Firms Go Paperless, but are Slow to Automate Tax Docs

You may have participated in the recent CPA Technology Advisor survey
– we received well over 1,000 responses to our readership survey. Based
on your feedback, we are adjusting our content and many of our focuses to meet
your needs.

Baby steps are better than no steps at all – and sometimes, we take great
BIG steps when it comes to technology. It turns out that the vast majority of
respondents – some 65 percent – indicated their firms and companies
are either “Completely paperless and happy with their chosen solution,”
or “Somewhat paperless and working with their existing solution.”

Sounds great, but bringing best-of-breed technologies to the accounting firm
isn’t complete without also paying attention to automating all functions.
Case in point: approximately 54 percent of respondents said they have either
“done nothing” or “investigated, but have not implemented”
tax document automation in terms of scanning and organizing, or scanning and
populating their returns.

What do we need – more education and awareness on the capabilities of
tax document automation? More visibility from vendors to help firms sort out
the various options?

Whatever the answer is, I strongly encourage firms to do whatever they can
to add these technologies to their paperless office. You’ll spend less
time, less money and create huge efficiencies.

These are just two areas I thought were particularly interesting from the survey.
As I report more of the results, please comment on how these statistics compare
with your own experiences.

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