Write Once, Read Many

Write Once, Read Many
Integration Dominates Tech Show Presentations

Emerging technology is pointing to enterprise-wide integration that will allow firms to enter data in one program while automatically updating other, disparate software packages.

This idea was a theme of two seminars at the New York State Society of CPAs’ 2005 CPA, Business and Technology Show and Conference.

Data integration was the third-hottest item in a presentation on the AICPA’s Top Ten Technologies, and a prevalent topic in a seminar on “The Accounting Software Superhighway.”

“When accounting software first appeared it was limited, debit-and-credit and things like that,” said presenter Arthur Nathan during the latter presentation. “Today’s software is about operations and the things we do every day, getting information out the door, and functionality….The key is to enter the data once and to have it usable many times throughout the enterprise.”

These days accounting software is “talking to” tax and payroll software, and if the integration isn’t automatic, there are export functions or programs that specialize in collecting data from various software packages, according to Mark Plostock, speaking during the AICPA Top Ten presentation.

Plostock mentioned a few examples, including Quickbooks, which has a function to communicate with Lacerte to process tax information, while CCH includes a function that allows for automatic updating to accounting software. A program called Crystal Decisions, he said, creates a kind of single-point data entry gateway to other software packages that don’t communicate with each other automatically.

Hand in hand with integration seems to be the number two of the AICPA’s Top Ten list: electronic data management. The term seems to connote the ability to dramatically reduce paper, if not create an altogether paperless office.

According to the presenters, moving toward the paperless office requires planning and determining the right file server, the appropriate archive media (i.e., CD or DVD) and scanners, and the software to manage the migration of paper from real file cabinets to their digital equivalents.

The number-one technology for CPAs on the list was information security, the presenters said. Software like Adobe Acrobat helps protect e-mail attachments from being manipulated while en route through the Internet.

Other significant technology-related items for CPAs to consider include disaster recovery and business continuity plans to “get back on track quickly without losing much information,” as Peter Frank put it.

“Having a plan is crucial to protecting data,” Frank said. “Disasters happen—viruses, theft, terrorism, floods—…and plans must include an analysis of business processes.”

Storing documents offsite helps toward that end.

While data integration is transforming how CPAs work, wireless technologies, along with EDM, are changing how the office looks. It is common today to find cheap, low-power wireless connections, such as Infrared and Bluetooth, to connect hardware in an office. Wireless keyboards, mice and printers are becoming more prevalent.

Finally, presenters in the Top Ten seminar recommended that CPAs continue to learn and train, taking advantage of things like distance-learning CPE and Web-based seminars and keeping up with the ever-changing technological landscape.