The news is that while certain companies are trying to ditch their dotcoms and distance themselves from their dotcom stores, there are companies like NationTax.com that see the real trend. NationTax.com launches not only to compete, but to centralize information to compete in the next field of the network: accounting. Accounting?

For the average taxpayer, taxes get the best possible deductions to offset their earnings. For those in business, there are more complex tax issues, such as sales and use taxes, multi-jurisdictional taxes, and dependent calculations. There are also issues like auditing, helping to track lost revenue or misapplication of payments without proper compensation, and other accounting loopholes, through which profits are lost.

Major CPA firms such as Deloitte & Touche LLP, New York, and Intacct Corp, Los Gatos, California, are understanding the need for cooperation, rather than adversely trying to “take the market.” How is that?

There are three main divisions of tax-paying businesses right now, basically created by employees on payroll. There are also three pioneers who are planning intensively to meet the needs of the three financial levels of taxpayers. David Thomas, CEO and founder of Intacct, said, “We’re saying that if you put accounting on the web, you can participate in the new economy. The deal with Deloitte & Touche is the hallmark of credibility.” It certainly is. Having the signature or seal of approval from D&T makes the desire to increase its customer base from 400 to 10,000 by the end of this year a conceivable transformation. They are also paving the way by contracting to offer unique listed services like contract management, expense tracking, and electronic bill presentment.

This will allow Deloitte & Touche to continue serving employers with more than 1,000 employees along with the responsibility and needs of complex client/server transaction IT issues. While Intacct will serve the mid-range of companies with 100 to 1000 employees with functions such as audit management, analysis, selection of samples and confirmations and information exchange with one of the main CPA firms in the country. This means potential savings for your clients’ businesses of $50,000.00 to $150,000.00 in software required to get the job done.

While Deloitte & Touche currently sells software products to most customers with a strong customer support system available for problem resolution, this sometimes requires CD shipments, manuals, the expense of customer support that can further reduce Internet use. Sites with interactive programming and the ability to work on taxes until the last minute, from the last hour to the last day, will allow D&T to cater to the human nature that survives in the business world.

As NationTax.com moves closer in the race, Deloitte & Touche remains ahead, knowing that legislation and moves toward paper reduction will force even the most hesitant to follow the e-filing trend.

It is to your credit to help a smaller company help fill the need. Let’s hope they don’t take the company out and buy it, like the now-defunct FDSI of Agoura, California. I like to see smaller companies survive and thrive. I think they tend to give back more to the communities that encouraged their nascent growth.

NetLedger, Inc, San Mateo, California, targets companies that pioneered web-based accounting, companies with employee counts of up to 100. Its July 2000 issue was scheduled to be published with payroll, while they are trying to figure out how to add multi-currency capability as part of their expansion into Europe. They continue to educate and help smaller businesses manage their data more securely and reduce losses due to lack of backup and poor power supply.

One of the newer kids on the block, starting out in California and providing their services in Spanish, as well as moving to other states, as soon as they can, is efile.com.

© J. Deborah Coss