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Tag: There’s an app for that

Would Anyone Actually Download This AICPA App?

That’s a serious question.

I’ve been to events with lots of accountants huddled up in a room showing off their technology so I am not implying that CPAs don’t care about apps, I’m just wondering if anyone would download an app dedicated to a particular AICPA conference.

CrowdCompass released the AICPA Not-For-Profit Financial Executive Forum app on October 15th and as far as I can tell, no one cares about it.


The description reads as follows:

Between the slowed-down economy and a more stringent regulatory environment, the last few years have led to a “new normal.” Gaining lost momentum and getting back on track with smart new strategies and practical solutions are necessary for success.

This AICPA Not-for-Profit Financial Executive Forum is the solutions-based conference that features top experts and is designed specifically to address these issues and provide the answers for your financial, technical and structural operations. You’ll come away with valuable insights and tools to take back to your organization and implement immediately.

The 2011 NFP FEF (if that isn’t a mouthful…) sounds like a great time for anyone actually interested in non-profits (my unofficial research shows there are about 7 of you). Not-for-profit financial executive staff members, CEOs, CFOs/executive directors and directors of finance in NFP could probably learn a lot and enrich the very core of their work by hanging around at one of these forums. Hey, you can even check in on foursquare from the conference. But the Android app? I’m not sure I see the benefit there.

Does an app make navigating the conference any easier? You still have to remember the name of the person you met three hours ago who you’re being introduced to again and no app can help you with that. It’s not like there are several square miles of territory to navigate as you’re cruising the conference circuit, so is it necessary to have your exact position on the map? Maybe I’m just an old BlackBerry user who doesn’t get it.

Anyway, the conference is from October 27-28, 2011 at the Westin in my former hometown of San Francisco, CA so it isn’t too late for you to register and fly out there to the Land of Fruits and Nuts for some non-profity goodness.

If anyone actually downloads and uses this app, can you please get in touch with me? I’m curious to hear what you did with it. Sorry, that’s kind of lazy but the AICPA isn’t going to sell me the email list of anyone who buys the app so this is the best we’ve got.

KPMG Wants to Help College Students Find Jobs (Presumably, Even the English Majors)

KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm, announced today the release of the KPMG GO app for iPhone® and iPad®, designed to provide tips and information to help college students in every major launch their job search in today’s competitive employment environment.

Available for download in the Apple iTunes Store, KPMG’s new application delivers fresh videos, articles, blog posts, Q&As, and branding tips from its partners as well as its professionals in HR and campus recruiting. “Today’s students face a very competitive market and need every advantage to make a good impression and secure that first job,” said Blane Ruschak, KPMG’s executive director of university relations and recruiting. “We are excited to offer a resource that provides helpful and practical advice to young adults entering the job market.” [KPMG]

Mobile Expense Tracking, The Easy Way

While we won’t all admit it, many of us are pretty lazy. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and given the right set of tools, lazy bastards like us can actually spend more time procrastinating and less time worrying about how to blow off whatever it is we’re trying to avoid.

When it comes to expenses, we can all use an easier way, lazy or not. Here are three apps that should help.

Evernote (free) MACPA CEO Tom Hood uses the Evernote iPhone app to snap a pic of his receipts, which he can then send directly to his office for safe-keeping and reimbursement. This means no stuffing random receipts into your pockets hoping they make it back to homebase. You can also use it as a sort of mobile Post-it note and scrapbook, capturing clips from newspaper articles, meeting notes and even business cards.

iXpenseIt This app ($4.99 in the Apple store) can help you track your own personal expenses as well as any you might incur for work. Voted one of the 50 Most Useful iPhone Apps by Laptop Magazine and a Best iPhone App by CNN Money.

ProOnGo Expense (free 30-day trial, pricing varies) goes a step further and even allows you to track your billable hours. It is compatible with iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and even Windows Mobile. Using the GPS feature, you can track your mileage too. The receipt reader feature allows you to put all your receipts into a neat Excel sheet or QuickBooks file.

Just for clarity’s sake, we’re sure you’re aware of this but here are the IRS rules on business expenses for your records. File it!

Insider Trading Charges Throw a Wrench into Former Deloitte Employee’s Plans for Sexy Mobile App

[caption id="attachment_22306" align="alignright" width="260" caption="Drew Altizer Photography via The Bay Citizen"][/caption]

Having a nice Friday evening, Going Concern faithful? Wonderful. Ordinarily, we would leave you to your weekend activities but something came to our attention that simply couldn’t wait.

Earlier in the week, we told you ��������������������, the former Deloittians who were charged with insider trading by the SEC. Arnold and Annabel were giving tips to Annabel’s sister, Miranda Sanders, and her husband, James, who traded on the information. The SEC alleges that the scam amounted to approximately $23 million in gains for everyone involved.

For all intents and purposes, Arnold McClellan probably was your run-of-the-mill tax partner at Deloitte until he opted to use his insider knowledge to make some money for himself and his in-laws. Likewise, you might expect that Annabel was just a humdrum Deloitte employee who landed a partner (he’s 13 years her senior) who got involved in a insider trading scam. But someone sent us a link to a report in the Bay Citizen that informs us that she had a very interesting venture in the works.

You see, Annabel left the firm (exactly when, is unclear) after working in the London, San Jose and San Francisco offices and presumably was ready to be a stay-at-home mom. When that became monotonous, she and a friend figured they would take their interest in knockin’ boots to launch a mobile app called “My Nookie.”


The website for the app has been taken down but the Bay Citizen was able to get a lot of the details:

The “about” tab for McClellan’s website details a vision for a new kind of social networking site:

My Nookie

Friends love to talk about sex and My Nookie is the app your sex life and social life can’t be without. Journal and rate your partners and sexual encounters. Share sexperiences with your closest friends, take sexting to the next level and relive your rendezvous with those five star partners.

Fun and tasteful with activity illustrations, My Nookie is fully loaded with features to flirt, play, tease and share. Feeling adventurous? Shake your phone and dare to try something new. Keep it handy on your iPhone because you never know …..

Features:

• Detailed diary of your sexual activities with date, partner, location, ratings and notes

• Partner contacts with profile, including photo, rating, activities performed, notes and tally

• Sex activity illustrations and descriptions, with the option to add your own

• ‘Shake It’ feature which suggests an activity to try

• Personal profile with ‘nookie’ summary

• Share all or some of your entries, partners, and profile

• Send a sexy invite to a partner or potential partner with alluring pictures

• Email, text or call your partners right from the app

What happens in My Nookie stays in My Nookie with optional pass code lock and discreet mode.

The Bay Citizen reports that My Nookie isn’t available in Apple’s app store (frankly, we’ll be surprised if passes Steve Jobs’s sniff test) but they have some screen shots (examples are on the following pages).

Unfortunately, now that Annabel has legal troubles to contend with, the Citizen reports her partner in the My Nookie venture, Milly Hanley, has taken over the project entirely. Arnie’s lawyer stated that he wasn’t involved with this venture while Annabel’s counsel simply stated that My Nookie was unrelated to their involvement and referred the Citizen back to Ms. Hanley who claims she can’t recall how she met Annabel.

The story around the McClellans is even weirder the more we poke around. Andrew Ross quotes a source in the San Francisco Chronicle:

“While they’ve been described as socialites, they’re definitely not at the top of that heap. I think a more apt description is they were attempting to scale the social heights.”

According to a report Wednesday in the online Bay Citizen, “in recent weeks, citing vague legal troubles, the couple had told friends that they were considering moving their family, which includes two school-aged sons, to South Africa.”

Perusing around a little bit more, Annabel’s Facebook page seems pretty locked up (definitely not accepting new friends) and we found the blog “My Nookie” which has the same feel as the mobile app and was started by “three friends in our 30s and 40s,” the third woman possibly being Jeanette Harris, who, the Citizen article states, hosted a benefit last year with the other two women.

From the blog’s “About Us” page:

We’re three friends in our 30s and 40s who realized that somewhere between meeting our husbands and getting married, we clammed up when it came to talking about our sex lives. MyNookie.com is where we can open up about everything we’re thinking about when it comes to sex and sexual health. And it’s where you can turn to for creative solutions and accurate information—because sex is too important to feel like you’re missing out.

Sure sounds like it could be our three amigas, doesn’t it? So with these developments, this story has gotten exponentially more interesting. We invite anyone with knowledge about the situation to email us and we’ll keep you updated as we learn more. Oh, and be sure to leave your thoughts on the app in the comments. Ms Hanley is probably looking for feedback.