How To Know If An App Will Survive & Big Tax Prep Sent Taxpayer Data to Facebook

This week, Blake and David talk app survival signs, Big Tax Prep sending taxpayer data to Facebook, and the dearth of accountants visible in financials. They cover news from the accounting world, including Jirav's $20 million raise in its series B round, and Pilot's 13% workforce layoff, Collective's $50 million raise, and the story about the IRS website sending data to Google Analytics. They also discuss the Accountests ChatGPT challenge and Claude.AI as a ChatGPT alternative. Sponsors Zoho - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/zoho Forwardly - https://cloudaccountingpodcast.promo/forwardly Accruer - http://accountingpodcast.promo/accruer Chapters (00:00) - Preview: Owning your own accounting firm is a path to the upper middle class (01:19) - Welcome to The Accounting Podcast (03:24) - Jirav raises $20 million in series B round (04:29) - How likely a startup is to fail based on their funding round (10:05) - Is this the end of Evernote? (12:20) - Codat removing desktop API support from some plans (17:05) - Pilot lays off 13% of its workforce (20:01) - Collective raises $50 million (21:40) - Are tax prep companies giving customers' personal information to social media giants? (32:35) - Even the IRS website sends your data to Google Analytics! (38:03) - WSJ article on the accounting shortage (44:00) - Blake checks in on the live chat (53:43) - Accountests ChatGPT challenge (57:57) - Claude.AI as a ChatGPT alternative (01:01:17) - Wrap up and please check out our TurboTax Live Business Tax Return experience video on our YouTube channel Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.com Get CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe Show Notes Jirav raises $20M in Series B | Accounting Today https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/jirav-raises-20m-in-series-b 3 tax prep firms shared 'extraordinarily sensitive' data about taxpayers with Meta, lawmakers say https://apnews.com/article/irs-taxpayer-tax-preparation-meta-congress-9315cfca7a0942ab89f765d183fbf822 Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds | CNN Business https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html The dearth of accountants has now become visible in several financial reports, with companies pleading difficulty in finding and retaining skilled people. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-accountant-shortage-is-showing-up-in-financial-statements-b14a6b94 ChatGPT Does Accountests Debits & Credits Test https://www.accountests.com/blogs/news/chatgpt-does-accountests-debits-credits-test Pilot lays off 13% of workforce – 45 Employees - LayoffsTracker https://layoffstracker.com/pilot-lays-off-13-of-workforce-45-employees/?expand_article ChatGPT scores 90% on debits & credits test https://www.blakeoliver.com/blog/chatgpt-scores-90-on-debits-amp-credits-test Some Chicago Restaurants Are Still Adding Surcharges Of Up to 20% to Checks. Should They? https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/some-chicago-restaurants-are-still-adding-surcharges-of-up-to-20-to-your-bill-should-they/3055697/ 2023-10-10: Change in pricing for some accounting integrations https://docs.codat.io/updates/231010-deprecation-onprem-erp-premium Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/tech/tax-prep-companies-taxpayer-data-google-meta/index.html Attacks%20on%20Tax%20Privacy_Final.pdf https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Attacks%20on%20Tax%20Privacy_Final.pdf Jirav Announces $20M Series B Round Led By Cota Capital https://www.intuitiveaccountant.com/in-the-news/people-and-business/jirav-announces-20m-series-b-round-led-by-cota-capital/ The U.S. Tax Code Is Too Complex for Direct eFile to Work https://taxfoundation.org/irs-efile-prefilled-tax-returns/ IRS renews cybersecurity push for tax pros https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-renews-cybersecurity-push-for-tax-pros The Accountant Shortage Is Showing Up in Financial Statements https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-accountant-shortage-is-showing-up-in-financial-statements-b14a6b94 Collective, a financial management platform for freelancers, raises $50M https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/11/collective-a-financial-management-platform-for-freelancers-raises-50m/ Bay Area tech firm relocating to Europe, lays off most staff https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/evernote-layoffs-moving-to-europe-18190083.php Get in Touch Thanks for listening and for the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet