The elimination of data entry was a major emphasis at the recent Forward Together Virtual conference held by Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. The move toward automation include the upcoming CCH Axcess Engagement, bringing the K-1 engine into the cloud this year and a release of Client Collaboration in December.

 Overall, the company also emphasized improvements in performance based on changes made to products and services in the last year.

Jim McGinnis, the EVP who manages Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting US Mid/Large Firm Segment, noted during the conference the launch of the Open Compute Platform “which dramatically improved our performance.” That system, he said, reduced the time needed calculations for even the largest returns by 45 percent

He also reported a significant investment in support. “We have invested in support to reduce wait times by 40 percent,” he continued.

The most imminent of the products releases include Multi-user 2.0 this month which supports five users with concurrent print and calculation capability. Expected next summer is bringing the K-1 engine into the cloud. The system, which is in beta test now,  interprets unstructured data and transfers it to the tax software..

On the near horizon is the move of audit into the cloud with beta release CCH Axcess Engagement this fall. TeamMate Analytics, introduced in 2017, will also soon move onto the cloud,

“We will be inviting existing customers for Engagement to try it first for their preps, comps and reviews and then on audits,” said Cathy Rowe, director of product management for accounting and audit solutions. The company promises what Rowe called a “robust migration strategy” for on-premise users to move to the cloud.

New tools in this area include CCH Axcess Knowledge Coach and Knowledge Coach, introduced during the conference. Wolters Kluwer also introduced integration between TeamMate Analytics and Knowledge Coach. Rowe said Engagement Organizer, a cloud-based request list, is being made available to all Engagement users and will become part of Engagement.

Another cloud-based product, Axcess Financial Prep, a trial balance module, will be integrated with Axcess Engagement next year.  Automation in this area means, “We will feed trial balance data directly into the form,” Rowe said.

Chatbots emerged as important tools for state chief information officers in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. The 2020 State CIO Survey, sponsored by the National Association of State Chief Information Officers), Grant Thornton and CompTIA found Chatbots, used for online citizen service inquiries was by far the most common technology implemented this year.

The survey of 47 state and territory CIOs found 76 percent had implemented chatbots for the first time in response to COVID-19. The second most-frequently adopted technology was mobile apps for contact tracing/exposure notification (53 percent), followed by voicebots to support call center interactions (40 percent).

Not surprising, asked which business process, practices or investments will change as a result of the pandemic, the CIOs listed expanded options for working remotely as the No. 1 impact. No 2 was expanded use of collaboration platforms and remote meetings. Increased attention on digital government services/ citizen experience was No. 3; Investments in broadband expansion/adoption, No 4; and Increased priority and investment in legacy modernization, No. 5.

Zoho has introduced an office suite, Zoho Workplace, a cloud-based suite that encompasses nine integrated applications. The applications were built on a common model with common search and AI with a single dashboard.

The suite includes a business mail package, Zoho Mail, that enables users to make audio or video calls from within the application and edit document attachments in Zoho Writer. Users can meet online with contacts, and access all email accounts from within the application.

The platform also offers a control panel with eDiscovery, Backup and Recovery. Another application is Meeting, which  can be used to set up recurring or one-off meetings and is integrated with applications such as Zoho Projects, Bookings and CRM. 

Workplace also features the Cliq messaging application; and Connect, which integrates with HR systems such Zoho People. Additionally, there is Show, a presentation system, which integrates with ‌Atlassian, Unsplash, and Humaans; Sheet, a spreadsheet system; and Workdrive, a document management system; and ShowTime for online training. Workplace pricing starts at $3 per user per month for the Standard version and $6 per user per month for the Professional version.

Digital CPA, a conference hosted by the American Institute of CPAs and CPA.com, will be held virtually. The event will be held December 8 and will be preceded by a November 12 pre-conference session on remote work. 

 The pre-conference session, “Distributed by Design: A Framework for Future Forward Organizations,” will be led by Radical Ventures cofounder Pascal Finette.  It aims to “provide a framework and toolkit for CPA firms to conduct strategic planning and decision-making on remote work, decentralization, and the opportunities and challenges that arise from them.”

Digital CPA keynoters include Jeffrey Rogers, moderator of executive education programs and international summits for Singularity University. He will speak “about change dynamics, managing complexity and transformation in a period of continuous, accelerating change.” AICPA president Barry Melancon will provide “an in-depth professional issues update on accounting and finance” while Erik Asgeirsson, CEO of CPA.com “will discuss trends in firm management, advisory services and technology. 

Digital CPA “is designed for CPA firm partners, managers and staffers responsible for implementing cloud solutions and practice management innovations, as well as business development, firm marketing and human resources directors”.

Everybody is talking about Client Advisory Services and a lot of people are doing something about them. That is because businesses have never needed advice more than they have during the COVID-19 pandemic..

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.They have been confronted with decision they have not had to make before—how to transition employees to remote work; how to do deal with rapidly changing government requirements; how to keep operating in difficult conditions.

So they turn to the people that are usual at the time of their contact list at times like this: their accountants. Accountants are being called on for advice in area they usually leave to others, such as human resource and other people issues. And accountants need to be able to advise clients on what to do, not just how to reads their financial reports.

This special report looks at the evolving world of CAS, how practitioners are adapting to it and how their technology partners can help them deliver the needed services. 

The coronavirus has helped make the argument for the use of online payroll systems. With the cloud, you can still run payroll and issue checks, even if no one is in the office. But it has also put accountants on the hook for being able to answer an increasing number of client questions about human resources issues, including furloughing and recalling staff, especially with the Paycheck Protection Programs Loans, which are based on payroll.  At once, it has provided the tools for producing paychecks even when practitioners are out of the office and has also given them a new set of problems and new opportunities. In this special report, Payroll and Beyond, The Progressive Accountant looks at the impact of the response to COVID-19 on payroll and HR services.

 Where are we going in the mid-market? Or in general? The economy started out the year with record employment and has moved to record unemployment with the effects of shutdowns of the Covid-19 virus.  For resellers this year, how they are doing depends on where they are located and in what markets they are involved. Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2020 examines the issues in an era of extreme uncertainty and names 100 firms who are the big players in this market.

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.

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
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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.

Taxaroo has added integrated chat, texting and video calls to its practice management software suite. The system now also has bult-in Spanish language workflows.

  Among other features introduced this month are automated follow ups that send out client emails based on the user’s preferences, tools for importing and exporting to tax software, and a mapped portal drive for storing, sharing and managing client files in dedicated drive account,

Additionally, tax returns can be printed from tax preparation software and other programs into the Taxarooclient document storage portal.

Taxaroo can now also be used to build referral programs.

 The American Institute of CPAs has renewed its request for penalty relief for the 2019 tax year filing season. In its letter to the Department of the Treasure and the Internal Revenue Service, the AICPA cited the difficulty the coronavirus pandemic has created for taxpayers to file returns and pay taxes due.

 Although the IRS recently issued guidance offering easier payment agreements for those unable to pay taxes, the AICPA says more needs to be done.

The AICPA urges the IRS to implement the following:                                                                                                                                                                      *The elimination of the need for written requests for a penalty waiver and expedited and streamlined reasonable cause penalty abatement process.            *Interim guidance that offers specific coronavirus examples that qualify for reasonable cause abatement and share these examples with all telephone assistors. *A dedicated telephone number, or dedicated prompt, for taxpayers or advisors to call to request coronavirus-related penalty relief.

“Penalty relief should be a priority as part of the IRS’s efforts to mitigate the negative impact of the coronavirus,” the AICPA wrote.

Thomson Reuters has a limited test of its Onvio Tax scheduled for 2020 tax returns.  That statement was made at the company’s recent Synergy conference.

 “We invited 100 customers to use Onvio tax for their 2020 filings,” Charlotte Rushton, president of the company’s tax professional segment said during the virtual event. She also said the company has introduced “our investment in innovation and Onvio” during her presentation at the event.

But that compares to a preview of the 2017 Synergy conference in which it said there would be a test with a small group of firms, with all entities ready, for a test during the 2018 tax season. At the time, Thomson expected to have a few hundred firms using all entities of Onvio Tax at that point.

Intuit has outlined enhancements to its three professional tax software, Lacerte, ProSeries and its online ProConnect application. ProConnects additions feature extended import functionality, including depreciation and pass-through entity members, and Schedule D dispositions.

The system offers three levels of user permission--primary full-access, and basic for efiling, and the ability to mask Social Security numbers in printed forms or PDFs. A watermark that reads “Do not file” can also be added.

In addition, users can transfer data to amended returns with 1040X efile and they can make simple input field calculation with the company updating standardized formats of dates for consistency.

Intuit says returns are being loaded faster for clients with databases of up to 10,000 returns.

For ProSeries, Intuit described its change to its database as a database replacement.

Updates to ProSeries Tax Year 2020: It said better filtering options mean users can locate returns more quickly via column filters and search functionality.

ProSeries Basic has had print review added that can preview a return, giving users the ability to select only pages to be printed.

A new tax idea exchange has been provided so users can share ideas and receive updates on the status, whether under review, accepted, or implemented.

Intuit has added automatic time tracking by return for all tax types to Lacerte. That package has also received platform enhancements and database upgrades that Intuit says will help ensure higher quality and reliability.

BKD CPAs & Advisors has named Abe Cole as chief operating officer. He succeed Eric Hansen, former chair of the American Institute of CPAs, who has retired.

Cole initially is focused on select issues while continuing his job as managing partner of the firm’s eight-state North Region, which includes Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, until a successor can be found for that role.

Cole, who joined BKD in 1996, previously was managing partner for the Kansas City, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; and Madison, Wis., offices.

AbacusNext has hired Perry Steinberg as chief product officer. Steinberg, described a tech industry veteran,  will lead the engineering and product organizations to develop the company’s cloud computing platform and product and integration strategies.

 The organization’s products are AbacusLaw, Amicus Attorney, OfficeTools, and HotDocs, optimizing the them with the AbacusNext PaaS (platform as a service) platform.  

Steinberg, who joined AbacusNext in August according to his LinkedIn profile, was chief of product for Medidata from 2015.  Prior to that, he was VP of Product Strategy and Corporate Development, for INTTRA, a supply chain e-marketplace, where he worked from 2010 through 2015.

Frazier & Deeter has name Rasheedah Luqman as the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion manager. Luqman is responsible for creating tools to execute the strategy, defining and measuring success, analyzing data an building a more diverse and inclusive environment.

Luqman is currently a senior manager in Frazier & Deeter’s Tax Practice. Before joining the firm, she worked as a sales and use tax auditor for the Georgia Department of Revenue,

“Given the many goals the firm’s DEI Committee has mapped out, it became clear we needed to define a position that will devote time to ensuring we reach those goals,” said managing partner Seth McDaniel, said in a prepared statement this week.

Compensation for Carlos Rodriguez, CEO of Automatic Data Processing fell by 7.1 percent for the year ended June 30. Rodriguez pay for fiscal 2020 was $17.6 million,  down from $19 million the prior year, accoring to the payroll services company's proxy, filed recently with theSEC.

The CEO’s change in pay was complicated  as two major compensation categories rose and two fell, while the fifth, salary, was off because Rodriguez took a 50-percent voluntary cut effective in May  because of the COVID-19 pandemic, while other named executives took a 10-percent cut. The result was his salary fell to $$988,969 for the most recently ended year, down from $1.1 million, the prior year. His base salary was $1.1 million.

Rodriguez took a big hit in non-equity incentive compensation which fell $1.16 million, own 65.5 percent from $3.39 million while change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings dropped to $2.65 million, a decline  28.3 percent from $3.7 million. On the plus side, the value of his stock awards reached $7.55 million, an increase of 12 percent from $6.74 million and option awards reached slightly less than $5.1 million up 27.5 percent just under $4 million.

Kathleen Winters, who began as CFO in April 2019, was paid $4.1 million for fiscal 2020, more than double the $1.6 million from the prior year. Her compensation was boosted by a $1.25 million sign-on bonus, which was paid during 2020.

Compensation for the other three named executives was affected by a reorganization, with two of them making the list for the first time this year. ADP paid John Ayala, president of employer services, slightly more than $6 million and he became a named executive for 2020 when all North American business units were put under him. Don Weinstein, who has been with ADP for 14 years seven months, became corporate VP of global product and technology and received slightly less than $5 million.

In February 2020, Maria Black moved from her position as president, small business solutions and human resources outsourcing, to become president of worldwide sales and marketing. She received $5.6 million last year,  up 50 percent from $3.7 million in fiscal 2019.

The past six months have delivered more challenges to clients than anyone could have anticipated. Business that were primarily brick-and-mortar at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic have rushed to establish an online selling presence in order to survive. 

In doing so, they were also hastily introduced to state-by-state economic nexus laws resulting from the 2018 S. Dakota v Wayfair Supreme Court decision, requiring sales tax registration in each jurisdiction, and the collection, reporting and remittance of sales tax once sales or dollar amount thresholds were reached. Hence, the former mom and pop store entered a new world of compliance complexity that existing ecommerce merchants have been wrangling with for several years.

Wayfair also ushered in a wave of advisory work for accounting professionals, who’ve helped clients, often small businesses, untangle compliance scenarios previously reserved for larger companies. Clients who previously did business in just a small handful of states now have nexus wherever new customers buy their products online, and they need step-by-step guidance to get a handle on their new obligations.

Global aspirations meet cross-border compliance complexity

And what about those ambitious clients who look at the entire globe as their total addressable market? While many of us are hearing about trends related to ecommerce sellers going international, in lock step with more consumers shopping online around the world, and more sellers wanting to take advantage of a total addressable market, the data is still surprising.   According to IDC, by 2022, cross-border ecommerce is expected to account for more than 15% of the world’s online retail market. eMarketer estimates that the global online retail market will grow to $5.7 trillion by 2022.

While demand for cross-border ecommerce has risen, so has the complexity surrounding country-level tax and customs regulations. For would-be international sellers, mastering cross-border compliance – the value-added tax (VAT), goods and services tax (GST), customs duties (also called tariffs), import fees, and the variations of each from country to country -- can mean the difference between success and failure, in addition to staying competitive, in the up-for-grabs ecommerce world market.  

In addition to different tax systems, your clients will need to accurately assign Harmonized System (HS) codes to all their goods. The first six digits of the code are standardized across all participating countries; however, each country appends its own set of digits to classify a product based on specific parameters and regulations. Every country sets its own laws governing what can be sold by whom. For example, tax rates applied to imports from Canada to Brazil may be applied differently than those same products when coming from the United States.

Shipping and pricing transparency are key success factors

Your clients’ ultimate success in global sales will hinge on their ability to provide a good (or great) customer experience, regardless of where the customer is located. And shipping is an essential factor in the equation, in terms of how long it takes to reach the customer and how much it costs. The bar has already been raised high for shipping time, with ecommerce sellers racing to compete with tech giants who have defined and set customer expectations for delivery service. For international transactions, setting up an efficient fulfillment system and clearly communicating shipping times is mission critical to starting the experience on the right foot.

More complicated is setting expectations for price. Between assigning the correct HS code and properly applying the correct taxes, tariffs, shipping and import fees, transparency at the point of sale can be difficult. The customer in Ireland who purchased a sweater from your online seller client in Brooklyn expects a seamless drop-off delivery at their location. Some businesses are tempted to omit these fees at checkout, but surprising customers with costly fees upon delivery is never a good experience. Abandoned online shopping carts are one thing, but a rejected shipment at the destination doorstep results in an unhappy customer, and potential brand reputation damage via social media and other complaints, not to mention placing the cost of return on your client, if they decide it’s worth undertaking those costs.

Automation tames cross-border complexity

Automation solutions are a key ingredient for businesses entering the global retail space. For many international sellers, the task of manually assigning tariff codes and calculating customs duties and taxes is resource intensive, costly, prone to human error, and ultimately not a path to ongoing compliance. It’s only through modern technology that your clients can ensure that customs duties and import taxes are accurately calculated at the time of checkout to mitigate compliance risks and avoid negative customer experiences with surprise costs at the time of delivery. 

Depending on the number of countries, breadth of products, and staff available to handle rates and regulations, an automated tax solution may be the most efficient, cost-effective way to manage tax compliance. Software programs such as Avalara Cross-Border are readily available for item classification, rate calculations, reporting, and returns filing. Make sure your client’s cross-border compliance system integrates with their other business applications, such as accounting/ERP, enterprise content management (ECM), and online retail platforms. Absent fully integrated technology solutions, 21^st Century commerce expectations won’t be realized, from multi-channel commerce to selling internationally.

Advising for your clients’ (and your firm’s) growth

Cross-border compliance falls squarely within the ongoing demand for enhanced business advisory services as we wend collectively through a global pandemic. And keep in mind that clients of all sizes, including emerging small businesses, will require technology automation and advisory in this area. Learn the basic terminology associated with cross-border selling and compliance in preparation for client conversations. Determine whether you want to develop expertise internally around this practice area, or partner with a firm that focuses on compliance international sellers. Then vet the available technology automation solutions that automate the most complex aspects of cross-border compliance at the moment of transaction. The numbers tell the story—this is an ideal opportunity to demonstrate added value for clients embarking on a new path to global growth.

The spread of ecommerce has meant an increasing number of businesses have transactions in other countries.  That means those businesses also need to deal with tax, tariffs and duties imposed by other countries which has made cross-border taxation an issue for many organizations that previously did not need to even know the term.

 “Cross-border used to be more of a back water,” says Craig Reed, SVP of Avalara’s global trade business. “Increasingly retailers are considering it a core component of their business.”

To handle the confusing mass of taxes, Avalara recently introduced its cross border system which is comprised by Avalara AvaTax Cross-Border and Avalara Item Classification. The latter product is important because providing taxing authorities with the correct classification code for goods being sold. “If you don’t give customs the correct, code, your goods can get stuck at the border,” Reed said. The complex process of code goods has been largely manual and Reed says that each country has a book ‘about six inches to a foot thick” that defines goods.

Reed says companies sometimes turn the issue over to carriers. But he adds, “They are not very accurate because it’s not the core of their business.”

Avalara’s products utilize a natural language process and algorithms to classify a product and calculate duties and taxes. Reed notes the company has a global research team that uses direct government connections to stay current on tax rates and information.

SAP has taken a different approach to handle cross-border issues. In March, the giant software company, entered an alliance with Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking. 

“Cross border is about adding a layer of simplicity to a complex system,” says Sean Thompson, EVP of the business network and ecosystem, SAP Procurement Solutions. The deal enabled SAP to incorporate Goldman’s cross-border capabilities in SAP’s Ariba applications, making the services available to the member’s of the Ariba Network.

Thompson notes there are many issues in cross border, including gain and loss on currency differences. Thompson says in cross-border taxations the financial systems of the buyer and seller both need to be integrated since the ERP system “is where the payment file is”. Bank systems has generally not been integrate in the process.

The SAP-Goldman combination means foreign suppliers can be paid in local currencies with “competitive” foreign exchange rates and also easier reconciliation of payments to corresponding invoices. There is also real-time payment tracking, cost transparency on bank fees and optimized payment routing offered.

Software that enables small businesses to prepare and file sales tax returns will be introduced this year by Avalara. The sales-and-use tax software has announced plans for Avalara Returns for Small Business.

The upcoming  application integrates the feature set of TrustFile Online for a target market of emerging small businesses, which Avalara describes as those employing one to 19 individuals.. The small business returns software will to help those companies automate sales tax preparation and file returns with each state’s website.

Customers will be able to utilize the upcoming product to import transactions from all business systems to compile sales-and-use returns for every state return from a single dashboard. 

Avalara generally recommends Avalara Managed Returns for businesses with more employees.

The company is also introducing enhancements to TrustFile, including an economic nexus tracking map, support for more sales tax forms and a redesigned user interface.

Avalara has introduced Avalara Consumer Use, which is designed to help finance professionals assess their consumer use tax obligations.  The software company said this week the application assists in self-assessment for the entire use tax process, including user-defined rules, tax calculation, review, allocation, accrual, and documentation

Consumer Use can combine data from multiple systems into a single workflow in order to create an automated or semi-automated self-assessment of general ledger expense and use tax liability

The system also identifies overpaid or underpaid taxes on vendor invoices and creates reports for tax liability by jurisdiction. The application can import multiple transaction types, including purchase invoices, inventory usage and fixed asset movements

Consumer tax accruals can be integrated into the filing process in Avalara Returns.