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 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.

 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.

Jeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingJeff Siegel is the owner of Siegel Solutions, an 11-person firm that provides outsourced bookkeeping solutions usingQuickBooks to over 300 clients. Jeff knows what it takes to grow a business: efficiency of scale, real-time insights thatbuild strong customer relationships, and a secure data environment. He gets all three from Right Networks.

In this ebook, we’ll examine:In this ebook, we’ll examine:

• Why DIY (Do-It-Yourself) accounting systems created forsmall businesses cause undue pain for both small businessowners and for accountants
• How the right cloud-based professional accounting systemcan not only eliminate that pain, but also open up newopportunities for accountants to better serve their clients

Steven Brewer, CPA is the President of Steven Brewer and Company, CPAs, located in Salem, IN. He talked to AccountantsWorld about how he’s grown his accounting practice without needing to increase his number of clients – and how those improvements have eased his tax season crunch.

BooXkeeping: How White Label Bookkeeping Services Provide Scalability to Your Firm When it comes to running a business the main thing that every business owner wants to do is sell their products or services, create brand awareness and generate profits that they can enjoy later in life. The last thing a business owner wants to do is to worry about bookkeeping, taxes, and the rest of time consuming accounting tasks needed to run a successful business, with limited resources and time, often the bookkeeping ends up being the last on the list of things that need to be completed.

The Internal Revenue Service has introduced what it says is an improved identity verification and sign-in process for securely accessing and using IRS online tools and applications. The agency says the process reaches more people through the expanded use of ID documents and increased help desk assistance for verifying taxpayer identities.

Initially, the procedure can be used on services such as Child Tax Credit Update Portal, Online Account, Get Transcript Online, Get an Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) and Online Payment Agreement. The new process will spread to additional IRS applications over the next year.  The system has also been integrated with Tax Pro Account or to submit Forms 2848 and 8821 online used by tax professionals.

The IRS is using the services of ID.me with taxpayers asked to sign in with an ID.me account. Those with existing IRS usernames can use those until the summer of 2022 but are prompted to create an ID. Me account. 

The system will prompt taxpayers to provide a photo of an identity document such as a driver’s license, state ID or passport and they also need to take a selfie with a smartphone or with a webcam on a computer. They can access on the online services once their identities have been verified.

The Internal Revenue Service has increased the number of transcripts that can be ordered for each client. The IRS this week said tax professionals can order up to 30 Transcript Delivery System transcripts per client through the Practitioner Priority Service line.

That is up from the prior limit of 10 transcripts per client.\

Transcripts available under this newly-expanded limit include the: Tax Return Transcript, Tax Account Transcript, Wage and Income Transcript, Record of Account and Verification of Non-Filing Letter.

The 10-per-client limit applies to all other transcripts, which count toward the total of 30 per client. Tax professionals will continue to receive TDS transcripts in their e-Services Secure Object Repository mailboxes. The change also applies to other IRS toll-free lines.

Tax year 2022 adjustments has been published by the Internal Revenue Service. The recently released changes in Revenue Procedure 2021-45 include increases in the standard deduction and the Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount.

The standard deduction for married couples filing joining rises to $25,900 an increase of $800 from 2021. It is $12,950, up $400 for single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, and 19,400, up $600, for heads of households

The Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount for tax year 2022 is $75,900 and begins to phase out at $539,900 ($118,100 for married couples filing jointly for whom the exemption begins to phase out at $1,079,800). 
 

The maximum Earned Income Tax Credit amount is $6,935 for those eligible who have three or more qualifying children, up from $6,728 for this year. There is a table sho9wng maximum EITC amount for other categories, income thresholds and phase-outs on 2021-45.

The monthly limitation  for qualified transportation fringe benefits and for qualified parking rises to $280. The limitation for employee salary reductions for contributions to health flexible plans rises to $2,580 and cafeteria plan to permit carryovers of unused amount, the maximum carryover is $570.

 A 45.6-percent increase in revenue from cloud-based products helped Vertex to cut its loss by more than half for the third quarter ended September. The indirect tax software company also so revenue rise 16 percent year-over-year for the recently reported quarter.

Vertex lost $9.6 million for the most recently ended period, down from $21.3 million a year ago.  Revenue rose to $110.7 million, up from $94.6 million in last year’s corresponding period.

In a recent earnings call, the company noted cloud-based revenue reached $33.3 million. Growth was also impacted by the acquisition of Taxamo and LCR-Dixon

Industry veteran Euan Menzies has been named interim CEO of Drake Software. The company says the transition in leadership comes at a time of increased investment including plans to add at least 100 full-time positions over the next six months.

Menzies takes over from Jim Stiles who will remain as a member of the company’s board.

Menzies, who joined Insight Venture Partners in 2014 as a venture partner, was CEO of Vertafore from 2001 through October 2013 and remained with the company as vice chairman.  Before that, he was CEO of the Thomson Tax and Accounting Group for several years.

Accounting firm Weaver has added Victor Padilla as managing director in its forensics and litigation services practice. Padilla has more than 15 years of experience in this area, including what was described as “a broad array of cases involving investigations of kickbacks, collusive bidding and money laundering, among other unlawful activities.”

He led investigations and compliance assessment in areas such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil. A CPA and certified fraud examiner, Padilla was previously with HIC Land from February 2017 until taking the job with Weaver. He was director of business development from November 2019. Before that, he was an audit senior with Deloitte from January 2015 through February 2017.

 Accounting firm EisnerAmper has named five individuals as its 2021 partner class. The five are Tami Davidman, Jessica Estrella, Harold Hess, Isaac Mansour and Robert Bailey.

Davidman is an audit partner who provides assurance services in the Financial Services Group from the New York City office. She joined the firm as an audit senior manager in October 2007 after serving nearly two years as part of Ernst & Young’s audit staff. Davidman has more than 15 years of experience advising alternative investment partnerships, private equity funds, and fund of funds across a variety of industries.

Based in Iseln, N.J., Estrella has 15 years of experience applying broad technical expertise in U.S. GAAP, U.S. GAAS, PCAOB standards including SEC rules and regulations and in leading audit engagements of large, complex, multinational organizations. Estrella joined the firm in February 2005.

Hess, who provides private business services in the Private Business Services Group, is a member of the firm’s Outsourced Finance and Accounting Practice. His expertise also includes public offerings and other filings with the SEC and compliance with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. He came to EisnerAmper in December 2001 after two years as an audit manager after two years with Deloitte. He is based in New York City.

Also based in New York City, Mansoura is audit partner who provides assurance services in the Real Estate Services Group, based in the New York City office. He started with the firm in December 2005. He was spent more than 20 years working with the real estate industry.

Another partner based in Iselin, Reilly provides assurance services in the Manufacturing and Distribution Group and the Pension Services Group. He joined EisnerAmner in December 2005.

Bill.com Holdings has named Mark Lenhard as its COO. He was previously CEO of Invoice2go, which was acquired by Bill.com this month.

Lenhard held the Invoice2Go position form April 2020 and will continue in that role in the operation that is now a subsidiary of Bill.com.

Prior to that, he was VP of commerce strategy and growth at Adobe from July 2018 through July 2018. He was SVP of strategy and growth at Magento Commerce from November 2014 through June 2018. He spent four years as head of global strategy at PayPal.

 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.”