Top Technologies for Accounting & Tax Professionals Recognized

Article Tools

• Print This Article
• Email This Article to a Friend
• Save This Article
• Order a Reprint

LOS ANGELES, June 5, 2006 — The 2006 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards were announced and presented Monday evening at the California Accounting and Business Show & Conference in Los Angeles, offering recognition to applications, hardware and services that provide a unique benefit to tax and accounting professionals or otherwise enhance the productivity or profitability of these professionals. This year’s winners included a wiki-based tax research utility, a document identification system, an online payroll application, mobile workgroups collaboration, and a new entry into the small business accounting market.

The Innovation Awards are sponsored by The CPA Technology Advisor as a means to recognize innovative developments in technologies that benefit the tax and accounting professions, as well as significant advancements in existing technologies. Award statues were presented to the winners by Gregory L. LaFollette, CPA.CITP, Executive Editor of The CPA Technology Advisor and The NSA Technology Advisor.

“The marketplace for technologies that enhance productivity and client service in the accounting and tax profession is thriving,” LaFollette said. “Each year, we are increasingly impressed with the innovations that vendors develop to help meet the unique challenges we face in our practices, and the Innovation Awards help to further stimulate development by publicly commending those vendors whose products or services represent the most significant technological innovations in these fields.”

The recipients of this year’s Tax and Accounting Technology Innovation Awards are as follows:

• CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business (www.tax.CCHGroup.com) for ProSystem fx Scan (formerly known as BOCDIP). The system is an automated document identification tool that supports the paperless process for CPAs, quickly completing what previously were several expensive and time-consuming tasks, freeing a firm’s professional staff to engage in more profitable activities. ProSystem Scan fx includes PDFlyer, an Adobe Acrobat plug-in that facilitates working with multiple *.PDF files in a paperless, dual-screen environment. Together, BOCDIP and PDFlyer provide an extremely efficient system for preparing paperless 1040s.
• TaxAlmanac.org, a new web-based research system from Intuit (www.TaxAlmanac.org), received an Innovation Award because of its use of “Wiki” technology to provide a free interactive tax research portal for professionals. The non-commercial website allows registered users to update and maintain the research content on the site, allowing professionals to assist each other through collaboration.
• Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness) also received an award, showing the potential affect that the world’s largest software developer may have on the professional tax and accounting markets. The program, which is geared toward the small business market, offers the ubiquity that only Microsoft can provide, with the look and feel of familiar Microsoft Office software like Outlook and Word, plus the ability to seamlessly integrate with Office programs for contact management, word processing, and database and spreadsheet functions. The system is built on the MSDE database engine.
• PayCycle, Inc. (www.PayCycle.com) was honored for its 2006 Wholesale Program for Accounting Professionals, a comprehensive, online client payroll solution available at discounted wholesale pricing. Through the professional accountant version of the online payroll system, accountants can either handle all aspects of the payroll process or provide consulting and compliance services to small business clients who perform most of the process themselves. Either way, the online system maintains the accounting firm’s brand at all times, and helps to make payroll profitable for accounting professionals by automating the entire process.
• Colligo Networks (www.Colligo.com) received an Innovation Award for its Colligo Workgroup Edition 4.0, which enables mobile workgroups to collaborate through a simple process of Discover, Connect and Interact. Colligo’s Instant Networking software allows WiFi-enabled notebooks, tablet PCs and PDAs to create “server free,” direct connected adhoc networks with a single button click. Users can then share data and interact with each other using common or corporate applications in a secure and reliable environment, regardless of whether they have access to the Internet or corporate servers.

Each year, more than 75 software, hardware and service products are nominated for the awards. Eligible nominees must be on the market in full release (no beta versions), be marketed directly to accounting or tax professionals, and must be either less than two years old or have undergone a significant enhancement or version change in that time. Award winners are selected through voting by the editorial staff and Editorial Advisory Board of The CPA Technology Advisor, which includes accounting and tax professionals from across the country who are engaged in public practice in firms ranging from sole practitioners to major, multi-office regional practices.

In addition to the winners of the 2006 Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards, several products were also recognized with Honorable Mention certificates. This year’s Honorable Mention recipients included Intuit QuickBooks Online Edition; BillQuick 2006 from BQE Software; Thomson Tax & Accounting’s GoFileRoom; Practice CS from Thomson Tax & Accounting; and the BizBench Financial Benchmarking System from Gerke & Associates.

More information on the awards is available at www.cpatechadvisor.com/award.

About The CPA Technology Advisor
Founded in 1991 as The CPA Software News , The CPA Technology Advisor is an independent information source for practicing public accountants and tax professionals, dedicated to providing them with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions regarding implementing various technologies in their practices. Through in-depth reviews and comparisons of technology products and services, topical features and detailed due-diligence charts, The CPA Technology Advisor helps practicing public accountants and tax professionals explore, purchase and implement new technologies efficiently and productively. The magazine’s audited circulation of approximately 50,000 tax and accounting professionals look to it for its editorial independence and integrity. Neither The CPA Technology Advisor nor its parent company, Cygnus Business Media, Inc., own or invest in the products or services reviewed or covered in the publication. It is this independence that has enabled The CPA Technology Advisor to become the most respected and widely distributed magazine focusing on technology available to practicing public accountants and tax professionals.