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 

Wolters Kluwer’s CCH Tagetik operation has introduced a free online buyer’s guide to Corporate Performance Management Software. The guide is designed to enable finance leaders to compare a variety of CPM software features.

CPM features compared include budgeting and planning, analytics and reporting, close and consolidation and pricing.

Designed for finance leaders, the practical playbook includes a step-by-step process for conducting a successful software evaluation, including assessing and defining the current needs of businesses, creating a project timeline and building a buying committee.

Four tools area aare vailable to create a short list of products.

First is a CPM software checklist. The second includes vendor comparison features within the following analyst reports: a Gartner: Magic Quadrant for Cloud FP&A Solutions; Nucleus Research: CPM Technology Value Matrix and Dresner: Advisory Services Technology Innovation Awards. There is a Business Case Checklist and Sample RFP questions.

Users of QuickBooks Online Accountant can now tag clients or team members in Notes. The feature was among those added by Intuit to QBO in May.

Notes mentions can alerts others of notes that contain information relevant to a client or staff member.  If someone is tagged @ mention, they receive a notification about notes needed their review.

Intuit noted other recent enhancement to Notes include threaded notes, private notes, and Rich Text Format/

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. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had changed the world of payroll. It put a premium on using cloud-based products since most employees were working remotely.

It forced accounting firms into offering human resource advice as they helped clients obtain Payroll Protection Plan loans and then pursue forgiveness of those loans, along with dealing with questions of possible furloughing employees and also bringing them back to the office. This special report, ”Payroll Moves into a New Era” examines issues involved in a new way of doing things.

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.

 The American Institute of CPAs is complaining about the “plummeting level of service for the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) telephone line” provided by the Internal Revenue Service. The AICPA also submitted several suggested improvements in a letter this week.

“We are hearing from tax practitioners everyday regarding their significant PPS line challenges and the impact those challenges have on their interactions with IRS on behalf of taxpayers,” the letter states.

The organization said despite efforts by the IRS to handle problems stemming from the backlog of returns, service levels for the practitioner line have been in continuous decline for several years.  Recommendations were made regarding power of attorney issues, transcripts, Accounts Management versus Automated Collection System and and general issues.

Improvements suggested in the POA arena are the following:                                                                                                                    *Provide a fax number at the start of the call if the POA is probably not on file;                                                                                                 *Do not require the first POA be posted to the central authorization file before recognizing the delegated POA.                                       *Ensure service representatives understand proper taxpayer business entity titles.                                                                                       *Allow use of POAs signed by taxpayers and the representatives calling, even if it is not yet signed by the other listed representatives.

Transcripts:                                                                                                                                                                                              *Reinstitute internal screen-print type transcripts over the phone during PPS calls;                                                                                  *Restore the IRS message line (transcripts);                                                                                                                                              *Eliminate the “law line”.

 Accounts Management versus Automated Collection System:                                                                                                                  *Restore the ability to grant cycle holds with accounts management staff;                                                                                                  *Enable automated collection systems to resolve more account issues;                                                                                                  *Authorize service reps to grant 180-day holds where correspondence was sent in.

General Recommendations:                                                                                                                                                                              *Staff the PPS line again with highly trained, highly empowered personnel;                                                                                         *Discontinue asking for practitioners’ Social Security numbers and birth dates;                                                                                        *Enhance the new automatic return call system.                                                                                                                                         *Empower PPS service reps from one line to handle all types of calls;                                                                                                         *Require reps accept and consider submission of correspondence, documentation and other communication by taxpayers or their representatives through e-services or facsimile.                                                                                                                                             *Allow reps to process and post extensions;                                                                                                                                               *Provide more supervisor availability;                                                                                                                                                                  *Let reps handle international issues and international taxpayers and enable them to apply first-time abatement in international situations, such as international penalties.                                                                                                                                                                    *Prohibit reps from answering calls within15 minutes of when their shift ends                                                                                      *Investigate certain systemic call answering issues. 

 A Texas tax preparer, his adult son and daughter have been found guilty of tax preparation fraud that cost the Internal Revenue Service about $18 million. In addition, an employee of the Columbia Tax Service pleaded guilty on July 12 to helping prepare fake documents.

The jury convicted Hugo Cesar Granados, Columbia’s manager, his adult daughter, Blanca L. Granados and his adult son, Hugo Alberto Granados. All were indicated in May 2021 with the employee, Saul Garcia-Soto, who entered his plea on July 12 this year.

The IRS said the group routinely fabricated Schedule A itemized deductions, and Schedule C, sole proprietorship profit and loss statements. The actions occurred from 2013 through 20917

Ten clients also testified at the trial with two women admitting that they did not operate daycare centers, but rather cared for family members for free, while a man admitted that his wife did not operate a retail business that generated $19,000 in expenses as stated on the couple's return.

Prosecutors also introduced the company’s tax preparation manual, which outline out to commit fraud. In looking at refunds, the manual told preparers,”A determination has to be made if the return needs additional income to generate the maximum earned income and other credits or if the return has a substantial amount of income (Adjusted Gross Income) and needs to come down to maximize the earned income and other credits."

A San Fernando Valley, Calif.-based CPA has pleaded guilty to helping a client fraudulently obtain a $1.2-million Paycheck Protection Loan. The accountant, Bernard Turk of Tarzana, this month pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud.

Turk admitted preparing a federal corporate income tax return, claiming his client’s business, Agency 126, paid employees $5,383,401 in wages during the 2019 tax year. 

He prepared the return in February 2021 but later admitted both he and his client knew that Agency 126, a purported marketing and video production agency based in Irvine, had no employees, paid no wages, and never filed tax returns with the IRS.

The bank, relying in part on the false return, approved the loan and wired $1,212,312 to a bank account that the client controlled. As a part of scheme, Turk was to receive a percentage of the loan proceeds when the bank forgave the loan.

A Georgia preparer, who was the last to be sentenced in a nationwide tax fraud, drew 51 months in prison this month. Yomarie Febres of Covington, Ga., one of more than 200 conspirators, must also repay $11.1 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Between 2014 and 2916, Febres prepared 77 inflated tax returns that sought $23.8 million in refunds and the IRS paid out more than $15 million in refunds as a result. She concealed her role by having all returns listed as self-prepared.

During the period, co-conspirators around the country held seminars promote this scheme telling clients their mortgages and other debts entitled them to refunds Those returns falsely claimed banks and other financial institutions had withheld large amounts of income tax from clients. There was no such withholding.

Febres reportedly received $500 per client, a portion of the $10,000 to $15,000 that co-conspirators charged clients to participate. She did not report this income on her 2014 and 2015 income tax returns and also claimed phony business losses.

In March, the scheme’s main promoter, Iran Backstrom, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison, and his  second-in-command, Mehef Bey, was sentenced to 11 years . In April, Aaron Aqueron, who recruited clients and provided information to Febres, received a more than four-years prison sentence.

Wave Financial, which markets small business accounting software, is changing CEOs effective July 1. CEO and cofounder, Kirk Simpson, is stepping down after 15 years in the position.

Simpson is being replaced by Zahir Koja, with Simpson remaining through September as an Advisor. According to the announcement, Wave recently surpassed $100 million Canadian annual revenue—about $77.2 million.

The company is owned by H&R Block and Khoja will report to Block CEO Jeff Jones as a member of the company’s senior leadership team.

Khoja was most recently general manager for North America for Afterpay since  April 2021. Before that, he was with MasterCard for eight years 10 months, the last two years as EVP of global merchant solution and partnerships

CapinCrouse, an Indianapolis, Ind.-based CPA firm, has named three partners. The firm, which specializes in working with nonprofit clients, has promoted Daren Daiga, Chris Purnell, and Logan Sharrett to partner effective this month.

Tax partner, Daren Daiga, joined the firm in February 2013. She specializes in tax-exempt compliance services, including Form 990 and 990-T and related state forms and assists exempt organizations with a wide variety of general tax matters. Previously, she was NFP tax manager at Crowe Horwath, where she worked for seven years, seven months.

Chris Purnell, partner and tax counsel, came to CapinCrouse this month. A licensed attorney, he advises exempt organizations of all sizes on a wide range of issues and also assists clients with general tax issues, unrelated business income, charitable solicitation, and missionary employment structures. He spent  11 years two months before that at the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic, a faith-based nonprofit that provides legal services to low-income individuals.

Employed by CapinCrouse since June 2015, Logan Sharrett, based in Atlanta, Ga., was an audit manager and senior manager before his promotion. He has more than 10 years of professional experience serving a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, including schools, colleges and universities, foundations, church denominations, and international mission organizations.

 The Maryland Association of CPAs has named staff member Rebekah J. Brown, CPA, as its next president and CEO. She will succeed Jackie Brown, who is retiring on June 30.

 Jackie Brown, who became CEO early in 2021, is retiring following a 42-year career with the association.

 Rebekah Brown joined staff in December 2021 as customized learning consulting and became the manager of membership development and engagement in 2014. She was named director of development in 2018.

The Internal Revenue Service has named Guy Ficco as its next deputy chief for IRS Criminal Investigation. He takes over on July 15 from Jim Robnett, who is retiring after 36 years of IRS service, of which 28 years were with IRS-CI.

Ficco will oversee 20 field offices and 11 foreign posts, including approximately 2,000 special agents investigating tax fraud and other financial crimes.

Ficco started with the IRS in July 1995. He is currently, executive director of global operations policy and support, a job he has held since May 2021.  In that position, he oversees CI's policies related to investigations, as well as the agency's international footprint.

 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.

 Thomson Reuters has introduced Indirect Tax Determination Anywhere. The company this week said the platform sits on top of private and public cloud or on-premise applications to provide tax calculations.

The company said the application, gives tax professionals “the power of a tax determination engine at any point of transaction, within any channel.”

Determination was launched in conjunction with the Thomson Reuters Institute’s new2021 Tax Technology Report, Indirect Taxes – Much More than Just a Process, The inaugural product “shows how the growth and complexity of indirect taxes continues to impact compliance and operational efficiency across the global business landscape.”

The company said “Determination Anywhere's proprietary cloud-based technology ensures that tax rates and jurisdictional regulations are current and accurate, enabling reliable tax compliance, a frictionless customer experience and increased revenues for businesses. “