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NET@WORK BUYS CONNECTICUT VARNEW YORK - Net@Work, a regional New York Accpac and MAS 90/200 and 500 reseller, has acquired Apptech Inc., a Cheshire, Conn.-based consulting firm specializing in Sage Pro ERP (formerly SBT/Accpac Pro Series) sales and support. Terms were not disclosed.

Now that tax season is over, you may be thinking of growing your practice through an acquisition.While it certainly remains a buyer's market, smart buyers make sure that they have worked through the following points.

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MAY21: Not-For-Profit Half-Day Conference, Illinois CPA Society. Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council, Chicago. Contact: www.icpas.org/icpas/conferences.

AUSTRALIAMacleanBauer Pty Ltd, Brisbane, has joined Enterprise Network Worldwide.

H&R Block Inc. announced that its new bank opened more than 2 million prepaid card bank accounts by the end of the 2007 tax season, doubling the company’s original projection.

Although the 2008 presidential election remains 17 months away, attendees at the spring meeting of the American Institute of CPAs’ Governing Council were treated to a “trailer” of campaign issues as the former chairs of the Democratic and Republican National Committees stumped for their respective parties -- as well as aimed verbal darts at each party’s foibles.Former DNC chairman -- and current chairman of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign -- Terry McAuliffe told the audience that the Democrats didn’t so much win the 2006 midterm elections, as the Republicans lost it.

The Internal Revenue Service is reportedly after Golden State Warriors owner Chris Cohan for some $160 million in back taxes.Cohan, a former cable television mogul, has been legally fighting with the agency for years over the 1998 sale of his former company, Sonic Communications.

Suggesting that accounting firms may have become addicted to the fat audit fees associated with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance efforts, a spokesman for the nation's bankers warned that plans to streamline internal control reporting rules and issue new auditor guidance may not be enough to wean accountants away from wasteful and unnecessary SOX-related audit procedures."Reducing costs and streamlining efforts will only be achieved if the auditing firms have the incentive to make efficiency a priority," American Bankers Association spokesman Thomas Venables told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Although progress has been made with regard to auditor reviews of internal controls, audit firms haven't used the most efficient techniques, according to a report from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.The audit watchdog examined a total of 275 audits of internal controls over reporting performed by registered public accounting firms, specifically looking at the second-year implementation of the board's Auditing Standard No. 2 on internal controls.