CCH is moving into the payroll business through an alliance with its plans to reach large firms first. The company's Small Firm Business Services unit is leading the effort via its contract with iSystems, but CCH will not go after its small firm customers until it can come up with a package with the right features and price for the part of the market.
"We are initially rolling it out to the larger firms," says product manager
Michael Smith. The product is CCH's first offering to accounting firms of a wholesale product that they can use to deliver payroll and HR services to clients. But the first effort comes with a one-time license fee that ranges from about $25,000 to $70,000. There are also optional modules, along with transaction charges.
The iSystems product can be run on the desktop or as an Internet application that can be hosted by iSystems. Large firms may also choose to host the application in their offices. A version for smaller firms appears to be several months away as CCH works to retool the offering for those operations. "We are looking down the road, trying to identify how to take the best parts for the smaller accounting firmer and roll out the solution for them," says Smith.
Firms can choose to completely outsource the payroll process, or they can select the portions they would like to handle.
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