Lessons Learned from Last Week’s GoDaddy Outage Last Monday, our DNS provider, GoDaddy, experienced a widespread service disruption. This service disruption lasted approximately 4 hours and prevented over 50 million web sites, including SmartVault, from being accessible via name lookup. Although, at no time were SmartVault servers unavailable, most of our customers could not access […]
Resource Category: Blogs & Articles
The Paperless Office – Information anytime, anywhere – no printing required.
Operating a “paperless office” seems to be the goal of many businesses today, but dealing with the realities of paper documents – bank statements, bills, invoices, receipts, and more – can be quite a challenge if the right tools aren’t available. The paperless office is the moniker applied to businesses electing to either eliminate or greatly reduce […]
The Unbreakable Chain – Accounting Source Files and QuickBooks Document Management
Accounting is a system comprised of inputs, processes, and outputs – much like a manufacturing process. In this case, the output is the financial statement and other financial records and reports. The inputs are the source documents which provide the details for financial transactions in the accounting system, and the process is balanced double-entry bookkeeping. […]
To Host or Not to Host? 4 Reasons to Consider QuickBooks Hosting for You or Your Clients
As a “Customer Care Hero” at SmartVault, I work with dozens of CPAs and accounting firms every week, all with unique methods and tools for working with their QuickBooks clients. Some use SmartVault’s QuickBooks backup feature to share their QuickBooks file, a few are still driving to their clients’ offices, some are using remote access […]
Why eSignatures are a Must-Have in 2023
How long do you wait for a document to return once you’ve sent it to a client for signature? Hours? Days? Maybe even weeks? Many people see massive disruptions to their workflow and business practices when clients become difficult to reach, slow to act, or make a mistake when signing documents. Electronic signature technology mitigates […]
Why I’m Calling for Better Privacy Laws for Email and Online Document Storage
What You Need to Know about ECPA Privacy laws in the United States regarding emails and online document storage are very archaic. Currently, the Electronics Communication Privacy Act (ECPA) designates that email stored for longer than 180 days is not protected communication. Therefore, access to archived email requires only a subpoena rather than a warrant. […]
Your Credit Union Roadmap
Implementing a cloud-based document management platform is integral to a modern credit union’s operational infrastructure. Hundreds of files flow in and out of your organization daily – many containing highly sensitive and proprietary information. Traditional document management systems based on paper files and folders and/or on-premise servers can quickly show their vulnerabilities in the face […]
What Gig Workers Filing Taxes Need to Know
Guest Blog by: Carrie Stemke How the Workforce Has Changed in 2022 The pandemic upended the ways people make money and shut down a number of industries for a year or more, leaving millions without jobs. It was also the catalyst for workers who had long been dissatisfied with the conditions at work to finally […]
Accounting Expert Shares 4 Key Considerations Around Workflows and Client Experience
Guest Blog by: Carrie Stemke Having an efficient workflow and offering a positive, high-quality client experience are crucial parts of increasing your firm’s productivity and profitability. But how do you achieve these goals? Thought leader and Accounting Today Top 100 Most Influential alum Randy Johnston says it comes down to what might be a surprising […]
Is It Safe for Accountants and Their Clients to Share Files via Email?
The truth is: email was never meant to be a secure way to send sensitive information. Why Should Accountants Avoid Using Emails to Share Sensitive Data? Dr. Catherine J. Ullman, Senior Information Security Analyst for University of Buffalo, says: “Although you need credentials to log in and access the e-mail in your mailbox, email is […]
3 Ways Paper-Based Workflows Hold Your Accounting Practice Back
Here’s a large number for you: there are over 300,000,000,000,000 – that’s 300 trillion – paper documents printed worldwide each year. While we know that more companies are going digital, it’s evident that paper is still a significant component of businesses. The average US employee uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year, and the […]
It’s Time to Revisit Your Accounting Workflows and Automate Tasks
Every so often, it’s important to take inventory of your accounting workflows. Are they supporting your business goals? Are staff and clients happy or do they hit roadblocks? Are there manual tasks you can automate or processes you can streamline? Answering questions like those will help you get a clear picture of your current processes, […]
3 Reasons You Need Paperless Document Management Software for Your Business
Manual workflows, repetitive tasks, and keeping up with hardcopy paperwork just doesn’t make sense anymore. Our culture has gone digital, and companies that have yet to make the switch to paperless document management — whether they’re a mom-and-pop business, a Fortune 500 company, or somewhere in between — are going to get left behind. Software […]
Tips for Accounting Professionals to Increase Cybersecurity
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM). The 2022 theme is “See Yourself in Cyber,” which is about helping people understand the role they play in protecting themselves and others online. Check out our resource library to learn how to protect your data. It’s critical that everyone involved in your practice — yes, that means […]
Cybersecurity Awareness Month: See Your Role in Protecting Data
Cybersecurity is complex. There are many ways hackers can access your information, and their technology and techniques are just getting stronger every day. Our world is also going more and more digital. There are over 5 billion people using the internet globally and 60% of business data is stored in the cloud. That’s a lot […]
Cybersecurity Facts and How to Protect Your Data with a Cloud Document Management System
With cyberattacks happening more frequently than ever before, protecting your business and client data is a large obligation to meet. Cyberattacks target all industries and company sizes, but smaller companies tend to be the easiest to hack, as many don’t have proper processes in place to keep data secure. In this blog, we share some […]
How to Develop a Federally Compliant Written Information Security Plan (WISP) + A Checklist to Get You Started
Tax and accounting professionals are at significant risk for cyberattacks because they have the data hackers want. Thieves can impersonate the victims and file fraudulent tax returns with information like names, social security numbers, financial data, and addresses. And with a cyberattack happening every 39 seconds, the chances of your practice getting attacked continue to […]
Strategies to Create a Collaborative Client Experience
“I never received that document. Can you just resend it?” — How many times have you received a client request like that, even though you know you sent the document via email a few days ago? Perhaps it’s in their spam or maybe they just overlooked it. Regardless, it would be a lot easier—and faster—if […]
What Accounting Practices Need to Know About Data Security and Document Management Systems
Tax and accounting professionals are at significant risk for cyberattacks because they have the data hackers want. With information like names, social security numbers, financial data, and addresses, thieves can impersonate the victims and file fraudulent tax returns. Since large corporations with significant security systems are harder to attack, it makes smaller businesses the next […]
ADA-Compliant Document Management
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been in place since the 1990s, it presents opportunities and challenges for credit unions. These challenges include how to comply with the laws while providing an exceptional experience to all members. According to the act, credit unions must make their physical locations, websites, and documents accessible to […]