Accounting firm RubinBrown has purchased ERP consulting group Liberty Technology Advisors in a deal that is effective this week. Based in Chicago, Ill., Liberty’s operations  are being combined into RubinBrown’s Business Advisory Services Group.

Terms were not disclosed.

Liberty was founded in October 195 and is managed by its president, Joel Schneider, who will become a partner in the accounting firm. The staff also includes six managers and one staff/operations resource.

Liberty provides ERP software selection, business process re-engineering, technology and IT security advisory services and ERP implementation support services

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

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.

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.

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.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to hire up to 200 more attorneys to combat abusive tax schemes. The Office of Chief Council this week said the will help combat syndicated conservation easements, abusive micro-captive insurance arrangements and other tax schemes.  

Positions will be available in more than 50 locations in thiscountry and first announcements of openings have been posted on USAJOBS.

Positions are available for both large business and international, small business and self-employed, and technical slots.

New hires will handle such areas as cases in the United States Tax Court and serving as fact and expert witnesses serving on trial teams for the agency’s largest and most complex trial. Others will be employed by the  Department of Justice Tax Division, which handles refund cases in district courts and the Court of Federal Claims.

Also, attorneys will serve in the IRS national office, focusing on “developing global regulatory solutions to the most sophisticated and abusive transactions and providing highly specialized advice to IRS litigation teams,” the announcement said.

Surgent Accounting & Financial Education launched a mobile app that for those using its exam review courses. The company says the Surgent's Study Companion generates tailored plans and materials for "microbursts" of study

It is available for iOS in the Apple App Store and on Google Play

The app continuously evaluates a person’s knowledge in all content areas and provides feedback and appropriate materials and assessments.

The app serves up content such videos, flashcards references that fits the time period selected.  Users can select “Still Learning" or "Got It" for each piece of content selected.

The Surgent Study Companion covers the four sections of the CPA Exam: Auditing & Attestation, Regulation, Financial Accounting & Reporting, and Business Environment & Concepts. 

 The Internal Revenue Service still has millions of unprocessed tax returns from 2021, according to Erin M. Collins, national taxpayer advocate. In her annual report to Congress, Collins noted this month, “processing delays led to a cascade of customer service problems.”

"While my report focuses primarily on the problems of 2021, I am deeply concerned about the upcoming filing season," Collins wrote.

According to the report, the IRS had the following unprocessed returns at the end of December: 6 million unprocessed 1040s, 2.3 million 1040-Xs, 2 million 941 and 941-Xs and about 5 million pieces of taxpayer correspondences. Some of the submissions date to April and many taxpayers are still waiting for refunds.

Perhaps surprisingly, one recommended method for reducing delays  was using scanning technology to read returns. Moreover, some taxpayers are prevented from efiing because they need to file forms that have not been programmed for the IRS systems to receive electronically.

The report also asked for customer callback technology to help reduce the hold volumes. “Customer callback will not enable the IRS to handle the 250 million calls that went unanswered,” according to the report. But it noted it could reduce the volumes stemming from customers making multiple calls. The report says 250 million calls went unanswered.

The IRS’ lack of routine communications with taxpayers via email also frustrates taxpayers and leads to increased telephone calls and correspondence.

The IRS should also create a weekly dashboard to provide specific information about delays. The webpage, IRS Operations During COVID-19: Mission-critical functions continue, that provides certain high-level information. The report commented, “However, it does not provide detailed information on processing backlogs, saying for amended returns only that ‘the current timeframe can be more than 20 weeks.’”

More than eight years after a judge ordered his Instant Tax Service closed, founder Fessum Ogbazion, of Cincinnati has been sentenced to prison. Ogbazion must serve one year and one day for tax fraud charges and repay the government $933,708.

Between 2006 and $2011, ITS, based in Dayton, Ohio,  collected more than $70 million in fees. In November 2013, a federal shut down ITS and barred Ogbazion from the tax preparation busines for widespread fraud and deception.

For example, the chain advertised tax refund anticipation loans through an independent third-party lender, even though it had no agreement with a lender. ITS failed to pay $1.3 million in payroll taxes due from ITS and another firm during four tax quarters in 2009 and 2010 with Ogbazion hiding assets and lying to an IRS revenue officer.

Ogbazion was convicted by a federal jury on June 6, 2017, of tax evasion, willful failure to withhold and pay over employment taxes, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and bank fraud. A court later dismissed five counts of wire fraud. 

 Abbott, Stringham & Lynch has named four principals this month. Those promoted to the partner group are CPAs Angel Nevis, Jacen Dickman and Mike Morales and CVA Jeff Faust.

Nevis, who works in the tax and advisory practice, has been with ASL since December 2018. She focuses on tax preparation and planning for high-net-worth individuals and their families. Nevis was previously with Hock & Co. from June 2014 through October 2018 and has more than 22 years in public accounting.

Dickman, who has had two stints at ASL, specializes in working with high-net-worth individuals and closely-held businesses. He rejoined the firm in December 2019. Before that, he was most recently a principal at Spot On Consulting CPAs from June 2017 through 2019. He was a senior tax manager at ASL from January 1998 through April 2010.

Faust, who joined ASL in in October 2014, works in the valuation services practice. He has more than 25 years of experience in the valuation of privately held companies in a wide range of areas. He has lectured around the world on business valuation theory and was one of the instructors for the Venture Capital Academy. He was previously director of business valuation at GROCO from March 2006 through September 2010.

Working in the ASL tax practice, Morales, who also has an MST, has more than fifteen years of public accounting experience working with C and S corporations, partnerships, He began work at the firm in August 2019. Morales returned to ASL after working at Buchanan and Read from October 2014 through December 2018. Before that, he started as an intern at ASL in December 2006 and ended his tenure there as a tax senior in October 2014.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced the names of new members for the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council. The nine individuals were appointed to three-year terms that begin this month.

IRSAC is public forum for IRS officials and representatives of the public to discuss a issues in tax administration.

Carol Lew, shareholder with Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth PC in Newport Beach, Calif., is the committee’s chair for this year. Lew serves as special tax counsel and borrower’s counsel for various kinds of bond issues for state and local government and non-profits

The new members are the following:                                                                                                                                                                          *Amanda Aguillard, COO of Padgett Business Services. Aguillard was previous a National Ambassador for software company Xero. She co-founded and manages Elefant, a training and consulting company for accountants and bookkeepers

*Alison Flores, Principal tax research analyst, H&R Block. Flores is a tax attorney who leads internal research tool for H&R Block delivering tax research materials via an online research platform.

*Michael Kam, Tax director, Kamehameha Schools, Honolulu, Hawaii. A CPA, Kam has more than 35 years oof tax experience in the tax-exempt and for-profit sectors, and oversees tax compliance and manages tax risks throughout the schools and their tax-exempt and for-profit affiliates.

*Mason Klinck, Volunteer income tax assistance site manager, Making Opportunity Count, Fitchburg, Mass. An Enrolled Agent, Klink has 20 years of experience as a tax preparer. He is a former IRS agent and tax shelter auditor for the California Franchise Tax Board.

*Jeffrey A. Porter, Member/CPA, Porter & Associates CPAs, Huntington, West. Va. Porter is a CPA with more than 40 years experience preparing business and individual tax returns. His firm represents small- to medium-sized businesses and high net worth individuals. He has served on the AICPA’s Board of Directors, and chaired its Tax Executive Committee. 

*Jon Schausten, Director of payroll and human resources information systems, American United Life Insurance Company, DBA OneAmerica, Indianapolis, Ind. A Certified Payroll Professional, Schausten has more than 20 years of payroll experience with union, multi-state and international payrolls. He oversees payroll, time and attendance, HRIS and HR Shared Services for his company.

*Tara Sciscoe, Partner, Ice Miller LLP, Indianapolis, Ind,. Sciscoe is a partner at Ice Miller’s Employee Benefits group. Sciscoe has a national practice in representing public pension systems and governmental

*Rebecca Thompson, VP, strategic partnerships and network building, Prosperity Now, Washington, D.C. With more than 10 years as a non-profit professional, she focuses on addressing systemic barriers to racial economic justice. Thompson has oversight for the Taxpayer Opportunity Network, the national convening body and liaison with the IRS for the VITA program and stakeholders. 

*Sean Wang,Director, information reporting policy compliance group, Charles Schwab, Boston, Mass. Wang, a director with Schwab’s Information Reporting Policy and Compliance group, advises and supports internal business line partners about information reporting and withholding compliance, corporate digital projects, and implementation of information reporting and withholding rules.

Anders CPAs and Advisors has named five employees as partners this month, including the first non-CPA partner, Donna M. Erbs. The CPAS who were promoted at the St. Louis, Mo.-based firmare Chad R. Gall, Daniel K. Schindler, Michael R. Stafford and Brad R. Stumpe.

Erbs, the firm’s chief marketing officer, joined Anders in 2004 after working for three years as an account executive at Millennium Communications.

Gall is part of the Family Wealth and Estate Planning Group. He was hired at Anders in 2001 after graduating from the Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

A partner in the Tax Services practice, Schindler came to Anders in January 2010 as a tax intern. Leading operations of the Anders Sports, Arts & Entertainment Group, he represents professional athletes, agents and advisors.

Stafford was selected as the director of finance and administration in January 2016 before becoming the firm’s first COO in January 2018. He was previously with Peper Martin Jensen Maichel and Hetlage from September 1994 through February 1998 where he ended his tenure as CFO.

The director of regulatory compliance, Stumpe joined Anders in January 2020 via the merger with  Cummings, Ristau & Associates. He began work with that firm in September 2004 and Principal of Director of Regulatory Compliance Services.

Dark Horse CPAs has hired Hao Dong as VP of Technology. The firm says Dong will be responsible for “architecting the firm’s technology infrastructure.”

Dong, who joined Dark Horse in October, worked for the city of Tuscaloosa, Ala., from April 2017 until taking the new position. In his last two years there, he was chief data officer. He was data/planning manager for the HLC Group of Guyang, Guizhou, China, from January 2015 through December 2016.

He has also worked as an urban planner and engineer in Beijing, China.

On November 16, Dark Horse also hired Craig Trimble, a CPA,  as an Accelerator in the firm’s Principal Accelerator Program, which offers. proprietary sales training and one-on-one coaching for “CPAs that want to build a scalable book of business without the personal and financial sacrifices required of starting a firm from scratch.”

Trimble was a senior tax manager for GunnChamberlin from December 2020 through last month. He held the same title at Cullen & Cullen CPAs from December 2017 through December 2020

 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. “

Wolters Kluwer has acquired BusinessLogix, which markets business licensing services. Terms were not disclosed.

Business licensing appears to be one of the areas in which companies offering indirect tax services are increasing competing. Avalara acquired a similar business, Business Licenses, to enter market in September.

LicenseLogix provides license filing, research, verification, compliance and assessment services. Its operations will be combined with WK’s sales tax services.

Based in White Plains, N.Y. was founded in 2011 by lawyers, technology professionals and legal service industry veterans.

 Avalara has acquired Track1099, which markets the filing tax forms such as 1099s, W-2s and W-9s. Terms were not disclosed.

It’s the second acquisition of a 1099 software company by an indirect tax this year. In July, Sovos purchased 1099 Pro.

Track1099 is reported to have more than 40,000 customers. The company has provided 1099 filing on a tiered, per-form pricing basis and an annual subscription for W-9s.

“By integrating Track1099’s capabilities into our compliance document management suite, Avalara can support and automate additional annual requirements for our customers,” Jayme Fishman, Avalara’s EVP of corporate development, said in a prepared statement.

Products and services can be classified by taxability by Avalara Managed Tax Classification. The sales tax software company recently introduced the software package generates classifications for both state and local taxability determinations.

Machine learning is utilized to provide up-to-date classifications.

The new product, “helps mitigate over- and undercharging tax, while leaving room to apply special considerations, like SNAP and WIC eligibility,” Avalara said in its announcement. “Our deep product content database assists AI and machine learning algorithms and search functions to easily identify and classify products.”