The Opti.Tax Cloud It’s almost ready; the app for the HSP community is already in the starting blocks, and Release 21.0 will soon enable even faster and more efficient work. There’s a lot going on at HSP at the moment. What’s available, when and how, was the topic of the „HSP Live at 11“ livestream.

Last Friday, hsp Managing Director Paul Liese gave a livestream overview of all the new features that will soon be available, starting with Opti.Tax Cloud: This is currently in the testing phase because certain data protection and legal requirements still need to be implemented. It will go live by June at the latest.

A first look at the Opti.Tax Cloud

Paul Liese has, however, already provided an initial glimpse into the cloud using screenshots: immediately after logging in, a dashboard appears showing the status of each task („open“, „in progress“ and „completed“). This ensures clarity and transparency. The individual tasks themselves also contain all the relevant information regarding the due date, status and the person responsible. What’s more, tasks can be delegated to staff, and documents can be attached, opened and edited. All of this ensures seamless communication.

Another feature of interest to tax practice firms is that individual tasks can be created directly from the taxonomy. Entire folders can also be made available to clients as tasks. Furthermore, tax advisers can create their own questionnaires and thus tailor them to their individual clients’ needs.

A chat function is currently under development, which will allow clients to ask their tax consultancy questions about specific tasks. The consultancy will also be notified of this via email, so it does not need to be online at all times for this function to work.

The whole community in one app

There have also been some developments in the hsp Community: two new courses, „Opi.Tax – Documentation“ and „Opti.View“, are now online, with further courses on e-balance sheets, money laundering and Tax Compliance Management System will follow shortly. In addition, a new „Shop“ menu item will be added, where you can find the fee-paying courses for the Digitalisation Consultant training programme.

Another area hsp is focusing on is convenience. Until now, e-learning courses could only be completed on a computer, such as a PC. However, many people would prefer to take the courses whilst sitting on the sofa, in the garden or whilst out and about. To address this, hsp has developed a mobile solution in collaboration with a partner, which will be available soon: the hsp community app. The plan is for it to be available for iOS and Android in April. This means that, in future, courses can be completed anywhere, and it will even be possible to download them in advance.

The app also displays notifications, messages and other users who are currently online or have recently been online. Groups and discussions are also available in the app, as are all blog posts.

Release 21.0: Opti.Tax is faster and more efficient

Opti.Tax Release 21.0 is due to be launched in early May and promises an even faster and more efficient system. In terms of documentation, the taxonomy for cash management has expanded significantly recently. To improve clarity, it will be given a new structure with this release and divided into three thematic sections:

1. the company’s cash management
2. the tax audit and
3. Preparing for the cash register inspection.

One user had also requested that all attachments for a project be exported as a single attachment in a PDF. hsp has implemented this request in Release 21.0. This feature also applies to Livecharts – the visualised processes are then also included in the final PDF attachment.

E-learning: Money laundering and digitalisation consultancy

There is also some news to report in the area of e-learning. A new course on money laundering has been launched, which provides answers to the most important questions: What is money laundering? How does it work? How can I recognise it? Tax practice firms can book access to this course and assign it to their staff. Upon passing the test, participants will receive a certificate as proof of completion.

The continuing professional development course „Digitalisation Consultant“will be available very soon, from 3 May 2021. The knowledge imparted in the individual modules – GoBD, documenting processes, ICS, data protection, added value for clients and tax compliance – is always practice-oriented, as the trainers are themselves from the consultancy sector. Once a month, they are available via live calls to answer questions and offer advice. Even after completing the course, the newly qualified digitalisation consultants are not left to their own devices: during the first two meetings with clients, Paul Liese and his team of experts are on hand to provide guidance.

hsp is currently working on a new module for process automation, which is specifically designed to eliminate media breaks. We welcome input from all users (#tschüssmedienbruch).