DEXTER, Mich.  - Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting moved towards its next generation product line with the announcement of Accounting CS, a combination of write-up and payroll, and Virtual Client Office, a client portal system to enable accounting professionals to deliver software tools to their clients from firms' Web sites. The plans were detailed by Jon Baron, president of tax and accounting's Professional Software & Services, at the unit's 29th Annual Users' Conference. The company is on a pace similar to its rival CCH which has also announced its next generation system this fall.

Accounting CS, built on Microsoft's .Net technology, features a customizable dashboard interface and combines write-up and payroll functions. Among new features are advanced check entry, including  batch mode and multiple payroll schedules per client; cross-client report printing; multi-user functionality; and flexible chart of accounts structures.

The company described Virtual Client Office as a new concept in clients portals. Among the software tools firms can provide their clients are Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, document management options and the choice of Thomson's Client Bookkeeping Solution online or hosted QuickBooks.

For its Practice CS Staff Management module, released earlier this year, the company is developing integration applications, including a Practice CS iPhone package which Baron said would be released soon. The Source Document Processing service, available to FileCabinet CS users the last two tax seasons, can now label and organize 1040 client source documents.