Top 5 Accounting Technology Trends for 2010

With December coming up tomorrow I thought it'd be a good time to start the obligatory "what's going to be big next year" blog. Even better I'm doing a Top 5 list. Here are my predictions for the Top 5 Accounting Technology Trends to watch for in 2010.

1. Twitter - It's amazing how quickly Twitter is growing and I think it's going to keep rocketing upward. Particularly with more of the younger generation latching on and making a name for themselves. Look for more accounting firms to establish a presence in Social Media but by starting out on Twitter and Facebook.

2. The Intuit Marketplace - Look for the role of Quickbooks Advisors to start changing with the advent of the Intuit Marketplace. Advisors will have to become experts in applications that make work more efficient for businesses. I'm still amazed that there's been little hoopla over what's going on with this. Something big is brewing here and expect it to break out in early 2010.

3. Going Mobile - More accounting applications and the increase in use of SmartPhones is going to provide us with Quickbooks Mobile and most everything else we want available on our phones. The world is going mobile especially since software is becoming so scalable and portable. Expect to see your ability to access documents and reports on the fly increase greatly.

4. Portals vs. SaaS - Websites are beginning to change and expect to see this next year. In the past the move has been to pretty up a website and put a portal for clients to sign in and access documents. With the move to SaaS and more online options expect to see accounting websites become more dynamic i.e. embedded Twitter and Blog feeds and less of the static "billboard" style that's been so prevalent. There will be less of a reason to go to an accountant's website unless they're keeping it updated with social media feeds.

5. The Cloud - Expect two things with Cloud Computing next year - one of them is for it to grow because of all of the IT cost savings. The second is for the inevitable backlash. There will be more than one case of lost, stolen, or corrupted data and there will be people sitting around saying "I told you so". I would expect to see both of these things in 2010.

Those are my thoughts on what 2010 will hold for technology for accounting firms.

First Thoughts on Sleeter

I wanted to give some first impressions from the Sleeter Conference for a first time exhibitor. We arrived here on Sunday and found ourselves in sunny Orlando. Monday morning we had a chance to sit down with Alex Barnett from Intuit with the their Partner Platform. It's time to be excited everyone. You're going to be amazed at what developers have up their sleeve right now. We've all been scratching the surface with the possibilities of Quickbooks. Hold on to your seats.

Set-up went extremely well yesterday and the team from Viper was great in helping out. The show opened up and I have to say I've been very impressed with the quality of attendees at Sleeter. Having a chance to chat with people here has been great. The quality of questions and the insightful input from participants has been top notch. It's been great to hear from the attendees. Yesterday was a first pass at running our booth here and already we've all been super impressed with how great of a time we're having. I hope today and tomorrow end up being as productive as yesterday. Based off what we've seen so far though I think it's fair to say it will be.

The vendors as well have been quite impressive. It amazes me to see how accounting technology is changing and how rapidly. It makes me very curious to see what the landscape will look like next year at the same time. Will we see more Cloud based applications and a move away from the desktop? Will we see more vendors with applications sold on the Intuit App Marketplace? What will be the software next year that blows people away?

Thank you to everyone who's stopped by already and if you haven't please feel free to drop by sometime while we're down here.

Accounting professionals as tech advisers

I've seen a couple good articles recently on the role of accounting professionals as technology advisers. I thought they made some very good points and wanted to highlight some things here. First off, it's very true that small businesses look to their bookkeeper or CPA for help with technology issues. If you're a certified Quickbooks Advisor you should be able to fix everything else right? By being able to fix those other issues you establish "stickiness" with your client. Your value as a trusted advisor simply goes up. So what do you need to be aware of to help provide the best technological advice to your client? I'm going to highlight a few big trends right now so that you can be an expert for your client.

1. Cloud Computing - Everyone's talking about moving to the Cloud even the Federal Government. Your Mom and Pop business however will have no idea what the Cloud is. So how do you explain it? In one sentence, your information lives on these servers over there and you can access them from everywhere. Simply put, it's not scary and it saves you money.
2. Security - This one goes hand in hand with Cloud Computing. The classic question, how do I know my e-mail, files, information et cetera is safe? You're going to confuse them when you say it's in a SAS 70 Type ii certified server. What's more dangerous to them are the links they click from phishing e-mails. Their data is safe on a SAS 70 particularly because it's not being moved from place to place on a CD or thumb drive. Make sure you warn them of the danger of phishing scams that come in the form of e-mails, text messages et cetera. If there's a link that you don't trust, don't click it.
3. Social Media - Get 'em signed up and get their brand out there. The least that it does it make you think of your business in a new dimension. The worst, you find it boring and don't want to do it anymore. Trying out Social Media won't hurt anyone.
4. Saas, PaaS and are two big acronyms floating around right now. What do they mean? SaaS - Software As A Service. It means software available for use online, that's it. It's used by the end user to access their software/data. PaaS - Platform As A Service - bundle up a bunch of SaaS apps on a platform and you've got you're PaaS. Expect some SaaS questions not so many PaaS questions.
5. Google - Know thy google information. Suggest it as a search engine. Seriously, some people still use what I'll call "unsophisticated" search engines. What's in a search engine? The algorithm.

I do realize that these are the very bare bone basics of what you need to know. Please feel free to comment below and help fill this post in a little more. I'm curious what clients are asking for of accounting professionals.

Midwest Accounting Show in Review

After spending a few days talking to CPA's from across the spectrum I think I've learned a few things. I couldn't believe the diversity of opinions on the internet while at the event. I was told by one person that he "didn't trust the internet". I am amazed that in 2009 there are still people who refuse to go online. Unfortunately, he will never read this blog post. I was even told by someone else that LinkedCPA is behind the times. The great majority of people though seemed to think of us as right in the middle. We're pushing the envelope with Cloud Computing literally as fast as we can. The great part is, everything feels like you're on your desktop. I realize that the new term du jour is SaaS. Everyone is blogging and twittering about it but how far off are we? We are at least a few years away...and considering there are people still using DOS applications (as I learned in Chicago) I don't think we'll have a a full transfer anytime soon. The future is exciting, netbooks are going off the shelves quickly and with SaaS it makes a lot of sense. But the accounting world is not one to be swayed by fancy tech gadgets. A calculator is a calculator and if it ain't broke, why fix it? It seems that a great divide exists between the older generation of accountants and the new. I'm curious to see how the next decade will go.