Author: Navaal Mahdi

By Jonathan Rivlin, CPA

Greetings from the lockdown, my fellow practitioners!

Today we’re going to profile an app called AutoEntry. This app provides a unique value proposition to the marketplace and demonstrates how far the cloud has come in such a short while. Yes, it’s true that certain jobs are under threat by the robots, but it’s also true that new jobs are being created.

AutoEntry is a program that seeks to automate certain facets of the data entry process. Specifically, A/P and A/R documents (bills and invoices), expense reports, and also bank statements. In our usage of the app, we focused on the bank statement process.

Before getting into the details, we’ll first give a little context. The situation should be familiar, sadly, to all of us. It was the midst of tax season, the work was piling up, and it was still early enough in the season when, even with years of experience, we still had the naive optimism that this season would be better. Despite the growing backlog, there was still a semblance of order and organization. Ahh, the before times…

And then, the call came. Followed by a series of emails, after hours txt msgs (that’s text messages for the digital illiterati), and more calls. A client was in need of a tax return for a refi and there was an urgent need to get the return done. Missed tax appointments, blown off reschedules, and unreturned phone calls not withstanding, queue needed jumping.

In the haze of overtime, the calculus of making the phone calls stop so we could get back to the work — that is to say the short term win, won out. (This type of thinking is a topic for another column!)

The fact that the client was on Xero helped, but there was still the matter of 12 months of back data to enter. Now, Xero comes with an ability to upload a *.CSV file, and this feature can shrink the data entry time down considerably. Working with *.CSV files is really a topic for its own column – for purposes of this article, just know that some steps needed to happen before we could use the *.CSV file feature. Namely, we had to get the data out of 12 months of PDFd bank statements.

Depending on your version of Adobe, you could potentially copy and paste the text from the PDF into an Excel worksheet, but most likely, you’d spend hours trying to format that data. Unless you’re one of the few that know some of the formulas and formatting tricks to clean up the data. That too is a subject for its own article.

In this case, there just wasn’t time.

Enter AutoEntry. We created our account, sent them the PDFs of the statements and within a few hours we received a properly formatted *.CSV file. At that point, we did a data sort by name, coded the transactions per the G/L account number from the Chart of Accounts and then uploaded the file. Xero’s workflow allowed us to mark these transactions as fully reconciled with the upload. It was a tax season miracle!

Now for some detail: AutoEntry doesn’t price by a monthly subscription like the other apps we’ve profiled. They go strictly by usage. For those old enough to remember those classic arcades where you’d trade in a Lincoln or Washington for some tokens that could be used on the games, you will be familiar with the concept. You purchase some ‘tokens’ through the site; the more you purchase at once, the lower the per token cost is. Each page works out to about $0.33, which goes down depending on how many tokens one purchases at once. In our case, we were just trying it out so we bought about $20 worth. This particular project cost about $6. The time it saved was well worth it.

Comparing this with the other methods like QuickBooks Desktop, One Write Systems, Excel, and there is really no comparison. The algorithm took the data from the statement, rendered in a usable format, we then added the accounting codes and uploaded it to Xero. Done.

With all that said, I’m not ready to switch our entire firm over to the software, but it is a relief to know that such a tool exists when the need arises. Reason for this position is that when a bank feed is available, that is the first choice to use, but when feeds aren’t available, or the volume of data exceeds a feed’s capacity, this app should be next on the list of go to solutions.

We’ve got another project coming up where a different client opened up three new credit cards and forgot to tell us. While we were able to setup feeds for them in their Xero file, the feed could only pull a 90 day history. We’ll be using the rest of those tokens to back fill in the data from when they opened the cards to when the feeds started.

Hope this helps. Stay safe!

We’d like to hear from you: Please submit your tech tips to us! We will award a free subscription to The Tax Book to the person who submits the best tip. Please submit your tips to this email address: techtips@msatp.org

Thanks, and catch you next time!

TT

By Jonathan Rivlin, CPA

We need to talk.

Those four little words are laden with baggage, I know. In the crush of the most insane tax season since 1913, when every thing happened at once, when nothing makes sense, when the rules change daily, when our clients are freaking out and grasping at whatever shred of hope we can provide them, we need to have one more uncomfortable conversation.

Last year, as part of the IRS’ continued attempts to reduce taxpayer identity theft, we were required, as part of our PTIN renewal to state that we had a plan for what to do in case of a breach.

The good folks at Quest Insurance have some materials that can help you develop your tech plan if your plan resides between the ears, when it really should reside in a filing cabinet, or your firm’s secure portal.

This post of Tech Tips is not about your tech plan. It’s about your COVID-19 plan.

No one has been talking about this, and we need to. We’re numbers people, so I’ll lay this out by the numbers.

It has been widely reported in reputable news sources that it’s not a given that we will have a vaccine for this virus. It’s possible that a vaccine will never be possible. If there is a vaccine for this virus, it is a long shot for it to be available within eighteen months. Further, it has been reported (again, widely and from reputable sources) that we as a species won’t truly get a handle on this virus until ‘herd immunity’ approaches 70%.

So, some numbers: 70% of 7 billion humans is: 4.9 billion people.

Back in the beginning of our lockdown (Mid-March for those who’ve completely lost any sense of time; said for my own benefit as much as yours, gentle reader), there was an article detailing the experiences of people in Italy as they coped with rising infections and deaths and an austere lockdown. This was about the time that the news here was reporting how Italians would sing to each other from their balconies each night.

This article went on to state that we in the US are trailing Italy’s experiences by a few weeks. The writer of this article, a US journalist based in Italy, noted that a few weeks prior to writing that article, she could say that most people knew of someone who had contracted the virus, and that on the date she was writing the article, most people would say that they knew someone who had died from the virus.

We need to examine where we are in this journey. Do you know someone who has contracted the virus? Do you know someone who has died from the virus? (I hope you don’t and you never do.)

My answer is yes to the first question and, mercifully, no to the second, as of now.

Many of us – though not all of us – have been able to lock our offices and work remotely. Many of us are taking precautions and sanitizing our groceries and wearing masks in public. This is all good, and we need to keep it up, even as these steps take their toll on our emotional reserves.

Let’s return to that 70% figure. If that is true; if what the scientists are saying is to come to fruition, then we need to ask ourselves this question: “What is our plan for if one of us or one of our family members contracts this virus?”

Do you have a plan for what will happen to your clients if you are unable to work?

MSATP has a committee, The Assistance Committee, whose sole purpose is to assist those firms that suffer a loss of one of its principals.

Understand that I’m not trying to be overly morbid, and one doesn’t need to die of this virus to suffer a severe business interruption event from it. But we need to address this issue. A few suggestions are in order:

1. Designate someone that can contact your clients in the event that you become incapacitated.
2. Designate someone that can access your office, your computer and paper files, in the event that you become incapacitated.
3. Keep your keys and passwords accessible to this trusted person so they can take over with minimal interruption.
4. Leave ‘a trail of breadcrumbs’ for your fellow accountants to follow should the need arise for someone else to pick up where you would have left off.
5. Notify your clients that you have a plan in place.
6. Reach out to MSATP for support and resources.
7. On the home front, designate an area of your home where you or your loved one can sleep, separate from the rest of the family.
8. Discuss these issues with your family members.
9. If you have a will or other documents, revisit them and make sure your family knows where they are kept.

We are accountants. We don’t have the luxury of ignoring the unpleasant matters that occur in society. If we see something, we have to say something.

70% herd immunity. Have a plan to deal with that number. And in the meantime, wash your hands.

By Jonathan Rivlin, CPA

As a part of the #WFH (Work From Home) movement, security — which has always been important — must take an even higher priority. And also helping our clients stay in business, keep up with all the new federal and state rules and programs, counseling a business owner through the notion that they are not “essential”…

We have a lot of compelling issues demanding our attention, and also, some of us are now teachers for our primary school-aged children.

Here’s something that will make your blood run cold: “2FA Scams.”

Many sites require “2FA” or Two Factor Authentication. The IRS requires it also.

What this usually means is that when you login to a website, that site will want to send you a 4, 5, or 6 digit PIN code via SMS to your cellphone. Some sites work with an authenticator app (Google and Microsoft each have their own app) that provides a 6 digit token that changes every 60 seconds.

That’s all well and good, assuming your cellphone hasn’t been stolen. And when I say stolen, I don’t mean as in physically.

It’s possible for your phone’s number to be ported to another device without your knowledge or consent. This is often called Sim Card Swapping.

In those cases, the thief would then receive all the 2FA notifications. And then, you’re toast; the thief then can change all your access codes, addresses, bank numbers, etc, and you’ll have profound difficulty proving this to a customer support rep over the phone.

The best way to protect yourself from this is to set either a PIN or challenge question with your cellphone provider. And here we get variations in security. Some cellphone problems don’t have this ability and their users are exposed. Others do offer this ability and provide some level of protection.

Here is a call to action: Call your cellphone provider and ask if they have the ability for the account manager to set a security PIN or password. If they do, great – set this up. If not, change companies to one that does. Here is an overview of the four major carriers:

• Verizon – provides an ‘administrative lock’ and ‘port freeze’ feature, but you have to call in to set it up.
• Sprint – requires PINs by default
• AT&T – allows, but does not require a password
• T-Mobile – prompts users to setup PINs

If you have AT&T, you need to act on this as this company appears to have the weakest security protocol.

Not only are our cellphones a vector for viruses (don’t just wash your hands, wash your phones!), but they are also a vector for identity theft. Out of all the things on your to-do list, this should be considered both urgent and important — as in, drop what you’re doing and attend to this.

By Jonathan Rivlin, CPA

Greetings from the zombypocalypse, my fellow practitioners!

In this latest installment of TechTips, we’re going to cover an app called PracticeProtect. The reason for this is that with the rise of distributive working, aka working from home (WFH), an acronym that I didn’t know existed until a couple weeks ago, there’s a need to secure our systems.

It was hard enough to keep an office based system secure, how does a business owner secure multiple workstations in multiple locations?

Enter PracticeProtect.

This company is based in Australia and serves accounting firms worldwide.

The software acts as a collecting point for all firm staff to access the various apps used by the business. Each user’s identity and IP address are verified and stored within PracticeProtect during the setup phase. If someone has stolen or compromised a remote staff member’s computer, PracticeProtect will detect this before the would be hacker even gets to the screen where they enter a password. And if for some reason, they get that far, they’ll still need to have a 2FA code – if the remote staff member doesn’t have a static IP address.

PracticeProtect also allows the administrator to set geofencing and timefencing rules. No, this isn’t about processing stolen goods or a genteel sport. These terms refer to limiting the time and place from where logins can proceed.

Geofencing means that one can lock out every country other than the US, and if using remote employees, the country where that remote employee works from. Timefencing means you can set the hours from which logins are allowed.

The admin portal shows a global map of where (and when) all logins are made, noting date and time stamps.

They also provide a layer of security around Office365 and Outlook.

There is a limitation regarding banks. PracticeProtect can capture and store such bank login info, but because banks have their own security protocols, it’s not possible for anyone piece of software to provide auto-login support for all banks. We’ll discuss this further in a moment.

Aside from the enhanced security, there is an efficiency to be gained from using this application, even when compared to password managers. Once configured, your staff will login to PracticeProtect and then when they need to access the various apps used by the business, it’s a simple matter of a mouse click.

Also, if you need to terminate a staff member, you simply disable their access to PracticeProtect and they are then locked out of being able to access the other apps (Xero, Gusto, etc).

OK — on banks: The banking system in this country is, charitably, antiquated. I’ve had an opportunity to network with our professional counterparts from Australia and frankly, we are behind the times. The robustness of bank feeds, the virtual elimination of paper checks, and enhanced security on their transactions is something we should demand here. In our country, we face a patchwork of security protocols and ever changing standards.

Because our banking system is all over the place, some of the better features of PracticeProtect aren’t applicable. With that said, once a login credential is stored in PracticeProtect, it’s safer and more efficient to login to a bank from within PracticeProtect.

You might be saying to yourself, “Why do I need this when I already have a password manager?”

PracticeProtect is more robust than a password manager. It provides a date and timestamp of every login, every action, by user, on the system. If you need to login to a client bank account, and that account gets hacked, PracticeProtect can give you the wherewithal to prove that it wasn’t your fault.

Additionally, the customer and tech support provided by the company are top notch. They are responsive and personable.

The more people are going to WFH, the more a solution like PracticeProtect is needed.

Statistically speaking, a good number of us are going to either experience a hacking directly, or have to help a client through a hacking. Protect your firm and your clients with this app. Learn more here.