Accounting Technology articles from November 2003

Accounting Technology archives from November 2003

Choosing a CRMPSAT&B package.(Editor's Note)
November 1, 2003... Sometimes it's hard not to get bowled over by the acronyms: Customer Relationship Management, Professional Services Automation, and, for accountants, good old time and billing, which often gets merged into the broader practice management. ...

Big firms, big impact.
November 1, 2003... Multi-office regional and national firms have the resources to make a mark in technology consulting and accounting software. Is that what they are doing? This issue takes a look at the way the firms with know-how and people power are...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... Most of our clients did OK with worms, but there were a number that we have to go on site and fix the issues. If these clients had done their Windows updates on a regular basis, they would have been OK. We cannot stress enough the importance of...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... The results have been some-what diverse. Our firm was fortunate to have all of the latest updates, and thus we were able to avoid any significant issues, but continue to receive "polluted" emails fairly frequently. We have had a number of...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... We had a number of customers that were greatly affected by the recent viruses. Some had to reformat hard drives; most had to hire outside technicians to resolve their issues. We heard of two large companies locally that were down for a couple...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... We were fine because of our firewall. The clients most affected were those that had not properly maintained their Windows updates, firewalls, or anti-virus software. In several instances, these same companies have updated their procedures and...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... We've survived the attacks OK, but are approaching the 75 percent to 90 percent spam level on our emails. We are facing having to change some of our business email addresses because of the spam. Not only is the spam volume a major pain, but...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... Isis and all of our clients who implemented our recommended suite of virus protection software incurred no network violations by the email worms. All worms were stopped in their tracks. As for all of our clients who did not implement our...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... It seems the light came on for many about the need to keep virus definitions current, use good virus software, backup regularly, and make sure data is accessible (stored) offsite. Our tech support was out helping our clients in a flurry of...

What has been your experience or the experience of your clients during the recent virus and worm attacks?(Street Talk: Reader Views)
November 1, 2003... My clients generally fared very well--they generally have very tight policies on keeping their systems patched, and have good anti-virus protection at several levels. So it has been uneventful lately. Of course, most of them have had prior bad...

Yeo & Yeo partners.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... Yeo & Yeo has announced that it will partner with reseller Apex Solutions in serving construction clients. Apex, based in Orlando, Fla., will generate leads and facilitate the sales process for Intuit's Master Builder software, while Yeo &...

ITA names partners.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... The Information Technology Alliance, a group of CPA technologists and accounting software resellers, has signed its first two affinity partners, Expert City and CPA Online. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Expert City (www.expertcity.com)...

Omega adds staff.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... Omega Business Solutions, a Portland, Ore.-based Microsoft reseller, has added three members to a staff that had already been expanded this year by the acquisition of Moss Adams' Great Plains practice. New staffers, all hired as senior...

Wipfli names CIO.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... Wipfli Ullrich Bertelson has named Craig Kaplan as chief information officer for the Green Bay, Wis.-based CPA firm. Kaplan is responsible for information processing and reporting systems for the firm, the twenty-first largest in the...

Altara grows again.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... Altara kept on its growth path with the acquisition of the Microsoft Business Solutions business of ByteWorks Consulting, which is based in Kansas City, Mo. The acquisition gives Altara nine offices nation-wide employing more than 90...

Intacct changes fees.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... Intacct has raised the initial fees for accounting firms that join its e-Practice program from $1,000 to $5,000. But president David Thomas says the firms also will get more services for their money. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We've...

ePartners opens practice.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... ePartners, a national accounting software reseller based in Irving, Texas, has named two men to lead its new North American Infrastructure Services Practice. The company named Jeff Powers as vice president of the practice, and hired Mark...

OneTech formed.(Practice Development News)
November 1, 2003... BKR Fordham Goodfellow, a Hillsboro, Ore.-based firm, has established a technology division called OneTech that will be headed by partner Brent Goodfellow. The unit, which currently employs seven, sells Microsoft servers and the Great...

Softline NA breaks even.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... The North American operations of Softline, which include sales of AccountMate, BusinessVision, and Datafaction software, broke even in the year ended March 31 as they contributed 22 percent of overall sales. Those numbers are the only North...

Oracle reveals OSBS spending.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... Oracle received $1.19 million in royalties from NetSuite, the company that recently changed its name from NetLedger, while spending $1.6 million to help market NetSuite's Oracle Small Business Suite for the year ended May 30. Those numbers...

MAS 90 adjusts pricing.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... Best Software just implemented what has been described as a modest increase in prices for MAS 90, while expanding its maintenance fees of 15 percent to include sales of add-on modules. The company described the change to its maintenance...

Timberline deal took time.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... Best Software's courtship of Timberline Software, which makes construction software, took more than a year and a half to consummate, according to details given in Timberline's proxy. Shareholders of Timberline approved the Best acquisition...

ROI results revealed.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... ROI Systems, the manufacturing software company recently acquired by Epicor Software, lost $276,000 on $10.4 million in revenue for the half ended June 30, according to information Epicor has filed with the SEC. The information disclosed...

NetLedger morphs.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... NetLedger, the online software company, has changed its name to NetSuite to reflect the combination of back-office and front-office capabilities in its application. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] President Zach Nelson says that the company may...

IRS denies Insynq claim.(Accounting News)
November 1, 2003... Insynq, a Tacoma, Wash-based company that offers Web-hosted accounting services, has made a second attempt to agree to an offer in compromise with the Internal Revenue Service. The company owes $760,800 in delinquent business and payroll...

Intuit tax revs rise.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... Intuit says that revenue from professional tax products increased by 9 percent for the year ended July 31 over fiscal 2002. Sales of Intuit's Lacerte and ProSeries lines were not disclosed, but were included in the segment, whose revenue...

RIA to offer Create-A-Chart.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... RIA Compliance, which has introduced version 6 of its Checkpoint research system, plans to sell a new Create-A-Chart feature unbundled from the Web-based system. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Create-A-Chart generates charts related to...

New WebPortfolio.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... ByAllAccounts has released WebPortfolio version 3, the latest release of the online asset management system. Among the new features are client categorization and alerting, which expands existing email alert functionality; a simplified...

TaxWise opens training.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... TaxWise, a Rome, Ga.-based tax preparation software vendor, has opened a Web-based training program called TaxWise University to teach users both concepts in tax preparation and the operation of its tax program. The program, which went...

IAS adds Forefield.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... Interactive Advisory Services, which makes financial planning, portfolio management, and CRM systems, has agreed to provide content from Forefield to its Web-based services. IAS, an Atlanta-based subsidiary of Optima Technologies, provides...

TKO launched.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... Kleinrock Publishing and its sister ATX have introduced a product bundle called the Total Kleinrock Office that combines research services and tax forms, along with Kleinrock 1040, which the company says functions similarly to PPC's Deskbooks....

Orrtax gives advice.(Tax & Financial Planning News)
November 1, 2003... Orrtax Software Solutions is making marketing advice and material available to users of its tax preparation software on its Web site at www.orrtax.com. The material is scheduled to be available this month under a program called the Orrtax...

Big big firms. Impact? can big CPA firms be big resellers?(Cover Story)
November 1, 2003... Maybe it's the fact that Matt Camden's title is chief technology officer that marks Clifton Gunderson's efforts in consulting and reselling as more serious than those of the average CPA firm. After all, even among firms active in the accounting...

Betting on fixed asset software: put your chips on packages that meet your needs.
November 1, 2003... This past summer, the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas hosted the 2003 AICPA Technology conference. In between the jam-packed agenda of keynote speakers and breakout sessions, I managed (quite reluctantly) a few spare moments to wander around the...

Suite smell of success; financial advisors are out shopping for integrated planning tools.
November 1, 2003... Madison Planning Group in White Plains, N.Y., sure doesn't skimp on financial services. It offers insurance planning, business succession planning, estate tax analysis, trust strategies, educational funding, retirement planning, pension...

what ever happened to psa? Professional Services Automation didn't disappear, it just evolved.
November 1, 2003... A funny thing happened to Professional Services Automation. It was supposed to be the next great thing after Customer Relationship Management. But these days, the acronym seems hard to find. In this place are often other TLAs (three-latter...

XBRL extends its reach--downward; an emerging technology pursues a wider audience.
November 1, 2003... Largely the pet technology of enterprise-class financial software developers and their multinational corporate clients. eXtensible Business Reporting Language is beginning to raise its voice in the middle market. Such a development is...

Wealth management.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Wealth Management: A Concise Guide to Financial Planning and Investment Management for Wealthy Clients, covers financial planning and investment management as an integrated whole. The book discusses setting goals for wealth management,...

Act-Link 2.0.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Act Link 2.0 integrates Act with Intuit's QuickBooks Pro Edition 2003, QuickBooks Premier Edition 2002, and QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 2.0. Act Link for use with QuickBooks enables data such as sales contacts and invoice status to be...

Forecaster 6.7.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Forecaster 6.7, a budgeting and planning application, gives mid-market and corporate businesses a range of human resource budgeting and planning offerings. The system provides accelerated and simplified installation, and enhancements to...

MBS Business Portal 1.2.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Microsoft Business Solutions Business Portal for MBS Great Plains and Solomon now combines the Human Resource Management Self Service Suite, a Key Performance Indicators module, and the ability to deliver reports with MBS's FRx analytics...

Office Tools Pro.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... The electronic file cabinet in Office Tools Pro can reduce the time users spend locating, identifying, and communicating archived documents to clients by organizing scanned documents. Bulk email allows messages to be created with the BCC...

MIP/FAS Gov integration.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Best Software provides integration between the FAS Gov fixed asset management and MIP Fund Accounting product lines, a feature that is free for all Support Plus members. FAS Gov version 2003.1 enables joint MIP Fund Accounting and FAS Gov...

Everest Advanced 2.0.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Everest Advanced Edition 2.0 includes accounting, inventory, e-commerce, purchasing, shipping, receiving, sales force automation, marketing management, point-of-sale, and payroll. Available as an option for creating and maintaining...

Works Suite 2004.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... Microsoft Works Suite 2004 replaces the suite's own word processing with Microsoft's widely used Microsoft Word 2002. The suite features Microsoft Works 7.0, including Encarta Encyclopedia Standard 2004; Money 2004; Picture It Photo Premium...

Client Manager.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... QuickBooks Client Manager can attach files, organize and store client data, track client projects, and communicate with clients all in one click. The system offers accountants a central location for client data, along with a client...

Lexmark X215.(New Products)
November 1, 2003... The Lexmark X215 multifunction product, which prints, scans, and copies, comes standard with an automatic document feed and high-speed fax. Printing at up to 17ppm, it has a 250-page integrated paper tray, a 30-sheet automatic document...

Exact retools its channel.(Channels)
November 1, 2003... Exact Software says it has plenty of reselling candidates knocking on its doors. But right now, it's trying to see what part of its existing base is serious about selling the company's accounting, manufacturing, and CRM systems. ...

Catherine Marks: navigating on-line and off.(Accounting Technologist)
November 1, 2003... So is the middle-market finally ready to embrace hosted software applications in a big way? Compass Enterprise Solutions thinks so--and for good reason. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since April, the year-old Charles, III.-based reseller has...