| Website
of the Month: WebCPA
By
Susan B. Anders
OCTOBER 2006 - WebCPA’s
banner proclaims that it offers “tools and resources
for the electronic accountant.” That is a good general
description, but the website (www.webcpa.com)
offers such a wealth of resources that the banner may be a
bit understated. If “electronic accountant” sounds
familiar, that is because WebCPA was originally www.electronicaccountant.com,
which The CPA Journal reviewed in November 2000.
Taxes
and financial planning appear to be the bulk of WebCPA materials.
Subscribers to any of the related SourceMedia publications
will find many additional tools on the website that increase
the value of their print publications.
Except
for subscriptions to the print publications, the materials
provided on WebCPA are free, covered by advertisements and
sponsored links. Although the ads are prevalent, they are
generally not mixed in with other content. The keyword search
function is an excellent resource for CPAs looking for items
they vaguely remember and for students looking for articles
on current events.
WebCPA’s
homepage and main pages are organized with two horizontal
menu bars. The top bar on the homepage, and some main pages,
provides links to “Home,” “News,”
“Inside Views,” “Financial Planning,”
“CareerZone,” “Marketplace,” and
“Subscribe.” The second menu bar connects with
“Online Expo Center,” “eBook Supplements,”
“Web Seminars,” and “eNewsletters.”
The center of the homepage is dedicated to the current “eBook
Supplement,” “News,” “Inside Views,”
and “Features.” The subsidiary pages also display
the two top menu bars, but are not consistent in the links
provided or in the names given to the links.
The
left side of the homepage promotes some of the website’s
main resources. “WebCPA Exclusives” offers the
Financial Planning Channel and Online Expo Center. “Publications”
presents links to the current issues and archives of Accounting
Today, Accounting Technology, Practical Accountant,
and CPA Wealth Provider. In eNewsletters, users
can subscribe to e-mails for different WebCPA alerts, digests,
and publication updates.
Publications
The
current issues for WebCPA’s related publications,
as well as archives going back to February 2002, can be
reached in several ways. In addition to the left-side menu
bar, Accounting Technology can be accessed under
“Features” in the center of the homepage. The
Financial Planning Channel also connects to Practical
Accountant. CPA Wealth Provider and Accounting
Today are most easily accessed via the left-side menu.
The website offers several excellent features pertaining
to its publications. Upon accessing a specific article,
four functions appear—return to issue, e-mail this
article, printer-friendly, and related articles—that
provide the user with richer reading options. The return-to-issue
and the related articles functions can provide context for
an article, as well as an extensive list of other article
resources. Another good feature is the ability to personalize
an issue by checking off the particular articles the user
desires. Overall, www.webcpa.com makes it extraordinarily
easy to search for, locate, and access articles in the related
SourceMedia publications.
Other
Features
The
eBook Supplements and Web Seminars provide interesting information
on practice-related issues. Both are free, but Web Seminars
require advance registration. CareerZone connects to a CareerBank
feature inside the WebCPA site. Some hidden gems are found
under Marketplace. The Marketplace main page includes a
handy collection of hyperlinks, including IRS E-file, state
CPA societies, state boards of accountancy, state tax agencies,
and others.
The
page’s “Quick Links” presents several
choices, including continuing professional education/CPA
exam review, and tax resources. “Web Star of the Week”
provides brief descriptions and links to approximately 100
websites.
Susan
B. Anders, PhD, CPA, is an associate professor of
accounting at St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure,
N.Y.
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