A Surprising Education...

too bad I can't get CPE hours for it.

Several months ago I dug though my stack of journals looking for an article I had read. I was researching an issue for a client and I though the article might help. I finally found it but I also came to a conclusion I needed to prevent this from happening again. So I created a database of the articles from my professional journals. I receive 3. Two, TaxPro Monthly and TaxPro Journal are part of my membership in NATP. As part of my NAEA membership, I get The EA Journal. The actual database I kept simple with fields for title, author, journal, date, page and three content driven fields. One field for a broad category, one for keywords and a final one for notes about the articles. Originally, I only planned on entering 2008-2010 and on in the database but I added 2007 so that all the issues in the front office are search-able.

The process was a great review. Most of the articles were read when I first received the journal. But often the read was quick and I am sure some were skipped due to subject matter or time. As I skimmed the articles to develop keywords, the info was refreashed in my mind. I found myself reading as much as skimming. Too often, I would find an article that I could have used for something but since I forgot about it, I researched the issue.

This was a project I thought about doing before but I put it off. I was hoping someone else would create a database. Now that it's done, I have already started using it for research. And it's easier to add articles after I read the journal. They're fresh in my mind then. Maybe next summer, I'll add the 2006 and before articles that are stored in the back office.

Now I need to create a database to organize and catalogue all the CPE materials I receive. Maybe that one will be next year's project and review.