Emburse has been formed by six companies that market expense and AP software. The companies that have combined are Abacus, Captio, Certify, Chrome River, Nexonia and Tallie, according to an announcement this month.

Emburse, which has 750 employees and 14,000 customers, is led by CEO Eric Friedrichsen, previously global head, commercial, SMB, and growth markets for Marketo from January 2019 through this month .The aggregation of vendors is designed to challenge SAP Concur. 

In a prepared statement, Friedrichsen said the six participants will be able to accelerate development through technology sharing while maintaining their individual software packages.

Before working at SAP Concur,  Friedrichsen was with SAP Concur from April 2008 through December 2016. From January 2017 through January 2019, he was with SAP as SVP and GM for mid-market and ecosystems, North America

 When a cyberattack strikes an accounting firm, it impacts the firm’s data and, more importantly, can expose critical client data. Keeping your business data and applications safe and secure from ransomware attacks while increasing your clients’ awareness of malicious software requires collaboration with your internal IT department and managed IT provider. 

Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to computer systems and then requires an anonymous payment to the hackers for return of the data. A ransomware attack is typically delivered via a phishing email. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that there will be a ransomware attack on businesses every 14 seconds by the end of 2019 and every 11 seconds by 2021, incurring global ransomware damage costs as high as $20 billion by 2021.

In addition to providing services to clients, a firm’s top priority must be keeping its IT infrastructure and client data safe from any cybersecurity threats, including ransomware. Ransomware isn’t going away anytime soon – if anything, these types of malware will continue to become more dangerous. Here are six things firms can do now to better protect client data:

1. Build and test a disaster recovery plan.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Perform a security audit to test and identify vulnerabilities in your organization’s IT infrastructure. Close the gaps to ensure that your information assets are fully protected. Conduct monthly disaster recovery plan drills to ensure quick response times. 

A disaster recovery plan can help your firm get systems back up and running after a cybersecurity attack. A business continuity plan enables staff to remain productive while cybersecurity issues are being resolved.

2. Use secure methods of document sharing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       How does your firm exchange important financial documents with clients? Do clients send earnings statements and tax documents by regular mail or as email attachments? The insecure nature of mail makes it relatively easy for others to intercept, monitor or tamper with critical information. Instead, use a secure client portal to reduce the risk of data breaches. Accountants and clients can log in on a portal to upload, share and view documents, files and messages in a highly secure, encrypted environment.

3. Implement multiple backup protection.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           When ransomware infects an organization’s IT infrastructure, it can restrict access to critical information stored within the computer system. Effective backup of firm data will enable restoration of all files, documents and data right up to the time of a ransomware infection or other breach.

Best practice is to have data stored on multiple servers with multiple backup solutions in place, secured with the latest and most advanced technology, to make sure no one can access or delete stored data. Backups should be on a separate network, completely isolated from your main network and off-site.

4. Increase levels of security.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Hackers tend to focus on systems that are easy to access. So the more levels of security they encounter, the more likely they will move on to avoid wasting time and effort. By implementing network wide security solutions, such as anti-virus, web filtering, firewalls and password protection, your hardware and employee devices will have the same level of security. 

Additionally, data should never be protected by a single password, no matter how creative or complex that single password may be. With this in mind, you should consider implementing multifactor authentication. It requires two or more forms of authentication in order to access critical data and applications hosted in the cloud. New AI-based technology solutions can analyze and model network behavior, improving threat detection to better protect firm and client data from cyberthreats.

5. Educate staff and clients.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Anyone who has access to network files and data, has individualized passwords to log in on business applications or uses any type of device to get to the cloud must be trained to identify potential threats. To spearhead education, think about developing and implementing cybersecurity training courses to educate your staff on the different types of ransomware threats as well as teach them easy tips to avoid attacks, such as exercising caution with suspicious emails or losing mobile devices. Send weekly reminders to your staff on security best practices (e.g., don’t click on links or attachments from unknown senders). 

Conduct research using websites like ID Ransomware or MSSP Alert to keep on top of IT-related current events in order to alert your staff and clients about new threats on the horizon. 

6. Monitor activity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Smaller businesses tend to fall victim to ransomware attacks because they do not monitor ongoing activity. Network monitoring tools can provide visibility into existing weak entry points that have allowed past breaches to occur and using that information to avoid possible future breaches. Track activity by creating a log of past security events and input the data into a security information and event management (SIEM) system. This system will offer a holistic view of your entire organization’s security. 

A final recommendation is to assemble and rely on a strong security team. Enlist the assistance of technology service providers. Hosting partners and accounting firm document management professionals understand the cybersecurity environment and have experience in implementing the solutions outlined here. The use of both preventive and predictive security practices will allow your firm to mitigate the risk of ransomware and better secure client data.

A study by Paychex has one 27 percent of business owners do not use any kind of data security software. The recently released results were published in a survey of 500 business owners with one to 500 employees who were queried about data security.

Of the other 73 percent of respondents, 48 percent use on-premise software; 11 percent, cloud-based software; 14 percent both.

Some of the businesses not utilizing data security software must feel secure because 81 percent of respondents said they were confident their company and customer data are as secure as possible. Similarly, 84 percent of the total believe they would be able to recover from a data breach or cyberattack.

Paychex also found the following from those surveyed:                                                                                                                                                                       *81 percent say employees recognize the importance of data security;                                                                                                                                               *72 percent regularly review their data security approach to ensure they are following best practices;                                                                                               *70 percent believe they have a clear data security policy;                                                                                                                                                                    *60 percent trains all employees on data security.

Larger companies are more likely to provide employee training. Eighty-nine percent of companies with 100 to 500 say they provide training, compared to 59 percent of those with one to 19 employees.

Half of 310 companies surveyed report their organization experienced some kind of data breachor cyberattack in the last year. The figures were released in Sikich’s 2019 Manufacturing and Distribution Survey, which said 11 percent of respondents had major intrusions. The survey was conducted online in April.

However, Sikich said a majority of executives are confident they can prevent or minimize these problems. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed were extremely or very confident of their ability to handle these situations while the figure rose to 74 percent for larger companies. For organizations with less than $500 million in revenue, only 49 percent had the same optimism.

”This disparity may be due to great spending on cybersecurity by these companies,” the report concluded.

The report defines larger companies as those with more than $500 million in annual revenue while smaller companies fall below that threshold.

Sikich believes having a single person having sole or primary responsibilty for cyber security is a better than having it be one among several responsibilities. That practice “can ensure that cybersecurity receives the concentrated attention that it demands,” the firm noted. Sikich conceded this practice can prove difficult at mid-market companies with smaller IT practices. “In these companies, where resources aren’t readily available, it may make more sense to look at outsourcing the entire cybersecurity program,” the authors recommended.

However, responsibility for managing cybersecurity is not centralized at most companies. Among larger companies, only 45 percent report a single executive is responsible for managing area as their sole or primary responsibility and that plunged to 14 percent among small companies.

Sikich also asked respondents how they sell and deliver products. Forty-nine percent of companies use e-commerce. But of that group, many felt e-commerce has not lived up to their expectations.

Thirty-nine percent said ecommerce sales had exceeded expectations, 37 percent said those sales fell short. Larger companies were more disappointed with 56 percent saying ecommerce sales lagged expectations and only 30 percent said they exceeded them.

For resellers, the issue now is meeting user needs and making money, not worrying about whether software is in the cloud. Certainly, there are many thousands of on-premise mid-market accounting systems in use and a decent number are being sold. But the action is in the cloud and it is a matter of features, which is what users really care about. The issue is which product is better at handling nonprofits, which is good for businesses with inventory, which best suits professional services and which delve into highly specialized markets. In the fact, the thought did not even occur this year to count how many of the Top 100 2019 VARs carry cloud products. It was just assumed they all do. That is why this year’s theme is “The Cloud Rules”  If you are not in the cloud game, you are not really in the game.

2018 Report: Getting a Handle on the Cloud

Buyers and sellers are talking less and less about cloud software. The discussions increasingly center around how the software, which happens to be cloud based, helps companies solve business problems, not on the technology used. Read more how this is happening.

Sponsored by:

Report: Payroll Gets Easier: Running payroll, whether for a company to pay its own employees or to pay clients’ employees, has rarely been easy. But it is necessary, which is why the question of whether tax and accounting firms should offer services as a line of business has had some firms moving into the business and others moving out. Read more and find out where your firm falls.

Sponsored By:

Report: Using the Cloud to Protect Your Data

The handwriting is in the cloud. And given some real barriers to adoption of cloud-based software, the move remains a question of when, not if, for most businesses with the purchase of web-based applications picking up speed. Download this free special report and read how.

Sponsored By:

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.

With no government shutdown to deal with this year , the Internal Revenue Service kicked off the 2020 tax season today with relative ease. It began accepting and processing federal tax returns for tax year 2019.

There are no complications from holidays in Massachusetts and Washington D.C. this year either so the deadline for filing and payment is Wednesday, April 15. The IRS expects 150 million 1040s will be filed for 2019.

The IRS also predicts 90 percent of returns will be filed electronically.

 Intuit continued its move toward opening up its professional software packages with third-party products, The tax software company had signaled that direction in December when it announced a plan to integrate professional tax applications, starting with ProConnect Tax Online with Karbon, a practice management software line.

 The plan was announced by Barry Pennett, Intuit ProConnect general manager this week. But it added little to what the company said last month and named no additional integrations. The company has said it will integrate Karbon with ProSeries and Lacerte and possible with other practice management products

"We believe that meaningful relationships are at the heart of every interaction between clients and tax professionals, and reducing the compliance work will free up time so that professionals can focus more of their time giving valuable advice to their clients, helping them reach their goals," Pennett said in a prepared statement.

The usual step for opening up a product to development is to make a software developments kit available to third parties. An SDK has been available for years for QuickBooks, but Intuit has not announced one for the tax packages.

An Internal Revenue Service employee in Massachusetts has been accused of filing more than 590 false tax returns. Jennifer Beth True, 44, of Lawrence, Mass., was charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft this month.

True, who worked at the IRS Service Center in Andover, Mass., has been an IRS employee for more than 22 years and is currently a Lead Contact Representative who responds to difficult and complex taxpayer inquiries.

She is accused of filing more than 590 tax returns for herself and other taxpayers between 2012 and 2017, in violation of IRS rules which prohibits its employees from preparing tax returns for compensation. True allegedly received between $40 and $100 per return, the vast majority prepared on her personal computer using TaxAct software.

An IRS investigation reportedly found that from about February 2018 through April 15, 2018  True prepared at least seventy 1040 returns that included a wide variety of false information, including false expenses of various types and unmerited child and dependent care credits. The report said many clients did not know she used false information.

True is also accused of preparing a personal return for tax year 2014 that claimed seven dependents, including one who was not a dependent and had paid True to prepare her return. The taxpayer had not given True permission to claim her as a dependent.

If convicted, she faces a sentence of up to 20 years for the wire fraud charge, along with three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. Aggravated identity theft carries  a mandatory sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutive to any other sentence imposed, up to one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. 

John H Nardozzi, CPA to the late State Senator Brian Joyce of Massachusetts, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Nardozzi was convicted after an October trial of helping Joyce hide $600,000 in income from 2011 through 2014.

Joyce, a Democrat, was indicted on indicted on 113 counts including racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion and obstruction as part of a scheme to trade his political influence for cash and bribes. However, these were dismissed after the 58-year old legislator died on September 27 from a drug overdose.

Nardozzi, 68 of Waltham was convicted of stealing about $600,000 that should have been reported on Joyce’s corporate tax return and applying it to his personal return. He was also convicted creating  a simplified-employee pension plan (SEP) for Joyce and his wife, they were not entitled to, which  enabled them to defer taxes on more than $400,000 in income that Joyce falsely attributed to his wife.

In addition, the CPA helped Joyce perform an illegal rollover of the SEP account  to purchase stock in a private company without following the IRA rollover rules.

Wipfli has hired Thomas Wojcinski to leadits cybersecurity practice in the Chicago and Eastern Wisconsin market.  Wojcinski specializes in cybersecurity, IT risk management and IT governance initiatives for American and multinational organizations. 

He worked with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause from July 2003 until taking the new job. From September 2012, he was a director who was responsible for the firm’s growth and development of cybersecurity, IT process assurance, and IT governance services nationally.

Frazier & Deeter has hired CPA James Dawson as a tax partner with a focus on international tax. He will serve American and foreign enterprises in a wide range of tax areas.

Dawson will focus on subjects such as tax efficient global supply chain management, structuring of international business models and operations, cross border transactions, project management and coordination of services in foreign jurisdictions.

He was previously a partner of international tax for accounting firm Crowe from May 2015 through October 2018. Before that, he was national leader of international tax services at Cherry Bekaert from January 2012 through April 2015 and was a partner in international tax for RSM McGladrey from 2006 through 2012.

Xero has named Hubdoc’s co-CEO Jamie McDonald as executive general manager of product, accounting and global services.  McDonald, who will continue his Hubdoc role, will oversee development of core accounting tools in the newly created position.

Xero acquired Hubdoc in August. Hubdoc go-to-market teams will continue to report to Jamie Shulman, Hubdoc’s other co-CEO. McDonald said he would be continuing work in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning for the benefit of Xero customers around the globe.

Val Steed, widely known as a consultant and CPE presenter in the accounting community, has accepted a position as director of accountants for Zoho. Steed, a shareholder, is best known for his work with K2 Enterprises since January 1989.

“I’ll be responsible for maintaining industry relationships with national and international accounting organizations and top accounting experts,” Steed said in a LinkedIn post. He said he will also work to initiate partnership iwith accounting technology companies. Zoho is interested in connecting with all kinds of finance professionals, including bookkeepers, accountants, PAs, CPAs, CAs, CFPs, CFOs. Zoho markets a range of web-based applications, including accounting, CRM, HR and IT management.

“Social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community.” - Simon Mainwaring

Remember, a new leaderboard with updated rankings is generated every two weeks, so keep up the great work on social media and watch your ranking climb! Think you’ve got what it takes to make the Top 100? Join for free today!

“Social media is a much more personal approach to marketing than more traditional tactics like placing an advertisement in a local newspaper, and lends itself to a more human approach. You should always err on the side of professionalism, but sharing a few details about the person, or people, behind your company can give your brand more personality – something that works very successfully in the world of social media.”  

 Here are some highlights from the newest Top 100…