The Tech Gap

Intuit Announces Quickbooks: Simple Start Edition

Intuit has announced yet another product to join their ever-growing arsenal --- Quickbooks: Simple Start Edition. This latest entrant breaks the sub $100 MSRP barrier and is designed to capture primarily new businesses for whom the full version of Quickbooks would be "overkill". Simple Start will have TurboTax connectivity and will be readable by Quickbooks: Accountant Edition. Of particular note here is the bundling as "either/or" with a CD version OR the online version -- both in the same box! The online version includes a 12 month subscription, after that it's $10 a month -- well, actually it's only $9.95 but I'm tired of quoting prices at 5 cents less than the real price --- who's that dumb, anyway?

I spent an hour with Intuit's Rich Walker looking at the new product and must tell you that they (Intuit) have pretty well thought this one through. They recognize that Quickbooks has sufferred a bit of feature bloat over the past few years and, coupled with both PeachTree First Accounting and MYOB FirstEdge both selling at under $100, they needed another offering. Simple Start is just that.

Walker deftly declined providing a metric by which Intuit would measure success -- in other words he refused to tell me how many units they hoped to sell! The market space here is, IMHO, fairly tight between paper and pencil, Quicken & Money, and regular Quickbooks.

Let the games begin!

gll

Unlikely Titan of Software - Toledo Blade, Sept. 26, 2004

I was interviewed last week by Jon Chavez of the Toledo Blade regarding a story on Solomon Software's founder, Gary Harpst. [Photo courtesy of the Toledo Blade] The piece, entitled "Unlikely Titan of Software", ran yesterday and was, in my opinion, very well done. Harpst is a very interesting character and I learned several things in reading the article. I'd recommend you do so, too. Our little corner of "Technology & Public Accounting" has many fine citizens, and we're glad that Gary Harpst was, at one time, among them.

gll

CPA Software Gets the “Best” of Hurricane Ivan

Best Software’s Pensacola, FL-based business unit, CPA Software, appears to have survived last week-ends hurricane Ivan. The offices, which are on the 5th floor, were unharmed, but the building, like most of downtown Pensacola, lost much of its utility infrastructure. Faced with mandatory evacuation, General Manager Ray Jimison, himself quite new to Florida, dispatched a group of support staff, along with the requisite servers and workstations, to the relative safety of nearby Tampa. There they quickly established an operational site which allowed them to maintain user support. Sales personnel were provided VPN access and continued their services from individual remote sites. I’m writing this post from the Ohio Accounting Show in Cleveland where the Best CPA Software booth is manned by Floridians who still haven’t been allowed back to their homes. They flew out of the Mobile, AL airport since the Pensacola airport remains closed. If their “chipper” attitude is indicative of their neighbors then Florida will be back, stronger than ever, and soon.

Total “out-of-service” time for Best CPA Software was less than 4 hours – pretty impressive for a business unit sited squarely in the middle of an extremely severe natural disaster.

Kudos for solid execution by a well-run organization.

gll

A Silly Diversion -- but Accounting Related (sort of)

I first "met" Frank Page telephonically and in the course of a conversation about tax compliance software I learned that he augments his Florida CPA practice with income earned as a stand-up comic. He thought that was quite unusual and I quickly challanged him, saying that I'd met dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of practicing accountant / stand-up comic combinations. [I try to play the comic occasionally, too!] Our subsequent conversation led to an ongoing friendship and ultimately a visit to his office and dinner with him and his wife. (BTW, he married above himself!).

Frank's alter-ego is DEBITMAN. Rather hard to explain, and some of the jokes are groaners --- but he IS funny!

Now he's an author, having just released "Exercise from a Lawn Chair". It too, is funny, especially for those of us with short attention spans. The book runs ~100 pages and can be read in 1/2 hour (more if you take time for belly laughs!)

If you're looking for an "accounting related" gag gift this might perfect.

gll

PS --- If your name's Greg I can sell you an autographed copy!

Sleeter Group Holding 2004 QuickBooks Consultants Three Day Conference

Doug Sleeter's company has announced the 2004 QuickBooks Consultants Three Day Conference to be held Boca Raton, FL on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Sleeter, who authors The Quickbooks Advisor for The CPA Technology Advisor tells potential attendees the conference will focus "hot topics that drive your success in QuickBooks consulting". A quick reading of the conference brochure indicates some very qualified speakers addressing definite "pain points" in todays Quickbooks-heavy practices. And it's priced at ~$400 which makes it about 1/2 the price of other 3 day conferences. My schedule won't allow me to attend this one, but I certainly will be watching from afar.

gll

Bradley & Stanton Author eBook

Two high-profile women, Susan Bradley and Anne Stanton, from the land of "public accounting and technology" have collaborated to produce an ebook. It's called "The Complete Patch Management Book: A Technical Exploration and Practical Guide" and the first chapter is FREE! These authors have defined a genre new to most practicing accountants --- that being the very concept of "patch management".

These are very bright women with an all-too-often missing understanding of life and the purpose of technology, i.e. “to work and allow humans to live life, to do their jobs, to excel, to put food on the table, to raise their children.”

I've reprinted below a few of comments from Susan's blog. They're indicative of things to come!

I think I would stress that it's Patch Control... as [patch] management is sort of a wishy washy term. Last night I was “handicapping” the GDIPlus.dll vulnerability and was scanning the network and found that because I was up on the latest service packs [XP sp2 and Office 2003] I really did not have to do too much patching at all. Dang. I so love the feeling of power I get with an entire office of Windows machines reboot on my command.

I was talking at SMBNation about my patching techniques.. read the bulletin, assign the risk factor and determine the threat vector. Look at what I have open, look at when it's the “right time” for my firm to do patching based on the risks... see if the exploit is in the wild and patch based on timing. As I stated in the book [at least in the future chapters anyway] I ALWAYS patch everything. My analysis is not about what patches can I skip, rather it's about the timing of the patches.

Internet Explorer - high on the desktops, low on the server

IIS - very low on the desktops, high on the server

...and so on..... I assign the risk based on the role of the system. During my presentation and talking about how I had a patching tool and how I patched, Jeff Middleton stopped me and asked the audience if they had a similar process in place of testing patches, rolling out patches, etc. Very few folks do this. I'm always surprised at how many people don't “manage“ patching and instead let the patches “manage“ them.

My suggestion: give this book a try. It's not often you find intelligent, coherent, technically accurate information, from people who live and breath public accounting AND are genuinely nice human beings!

gll

AICPA's TECH 2005 Dates Set

I spent three work days last week (actually only TWO days, but since the first day was a 15+ hour marathon meeting, I saying it was three!) at the AICPA Harborside offices in New Jersey as a member of the Tech 2005 Planning Committee. While the specific program details aren't yet available for publication I can tell you that the dates are June 27-29th at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The conference, widely acclaimed as the "premire technology event for AICPA members" has grown steadily in both program quality and overall attendance over the past several years. If you've attended recently you'll undoubtedly concur with the "quality" comment. If you haven't ... well, maybe you should consider doing so.

As you might expect I plan to attend and hope to see you there!

gll

Mirra Launched Version 2

Mirra, Inc., maker of the Mirra Personal Server, which snared one of The CPA Technology Advisor's inaugural Tax & Accounting Innovation Awards last June in Los Angeles, has announced their first major upgrade. The new software introduces MirraSync(tm), an automated method to synchronize files among shared folders on linked PCs within local networks. The upgrade enhances the Mirra box by adding:

Two-way collaboration through file sharing over local networks and the web
Improved web access to Mirra, with full download, upload, and back-up features
Backing up Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003 files while Outlook is open (XP only)
Offering large and thumbnail photo previews and full-resolution photo file downloads
Provideing an additional level of protection for files and photos
Increasing user-defined permission levels and privacy controls

This product may not be applicable for every practice, but for the tens of thousands of one and two person shops it just might be a solid answer to backup --- plus a LOT more! If you carefully read through the lines here you'll note the direction is to allow two Mirra boxes to "replicate" each other -- and from across the Internet. Sort of a poor man's redundant RAID array!

gll

When You Need a "Special" Tool

There's a great old saying that goes something like "If the only tool you own is a hammer, pretty soon everything starts to look like a nail." I've often thought that true of accountants and our trusty spreadsheet program. The average practicing accountant can do almost anything with Excel, right?

As I walk the aisles at the dozens of accounting and technology trade shows that I attend I'm always watching for great "tools", things I can tell you about that just might make your life in practice a bit easier. One such tool is the Vehicle Opt-e-Mizer. This new entrant does one thing, and only one thing -- it analyzes ownership and finance options for vehicles. You know, all those questions your clients ask you about "lease vs. buy", "should my corporation own my car?", "should I use a home equity loan or lease the car?". The good news is that this is a web-based tool and seems to be very "practitioner-friendly"

The product requires only minimal input regarding the variables and from there it generates and delivers an impressive array of reports. Certainly more information than you'd want to give the average client, but plenty of backup file fodder.

Empower, LLC sells the service only by membership right now but their executives were very receptive to the idea of a "single-use" model. As of today their website describes that "coming soon" at $50 per analysis. That's probably a bit steep for the "occasional question", but it's a bargain for the times when you need a full analysis. This tool is like a garlic press --- highly specialized and when you really need it, there's nothing quite as efficient. You'll still need Excel, but with this product you may not need it for lease vs. buy calculations anymore.

gll

A Webinar Featuring Microsoft's Small Business Server 2003

As you probably know my colleagues at Accounting Technology Resource Network are some of the most talented technologists around. Now they’re marrying the USE of technology to its ADAPTATION and delivering a webinar on Microsoft's Small Business Server 2003 specifically for “sort-of” technical practicing accountants. The course (described below) is designed to make you a better manager --- to give you the tools you need to either do it yourself, or to properly supervise an employee or contractor.

Technology for Accountants from Accountants
This course is specifically designed for public accounting practitioners. Instructors Brent Goodfellow and John Anderson are nationally recognized experts in the application of technology to the accounting profession. With over 40 years of collective experience as practicing CPAs, their teaching style is informed by a personal understanding of the unique challenges that distinguish an accounting firm from other small businesses. Unlike straight-up technology classes from a community college or a technical training company, this course delivers relevant, practical knowledge specific to the accounting profession for the purpose of helping you make informed decisions.

Essential Knowledge for Technology Consumers
The purpose of this course is to assure that the partner in charge of technology has the necessary knowledge to be in control. Whether you have a network administrator on staff, work with an independent contractor or prefer to do-it-yourself, this class will help you be a better manager of technology, saving both time and money. You will learn what questions to ask and how to recognize if employees or contractors are qualified to administer your firm's network. While this course doesn't try to transform accountants into technologists, it will open your eyes and make you a better consumer of technology services. Take this course and we'll take the mystery out of how your firm selects and implements server technology. Knowledge is power and this is the place to get it. Enrollment is limited to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to participate so register today.

Webinar FAQ

What:
ATRN Webinar Featuring Microsoft's Small Business Server 2003
When:
October 21, 2004.
Introduction and Overview, 11:00a.m. - 1:00p.m. EDT
Ongoing Care and Feeding, 2:00p.m. - 4:00p.m. EDT
How: Courses are live in your office using Microsoft Placeware
How Much: $195.00 per session. $375.00 for both sessions
How Many: Registered firms may have multiple people in attendance with one spokesperson to ask questions
Register: Register online or call 877-668-3161.

Bonus: Money back guarantee. If you're not completely satisfied with the quality of your experience, the registration fee will be refunded without question.