Sage North America has confirmed that vice president of sales Drew Macbeth and senior VP of sales management and operations Kevin Rooker have resigned from their respective posts.

Cloud accounting provider FreshBooks has partnered with cloud payroll service ZenPayroll, aiming at providing a joint service to small business owners and sole proprietors.

Business intelligence company iLumen announced that is offering free accountant access to its Client Diagnostic Report from now until June.

Long-time Intuit PR head and global accountant engagement director Rich Walker has announced his retirement, beginning January 31, 2014.

Cloud accounting and financial software provider FinancialForce.com announced its Winter ’14 release. which features improved project management capabilities as well as an integration with sales tax and compliance automation service provider Avalara.

Greatland Corp. has released speedEfiler.com, online reporting software designed for small and midsized businesses and professional accountants to file W-2 and 1099 forms online, meeting filing requirements for federal, state and recipient reporting.

From client information to credit cards and even PINs and passwords, it’s hard to keep track of it all and keep it safe, which is why practitioners are discovering the Secret! encrypted storage app.

We can always discuss product news, but I’m thinking that in recent history there have been few development more worth noting than the acquisition of Tectura and Armanino’s move to snap up Rose Business Solutions.

Around the New Year, people often start to wonder what resolutions they should make, in an attempt to make this year better than the last.

Xero has hired CPA and accounting technology veteran Amy Vetter to the newly created position of global vice president of education, where she will lead the company’s efforts on internal and external training.

Business management automation company Talygen is now offering a workflow feature which covers numerous topics and procedures including management of company financials, employees, customer service, client relationship, and more.

Accounting Today is issuing a Final Call for speakers for its second annual Accounting Technology Forum.

Infor has purchased cloud-based human capital management analysis product maker PeopleAnswers for an undisclosed sum.

Bill.com has signed an integration deal with tax filing solutions creator TechAtlantis and its Tax1099.com product to automate the process of creating and e-filing 1099-MISC forms.

Accounting and consulting firm Armanino has purchased Rose Business Solutions, effectively combining the Microsoft Dynamics consulting and reselling businesses.

Practitioners and consultants looking for new ways to message colleagues and clients have discovered the WhatsApp Messenger, a smartphone messenger available for Android, iPhone, Windows Phones, and Blackberry, which uses 3G or WiFi (when available) to deliver any message to any other phone on any other network.

Software partner veteran Terry Petrzelka, now a valued advisor and consultant to vendors and resellers discusses the oft avoided issue of succession planning, how firms should be measuring themselves and what exactly is going on with cloud ERP, or the comparative lack thereof.

Most accounting firms and businesses spend too little time thinking and planning.

A roundup of technology news from the previous month

Moving your firm's and your clients' accounting and other applications into the cloud is becoming more common. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's become any easier.