MACDONALD JOINS DELTEK
Taylor Macdonald, Sage Software's former executive vice president of channel and sales operations, has joined Deltek as the business software developer's vice president of worldwide channels and sales alliances. Macdonald, who had worked for Sage for 10 years, was one of the casualties in its recent management shakeup. At Deltek, he will report to Carolyn Parent, the company's executive vice president of worldwide sales, and will be based in Atlanta.
Macdonald said that he was attracted by Deltek's large size, vertical market approach and commitment to channel partners. "One of the things that certainly everybody's been preaching for the last couple of years is the verticalization of the software business," he said. "Well, here's a company that owns the vertical market of government contractors, professional services and architects and engineers."
Macdonald will handle channel management and recruitment in countries such as the U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Dubai. Deltek has over 200 active partners, of which approximately 45 are resellers. At Sage, Macdonald led the design and implementation of all of Sage's U.S. channel programs.
Macdonald plans to leverage his experience from Sage at his new job at Deltek. "I can figure out what needs to be done more quickly because I've been doing it for a long time," he said. "I've been in this industry now for 20 years and I know where the bodies are hidden."
LACERTE, PROSERIES READY FOR AMT
Intuit said that its Lacerte and ProSeries professional tax prep products would flag any returns that cannot be filed until mid-February because of the delayed patch for the Alternative Minimum Tax.
The AMT patch was not signed into law until just before the New Year, and the Internal Revenue Service said the late passage delayed the programming of five forms (5695, 8396, 8859, 8863 and 1040A-Schedule 2) related to the AMT. As a result, the IRS will not be able to accept any returns that use those forms until Feb. 11. The IRS began processing other tax returns on Jan. 11.
Intuit is building diagnostic tests into its software that will determine which tax returns can and cannot be electronically filed before Feb. 11 and warn the tax preparer. Intuit said that the software would process the AMT credits the right way.
TCI UPGRADES PROPERTY TAX SOFTWARE
Tax Compliance Inc. has released Version 4.0 of its Property Tax Management System, with new features for processing tax bills, creating customized reports, linking to external files, and handling airline property.
The Tax Payment Manager offers a new interface for identifying, locating and processing tax bill information. Search and filtering features help isolate groups of tax bills for payment. A new bill entry window reduces the number of keystrokes needed to process a high volume of tax bills.
Customers can link batches of important files, such as scanned assessment notices and tax bills, to data records in PTMS. The new report designer offers improved control over data fields and query options.
Another new feature, the Aviation Property Manager, focuses on the needs of the airline industry. Property can be flagged with any necessary data, including passenger information, air hours, departures, arrivals, take-offs and landings. The appropriate aviation property tax forms are then generated directly from PTMS.
