There are hundreds and hundreds of applications and solutions that "work with QuickBooks" - many of which were designed specifically to extend the accounting program's functionality - and choosing which ones offer the most value can be difficult. We asked the experts interviewed for this report's cover story to pick some of their favorites; the list below is the result.

"Flying by the seat of your pants," is not a phrase that should refer to how one runs their business. Unfortunately, it seems to describe all too many companies.

Most accountants (particularly partners) complain about wasted time during meetings. I suspect this is because many, if not most, meetings in accounting firms are poorly managed. By improving meetings, your firm can increase performance with a focus on solving issues, rather than just identifying and discussing them. Open discussion is healthy, but resolution is what differentiates high performers.

The management of nonprofit organizations is much more complicated than it was just two years ago.

The Tax & Accounting business of Thomson Reuters has released Checkpoint Learning, a system that combines legislative news, research, testing, and the ability to determine compliance with continuing professional education requirements.

Business management tool developer New Horizon Software Technologies has released PlanGuru Version 12, the latest version of its budgeting, forecasting and planning software for small and midsized businesses and nonprofit organizations.

NetSuite Inc. has partnered with IBM to further connect and integrate their respective cloud solutions, mostly via IBM’s recent acquisition of Cast Iron Systems.

Sage North America has added a new accountant advocate team to augment the services of its existing Sage Accountants Network, focusing on working with and providing services and useful insight to accountants, bookkeepers and CPAs in the network.

CPA2Biz, the marketing arm of the American Institute of CPAs’ products and services, added Web-based accounting workflow management solution provider XCM Solutions to its Trusted Business Advisor Solutions program, which also includes Bill.com, Copanion, Intacct and Paychex.

Sage North America will offer Sage SalesLogix CRM Suiteto North American users via the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2)infrastructure by June 2010, after which it will be expanded to other regionsworldwide.

Global business consulting and internal audit firmProtiviti Inc. released a new version of its Governance Portal for InternalAudit, adding a synchronization management engine that allows auditors to workeven when they are disconnected from the network.

Xcentric, a technology consultingconcern for CPA firms has rebranded its Gray Matter hosting services offeringto Xcentric Cloud Network.

CCH has improved the exemption management features in thelatest version of its CorpSystem Sales Tax Office software.

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting has agreed to acquirethe tax compliance software products Tax Integrator, Fringe Benefits TaxOrganiser and Global Integrator from Ernst & Young Australia.

IMGCAP(1)]Is all of the recent talk about virtualization just hype? We don’t think so.

Cougar Mountain Software has released Version 2.9 of its Denali accounting software, which includes, among other things, the ability to import any payroll service provider and view an at-a-glance financial dashboard.

Cloud accounting software vendor FinancialForce.com has extended its functionality by adding electronic processing of bank payments to its online accounting offering.

The Boston Red Sox has to deal with some unusual challenges, including conquering a Green Monster of an accounting system.

Corporate performance management software developer Prophix Software has partnered with XBRL software solutions vendor Semansys Technologies to create Prophix XBRL Reporting to automate complex internal and external financial reporting processes.

Microsoft plans to integrate the Web-based version of its customer relationship management product, Dynamics CRM Online, with its enterprise resource planning and accounting software, Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains Dynamics.