Mon.Apr 08, 2024

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IRS changes how tax pros receive transcripts

Accounting Today

The Internal Revenue Service is making some changes in the way it sends tax transcripts for clients to tax professionals to beef up security.

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Simplifying Family Tax Credits: Why it Matters and What Can Be Done

Intuit

We have recently seen quite a bit of discussion in Congress about family tax credits, and, in particular, the EITC and CTC. In fact, the US House of Representatives passed bipartisan legislation to expand the CTC, a proposal that according to some would benefit 16 million children from low-income families and in its first year, raising 400,000 children above the poverty line.

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Art of Accounting: Tax season staff appreciation gifts

Accounting Today

Here are some tips for showing your appreciation to your staff in the closing days of tax season.

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Looking for fresh ideas in your business? Why not try a hackathon?

Xero

As nearly a thousand of our employees around the globe down tools this week for one of our twice-yearly hackathons, I’ve been reflecting on the purpose and benefits of this practice. Hackathons have been a fixture in the tech world for decades. But today the concept is widely utilised in fields as diverse as businesses, healthcare, education and social impact to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues.

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From Start to Scale: Driving Growth Through Seamless Payments Implementation

Speaker: Michael Veatch, Senior Director, Implementations & Ella Aguirre, Director of Solution Consulting

Embedding payments can be a transformative step for software companies looking to enhance their platform capabilities, boost customer satisfaction, and drive long-term growth. However, the success of payments hinges on a single thing: implementation. Drawing on real-world insights and experiences, payments implementation experts Michael Veatch and Ella Aguirre will explore actionable strategies that can lead to a transparent, friction-free launch and mitigate potential challenges like technical

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IRS sees steady growth in Direct File free tax program

Accounting Today

The Treasury Department reported increasing usage of the Internal Revenue Service's free Direct File tax-filing system that they've been pilot testing in a dozen states this tax season.

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The 5 Best Collections Email Templates

Gaviti

Anyone who’s worked in accounts receivables knows how valuable a good collections email template can be. Accounts receivable collections rely on clear communication with customers, both in delivering accurate invoices on time and ensuring those invoices get paid. An A/R collections email template supports quick and efficient communication between you and your clients.

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Murph's first look at 2024 ProAdvisor App Preferences

Insightful Accountant

The formal applications submitted by Top 100 ProAdvisors contain a wealth of information. Part of that information reflects how these 'Pros' interact with apps and software. Here's my first look at the 2024 Domestic data.

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Boston mulls commercial tax hike to counter office market slump

Accounting Today

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is seeking to raise commercial property tax rates to help protect homeowners from the brunt of the historic slump in office property values.

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Reminders for Filing a 2023 Tax Return

Insightful Accountant

The IRS has some important reminders for taxpayers who haven’t filed yet.

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SEC pauses climate disclosure rule

Accounting Today

The Securities and Exchange Commission has temporarily stayed its climate-related disclosure rule amid a rash of lawsuits.

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Amanda Adams, Fractional CFO, CPA

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Amanda Adams, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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How to Create a Financial Forecast for Any Business?

Invoicera

Introduction What is the first step to take when you want to start a business? Some would argue that it’s coming up with an idea and building a prototype. We disagree! The very first thing you need is your financial forecast. A business financial forecast is a crucial piece of financial information that lenders and vendors often look at before doing business with you.

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Some Taxpayer Centers to stay open this Saturday

Accounting Today

More than 70 of the Internal Revenue Service's assistance centers will be open for walk-ins from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Most Common Problems With Monthly Bookkeeping Services

CSI Accounting & Payroll

When small business owners think of accounting services, they usually picture monthly bookkeeping services. They may even think they’re the only outsourced option besides partnering with a tax preparer. With this being the norm for new or very small businesses, it’s important to review the common issues that these services have, as well as compare the issues to those of other accounting solutions.

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Energy-related 'rebates' not taxable income: IRS

Accounting Today

The Internal Revenue Service clarified the treatment of money paid for energy-efficient property and improvements in Announcement 2024-19.

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Avoiding Lease Accounting Pitfalls in 2025: Lessons Learned from Spreadsheet Errors

Speaker: Abdi Ali, Sr. Lease Accounting Consultant

Join this insightful webinar with industry expert Abdi Ali, who will discuss the challenges that can arise from managing lease accounting with spreadsheets! He will share real-world examples of errors, compliance issues, and risks that may be present within your spreadsheets. Learn how these tools, while useful, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies that affect your time, resources, and peace of mind.

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What is Odoo ERP Software? - A Complete Guide

Nanonets

ERP software, including Odoo ERP, is essential for business management because it unifies what would otherwise be siloed systems requiring duplicate manual data entry into a single database.  ERP software is designed with core accounting software and optional modules for business process functionality throughout your organization. With an ERP system, role-authorized team members and management can view the same data with real-time dashboards.

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AWS Aurora Serverless Pricing & 3 Tips for Cost Optimization

Economize

What is Amazon Aurora? Amazon Aurora is a fully managed relational database engine built on AWS cloud. It is compatible with both MySQL and PostgreSQL services. AWS lets you choose the preferred database engine and integrate it with the familiar Amazon RDS environment.

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How to Manage Recurring ACH Payments in QuickBooks

Nanonets

As everyday tools and services become increasingly subscription-based, so too does our overall automation strategy when it comes to business management. But, just as keeping a subscription on automatic renewal without oversight can be a costly mistake, so too can mismanaging recurring ACH transactions. QuickBooks, one of the most popular accounting and bookkeeping platforms on the market, offers a fairly straightforward method of managing recurring ACH payments to help ensure no surprises come d

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Making Audit Matter Again: The Future of Assurance

Earmark Accounting Podcast

Audit is at a crossroads. Commoditization and compliance mentalities have diminished its value. Now, auditors face an existential crisis. How can assurance stay relevant? Join Alan Anderson and Blake Oliver as they tackle pressing questions on audit's failure to innovate and chart a new direction focused on value-added assurance. You’ll get a dynamic diagnosis of threats plus practical ideas to transform the profession before external forces make change urgent.

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Back to Basics with Reconciliations

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid. Learning Objectives: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements.

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Indirect liability definition

Accounting Tools

What is an Indirect Liability? An indirect liability is a potential obligation that may arise under certain circumstances. It exists when the entity is a secondary obligor on a liability , where another party is the primary obligor. The entity will only be liable if the primary obligor fails in its payment obligation. A secondary liability can also exist when an event may occur in the future that will trigger an obligation, such as an unfavorable outcome to a lawsuit.

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The Great COVID Heist: IRS Announces Billions in Fraud

Insightful Accountant

Amid COVID-19, US relief programs like PPP and unemployment aid were exploited by fraudsters, resulting in $80B stolen from PPP and $90-400B from unemployment relief. This fraud may rival $579B for Biden's infrastructure plan.

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Imprest amount definition

Accounting Tools

What is the Imprest Amount? The imprest amount is the fixed amount of cash that is presumed to be located in a petty cash box. For example, the initial funding of a petty cash box is $300, and this amount is recorded in the corresponding general ledger account for petty cash. This amount does not change in the general ledger, even though the amount of cash in the petty cash box will gradually decline as it is paid out and replaced with receipts.

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Trump Media's accounting firm has audit deficiency history

Accounting Today

The PCAOB found multiple deficiencies in every audit it reviewed from BF Borgers over the past two annual checks.

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Usage-Based Monetization Musts: A Roadmap for Sustainable Revenue Growth

Speaker: David Warren and Kevin O’Neill Stoll

Transitioning to a usage-based business model offers powerful growth opportunities but comes with unique challenges. How do you validate strategies, reduce risks, and ensure alignment with customer value? Join us for a deep dive into designing effective pilots that test the waters and drive success in usage-based revenue. Discover how to develop a pilot that captures real customer feedback, aligns internal teams with usage metrics, and rethinks sales incentives to prioritize lasting customer eng

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Avoidable cost definition

Accounting Tools

What is an Avoidable Cost? An avoidable cost is a cost that can be eliminated by not engaging in or no longer performing an activity. In general, a variable cost is considered to be an avoidable cost, while a fixed cost is not considered to be an avoidable cost. In the very short term, many costs are considered to be fixed and therefore unavoidable.

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Continuous budgeting definition

Accounting Tools

What is Continuous Budgeting? Continuous budgeting is the process of continually adding one more month to the end of a multi-period budget as each month goes by. The continuous budgeting concept is usually applied to a twelve-month budget, so there is always a full-year budget in place. If a company elects to use continuous budgeting for a smaller time period, such as three months, its ability to create a high-quality budget is greatly enhanced.

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Issued shares definition

Accounting Tools

What are Issued Shares? Issued shares are those shares that have been distributed to shareholders by a corporation. These shares are issued either as compensation paid to employees or suppliers , or to investors in exchange for cash. Presentation of Issued Shares The number of issued shares is reported in the financial statements of the issuing entity, usually on the balance sheet. is Treasury Stock Included in Issued Shares?

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Cost plus pricing definition

Accounting Tools

What is Cost Plus Pricing? Cost plus pricing involves adding a markup to the cost of goods and services to arrive at a selling price. Under this approach, you add together the direct material cost , direct labor cost , and overhead costs for a product, and add to it a markup percentage in order to derive the price of the product. Cost plus pricing can also be used within a customer contract, where the customer reimburses the seller for all costs incurred and also pays a negotiated profit in addi

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Solve Your Firm's Automation Complexities Once and For All

Speaker: Mark Stovel

When it comes to automating, many firms focus on finding the latest tech, believing that efficiency is something achieved through new tools. Yet true efficiency is achieved by delivering real value to clients, not merely by upgraded systems. Without a clear approach, no level of automation can overcome the complexities of serving every client’s needs.

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Impaired asset definition

Accounting Tools

What is an Impaired Asset? An impaired asset is one that has a book value less than its market value. Fixed assets and goodwill are the assets most commonly experiencing impairment write downs. Impairment testing is to be conducted at regular intervals, so a business could experience a series of impairment charges against a single asset. Accounting for an Impaired Asset When an asset is impaired, you should reduce the book value of the asset to its market value, which creates a loss in the amoun

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Control limits definition

Accounting Tools

What are Control Limits? Control limits are the horizontal lines in a control chart that delineate the upper and lower limits of the acceptable range of results for a process. When plotted data exceeds a control limit, it indicates that a process is out of control, and requires management attention. Control limits are set at three standard deviations on either side of the mean.

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Target pricing definition

Accounting Tools

What is Target Pricing? Target pricing is the process of estimating a competitive price in the marketplace and applying a firm's standard profit margin to that price in order to arrive at the maximum cost that a new product can have. A design team then tries to create a product with the requisite features within the pre-set cost constraint. If the team cannot complete the product within the cost constraint, the project is terminated.

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Accounts receivable controls

Accounting Tools

Controls over accounts receivable really begin with the initial creation of a customer invoice , since you must minimize several issues during the creation of accounts receivable before you can have a comprehensive set of controls over this key asset. Controls then span the proper maintenance of accounts receivable, and their elimination through either payments from customers or the generation of credit memos.

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Confronting the Change Challenge

Change is difficult, whether in our private or work life. However, without change, growth and learning are difficult not to mention keeping up with the market and staying competitive. We have all worked for or ourselves are the bosses that prefer to keep the status quo. We will discuss how to address the "change challenge" to enable you to be a changemaker and a graceful recipient of change.