Isaac M. O'Bannon is the managing editor and digital content manager for CPA Practice Advisor (www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com), drawing on two decades of experience covering the areas of professional accounting, taxation, business productivity and consumer technologies. Prior to CPA Practice Advisor, O'Bannon was a consultant at firms in San Francisco, Denver and Tulsa, serving clients that included Logitech, Polycom, Hilti, Microsoft, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of Oklahoma's College of Engineering and other technology leaders. He is a U.S. Navy veteran. Email: isaac.obannon - @ - cpapracticeadvisor.com
July 18, 2011
14,817 It’s beginning to look a lot like … what? How many shopping days are left? You still don’t have a clue for what to give your boss, your friends or some of your family? Well, as I do each year, I “grudgingly” spend hours looking at and playing with dozens of new tech gadgets...…
July 1, 2011
Not too long ago, I wrote about “the problem with online sales tax” here on this blog. There’s a long-reaching history with states wanting to get reveunes from sales to their residents when the merchant isn’t in that state. It started long before the internet (think mail order catalogues), but e-commerce has certainly aggravated the...…
June 24, 2011
Sometimes, things need mixing up. Chris Farmand, who grew up in a Florida family centered around the accounting practice led by his father and two uncles, was destined for a career in accounting. His parents knew it, the rest of his family knew it, and his teachers knew it. But even though he’d been in...…
June 6, 2011
CPA Practice Advisor Presents 8th Annual Awards in Los Angeles LOS ANGELES – June 6, 2011 – Accountants, tax professionals and their clients are increasingly turning to the cloud and SaaS-based technologies, and this year’s Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards highlighted many new workflow tools, programs and devices that aid in professional and business...…
May 25, 2011
When it comes to work-life balance, family-friendly employers and general professional satisfaction, some companies are much better than others to work for. In a list of the top 25 corporations that have these attributes, Intuit ranked #24. Technology firms placed well on the list, including MITRE Consulting, SAS, Autodesk, Agilent and National Instruments. Other recognizable...…
May 11, 2011
Estate tax professionals, whether CPAs, tax attorneys or other financial advisors, have long honed their skills at finding the most beneficial wealth transfer strategies. The goal in most cases is to reduce or eliminate tax liabilities, while also ensuring for other distributions such as charitable giving. There are many such strategies and the result is...…
April 26, 2011
Where does innovation come from? While this may be a rhetorical question for some, it was precisely the intent of the inaugural CPA Practice Advisor Thought Leader Symposium, which brought together 25 of the most influential tax and accounting professionals, technophiles and consultants for three days of collaboration and dialogue. As the host of the...…
April 15, 2011
For those who might have missed our not-so-subtle hints over the past month, starting on Monday, The CPA Technology Advisor will become… CPA Practice Advisor. The biggest changes on Monday will be with our April/May print issue- which will showcase our new brand, as well as our new print size (a more traditional magazine size...…
April 13, 2011
Whether they are born procrastinators, have been waiting for some of their supporting tax documentation to arrive, or they have other reasons, many individual tax filers wait until the last week, even the last day, to file their annual returns or an extension. Because of a peculiar Washington D.C. holiday, filers were granted a 3-day...…
April 8, 2011
The Sleeter Group announced today that they’ve opened the application period for their Awesome Add-On Awards, with a focus this year on developer consulting. This is the seventh year of the awards, which recognize products that help small businesses by integrating with QuickBooks or complementing the most widely-used accounting program. Since The Sleeter Group is...…
March 29, 2011
The idea of taxing online sales and services has long been thrown around as a potential revenue source. In this time of belt tightening and budget cutting, states are especially eager to find ways to fill some of their fiscal shortfalls, and the loss of sales tax revenues to online sources is an appealing target....…
March 24, 2011
Breaking news! PCWorld says multi-screen monitors can help productivity! (http://www.pcworld.com/article/223014/make_multiple_monitors_work_for_you.html) In case you’ve missed the major transition, surveys now show that more than half of accountants are already using multi-screen monitors. And heck, here at CPA Practice Advisor (that’s our new name starting in April/now), we’ve long praised the benefits and have been raving about...…
