Entry-level accounting packages are terrific. They provide excellent features, and are frequently a good value. However, regardless of how good or cost-effective they are, they don't serve your clients' needs if the client has 25 or 30 users who need simultaneous access to the financial information, and the accounting system is limited to five or 10 simultaneous users.

Sage Software, a provider of financial management and accounting software, has made available ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2006, a contact and customer service relationship manager solution for small -and -midsized businesses.

PayCycle, an on-demand payroll service provider, unveiled a number of enhancements to its 2006 payroll service, which emphasizes branding, paperless tax filing and paystub viewing access.

For those waiting for the Year of the Internet, don't look now, but it's passed you by.

Sage Software, a provider of accounting and financial management software, has released the latest update for Sage FAS, its fixed assets solution.

Why is accounting software like a chocolate bar?

Mid-market financial and accounting software provider Open Systems Inc., has released Version 7.0 of OSAS, allowing customers to open multiple function screens at one time and run functions for several companies simultaneously.

To be clear, Microsoft Business Solutions isn't leaving Fargo, N.D., the base of the former Great Plains. But much of the brainpower is.

Microsoft Corp. has unveiled Microsoft Dynamics SL Version 6.5, formerly called Microsoft Business Solutions Solomon, after the product spent five months in beta development.

QUICKBOOKS UNVEILS 2006 PRODUCT LINE: Business software provider Intuit has unveiled major changes to its QuickBooks product line for 2006 - a response, in part, to the launch of Microsoft's Small Business Accounting.The 2006 QuickBooks line - Accountant Edition, Simple Start, Pro, Premier and Enterprise (Basic, a small start-up business accounting product, has been cut from the roster) - focuses on ease of use, improved inventory support and scalability, explained Dan Levin, senior vice president and general manager of QuickBooks.

As you plan your 2006 marketing activities, consider adding networking to your firm-wide marketing mix.Networking is a great way to build your business, and it's something that all members of your firm can do. Networking offers an opportunity to build business relationships, exchange referrals or leads, find potential qualified new hires, and seek advice, ideas and introductions from others.

Doug Burgum, senior vice president of the Microsoft Business Solutions group, will assume the newly created role of chairman of MBS - coinciding with the release cycle for Microsoft Dynamics, the new branding for MBS.Beginning immediately, Microsoft said that it would launch a formal search for a successor to Burgum.

William F. Gurrie & Co. Ltd., a CPA and consulting firm in Oak Brook, Ill., has offered niche accounting services for municipalities over the last 71 years.The founder and namesake started by helping his clients with financial services - i.e. bonds, as well as other services such as payroll - a "total violation of the independent laws back then," said Kelly Zabinski, a CPA and manager at Gurrie. "Obviously, today we only provide financial services for them."

American Institute of CPAs chair Leslie Murphy, in her recent address to Council, stated, "One out of six CPAs left their firms during 2004." The cost to replace these people is estimated at 1.5 times their current salary. Enrollment and graduation are up in accounting programs, according to the most recent statistics published by the AICPA.The bad news is that the percentage of graduates going into public accounting has dropped to 29 percent of the total. When speaking with CPA partners, I typically ask the question: Do you recommend or have you recommended public accounting to a son or daughter? Ninety-five percent generally look at me and either say or demonstrate by body language that their children would not think of going into the profession.

As Accounting Today's Top 100 Products was in its preparatory stages in terms of gathering information, procuring product shots and planning the requisite page layouts, we searched for something that would make this - the 13th edition - stand out from its worthy predecessors.The good news for us is that we didn't have to look very far.

HIGH-END AND MID-MARKET ACCOUNTINGACCOUNTMATE 6.5 FOR SQL

Contact information for the vendors of the Accounting Today 2006 Top 100 Products and Ones to Watch.AccountantsWorld

Paisley Consulting, a business accountability software provider, has upgraded the risk assessment functionality in its J2EE-based Risk Navigator, a software application helping companies comply with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and establish long-term governance.

ABRA PAYROLL

Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Dynamics CRM Version 3.0, its latest customer relationship management system. Version 3.0 is a full suite of marketing, sales and customer service offered in a Professional Edition or a Small Business Edition.Available now in English, CRM 3.0 will be available in French, German, Dutch and Russian on Jan. 1, 2006. Seventeen other international language editions will follow throughout the upcoming months.