Accounting Technology articles from December 2004

Accounting Technology archives from December 2004

The Return of the ASP.(Application service providers)
December 1, 2004... Slowly but surely, the sound of the ASP is being heard in the land. For those of you who are not ardent technologists, ASP stands for application service provider, which basically means applications that can be accessed via the Internet,...

A Woman's Place.(tax preparation)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... Women have became a majority among CPAs in the United States and are heavily represented in other businesses in the tax and accounting arena. "Overcoming Barriers" by Associate Editor Carly Lombardo examines how women are doing in two fields...

Need Insights?
December 1, 2004... Editor Robert Scott also writes "Consulting Insights," a free, twice-monthly electronic newsletter that addresses issues concerning the consulting and reselling market. It's insight with an attitude. If you want to subscribe, put the following...

What is the most important technology issue for 2005?
December 1, 2004... Transitioning to a Paperless Office. We are just starting the process and believe it can be of enormous benefit. There are a lot of products and options available and selecting the proper one is critical. Karen Kerber, CPA Kerber, Rose...

Blackbaud Offers Referral Program.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Blackbaud has started a referral program called the Solution Referral Network to let professionals, including CPAs, receive fees and other benefits for referring clients to Blackbaud's software products. Members who register leads with...

Blundell Retires.(Steve Blundell, Intuit Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Steve Blundell, who co-wrote the Accountants Trial Balance, is retiring after an 11-year career with Intuit. Blundell is also retiring after 17 years with a CPA firm in Delray Beach, Fla. Blundell and partner Larry Wolfe wrote a...

SWK Revenue Recorded.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... SWK, a Livingston, N.J.-based reseller, had revenue of $215,075 for September, according to Trey Resources, the company that acquired SWK in June. Publicly traded Trey noted that the revenue figure projects to $2.5 million in annual sales....

NetSuite Nabs Resellers.(Netsuite Development Corp., Mosebach Griffith and Co., contract)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Online accounting software vendor NetSuite says it has signed 50 new resellers worldwide, including CPA firm Clifton Gunderson, which is the largest organization to take on the Internet-based product line. The CPA firm says it picked the...

MicroAccounting Does Deals.(SKS Consulting, Assist)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... MicroAccounting Solutions, a Dallas-based Best Software reseller, has acquired two companies in its metropolitan area. MAS, which sells the MAS 90/200 accounting software lines, has purchased SKS Consulting, which offers Best's...

Kraus To Head Biz One.(Dan Kraus has been named vice president of SAP America Inc's Business One software)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Dan Kraus, who has led channel recruitment for SAP's Business One software, has been named vice president of development for the business application in the United States. Kraus takes over the job from Gadi Shamia, who is now head of the...

B2PCommerce Changes Program.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... B2PCommerce, which markets NonprofitBooks, has established a new program for business consultants and CPAs who want to sell its software or provide services to end users. The new categories are the Solution Provider level for resellers and...

Microsoft Preps Magellan.(new product)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Microsoft is preparing for a delayed re-entry into the low-cost accounting market with the release of Microsoft Office Small Business Accounting software late next year. The company has issued a beta version of the product, code-named...

Microsoft Relaunches SBM.(Small Business Manager)(Microsoft Business Solutions)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Microsoft Business Solutions has re-launched its Small Business Manager software under the name MBS Small Business Financials. The new package is getting a usability facelift, among other enhancements, according to Karen Engle, product...

Best Moves Palsule.(Himanshu Palsule has been promoted to vice president at Best Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Best Software has named a long-time employee, Himanshu Palsule, to fill the position of vice president and general manager of its Mid-Market Accounting Solutions Division, filling the position left open when Craig McCollum resigned this summer...

MBS Narrows Loss.(Microsoft Business Solutions)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Microsoft Business Solutions continued to carve away its losses, reducing the red ink to a $41 million operating loss for the first quarter ended September 30, down from a loss of $79 million a year earlier. MBS revenue rose to $160...

Sage Earnings Surge.(Sage Group PLC)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... The Sage Group, parent of Best Software, says its pre-tax profit grew by 20 percent, while revenue increased by 29 percent for its year ended September 30. The preliminary financial report shows that North American revenue rose to about...

Epicor Net Booms.(Epicor Software Corp. earnings)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... The bottom line for Irvine, Calif.-based Epicor Software jumped to $6.3 million for the third quarter ended September 30, up sharply from $1.8 million a year ago. Third-quarter revenue rose to $62.2 million, up 54 percent from $40.3...

AccountMate Sets New Campaign.(AccountMate Software Corp.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... AccountMate, the software company that became independent again after being spun off by Best Software, has initiated a new marketing campaign and a new slogan. "It's being very clear that we're here to stay," says Donna DeRosa, marketing...

Blackbaud Sales Rise.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Newly public Blackbaud reported net income of $12.7 million for its third quarter ended September 30, a 67 percent increase from $7.6 million in last year's corresponding period. The jump in earnings came as revenue rose to $36.2 million,...

Cyma Hikes Prices.(CYMA Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Cyma Systems, a Tempe, Ariz.-based accounting software vendor has increased the price of its modules from $495 to $595, a 20 percent increase. The increase was effective with the shipment of Version 7, the latest addition to its product...

Deals Drive September Sales.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Company Period ending Sales 9/30 (Percent Increase) Epicor Quarter +54 percent Sage Year +29 percent Blackbaud Quarter +19 percent MBS...

CCH Buys Sian.(CCH Tax and Accounting, Habif, Arogeti and Wynne, contract)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... CCH Tax and Accounting has entered into the document management business with the acquisition of the Sian software from the Atlanta CPA firm, Habif, Arogeti & Wynne. Terms were not disclosed. CCH will market the product under the name...

RIA Enhances Checkpoint.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... RIA has given users of its Checkpoint tax research system the ability to take Internet-based CPE courses from MicroMash. Both companies are owned by the Thomson Corp. Users now have the ability to take more than 130 MicroMash courses in...

TaxWise Adds CCH Research.(Consumer Credit Help, Universal Tax Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... TaxWise, the Rome, Ga.-based tax preparation software company, is broadening its product line by giving users the ability to access CCH's tax research from within its tax preparation software. Material available to TaxWise users includes...

Intuit Rolls Out Payroll.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Intuit has introduced its first payroll products that accountants can use to offer payroll services to their clients. QuickBooks Enhanced Payroll Plus for Accountants is designed to let firms provide processing services for up to 50 clients...

Thomson Unit Buys Gear Up.(Thomson Corp. Thomson Tax and Accounting)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Thomson Tax and Accounting has acquired Gear Up, a Vancouver, Wash.-based supplier of training and Continuing Professional Education for tax and accounting practitioners. Terms were not disclosed. Gear Up's flagship event is a two-day "Form...

STF Intros Biz Product.(STF Services Corp. new product)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... STF Services has introduced SuperForm Doing Business Forms, a collection of more than 3,700 business forms for all states and the District of Columbia. The Internet-based product, available by annual subscription, includes forms for all...

PayMaxx Adds ASP Payroll.(application service providers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... PayMaxx, a Franklin, Tenn.-based payroll application provider, has introduced PayLoad ASP, a Web-based system for businesses with 150 to 2,000 employees. PayLoad ASP also allows for multiple users from various locations, 24/7 availability...

Advent Narrows Loss.(Advent Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Advent Software reported a loss of $5.2 million for the third quarter ended September 30, down from $8.4 million a year earlier, as the company took a $3.4 million impairment charge. The loss came as third-quarter revenue rose to $38.6...

Show Calendar.(Calendar)
December 1, 2004... December 2-24 TaxWorks Power Training Seminar. Grand American Hotel, Salt Lake City. www.taxworks.com/aspxmain/seminar.aspx January 10-12, 2005 2005 Blackbaud Partner Summit. Charleston Place Hotel. Charleston, S.C....

Overcoming Barriers: Women are breaking into the upper echelon of accounting firms and resellers with lots of hard work and determination.
December 1, 2004... It was 2001, and it was a three-person race to gain the top position at Schenck Technology Solutions. The winner, Laurie McNicoll, beat out the two men vying for the position. She considers this not only her biggest business challenge, but...

Women in Leadership Roles.
December 1, 2004... Michelle Scheffki was working her firm's booth at this summer's Midwest Business and Accounting show in Chicago when a male CPA approached and asked to talk to the person in charge. Scheffki, a CPA and partner-in-charge of Clifton...

Learning to Lead.
December 1, 2004... After 18 years in business, Lisa Kianoff, CITP, CPA, founder and president of L. Kianoff & Associates, knows a little about being a woman in the accounting technology arena. However, when she started her Birmingham, Ala.-based company in...

The Road for Women Is Easier.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Technology and accounting haven't always been the friendliest places for women, but things have changed, according to Jennifer Wilson, co-owner of consulting firm Convergence Consulting. Wilson, once a principal and national business leader...

Turning to NFP Software: Many organizations find standard GLs aren't for them.(not-for-profit)(Intuit Public Sector Solutions)
December 1, 2004... The software pendulum is swinging and many non-profit organizations are flocking to accounting software specific to their industry. In previous years, not-for-profit organizations often made-do with less- costly and less-complex solutions...

Document Management Gets Hot: Document management is about a lot more than going paperless.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... This may not be the Year of Document Management. Rather, it may be the Year of Talking About Document Management. "I don't see firms pulling the trigger, and they should be," says Tom Davis, owner of Tom C. Davis & Associates of Valdosta,...

CPA Constructed.(eFilecabinet)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Jim Blaylock thought so much about the document management needs of his Provo, Utah-based firm that he created his own solution and launched the product, eFilecabinet, four years ago. It is now in use by nearly 1,000 firms. The system is...

Document Management Vendors.(Brief Article)(Directory)
December 1, 2004... CaseWare CaseWare International Berkeley, Calif. (800) 267-1317 www.caseware.com CCH Tax & Accounting Torrance, Calif. (800) PFX-9998 http://tax.cchgroup.com CPASoftware Pensacola, Fla. (800) 272-7123...

Tax Planning in Demand: Vendors are adding a wide range of features for 2004.
December 1, 2004... There's a new kid on the tax planning software block. Well, sort of, but not really. In a market in which BNA Software has long been the dominant player, TaxWise, the Rome, Ga.-based accounting software vendor, has become the latest player...

Tax Planning Vendors.(software industry)(Brief Article)(Directory)
December 1, 2004... BNA Software Washington, D.C. (800) 372-1033 www.bnasoftware.com CCH Tax and Accounting Torrance, Calif. (800) 739-9998 www.tax.cchgroup.com Creative Solutions Dexter, Mich. (800) 968-8900...

Courting Disaster: This year's hurricane onslaught underscores the need to plan.
December 1, 2004... Talk about disasters! Dynamic Software Solutions got hit hard this year by three of the four alphabetically named hurricanes: Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne. The Accpac reseller is based in Miami, but it also has an office on the south side...

The Florida Institute Lends a Hand.(Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants)
December 1, 2004... The Florida Institute of CPAs was on the front lines during the hurricanes. The FICPA set up a toll-free hurricane help line, along with a resource area on its Web site where it provided information for hurricane victims and CPA volunteers. The...

FundWare 7.3.(new general ledger accounting software)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... FundWare Version 7.3 introduces a new general ledger with a three-dimensional account structure. The general ledger includes the transactional part of the account number used on every ledger entry, and categories and groupings facilitate...

Xpitax Outsourcing.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Xpitax has added outsourced accounting services for clients including bookkeeping and write-up solutions, work paper conversion, and year-end accounting work and financial analysis. Xpitax's bookkeeper records client data into the GL, makes...

SalesLogix Customer Service.(features)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... SalesLogix Customer Service, an integrated component of the 6.2 CRM Suite, incorporates customer tracking, scheduling, issue resolution, and reporting features. Service Ticket management tracks ticket ID and status items, schedules...

InSource Food and Beverage.(new product)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... InSource, the Food and Beverage Module, is the first in a series of industry-specific optional return modules RIA will offer within its InSource Sales & Use Tax software. The module includes 97 returns for Illinois, Virginia, North...

Simple Start.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... QuickBooks Simple Start focuses on three business tasks: tracking money coming in, tracking money going out, and maintaining crucial records such as tax receipts, customer data, and vendor information. Simple Start helps users keep accurate...

Red Wing Payroll 9.0.(new product)
December 1, 2004... Red Wing Payroll 9.0 provides updated federal and state tax forms, increased tax reporting flexibility, efiling, and enhanced workers compensation tracking. The 9.0 version provides users with the 2004 federal tax forms versions, including...

2004 Tax Legislation.(Tax Legislation: Law, Explanation and Analysis of the Working Families Act of 2004)(Conference Report of the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... CCH's "Tax Legislation: Law, Explanation and Analysis of the Working Families Act of 2004" covers all tax provisions, so professionals can understand, comply with, and plan under the new rules. Meanwhile, "Conference Report of the Working...

Solomon 6.0.(new product by Microsoft Business Solutions)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Microsoft Solomon 6.0 features enhancements to project management and accounting functionality, as well as additional analytic and reporting options. Version 6 integrates with Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal 2.5, allowing...

Alere Accounting 4.0.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Alere Client Server runs on the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 platform and is designed for large companies with large data sets. The Manager module allows changes to be made for company ID, company location ID, item number, payment terms, and...

NetSuite 10.(automation software)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... NetSuite 10 automates the up-sell process based on aggregate purchase history across a client's entire customer base, statistically identifying customers for cross-selling. The Upsell Manager suggests products and services that a customer...

BusinessWorks Gold 5.(new product)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... BusinessWorks Gold Version 5 enhances inventory management, data entry, search functionality, and reporting capabilities. Deactivation of inactive records allows businesses to hide inactive customer, vendor, part, and GL account records,...

Adaptive Planning.(new product)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Web-based Adaptive Planning 1.5 provides rolling forecasts and what-if scenario analyses for developing budgets or forecasting models. The formula-based modeling capability exists within a series of core financial model elements, including...

TaxSolver 4.2.(enhanced software from Taxware International Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Taxware's TaxSolver 4.2, which includes Sarbanes-Oxley compliance functionality, enables users to view their tax calculated versus tax remitted from a sales tax perspective. The system creates reports for audit purposes, and tax directors...

Platinum for Windows 5.3.(new product from Best Software)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Best Software's Platinum for Windows and BatchMasterPFW Version 5.3 has a new Business Desktop Interface that serves as a dashboard. Users can easily access frequently used documents and Web pages, as well as all the features in Platinum...

RIA Checkpoint.(Research Institute of America)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... MicroMash CPE and Financial Reporting and Management content is available on RIA's Checkpoint, giving professionals access to 130 courses in six major areas. Meanwhile, SECPlus on Checkpoint integrates SEC filing and company financial...

ATX Jumps into the Channel.(Company Profile)
December 1, 2004... ATX is hoping to solve what it considers the twenty-first century accounting practice problem. "Competition, combined with new computer technologies, has accelerated the completion of compliance projects such as tax reporting, auditing,...

Richard Boyle: Benchmarking Data.
December 1, 2004... Richard Boyle always liked the concept of being able to benchmark data for one client's operations against data for comparable, closely held businesses, but was unhappy with the software available to do so. He hoped someone would come out...

Editor's Note.
December 1, 2004... Welcome to Year in Review, the annual compilation of the best of reviews published by the Accountants Media Group publications. These reviews examine software tools used by tax and accounting professionals and by their clients. Even in a...

Index to Review Categories.
December 1, 2004... Tax Research pg. 6 Tax Preparation Software pg. 12 Not-for-Profit Accounting Software pg. 26 Write-up Software pg. 31 Practice Management Software pg....

About the Reviewers.
December 1, 2004... John Hedtke is an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication and an author of 23 computer books, including "RoboHelp for the Web" (written with Brenda Huettner). He can be reached through his Website, www.hedtke.com. Barry...

Year in Review Product Index.
December 1, 2004... TAX RESEARCH CCH Tax Research Network pg. 6 Checkpoint (RIA) pg. 7 Kleinrock pg. 7 BNA pg. 9 ...

Navigating the Research Stream.
December 1, 2004... Maybe it's time to stop talking about tax research or accounting research products and talk about research platforms. True, tax practitioners still turn to mainstays, such as RIA and CCH, in large numbers for tax research tools. But vendors are...

The Look of Tax Software: Tax software is getting friendlier with other applications.
December 1, 2004... The face of tax preparation software is changing. In fact, the face of desktop software in general is changing and tax software is part of a bigger trend as applications increasingly take on the appearance of Microsoft products. ...

ATX: ATX offers users a complete return management system.
December 1, 2004... ATX's tax season started out a little bumpy last year with a server failure. Because of a SQL Server problem. ATX users were forced to resend electronically filed returns they had sent during an 18-hour period. However, this season, users...

CCH: CCH continues to tighten integration within its product line.
December 1, 2004... CCH will be offering a familiar face in its new interface for its ProSystem fx Tax software-a worksheet interface for the thousands of accountants who grew up with Excel. The Worksheet View allows users to input data directly onto...

Creative Solutions: CSI Products Will Integrate More with RIA's.(RIA Electronic Inc., partnership)
December 1, 2004... Creative Solutions is keeping it in the family as it extends the integration between its UltraTax tax preparation software and products for the tax and accounting office from sister companies. That integration starts with RIA's research...

Drake Software: Price Cuts Make Drake Stand Out Among Vendors.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... It's hard to miss the biggest change in Drake's tax preparation software-a 30 percent price reduction at a time when all other vendors have held the line on pricing or have implemented modest price increases. The reason for the decrease?...

Intuit ProSeries: New warning feature flags missing data.
December 1, 2004... To make it easier for tax preparers to improve customer service while speeding up processing of returns, Intuit has beefed up ProSeries with features that flag missing data and provide enhanced support for preparing multi-state returns. ...

Lacerte: Lacerte increases simplicity in filing complex returns.(Lacerte Software Inc.)
December 1, 2004... Preparers using this year's version of Lacerte tax software will be able to lock completed returns to prevent inadvertent changes, preserving the version of a return as it was filed to the Internal Revenue Service and meeting one of the biggest...

Nelco/Greatland: Nelco offers a variety of bundles.
December 1, 2004... The last two years have been busy ones for Nelco, entering the market and then making major enhancements to meet user needs. This year, the planned enhancements are more in the order of polishing the product rather than making major changes in...

Orrtax Software Solutions: Orrtax's IntelliManager can manage returns prepared at remote offices.
December 1, 2004... Orrtax's primary focus has always been tax preparation. But now it wants to take it to the next level by helping its customers run their businesses more efficiently. The new IntelliManager for IntelliTax for Windows is a step in that...

Petz Enterprises: Interest in the VTax hosted tax system is gaining momentum.(Virginia Taxation Automation eXchange)
December 1, 2004... After completing its second tax season with a Web-based tax preparation product, Petz Enterprises has seen its VTax, a hosted 1040 service, adopted by more than 1,000 offices. The company expects the number to expand to at least 5,000 offices...

RIA: RIA's GoSystem RS will have a Web-based tax organizer.(Research Institute of America)
December 1, 2004... A long time after many observers thought that online tax preparation would be the way tax practitioners prepared tax returns, RIA's GoSystem RS has been pretty much alone on the Internet, although competitors are starting to get more serious...

Fundraising Tops Nonprofit Software Strategies.(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 1, 2004... The opening years of the decade have been hard on not-for-profit organizations. Throughout the nonprofit world, levels of membership, and participation have generally been on the decline as an older, more participatory generation of Americans...

Write-up Winners @ti#These products go for the gold in the CPA's office.(Howell Software)
December 1, 2004... After viewing the countless hours of triumph and trauma at the recent summer Olympics, I pondered how interesting life would be if we applied those same Olympian competitive standards to evaluate the fit and function of the multitude of...

Building a Solid Practice: Practice management software provides a foundation.
December 1, 2004... The solid foundation of any CPA firm rests squarely on the shoulders of management. And in order to properly manage and react to change, you need a great software system that captures, reports, and empowers users to react quickly to what is...

Online Payroll Spreads: Products Bear a Strong Resemblance to Each Other.(ADP Small Business Division)
December 1, 2004... For a software vendor, moving a product from the desktop to the World Wide Web can bring as much bad news as good. On the plus side, it shores up waning revenue streams from products that don't change much from year to year, ensuring that...

Time to Send the Bills: Billing more quickly builds profits.
December 1, 2004... While attending Convergence, the annual Microsoft Business Solutions users' conference, I took a break from the keynote and concurrent sessions to visit the exercise spa for a quick workout. During my session on the treadmill, the LED message...

A Tale of Two Markets: The low-end market is better and worse than ever.(accounting software)(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 1, 2004... The accounting software market for the small-to-midsized business is getting worse and better at the same time. It's getting worse because the number of lower-end products continues to shrink, but it's getting better because the quality of the...

Trial Balance Fits the Niche: Is trial balance software really necessary?(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 1, 2004... Trial balance software is very much a niche product. That's really saying something, considering that the accounting market is itself a niche market to start out with. As a class of software, trial balance is a bit hard to pin down. In many...

Choices for Payroll Run the Gamut.(payroll processing software)
December 1, 2004... Payroll is the one application where many clients are unhappy with all of the alternatives. That's not because the choices are poor or sparse-There are plenty, from inexpensive in-house solutions to robust service bureaus. The reason is...

Fixed Assets: An Epic Story: These software tools make it easier for managers to complete their quest.(fixed asset accounting software.)
December 1, 2004... Simultaneous to the completion of this fixed asset review, the seventh and final volume of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" book series became available in bookstores for purchase. This amazing accomplishment by the prolific horror author...