Tech Briefs

STF LAUNCHES LATEST SUPERFORM PRODUCT: STF Services Corp., a Syracuse, N.Y.-based provider of electronic business forms, unveiled Doing Business Forms, a new product entry in its proprietary SuperForm line that provides businesses and business advisors with a collection of the filings required at the critical points in a company's life cycle.

With more than 3,700 forms covering all states and the District of Columbia, the new product includes such critical points as the creation, operation and dissolution of a business. Comprehensive sets of forms are provided for each entity type recognized by a state: sole proprietorships; C and S corporations; LLCs, LLPs and limited partnerships; partnerships; and nonprofit organizations. Also included are foreign corporation filings and specialized filings for other entities or purposes.

ACCOUNTANTS NOT FOLLOWING UP ON SOFTWARE PIRACY: Accountants are working hard to stay on top of software piracy in their firms, according to a survey by the Business Software Alliance, but there is a "strong disconnect" between what accountants are saying they know is wrong and what they are actually doing.

The study by the BSA, a trade group representing software manufacturers, surveyed 303 accountants regarding their attitudes towards software piracy in the workplace. While 91 percent of accountants feel that software piracy is a risk businesses shouldn't take, 10 percent say that it occurs in their workplace, and 32 percent say that it occurs in the industry as a whole. The survey also found that most say that cost is not a justification for using unlicensed software. Yet one in 10 says that at least some software in their own workplace is used without proper licenses. Nearly a third say that at least some of the software in use in their profession is pirated.

Seventy-two percent of professionals at companies with software management policies in place say that they likely would report software piracy at work. At companies with no policy in place, only 43 percent reported such willingness.

ILUMEN ROLLS IMONITOR 2.3: iLumen Inc., an Atlanta-based financial information and technology concern, has released Version 2.3 of its iMonitor financial monitoring and benchmarking platform. iMonitor electronically gathers and analyzes private company financial reporting data and provides standards-based trend analysis and benchmarking to the banking, accounting and corporate risk markets.

Features of the upgrade include trailing 12-month calculations, average growth rate calculations, trend analysis charts, enhanced alerting and a visually interactive analysis dashboard.

TAXWISE ADDS BUNDLED OFFERINGS, CCH TAX RESEARCH: TaxWise has enhanced its accounting and tax software packages, adding integrated asset manager and trial balance software, as well as CCH Tax and Accounting tax research information. The fixed asset manager will enable accountants to handle large numbers of fixed assets and calculate federal and state tax and book depreciation.

Meanwhile, users of TaxWise trial balance will be able to import the general ledger trial balance from other accounting programs and adjust and group balances before exporting to the appropriate lines in the TaxWise preparation program. In addition, the company has integrated content from leading tax researcher CCH, including its CCH U.S. Master Tax Guide handbook. The additional capabilities will be available in TaxWise for the 2004 tax year.

FRX SOFTWARE ADDS FIVE TO INTEGRATED PARTNERS PROGRAM: FRx Software, a Microsoft Business Solutions company, has added five ERP providers to its Integrated Partners program. The IPs package Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics - FRx and Microsoft Business Solutions for Analytics - Forecaster with their solutions.

The new partners are: Dexter + Chaney Inc., a specialist in construction management software; Pacejet Logistics Inc., a provider of advanced logistics resource management solutions; Perennial Software, a developer of business management solutions for the security alarm industry; Software21 Inc., a provider of ERP and supply chain applications to the manufacturing industry; and TSC Solutions LLC, a developer of construction management software applications.

They join such partners as Best Software, Epicor and Mapics.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Technology
MORE FROM ACCOUNTING TODAY