Accounting Technology articles from January 2007

Accounting Technology archives from January 2007

Effective Lobby-ing.(lobbies for trade shows)(Column)
January 1, 2007... A note came my way recently that contained the word "Lobbycon" to refer to the informal networking that occurred at a trade show in another segment of the technology business. Normally, I don't quote other publications. But this item from...

Need Insights?
January 1, 2007... 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...

Portal Power.(Internet portals usage in tax and accounting space)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... There are several definitions that describe Internet portals. But one definition that is becoming increasingly important in the tax and accounting space is the portal as a document repository. In "Open Portals, Open Data," Associate Editor...

What is your biggest technology need for 2007?(software)
January 1, 2007... Better backup solutions for our customers. Tapes are still expensive and unreliable for the most part. We are constantly being asked about viable alternatives. Most customers are comfortable with off-site storage, but the cost is still...

Practice Development News.(Computer Generated Solutions Corp. acquired Altare Computer Inc.)(UBmatrix's Charles Hoffman wins Special Recognition Award 2006 from American Institute of CPAs)(Columbus IT Partner US appointed Michael Faulks)
January 1, 2007... ALTARA ACQUIRED Altara, one the largest Microsoft Dynamics resellers in this country, has been acquired by New York-based Computer Generated Solutions, which has a diverse line of technology products and services. Altara had $16...

Accounting News.(ACCPAC International Inc.'s Craig Downing resigned)(Everest Software appointed Edwin A. Miller)(Cyma Systems Inc. promoted Debbie Armer)
January 1, 2007... DOWNING LEAVES SAGE Craig Downing, a 15-year veteran of Sage Software's operations, has resigned from his position as vice president and general manager for Accpac. Downing joined Sage with its acquisition of Accpac International in...

Tax & Financial Planning News.
January 1, 2007... ADP BUYS TAXWARE ADP Employer Services has acquired Taxware, which markets a variety of sales and use tax applications, from First Data Corp. The Roseland, N.J.-based payroll processing division of Automatic Data Processing, paid $125...

Intuit Details Executive Pay.
January 1, 2007... Salary and Bonus Executive/Title FY 2005 FY 2006 Stephen Bennett CEO $2,772,000 $3,170,000 Robert Henske SVP $1,002,692 $1,210,000 Richard Ihrie, CTO $892,000 $910,791 Kiran Patel CFO ...

Show Calendar.
January 1, 2007... February 16-17. CounterPoint User Conference, Radiant Systems. Marriott Hotel & Cook Convention Center, Memphis, Tenn. www.synchronics.com/news/cuc_details.htm March 3-6. Synergy 2007. AccountMate reseller conference, The Embassy...

Accounting Technology March's Coming Attractions.
January 1, 2007... Budget for Technology What should firms spend on technology and exactly what should they be spending it on? Whither XBRL? The AICPA's eXtensible Business Reporting Language has been around for a long time. When will it live up to...

Open Portals, Open Data?: The Internet unlocks many doors for accounting firms.
January 1, 2007... Sean Manning spent thousands of dollars each year mailing financial statements of up to 50 pages to his monthly accounting clients, and he wasn't even sure they wanted the information. So he decided to conduct an experiment. The president...

Pick a Portal, Any Portal.(tax and accounting market)
January 1, 2007... What is a portal, anyway? One vendor that sells products over the Internet found clients often don't understand what the phrase "online" means. So, those who do not know what the word "portal" means shouldn't worry about not being able to...

An E Kind of Year: Efiling, barcoding, and document management are on the tax season radar.
January 1, 2007... Tricia Armistead's firm in Jackson, Ga., completes about 800 tax returns a year and "does everything electronically," says Armistead, president of the CPA firm Tricia P. Armistead. Looking back several years, Armistead, who uses Petz...

Top 10 Efile Rejects.(electronic tax filing)
January 1, 2007... Accountants can receive dozens of rejection codes when attempting to file their clients' returns electronically, but roughly 75 percent of the errors are related to names and Social Security numbers, and 98 percent of rejects can be pinpointed...

Financial Planning 2007: 'Interesting Times' in Financial Planning.
January 1, 2007... Financial planning software is a first-rate example of what is commonly known as The Chinese Curse: "May you live in interesting times." It's certainly interesting times as the following trends dominate this segment of business...

The Voice Data Road: When is a phone not a phone? When it's also a data device.
January 1, 2007... The telephone business used to be simple. There were devices that carried voice communication and they all did the same thing. The facilities people ran the phone system; the IT people had the computer stuff. And the twain did not meet. ...

Communications Glossary.(Glossary)
January 1, 2007... As confusing as the convergence of voice and data is, the range of topics and terms involved in this phenomenon can be even more daunting. There are voice terms, data communication terms, product names, and different categories of devices...

New Products.
January 1, 2007... PAYCYCLE 2007 The two service options in the PayCycle Accounting Professional Program include the PayCycle Wholesale Service, which allows accountants to use PayCycle's online processing as their firm's back office while giving them...

NetSuite's Nelson Prepares For IPO.
January 1, 2007... Since Zach Nelson took the reins as NetSuite's CEO in 2002, the company reported tenfold revenue growth to an estimated $70 million in 2006; a quintupled workforce of 550 employees, which is expected to increase by 15 percent this year; and...

Syspro Plans: Cut and Grow.
January 1, 2007... Joey Benadretti says he cut the fat out of Syspro's channel program last year and is aggressively recruiting roughly two dozen replacement resellers for 2007. "We've always been VAR-oriented," says Benadretti, president of Syspro USA,...

Burdsall: Mr. Fix It, CPA.(certified public accountants)(CRS Temporary Housing contracts with Scott Burdsall)
January 1, 2007... Pull someone out of an accounting quagmire and they might just offer you a job. CRS Temporary Housing was living in a jumble of customer numbers. Billing was a tedious process for the agency that required the displaced policyholders'...

A Winning Hand.(Bill Russell)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... My father once told me that anyone who worked for one dollar an hour owed it to himself to put in two dollars' worth of work. Actually, I recently read that hall of fame basketball icon Bill Russell's father said the same thing to him but used...

Building Wealth: FPA Endorses Rule on Financial Titles: Too many floating around.
January 1, 2007... The Financial Planning Association has endorsed a proposed rule by the Massachusetts Securities Division that will prohibit financial services professionals from using misleading professional designations. Massachusetts is the first state to...

Building Wealth: Who's at the Top?: Financial services has highest pricing power.
January 1, 2007... While many consider financial services to be a commodity, consumers clearly state the opposite, says a study by Washington, D.C.-based Kanbay Research Institute. The group studied six major industries on an annual basis: Communications,...

Building Wealth: Online Search Capabilities.
January 1, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission says that investors are now able to search the contents of disclosure documents filed electronically with the SEC using a new full-text search tool on the Commission's Web site. The newly searchable...

Building Wealth: What Most Investors Overlook...: ...and what most advisors don't explain.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Charles Massimo, president and founder of CJM Fiscal Management (Garden City, N.Y.), sees five common mistakes made by all investors at all levels of wealth and investment experience: 1. Not knowing the difference between effective and...

Building Wealth: Tax-Free IRA Gifts: Special fund allows distributions for recovery.
January 1, 2007... The Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program has launched the Sustainable Disaster-Recovery Fund, a vehicle designed to provide valuable project and program funding to experienced organizations seeking to create sustainable solutions for areas...

Building Wealth: Adding Funds.(John Hancock Retirement Plan Services has nine new asset allocation fund plans)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... John Hancock Retirement Plan Services says that it has nine new asset allocation funds in its investment lineup. These are the John Hancock Lifecycle Portfolios, which has eight target date funds, and the Retirement Portfolio. These will be...

Building Wealth: Strategic or Compliance?
January 1, 2007... 73% Of board members of U.S. financial services firms spend less time on strategic business issues than on compliance-related matters. 51% Say time devoted to compliance is beginning to decrease as they become more knowledgeable of the new...

Building Wealth: Avoid Retirement Regrets: Easy Tools and Tips.(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The Principal Financial Group says that American workers admit that they save too little, too late. In fact, according to a survey published in the Principal Financial Well Being Index, saving too late appears to be the biggest financial...

Building Wealth: Need More Information?: Three organizations that can help.(Fox College Funding)(Alan Gappinger's article "Accidents Will Happen")(Jefferson National Life Insurance Co.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... * Fox College Funding (www.foxcollegefunding.com) provides late stage college funding planning for families with a college-bound high school student. The company specializes in helping upper-middle to high-income, as well as higher net worth...

Building Wealth: On the Book Shelves.(60 Minute Estate Planner)(The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing)(Master the Media to Attract Your Ideal Clients: A Personal Marketing System for Financial Professionals)(Guide to Tax and Financial Planning 2007)(Kiplinger's Retire and Thrive: How More Than 50 People Redefined Their Retirement Lifestyles)(Book review)
January 1, 2007... PROTECTING YOUR FAMILY How to simplify estate planning Updated to reflect the latest estate and tax laws, 60-Minute Estate Planner, Third Edition, by Sandy Kraemer is now out from AMACOM. The book is filled with simple,...

Building Wealth: Vanguard Broadens Index Fund: Offering two types of shares.(Vanguard High-Yield Portfolio)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund are now available for purchase by individual investors, institutions, and financial advisors. The new fund offers both traditional investor shares and ETF shares. According to Vanguard, the High...

Building Wealth: Straight Story on Financial Planning: FPA Publishes Encyclopedia.
January 1, 2007... The Financial Planning Association has just published The Encyclopedia of Financial Planning-What You Need to Know About Money from the Nation's Leading Financial Planners. Divided into 12 sections ranging from "What is Financial Planning" to...

Building Wealth: Impacting Business in 2007.
January 1, 2007... Retiring Boomers 45% Market Performance 44% Oil Prices 33% Inflation 31% War in the Middle East 26% (c) 2007 Accounting Technology and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.webcpa.com...

Building Wealth: SEC Floats Short selling regs: Proposes new measures to counter manipulation.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The SEC has voted unanimously to propose a pair of measures dealing with the regulation of short selling, according to reports. The new rule would ban short sales entirely during a five-day period ahead of a secondary offering if the short...

Building Wealth: Integration Agreement: PlanPlus Service Free to VirtGate Users.(PlanPlus and CoVirt contracts with VirtGate)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... PlanPlus and CoVirt have announced an agreement to integrate the VirtGate distribution management system with the PlanPlus Web Advisor financial planning tool. The agreement covers both the technical integration of the two solutions as well as...

CPA Wealth Provider Financial Planning Award of Excellence 2007.
January 1, 2007... Achievement CPA Wealth Provider is proud to present the fourth annual financial planning awards honoring CPA/financial planning firms, broker/dealers, and financial planning software vendors as well as providing special Awards of...

Looking Ahead.(CPA Wealth Provider financial planning awards 2007)
January 1, 2007... The following firms received honorable mentions and were cited for sustained growth and initiative AFA Financial Group Calabasas, Calif. Providing clients with a business model that offers a CPA, registered rep, and real estate...

Best and Worst IRA Rollover Decisions.(individual retirement accounts)
January 1, 2007... IRA owners and their advisors make expensive mistakes handling these accounts. These mistakes range from the simple to the complex. A simple mistake occurs when an employee takes a check when they retire and has 20 percent withheld when they...

Convert Your 401(k) Into a Cash Cow: Better to live modestly within your means than stressfully outside them.
January 1, 2007... Retirement plans like 401(k)s and pension/profit-sharing plans are great for building a nest egg. They give you numerous benefits, including the ability to deduct contributions from your taxable income and enjoy tax-deferred growth of earnings...

Permission Slip: One estate planning attorney's lesson in retirement/wealth replacement helped him overcome major losses in the stock market and increase his post-retirement income by 35 percent.
January 1, 2007... When I walked in the door with my client and his CPA, I couldn't help but wonder, what am I doing here? So many times before, financial planners from around the country had approached my clients, claiming wonderful strategies that would...

A 412(i) May Be The Answer: Accumulate retirement assets in a short period of time.
January 1, 2007... Perhaps you're like many small business owners who are nearing retirement and wondering how you're going to get enough money into your 401(k) so you can actually afford to retire. A few years ago you didn't have this dilemma because your...

We're in the Money: Very often, when it comes to sudden money, taxes are the last thing people consider.
January 1, 2007... Everyone fantasizes about instant riches, the kind associated with hitting the lottery, finding out you have a distant aunt who named you as her sole beneficiary, coming up with the next great American invention, winning a reality game show, or...

Moving Away From Traditional Advisors.
January 1, 2007... Most people would agree that the performance of the stock market in the past five years has been disappointing at best. As a result, a growing number of investors are taking matters into their own hands. The most common direction many are...

The IRS Comes Down on PATs.
January 1, 2007... Life can be so ironic and cruel. Imagine if you built your entire business on one narrow part of the tax law and then the tax law changed because you became too successful marketing it? That's exactly what happened to the Private Annuity Trust....

How Wall Street Stacks the Cards.
January 1, 2007... When client retirement portfolios stagnate or decline in value, the problem may lie with the investment community rather than the investment choices. Here are a few reasons why. Investment brochures have information technically correct but...