Accounting June 28, 2025
Nominations Open for 2025 Innovation Awards
The Innovation Awards highlight technologies that are shaping the profession and small businesses through increased collaboration and productivity.
October 28, 2011
The ‘Soul’ of Your Service
“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” –…
October 26, 2011
Rethinking Security
I had the opportunity to spend some time with Don Codling, unit head for the FBI’s CyberCrime Division, talking about the state of computer and network security around the globe. It was an interesting conversation, not because there was any real news in the current trends but because the state of cybercrime makes it clear…
October 20, 2011
Barcoding: It’s Not Just For Retail Anymore
Barcodes belong on a grocery store shelf. That’s the common attitude toward this 60-year-old technology. Consumers have long accepted barcodes as the preferred method for a quick checkout at the grocery or department store.
October 19, 2011
Tech Predictions for 2012
At a global broadband policy conference in late 2011, I was asked to define the state of technology in this year. The answer came down to this: 2011 was the year that reality set in. That requires a bit of explanation, but we can begin to define it with five simple trends that emerged this…
October 19, 2011
A Year of Change, A Future of Promise
First, I’d like to say thank you to those of you who have followed my columns and presentations for years. I look continuously for companies and products that will help your practices serve clients better while producing better revenue for the firm and the partners.
October 18, 2011
Gifts, Gadgets and Tech for the Holidays
From Geeky to Chic, A Gadget for Everyone on Your List!
October 17, 2011
Giving Back to the Community
The Watkins team brings anti-bullying program, Operation Nice, to local schools. This month’s Great Practice profile is unlike any other. Our spotlighted firm was selected based not on innovation in technology, branding or website (though they certainly exhibit all this in spades), but rather for the firm’s commendable effort to give back to the community.
October 10, 2011
A New Perspective on Client Service:
How optimism and remote technologies paved the way to one firm's success. The accounting profession has often been stereotyped as curmudgeonly, grumpy, stodgy, and fiscally dour, and, well … there were probably good reasons for those descriptions at one time.
October 10, 2011
Awesome Add-ons for 2012
The Sleeter Group awards the Awesome Add-Ons each year to products that aid small businesses and their accounting firms by providing enhanced capabilities that integrate with small business accounting systems.
October 7, 2011
New Skills Required for Taking Your Firm Digital
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly things change in my office. And as you know, it requires a steady vigilance to stay in front of change. I spend a great deal of time evaluating the efficiency of my staff and the consistency of strategies implemented across my firm. Both of these areas must...…
October 6, 2011
The ABCs of Capturing Best Practices
We’ve all seen the statistics that point to the incredible brain drain that will occur in the accounting profession over the next decade, and most firms have experienced the loss of a key person that left the firm, taking with them key knowledge or experience that the firm wishes they would have captured. Without a...…