june2021 - 18

APPS WE LOVE
By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-in-Chief
Reference Apps
WE'RE ALL PRETTY accustomed to Googling when we need answers. But is that
the best source of information? Where do you go when you have questions?
This month we are sharing our favorite reference apps with the CPA Practice
Advisor readers. Some members of our community weighed in with some of
their favorite reference apps, and I've added several of my own (and, alas, Google
helped me round out the list).
Garrett Wagner, CPA.CITP, founder/CEO of
C3 Evolution Group, said, " While this app isn't
new, Wikipedia is still the spot I go to anytime
I'm on my device looking for answers. If I'm doing
a voice search then it is Alexa all the way. If I'm
looking to get fancy with my words, I turn to
Power Thesaurus, for a simple and clean tool
for looking things up on the fly. "
Chris Frederiksen, CPA, co-founder of
Frederiksen-Crawford CPAs, is on board with
Google: " I find the FAQ for most apps is
completely inadequate and usually written
from the point of view of the developer
rather than the customer. So I use Google all
the time when I am stuck; Google seldom fails. "
Rick
Richardson, CPA.CITP,
CGMA, managing partner at Richardson
Media & Technologies, said,
" Here's the one I go to most often:
ProWritingAid. " This app provides grammar
checking, style editing, and writing mentoring.
A free trial is available for this fee-based app.
Caleb Jenkins, EA, CQP, business and
accounting leader at RLJ Financial Services,
replied to our inquiry with, " I know this isn't
necessarily a 'reference app' but I utilize Twitter
quite a bit to begin my research on something. I
love the search capabilities and the opportunity
to start a conversation on any topic with lots of
people at any time. "
Leslie Shiner, owner of The ShinerGroup,
is another Twitter fan: " I know Twitter
has its down side, but I get a lot of really good
info from #taxtwitter on Twitter. Especially
with all the law changes and rule changes and
information around the PPP, ERTC, etc - it's been
a crazy year. "
My personal favorites are the apps that focus
on specific types of information. For example,
Night Sky tells me about the constellations
and planets I'm seeing when I point my phone
in a certain direction. It also identifies galaxies,
satellites, and the International Space
Station.
Garden Answers helps me identify flowers
and plants that I see when I'm walking or exploring.
The IMDB app lets me explore background
information on movies, actors, directors, and
other film crew members. I'm a fan of WebMD
for research about health issues.
When it comes to genealogy reference apps, I
recommend Ancestry, LDS Family History, Find
A Grave, and Ellis Island Search.
I turn to Wikipedia frequently, but there are
I live in Cicada
Brood X territory,
so I've been using
Cicada Safari app
this year to track
the emersion of
the bugs!
also apps for Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia
Farlex (includes science, technology,
history, and more, and is updated regularly),
and WikiArt is dedicated to art reference, as is
Art Authority. Geography of the World provides
maps along with detailed information on all
countries. For How-To apps, there is WikiHow
where you can read about how to do just about
anything, and of course YouTube, where you can
watch how to do just about anything.
Popular dictionary apps include MerriamWebster
Dictionaries, Oxford Dictionary
of English, and Dictionary.com. And
you can use Pocket Thesaurus and
Power Thesaurus to find just the right
synonym or antonym. And don't forget
Grammarly if you are struggling with sentence
construction.
If you need help with computations, check out
WolframAlpha or MathRef, and if it's science you
need to know about, consider Wolfram General
Chemstry, iSearch Science, and BioDigital
Human - 3D Body. Side note - I live in Cicada
Brood X territory, so I've been using Cicada Safari
app this year to track the emersion of the bugs! ■
18 JUNE 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
http://www.Dictionary.com http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
june2021

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