Business software provider Sage Software Inc. has acquired non-exclusive rights to data mart patents from Timeline Inc., a Seattle-based business applications developer.

Intuit Inc. announced a new simplified credit card processing solution designed for small businesses that don't need a full accounting package.

Avanquest Software has released the latest version of its small business finance and customer relations management suite, Small Business Pro.

INTUIT BOWS TO BLOCK, WILL CHANGE ADS: Intuit Inc. will alter a $25 million ad campaign for its TurboTax software after H&R Block took the company to court, saying the advertisements were inaccurate.Launched January 9, the television and radio commercials were the centerpiece of the campaign that claimed "more returns were prepared with TurboTax last year than at all the H&R Block stores combined." Intuit agreed to change the commercials after a court ruled that the company could not run ads containing the claim through April 30.

In a move that Microsoft Corp. said is about drawing more attention to the product, and not about weak sales, the company announced that it would offer a $100 instant discount as well as a year of free unlimited support to buyers of its Small Business Accounting 2006 software through April.When Microsoft launched the product in September, it hit retail shelves priced at $179 for a stand-alone copy, and shipped with a $30 mail-in rebate. With the discount and the mail-in rebate still in effect, the software package was offered for as low as $39 on Amazon.com.

CPAs holding the Certified Information Systems Auditor credential from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association are now automatically eligible to receive the Certified Information Technology Professional designation from the American Institute of CPAs, if they are members of the institute.With the CITP credential, CPA/CISA practitioners will have a complementary set of professional credentials that will demonstrate to employers and clients both their business technology orientation and in-depth knowledge of systems, controls and security.

Spreadsheets have become a pervasive villain in the financial world - they are guilty of huge error rates and cataclysmic mistakes, and are a major source of heartburn and heartache when it comes to audit and compliance concerns.Nonetheless, Excel is ubiquitous and is arguably central to the financial operations of many companies. There is no other tool that has contributed so enormously to productivity in the arena of business performance management.

CPAs started installing automated fixed asset management systems decades ago. Todd Blome, a partner at Lincoln, Neb.-based Basso, McClure, Goeglein LLP, first installed BNA Software's fixed assets application over 15 years ago, when DOS was still the No. 1 operating system.But while many features have been added and the ease of use has improved, fixed asset systems are not going online or making any other technological leaps any time soon.

What is your firm's internet strategy?Perhaps you don't have a Web strategy, and your goal has simply been to maintain a respectable Web site. In today's environment, just having a site is no longer a competitive advantage. In many firms, the Web site has been delegated to the marketing department, firm administration or human resources. Little thought has been given to the objectives behind the site and a related economic model.

Karl Grass was named vice president and general manager of Sage Abra HRMS and Sage Payroll Services at Sage Software, a manufactor of accounting software. Grass will be responsible for overseeing the Sage Abra and Payroll Services for Sage throughout North America and will report directly to Ray Jimison, vice president and general manger of Specialized Business Solutions.

This week's announcement that ePartners is releasing its own suite of specialized software underscores the fact that defining a value-added reseller just isn't as easy as it used to be.

Intuit Inc announced that its second quarter revenues for the 2006 fiscal year had increased 15 percent over last year's numbers, to $742.7 million.

Consulting firm BearingPoint Inc., the spinoff of KPMG's former consulting business, has struck a deal with Google Inc. to sell and integrate search technology for corporations.

SAGE UNVEILS LATEST FAS SOFTWARE UPDATE: Sage Software, a provider of accounting and financial management software, has released the latest update for Sage FAS, its fixed assets solution. Sage FAS 2006.1 is a free online update available for Sage FAS 50, FAS 100 and FAS 500 customers with FAS SupportPlus contracts. Adjustments to Sage FAS bring into account the new deduction under Section 179B from the Jobs Creation Act of 2004, and new deductions under 179C and D from the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005. Sage FAS 2006.1 also contains updated Investment Tax Credit options, IRS Form 4797 - Sales of Business Property, and IRS Form 4562 - Depreciation and Amortization, for the 2005 tax year.The upgrade can be downloaded at www.sagefas.com/update.

Earl W. Morrow CPA PC, a Roswell, Ga.-based CPA firm, has been using an automated time and billing system for decades without any major complaints."We have been using an automated system since the first time we opened our doors, some 24 years ago," said Patti Morrow, administrator at the firm. "It has done, for the most part, what I wanted it to do."

The Sage Group will enter the credit card and check payment-processing field with the $323 million acquisition of Verus Financial Management Inc. from Financial Technology Ventures.Located in Nashville, Tenn., Verus specializes in payment processing for small and midsized businesses, with a customer base of 100,000-plus merchants in the United States. The all-cash deal will be completed within the next month, subject to regulatory approvals.

The major news in business plans and planning software in 2006 is that the plans are intended more for management than money.As most business planning software came into being, in the boom economies of the 1990s, the focus was on how best to launch new enterprises, secure initial funding or lure venture capitalists. While there is still extensive use of the software for these purposes, there is also a stronger emphasis on managing the company by implementing the plan.

With the scarcity of qualified and experienced staff, the importance of technology continues to grow in today's accounting firm.Firms simply must do more with fewer people, while raising production to offset increasing labor costs. In order to do so, they must either terminate less desirable clients or focus on improving their processes and technology. Perhaps your firm needs to do both?

In an effort to spin Microsoft resellers into NetSuite solution providers, NetSuite, an on-demand business applications provider, is offering discounts, free training, and higher margins for qualified Microsoft resellers to sell NetSuite products.

There's a strange little building in a shopping center in Parsippany, N.J., in which there is a telephone directory from June 1990 in plain view and a list of prices for vanished photograph formats on the inside wall.