accounting in today’s world of technology

Accounting in Today’s World of Technology

Technology Driven Paperless Cloud-based Accounting Systems. Get tips, techniques, and the best practices for dealing with and moving to paperless work environments.

Have you, your firm, and your clients considered the following questions?

• How often are handheld devices, laptops and personal home

computers utilized by your employees in the performance of

their job?

• How many of those devices are owned by your firm?

The Environment of Accounting Today: Trends, Tools, Issues and Opportunities

Have you, your firm, and your clients considered the following questions?

– What safeguards are in place to insure data is controlled by your

firm, properly utilized by employees, and not intercepted by

hackers?

– Should you use a web/cloud based hardware and software

service organization to replace your file server and financial, tax,

and other software programs?

iPhones, Androids, Droids, and Smart Phones

iCloud, Microsoft SkyDrive, Dropbox, AT&T cloud,

Amazon Web Services, and Rackspace

Apple, Microsoft, Rackspace, Intuit, Thompson Reuters,

CCH, and the banking industry

The Environment of Accounting Today: Tools

Do you, your firm, your employees and your

clients have a presence in the web and social

media?

The Environment of Accounting Today: Tools, Issues and Opportunities

This movement to the web and social media as well as the

use of service organizations, cloud/web-based hardware

and software systems, is similar to the change from file

servers to desktop computers in the 80’s and 90’s.

The Environment of Accounting Today: Issues

The lack of planning created a nightmare for each desktop

that negatively affected

workplace effectiveness and efficiency

physical security and protection of data

data backup

secure disposal of data and equipment.

The Environment of Accounting Today: Issues

Do your firm and clients have a written plan that

addresses the gathering, summarizing, storing,

reporting, and destroying of this electronic

information?Have your clients even thought about a plan?

The Environment of Accounting Today: Issues and Opportunities

Learning Objectives:

• Learn best practices to move to and deal with paperless work environments including:

– Workflow in the office

– Communications with customers, vendors, and other business associates

Tips, Techniques, and Best Practices for Moving to Paperless Work Environments

Resources:

• Copanion: Is Your Firm Ready to Go Paperless?:

aaup.info/PaperlessAssessment

• GruntWorx: aaup.info/GruntWorx

• ShareFile: aaup.info/Sharefile

Tips, Techniques, and Best Practices for Moving to Paperless Work Environments

You and your client are in limbo at this point with both

paper and electronic files that cover correspondence

with clients, tax returns, financial statements, work

papers, Excel and Word files

Going Paperless: An Overview for Planning, Implementation and Integration into internal Controls

The basics:

• Going paperless is not just getting statements online

and receiving documents via a scanner and e-mail

• Evaluating and documenting your current workflow

will be required to analyze YOUR best plan to move to

paperless

• What is your firm’s plan to go paperless?

Going Paperless

The basics:

• What technology fits you and your clients’ needs as

well as the budget for hardware, software, and training

• How will you evaluate, monitor, and report your

movement to paperless

• What data protection policies and procedures are

needed to implement your paperless process

Going Paperless

A Paperless Office–The person in charge of the project will have to evaluate

and understand the current workflow process, possess

technical expertise, and be a high level manager or

partner in the firm.  

–There is no right implementation plan that fits every firm

or client and not every client can move to paperless.

Going Paperless:

A Paperless Office

– Follow the rule of least damage.

If this new process completely crashes, what is the cost?

– Quantify and communicate the costs and savings in time and dollars throughout the process.

Going Paperless:

Support for a Paperless Office• What has happened in the past when you brought in new

technology

• How effective was your training program

– Do not assume that everyone will or can learn it when

under pressure to meet budgets and deadlines.

Going Paperless:

Establish Best Practices Now

–File and folder naming policies

–Utilize an appropriate high speed scanner

–Adopt the same PDF editing program for everyone

–Create PDF files of client documents on the front-

end

Utilize Data Management software programs

Going Paperless:

Does your firm own a scanner that can

–handle 30 – 40 pages a minute

–duplex copying

–the demands of tax season

Do you have enough scanners?

Paperless Essentials!

Does everyone in your firm have at least two

monitors?

• You can’t review and process electronic data information

efficiently if you have to toggle between documents or print on

paper to complete your work.

Paperless Essentials!

Establish Best Practices• Store and archive files using a cloud based provider

• Establish file security and access policies

• Learn federal, state, and other agency document retention

and access laws

• Use secure web-portals for data transfer and avoid E-mail

and USB devices

Going Paperless

Study Question

How do you currently transfer and receive client data?• Mail (Snail-mail)

• E-mail

• File sharing portals

• Shared Cloud drives

• All of the above

How do you currently transfer and receive client data?• Mail (Snail-mail)

• E-mail

• File sharing portals

• Shared Cloud drives

• All of the above

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the current environment in accounting

associated with:

– Small Mobile computing devices

– Websites, e-mail, and social media

– Cloud/web-based computing and storage systems

– Downloading transactions

– Data protection and security

Moving From Paperless Work Environments to Accounting Systems in The Cloud: Trends, Tools, Issues and Opportunities

Resources:• CAN-SPAM Act from FTC website: aaup.info/can-spam

• KeePass aaup.info/keepass

• PCI DSS, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard:

aaup.info/pcidssfaq

• ShareFile: aaup.info/Sharefile

Moving From Paperless Work Environments to Accounting Systems in The Cloud:

• The BYOD movement creates opportunities for employees to

maintain privacy at the workplace for personal communications

• BYOD provides many downsides

– reduction of worker productivity

– exposure of employer sensitive data to unacceptable risks.

iPhones, Android/Droid Phones, Tablets, Laptops: BYODBring Your Own Device Movements

• BYOD provides many benefits

– reduction of the total cost of ownership of technology

– increased productivity with flexible work schedules

– flexible work locations

– improvement of employee satisfaction.

Where do small mobile devices fit in your plans?

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device Movements

What can “smart phones” and small mobile devices

accomplish today? – Access the web and can perform operations similar to those

of a desktop or laptop computer with internet access.

– Initiate, review, create, and finalize personal and business

affairs from anywhere at any time.

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device Movements

• Primary motivation: attract new clients and retain

existing clients.  

–Make it easy to utilize with smart phones and small

mobile computing devices.

Websites, e-mail, social media, and secure portals

• Unique opportunities for engaging with current and prospective

clients.

• The next generation of CPAs who are embracing this medium will

reap the benefits.

• Acquiring new customers can cost 5 to 10 times more than

retaining existing customers.

Client Engagement through Websites and Social media

It is important that every entity create a written Social Media

and Data Protection Policy addressing acceptable and

unacceptable usage of social media as well as procedures for the

format of content posted by employees.

Client Engagement through Websites and Social media

Essential policies:

• Identify the department and person in charge of social media.

• Insure the policy does not infringe on the legal rights of employees

or management.

– address unacceptable topics, libelous or defamatory statements,

and establish protocol for reviewing questionable postings.

Client Engagement through Websites and Social media

• Establish clear policies on what is confidential information

that cannot be discussed in social media platforms.

• Be aware of state, local, and federal regulations such as

HIPAA when creating your policies

Client Engagement through Websites and Social media

• A website can provide new tools and technology to help us

move from repetitive and mundane tasks to higher-level

tasks and services for clients.  

• It is vital that we consider the possibility of a security breach

of confidential information as well as compliance issues with

laws and regulations such as HIPAA, Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability Act.

Productivity tools, data portals & Websites

You, your firm, and your clients will be required to learn how to securely handle confidential information

You can deploy the most secure solution to any problem but it will be

ineffective if it is difficult to use and tedious to send or receive files.

• Establish a file sharing portal such as ShareFile for secure exchange of data and reports between your firm and your clients 24/7/365.

Productivity tools, data portals & Websites

• The majority of tax and accounting software systems include add-

on file sharing portals that automatically import client data into your

software system.

• Portals increase efficiency by allowing clients to

– upload and download data 24/7/365,

– reduction of manual data entry

– increased accuracy

– shifts our focus from data entry to data review and analysis.

Productivity tools, data portals & Websites

When engaging in e-commerce it is important to understand

your responsibilities for laws, regulations, and professional

standards.

• Sales tax laws are changing state by state to encompass

internet sales.

• HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,

contains requirements for handling health related information

E-Commerce & Websites

• Acceptance of credit card payments are subject to the PCI DSS,

• Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards for storing,

processing, and transmitting credit card payments.

• Use a Service organization such as PayPal for credit card

payment processing to transfer responsibility for security, data

protection, and compliance issues to the service provider.

E-Commerce & Websites

Study Question

The BYOD movement has created new data protection and privacy issues for:• Wireless access

• Data storage & destruction

• Credit card payments

• Access to mobile devices

• All of the above

The BYOD movement has created new data protection and privacy issues for:• Wireless access

• Data storage & destruction

• Credit card payments

• Access to mobile devices

• All of the above

The Banking Industry Model for Websites, Small Mobile Computing Devices, and Social Media

Learning Objectives, You will…

– Learn how the banking industry uses websites, small mobile computing

devices, and social media

– Learn best practices for data protection and data privacy for small mobile

computing devices

– Learn about downloading bank transactions directly into QuickBooks

– Learn how smart phones are being used to accept credit cards

The Banking Industry Model for Websites, Small Mobile Computing Devices, and Social Media

Resources– BB&T: aaup.info/BB&T

– GoPayment by Intuit: aaup.info/GoPayment

– Intuit: aaup.info/Intuit

– Square: aaup.info/Square

The Banking Industry Model: Marketing & Providing Services

Use your website to market & provide 24/7 access for:–services–automated signup for services–customer service–delivery of corporate policies, procedures and financial information.

The Banking Industry Model: Providing Services

Simple phones, androids, iPhones, and Blackberry phones now have the ability to:

– Check account balances– Deposits – Securely transfer money between accounts and other linked financial

institutions– Bill Payment – Contacting customer service via phone– Q & A forums, and “Live Chat”

The Banking Industry Model: Creating Transactions & Automatic Downloads

The banking industry is eliminating the need for manual data

input and generating financial reports automatically • Technology is great for replacing repetitive manual tasks but is extremely

ineffective for any transaction involving an inconsistent or incomplete processing

decision model.

• Automated systems for data gathering, generation, processing, and reporting

require human interaction and review for accuracy.

Is Banking Online Secure?

Data encryption with 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology is started the instant you access BB&T Online for a secure login to ensure that only BB&T has access to your account information.

–Encryption is the scrambling of information during the transmission back and forth between two points and requires a key to decode the information throughout the process.

All computing devices require users to establish essential controls. Small mobile computing devices are easily

– Misplaced– Lost– Stolen– Generally left unattended by users.

Moving from Web-based Systems to Smart Phone and Small Mobile Computing Devices

• Entity-owned devices used to access financial accounts require standardization of internal controls and protection of data–This can be difficult because of:

• Ease of establishing access on any device • Flexible work schedules• Working Remotely• The BYOD movement

Policies and training for Smart Phone and Small Mobile Computing Devices

Access for non-entity owned devices require:

•Types of allowable devices

•Standards for establishing access

•Standards for encryption and anti-malware for

devices

•Systematic review of security and controls

Policies and training for Smart Phone and Small Mobile Computing Devices

• Require all devices to have:

–Secure passwords for use, including

–Authentication of users

–Systematic changes of passwords

–Password control and access by appropriate

employee or owners at entity

Policies and training

–Data encryption

–Procedures for devices that are lost, stolen,

and misplaced including

–GPS location and tracking systems

–Remote data destruction

Policies and training

• Clearly state employer’s expectations for use of:

–Mobile computing

–Communication tools

–Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn, websites and blogs

• Provide Live and on-demand training programs

Policies and training

• Reporting systems for notification of issues and

problems, including anonymous reporting

• Performance reviews including evaluation of

employee compliance with cyber-threat policies

Policies and training

• Oversight including:–Monitoring of e-mail accounts and communication systems

–Review of security issues involving :

•privacy•backup• retrieval•permanent deletion

Policies and training

Review & Training regarding:

*Legal requirements relating to e-discovery

* Review of historical and pending transactions

* Planned and surprise device security checks

and reviews

Policies and training

The Basics – Are Your Passwords Secure?

Password practices are one of the largest

security risks.

Moving from Web-based Systems to Smart Phone and Small Mobile Computing Devices

We can now attach devices to our smart phones

to remotely conduct business.

Accepting Credit Cards on Websites and Small Mobile Computing Devices

E-commerce is as simple as creating an account

with a service provider such as Square or

GoPayment and linking the card reader to your

bank account.

Square and GoPayment Mobile Credit Card Payment Systems

Study Question

A firm must be in compliance with _____when accepting credit cards via their website or small mobile computing device.• Can-Spam Act

• Sneakernet

• PCI DSS, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards

• 128-bit SSL encryption

A firm must be in compliance with _____when accepting credit cards via their website or small mobile computing device.• Can-Spam Act

• Sneakernet

• PCI DSS, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards

• 128-bit SSL encryption

H. Kyle Anderson, CPA, CGMA, CMAhkacpa@yahoo.comCell: 864-933-3815