No doubt those in practice will be relieved as another 31 January filing deadline is survived and they can once again concentrate on the things in life that really matter – like keeping up with IT through detailed scrutiny of IT Counts. For the rest of us, the Christmas break and dealing with proper amounts of snow may have let some key articles slip by. So, following on from our first highlights post at the beginning of December, here's a guide to some of the key content that has been contributed since. Hopefully, it should demonstrate the broad range of different areas that IT Counts now covers.
Online filing – just when you thought it was safe to go back into the office…
A revolution in how we file tax and accounts information is imminent. We've known that XBRL based filing has been on the way for years but suddenly XBRL has become iXBRL and is almost upon us. If you can book a place before they are all sold out, the 'Demystifying XBRL' event will be of significant help. IT Counts covered the initial event in London in mid December looking at a straightforward guide to the underlying technology and musing over who gets the benefit and who pays.
Excel
If online filing is an area that might be of more relevance to those in practice than those not, Excel is rather more universal and in the last couple of months we've looked at whether small businesses need an accounting system if they've got Excel, using Excel charts to mislead, what happens when all your sheets disappear and how to turn Excel into a game (as if it wasn't enough fun anyway!).
Google
It's nearly as hard to escape Google as it is Excel. Rob Watson was concerned about Google's plans for world domination and puzzled by an advert in the Metro. Elsewhere we saw an alternative to Google arriving once in a full moon and Dennis Howlett implicated Google in the demise of Internet Explorer 6.
Skills and training
Some useful advice on learning to touch type contrasted with a miserable failure to provoke a debate on the removal of tax from the exams system and a desperate plea for you to share your best personal productivity tips.
IT investment
Kirston Gillin continued her series looking at IT investment. She wondered whether financial measures really improved IT investment decisions and decided that we can get better returns from our investments.
Computer hardware
Sandra Vogel kept us up to date with the latest devices and gadgets, covering:
The use of the Android operating system on an Acer netbook; MiFi the broadband slayer; the PsiXpda; getting an iPhone from Vodafone; free navigation on your Nokia and the thin, light and expensive Sony Vaio X.
The announcement of the new Apple iPad allowed Sandra to introduce her delightful concept of 'comfort computing', while others wondered just who needs yet another type of mobile computing device.
Other
Less easy to categorise were posts on the 'the Over 50s guide to being an idiot' and why your email address might not be the best place to demonstrate your sense of humour.
Dennis Howlett looked at how accounting rigidity could provoke rigor mortis in your business raised a very interesting question about disclosure to clients that still awaits a definitive (or indeed any) answer and issued a warning about Facebook and privacy.
Forum
Questions continue to pour into the Forum area
An earlier question about software for a large charity provoked a 'cross posting' from the Institute's Talk Charity community on the subject of software for small charities. Other software questions dealt with consolidation software, European Accounting Software, access to old software, a Great Plains chart of accounts example and netSuite.
Outside the realm of software, Dick Price asked a particularly important question 'Why are professional organisations so reluctant to think about information security?'
Do have a look at the forum or, even better, ask a question or volunteer an answer.
And there's more
As usual, I've deliberately missed out some really excellent and informative articles so, to explore further, go to the articles section of IT Counts and either click on the 'Read all posts' link to browse all the articles or choose a term from the Tags or just search: