#time and billing software for accountants | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

treasure-mimic · 1 year ago

Text

So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

#Unity #Unity3D #Video Games #Game Development #Game Developers #fuckshit #I don't know what to tag news like this

6K notes · View notes

blogborsa · 7 months ago

Text

CREVH - GOLD

QuickBooks is a renowned accounting software that offers a seamless solution for small businesses to manage their financial tasks efficiently. With features designed to streamline accounting processes, QuickBooks simplifies tasks such as tracking receipts, income, bank transactions, and more. This software is available in both online and desktop versions, catering to the diverse needs of businesses of all sizes. QuickBooks Online, for instance, allows users to easily track mileage, expenses, payroll, send invoices, and receive payments online, making it a comprehensive tool for financial management. Moreover, QuickBooks Desktop provides accountants with exclusive features to save time and enhance productivity. Whether it's managing income and expenses, staying tax-ready, invoicing, paying bills, managing inventory, or running reports, QuickBooks offers a range of functionalities to support businesses in their accounting needs.

Utilizing qb accounting software purposes comes with a myriad of benefits that can significantly enhance business operations. Some key advantages of using QuickBooks include:

- Efficient tracking of income and expenses

- Simplified tax preparation and compliance

- Streamlined invoicing and payment processes

- Effective management of inventory

- Generation of insightful financial reports

- Integration with payroll and HR functions

These benefits not only save time and effort but also contribute to better financial decision-making and overall business growth. QuickBooks is designed to meet the diverse needs of businesses, offering tailored solutions for various industries and sizes.

When considering accounting qb software options, QuickBooks stands out as a versatile and comprehensive choice. To provide a holistic view, let's compare QuickBooks with two other popular accounting software options - Xero and FreshBooks. quick book accounting package and offers robust features for small businesses, including advanced accounting capabilities, invoicing, payment processing, and payroll management. Xero, on the other hand, is known for its user-friendly interface and strong collaboration features, making it a popular choice among startups and small businesses. FreshBooks excels in invoicing and time tracking functionalities, catering to freelancers and service-based businesses. By evaluating the features, pricing, and user experience of these accounting software options, businesses can make an informed decision based on their specific needs and preferences.

555 notes · View notes

so-i-did-this-thing · 2 months ago

Note

Hello Nicholas!

I hope this isn't a weird question, but I saw in one of your posts that you used to be in a huge amount of debt and now you're living more comfortably- how did you manage to get out of debt? I feel like every time I start even trying to figure out where to start, it's just all too big to ever get out from under. Do you have any advice for me?

Hope you have a great day!

Hey there! Yes, from about 2007-2010 (before I transitioned), I was making less than $10k/year. I defaulted on all my credit cards, exhausted my retirement, and nearly lost my house. It sucked, and in 2024, I'm finally start to feel somewhat secure. What I learned (assuming living in the US, I also did not have student loan debt):

I had to first figure out the sources of my debt. A big chunk of it was because of bad spending habits due to mental illness (hoarding + retail therapy when I was dysphoric/depressed). Another chunk was from being in an abusive friendship. Another, from being unemployed. And the last, was general capitalism (this was during the housing crisis.)

I started working on improving myself to curb behaviors that led to debt. I started working on my hoarding. I started transition to improve my mental health (had to sell some stuff to afford HRT). It took until 2015 to ditch my abuser, alas.

I started working on new job skills. I swallowed my pride and got an office job after a failed 3-year stint at freelancing. It was shitty, but enough to take care of my income emergencies -- keeping my house out of foreclosure. I got a better job 8 months later. It also sucked and I was in it for 7 years, but eventually changed industries and that's when my career took off. Because with each new job, I've gotten better and better pay.

I started using budgeting software. YNAB is my favorite. I try to account for every single dollar I have.

I started spending smarter. Food was the expense I had the most control over. I went to the salvage grocery store (you can find non-expired stuff if you hunt) and bought the "ugly" produce 1 day away from rotting from the local markets. I actually managed to eat well once I found these grocery stores, and my food bill became a fraction of what it'd been at typical grocery stores. I do wish that I had given food pantries a shot, but I was in denial about my poverty at the time.

I sold a ton of useless crap. I got rid of a good chunk of my nerd "collectibles". I only miss a few things over a decade later.

I negotiated with my debt collectors. I managed to set up payment plans with my credit card companies, condo association, and the IRS. I also did a debt consolidation loan once I qualified and was sure I could commit to the monthly payments. It forced me to be super strict about my budget and for about 5 years I didn't buy much for myself. It sucked, but I cleared a bunch of debt that way.

I got help from my family. I was embarrassed to tell my family about my predicament, but it became impossible to hide. I got help cleaning out my hoard and my mother has gracefully given me generous cash gifts every now and then. Never enough to be life-changing, but enough to give me a mental breather.

I played the credit score game. This one seems counter-intuitive, and requires some self-control about not abusing credit cards. Many people recommend the "snowball" method for paying off cards (pay off your lowest debt asap, then go to the next one), but I went with a "credit utilization" method (bring my highest used cards down to the next utilization level, then move to other cards) so I would see immediate changes in my credit score. What is credit card utilization? It's the percentage of how much of your credit card you're using. A card with a $1,000 limit and $100 on it = 10% utilization. Your credit score changes when you cross the following thresholds: 90%, 70%, 50%, 30%, 10%. Once my credit score started going up past 400 (especially as defaults started falling away), I applied for a secured card. As I started using that better, I applied for a few more cards, then for credit line increases every 6 months. My car insurance rates were tied to my credit score, so as soon as that improved, I switched companies and saved money there.

Mistakes I made:

Being in denial that I was poor. I didn't really look for resources on how to live while in poverty. This hurt me a lot because I ended up neglecting myself out of pride, which made my situation even worse.

Payday loans. I got stuck in the payday cycle for about 8 years. I wish I had sold more stuff or asked family for money to have never needed that initial loan. Once you are in the cycle, it becomes very difficult to get out.

Not going to a food bank.

Not asking for help sooner. And not just financial help.

Not getting out of abusive situations sooner. This is hard, and I sympathize with anyone in a similar position. But if you think it's time to move on, trust your gut - don't sacrifice yourself for people who don't care about you.

Ignoring debt collectors, because I was too afraid to negotiate for a plan. The IRS was so patient with me in the end, even after defaulting twice on plans.

Not considering getting a roommate to reduce costs, or not thinking of doing more things like shared meals with my fellow poor friends. Again, denial and pride. Humility is not a bad word and I wished I had learned it sooner.

Not changing jobs sooner. Curbing my hoarding and getting a better job are responsible for about 90% of me being where I am financially today.

Getting out of debt is a marathon. It took over a decade for me, and I am *still* feeling the sting of poverty. I wish you the best of luck. Folks are welcome to tack on specific tricks and strategies -- this is just a general outline of my particular journey.

#chit chat #my most toxic traits at the time were individualism and stoicism and by god they nearly killed me

133 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 8 months ago

Text

CDA 230 bans Facebook from blocking interoperable tools

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then TOMORROW (May 3) in CALGARY, then SATURDAY (May 4) in VANCOUVER, then onto Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the most widely misunderstood technology law in the world, which is wild, given that it's only 26 words long!

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

CDA 230 isn't a gift to big tech. It's literally the only reason that tech companies don't censor on anything we write that might offend some litigious creep. Without CDA 230, there'd be no #MeToo. Hell, without CDA 230, just hosting a private message board where two friends get into serious beef could expose to you an avalanche of legal liability.

CDA 230 is the only part of a much broader, wildly unconstitutional law that survived a 1996 Supreme Court challenge. We don't spend a lot of time talking about all those other parts of the CDA, but there's actually some really cool stuff left in the bill that no one's really paid attention to:

https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/supreme-court-decision-striking-down-cda

One of those little-regarded sections of CDA 230 is part (c)(2)(b), which broadly immunizes anyone who makes a tool that helps internet users block content they don't want to see.

Enter the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and their client, Ethan Zuckerman, an internet pioneer turned academic at U Mass Amherst. Knight has filed a lawsuit on Zuckerman's behalf, seeking assurance that Zuckerman (and others) can use browser automation tools to block, unfollow, and otherwise modify the feeds Facebook delivers to its users:

https://knightcolumbia.org/documents/gu63ujqj8o

If Zuckerman is successful, he will set a precedent that allows toolsmiths to provide internet users with a wide variety of automation tools that customize the information they see online. That's something that Facebook bitterly opposes.

Facebook has a long history of attacking startups and individual developers who release tools that let users customize their feed. They shut down Friendly Browser, a third-party Facebook client that blocked trackers and customized your feed:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/once-again-facebook-using-privacy-sword-kill-independent-innovation

Then in in 2021, Facebook's lawyers terrorized a software developer named Louis Barclay in retaliation for a tool called "Unfollow Everything," that autopiloted your browser to click through all the laborious steps needed to unfollow all the accounts you were subscribed to, and permanently banned Unfollow Everywhere's developer, Louis Barclay:

https://slate.com/technology/2021/10/facebook-unfollow-everything-cease-desist.html

Now, Zuckerman is developing "Unfollow Everything 2.0," an even richer version of Barclay's tool.

This rich record of legal bullying gives Zuckerman and his lawyers at Knight something important: "standing" – the right to bring a case. They argue that a browser automation tool that helps you control your feeds is covered by CDA(c)(2)(b), and that Facebook can't legally threaten the developer of such a tool with liability for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the other legal weapons it wields against this kind of "adversarial interoperability."

Writing for Wired, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University speaks to a variety of experts – including my EFF colleague Sophia Cope – who broadly endorse the very clever legal tactic Zuckerman and Knight are bringing to the court.

I'm very excited about this myself. "Adversarial interop" – modding a product or service without permission from its maker – is hugely important to disenshittifying the internet and forestalling future attempts to reenshittify it. From third-party ink cartridges to compatible replacement parts for mobile devices to alternative clients and firmware to ad- and tracker-blockers, adversarial interop is how internet users defend themselves against unilateral changes to services and products they rely on:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Now, all that said, a court victory here won't necessarily mean that Facebook can't block interoperability tools. Facebook still has the unilateral right to terminate its users' accounts. They could kick off Zuckerman. They could kick off his lawyers from the Knight Institute. They could permanently ban any user who uses Unfollow Everything 2.0.

Obviously, that kind of nuclear option could prove very unpopular for a company that is the very definition of "too big to care." But Unfollow Everything 2.0 and the lawsuit don't exist in a vacuum. The fight against Big Tech has a lot of tactical diversity: EU regulations, antitrust investigations, state laws, tinkerers and toolsmiths like Zuckerman, and impact litigation lawyers coming up with cool legal theories.

Together, they represent a multi-front war on the very idea that four billion people should have their digital lives controlled by an unaccountable billionaire man-child whose major technological achievement was making a website where he and his creepy friends could nonconsensually rate the fuckability of their fellow Harvard undergrads.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/02/kaiju-v-kaiju/#cda-230-c-2-b

Image: D-Kuru (modified): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSI_Bravo_17_(0017FK-007)-USB-C_port_large_PNr%C2%B00761.jpg

Minette Lontsie (modified): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facebook_Headquarters.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #ethan zuckerman #cda 230 #interoperability #content moderation #composable moderation #unfollow everything #meta #facebook #knight first amendment initiative #u mass amherst #cfaa

246 notes · View notes

jymwahuwu · 7 months ago

Text

I said I'm not interested in AU but this is what popped into my head… HSR retro AU. No more space technology.

Basically you are a college student 🙈🙈🙈 Depending on whether you are an extrovert or an introvert, you may go shopping and play with your friends during the holidays, have a party, or stay comfortably at home listening to music with MP3 and cassette tapes, or reading novels on the subway.

You use a bulky computer to click on the Windows XP system, and spend hours downloading music and opening chat software. Your MSN friends list is as follows:

Jing Yuan:

Your mysterious neighbor is much older than you. You have never understood what the Xianzhou Alliance is. It is said that he kept a lion named Mimi in the yard, but every time you passed by, you thought it was just a cute cat. He'll stuff you with sweets and prepare you milk and afternoon tea, giving you advice. Well, he can also write ancient poetry. You shamelessly gave this old man your homework.

(You lie on his lap and sleep, breathing quietly.)

Aventurine & Ratio:

These two live together, are also your neighbors, professors, friends... You are not sure what their relationship is, but they quarrel every day. Aventurine is a high-level executive in IPC. Every time you visit a department store, you will whisper in your heart that this is also an IPC. He takes the bill in your mailbox every month and pays it off, very weird. His car is the most talked about in the community.

Ratio is your college professor...he is very strict about grades and academic performance. You cursed him one time and he heard you and he took you back to the office for an OTK spanking...unfortunately, it was legal. You have since become his target in class...

Sunday & Robin:

They still have halos and wings, share the same MSN account, and even the same pager. They have no privacy from each other. They are well-known brothers and sisters of the Xipe Church. They are very popular and eye-catching, attracting people's attention wherever they go. So if you are an introvert, the difference is even more pronounced haha. But both of them will approach you, in the name of kindness, with a look of concern on their face. Robin picks out clothes for you and lends you homework to copy. In return, you agree to go to church on the weekend… and help her sell cookies at the church charity sale.

Sunday provides insight into your life and schedule in the name of "for your own good". You don't know why you wrote your schedule in a notebook for him… He shows up in front of your house and listens to music with you (using the same MP3 player). You share with him a few things you learned in the sex education class, and he says that he has signed the commitment card (you: ? what is this). Promise to remain chaste until marriage… That card has an inexplicable printed pattern, with a photo of a couple holding hands, leaving you speechless. But you don’t know why you signed this commitment card under his supervision…

Dan Heng:

Your nerdy college classmate, with dragon horns (don't ask me why). He reminds you of class and exam times and lends you notes, leaving you with the last piece of cake. You always tease him until he blushes and gets angry.

Dan Feng:

Dan Heng's brother. He seems to be very traditional. You haven't seen him much and you only added him as an MSN friend.

Blade:

The mysterious old man. He seems to have a grudge against Dan Feng and Dan Heng. One time you were playing cards with Yanqing and Dan Heng. He suddenly broke into the yard, said something incomprehensible and then started fighting with Dan Feng. This scared you to death. Kafka appeared to stop him. You added Kafka friends to avoid being attacked by Blade.

Kafka:

The mysterious woman who can control Blade. You don't know who she is, but she seems to know you well and be gentle to you.

Silver Wolf:

Your college classmate has designed several computer games and won many awards at a young age, and occasionally plays cards with you. For some reason, she is very close to Blade and Kafka.

99 notes · View notes

justinspoliticalcorner · 8 months ago

Text

Jay Kuo at The Status Kuo:

In a letter to the Fox Network, Hunter Biden’s attorneys have put the company on notice that it’s about to get its pants sued off for defamation. Again. Biden’s attorney, Mark Geragos, best known for his successful representation of celebrities, issued the following statement:

[For the last five years, Fox News has relentlessly attacked Hunter Biden and made him a caricature in order to boost ratings and for its financial gain. The recent indictment of FBI informant Smirnov has exposed the conspiracy of disinformation that has been fueled by Fox, enabled by their paid agents and monetized by the Fox enterprise. We plan on holding them accountable.]

The letter specifically cited the network’s “conspiracy and subsequent actions to defame Mr. Biden and paint him in a false light, the unlicensed commercial exploitation of his image, name, and likeness, and the unlawful publication of hacked intimate images of him.” It also stated that Hunter Biden would be suing the network “imminently.” Supporters of the younger Biden cheered, glad to see he was finally taking the gloves off against purveyors of salacious, fake news. Fox is already reeling from other defamation lawsuits, including one it settled with Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million and another by Smartmatic, a voting software company presently seeking $2.7 billion in damages. Not everyone is happy, though. Advisers to the president had been hoping his son would keep a low profile and not put himself back in the news during an election year. They worried that news stories about the lawsuit would resurface the allegations, even if false and defamatory, which would then suck the air out of the news cycle. Such media time might otherwise be focused on Donald Trump’s problems and Joe Biden’s many accomplishments.

[...]

The Burisma bribes lie

There are three main things Fox was fixated upon that have now opened it to possible massive liability. The first is what I call the fake “Burisma bribes.” Fox gleefully amplified the false claims of former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, who had conveyed to his handler that he had information that both Joe and Hunter Biden had accepted $5 million in bribes from the Ukrainian company, Burisma, on whose board Hunter Biden once served. This false statement was dutifully recorded, as most statements by informants are no matter how wild, in a standard FBI informant form. This was left to gather dust for years until Rudy Giuliani and the FBI, at Bill Barr’s urging, resurfaced and weaponized it along with help from members of Congress.

For its part, Fox made sure that story went wide and was repeated ad nauseam. For months, host Sean Hannity ran nonstop coverage about the alleged bribe, poisoning viewers with actual Russian disinformation. Hannity’s show alone aired at least 85 segments that amplified these false Burisma bribery claims in 2023. Of those 85 segments, 28 were Hannity monologues. After his indictment and arrest, Smirnov admitted that the story he received had come straight from Russian intelligence. By centering and repeating the fake story, Fox had become a willing Russian disinformation mule, along with many members of Congress. But it never retracted the story or apologized for its role. Instead, it continued to claim that the source, Smirnov, was “highly credible.”

[...]

Nude pics

We all have heard about, but hopefully not personally seen, intimate images of Hunter Biden at parties and in sexual acts with various partners. His lawyers claim that these images were “hacked, stolen, and/or manipulated” from his private accounts, and then aired by Fox in violation of his civil rights and copyright law. They also appeared during congressional hearings as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-MW) infamously used them as visual props. (She’s lucky to be shielded by the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, or she could be swept up in a suit as well.) The decision to go after those committing what amounts to “revenge porn” on Hunter Biden, including the Fox Network, is part of a larger legal counteroffensive that began last year, according to sources with NBC News. As you may recall, the “Hunter Biden Laptop” story emerged as a kind of “October surprise” in 2020. The repair technician who leaked the contents of it to Rudy Giuliani later sued Biden and others for defaming him, claiming he had suffered damage to his reputation because they had claimed the laptop contents were part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

[...]

The “Trial of Hunter Biden”

In fall of 2021, Fox aired a six-part series called “The Trial of Hunter Biden,” which amounted to a mock trial of what his upcoming trial would look like if he were charged with being a foreign agent or with bribery, none of which has happened. Biden’s lawyers claim in their demand letter that “the series intentionally manipulates the facts, distorts the truth, narrates happenings out of context, and invents dialogue intended to entertain. Thus, the viewer of the series cannot decipher what is fact and what is fiction,” and it should be removed entirely from all streaming services.

[...]

The reality is, Fox and other right wing media continue to give oxygen to Rep. James Comer, who has yet to end his evidence-free impeachment inquiry. At least now, Fox will be on notice that it could face ongoing liability for failing to retract its false reporting, even while pushing out more lies about Hunter Biden. The network will have to tread more carefully, and ultimately it will have to consider whether it doubles down or backs off. Then there is the actual trial of Hunter Biden which is set to begin this fall. Attention will be on the president’s son at that time anyway, but with this lawsuit, just as with his counterclaims and counteroffensives against those who violated his privacy, Hunter Biden will look like a fighter and not just a victim. With all that has been done and said about him, he has very little to lose but a very large ax to grind. And if the GOP overplays its hand, as it inevitably will, it could create voter sympathy for him, even though it had hoped to paint him as a criminal, drug addicted womanizer. Democrats are often accused of not having enough courage to go on the offensive, of being too reticent to push back against the onslaughts of numerous bad faith actors on the right. Then when they do, there’s a good deal of hand wringing about how this assertiveness might come across to the voters.

Glad to see Hunter Biden fight back against the right-wing smear machine by threatening to sue Fixed News for defaming him.

#Jay Kuo #Hunter Biden #Fox News #Mark Geragos #Burisma Holdings #Alexander Smirnov #Joe Biden #Hunter Biden Laptop #Fox Nation #The Trial of Hunter Biden

13 notes · View notes

tigerdrop · 1 year ago

Text

so im kiiiinda redoing half of my fic. to account for the, uh. "canonically being able to put gordon into the computer" thing.

on the one hand i think its a way better deal b/c i will look 10% less insane writing about benrey literally putting him into the sims and playing with him like a doll . but on the other hand i have a bunch of words about gordon fingering himself that i cant use anymore

so. here they are, for u. "Enjoy"

———

Gordon blinks at the screen.

Benry Benry wants to have Oraljob sex with Gordon Freeman. Do you wish to proceed?

The laugh that erupts from him is high-pitched and violent, leaving him gasping for air. Benrey cackles in his ear. “I— I— Oh my God,” Gordon wheezes, doubling over. “You want to have what with me?! We can’t— We can’t show that on a Christian channel! We’re going to get so banned—“

“do you want to—“ Benrey can’t finish the sentence, gripped in the most intense laughter Gordon’s ever heard from him. “do you want to have oraljob?”

Gordon clutches his desk, weeping and howling.

When he calms down from his sudden fit of hysterics, he clicks “No”, to a chorus of disappointment from the chat. “I know, I know,” he says, sympathetic, “but seriously, Papa’s gotta pay the bills. Gotta keep it clean. PG-13, that’s my motto.”

“then why’s your dick out,” Benrey wheezes.

“Very funny—“

He stops in his tracks when he sees that his dick is, in fact, out. His Sims dick, that is. Gordon slams his ‘commercial break’ button so hard that he misses a few keys and takes a screenshot.

“Whoa! Put that thing away, man!”

“nice,” Benrey says appreciatively.

“Bear with me, folks,” Gordon begs. “We’re having some, uh, technical difficulties.” Why did his dick pop out? He said no! (In fairness, his Sim is decidedly not having oraljob sex. He’s eating a sandwich. With his penis out.) He hurriedly clicks through menus upon menus, trying to find a way to put his clothes back on, but none of the options do what he wants. “Why can’t I put away my stupid dick?!”

“hey, look. you just went up a level in nudism,” Benrey snorts.

Gordon buries his head in his hands, but can’t stop himself from an anguished laugh. “Okay! Give me fifteen, everybody. Go smoke a cigarette— or, or vape, I know the kids are big on the Juul these days, I don’t care, I’m not your dad.”

With that, he ends the stream.

“What kind of fucking mods did you download on my computer?” he asks, exasperated. “I feel like I need to give it a bath.”

“normal ones.”

“Uh-huh. You know my dick’s not even rendering correctly, right?”

“huh?” Benrey zooms in on it. “huh. it’s, uh. checkered.”

[some sort of connecting thought]

“I don’t even look like that, anyway,” Gordon mutters, brushing him off.

Benrey peers down at him. The webcam light turns on, drawing Gordon’s eye. “huh. i dunno. i can see the, uh… the resemblance.” He enunciates the last word carefully.

“Did you just turn on my webcam? Are we streaming right now?” Gordon sits upright, hastily checking on his streaming software. Still offline. Not that it would have mattered - he’s panned away to look at a stray dog in his yard - but it’s the principle of the thing.

“yeah, uh. no,” mumbles Benrey.

Gordon closes down OBS and Firefox entirely. Just to be safe. “A little fucking warning next time? How did you even do that?”

“administrator privileges.”

There’s a pause. Then Gordon sinks back down into his chair, defeated. “I shouldn’t have given you those. I should have smashed you up into little pieces when I had the chance. After you bought fucking Burnout Paradise on my dime—“

“you should show me what you look like,” blurts out Benrey, voice low and blunt.

“I— What?”

“i can make it look better. more like you.”

Gordon stares at the screen. Benrey avoids his gaze. He boggles a little, so far beyond comprehending this that he’s skipped past ‘denial’ and ‘anger’ all the way into ‘acceptance’. “Are you— Are you hitting on me?”

“for the immersion,” Benrey says stiffly.

———

Gordon throws his head back in frustration. “They’re just not— fucking— they’re not big enough! They’re short and stubby and I can’t— get them— where I want!” His wrist bends, desperately seeking something that he can’t describe. The tendons sing in pain. He hisses, then relaxes it, letting his hand fall limp.

Benrey stares down at him, mouth parted.

“This was stupid,” groans Gordon. “Now my hand’s all sticky and I don’t wanna wipe it on anything—“

“try again,” Benrey interrupts him, blunt and hoarse. “please?”

Gordon peers blearily at him from over the top of his glasses. “Huh?”

“i wanna.” That massive jaw gyres, struggling to work itself around a thought. “i could do it better. make it good.”

Heat rockets through Gordon’s belly, spiraling up his spine and leaving his hairs standing on end. His dick twitches without his conscious effort. Benrey’s eyes immediately dart to it. Emboldened, Gordon draws his fingertips around his hole, threatening to slip back in. “Yeah, bud? You sure? I don’t think you’ve ever done this before.”

“how would you know,” Benrey puffs.

“Uh, well, you’re in my fucking computer, for one thing.” He slips two fingers in with little resistance, just up to the second knuckle. For show. Nobody say he never did anything for Benrey. “But you know what? Maybe this’ll be funny.”

Benrey’s face hardens. “it’s not funny,” he says, pouting in high-definition. “i would never joke about pussy shit.”

“Point one: That is one hundred percent not true,” Gordon points out. “Point two—“ He curls them and groans, a soft noise. “I wanna hear it. Straight from the horse’s mouth.”

“what does this got to do with horses,” says Benrey, bewildered.

Gordon shifts in his seat, stretching a leg high into the air and gripping the back of his thigh to hold it firmly in place. His fingers move in a slow, back-and-forth motion, just enough that they visibly slide in and out, shiny and wet. Benrey makes a strangled noise in his throat.

“You think you could make it good for me? Tell me. Show me what I’m missin’ out on.”

Benrey’s fingers twitch around his avatar, scaled up to giant-like proportions, far too big for the task at hand but itching to put it into practice. “fuckin’,” he starts, low and rumbling and struggling to articulate himself, “stretch you open… mine’re bigger. lookie.” With his other hand, he waggles his fingers in front of Gordon.

“Well, duh,” Gordon says.

Above him, Benrey’s gaze shifts to his own hand, gears churning behind his eyes. “they’re still bigger,” he insists.

To prove his point, he snaps them - in a stomach-churning instant, Gordon’s camera snaps back to an isometric viewpoint, looking in on their dollhouse. On them. On Benrey’s Sim, pale and shirtless, beads of sweat tastefully textured on his skin, leaning over his own on the cheapest double bed Simoleons could buy. There’s a hand pressed against the mattress, and another at his waist. Pawing at him. And, unlike Gordon’s own hands, they’re proportioned well for a guy his size: closer to dinner plates than the slim, short ones he’s furiously trying to bend into the right shape in real life.

He shivers in his seat.

“Point taken,” he says. His voice cracks partway through.

As if on cue, their Sims start moving again, gracelessly sliding and snapping into a new position. Gordon’s stripped naked, letting Benrey between his legs, and one large hand buries itself in that hairy, thorny knot of polygons and glossy pink textures while the other holds him wide open. The fidelity’s good enough that Gordon can see exactly how the fingers curl: two outside, keeping them back, and two inside, making his Sim’s hips gyrate.

“lookatchu,” Benrey rumbles in his ear. “takin’ it like a champ…”

Gordon sucks in a sudden breath. He curls his own fingers in time with the animation, speeding up to match.

“bet you could take more.”

He whines and visibly clenches around his fingers. “Jesus, man!”

“yeah? yeah? c’mon,” taunts Benrey, shy of breath. “show me. put another one in.”

Gordon weakly mumbles some expletives as he leans his head into the crook of his headphones. Presses himself closer to that voice. “Who taught you how to fucking— talk like that,” he groans, pushing in a third finger.

The fans inside his tower spin faster. Louder. “fuuuck, dude,” he hears, a low, pained utterance.

“I’d let you,” Gordon says dizzily, “God, I must have lost my fucking mind, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” his fingers make slick, filthy, squelching noises inside of himself, “let you put your hand in me—“

“i wanna,” Benrey cuts him off, too fast. Eager. “wanna fuckin’— wear you like a puppet—“

Gordon makes a sharp noise that surprises even himself. The he half-laughs, half-pleads, “Don’t say shit like that! That’s not— That’s not hot!”

“you moaned. i heard it, buddy.”

He ignores this. Benrey takes the opportunity to lean in, getting a closer view of Gordon’s webcam. And the slick folds Gordon’s spreading open for him.

#writin stuff #i cant really keep this in but i also cant really cram it into the other AI benrey thing i wanna write. so .

28 notes · View notes

qsaadmin · 2 years ago

Photo

The ultimate tool of Practice Management Software - QuickstartAdmin

Professional Practice Management software by QuickstartAdmin involves many features and functions, serving as a versatile tool for CPA firms. It maximizes efficiency and profitability with real-time management of appointment scheduling, client management, billing, and analytics. It's an essential asset for modern practices in a competitive scenery.

#practice management software #professional practice management software #accounting practice management software #time and billing software for accountants #consulting practice management software

1 note · View note

triridbilling · 10 days ago

Text

Optimize business analysis with Tririd Biz Accounting dashboard

In today's competitive market, real-time business insights are the need for growth and success. TRIRID Biz Accounting Software enables you to have a holistic Accounting Dashboard that makes your financial data easy to read and drives accurate decision-making.

Why Choose Tririd Biz for Business Analysis?

Intuitive Dashboard

View your sales, purchases, taxes, and expenses at a glance.

User-friendly design with graphs and summaries for quick understanding.

Real-Time Insights

Get updated, real-time financial data and ensure prompt business decisions.

Keep a check on your cash flow, pending invoices, and profit margins without hassle.

Customizable Reports

Generate custom reports with regard to your business requirements

Download and share reports for efficient planning with your team

Boost Productivity

Save hours of manual work by automating data visualization

Get a clear and concise breakdown of financial KPIs to increase productivity

Track Sales & Purchases

Analyze sales performances and identify trends to growth.

Monitor purchases to achieve optimized cost management.

Drive Business Growth Today!

Don't let manual data management hold you back. With TRIRID Biz's Advanced Dashboard, you can streamline analysis, minimize errors, and take your business to the next level.

Join Us Now!

Call @ +91 8980010210 / +91 9023134246

Visit @ https://tririd.com/tririd-biz-gst-billing-accounting-software

#TRIRID Biz Accounting and Billing Software #Best Billing Software In India #Real-Time Business Analysis #Free GST Invoice Software for Indian Business #No1 Business Software for SMEs

0 notes

boy-gender · 9 months ago

Note

something i wanna mention re: your post about the bots stealing photos, it’s important to note that many of these come from transphobic, exorsexist, and intersexist targeted data breaches and are sourced/scraped from malicious sites/boards like the k-farms.

i’m ace and sex-oscillating (sometimes i’m fine with seeing sexual things sometimes i’m not) and even when i’m at my most sex-repulsed i want everyone to know that the sex workers in the tag are some of our most vulnerable population members (no matter their gender(s) or exact identity/terms) because they’re being targeted by these sites.

idk sorry if this is reiterating your post but you’re the first person i’ve seen mention the importance of “these photos are stolen btw” instead of “oh yucky porn” like. y’all some of these are photos which were only intended for one or two people to see. these workers can now no longer regulate that OR how people interact with them.

they get so much harassment because of stolen photos when it’s been ripped out of their private accounts…. it’s awful

Thank you so much for adding that. I sometimes forget that not everyone is aware of how dangerous sex work, even purely online not in person sex work, is. I should have emphasized more that sex workers are not the danger; they're largely *in* danger.

And not just of being harassed, having their material stolen, or being targetted, but also by the death of internet privacy and net neutrality. Bills like fosta-sesta, and it's successor kosa- which is moving forward as we speak- are steadily erasing protections for anyone who creates nsfw content anywhere on the internet. It removes software and data tracking that allow sex workers to vet their johns before they interact with them, especially if they're going to meet up in person, and that data was one of the CHIEF ways human traffickers are found and arrested, and their victims tracked down.

KOSA isn't just a danger to fandom- though it is *also* a danger to fandom- but to very real people doing a job as old as time. Outlawing the expression of sexual materials is never going to stop sexual activity, it just forces it to be done in the dark, where sex workers, a large chunk of whom are queer, are at increased risk of being harmed, killed, or losing their ability to make a living.

One of the things I said in my post was that sexual materials belong on tumblr like they belong anywhere. Some people may point to the fact that that's no longer allowed under the terms of service- regardless of what tumblr "clarifies," they still ban it, especially from trans people. I was here before then. I was here when net neutrality still existed. And I am going to continue to operate under those attitudes until the end of days. I don't post sexually explicit materials myself, but I am never going to tattle on people who do, and people who do report those real users (not the bots) to staff disgust me.

If you're sex repulsed, I get it. I'm personally repulsed by the smell of pomegranate perfume. It's a trigger for me. But I am responsible for my feelings- it wouldn't be right to demand everyone everywhere stop wearing pomegranate perfume, and by going in public, I run the risk that I will bump into someone wearing it. I will have to remove myself from that situation.

And the same is true for if you don't like sexual content. You are responsible for what you do with those feelings. It's okay to have them; you can feel however you want about sex! But it's not okay to demand that other people cease harmlessly expressing themselves to conform to your feelings, and it's not okay to act like a fucking cop and purposely try to interfere with their job because you have the ick and don't approve.

Sex work is labor. Sex workers having ways to protect themselves and others is as close to "unionizing" as sex work gets. Stop interfering with what are basically their labor regulations. Block and move the fuck on!!

Do report the bots though. For SPAM. For STEALING MATERIALS. Not for the sex.

#thank you for this ask anon #good additions

7 notes · View notes

kiyaverma9311 · 16 days ago

Text

Everything You Need to Know About Cosmolex Accounting Software

In today’s fast-paced business world, having the right accounting software is essential for smooth financial management. CosmoLex has emerged as a leading choice for businesses, particularly in the legal and professional services industries, offering comprehensive accounting solutions tailored to specific needs.

This guide will explore why CosmoLex stands out as the best accounting software, detailing its features, benefits, and unique selling points. We will also address common questions to help you understand if CosmoLex is the right tool for your business.

What is CosmoLex?

CosmoLex is a cloud-based accounting software solution designed with professionals in mind, especially those in the legal industry, such as law firms and solo practitioners. With an all-in-one platform, CosmoLex combines essential accounting functions with specialized features that cater to the unique needs of legal professionals. Unlike traditional accounting software, CosmoLex streamlines financial management while also addressing compliance and trust accounting requirements.

With features that extend beyond basic bookkeeping, CosmoLex helps firms manage time tracking, billing, client management, and compliance, all in one integrated system. The software's easy-to-use interface and powerful functionality have made it a go-to solution for professionals looking for efficiency and accuracy in their financial operations.

Key Features of CosmoLex

1. Trust Accounting Compliance

One of CosmoLex’s standout features is its trust accounting capabilities, specifically designed to meet the strict regulations of the legal industry. Trust accounts require meticulous record-keeping to ensure that client funds are handled appropriately. CosmoLex automates the process of tracking client trust balances, generating trust account reconciliations, and ensuring compliance with local bar association rules.

2. Integrated Time Tracking and Billing

CosmoLex combines time tracking and billing into one seamless process, making it easy for law firms to log billable hours and create invoices directly from the platform. This feature helps streamline the billing process, improves accuracy, and ensures that no billable time goes unaccounted for. Whether you need to track time spent on client meetings or specific case tasks, CosmoLex offers a user-friendly interface that simplifies time tracking and invoicing.

3. Comprehensive Financial Management

Beyond its specialized tools, CosmoLex provides full-service accounting capabilities, including accounts payable/receivable management, general ledger, and financial reporting. It allows businesses to manage their financial data accurately, create financial statements, and generate customizable reports that provide insights into their financial health.

4. Automated Bank Reconciliation

CosmoLex automates the process of bank reconciliation, which is crucial for maintaining accurate financial records. By connecting your bank accounting software, transactions are automatically imported, matched, and reconciled. This reduces the manual effort needed for reconciliation and minimizes the risk of human error.

5. Client and Matter Management

CosmoLex offers integrated client and matter management tools that allow you to organize client files, manage documents, and maintain case notes within the same system. This helps legal professionals keep track of all case-related information in one place, ensuring that critical documents are easily accessible when needed.

6. Billing Customization and Payment Processing

The software supports customizable invoice templates and allows you to set payment terms and accept online payments through integrated payment gateways. This feature not only streamlines the billing process but also provides clients with convenient payment options, thereby improving cash flow for the business.

7. Compliance and Security

CosmoLex prioritizes data security with encryption, secure cloud storage, and multi-factor authentication. Compliance is also a key focus, especially for law firms that must adhere to various legal and financial regulations. The platform ensures that all data is protected and compliant with the necessary guidelines for trust accounting.

Benefits of Using CosmoLex

1. All-in-One Solution

One of the major advantages of CosmoLex is that it combines various essential tools into a single platform. This eliminates the need for separate software solutions for accounting, time tracking, billing, and client management, streamlining workflow and reducing administrative overhead.

2. Enhanced Efficiency

CosmoLex’s user-friendly design and automated features help businesses save time on routine tasks. The time tracking, billing, and reconciliation automation allow professionals to focus on their core activities rather than spend valuable time on manual bookkeeping.

3. Accurate and Transparent Reporting

With real-time financial reporting capabilities, CosmoLex helps businesses keep a clear picture of their financial status. Customized financial reports can be generated for better insights, aiding in more informed decision-making and strategic planning.

4. Improved Cash Flow

By enabling easy online payment processing and accurate invoicing, CosmoLex helps businesses improve their cash flow. Clients can pay invoices directly through integrated payment gateways, which helps speed up the collection process.

5. Legal-Specific Features

CosmoLex is specifically designed for legal professionals, so it includes features that cater to the needs of law firms that other generic accounting software might not offer. This includes trust accounting compliance, case management, and billing features tailored for legal services.

How Does CosmoLex Compare to Other Accounting Software?

1. CosmoLex vs. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting platforms for small to medium-sized businesses. While it offers strong accounting capabilities, it does not provide specialized features tailored for legal professionals, such as trust accounting compliance and integrated client matter management. CosmoLex excels in this area by combining industry-specific tools with general accounting features.

2. CosmoLex vs. Clio

Clio is a popular practice management software for law firms that includes billing, case management, and document storage. However, while Clio does provide some financial features, it lacks full-service accounting capabilities such as automated bank reconciliation and comprehensive financial reporting that CosmoLex offers. CosmoLex integrates these features into one platform, making it an all-in-one solution.

3. CosmoLex vs. Xero

Xero is a well-known accounting software designed for a broad range of businesses. While it offers great financial management tools, it lacks the legal-specific features that CosmoLex has, such as trust accounting compliance and client matter management. For law firms needing specialized accounting and practice management, CosmoLex is the more comprehensive option.

Pros and Cons of Using CosmoLex

Pros:

All-in-One Platform: Combines accounting, time tracking, and client management.

Trust Accounting Compliance: Ideal for law firms that need to manage client trust accounts.

User-Friendly Interface: Easy to navigate, even for those without an accounting background.

Seamless Integration: Works well with payment gateways and other third-party tools.

Automated Features: Time-saving automation for bank reconciliation, billing, and reporting.

Cons:

Cost: CosmoLex can be more expensive compared to simpler, non-specialized accounting software.

Learning Curve: While the interface is user-friendly, new users may still need time to familiarize themselves with all the features.

Not Ideal for Non-Legal Firms: The software is best suited for law firms and may not provide enough value for businesses in other industries.

Final Thoughts

CosmoLex has established itself as one of the best accounting software solutions for legal professionals due to its comprehensive, all-in-one approach. From trust accounting compliance to integrated time tracking and billing, CosmoLex provides the tools needed to manage the financial and operational aspects of a law firm effectively. While it may come at a higher cost compared to simpler accounting software, its specialized features and time-saving automation make it a worthwhile investment for law firms and professional service providers. By choosing CosmoLex, businesses can enhance efficiency, ensure compliance, and focus on delivering excellent services to their clients.

FAQs

What Industries Benefit the most from CosmoLex?

CosmoLex is designed primarily for legal professionals and firms. It is best suited for law firms, solo practitioners, and accounting firms that handle legal trust accounting and billing.

How does CosmoLex Handle Data Security?

CosmoLex employs strong data security measures such as encryption, cloud storage, and multi-factor authentication to protect user data and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

Can I try CosmoLex before Purchasing?

Yes, CosmoLex offers a free trial for potential customers to test out the platform and determine if it fits their business needs.

Does CosmoLex Integrate with other Software?

CosmoLex integrates with popular tools and platforms like Xero, QuickBooks, and payment gateways, ensuring a seamless workflow for users who may need to use additional software for their operations.

Is CosmoLex Suitable for Solo Practitioners?

Yes, #CosmoLex is an excellent choice for solo practitioners who need a comprehensive accounting and practice management solution. Its user-friendly design and specialized features make it ideal for professionals who manage their own practices.

#CosmoLex #Best Accounting Software #Business Accounting

2 notes · View notes

rightmedicalbillingllc · 23 days ago

Text

Why You Need to Outsource Medical Billing Services to a Third-Party Medical Billing Company

In today's complex healthcare landscape, managing medical billing can be a daunting task for healthcare providers. From coding and claims submission to payment posting and denial management, the intricacies of medical billing can significantly impact a practice's revenue cycle. Outsource medical billing services to a third-party medical billing company can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

Benefits of Outsourcing Medical Billing Services

Enhanced Efficiency: A dedicated medical billing company has the expertise and resources to streamline your billing processes. They can automate tasks, reduce errors, and accelerate claim processing, leading to faster payments.

Increased Revenue: By outsourcing, you can ensure accurate and timely claims submission, minimizing denials and maximizing reimbursement. A specialized billing company can identify and recover lost revenue, optimizing your revenue cycle.

Reduced Administrative Burden: Offloading medical billing tasks to a third-party company allows your staff to focus on patient care and other core competencies. This frees up valuable time and resources, improving overall productivity.

Compliance Adherence: Staying up-to-date with ever-changing healthcare regulations can be challenging. A reputable medical billing company has the knowledge and experience to ensure compliance with HIPAA, ICD-10, and other relevant regulations, mitigating legal and financial risks.

Improved Cash Flow: Timely claim processing and efficient payment collection can significantly improve your cash flow. A dedicated billing company can optimize your revenue cycle, ensuring you receive payments promptly.

Challenges of In-House Medical Billing

High Staffing Costs: Hiring and retaining qualified billing staff can be expensive, especially in competitive markets.

Complex Regulations: Keeping up with the ever-evolving healthcare regulations requires specialized knowledge and ongoing training, which can be a significant burden.

Time-Consuming Tasks: Manual data entry, claim submission, and follow-up can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

Limited Expertise: In-house staff may lack the specialized expertise to handle complex billing scenarios and appeals processes effectively.

Services Offered by a Medical Billing Company

Claims Submission: Accurate and timely submission of claims to payers.

Coding and Billing: Correct coding of medical services and procedures.

Payment Posting: Efficient posting of payments and adjustments.

Denial Management: Effective handling of denied claims, including appeals and resubmissions.

Follow-up on Claims: Timely follow-up on outstanding claims to expedite payment.

Financial Reporting: Detailed financial reports to track revenue and expenses.

Staffing Cost Savings

By outsourcing medical billing, you can significantly reduce staffing costs. You won't need to hire and train in-house billing staff, saving you money on salaries, benefits, and overhead expenses.

Overhead Cost Savings

Outsourcing can also help you save on overhead costs. You won't need to invest in billing software, hardware, and other infrastructure. Additionally, you can reduce office space requirements, further lowering your overhead expenses.

How Right Medical Billing LLC Can Save Your Money and Time

Right Medical Billing LLC is a leading medical billing company that can help you streamline your revenue cycle and improve your bottom line. Our experienced team of billing experts offers a comprehensive range of services, including:

Expert Billing Services: Our team stays up-to-date with the latest industry regulations and coding guidelines to ensure accurate and timely claims submission.

Advanced Technology: We leverage cutting-edge technology to automate tasks, reduce errors, and accelerate the billing process.

Dedicated Account Managers: You'll have a dedicated account manager to oversee your billing operations, ensuring smooth communication and timely resolution of issues.

Improved Cash Flow: Our efficient follow-up and denial management processes help you collect payments faster, improving your cash flow.

Reduced Administrative Burden: By outsourcing your medical billing, you can free up your staff to focus on patient care, leading to increased productivity and patient satisfaction.

Why Choose Right Medical Billing LLC?

By choosing Right Medical Billing LLC, you can:

Increase Revenue: Our expertise in coding, billing, and claims submission can help you maximize reimbursement.

Improve Efficiency: Our streamlined processes and advanced technology can significantly reduce turnaround time for claims.

Enhance Compliance: Our team ensures adherence to all relevant regulations, mitigating legal and financial risks.

Reduce Costs: Our cost-effective solutions can help you save money on staffing, technology, and overhead expenses.

Improve Patient Satisfaction: By freeing up your staff to focus on patient care, you can enhance patient satisfaction and loyalty.

In conclusion, outsourcing medical billing services to a reputable company like Right Medical Billing LLC can provide numerous benefits, including increased efficiency, improved revenue, reduced administrative burden, and enhanced compliance. By partnering with us, you can streamline your operations, improve your cash flow, and focus on what matters most: providing quality patient care.

#healthcare #medical billing services

2 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 4 months ago

Text

Lawfair, founded by the well-known litigator Adam Mortara, is a boutique right-wing firm currently engaged by the state of Tennessee to provide counsel on a contentious Supreme Court case that could affect the availability of gender-affirming care for transgender minors across the country. Aside from Mortara, the only other lawyer known to have worked or done work for the firm is a project-based contract attorney named Christopher Roach. He no longer does so, after WIRED asked questions about his apparent ties—revealed exclusively in this story for the first time—to online accounts with a long history of posting white supremacist and antisemitic content.

“America, frankly, would be a much more civilized, safe, wealthy, and orderly place, but for its minorities,” wrote one of the accounts.

Mortara, a former Clarence Thomas clerk and current lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, founded Lawfair in 2020. While working with a different firm, he was the lead trial lawyer representing Students for Fair Admissions in its case against Harvard, which later advanced to the Supreme Court—a ruling that gutted affirmative action. He is also, according to an appointment letter provided to WIRED by Tennessee’s attorney general’s office that was addressed to him through Lawfair LLC, currently being retained for $10,000 a month by Governor Bill Lee to “assist the State and the Office of the Attorney General with complex and sophisticated litigation, regulatory matters, and client advice.” Specifically, the firm is working on a case about whether the state's ban on gender-affirming hormone care for transgender minors is in violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. If the court sides with Tennessee, it would significantly impact access to treatments like puberty blockers and hormone treatment. The case was picked up by the Supreme Court in June, and arguments are set to be heard this fall.

Aside from Mortara, the only other lawyer known to have done work for or with Lawfair—and the person tied to the online accounts with a history of racist posting—is Roach, a University of Chicago–educated attorney and an adjunct fellow at the Center for American Greatness, a prominent conservative group. (Its publisher has been a fellow at the hugely influential Claremont Institute, which is listed as a member of the Project 2025 advisory board.) According to Florida’s bar registration website, Roach is based in Tampa, Florida.

In response to a request for comment from WIRED for this story, Mortara told WIRED that he was “not aware of these abhorrent statements, which do not reflect our values,” adding that following WIRED’s revelations, Roach is “no longer affiliated with the firm.” He also said that Roach did not work on the gender-affirming-care case for the state of Tennessee and was not involved with the Students for Fair Admission case. Roach’s online résumé, which up until then listed Lawfair as his employer, was quickly changed to omit mention of it. Roach himself did not respond to WIRED’s phone calls, text messages, and emails.

The questions WIRED asked Mortara about Roach concerned a decades-old online trail of deeply racist and antisemitic writings and social media posts by accounts linked to Roach. Those links were shown in research provided exclusively to WIRED by software engineer Travis Brown, who previously helped reveal that former Brooklyn real estate broker Chaya Raichik was the person behind the hate-filled, anti-trans LibsofTikTok account.

Brown’s research, which WIRED independently confirmed, ties Roach to a Twitter account that used different names over the years, such as “Roman Dmowski,” a reference to an antisemitic Polish nationalist, and “Blessed Groyper,” a reference to the name used by followers of notorious white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

The account, which appears to have been suspended in 2022, is littered with openly racist, white supremacist, and antisemitic comments.

“You’re a zero empathy monster,” the account wrote in a 2020 post in response to a Black mother asking who would protect her children from gun violence.“You are a disgrace to the human race. Actually white lives matter the Most and are the most important bc we are the most productive and innocent ppl on this planet.”

In another response to the same post, the account added: “I’m making sure my kids are white and that they don’t encounter any more minorities than absolutely necessary bc 13do50.” This last term is coded language used by white supremacists. The number 13 falsely references the percentage of the American population that’s Black; the 50 refers to the supposed percentage of all murders committed by Black people in the US. The Anti Defamation League has described the term as “racist propaganda.”

In another post from 2019, the account dismissed the death of a counter protester at the Unite the Right rally in 2017, writing: “One chick died in a car accident in Charlottesville and they act like it's Anuddah Shoah”—a phrase popularized by white supremacists to mock Jews and the Holocaust. In another post, the account complained that “any exploration of Jewish wrongdoing as a source of German hostility is verbotten [sic].”

Brown was able to link the anonymous Twitter account to Roach through an email address. Using data from a massive leak in 2022 in which over 200 million email addresses of Twitter users were posted online, Brown found that the Twitter account was registered with a Yahoo email address that features Roach’s surname and a location where, according to his LinkedIn account, he worked for four years at the beginning of the 2000s.

WIRED was able to independently link this same email address to Roach via records found in public databases and further confirm its connection to Roach. A “Chris R.” using the Yahoo address to post reviews on Google, for example, included a photo of his house alongside a favorable review of a Tampa-area housepainter. That house, according to Hillsborough County property tax records, belongs to Roach.

The Yahoo email address ties Roach to repeated postings of racist material. It was used, for instance, in a 2007 email sent to and published on VDare, a notorious site that according to the Southern Poverty Law Center acts as a bridge between the mainstream Republican Party and the fringe white nationalist right, by a user named “Chris Roach.”

Roach was writing to VDare to complain about being “unceremoniously dumped” from writing for the online magazine of the America’s Future Foundation (AFF), a young conservative group in Washington. (While Roach’s posts on AFF are now deleted, WIRED has reviewed archived material on that website with the byline “Chris Roach.” In a biography on the site, he writes that he “studied the Great Books at the University of Chicago under some really great professors … I stayed for Law School and am now an attorney in private practice.” This biography lines up exactly with Roach’s, according to his LinkedIn profile.)

In his VDare email, Roach alleges that AFF’s executive director, David Kirby, fired him for comments Roach made on a post at the paleoconservative blog Eunomia, claiming Kirby told him, “There's no place in AFF's mission to provide space for someone who posts comments and content like this.” (AFF and Kirby did not respond to a request for comment.)

Roach didn’t say what the comments were, but an archived copy of the comment section to which his email linked reviewed by WIRED shows deeply racist remarks from a user named “Roach.” “America, frankly, would be a much more civilized, safe, wealthy, and orderly place, but for its minorities,” the author of the comment wrote, asserting there is “something deeply evil in the culture of black America and the souls of black Americans.” The poster denied being racist, but advocated for “special black schools, higher rates of discipline for black students, different standards of discipline for black young people, black colleges, segregation in prisons, much higher rates of black imprisonment, racial profiling, and, most important of all, simply a willingness to say, ‘We will control blacks when they get out of control.’”

The VDare email also asked readers to click on a link to Mansizedtarget.com, a site described as “paleoconservative observations” written by an author whose name was displayed, according to archived copies, first as “Mr. Roach” and then as “Roman Dmowski.” (At one point, the Google reviews account tied to Roach and to the Yahoo email address evidently used “mansizedtar” as a screen name, given a response to a review in which a business owner addresses the user of the account by that name. After WIRED contacted Roach about the online posts, archived copies of the Mansizedtarget website on the Wayback machine were removed.)

Over the years Roach’s name, or a variation of his name, has appeared on a range of different right-wing and extremist sites.

The “Blessed Groyper” Twitter account shared links on several occasions to articles written by Christopher Roach for the website American Greatness. Roach, whose image appears next to his byline, has been a prolific contributor, writing 337 articles over the last seven years. In the past 12 months, Roach has covered major right-wing culture-war topics from opposing gun control measures to pushing election conspiracies, defending the January 6 insurrectionists, and labeling those concerned about the spread of Covid-19 as “fanatics.”

Roach describes himself as an “adjunct fellow” at the organization that publishes American Greatness, the Center for American Greatness—a right-wing think tank that has been funded by dark money. Neither the Center for American Greatness nor its publisher, Buskirk, responded to a request for comment.

Roach, as noted in his author bio at American Greatness, has also written for Taki’s Magazine, another paleoconservative blog that has hosted content from far-right figures like Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes as well as white nationalists Jared Taylor and Richard Spencer.

An account called “Roach” was also extremely active in the comment section of extremist website Occidental Dissent, which is run by Brad Griffin, a prominent member of the neo-Confederate, secessionist group League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group.

Accounts using Roach’s name or his known aliases, such as Mansizedtarget and Roman Dmowski, have also posted on the gun-focused forum Sniper’s Hide and a Jeep Wrangler fan site known as Wrangler Forum.

Roach was, until recently, one of just two people who stated they worked for Lawfair LLC, according to LinkedIn. The other person is founder Mortara, who is based in Tennessee, where the company is also registered.

Mortara, who graduated from the University of Chicago Law School after earning an undergraduate degree there and a masters in astrophysics from Cambridge, is formerly a clerk for Clarence Thomas. The justice’s clerks have over the years created a powerful network of conservative leaders in the legal system, media, and at the highest levels of government.

In one comment section on a 2008 blog about Michelle Obama’s college thesis, a user identified as mansizedtarget.com said they had worked on the “Gratz/Grutter Michigan affirmative action cases.” Both cases were argued in front of the Supreme Court during the period Mortara clerked for Thomas.

Following almost two decades at the high-profile Bartlit Beck firm in Chicago, where he specialized in intellectual property cases, Mortara formed Lawfair LLC, which he describes as a “civil and voting rights” firm. Mortara has also been a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago, which did not respond to a request for comment, since 2007. In the past decade-plus, he has been involved in litigation concerning redistricting efforts amongst the state legislatures of Texas and Wisconsin. In the latter, he teamed up with the firm that had represented former president Donald Trump and the RNC, and pocketed what was projected to be nearly $200,000 in fees.

Lawfair LLC has virtually no online presence, including no website and no social media presence, which Alejandra Caraballo, an instructor at Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic, tells WIRED is not unusual.

“It's a boutique firm from a connected attorney,” says Caraballo. “They basically only litigate culture war cases (hence the name lawfair). It works through political connections.”

Earlier this month, The Tennessean reported on an August 2023 letter signed by Tennessee governor Bill Lee approving payment of $10,000 a month for up to two years to Lawfair LLC for its work on the gender-affirming-care case.

“The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office retained Adam Mortara, one of the finest litigators in America, as outside counsel and has not ever had a relationship with any other attorneys from Lawfair, LLC,” Amy Lannom Wilhite, the director of communications for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office, tells WIRED.

Roach is not named counsel on any of the Supreme Court cases. Mortara did not respond to questions about how many lawyers have worked for or done work for Lawfair and what Roach was working on at the firm after he joined, according to his online résumé, in 2020—the same year the firm was founded.

5 notes · View notes