The completion of a client’s taxes incorporates many elements that must be orchestrated with precision. Much of this relies on a CPA’s ability to anticipate problems and variable elements. However, the use of software is a valuable asset that can be used to bring order to the potential chaos of statements, forms and procedures. Write-up software is one of those tools, combing bank and client info to produce accurate financial statements. There are many options available to suit any CPA’s style or skill set. Some of the industry’s leading vendors describe their write-up products and how they could help a CPA during tax season.
“Payroll Relief’s Bank Feeds feature downloads transaction information from thousands of bank and credit card providers to automatically record all journal entries and update the trial balance, which reflects on the financial statements,” said Chandra Bhansali, cofounder and CEO of AccountantsWorld. “This helps keep the financial statements current and accurate with minimal effort.”
“They integrate using our bank reconciliation program and we have another report called the bank report, there are two different reports,” said Terry Gruters, president of PC Software Accounting. “They [CPAs] know for sure they are totally lined up with the bank.”
CheckMark claims to help keep a CPA organized providing easy-to-read displays helping in the comparison to bank records. Such ability could provide relief for the eyes after running through thousands of lines of expenses.
“The program allows CPAs to maintain accounting records for their clients, including sales, purchases, outstanding payables and receivables as well as inventory levels, and keep track of the constantly evolving financial picture of their company,” said Mohammed Ghani, president of CheckMark. “When it comes time to reconcile the books with the bank statement(s), the CPA can view all relevant transactions in a comprehensive and easy-to-read format and confirm that their records are in line with what their bank reports. A client can also use the Bank Reconciliation feature to reconcile other accounts.”
Assuming a CPA’s client portfolio is diversified, a versatile write-up solution would be most helpful. A write-up solution should be serviceable to every industry for which a CPA serves.
“It is important to have the flexibility to present clients with real-time, upto- date financials so that business clients are in a position to make more informed decisions,” said Louie Calvin, product manager - accounting and payroll at Thomson Reuters. “Write-up services are no longer valued after the fact, since clients expect to have access to financial indicators mid-period, or mid-month, in order to adjust strategy as needed. Firms that are positioned to offer clients realtime dashboards, KPIs and alerts can reasonably increase fees for their services and win additional customer satisfaction.”
Those who might be staying with a particular vendor’s write-up solution would be well served to talk to a representative about recent updates. There is no sense in letting last year’s complication reoccur when a patch or update is available to improve your write-up process. Intuit claims to have recently updated their reports feature.
“QuickBooks Online Accountant recently updated its management reports feature,” said Ariege Misherghi, group product manager at Intuit. “This lets accountants easily customize a professional- looking package of reports, complete with cover page, table of contents, preliminary pages, reports, end notes, and other custom content, for clients.”
A CPA works with many technologies when compiling financial statements. It would only seem logical to make sure all software can “talk” to each other. UBCC claims to be able to import information from various locations and platforms.
“UBCC’s write-up allows for direct import of check detail from the bank website and/ or from client supplied electronic sources such as credit cards, Quick- Books data files or Excel spreadsheets,” said Ken Garen, president and co-founder of UBCC. “Cleared check information can be imported from the bank data for automated bank reconciliation. Depending on the client’s needs, direct input of client supplied information can be mixed and matched with electronic imports and predefined client specific financial statement templates to achieve the greatest productivity.”
Of course no process of evaluating write-up software beats trying the products out. A CPA would be prudent to think about testing products months ahead of busy season to make sure they have a strong write-up package to serve clients year round.
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