ANOTHER REASON IT'S HARD TO FIND STAFF ...

Nonprofit software provider AccuFund Inc. has unveiled AccuFund Hosted, an online version of its AccuFund Accounting Suite. AccuFund said set-up, training and support for its new hosted product would be provided by local resellers. Pricing is available on a quarterly or monthly basis with a one-year commitment. Pricing on a monthly basis is only $289.80 for one user, which includes all modules and phone support. The company said that customers have the option of putting 15 percent of their payments for AccuFund Hosted towards a later purchase of the AccuFund Accounting Suite software system.

Intuit has cast its lot with open source. Intuit? The guys with millions of small businesses that use its tax and accounting products? Intuit’s mid-market product, QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, is going to be supported on Linux servers.

Wizard Productivity Systems has unveiled the first end-to-end system for streamlining the implementation and set-up of Microsoft Dynamics. Wizard Accounting Solutions for Microsoft Dynamics aims to make it easy to purchase, install and learn Microsoft's accounting and business software by offering a turnkey end-user package that companies can purchase online or over the phone. The package includes Dynamics; a step-by-step program for configuring a company's system; a customized server with a three-year service plan; and a choice of three different levels of technical guidance and coaching. Pricing starts at $12,250, including hardware. WPS has offered the set-up component of the package, the Wizard X4 Productivity Suite, through Microsoft resellers for a year; this marks the first time the product has been available directly to users. For more information, visit www.wizardx4.com or call (800) 939-4119 ext. 701.

Advertisements at California airports entice busy executives to “play hooky” using handheld devices. After all, the ads argue, if you fix a PowerPoint and answer an email, it’s not really playing hooky now, is it? This marketing strategy touches on an increasingly common scenario in which the worlds of business and pleasure collide. While this particular vendor is trying to promote the fact that we can spend a day at the beach or on the golf course instead of in an office, it fails to include an asterisk warning us of the downsides of anytime, anywhere access from a machine that can fit in our pockets. *Warning: This device can be addicting and impede on your personal life. Contact your IT professional if you catch yourself checking emails in your sleep. Traveling to various accounting shows put a bug in my head that I need a “Crackberry.” It’s not enough that I run back to my hotel room to check my email every time my schedule shows a 15-minute “open” slot or that I have my cell phone attached to my pants so I can feel people trying to reach me in case I don’t hear it ring. I should be able to communicate in the elevator, on the Starbuck’s line and maybe even while showering. (A little electric shock couldn’t be that painful.) “Please, don’t get a Crackberry,” a friend of mine implored during a hike one recent weekend during which I promised to keep my phone in my backpack—but not turned off—and not to conduct any business until I returned home (are we there yet?) “You’re the picture of a junkie.” I envisioned myself standing still with a BlackBerry sticking precariously out of my veins and knew his statement was true. The sick thing is, his comment is making me entertain the idea even more… Having a Palm Pilot, Treo or BlackBerry does not serve as a magic wand in which all business problems can be solved from the road in a matter of minutes, either. This kind of connectivity has obvious advantages. Most companies with mobile workforces can win the argument in favor of providing their staff with handheld machines. Sales people, in particular, can stand to gain from viewing client and prospect data when out of the office, potentially even winning them deals by arming them with pertinent or personal details about an individual or company they may otherwise not have known or remembered. But as accounting software vendors start boasting about their mobile apps, one has to wonder just how much number crunching customers expect to do on the road. When pressed, a few of them admitted that companies are only using a select set of features and functionality, most of which involves looking up client data—not necessarily updating their general ledgers. There’s something to be said for preparedness when entering a meeting, even when closing a deal is not the main objective. There comes a point, however, at which attempting to conduct the type of business you would on a PC on something the fraction of the size just becomes counterproductive. After all, how much drilling down can you do on a screen that small without straining your eyes so much that the numbers start resembling Chinese characters. Not to mention Swollen Thumb Syndrome. One software reseller I spoke with is convinced the next generation will be born with extra thumbs in a twisted world of Darwin vs. the BlackBerry, in which the cool kids will wear glasses and the most popular pickup line will be, “Nice Digits.”

Sage Software has launched Act! by Sage for Financial Professionals 9.0, a contact and customer management system targeted at financial advisors, brokerage firms and financial services teams. This is the second Act! industry-specific system released by Sage in as many months. In May, the financial software conglomerate introduced its Act! by Sage Premium for Real Estate 9.0. Though Act! is touted as contact management product, Sage described the application as being part of its customer relationship management suite of products. The new offering features data management, activity tracking, reporting and sales tools. It centralizes prospect and client data in a single database and enables users to capture and access key contacts, accounts, investment and financial information and assists with regulatory compliance tracking. Available in two versions, Act! by Sage for Financial Professionals is designed to work with up to 10 users, while Act! by Sage Premium for Financial Professionals is targeted at those who intend to share a database with more than 10 users. The Premium version also includes advanced security features at the user and contact levels, automatic database synchronization and backup, and centralized administration. For more information, go to www.sage.com.

Years ago, write-up software was fairly rare, and the market was dominated by trial balance applications. Over the years, as software applications have become more sophisticated, the distribution has switched, with write-up becoming predominant. While not as popular as it was in the past, software specifically designed for trial balance use is still available, and still selling very nicely.While the two applications are somewhat similar, they are far from identical. Nor is trial balance a subset of write-up. Sure, you enter financial data into either of them, and both can produce financial statements, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

Intuit Inc. and Electronic Clearing House Inc. have agreed to scrap a deal that would have seen Intuit pay $142 million for the debit and credit card processor.Intuit had announced the acquisition plan in mid-December, after the boards of both companies approved the proposed deal. The companies announced late in April that it would be in their mutual best interest to terminate the proposed agreement.

The oversight body for the International Accounting Standards Board said that Olivier Servais will serve as team leader for the organization's Extensible Business Reporting Language initiative.The IAS Committee Foundation said that Servais will coordinate all XBRL-related activities by the foundation, working closely with private and public organizations involved in the advancement of online financial reporting, as well as advising users and preparers of internal standards in considering the appropriateness and timing of XBRL adoption.

Development or growth - what is the difference? Has your firm been growing at a rapid pace? Many firms just completed their best years by financial measurements, but they're still challenged with finding quality staff and increasing their capacity to handle market opportunities. Because of financial results, it's often difficult to convince partners that they need to change for the firm's long-term development.Authors David Norton and Robert Kaplan suggest four perspectives in their writings about the Balanced Scorecard and strategy maps. Most companies focus on the financial perspective. Professional service firms are no different.

Today, most firms realize the importance of marketing and are more than willing to invest in various activities to drive growth. In accounting, this anxious desire to jump in and "do something" often leads to opportunistic growth, in directions unintended by firm leadership.In this article, we'll focus on the key elements of marketing that will drive your firm's strategic growth and profitability. These are commonly referred to as the Five Ps of Marketing, and are listed below in my suggested priority order.

Intuit Inc. announced last week that its QuickBooks: Online Edition has 110,000 subscribed companies, with more than 270,000 individual users.

Everyone needs to laugh, especially when spending nearly a week on the verge of exhaustion in back to back meetings at a conference far away from their offices.

Web-based business management software company NetSuite Inc. has unrolled its first mobile customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning offering.

As part of its annual partner conference, Insights 2007, Sage Software launched a new version of its SalesLogix customer relationship management system.

Stephen White, director of sales and marketing for CPA and business advisory firm Aronson & Co. in Rockville, Md., has a rule for his department when it comes to their Web site strategy: If a visitor can not find the information they are searching for in three clicks or less, it's time to revamp the design.It's no secret that a Web site is instrumental in any solid marketing plan, but how accounting firms use these tools runs the gamut from a static page with basic information, to a more sophisticated approach incorporating multimedia techniques such as blogs, podcasts and webinars.

Managing firm strategy is synonymous with change management. Does your firm have a strategic plan? Do you share the plan with everyone in the firm, as well as with clients and vendors?If not, why not?

Sage Software has rolled out new versions of Sage MAS 90 and Sage MAS 200, the company's enterprise resource planning software geared toward small and midsized companies.New functions of Sage MAS 90 and 200 include the introduction of Business Insights Explorer, an analysis tool that helps users access their data in real time through a single point of entry; a new user interface for the accounts payable module that includes a dual-grid entry screen and personalized report settings in an effort to give more control to the end user; and integration with the company's three customer relationship management systems and other business management applications from Sage.

NET@WORK BUYS CONNECTICUT VARNEW YORK - Net@Work, a regional New York Accpac and MAS 90/200 and 500 reseller, has acquired Apptech Inc., a Cheshire, Conn.-based consulting firm specializing in Sage Pro ERP (formerly SBT/Accpac Pro Series) sales and support. Terms were not disclosed.

Software products can be as hard to kill as a cockroach. Consider DacEasy.