Honoring Innovation

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• August 2007 Issue
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Thomson Tax & Accounting received an Innovation Award for the latest version of Practice CS, a workflow management program designed specifically for public accountants and tax professionals. The system helps firms manage their workflow processes more efficiently and competently by providing a technologically advanced and customizable system. Practice CS, acting as the hub of integrated business operations, receives the data flow from the firm’s other programs. It collects and monitors volumes of real-time data and information. Users then have access to this data via real-time digital dashboards that give professionals summary views of all key business indicators, client status, staff workflow, productivity tools and other information, with drilldown functionality that lets them easily get to specific data and reports.

“The Innovation Awards are highly coveted, and we greatly appreciate being selected this year,” said Jack LaRue, senior vice president at Thomson Tax & Accounting. “We set out to create a new system for accounting professionals to manage all of the processes involved in their firms, from scheduling and workflow management, to client management, budgeting, time and billing, project management and collaboration. “Our customers are truly excited about the digital dashboards in Practice CS, which makes real-time key metrics about their firm and their clients instantly available. While receiving an Innovation Award validates our work, what we desire most is to help accounting professionals be more productive and efficient in their practices. And Practice CS accomplishes this.”

The program also offers time and billing functions, data sharing features and the ability to share project data and status information using the Project Management module, resulting in an integrated process that maintains up-to-the-minute data on every project within the firm. When a firm member finishes one aspect of a project, it automatically notifies the next member of the firm that the project is ready for their attention.

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Honorable Mentions

In addition to the Tax & Accounting Technology Innovation Awards described above, five companies were also recognized this year for their innovative contributions to the professional tax and accounting fields, and were presented with Honorable Mention certificates.

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Acct1st Technology Group
Best of Breed Integrator (BOBI)

One of the leaders in paperless document and data management applications, Acct1st’s Best of Breed Integrator (BOBI) was recognized for its ability to integrate with virtually all accounting and practice management programs. BOBI essentially acts as a universal translator that allows the Acct1st document management system to work with any accounting, tax or office productivity program, as well as client portals and other technologies.

“It’s great to have an independent source like The CPA Technology Advisor recognizing technological advancements in the accounting and tax space,” said Andrew Hatfield, chief strategic officer with Acct1st. “BOBI’s universal data translation capabilities help us in everything we do, and in turn, it ultimately benefits accounting firms because it makes the decision process easier when choosing to implement new technologies because they don’t have to worry about compatibility. BOBI can work with whatever choice they make.”

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