After a few minutes spent looking around the conference held for reseller’s of Intuit’s QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, the question seemed obvious. “Where’s the Sage reception?” I asked.It didn’t take long at the conference, held earlier this week in Dallas, to see a number of faces that are familiar from the Sage reselling world. Many of them are already displaying the fact they carry QBES on their Web sites.

Sage Software has updated its FAS fixed assets software with new reporting and tax features that reflect the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002. Six years later, subject companies are still in the process of trying to comply with its provisions. Add in the fact that other countries are implementing similar financial regulations, some of which U.S. companies operating in those countries are subject to, and it’s easy to see why SOX compliance is still a hot issue.While it seems like everyone is still arguing about implementation issues and which companies should be subject to which provisions, the main effect of Sarbanes-Oxley is to move the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of financial reports from the outside auditor to the company’s management. “The accountant cooked the books!” is no longer acceptable. The company has to have sufficient internal controls and procedures to detect if the books are being cooked. Under Section 302, management has to certify the appropriateness and fairness of the financial statements, regardless of what an external auditor reports.

VRAKAS/BLUM BUYS CLIFTON GUNDERSON’S SAGE PRACTICEVrakas/Blum Computer Consulting has acquired the clients and employees of Clifton Gunderson’s Wisconsin Sage practice.

The accounting profession is blessed with many leaders at firms of all sizes who are dedicated to client service and hard work. Many of the characteristics that make these leaders successful now will be just as important in the future. A growing body of knowledge and an evolving industry, however, mean new competencies and careful planning must come into the mix for future leaders to excel.Succession planning and developing future leaders are issues that all accounting firms face today — especially as Baby Boomers leave or prepare to leave the profession. In many firms the runway is getting shorter and even reaching a crisis point in some cases. Too often I hear the question, “Who is going to buy me out?” rather than, “We are developing managers and future leaders.”

NetSuite has added support for Google's new Chrome browser to its accounting, customer relationship management and e-commerce software.

The invitations have been flowing fast and furious lately: “I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” At first, it seemed like the thing to do and I indulged in what I will call LinkedIn promiscuity, accepting all invitations. There was also the phenomenon of LinkedIn Envy when I saw acquaintances with more than 500 connections and a plethora of recommendations.

Vertex has updated its O Series tax software, expanding the product's global tax management and compliance features.

Is there a Hispanic customer in your future?

Intuit reported that its fiscal 2008 revenue of $3.1 billion grew 15 percent from last year and its fourth quarter revenue of $478 million increased 11 percent from the year-ago quarter.

Petz Enterprises has introduced TextLink, a text-messaging service for its CrossLink 1040 Professional Tax Software.

Intuit introduced Quicken Beam, a free service that lets users check their bank balance from a cell phone, iPhone or other mobile device.

Is there life after Microsoft Office Accounting? Rephrase that: Is there life left in Office Accounting? There are times I think the employees charged with marketing Microsoft’s entry in the low-cost accounting market should sue their employer for nonsupport. With all the focus on Office Live, Xbox and Yahoo, there hasn’t been much energy left in the company for talking about this part of the accounting industry.

SpeedTax introduced an online CPA Questionnaire that allows accounting professionals to determine their clients' sales tax audit risk.

Prior to co-founding Adaptive Planning, a company that offers Web-based business intelligence software, Robert Hull described himself as a “frustrated” chief financial officer — and the chief culprit behind that frustration was Excel.“I was not happy continuing to use Excel as my budgeting, forecasting and reporting application, but was also a bit hampered by the resources needed to get to essentially the enterprise class of planning applications,” Hull recalled. “As I looked out at the marketplace, what I saw was a pretty big hole with respect to a mid-market application that was affordable, didn’t require a lot of resources to get going and actually solved my business problem in a non-technical way.”

SAGE RELEASES TIMESLIPS 2009Sage Software has released Timeslips by Sage 2009, an enhanced version of its time and billing application that includes a number of new features and improvements. These include streamlined billing, with customizable buttons that activate user-defined billing procedures; new reporting; and a new timekeeper report that enables businesses to track work in process, billed time, paid bills and write-offs for each timekeeper. Timeslips 2009 also offers the option to auto-fill transactions with a client’s current balance, automatically run conflict-of-interest checks during the client-entry process, and the ability to hide inactive references.

Ten years ago, not many would believe that e-mail would eventually become a mission-critical application. Yet today it has taken over many work lives and is gaining an even firmer grip as PDAs, BlackBerries and other mobile devices become widespread.Sadly, most users have little, if any, training in how to effectively organize and follow through with the mass of messages that they receive each day. Little or no planning goes into personal implementation.

“Technology is making it possible for smaller accounting firms to make sure their clients don’t get in trouble over payment of sales and use taxes. How have most firms handled this in the past?” was the speaker’s question. “They didn’t,” was the answer from attendees at MD Biz, Maryland Business & Accounting Expo, who were probably more interested in continuing education credits than the speaker’s comments (mine).

Universal Business Computing Co. has enhanced its payroll and write-up software with the ability to print special and foreign character sets, and has doubled the amount of reporting fields from 500 to 1,000.

Microsoft has decided not to upgrade its Microsoft Money personal finance software this year and will sell the software exclusively online now.