CCH Small Firm Services is rebranding the Client Write-up package that is sold primarily to its ATX and TaxWise customers and a beefed up edition of the product suite will replace CCH's ProSystem fx Write-up this fall. It will also replace the old CPA Accounting which customers have used for many years.
The new product will be called the CCH Client Accounting Suite and users of the SFS package will see no change in features or in pricing, says Dawn Evanoff, product manager. "We are renaming it Client Accounting Suite because a lot of people don't think write-up anymore." The suite includes the general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable module. It also has live and after-the-fact payroll, trial balance and financial reporting. The new name will hit the market with the September release.
It's the customers of ProSystem fx Write-up and CPA Accounting who will see the biggest change as those products are replaced by Client Accounting Suite Premier, which will have integration to ProSystem fx Tax and Practice Management.
"For those clients, it's going to be quite a change. They will have some more functionality," says Evanoff. The older write-up applications will receive updates through the end of the year and will be supported through February. She adds there are more users of CPA Accounting than of the newer ProSystem fx Write-up.
Evanoff says those customers keep the same functions but also get new features such as credit card entry and credit card reconciliation, a set-up wizard that is called client set-up assistance and a backup-and-restore feature. They will also be able to move to different modules from within the system. For example, someone working in the GL will be able to access payroll and accounts receivable. Evanoff says that's not possible in their current applications.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
