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New Audit Tool: Novatel MiFi
by Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP  (September 20, 2009) 

Accountants increasingly rely more on the Internet to not only access firm resources, but also applications being hosted singularly on the web.  Most firms today have great (and often redundant) Internet connections in the office, but when personnel are in the field they are at the mercy of clients providing availability to the Internet.  While clients usually provide access 50%-90% of the time depending on the region, the remainder of the time, firms have come to rely on the use of the digital cellular network, which is accessible via digital air cards, integrated air cards within the laptop, or “tethering” via a smart phone. These cellular devices are most often configured to be used by one person at a time which requires an individual contract for the device, but they have not always been easy to share by a group of auditors in the field.  To address this issue, both Verizon and Sprint are now offering Novatel’s MiFi access point, which allows up to five laptops to share one service through the card.

The MiFi is about the size of a small stack of credit cards and can work either wirelessly or tethered via the included USB cable.  While it has an internal battery that can hold a charge for approximately four hours, by connecting the USB cable, the device will always be charging so you needn’t worry about running out of battery time.  Up to five users can simultaneously connect via their laptops WiFi connection which is ideal for auditors working around a conference room table.  These devices are safer than using an open WiFi Access Point as they come with WPA installed (which can be easily changed to whatever code the firm wants to use).  The connection speed is dependent on what is available where the device is being used, but in most metropolitan areas, REV-A is available providing download speeds of over 1Mbps and uploads of 300Kbps or more.   While the speeds are not stellar compared to today’s cabled Internet connections, the use of thin client applications via Citrix and Windows Terminal Server make them usable so your auditors no longer have any excuse not to enter their time sheets and expenses daily! 

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP is President of InfoTech Partners North America, Inc. which works exclusively with accounting firms on implementing today’s digital best practices to optimize their tax, audit, client service and administrative production processes.  He is also an Advisory Board Member to the Association for Accounting Administration where this article first appeared.

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