Accounting Today - May 2012

VARnews

SWK AIMS TO BUY HIGHTOWER

Sage partner SWK Technologies has signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of Hightower Inc., a Chicago-based Sage business and development partner, including Hightower’s customers and all intellectual property.

SWK has officially taken over support for all Hightower customers and business partners, and some Hightower staff are currently engaged with SWK to help provide client support.

In addition to its own branded products, which were sold to other Sage partners, Hightower sold and supported MAS 90, 200 and 500, along with Net-Suite and SysPro.

BAKER TILLY PARTNERS WITH FINANCIALFORCE Baker Tilly Virchow Krause and cloud accounting and financial technology provider FinancialForce.com have inked an agreement to deliver FinancialForce Professional Services Automation implementation and best practices to Baker Tilly’s professional services organization clients. The partnership will initially focus on PSOs using Salesforce in North America with FinancialForce PSA systems experts working alongside Baker Tilly’s management consultants.

AVALARA REVAMPS ACCOUNTANT PROGRAM Cloud-based sales tax automation service provider Avalara has revamped its Accounting and Advisory Services Program to provide CPAs, professional accountants and advisory services professionals access to sales and use tax compliance content, educational resources, and tools to expand their service offerings. Avalara is targeting firms of all sizes. The company previously had an accountant program, but it was more focused around use and familiarity with the product.

ERP LOGIC INKS PLM DEAL SAP partner ERP Logic has partnered with cloud bill-of-materials and change management software provider Arena Solutions to provide a cloud-based product lifecycle management solution for SAP Business ByDesign customers. Leveraging Arena’s ERPExchange module, ERP Logic has developed a connector that will eliminate the need for manual data entry from the PLM application to the ERP application.

those levels. ADP delineates its editions for use by midsized businesses and enterprise businesses, and offers complete systems (such as those offered by its payroll editions, or a tax engine that adds sophisticated tax calculation and compliance capabilities to an existing accounting or retail system and can be in-house or host-based).

ADP segregates business size, at least in some of its marketing materials, by the number of employees, which is a relatively common method. Midsized businesses are defined under this criteria as having between 50 and 999 employees, with enterprise companies having a thousand or more.

Don’t let this be the criteria that you use for considering ADP for your clients. More important than the number of employees is the complexity of the sales tax situation that the client has. It’s quite conceivable, especially given how popular Internet shopping has become, that a much smaller client of yours would benefit from a high-power solution.

Sales Taxes
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AvaTax
Avalara

Some of the vendors in this roundup have very targeted audiences and products. Avalara has a selection of modules that make up Ava Tax that target many of the compliance concerns and are appropriate in a wide variety of your clients, from SMBs to enterprise-level businesses.

These products, which can be purchased or subscribed to separately, include Ava Tax Calc, Ava Tax Certs, Ava Tax Returns, and AvaTax API Developers’ Tools for custom integration with applications not already supported by Avalara. The names pretty much describe the function each addresses. Calc is the ta-ble-lookup and calculation engine, Returns manages filing and remittance, and Certs allows your client to maintain a database of exemption certificates. These products tie directly into more than 150 accounting, ERP and e-commerce systems. TrustFile provides secure e-filing and e-payments. With more states insisting that sales and use taxes be filed electronically, TrustFile may be a valuable adjunct for your clients.

While the above products are the mainstay of Avalara’s offerings, they aren’t the only ones. AvaRates has been upgraded to employ a proprietary geolocation technology to provide even more precise rate and applicability determination. Also new this year are mobile versions of the AvaCalc product for the iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets.

Bloomberg BNA Sales &
Use Tax Portfolios
Bloomberg BNA

One of the most pressing concerns is keeping up with the changes in sales and use tax regulation, rates and applicability. Some companies have huge departments to handle just these aspects of the sales tax process. Others have less capability — and look to your practice to help them maintain compliance.

The Bloomberg BNA Sales Tax & Use Tax Rate Finder offers rates for more than 58,000 jurisdictions. The product can be configured to automatically deliver the rates you or your client need, when they’re needed. This service also provides on-screen cues to let you know when unique tax circumstances exist.

Other Bloomberg BNA products address sales and use tax research. Both the Sales & Use Tax Chart Builder and the Sales & Use Tax Navigator fall into this category, providing different levels and approaches to researching issues that may affect your client. The Sales & Use Tax Monitor extends this capability, providing your practice with daily news coverage of all sales tax developments.

CCH SpeedTax
CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business

As a cloud-based product, Speed Tax is very appropriate for the small and midsized business market. There’s no layout for capital equipment, and software and tax rate updates are handled by Speed Tax, not your client. Transaction-based pricing also makes it an attractive option for your smaller clients.

Speed Tax has a number of solutions available. Speed Tax Core is a fully automated calculation service that integrates with existing financial or e-commerce systems that your client already has in place. If your client needs a more robust sales tax system, Speed Tax Plus extends Core by providing automated return preparation, filing and remittance functions. Finally, if your practice includes providing sales tax services for your clients, Speed Tax Pro provides the ability to automate and manage the sales tax process.

SpeedTax was acquired in 2011 by CCH, and now uses CCH’s tax rate tables, which are among the most accurate available. CCH has also expanded the number of accounting and ERP systems that Speed Tax integrates with.

TaxCloud
FedTax

With one exception, the companies included in this roundup derive their revenue from the client. That exception is Fed Tax’s TaxCloud. Fed Tax is paid by the states that have adopted

the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. Your client pays nothing to use the Web-based tax lookup and calculation service, which is basically targeted to businesses that operate on an e-commerce platform.

The features available to your client are actually based on whether the state in which your client reports is a participating member in SSUTA. If it is, the lookup and calculation engine can be tied to an e-commerce system through a simple application programming interface. In the states that are not members, TaxCloud prepares reports so that your client can file accurate returns. If the state your client files in is a member, TaxCloud can file the return directly. TaxCloud also manages exemption certificates, and there is no fee for this service either.

This year, TaxCloud has been integrated into 10 leading e-commerce and shopping cart systems. But it is not suitable for every one of your clients. It’s really intended for use with companies that are e-commerce-based. With more and more of these springing up every day, it might provide just the right solution for certain of your clients.