[June 14, 2011]

CloudSolutions Alliance Adds FreshBooks to CPA-focused Educational Collaborative

The CloudSolutions Alliance, a CPA-focused educational collaborative comprised of Fujitsu Computer Products of America, XCM Solutions, SmartVault, Copanion and SpeedTax, today announced the addition of FreshBooks, an online invoicing, time tracking and expense management service that now boasts more than 2 million users, features a remarkably easy-to-use interface, and allows small business customers to instantly send professional-looking invoices.

The announcement was made during the 2011 AICPA Practitioners Symposium and TECH+ Conference being held this week in Las Vegas.

FreshBooks has spent the past year making their presence known in the accounting space, and connected with the CloudSolutions Alliance with a desire to participate in educating firms about SaaS (News - Alert) and Cloud applications, with an emphasis on creating a better client experience.

FreshBooks has approached the small business and accounting markets with a clear-cut message regarding customer needs:

• Financial record-keeping should be easy and fast, but still detailed enough to satisfy a customer's accountant.
• Billing should be simple. An invoice can be sent a few seconds after a new customer creates their account, regardless of level of technical expertise.
• Customer data deserves to be safe, secure, and accessible. The customer owns their data, and that data will be easy to export at any time you want it.
• Every customer should look like a Fortune 500 company, based on the image sent by invoices, bills, or other accounting communications, regardless of company size.
• All customers are entitled to the latest version of FreshBooks software, period.

FreshBooks will participate in upcoming CloudSolutions Alliance educational initiatives directed at CPA firms of all sizes, including a forthcoming podcast series created by the THRIVEal+CPA Network, called THRIVEcasts. More information on the THRIVEcasts will be forthcoming in a news announcement later this month.

"FreshBooks and the CloudSolutions Alliance are in total agreement on how the Cloud, SaaS and Paperless movement will transform CPA firms and their clients into much more efficient entities," said Gary Mirsky, Director of Channel Sales at FreshBooks. "Our focus at FreshBooks is helping people do what they love most. By joining forces with the other members of CloudSolutions Alliance, we can allow CPA firms, and in turn their clients, to look more professional and get paid faster while doing what they love."

"FreshBooks has attracted millions of smart small business customers with a simple value proposition and Cloud message that mirrors the key tenets of the CloudSolutions Alliance," said Jason Blumer, CPA.CITP, CFE, Managing Shareholder, Blumer & Associates, CPAs. "It's the same message for the accounting community - firms need solutions that are remarkably easy to use, are pre-integrated, and address key bottlenecks in processes that can make or break a firm's success. And if these technology solutions can be confidently recommended to clients, all the better!"

FreshBooks is the sixth member to join the CloudSolutions Alliance, which was formed in 2010 as a response to the rapid shift toward Cloud, SaaS and Paperless technologies in the accounting profession, and how this shift has impacted the capacity of firms to better meet client needs and expectations, and to grow by becoming more competitive.

Just as firms are now reevaluating long-established processes and metrics used to run firms - the move toward Value Billing being a key example - the prospect of continuing to serve clients in a non-automated fashion, moving paper-based tax and other documents through the firm, and utilizing outdated, on-premise software no longer promotes firm growth or keeps pace with the level of client service being offered by fully-automated firms.

The CloudSolutions Alliace will continue to help educate the CPA community with a variety of initiatives that address the key tenets agreed upon by Alliance members:

• Cloud/SaaS/Paperless is the new normal. Mature Cloud, SaaS and Paperless solutions are readily available, and gaining widespread adoption among firms of all sizes. Accounting professionals should consider the positive impact of these technologies and services on their firms, on their staff, and on their valued clients.
• Increased firm efficiency. Choosing to work in a Cloud environment supports highly efficient processing and the ability to establish standardized operations, so everyone is following the same procedures.
• Newfound mobility and efficiency. Staff can easily and effectively work from any remote environment with Cloud and SaaS tools.
• Focus on client service. Clients benefit directly from Cloud, SaaS and Paperless technologies and applications that support real-time exchange of data and new levels of convenience.
• New pricing power. Firms that optimize their operations with Cloud, SaaS and Paperless technologies and services gain the ability to confidently charge a premium for their enhanced services with little risk of losing business to a competitor.
• Access to Cloud equality. Firms of all sizes, with or without IT staff, can leverage SaaS solutions to offer their clients the assurance of the highest levels of data security and privacy, via their service provider(s). This key aspect of Cloud computing allows small firms to compete aggressively in the market with a service offering comparable to the Top 100 firms.

Recent CloudSolutions Alliance initiatives have included:

• A research study of Top 100 accounting firms conducted by Bay Street Group focused on profit margins, competition between firms and getting up-to-date with technology. Managing partners, partners, senior executives and senior staff from Top 100 firms participated in the survey, which shows that the best-managed, most successful firms are aggressively adopting Cloud, SaaS and Paperless solutions. The survey results show that firms are adopting these technologies in order to become more competitive, provide better client service, and improve client retention.
• A white paper by James Bourke, CPA.CITP, and Partner at WithumSmith+Brown, "3 Key Tech Strategies of Successful 21^st Century Accounting Firms", describing how competitive, growth-oriented firms are leveraging technologies like document management and SaaS to better serve clients and improve internal operations.

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cloud_alliance. You'll get updates on conference and trade show attendance, and be the first to hear of new Alliance initiatives aimed at helping accounting professionals put Cloud, SaaS and Paperless technologies to work for improved firm performance and happier clients.

About CloudSolutions Alliance members:

About FreshBooks

FreshBooks.com is planet Earth's leading online invoicing and bookkeeping service for small businesses, freelancers and service based professionals. Since 2004, FreshBooks.com has helped over 2.5 million people experience painless billing. Dedicated to designing extraordinary customer experiences, FreshBooks.com helps people focus on what they love to do, instead of their paperwork. Get a free account and learn more about why over 1500 accountants and financial professionals are referring FreshBooks to their small business clients at www.freshbooks.com/jointhemovement.

About Fujitsu (News - Alert)

Fujitsu is a leading provider of ICT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 170,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com

About Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc.

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. is an established leader in the Document Imaging industry, delivering innovative scanning solutions and services that enable our customers to solve critical business productivity issues and streamline operations. We provide cutting-edge document capture solutions for business and personal environments, backed by a comprehensive portfolio of service and support programs. For more information about Fujitsu Document Imaging solutions and services, please call us at 800-626-4686. For more information, please see: http://us.fujitsu.com/fcpa

About Copanion

Copanion is the leader in paperless tax workflow technology-providing a comprehensive and integrated family of web-based products that automate client tax document retrieval, organization, data entry, and review. The GruntWorx family of products has been in use for multiple tax seasons by thousands of accounting professionals-from sole practitioners to those working in large regional firms and the Big 4. GruntWorx is the product of choice for tax professionals-with more than 4 million processed tax forms this past tax season. To date, Copanion products have earned multiple accolades, including back-to-back Technology Innovation Awards (2008 & 2009) and a Readers' Choice Award from The CPA Practice Advisor, Accounting Today's Top 100 Ones to Watch and Top New Products (2011), and a K2 Annual Quality Award. For more information about Copanion, visit Copanion.com.

The Copanion and GruntWorx names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Copanion in the United States and in other countries. All other companies and products referenced herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

About XCM Solutions, LLC

Founded by CPAs, XCM Solutions, LLC provides accounting firms with web-based workflow management solutions that increase efficiency, productivity and profitability. The company's management team has drawn on its extensive experience in public accounting and clear understanding of the paper-driven workflow issues facing the profession to develop technology that addresses those challenges.

XCM's customer-guided development process has helped the company continuously raise the bar for business process automation solutions for the accounting profession. The award-winning XCM™ workflow management software has become a key piece of the technology equation for firms re-engineering paper-based processes as they move toward a paperless environment. In 2010, CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), and XCM Solutions formed a strategic alliance to bring the XCM workflow management software into CPA2Biz's Trusted Business Advisor(SM) Solutions cloud computing platform. For more information, please visit www.xcmsolutions.com.

About SmartVault

SmartVault is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) document management solutions, providing accounting professionals and business users with an easy and affordable solution for going paperless. SmartVault's unique integration with popular small- and medium-sized business applications, such as QuickBooks®, creates a seamless user experience for scanning, attaching, and finding documents within a familiar application. With SmartVault, users can securely store, access, and share all their documents any time and from anywhere. SmartVault has earned top honors from Intuit (News - Alert) as a QuickBooks Gold Certified Developer. For more information about SmartVault, contact us at 866-674-6785, or visit us at www.smartvault.com.

About SpeedTax

SpeedTax is an easy-to-use, affordable and technologically advanced Software-as-a-Service sales tax solution. SpeedTax performs real-time, automated sales tax calculations, integrates seamlessly with its customers' financial or e-commerce systems, and provides automatic returns preparation and filing, while enabling reporting, treasury management and audit defense with sophisticated, web-based compliance management and reporting tools. SpeedTax helps businesses of all sizes to accurately and affordably outsource the most tedious, repetitious and time-consuming aspects of sales tax compliance - researching, calculating, posting, reporting and remitting sales taxes - while simultaneously acquiring the ability to better manage their business via online, real-time access to sales tax data. For more information, visit www.speedtax.com, or contact us at 888.349.2441.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]