A local contractor quipped that portions of Northern New Jersey had experienced three 100-year floods in the last five years. In a way, investors of a certain age know the feeling. "A client who is 50 years old has been exposed to three major downtowns -1987, 2000, 2008 and a minor blip in 2003," says John DeVincent, EVP of marketing for eMoney Advisor. For those older, the previous bad experience, he continues, was "the crash of 1929."

              

Five years ago, most accounting firm partners would probably have stared blankly if you asked them about server virtualization and virtual machines. But now many are adopting server virtualization as a way of reclaiming space and improving hardware performance, even if they don't always understand the technology "It's been everything we hoped for and more," says CPA David Cieslak, a principal with reselling firm Arxis Technology of Simi Valley, Calif.

              

Until recently, write-up software was primarily a tool CPAs and Accountants to record the history of our clients. With the changes in the technology, it has also changed what services we can offer and makes choosing accounting software a bigger decision than it had been in the past.

              

When it comes to documents, many accountants used to be prime candidates for a spot on the television show “Hoarders.” Their offices were filled with stacks of folders and nothing was ever thrown away. Cluttered desks became something of a trademark. Thanks to new technology and paperless offices, what used to be physical mounds of paper have become virtual mounds of electronic records. Sometimes the information stored in those electronic mounds can as hard to find as holiday decorations....

              

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of the Treasury is planning a pilot program of direct deposit of tax refunds for low- and moderate-income individuals. It would enable them to open new accounts that can be accessed via debit cards.

              

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, which had a tough tax season this year, has named franchising veteran Philip H. Sanford as the EVP of strategy and performance measurement. He was given a one-year term with no automatic extensions of his position. Sanford, who is principal of a private equity firm, spent less than a year in his prior executive job.

              

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service expects an online application system for paid tax preparers to receive Preparer Tax Identification Numbers will go live in the middle of next month. Under proposed regulations, these professionals must obtain or reapply for a PTIN and pay a user fee of $64.25 each.

              

Using Twitter is a good idea, even for accountants. There are a few tools that will enhance your use of this shorthand messaging system. For example, there are times when you want to delete old tweets. This is accomplished by logging in to your Twitter account and deleting one at a time. When deleting one or two, this is easy. When you want to change the focus of a twitter and instead of tweeting about debits, you want to tweet about credits, there could be hundreds or even thousands of old t...

              

The last time we looked at five questions that penny pinchers ask before spending their hard earned cash on technology that probably won't do everything they're hyped to do. Here are five more.

              

There continues to be talk and lots of wishes for a paperless office. There are many software programs, such as: OneNote, Sticky Notes, and EverNote. These all work well when you have the computer on. Sharing these notes takes a little more effort. Leaving notes on the refrigerator requires clips to hold paper scraps or write-on boards or cork bulletin boards with stick pins.

              

Stuff that doesn’t work – that’s what most technology is. Printers that stop printing. Applications that don’t do what they promised. Computers that freeze up. Thank God Microsoft doesn’t build airplanes or we’d have 747’s dropping out of the sky like flies. Unfortunately, when a relied-on piece of technology, either software or hardware, goes bad it can cripple a small business and cost you a lot of unnecessary money. A good penny pincher will ask himself some hard questions be...

              

Automatic Data Payment has parted ways with Campbell B. Langdon, who had served as president of the major account services division for employer services, after his duties were handed off to another executive. The company did not announce the departure, which was effective June 30, but included the separation agreement with the 10-year veteran of the payroll processing organization when it filed with the SEC its annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30.

              

SAN MATEO, Calif. - NetSuite, which markets Internet-based business applications has launched the NetSuite Accountant Program, as the effort to enlist accountants in promoting the new generation of software is picking up steam. NetSuite's action follows the path taken by rival Intacct, which is enlisting accountants to promote and use and resellers to sell its Web-based program.

              

The SEC has charged Dell's former chief accounting officer, Robert W. Davis, and former assistant controller, Randall D. Imhoff, for their alleged roles in accounting fraud at the computer hardware giant. Both men agreed to pay penalties that involved Dell's alleged fraud in misstating operating results for its fiscal years 2002 through 2005. This action follows a separate settlement of SEC and accounting rule violatons earlier this year in which Dell paid $100 million civil penalty and founder

              

ANDOVER, Mass. - Copanion, which makes tax workflow software, has hired Julie Pierce for the newly created job of vice president of engineering. In that position, she is responsible for overseeing development of Copanion's products.