The IRS. So many places to go on those 3 letters. Amongst other things they have the fun job of collecting money from U.S. Taxpayers in our "voluntary" tax system. Actually, it is more like an "honor" system than a voluntary system but I digress.

Sometimes, the IRS gets overzealous (imagine that). And when they do, it has been communicated to me by an anonymous source that these are the areas they scrutinize:

• Revenue recognition (proper methods being followed)
  
• Valuation of assets
• Capitalized vs. Noncapitalized Expenses
• Reserves
• Accounting for acquisitions
• Other performance benchmarks that don't follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

These areas are traditionally complex to compute and to communicate. The stakes for reporting these correctly can often be quite high because tax liability can swing greatly in one direction or the other depending on how the rules and requirements have been interpreted.

I'm human, I admit it.

I am a total sucker for new and exciting things. Whether it is a new gadget or a new app or new tool I am usually smitten.

I have been thinking about the 'why' of this. Why is it so important to have shiny new gadgets and tools? And truthfully, I'm not sure that it is. I mean, we spend a lot of time testing these new tools and we don't always implement them. And even the cool tools that we do implement, then there is a learning curve and training. 

However, because of computerized accounting systems there is the potential to account for a business pretty accurately and in less time if we have these tools in place. So, then the question is, is it a race? To finish the data driven work faster to focus on more analysis and relationship building?

Well, ideally, this is true but practically, it takes awhile to get to this point. Even though what we do for accounting systems is less like building a house from scratch and more like putting together a room of Ikea furniture, we still need to trust that Ikea made the right sized parts to fit it all together. And even when most of the times, the connected systems work beautifully, in some cases, even the best can fail at the worst possible moments.

So, am I going to give up on the new and shiny? And the hope for seamlessly integrated solutions?...Not likely. But am I going to challenge myself and our small, passionate team to get the most out of the fancy tools we already have?...Yes...and we'll see how that goes.