Accounting Technology articles from January 2002

Accounting Technology archives from January 2002

Putting a company together. (Editor's Note).
January 1, 2002... Robert W. Scott Can two companies new to the North American accounting software market find happiness by cobbling together a number of smaller players? That is the question to be answered as Softline Group, a South African holding company,...

Street talk: Reader views.
January 1, 2002... Have you seen any interest in the Linux operating system, either for your clients, or in running your own firm? Linux interest has never abated. The longer the effects of the recessionary economy linger, the more likely I think it is that...

Atrac loses director. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The executive director of Atrac, a consortium of regional reselling firms, has joined one of the group's former members as a marketing manager. Beverly Braddock left Atrac to take the marketing job at Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based DMS...

MKSH starts Tier One. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... McLean, Koehler, Sparks & Hammond has renamed MK Technology Solutions, its technology consulting organization, as Tier One Technology Partners. Tier One, based in Baltimore, has a separate Web site, logo, and telephone number and has...

EPartners Tops Best channel. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Texas-based ePartners, fresh off being named Global Partner of the Year for Great Plains, has seen its Parsippany office named as Top Business Partner of the Year for Best Software (formerly known as Sage Software). The Parsippany office...

BothWorlds starts VAR program. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... BothWorlds, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company that markets time and billing software, has launched a program to allow accountants and others to resell its Imagine Time package. Resellers can get margins of 30 percent with the chance for...

Aston Group regroups. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Aston Group, parent to the Aston IT reseller chain in North America, has restructured the company's debt and its ownership. Aston, based in Denmark, had abandoned plans for an initial public offering early last year. The company then...

Frank heads NexTec. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Eric Frank has taken over as president of NexTec Group, a Houston-based reseller of Solomon, Great Plains, and Best (formerly Sage) accounting software products. Frank has replaced Joe Barber, who joined Upstream Academy during the summer....

Peachtree adds web tools. (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Peachtree Software has added a set of tools to its Web-site design services to develop the subscription based WebSite Creator Pro to enable small businesses to design their sites. Users can create online catalogs for up to 2,000 items....

How is business compared to last year? (Practice Development News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... How is Business Compared to Last Year? The same 958 19% Better 1,090 22% Worse 2,987 59% A survey taken in November through Netscape's Netbusiness poll found that a majority of respondents say business was worse...

SBT vet joins softline. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... David Dierke, who was senior vice president of sales for the former SBT Accounting Systems, has joined Business Vision, as executive vice president of sales for the former SBT Accounting Systems, has joined Business Vision, as executive vice...

MYOB sells Canadian unit. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... MYOB Limited has sold its Canadian operations to Intuit Canada Limited because of what the company sees as a competitive environment in a maturing market. MYOB Limited is parent to MYOB Group, whose subsidiaries market Windows and...

Best names marketing exec. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Best U.S. Operations (formerly known as Sage) has named Nina Smith to the new position of chief marketing officer to oversee marketing programs for all of the Best companies. Smith, most recently chief marketing officer for Webtrends, spent...

Open systems adding NFP. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Open Systems is developing a not-for-profit suite of applications for its Traverse line which is expected to provide capabilities for both government and not-for-profit organizations. President Michael Bertini says the new packages will...

Great plains shifts exec. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Jodi Uecker-Rust, chief operating officer at Great Plains, and one of the top four execs before the company's purchase by Microsoft last year, has been moved to the United Kingdom from Great Plains' Fargo, N.D., offices. The company says...

Cyma changes margins. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Cyma Systems, based in Tempe, Ariz., has raised its lowest product discount from 30 percent to 45 percent, and is offering new dealers a 50-percent margin in their first year with Cyma. Cyma vice president Steve Brueckner says dealers...

Timeslips kills backoffice. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Timeslips has killed plans for an accounting software suite, Timeslips BackOffice, originally scheduled for an August debut, in favor of links to QuickBooks and Peachtree. BackOffice, based on the ePeachtree engine, had been planned as a...

TeleMagic transferred. (Accounting News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Best U.S. Operations has transferred the ownership of its TeleMagic contact management package to a different division. TeleMagic had long been marketed by Best U.S. Holdings, which handles Timeslips. It has now been transferred to Interact...

CCH promotes Robert. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... CCH has promoted Kevin Robert to the position of president and CEO of CCH Tax Compliance as the creation of a new executive at CCH's parent, Wolters Kluwer, created a ripple effect at CCH. Robert, formerly vice president and publisher,...

PPC launches PFC. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Practitioners Publishing Co. has launched its Personal Financial Center program to offer online financial planning applications to professional advisors, along with consumer-oriented software and content for their clients. Jim Reeves,...

RIA expands InSource RS. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(InSourceRS-Income Tax)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... RIA has expanded its Web-based corporate tax line with the release of InSourceRS-Income Tax, designed for corporate enterprises with global operations. The Income Tax product offers the same features that are available in the company's...

Tax notes on web. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... TaxAnalysts has launched Tax Notes International on the Web, an online magazine that includes content from the Arlington, Va.-based company's Tax Notes International print journal. Print subscribers will have access to the magazine, the...

Liberty Tax gets $11M. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Liberty Tax Service, the Norfolk, Va.-based tax office franchisor, has received $11 million in new financing. Companies participating in the financing include Envest Ventures, Edison Venture Fund, Scott Lake Holdings, SunTrust Bank, and the...

TurboTax expands program. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Intuit has expanded its Instant Data Entry program for Turbo Tax users by increasing the number of companies participating in its Quicken TurboTax Connect program to 42. The program enables taxpayers to automatically import W-2 and 1099...

PayMaxx prints from web. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... PayMaxx, the Franklin, Tenn.-based company, has enabled users of its Web-based PowerPayroll processing service to print checks at their offices. The new CheckPrint service is downloaded from the Internet and used to print checks after...

CSI buys Pro Tym. (Tax & Financial Planning News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Creative Solutions, based in Dexter, Mich., has acquired Pro Tym Systems, which makes the DOS-based Thunder Payroll and Lightning General Ledger programs. ProTym, based in Bellevue, Wash., will continue to support the programs for 17...

Navision cuts 25 percent. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Navision U.S. has cut its workforce by 21 people or 25 percent of the total, including Susan Boothe, who ran the company's American reseller program, as the company's sales suffered in the United States. The company's Danish parent...

Sage results up. (Financial News).
January 1, 2002... Sage Group, the British holding company, says that despite tough economic conditions in the United States last year, its revenue rose 7 percent. U.S. sales for 2001 were roughly $296.6 million (converted from pounds), compared to $276.5...

Softline profits up. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Softline, the South African holding company that owns Business Vision, DataFaction and AccountMate in North America, says revenue grew 14 percent for the half ended September 30, while operating margins rose sharply. The company reports...

Active IQ predicts profit. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Active IQ Technologies, the company that purchased both Red Wing and Champion Business Systems, says it expects to report an operating profit for the second half of the year. The prediction was made as the Minneapolis-based company reported...

Champion results released. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Champion Business Systems, the Denver-based accounting software company purchased last year by Active IQ, lost $35,543 in its six months ended June 30 as sales slumped to $696,825, a nearly 10-percent drop from the prior year. The...

Timberline earnings drop. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Net income for Timberline Software, which makes accounting software for the construction industry, fell sharply for the third quarter ended September 30 as revenue rose 10 percent from the prior year. Earnings fell to $119,000 in the...

Intuit sales off. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Intuit results for the first quarter ended October 31 show that product sales declined and that service revenue pumped up the top line as both revenue and losses increased. First-quarter revenue rose to $208.8 million, up 11.3 percent from...

Softline's North American Purchases. (Financial News).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Softline's North American Purchases Company Acquired Price Paid Acquired Business Vision $5.6 million 2000 AccountMate $4.25 million 2000 Datafaction $3.2 million 1999 Softline began its...

CPAs and technology: A good fit?
January 1, 2002... Susan Bradley believes firmly that CPAs can establish themselves as technologists. And she's willing to take the steps to help develop the image of practitioners who have qualified for the Certified Information Technology Professional...

Cracking windows.
January 1, 2002... Open Systems Accounting Software, with its customizable source code, could easily accommodate the designated Linux server platform. And because of the wide area of connectivity made possible by Linux, computers at each satellite office could be...

Financial planning: Mature tools; The tools available to financial planners are an increasingly mature lot. (Software Review).
January 1, 2002... Many accountants believed that the transition into financial planning would be a natural extension of existing client services. After all, both financial planning and accounting work from the same data: money, its acquisition, disposition, and...

2001 tax season preview: Paper is taking the back burner this tax season as web organizers and e-filing push ahead. (Tax).
January 1, 2002... Online organizers are hot; well, everything about the Internet is hot this tax season. However, organizers seem to get the best response from tax preparers' clients. So what's the big draw? "People want to use the Internet, and a Web...

Manual dexterity: Can't make sense of all that software documentation? VARs to the rescue. (Accounting).
January 1, 2002... HighTower, a MAS 90/200 reseller and software developer, found out the hard way: A picture is worth a thousand words--at very least. When the Lincolnwood, Ill.-based firm came Out with its Multi-Bin enhancement, a feature that enables...

Write-up guide. (New Products).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Guide to Write-up Services assists professionals in providing profitable bookkeeping and payroll services. Designing bookkeeping and payroll services, accepting clients, gathering data, processing the data, preparing financial...

WinProxy 4.0. (New Products).(Ositis Software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... WinProxy 4.0 allows all PCs on a LAIN to access the Internet through a single connection. It strengthens firewalls and built-in anti-virus defenses, giving businesses protection against Internet intruders as well as malicious code in email...

TrakTime web. (New Products).(TrakTime/Web 2.0 from Commercial Logic)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Through TrakTime/Web, timekeepers can access timesheets over the Internet, served up in a weekly spreadsheet format for time and expense entry. TrakTime 2 has a full online validation of Client/Engagement and Work Code entries,...

Focal point. (New Products).(ProVantage Executive Portfolio)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Summary tables within the ProVantage analysis tool, Executive Portfolio, can be seamlessly exported into Excel for further analysis and manipulation with Focal Point. Users will benefit from access to strategic financial information of...

Office for Mac. (New Products).(Microsoft Office 2001 for Macintosh)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac includes updated versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as the new Entourage version of email and personal information manager. With Entourage, users can access the Address Book from any application...

Appgen collaborative commerce. (New Products).(Appgen Collaborative Commerce Platform)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The Appgen Collaborative Commerce Platform links smaller companies to enterprise applications and enables them to conduct commerce via the Web. ACCP works in conjunction with the company's MyBooks accounting software line. The platform...

TaxAct preparer's 1065 edition. (New Products).(from Tax Technologies)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... TaxAct 2001 Preparer's 1065 Edition helps preparers complete federal form 1065 partnership returns, and also delivers client organizers, invoicing, and instruction letters. Users can set up multiple preparer profiles. If there is more than...

Oracle SFA. (New Products).(Oracle Small Business Sales Force Automation)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Oracle Small businss Sales Force Automation can track leads, assign them to territories, process sales orders, and provide small business with access to complete customer transaction history. Users can synchronize data with programs such as...

CMS Open Version 4.3. (New Products).(from Solution 6)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The CMS Open Version 4.3 time and billing system purges and archives selected time and disbursements detail from the livedatabase. The OmniLedger allows manipulation of any existing firm-defined general ledger data storage and reporting,...

WriteUp 32. (New Products).(UniLink)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... WriteUp 32 processes, organizes, and summarizes accounting data and presents it in a variety of reports and financial statements. Setup options include defining the number of "open years" for saving and editing multiple years of journals;...

Best Project Accounting. (New Products).(Best Enterprise Project Accounting from Best Software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Best Enterprise Project Accounting modules monitor costs, track employee time and expenses, analyze and forecast project data, and import projects from Microsoft Project. Features include automatic generation of expense vouchers, a choice...

EVP office. (New Products).(Estate Valuations & Pricing Systems' EVP Office)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Accountants can evaluate individual securities or a portfolio of securities, plus obtain corporate and municipal action information, with Estate Valuations & Pricing Systems' EVP Office. EstateVal, CostBasis, and CapWatch are all available...

W-2 and 1099 Magnetic Media reporting. (New Products).(tax preparation software from Acclaim Software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... W-2 Magnetic Media and 1099 Magnetic Media, designed for the IBM iSeries (formerly the AS/400), feature interactive edited data entry, help screens, verification reports, generation of transmittal forms, and output to diskette or tape. An...

Hedman Paper Folder. (New Products).(HF-100 Paper Folder)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... The 20-pound HF-100 Paper Folder is designed for use by religious organizations, clubs, schools, and small business operations. The unit processes both C (letter) and Z (zigzag) folds at a rate of up to 200 8.5 in. by 11 in. sheets or A4...

Foresight Solutions: Shifting gears. (Channels).
January 1, 2002... Foresight Solutions is looking to its revamped reseller channel to close sales and increase revenue after the East Lansing, Mich.-based company changed gears during the last year. Foresight's goal is to increase revenue by increasing lead...

Davidman: MIS merger manager. (The Accounting Technologist).
January 1, 2002... On January 2000, four accounting firms and one technology company merged. So how do you take several hundred personal computers, a conflicting set of software applications, and produce a coherent organization? Debbie Davidman was the woman...

Mutual funds are definitely here to stay. (Editor's Note).(Editorial)
January 1, 2002... The first mutual fund was created in 1924 when three securities executives from Boston pooled their money. Of course, the concept of pooling money was nothing new for investing purposes as it started in Europe in the mid-1800s with the first...

Brentmark bypasses Monte Carlo. (Tech Tools).(Brentmark Software enhances its Stocks Options Risk Analyzer)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Brentmark Software, based in Orlando, Fla., is incorporating a new statistical algorithm, Beyond Monte Carlo, in its Stocks Options Risk Analyzer. The company claims that the new technique is up to 100 times faster than Monte Carlo simulation...

Decisioneering enters advisor field. (Tech Tools).(with Crystal Ball Advisor)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Decisioneering, a Denver-based company that makes risk analysis tools for corporations, has entered the financial advisor market with Crystal Ball Advisor, an Excel add-in. The software, priced at $695, utilizes Monte Carlo simulation for risk...

Tamarac intros Portfolio Manager. (Tech Tools).(Tamarac's Portfolio Manager)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Professional financial advisors get quantitative analysis tools and a proprietary optimizer in Tamarac's Portfolio Manager. Advisors can evaluate a client's portfolio of individual stocks based on a manager's model, select list of stocks, or...

Morningstar unveils tool. (Tech Tools).(Morningstar Advisor Workstation)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Morningstar (Chicago) is rolling out a series of Internet-based tools for its financial advisors under the label, the Morningstar Advisor Workstation. The workstation gives advisors access to the more than 20,000 securities in the company's...

Cashflow plan. (Tech Tools).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... PlanWare, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, has released Cashflow Plan, Excel-based cash flow planners that forecast cash requirements and improve the management of future cash flows. Cashflow Plan generates monthly cash flow projections for a...

Financial advisor 2.0. (Tech Tools).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Financial Advisor 2.0, from the Other Software Company, addresses a large scope of investment and savings calculations, annuities, residual and future values, and interest rate conversions. The South African-based company can be visited on the...

Golden years? (Asset Builders).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 1, 2002... The Employee Benefit Research Institute published its 11th annual Retirement Confidence Survey which reveals that Americans have grown increasingly pessimistic about their prospects for enjoying a financially secure future. Less than two-thirds...

More for college. (Asset Builders).(Kaplan Publishing's Conquer the Cost of College: The Family Guide to Meeting College Costs)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The total cost of four years at many private colleges is already well over $132,000 and the cost could run as much as $150,000 in just a few years. These numbers should be enough to make parents and students wonder how they'll ever afford...

Insurance flexibility. (Asset Builders).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... In the current economic environment, owners of growing businesses seek smart, cost-effective strategies to retain key employees. A tool that producers can use in addressing this need is a new life insurance product from the Principal Financial...

Cash flow management. (Asset Builders).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... A step-by-step guide for managers, consultants, and boards has been issued by Jossey-Bass (San Francisco). The Cash Flow Management Book for NonProfits by Murray Dropkin and Allyson Hayden, shows readers how to create a cash flow management...

Personal financial planning consultant. (Asset Builders).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
January 1, 2002... Practitioners Publishing Co. (Fort Worth, Tex.) is offering a Folio-based tax and personal financial planning service of seven Guides and Tax & Financial Planning Client Presentations software. The package, priced at $1,845, will include guides...

Morningstar Datalab. (Asset Builders).
January 1, 2002... Morningstar's (Chicago) Internet-based DataLab allows clients to analyze thousands of discrete data points not found in any other Morningstar product. It also offers trailing total returns, standard deviation, tax efficiency, sector weightings,...

Attaining functionality. (Practice Growth).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Navision (Atlanta) has released its Attain program that builds and expands on the foundation of the Navision Financials suite with financial management, manufacturing, and distribution, CRM, sales, marketing, and service integrated into one...

Think well. (Practice Growth).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Lyne Noella (Minneapolis) has launched a marketing strategy and consulting firm that focuses on personal attention to select clients who require high-level marketing services for business start-ups and turnarounds, the development of new...

Helping planners. (Practice Growth).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Performance(Raleigh, N.C.) has expanded its software suite with new tools and software upgrades for investment professionals to help them serve their clients more effectively. Enhancements include upgrades of the Centerpiece portfolio...

Cooking up the perfect portfolio. (Practice Growth).
January 1, 2002... Buckingham Asset Management (St. Louis) has designed a recipe for the perfect portfolio. Serving size is one individual investor. 1. Sift together a liberal measure of stocks that include domestic and international; value, growth, small-cap...

Reviewing the plan. (Practice Growth).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... According to a poll conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by the Principal Financial Group, nearly half of the American workers (45 percent) who responded to the question of how the terrorist attacks and market turndown have affected...

Strategic business alliance. (Partners).
January 1, 2002... Intuit (Mountain View, Calif.) and the Principal Financial Group (Des Moines, Iowa) have announced an agreement to jointly market and develop QuickBooks-branded retirement solutions for businesses. Under the agreement, Intuit will co-brand and...

Online library. (Partners).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Unger Software (New York) and Aspen Publishers have announced the joint development of a comprehensive online library covering the full spectrum of disciplines engaged in by financial planning professionals. Financial Planning Online will...

Accounts program endorsed. (Partners).
January 1, 2002... SEI Investments (Oaks, Pa.) says that 85 percent of its broker-dealer partners have formally approved its managed accounts program for distribution. The program has seen inflows of more than $1.3 billion in the months following its April 2000...

Two new growth funds. (Partners).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... SAFECO Mutual Funds (Redmond, Wash.) has broadened its offerings to include two growth-style investment options that allow investors to achieve a full-diversified portfolio within the company's family of funds. The two new funds are SAFECO U.S....

Investing for the long-term. (Partners).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... National City Corporation (Cleveland) says it is launching ShareBuilder, an online service via ShareBuilder Securities Corporation, that lets people invest in stock automatically in regular, dollar-based amounts. "For new investors,...

Client care. (Partners).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... According to The Accounting Guild Newsletter (www.accountingguild.com), the art of winning and keeping clients is about your entire firm's activity encompassing everything it does and everything it wants to be. "Your firm's success or failure,...

Firing up for college. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Some of the provisions of the new federal tax law that has just taken effect will help many families in their quest for saving money for a college education. There is a larger education IRA with the annual contribution limit being raised to...

Goodwill and intangible assets. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... Under FASB 142, goodwill and certain intangible assets with an indefinite life are no longer amortized but are tested for impairment; an intangible asset with a finite life is amortized over its useful life; and negative goodwill is recorded as...

Census 2000. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... According to the recently completed Census 2000, there has been a marked increase in population with 13 percent more than 10 years ago. Much of this, says the census, is because of higher immigration numbers. Important for CPAs, however, is...

"Financially Correct". (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Financial Accounting Standards Board has released a videotape that was produced to help educate people about why high-quality financial reporting is so important to corporations, investors, and the efficiency of the financial markets....

NASDAQ changes. (Regulatory Watch).(Brief Article)
January 1, 2002... The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved various amendments to the NASDAQ Marketplace rules. These change specific quantitative rules for listing on the NASDAQ's National Market and SmallCap Market. One of the primary changes by...