A survey of Accounting Software Buyers, by Deloitte & Touche, has gotten a lot of traction; both on its own and via other publications and bloggers; two sources are referenced below.

Bookkeepers and accountants are not interchangeable. There are tasks that clearly belong to your bookkeeper and others that belong to your CPA. In many people’s mind, the demarcation line is blurry and this is because, historically, both professions have had incentives to blur that line in order to grab billable hours away from each other. The reality is a lot simpler and cleaner. The accounting profession (aka CPAs) is highly regulated. Read more »

Intuit, the maker of QuickBooks, recently entered the 401k market and is getting some good traction. Why is it worth noting? After all, there are hundreds of 401k providers out there and most are investment institutions with much better financial pedigrees than Intuit’s. However, Intuit is taking an innovative approach that might fill a void for small businesses. 401k plans are widely considered to be a powerful tool for retirement savings and for employee retention. Unfortunately, they are usually complex and expensive to administer. Read more »

The bookkeeping profession is as unregulated as it gets. There are no official certifications like they have for CPAs, financial planners and many other white collar service professions. It’s a good thing as I’ll explain below, but it leaves many small business owners wondering how to identify the good from the bad among bookkeepers. Read more »