Cloud use for business applications is higher for distributors in North America than in EMEA and Australia, according to a recent survey by Sage. The survey showed that 43 percent of distributors on this continent had a hybrid on-premise cloud ERP system.

That compared to about a third of distributors in EMEA and Australia.

The research was conducted in October and November, sampling 652 leaders of companies with 50 to 4,999 employees. There were 201 in North America, 401 in EMEA and 50 in Australia

North American business were also ahead in developing ecommerce capabilities. Forty-four percent of North American organizations reported boosting ecommerce capabilities, compared to 34 percent in EMEA and 24 percent in Australia. 

The survey also suggested the speed at which cloud technology is growing, reporting that 37-percent are implementing cloud-based technology and applications. 

Businesses dramatically accelerated the adoption of new technology, accord to Sage’s 2021 Return to Growth Outlook. The recently released survey of 1,000 SMB business leaders found that 52 percent accelerated their technology plans by three or more years.

 The most frequently cited areas for digitization were accounting and finance, mentioned by 45 percent of respondents; marketing, 31 percent; and customer relationship management, 26 percent.

Cloud accounting software was cited by 27 percent as the most important technology in dealing with the crisis.

The pandemic also shifted business practices with 32 percent saying they tried social media advertising for the first time while 23 percent hired employees completely digitally for the first time. Non-traditional HR policies, such as childcare stipends or flexible work arrangements, were implemented by 27 percent for the first time. Only 13 percent intend to reduce budgets for these areas in 2021.

A third of surveyed business leaders said government assistance was listed as a key reason for business survival in the last 12 months.

Fifty-two percent said increase increased government funding for COVID-19 testing and additional safety measures would have the most positive impact in the next year, followed by 47 percent who said more employee support in the form of stimulus or increased funding for items such as childcare would be the most helpful.

Botkeeper, which markets on-line bookkeeping systems, has introduced Botkeeper Basic Service and Botkeeper Advanced Service.  The company has cut its monthly fees, and implemented a sharp decrease in its platform fee.

The model includes a platform fee and a cost per entity. Basic startsat $55 per month. The prior rate was $79 monthly, scaled up based on monthly expenses. The starting fee for Advanced is $165 per month per entity billed annually.

The platform fee has been changed to $500 monthly billed annually, compared to a prior $3,500 per month flat fee.

Botkeeper Basic includes Categorizations and Classifications, Bank and Credit Card Reconciliations, Payroll Journal Entries, Standard Balance Sheet, P&L & Cash Flow Statement, Overall Book Review for any unusual balances or discrepancies, Dedicated Growth and Success Teams

Avantax, Blucora’s wealth-management business, has acquired GuideVine Technologies. GuideVine market lead-generation and marketing software using to convert prospects into clients.

GuideVine will be integrated Avantax’s existing software suite to support the marketing needs of its advisors.

Avantax said GuideVine’s technology “focuses on converting general consumer interest into motivated, qualified prospects.” It employs a variety of techniques to match prospects with advisors.

“Adding GuideVine’s technology will help Avantax streamline lead-generation and client conversion for our Financial Professionals so they can pursue organic growth while serving existing clients,” Todd Mackay, president of Avantax, said in a prepared statement.

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..

Sponsor:

.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
• 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.

A Bradenton, Fla.-based  CPA has pled guilty to his part in a scam that defrauded elderly investors. Kennedy Murry Rossman, 63, admitted to the scheme in which a co-conspirator spent investors’ money on  luxury residences, high-end vehicles, jet skis, jewelry and personal celebrity entertainment.

Rossman, who received a percentage of the proceeds of the scam, faces a maximum of eight years in federal prison after pleading to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and aiding and assisting in the preparation and filing of a false income tax return. Victims lost more than $6.3 million.

Rossman admitted he conspired with  Phillip Roy Wasserman, a former lawyer and licensed insurance agent, in convincing victims to put their money into Wasserman’s new insurance venture, “FastLife”.  Some were persuaded to liquidate traditional investments, such as annuities, and/or to borrow funds against existing life insurance policies and were not told about surrender fees and other costs associated with liquidations

Rossman then prepared income tax returns, concealing negative personal tax consequences for the victims. 

Tax professionals can digitally initiate Power of Attorney and Tax Information Authorizations via the newly established Tax Pro Accounts on IRS.gov. These authorization requests are described as  simpler versions of Forms 2848 and 8821.

 These steps enable individual taxpayers to grant permission for preparers to view their tax records or represent them.

Once completed and submitted, authorization requests appear in a taxpayer’s Online Account for review, approval or rejection and electronic signature. To complete approval, a taxpayer checks a box as the approved signature and submits the request to the Internal Revenue Service.

Completed digital authorizations go directly to the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) database and do not require manual processing. Most requests will be immediately  appear on the list of approved authorizations in the taxpayer's Online Account and the tax professional's Tax Pro Account. 

To connect with tax professionals, taxpayers login to their Online Accounts using their IRS username and password or th create an account after passing a one-time identity verification process. 

 A Spanish-language version of the internal Revenue Service’s online tool, Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant,  is now available. Families can determine their qualification for the credit and monthly advance payments due to begin on July 15.

Available on IRS.gov the tool is useful to those who don't normally file a federal tax return and have not yet filed either a 2019 or 2020 return. The IRS says use of the tool can help users decide if they should register for the credit payments by using the Non-filer Sign-up Tool, or file a regular tax return using the IRS Free File system.

Materials in several languages and other multi-lingual resources will be released in the future. Materials in English and other languages are e posted on a special Advance Child Tax Credit 2021 page at IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021.

Available resources include the filing:

A step-by-step guide to using the Non-filer Sign-up Tool (Publication 5538) in Spanish, Chinese Simplified, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole and Russian;                               AA basic You Tube video on the Advance Child Tax Credit in Spanish, Chinese and English’                                                                                                                                             E-posters in various languages;                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Information about Free File in seven languages.

A Kissimmee, Fla.-based tax preparer has been ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service. Joseph Amaya was sentenced to pay the amount and sentenced to a year in federal prison for aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

Amaya, who pleaded guilty on February 16, co-owned and operated Tax Machine, a tax preparation business in Kissimmee from 2014 through about 2018.

He was founded to have trained his employee to preparer and file fraudulent tx returns and prepared and filed them himself. These returns included false claims of net business losses, along with created bogus expenses or deliberately overstated deductible expenses

Eight individuals have joined the QuickBooks Accountant Council for two-year terms. The members, who are meeting virtually for now, provide insights and feedback about product and service directions for the QuickBooks platform.

This group joins eight others who are entering the second year of the terms. The new members are the following:

Robert Boyer, founder and president of Silicon Harbor Business Services, a bookkeeping and consulting firm based near Charleston, S.C.;                                                     Sarah Ciuk, CPP, a senior accounting specialist with AccountingDepartment.com, a remote outsourced bookkeeping, controller, and advisory services company in Kingsland, Ga.;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Bryan Engel,  the consulting partner at PBG Financial Services, a Highland Park, Ill.-based CPA firm;                                                                                                          Samantha Hallburn, owner of Idyllwild, Calif.-based PBS Accounting and Tax Solutions, which offers remote business operations services to small businesses.                 Brooke Hupp, director of Client Accounting and leader of  the Outsourced Accounting team, at Mueller Pye & Associates CPA  of Loveland, Colo.;                                         Robin LeBlanc of Lafayette, La., founder of  Robin LeBlanc, CPA, CGMA, LLC;                                                                                                                                                     Dana Maxwell, CPA, senior manager and leader of the Business Accounting Services Department of Harper, Rains, Knight and Company, an accounting firm with offices in Ridgeland, Miss, and Washington, D.C.; and                                                                                                                                                                                                               Lana Z of Arlington, Texas, founder of In The Black Accounting, a virtual firm that provides bookkeeping, payroll, human resources, consulting and QuickBooks Online training.

Cherry Bekaert has hired Robert Misch as director of the firm’s digital advisory practice. He will lead the Digital Transformation Services (DTS) service line, which includes strategy and enablement, infrastructure, business optimization and transactional related digital services.

Misch was a managing director at Grant Thornton, where he worked from July 2004 through September 2019. Before that, he was at Bearingpoint for two years four months and PricewaterhouseCoopers for seven years two months

He is certified Project Management Professional with a Top Secret clearance

Altruic Advisors, an accounting firm specializing in nonprofit clients, has promoted Sarah Taylor to partner. Taylor, who joined the firm in 2017, became accounting services manager in 2018.

Taylor manages the Ann Arbor, Mich-based firm’s CFO Solutions division which offers cloud-based virtual accounting and bookkeeping services for not-for-profit organizations nationwide.  She was previously financial operations manager for Supporting Strategies from December 2010. 

Taylor was also an accounting and QuickBooks instructor for the Avtech Institute of Technology from December 2010 through July 2012.

 CaseWare International has named David Osborne as its new CEO. The Audit software company also appointed industry veteran Mike Sabbatis as its chair.

Osborn replaces Matt Dodds was took over the CEO job in July  2020. When Dodds, previously general manager of CaseWare Idea, received the promotion, the company also made founder and former CEO Dwight Wainman executive chair.

Osborn was previously with Virgin Pulse where he was president and COO from April 2016 through June 2017 and was then CEO until moving to CaseWare.

Sabbatis, who served as a senior advisor to the business for the last few months, “will will guide the strategic direction of the board aligning CaseWare’s business and the complex needs of our audit and accounting customers," the company said in its announcement.

Sabbatis was most recently CEO of XCM Solutions from February 2013. He is widely known from his tenure at CCH Tax & Accounting, later Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting, which he joined in January 2001. He was EVP of global sales and marketing and finally CEO of that organization. 

2021 has so far ­­­­been markedly better than 2020 for some businesses, research conducted by CPA Trendlines in partnership with Avalara, finds it’s been worse for many accounting professionals. In fact, more than 52 percent of accounting and tax professionals surveyed said 2021 was “worse” than 2020. Those accounting professionals serving small businesses seem most downcast about the future. 

 Yet the outlook isn’t entirely grim: Lessons learned during the pandemic could help accounting professionals  and their clients meet challenges head-on.

The future success of small businesses and accountants may hinge on technology. In fact, more than 52 percent of the accountants surveyed said that of the changes brought about by the pandemic, “Keeping up with changes in online technologies” was highly important for small businesses with long-term impact. Furthermore, 54 percent believe their own firms need to adopt more cloud-based software, too.

Some key findings from the survey are highlighted below.

The long tail of COVID-19 is real                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Despite “continued economic recovery, reopening of establishments, and continued government response related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” 13 percent of accountants surveyed believe the next 12 to 18 months will be “much worse” for small businesses. Another 26 percent expect conditions to be “somewhat worse,” while 17 percent say the next 12 to 18 months will bring no changes from the current situation, which is difficult.

Accountants were more optimistic about their own firms:                                                                                                                                                                                             *34 percent believe the next 12 to 18 months will be “about the same”                                                                                                                                                                          *9 percent believe the next 12 to 18 months will be “somewhat worse”                                                                                                                                                                        *1.5 percent believe the next 12 to 18 months will be “much worse”

More than one-third of respondents see a light at the end of the tunnel for themselves and their clients: 37 percent believe the next 12 to 18 months will be “somewhat better” for their clients, while 41 percent believe it will be “somewhat better for them.” There were even a few in the “much better” camp, but there are always one or two incurable optimists.

Good or bad, most of the accounting professionals surveyed believe the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-lasting impacts on their firms and their small business clients. Strategies that can help small businesses and accounting professionals succeed.  Some changes the pandemic forced upon accounting professionals and their clients will serve them well moving forward. Here are some examples: 

Rely less on brick-and-mortar stores                                                                                                                                                                                                                        After living and working through 2020, more than 84 percent of respondents think it’s moderately or highly important for small businesses to “pivot from brick-and-mortar to doing business online and virtually.” Though there are far fewer restrictions on in-person activities today than there were a year ago, new outbreaks could bring them roaring back at any time. Brick-and-mortar businesses that expanded online capabilities for customers and employees in 2020 will be better able to navigate any future lockdowns.

It’s been widely reported that the U.S. experienced 10 years’ worth of ecommerce adoption in just three months during the spring of 2020. But as anyone working remotely because of the pandemic well knows, the shift to online isn’t unique to retail. In written comments, some of the survey respondents who reported having a “better” year in their own firms attributed it (at least in part) to online or virtual interfaces:                                                                                                                                                                          *“We actually made some process changes ... and they worked.”                                                                                                                                                                                *“My business was already set up to operate virtually. COVID just pushed customers who would have normally been hesitant to operate remotely with an open mind.”             *“Clients are now used to sending info either electronically or by U.S. mail which tremendously cuts down on time wasted.”

Adopt more cloud-based technology                                                                                                                                                                                                                           As noted above, 54 percent of the accountants surveyed consider it “highly important” to adopt technology and workflows “for a more online or ‘virtual’ environment.” Just over 31 percent said that adoption is “moderately important,” while only 2 percent said it was “not at all important.”

Most respondents also see a need for “more cloud-based software, accessible anywhere, anytime, and constantly updated.” They also believe “more automation, less handwork” is key “to remain competitive.”

 Be adaptable and innovative                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Tax professionals recognize the need for their companies to adapt and innovate. Indeed, this came in second on the list of “highly important,” and lowest on the “not at all important” list.

This could be due, in part at least, to COVID-19 tax relief: President Biden signed the sixth federal coronavirus relief bill nearly one year after former President Trump signed the first. Businesses were given three extra months to file income tax in 2020, and one more month to file in 2021 (though estimated payments were due April 15, 2021). On top of the federal assistance programs, states provided a wide variety of state-specific tax assistance. It was a lot for everyone to navigate, particularly accountants and bookkeepers.

2020 challenged tax professionals in other ways, too. Many were forced to work remotely during 2020, and some continue to do so. It took adaptability and innovation to learn how to best handle clients’ needs securely, while working from home (perhaps while caring for children or other family members). Out of necessity, firms long accustomed to pushing paper discovered how helpful cloud-based options could be.

In written comments, survey respondents advised their colleagues to “Stay client-focused,” “Be innovative,” and “Keep up with technology.” Sound advice.

Automate sales tax compliance

When asked about online sales tax compliance, 38.95 percent of respondents said “some” of their small business clients were complying with new collection and remittance requirements. However, 39.37 percent said small businesses were “mostly not in full compliance.” 

These are sobering statistics.

For the noninitiates, most states now require certain out-of-state sellers to register with tax authorities then collect and remit sales tax. This is because the Supreme Court of the United States overturned a long-standing physical presence rule with South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (June 21, 2018). Prior to the Wayfair decision, states were largely limited to taxing sales by businesses with a physical presence in the states. Post Wayfair, a physical presence is no longer needed (though physical presence in a state still creates a tax obligation): Businesses can create a sales tax collection obligation solely through their economic activity in a state, or economic nexus.

On the eve of Wayfair’s third anniversary, all but two states with a general sales tax currently tax remote sales. Once Florida starts enforcing economic nexus on July 1, 2021, Missouri will be the last non-economic-nexus state standing — and a bill that would establish economic nexus in Missouri is sitting on Governor Mike Parson’s desk.

In other words, this isn’t some passing fad. States are serious about taxing remote sales in this age of ecommerce, and COVID-19 underscored that need. When consumers were reliant on online sellers, states that taxed those sales brought in more revenue than those that didn’t.

Accounting and tax professionals know this, and many are hoping that “technology will be able to provide tools to assist with compliance,” as one respondent wrote. Currently, only about 12 percent of the accountants surveyed say the handle “most” sales tax issues. It’s far more common for accounting professionals to handle “some” (36 percent) or “none” (24 percent).

Don’t wait for hell to freeze over

According to CPA Trendlines, 2021 has been “The Tax Season from Hell.” You don’t need to wait for hell to freeze over to simplify tax compliance. Sales tax automation software helps companies streamline sales tax compliance. In fact, nearly half the states in this country encourage businesses to use cloud-based sales tax solutions.  

The 2021 EU ecommerce VAT package that was effective July 1 is having a major impact on ecommerce businesses with customers in the EU. U.S. sellers should pay particularly close attention to the new  EU marketplace deemed supplier rules, which are similar to the U.S. marketplace facilitator laws for sales tax on ecommerce sales, and impact two types of cross-border transactions:

*Goods valued below €150 imported by EU or non-EU sellers and sold to EU customers                                                                                                                                                                 *Goods of any value sold by a non-EU seller to an EU customer

Under the new regulations, marketplaces are liable to collect, report and remit VAT when they facilitate certain cross-border business-to-consumer transactions on behalf of their third-party sellers. To be considered facilitators, marketplaces must meet specific EU Council criteria, which stipulate:                                                                                                                             *Controlling the terms and conditions of the sale                                                                                                                                                                                                                         *Authorizing the charge to the customer for the payment of goods                                                                                                                                                                                                  *Ordering or delivering goods

Marketplaces are exempt from deemed supplier responsibility if they provide only one of the following services: payment processing; listing or advertising goods; or redirecting buyers to other online marketplaces. 

How the deemed supplier rule works for cross-border sales:

Once the marketplace becomes the deemed supplier, the sale between the seller and the customer is treated as two separate transactions for VAT purposes:                                                           *The seller sells the goods to the marketplace. This becomes a business-to-business (B2B) tax-exempt sale and no EU VAT is due.                                                                                                 *The marketplace sells the goods to the customer. This becomes a business-to-consumer (B2C) sale with the marketplace now responsible for collecting the VAT due based on the customer’s country of residence.

Here’s an example of how this would work:

Let’s say a U.S. merchant sells goods to French and German customers through an online marketplace. Previously, the seller had to be VAT-registered in France and Germany in order to charge 20-percent VAT to its French customers and 19-percent VAT to its German customers. Effective July 1, under the new rule, the seller becomes the underlying supplier and the facilitating marketplace becomes the deemed supplier, purchases the goods from the seller, resells them to EU customers, collects the VAT, and reports the sales through either local VAT registration or single EU Import OSS for those sales.

Marketplaces must also keep detailed records of sellers’ transactions to show VAT has been correctly accounted for and electronically maintain these records for 10 years from the original transaction date. The marketplace won’t be held liable for underpaid VAT if the seller failed to provide the correct information required for the VAT calculation and the facilitating marketplace can reasonably show it wasn’t aware of the error. It’s also important to note that while the marketplace facilitator is responsible for VAT, it may not be responsible for other obligations related to the sale, such as product liabilities.

When the special arrangement provision applies:

The EU ecommerce VAT regulations include a special arrangements provision, which allows sellers or deemed supplier marketplaces to opt out and pass the VAT collection role to postal services. This is exclusive to the EU reforms; the U.K.’s marketplace deemed supplier rule doesn’t include this option. Additionally, the U.K. rules call for use of a regular U.K. VAT return rather than the IOSS import return.

Where U.S. sellers can turn for help:

Cross-border trade rules are already complicated. While the U.K. and EU ecommerce VAT reforms aim to increase confidence in global ecommerce sales, U.S. sellers may find these changes create yet another layer of complexity and a barrier to international sales. It can be difficult to keep up with ever-changing cross-border compliance obligations while focusing on expanding into new markets and keeping customers happy.. Learn more about managing VAT compliance

Avalara has updated cross-border features in its Trade Treaty Support and Trade Restrictions Management applications. The sales tax company this month said that among new features are trade treaty tariff rates as part of its tax content coverage.

Cross-Border Trade Treaty Support is currently available for Canada, Mexico, the United States and for countries in the European Union and the United Kingdom as a feature of Avalara AvaTax Cross-Border. 

International sellers can utilize Trade Restrictions Management  to ascertain government restriction on selling goods across borders, enabling them to streamline Harmonized System code classification, language translation and calculation of duties and taxes. The system supports Canada, China, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.  

Trade Restrictions Management can be used as a standalone application with or without HS codes.

Avalara has introduced a suite of products designed to help accounting professionals to provide  sales tax services for their clients. Avalara for Accountants brings together the previously released Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants with other modules.

 The suite “allows them to assist clients without adding resources”, Sona Akmakjian, global head of accounting partnerships for the cloud sales tax software company said in the lead up to this week’s Crush virtual conference. She added, “This can be a nice recurring revenue stream for accountants,:

Avalara will follow up the product introduction with resources that will help firms operate in the space.“One of the things we are working on is a playbook, which is not only product information It could be ROI tools. It could be templates for agreements, gotchas,” Akmakjian said.

The suit also includes Avalara Returns for Accountants TTR Tax Expert Access for Accountants and Avalara License Management for Accountants. Returns is for accountants with what Avalara describes as mature tax practices. Managed Returns is for those who wish to hand off the work to Avalara.Tax Expert Access includes DIY sales tax research tools plus plain-language explanations, historical information, rooftop-level tax rates, and Yes/No responses to share with clients. Licenses management offers built-in workflow management to support license research, acquisition, and renewal processes.