterprise Applications and Digital Commerce at IDC, is hosting “Discover the Value of Embedding Tax Within Finance” Panelists fopr this session are  Catherine Barba, a digital revolution pioneer and expert in omnichannel retail and digital retail, Dara Meath, Ddvisional CIO, Digital/Ecommerce at Conair Corporation and Avalara customer, and Paul Farrell, VP, product management at Oracle NetSuite.