Accounting Technology articles from November 2006

Accounting Technology archives from November 2006

Road Warrior. Or Road Worriers?(forecasting accounting and customer relationship management software trends)
November 1, 2006... In the past few months, someone said that it's not just about accounting anymore. All you have to do is look at what the major vendors are saying and doing to realize that businesses are no longer just built on their accounting application or...

Managing Relationships.(managing customer relations)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Customer Relationship Management has been hot for so long, it's easy to forget that talk is what has often been hot. But "Making Contact' points out the market buzz is being replaced by the sound of money hitting the cash register drawer,...

Need Insights?
November 1, 2006... 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...

Street Talk: Reader Views.(enhancing desktop operating systems)
November 1, 2006... With Microsoft preparing to release its Vista operating system next year, what is the most important thing that can be done to improve desktop operating systems and why? If they could prevent it from "blue-screening," that would be great....

Practice Development News.(Hutchinson and Bloodgood appointed Ed Cheeseman)(Software Link Inc. acquired Envision Consulting Group)(Business Technology Solutions appointed Brian Poole )
November 1, 2006... CHEESEMAN JOINS CPA FIRM Ed Cheeseman, who has been involved in managing accountant programs at Sage Software, has joined Glendale, Calif.-based Hutchinson & Bloodgood as chief operating officer. Cheeseman will operate primarily from...

Accounting News.(Accellos acquired Radio Beacon Inc.)(CDC Corp. purchased its own stock)(Microsoft Business Solutions Div. appointed Satya Nadella)
November 1, 2006... ACCELLOS NABS RADIO BEACON Accellos, a company based in Colorado Springs, Colo., has acquired Toronto-based Radio Beacon, which markets warehouse management applications. Terms were not disclosed. Accellos publishes applications for...

Tax & Financial Planning News.
November 1, 2006... INTUIT DOES GOOGLE DEAL Intuit said that the addition of Google services to most of its QuickBooks 2007 products will give users the ability to list their businesses on Google Maps. Other Google features being built into the Intuit...

Show Calendar.
November 1, 2006... November 1-4. Creative Solutions user conference. Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. www.creativesolutions.thomson.com. November 5-7. Information Technology Alliance Fall Collaborative. Westin La...

Accounting Technology December's Coming Attractions.
November 1, 2006... Sales: The Art of the Deal. You can't make money unless you can close the deal. This story looks at how consultants and accounting professionals are sharpening their deal-making skills. ABCs of Certification CPA, CITP, CISA, MCP,...

Making Contact: CRM is becoming a platform, not just an application.(Company overview)
November 1, 2006... The keys to success for Yacov Wrocherinsky and Infinity Info Systems aren't all that unusual-understand customer needs, give them a choice, nurture employees, and reward them in many ways. But he has turned that formula into great success,...

MIS Group Plays Guinea Pig.
November 1, 2006... It's not known how many organizations might be following the strategy employed by the MIS Group. But it has been very carefully entering the market, installing SageCRM for its own use nearly two years ago. Now it's ready to ramp up, says...

CRM, CPAs, and a Yawn.
November 1, 2006... Steve Templeton believes that CPAs will one day realize the benefit of customer relationship management - one day, just not today. "The CRM business, in general, is terrific," says Templeton. "CRM for CPA firms is slow." That fact has...

Working the Flow: Workflow and document management tools push firm productivity.(Kahn, Litwin, Renza and Co.'s Peri Ann Aptaker management techniques)
November 1, 2006... Peri Ann Aptaker is outnumbered at Kahn, Litwin, Renza and Co., the largest public accounting firm in Rhode Island. Among the firm's six partners, five are on the accounting and auditing side, leaving Aptaker, the director of tax services, the...

SurePrep Goes with OCR.(inroducing SurePrep Express)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... With workflow applications being fairly new to the market, significant changes are emerging quickly. One of the more noticeable developments is the addition of the optical character recognition, or OCR, option that SurePrep is introducing....

What's It Cost?(accounting software prices)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... There's a wide range of pricing for applications that are involved in different elements of workflow in the accounting office. With both web-based and desktop applications in the mix, there are also diverse ways of calculating the price. ...

Biz Plan Software Grows Up: Business planning software has developed maturity.
November 1, 2006... As 2007 looms, the humble business plan is becoming more sophisticated, and its uses more elaborate. The industry remains split into three types of planning software: those based on spreadsheets, those that provide dozens of samples to...

Calling For Help: Accounting software vendors focus on improving phone support.
November 1, 2006... When an accountant contacts his software vendor with a support question, it usually isn't resolvable with a simple cut-and-paste response. So instead of relying on a service representative for help when he encounters out-of-the ordinary...

By the Numbers-Support's Past and Future.(customer service )(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... Following are some stats about customer support gathered from industry experts: * Email inquiries, live chat, and Web self-service are forecast to grow at 19 percent CAGR from 2006 to 2010. * Roughly 46 percent of email inquiries never...

Is Outsourcing Out?
November 1, 2006... Outsourcing has developed a bad reputation over the past few years-Intuit's brief venture into India in 2004 ignited customer outcries, forcing the company to pull out almost immediately. Similarly, ATX/Kleinrock, in an almost panicked...

Chat Speak.(accountants and customer service)
November 1, 2006... Chat satisfies the need for socialization, but can it do the same for accountants' need for tech support? Live chat can help boosts agents' productivity by allowing them to handle more than one customer simultaneously. But juggling...

Microsoft's Burgum Looks Back, Foward.(Microsoft Corp. Business Solutions Div.'s Doug Burgum interviewed about his career)(Interview)
November 1, 2006... There were 15 employees at Great Plains Computers, an Apple computer store in downtown Fargo, N.D., when Doug Burgum joined the operation in March 1983. The two owners wanted to get out of the hardware business and Burgum wrote the...

New Products.
November 1, 2006... QuickBooks 2007 QuickBooks 2007 can customize forms, which can be previewed on screen without printing them first. Improved sales tax management consolidates reports and payment options, while the Google Desktop lets users search for...

Steps for Securing Taxpayer Data.
November 1, 2006... Everyone knows that data thieves lurk around the Internet, trying to get access to clients' information. But are companies taking steps to prevent themselves from being the next victims? While Sarbanes-Oxley and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act...

Sage Accpac: On The Grow.(Sage Accpac ERP)(Company overview)
November 1, 2006... It's always been the Canadian club, that's the channel of value-added resellers that handle Sage Accpac ERP, the product that was once known as Accpac Advantage. Roughly 600 active Sage Accpac dealers in North America are certified to sell...

Advertisers' Index November 2006.
November 1, 2006... Ad Appears Advertiser on page AccuFund 43 ADP Small Business Services 5 Canon 3 CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business C4 ...

Turner Carries Truckers' Loads.
November 1, 2006... Truckers have a load of receipts to keep track of down the road. In addition to tracking gas, repairs, and tolls, they also must document such obscure expenses as laundry bills and costs to shower on the way to their destinations. Losing...

Editor's Note: Reaching Beyond.(demand for outsoucing business)(Brief article)
November 1, 2006... "The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher," said Thomas Huxley. This is what seems to be happening today. According to a number of sources,...

Your Competitive Landscape is Changing: Strengthen Client Relationships by providing clients better value for your time.
November 1, 2006... Even as we speak, the forces of globalization are reshaping and radically changing your competitive landscape. No firm, big or small, will escape the impact of this change. The successful firms of tomorrow will be those that recognize this...

Helping Firms Gain Strategic Advantage.
November 1, 2006... Accounting firms looking to grow their practices are in a difficult position. The good news is that there's a growing volume of work. The bad news is there are not enough accountants to meet the demand. A study by the National Association...

Driving From Compliance to Consulting.
November 1, 2006... Several years ago, outsourcers identified the CPA industry as an appropriate target for their services and began to develop the knowledge and infrastructure to service this market. Concurrently, CPA firms were challenged by a significant...

Outsourcing: Threat or Opportunity?
November 1, 2006... Within our industry, the term "outsourcing" is a polarizing term. To some accountants, it's very intriguing. To others, it's repulsive. Despite the skepticism and angst over outsourcing, this trend has just begun and will accelerate over...

Choosing the Right Outsourcing Partner.
November 1, 2006... Over the past several years, nationwide staffing shortages have led accounting firms of all sizes to utilize outsourcing as a strategic tool for improving client service, reducing busy season overtime, and increasing profits. Still, many firms...

A Declining Trend.(accountants using payroll processing software)
November 1, 2006... While the overall trend to outsource client work may be on the rise, the payroll practice is moving in the opposite direction. Accountants, who have been referring payroll clients away for decades are starting to re-think their decision, and...

Visit Your Potential Offshore Provider.
November 1, 2006... When outsourcing a business process such as payroll, human resources, procurement, or any other function, it is impossible to get a true picture about an offshore outsourcing service provider based on responses to your RFP or from their sales...

Providing Outsourcing Solutions: According to ADP, the small business is actually big business to them. They can help manage everything from benefits to payroll to workers' compensation.
November 1, 2006... Last year, ADP reported that 84 percent of those surveyed believed that outsourcing of human resources activities would continue to increase. In fact, some 41 percent of worldwide organizations surveyed planned to outsource employee benefits...