The three biggest challenges facing the accounting profession today

The three biggest challenges facing the accounting profession today

Accounting won’t just stop at numbers. Here are today’s biggest accounting challenges and how to tackle them. Since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TJCA), which the American Enterprise Institute has called “the most significant change in our tax code in decades.” Read blog and know how to become the accounting profession.

As of 2020, the IRS continues to work on tax code reform, and accountants and business leaders are still determining the impact of TCJA and the best strategies to maximize its benefits. TCJA.

But navigating “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is the challenge the accounting industry will face. All businesses will face similar accounting challenges next year, and if you mishandle any of these, such as missing a deduction at tax time. If your data is vulnerable to hackers or not using the right accounting software will cost you money. And if your business is losing money, your business is going to fail. That is the general opinion of the accounting profession.

By educating yourself and recognizing the major challenges at hand, you can reduce the risk these challenges pose to your business and gain a competitive advantage.

Challenges

1. Enforcement Act “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” continues

The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” are treated as the “foundation” of tax reform, affecting everything from GMT food and entertainment expenses to depreciation. Here are some of the biggest lessons learned from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for businesses:

-Entertainment expenses are no longer deductible.

-A depreciation bonus allows businesses to immediately depreciate 100% of business assets such as vehicles, computers, and other equipment over the next three years.

-Using the cash method of accounting, this method is often simpler and cheaper than accrual accounting.

SOLUTION:

Make sure you keep your accounting software up to date on a monthly basis. So the accounting software can do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to new TCJA deductions and rates. Or use estimating management templates, so that the numbers are tightly controlled.

Carefully read “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”. Think about ways your business can take advantage, such as cutting entertainment costs, investing in new business equipment before the end of the year, and providing paid medical and family leave to your employees.

2. Automation and AI are taking over more traditional accounting tasks than

Robots are not coming to take your job. But AI can, they are becoming increasingly intelligent and capable of handling complex accounting tasks like collecting transactions and aggregating them into financial statements and tax returns. Here’s the good news: Automation can take tedious tasks off your heavy to-do list.

In fact, it is estimated that by implementing robotic process automation. 40-person accounting team could save up to 25,000 avoidable rework hours per year, spending time on higher-value jobs such as analytics and forecasting, while increasing engagement and reducing employee turnover.

SOLUTION:

Treat the automation of repetitive tasks (e.g. payroll, tax form preparation) as an opportunity for growth rather than a challenge.

People still need to double-check the work done with automation. The best accounting professionals will make them invaluable by evolving into more consulting roles. Helping their businesses grow properly deploy new accounting automation technology as it becomes more capable and complex.

Accounting automation is here to help you do your work more efficiently. Think about all the ways it can save you time so you can focus instead on strategic, non-repetitive tasks, such as financial planning and analysis or management. financial risk management.

3. Software Technology Trends

The simple reason for using accounting management software is to join the digital age and not let human value lose to AI. The accounting profession always do that.

There are many management software use in the accounting industry, with many different features and capabilities. These software technologies allow users to estimate and calculate expenses,… and especially control the cash flow of your business.

SOLUTION:

Select and use appropriate software, for example, UpDiagram, software with many special functions and dedicated to accounting:

– Various data fields: images, text, lists, checkboxes, date, progress, until the calculation formula

– Email and In-app notification for accounting activities

– And types of calculations and estimates are

UpDiagram is used to manage accounting projects, Excel is used to control data, especially now UpDiagram can export data to Excel files.

Challenges will make people develop, challenges in the field of accounting are lessons learn and later knowledge for the path to becoming The accounting professional.

What is RFP Process? And how can it help your business?

RFP serves many different purposes and is usually utilized in several different fields for decision-making. This powerful process can help you to compare the current options that you have and thus choose the most potential one for your project.

What is RFP?

According to Investopedia, a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a business document announcing and presenting the specifics of a project, as well as soliciting proposals from contractors that will help complete the project. Many organizations tend to use RFPs when making choices. A request for a particular program proposal will require the company to review the bids to evaluate their viability, the health of the bidding company, and the capacity of the bidder to do what is proposed.

How does it work?

This process includes stages where buyers, for instance, calculate and compare prices, features, and functionalities between vendors and then choose the best vendors or retailers to sign a contract with. This process is a long period, it could take place for 3 months or more. However, once you go through the process, whichever contractors or vendors are left are the best of choice, since every aspect was taken into consideration and evaluated thoroughly. Therefore, however long it takes, it would be worth it.

RFPs are usually reserved for complex projects, where the are numerous bidders or many different criteria for evaluation. RFPs outline the bidding process and contract terms and provide guidance on how bids should be formatted and presented. Requirements are listed out and a timeline is provided for participants to stick with.

By launching an RPF, organizations or businesses raise the competition between bidders and also have multiple perspectives. As a result, ensuring that they get the most out of these bidders, the lowest cost with the most benefits.

This process contains multiple phases and steps. Therefore, in order not to miss out on any steps, an outline or a checklist should plan and given out. Using project management software for tracking the process is also a good idea. Since you can put literally anything in it: assignee, timeline, process, description, or note.

Hope this article helps you understand more about the RFP process. And if you intend to utilize this process for your business or organization. UpDiagram can totally help your team with starting out an RFP process project. There is also an RFP process template, which you can check out and start using immediately!

Optimize project efficiency with UpDiagram

What is UpDiagram?

What is UpDiagram? like other project management tools, UpDiagram is the project management tool which shortens users time and effort to manage their project.

Managing the team with many people has never been easy. Even worse, It takes more effort to keep track of the progress of each team member and the productivity of the project. The need for giving feedback or comment about the task may be complicated because of either various communication tools or unnecessary discussion meeting.

UpDiagram:

Convenience

Help you see all the progress and what steps should be taken at first glance. It simplifies your effort to follow up and estimate your project.

Grid View

Collaboration

No need to write email, inbox or book the meeting to share comment or feedback. You can communicate directly on UpDiagram.com.

Collaborate seamlessly on UpDiagram

Comment and Feedback onboard

Clarity

Everything is accessible for all member to see what they need. The work will be more efficient if all members understand the progress and prepare what they should do to move forward.

Transparent and efficient teamwork for progress

Let’s start to have a free trial.

If there is any question about a signup or set your account, and how to manage the account?

Free to contact us via info@updiagram.com. Let do it!

How the IT department keeps track of their Bugs and Issues?

When It comes to the IT department, Bug and Issue are inevitable in every project. The team of IT need to determine the solution and tool to manage and minimize the potential Bugs and Issues. Therefore, a tool to help them manage and keep track of the whole progress is significantly compulsory. After using UpDiagram, a project management tool, we are not under tasks pressure and more enjoy our work.

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

Our IT department has responsibility for thousands of bugs and issues every month. Unlike other departments, most of the issues require lots of time to resolve. Even worse, the whole team members have to collaborate to work with one issue whilst there are hundreds of tasks waiting for them.

For a large number of the workforce with a team of 200 people like IT department, the mission of managing the whole tasks and members is the big challenge.

To clarify, we need to define different columns as fields in Excel so that we can follow all tasks. We had to type every single sheet to update the data and we highlighted them to make them outstanding. However, we don’t have time to highlighted day by day and remember the color to define the same for each status. Therefore, we try to use a new tool for our specific purpose.

Indeed, UpDiagram which is the tool to simplify our management process provides us with the feature of Custom Fields. This is where we can set up our own fields including status, priority, assignee, due date and so on. Also, we can categorize the fields and update the status that can be reused in a project. Thanks to that, we can highlight the status and update the progress of team members.

For us, the special thing that we are well supported by UpDiagram is the timeline setting. It is very essential to set up the timeline of the tasks and follow up on the workflow. When using Excel, we could not see the timeline of the task. Instead, we had to check out ourselves by the calendar to estimate the progress. However, UpDiagram can show the timeline of the progress and that simplify our work to keep track of everything.

Moreover, when we want to focus on the status of our task to define the which ones are the most important, we choose the Board View, instead of the Grid View. In other words, I grouped the “priority” on Board View to illustrate the High, Normal and Low priority of the task. As you can see, High, Normal and Low are in different rows. For each row, there is all the status of every single task. This is very useful for us to manage the project in any different way. In fact, we tend to default this view for our member so that they can determine the most priority tasks to do first.

Basically, UpDiagram has more function than we expect once deciding to have a trial. Right now, we are satisfied with all feature, but we also expect more enhancement, especially the personal or organizational features to meet the specific demand in case.

UpDiagram base – The Human Resource has been so simple

The Human Resource Department has always faced pressure to do recruitment. For the large scale of the company, the labor force is the inevitable issue. The HR Department has to work with thousands of CVs and Applicants every month to satisfy the workforce requirement of the company from Intern to Superior position. The general tool is not completely suitable for our use of purpose. In fact, we expect more specific features for the individual of use to minimize our difficulties. There had been a doubt until we were assisted to get used to the UpDiagram by its customer service. “Thankfully, We are alive, after all”, our problem seemed to be disappeared.

Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash

Generally, we used Excel to manage our data. It was easy to use because we got used to it for a long time. However, when the company grew up, the number of employees acceleration which drags the pressure to manage the huge amount of labor force is considerable. Besides, the evaluation process and workforce distribution are obstacles to do well in managing human resources.

Our progress of recruitment is about 5 stages from the phone interview to the final interview. Every step is scheduled and all team members of The Human Resource need to update and follow up on the progress. In fact, Excel could contain a large number of our data, but it is not sharable.

We spent so much time recruitment. “How is your progress?”, “How many potential candidates for this position?”.

UpDiagram Grid View suitable for enterprises

To simplify our work, we have to try something new and UpDiagram is our option. At first, it was very difficult for us, because we didn’t know the all features, functions and its value for the project management. Nevertheless, their Customer Service was good at keeping track of new users. They actively contacted us to find out any difficulty that we had. We did not sure how good UpDiagram was but their service was the positive first impression.

UpDiagram Kanban Board tracking all tasks

Then, we shared our problems and they helped us set up a project with necessary features and fields. Other instruction was also share with us for future use.

We were into the “Grid View” where we can see and manage the whole project at first glance. Even better, the interface is more attractive because we can create some personal fields for our purpose. Additionally, we can define the users’ level in the project which can satisfy our requirement to easily follow up on the project.

We are very happy with UpDiagram so It could be very difficult for us to change our habit to learn new ones. Thus, we hope to see more enhancement to support more our individual purpose.

Event Marketing: work smarter for efficiency

Event Marketing has always been considered as an opportunity to build relationships, earn the trust of partners or customers and generate reputation. However, it is not easy to run an event fluently. Besides internal communication, the external one requires even higher skills to well manage all attendees. If the event is not well organized, the trust which needs more time to build can be demolished in a second. Thus, there is no time to hesitate to try a new tool to simplify our work. We did play with UpDiagram for 3 hours and we are happy with it now.

Photo by Daniele Riggi on Unsplash

The team has responsibility for creating events for the company. As the team, we have to organize internal and external events such as team building, sharing, meetup, or even Food Event to connect the whole members of the company.

For each Event Marketing, we need to decide the hosts and attendees. However, we cannot see the progress and the number of response from the attendees. Also, with a large number of company members, It was a big challenge for us to hold the events. In some case, we had to cancel some events. However, there were some missing announcements which cause the disturbance to our colleagues and even worse our special guests.

The collaboration is what we don’t have in our event management.

UpDiagram is the alternatives we use to replace the general method. After using, there are many enhancements. Indeed, both team members and leaders can show their recognition of members tasks. They can actively keep in touch with ones who can support them. In other words, they will know who they should ask for help, or who communicate with the ones having the relevant tasks.

Moreover, categorizing the type of events in UpDiagram which requires us to set up only once simplify our time and effort. In addition, the date setting is more interesting because we don’t need to type every single character. The calendar is there for us to make a decision.

UpDiagram's task management software interface

The most interesting thing is the collaboration

Communication is a compulsory factor in event and project management. With UpDiagram, we can give comments directly to each task and that leads to the time-consuming reduction for a weekly or daily meeting. In fact, we don’t need to wait until the meeting to estimate and give feedback for the task. When we finish with the feedback immediately, we can fix the issues or plan for the next action in the progress.

On the contrary, UpDiagram can integrate with other communication tools such as Slack, Zalo, Gmail and so on so that we can communicate with the team easier. Thereby, following and communication in project management are not barriers to prevent the progress stagnancy.

As a matter of fact, it is not fast to learn how to use UpDiagram with the initial trial. Nonetheless, we can do more things than we expect when we are used to using it. Hopefully, there will be more personal features in the future from UpDiagram so that we can use for our further management purpose.

Efficient planning and execution of Talkshow events

Talkshow Event Management: How to run them fluently?

The Marketing department is responsible for Event Management. Particularly, they mainly organize the seminar and talk show to provide knowledge for audiences. Because of its complication, the marketers have to face lots of pressure from internal preparation to external communication. Besides that, Sponsors, Guest speakers, Schedule and Deadline of tasks are the works that an event marketer has to deal with every single day. For that pressure, a new trial with a project management tool is also a solution and that is also a chance of UpDiagram.

However, there were some problems and challenges that the organizers had to overcome. Initially, they had to list out the topics and decided speakers to be in charge of them. Generally, we could use Excel to type out the information but there was no connection between the speakers. In other words, the more topics, the more speakers to manage. In fact, it was very important to communicate and control the schedule of the speakers. Also, the speakers should keep track of their schedules themselves to work with the organizers effectively.

Photo by Miguel Henriques on Unsplash

Basically, they could use communication tools to discuss their schedule. But the other speakers could not follow up on other ones by Excel. It was difficult for organizers if the speakers intend to actively book the talk show in the same day. Therefore, we decided to learn a new tool, UpDiagram, to help us solve the current issues.

To be honest, it took us an hour and a half to get used to UpDiagram

Luckily, UpDiagram supported us a lot during this time to facilitate our learning.

Apparently, our management procedure is not working with the Excel due to poor specific feature for project management purpose. In the case, it would be ideal to be data-driven. UpDiagram can help us to follow all the process of every single talking event including topics, status, speakers, date, and other custom fields for further information. Excel can support all those things but the point that makes UpDiagram outstanding is Connection and Tagging.

From now, we are not the only one Event Management. Because the speakers or every member can be tagged by the owner of the project. When everyone has an account on UpDiagram, we can tag them directly to the project and they can follow up and interact with all members. This absolutely shortens the time and effort to organize the events as we used to do.

Let’s see How we do with UpDiagram.

First of all, we created a package named Event Management. In there, we added all potential topics. Also, we created a form that all important information could be added easily on one screen via the “Custom fields”. Next, we added the members and speakers in the project. Everyone who is responsible for each event could update status and process directly on the tool. In addition, the speakers can book the topic they want to share and communicate with events’ organizers for further support in need.

The ability to track information in real time is believed to be the selling point. Instead of weekly or even daily report, we can pull, submit and confirm everything in one tool. We are also able to create the distinct packages for each purpose of the projects with the combination of “viewing, filtering and grouping functions”. If there is any changes or further requirement from speakers or future clients, everyone can pull events matching the standard in minutes.

On the road to development, we may have more than 1000 events in the future and we believe we can manage all things with UpDiagram. We also have more special cases in the future that may need more support from UpDiagram to extend and enhance more personal features for our business. We do know other alternative tool but we are happy with Updigram now.

Methods to deal with Conflicts

Methods to deal with Conflicts? Conflicts are generally defined as relational disputes between two or more parties. It can bring about negative or positive results, and depends on the nature and intensity of conflict, and on how to resolve it? If It is solved well, the conflicts will bring benefits to the team.

– Improve mutual understanding and respect among team members

– Improve the ability to coordinate groups through discussion and negotiation when resolving conflicts

– Enhance each member’s understanding of the goals, knowing what the most important goal is

Conversely, conflicts that are not handled well will cause devastation: conflicts in the workplace easily turn into personal conflicts, teamwork disintegration, and so on. Some of the reasons that cause the conflict:

– Lack of unification

– Misunderstanding in communication

– Different competence between employees

– Ambiguity about their authority

Why should conflict be resolved?

– Conflict is an inevitable problem in the workplace

– If resolved well, conflicts can benefit the organization

– If not, the small conflict will turn out to be a bigger conflict and eventually break the working system of the team.

Competitive Method

Photo by Amy Hirschi on Unsplash

This is a method of resolving conflicts by using your “influence”. This influence comes from position, rank, expertise, or persuasion ability.

Apply when:

– The problem is an urgent situation

– You have experience with the same situation or problems

– It is a sudden problem and It is not too serious

Collaboration Method

Woman and man discussing work on computer

Photo by NESA by Makers on Unsplash

It is the method to solve the conflict by share the benefits to all parties and create satisfaction for them.

Apply when:

– The problem that causes the conflict is important. However, you have time and information from all parties to find out the causes and solution for that

– The conflict has been there in the team for a while

– It is necessary to build a long-term relationship

Conflict Evasion Method

It is a way of resolving conflicts by defaulting to the opponent, or a third person to decide. Users of this method do not participate in the debate to claim benefits. No matter the outcome is, they have no idea and take part in the argument. The drawback of this method is to be likely to accumulate dissatisfaction. That can lead to a job break.

Apply when:

– The problem is not important

– The problem is not related to your rights

– The consequences of problem-solving are greater than your benefits

– A third person can solve the problem better

Conflict Concession Method

A method of handling impulses by being willing to sacrifice your rights, without requiring action from the other party.

Apply when:

– Maintaining a good relationship is a number priority

– Feeling that the problem is more important to someone than yourself

The basic difference between “concessions” and “evasion” methods is the concerns about the enemy and conflict. Concessions derive from the concern of mutual benefit and longterm relationship, while Evasion one is from the neglect to face the conflict.

Conflict Compromise Method

This is a situation that requires each side to scarify themselves to forward the most comfortable solution for all parties.

Apply when:

– The problem is important. Two sides insist on keeping their goals, while time is running out

– The consequences of conflicts are more serious than the concessions of both parties

General principles when dealing with conflicts

Woman writing on the board to discuss with man

Photo by Kaleidico on Unsplash

– Should start by collaboration method

– Cannot use all methods

– Apply suitable methods in the context

Body Language and How to show your trust

Today, young people have mostly grown up in the world of the Internet where they can communicate via Email or online messages. Therefore, digital communication has become a norm with them, but the face to face interaction is a barrier to overcome.

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

Especially, The Fresher who is going to start their career should be careful about their body language. They can reveal their personality even though they do not intend to do that. To succeed, body languages play a role to make the interviewers or your boss estimate you as one the most trustworthy in the company. And there are 5 tips that you should practice to become trustworthy with your partner.

1. Tilt your head toward the opponent

Tilting your head indicates that you are ready to take on a difficult position to listen. Whenever we want to show trust, commitment, approval or interest, you should turn our heads to look at others. That action shows we are ready to listen and will not debate.

Lean your head in the direction of your opponent

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

This action is especially effective when negotiating or arguing with opponents. In this way, you can show the understanding of speakers and as a result, those people are less hostile and less resistant. If you need to negotiate and persuade them to collaboration in work, this action is really efficient.

2. Intensity of eyes contact

Enhancing Eye Contact Intensity for Effective Communication

Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

Keeping the eyes contact during the conversation can both increase your confidence and build your partner belief. Generally, People tend to underestimate who usually avoid the eyes contact, whilst they will believe in the ones who are confident to keep the eyes contact.

However, this does not mean that you have to stare at them. The most suitable intensity of eyes contact is around 70% in the conversation. If you always look at someone’s eyes, they will think you are hostile. In contrast, They will think you are less confident If you are shy to look at their eyes. Thus, Eyes contact is an art to practice day by day to be influent.

3. Open the palm of the hands

Communication skills, and the secrets to success of companies

Photo by Antenna on Unsplash

As you can see, Most of the speakers in the talk show, such as Tedtalk often extend their palms when talking to the crowd. The reason to do that is to illustrate a sign of peace. It shows that you don’t hide anything, you’re willing to listen to what others want to share.

People who open their hands are also trustworthy. This explains why religious leaders often show their palms when talking to listeners. On the other hand, those who are liars often hide their hands.

4. Glove handshake

Firm Handshake for Professional Impressions

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

“Glove handshake” is a handshake that you use both hands and your left palm will place on the back of the opponent’s right hand, slightly above the wrist. This handshake is a sign of warmth, trust, and kindness towards the other person.

When shaking hands, pay attention to the location of your left hand. The higher your left hand is on the other person’s right arm, the more likely it is to be close to them. In fact, holding the other person’s elbow will show more emotion when holding their wrist.

5. Imitate other nonverbal language

Nonverbal Communication through Imitation

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Once talking to a close friend or your acquaintances, You’d better compare the body language of two people together. You will feel the similarity between your posture and your body movements with them.

Reflecting others’ body language can create a feeling of closeness and trust. This also helps increase mutual understanding between two people and It is believed as one of the most effective methods to help you communicate well with others.

Therefore, when meeting a new person, try to observe their behavior, concern your body language, the tone of voice or even facial expressions. After a while, the opponent will unconsciously feel comfortable when talking to you.

Music affects productivity in workplace

For some people, listening to music and working simultaneously will make them unable to concentrate. This drag to the reduction in their productivity. However, many people will feel extremely uneasy if there is a lack of music while working. So how does music really affect our productivity?

Photo by Paulette Wooten on Unsplash

Music is created as a tool to make the brain more flexible and increase the level of excitement while working if you listen to music at the right time and in the right context. Let’s see when you should or should not listen to music at work.

1. Cannot concentrate – Music affects

You need to focus to complete the work to guarantee that you are not late with the deadline but the office is too noisy and you can not continue the work. The brain is overload to brainstorm and is under working pressure to handle the noise and stuff at your work. This is the right time to pick up and wear your headphone right away. In cases like this, listening to music will be the most effective rescue to help you not lose concentration because of the complex sounds outside and recover your brain after overloading for work. When you turn back to work, you will see the difference.

2. Increase work inspiration

Photo by Eric Nopanen on Unsplash

A good song will help your mind relax. The brain automatically activates the release of nerve impulses that make you feel good and enhance your concentration. Especially, in repetitive jobs, listening to a good piece of music will help employees become more inspired and the work becomes more interesting. Thereby your work speed is improved and the mistakes in the process of working are minimized.

3. The lyrics distract you

There is no doubt a good song can positively affect your productivity. However, a song with lyrics will be a huge obstacle to jobs that require a high degree of concentration such as writing code, typing text and so on. Indeed, the listeners tend to pay attention and sing along to the song. This will take away your ability to focus on your work and lead to a decrease in productivity.

4. Impact of new songs

When listening to a new song, you often devote more focus to listening to the melody, as well as the lyrics. This will make you spend all your time enjoying the new tunes and lyrics. In fact, people are usually curious and excited about something new, so you’ll temporarily forget the job more easily. Listening to an old song would be an appropriate choice if you need to focus on completing the work because you are so familiar with the melody and words of the song. Don’t let your productivity slow down just because a new song excites your spirit and Music affects.

5. Music is not for new things

Moreover, researching or new work experience which requires you to pay attention to brainstorm and analyze is not appropriate to listen to music. Thus, the best way for you is not to listen to music, especially music with lyrics, music affects. Having to analyze many new data at the same time as receiving the melody of the songs will make the brain work less effectively and lead to easy mistakes and shortcomings. Therefore, you should really consider before opening music during working.

Photo by Stink Pickle on Unsplash

Listening to music while working not only helps you to avoid the noisy sounds outside, but it also helps your spirit to be more refreshing. However, if you do not know how to adjust and choose the sound to appropriate the situation, you will make the music turn out to be the barrier of work productivity. Therefore, to achieve greater efficiency while working, you should decide which music will be suitable for your working day and define the scenarios to determine to listen to music or not.