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• November 2008 Issue
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From the Nov. 2008 Issue

Since technology is a strategic asset, I want to encourage you to leverage it to help your clients. If you do this, client satisfaction and billings will both increase. My intent in this article is to recommend tools you can use in your practice over and over as well as solutions that you can recommend to your clients that will provide better controls in their business. I’ll cover each one individually, but you’ll want to reflect on how well you know what each tool does and what they can do for your business or your clients. Tools to consider include the following: The Business Analyst, ProfitCents, iLumen, Profit Solver, SmartVault, Bill.com, BizNet, MISys, Fishbowl Inventory, BillQuick, Wasp, Avalara, SpeedTax, and tax and accounting firm programs like ProAdvisor, SSAN, MPAN and BusinessOneCPA.

The Business Analyst — www.thebusinessanalyst.com
The TASCON Business Analyst is a server-based application designed for higher profit and better cash flow. The Business Analyst is a SaaS (software as a service) business solution that links the features of profit enhancement, cash flow management, financial analysis, business valuation and deal structuring that was designed for business owners/buyers and trusted advisors. Some of its strengths in-clude linking financial analysis, budgeting, job cost/pricing and cash flow management with business valuation. It transforms these factors into strategies that are used to increase profits and control the cash flow, growth and exit strategies of any business.

This unique financial management product gives companies tools to calculate future revenues, forecast profits and track performance. Managers can accurately determine burden rates and properly price any product or service. They also can calculate the precise value of any business. Trusted advisors, like accountants, attorneys and consultants, can use The Business Analyst to advise their clients on improving cash flow, cost control and a better bottom line. Using this product can provide high value add to clients and high profitability engagements.

ProfitCents — www.profitcents.com
ProfitCents is a web-based application that enables business and financial professionals to provide written explanations of financial statements. The reports use ratio analysis, industry comparisons and trend analysis to depict the financial health of any business in plain language. ProfitCents can also provide analytical procedures for auditors. Professional accountants and financial consultants can use ProfitCents to generate benchmarking results that compare the business against up-to-date Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of other organizations in the same industry. This includes financial analysis of for-profit business clients, including plain-language reports, audit and review reports and projection/forecast reports.

The application is designed to be very easy to use. By entering summary balance sheet and income statement information, a clearly written three- to eight-page financial summary can be produced that incorporates dynamically generated text, graphs and ratio analysis. Based on basic financial information, ProfitCents provides clear and insightful analysis in five areas of operational performance: sales growth, profitability, and the utilization of employees, assets and leverage. The report can be printed online or downloaded to Word for editing. The expert system uses artificial intelligence to generate text specific to the financial data entered and compares it to industry averages from a database of over 400 industries in several size ranges.

iLumen — www.ilumen.com
The iLumen Portfolio Connection collects data from the client’s trial balance and the firm’s practice management systems, standardizes it and makes it available at the desktop of the firm’s partners. This information is used to analyze the portfolio of clients of the firm, determine the best clients for service opportunities and generate customized presentations for the client. Portfolio Connection allows the firm to sort and data mine the client portfolio to identify new project opportunities, such as consulting and tax planning projects. Portfolio Connection provides visibility into the entire client base, including views of the aggregate client portfolio performance by industry expertise and performance by geography, office and partner. Firms using Customer Connection find that their audit and other business clients submit financial information on an interim basis, allowing for a more dynamic look at these clients’ business trends and profiles in addition to increased engagements.