Tax Season App Roundup: What Worked This Season?

With more than 500 apps in the QuickBooks® App Store and thousands of others for PCs, Macs, and iPhone and Android devices, tax and accounting professionals have numerous ways to enhance their services to their clients. We asked several of our authors who contribute to the Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Pro Center for their feedback and recommendations regarding apps. Here is what they had to say.

Stacy Kildal, Kildal Services

Apps: Fin and Wordable

While I have an admin who is an integral part of the Kildal Services team, she doesn’t manage personal tasks – and I wouldn’t ask that of her! However, automating routine tasks during busy season is key to making us more productive. I recently found the Fin app, and it does all the little things I sometimes forget to do: schedule, cancel and reschedule hair appointments; find a good restaurant; send flowers; and make doctor appointments. Fin saves me tons of time, but more importantly, I’m not stressing about forgetting to schedule yet another teeth cleaning appointment for my kids!

Another app is Wordable. I generally use Google Docs to write my blog posts. I can start them on my laptop, work on them from my phone or iPad, and finish them in my office. The pain points for me have been copying and pasting them into my WordPress site, and uploading all of the images. Wordable solved that; I can write the post, insert images, send it to my site as a draft blog post and fine tune it before publishing.

Debra Kilsheimer, Behind the Scenes Financial Services

Apps: SmartVault and Bejeweled Blitz

I use the SmartVault app so I can look things up that I’ve scanned and saved. I also use BLITZ to keep me sane … I can’t be working ALL the time!

Josh Lance, CPA, CGMA, Lance CPA Group

App: Practice Ignition

We love using Practice Ignition because it enables our clients to sign their engagement letters and set up payments, which saves us lots of time and ensures we are not chasing the money. This year, we used the deposit feature to collect part of our tax return preparation fees up front, which was great for our firm’s cash flow.

Jeff Wilson, II, CPA/PFS, CGMA, CFE, AFC, The WII Group

App: Practice Ignition

Practice Ignition helps because it allows us to manage our compliance and open WIP for tax and accounting clients in one place. I can always look to see who paid, who doesn’t have an engagement letter and who owes us money! The application also gives me a summary of my current status, which helps because I don’t always remember to log in all the time.

Editor’s note: What’s apps do you use for your tax and accounting practice? Leave us a comment below to share your insights with others.