Harnish Joins Plante & Moran: Mike Harnish, the former chief operating officer of CPA2Biz, has returned to his public practice roots by joining Plante & Moran as a manager at its Southfield, Mich., headquarters office.
Harnish, who left CPA2Biz in April after two years with the Internet provider of services and products to accountants, is working in Plante & Moran’s internal technology organization and its applications solutions group, which provides consulting services to clients. Early in his career, Harnish was partner-in-charge of technology for the Chicago office of Crowe Chizek & Co., a national CPA firm rival to his new employer. Harnish had been a consultant since leaving CPA2Biz.
Blackbaud Punching Tickets: Nonprofit industry software developer Blackbaud has formed an alliance with Tickets.com Inc., a live-events ticketing solutions provider, to develop a new type of technology for nonprofit organizations.
The software companies said they will enable Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge fundraising management system to communicate with Tickets.com’s ticketing software in systems that "coordinate fundraising, patron management and ticketing functions" for nonprofits. They expect the systems to "increase nonprofits’ ability to successfully develop key relationships."
The joint effort targets the more than 10,000 nonprofits, including museums, performing arts groups, zoos, aquariums and botanical gardens, which, in addition to collecting donations to support their work, operate box offices that sell tickets for entry to their grounds or to events and concerts.
IBM Takes Car Dealership Sales Tactic: Sounding somewhat like a car dealership, IBM has introduced a "triple zero" financing program for midsized and large businesses buying hardware, software and services.
Big Blue unveiled the "zero down, zero payments, and zero interest for 90 days" program in late October, saying that it will let businesses buy needed information technology without affecting their cash flow.
The company also announced low-rate financing and enhanced financing on one-time charge software, such as WebSphere and DB2 database products.
The "triple zero" offer is available to customers through IBM sales representatives and its authorized business partners. It was announced a few weeks after the company reported a decline in net income and flat revenue for the third quarter.
Intuit Launches New Online Payoll Program: Intuit has launched a new Internet-based payroll service that provides payroll information online and comes either integrated with its QuickBooks accounting software or as a stand-alone service.
Intuit Payroll Services Complete Payroll, which enables users to review their information online "within minutes of running a payroll," automates tasks such as federal, state and local tax preparation, year-end W-2s, payroll tax filing and payment, and third-party payments including garnishments and 401(k) contributions. Users can view and run reports on payroll information at any level of detail, including by employee, department or job.
The program’s integration with QuickBooks eliminates the need to re-key payroll information and lets users automatically download processed payrolls into their accounting system.
Intuit says that Complete Payroll, one of five programs available at its www.payroll.com Web site, does not require advanced computing skills, and it offers several options for check printing and data input. Customers can print checks themselves or have Intuit print and deliver them. Users can also choose to send their information via e-mail, fax or phone.
