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IT Zone Quotes of the Year 2006

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20th Dec 2006
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"I accept that online filing is the only way to go and they've made the decision. But the fact they have decided to change the filing deadline without any discussion at all really is quite high handed. The paymaster general has said they will take forward the consultation process with businesses, but what is the point in having discussions when they've already made decisions?" Like many other AccountingWEB members, TaxZone columnist Rebecca Benneyworth was taken aback by Lord Carter's March recommendation, accepted by the Chancellor, that self assessment filing deadlines should be shortened by four months.

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"One of things that you learn in life is that when you don't get things right, you have to listen. Four weeks ago I said that if a convincing argument could be made I would look at this again. People have come forward and made some convincing points, therefore... I have written to the paymaster general saying I wish to change my recommendations so that for paper returns the filing date will be 31 October, but to electronic filing, the date will remain 31 January." Lord Carter is convinced by intensive lobbying from the accountancy profession.

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"The move to Microsoft.NET for IRIS PAYE-Master is a major technical advance which we had to make in order to ensure that we keep up-to-date with Microsoft's continual upgrade of its operating systems. The new Version 5 of IRIS PAYE-Master had extensive testing before its release but some difficulties only became apparent in certain circumstances for some customers during the upgrade process from Version 4." IRIS Group CEO Martin Leuw apologises for upgrade problems with the spring release of the company's PAYE-Master application.

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"I would like to apologise for any inconvenience we may have caused accountants in practice or business customers and assure people we are taking the issue seriously doing everything we can to remedy the situation as quickly as possible." Sage Accountants Division managing director Greg Ford addresses complaints from AccountingWEB members after Sage suspended deliveries of Line 50 2007 in Octber after users encountered upgrade problems.

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"If I were MI5 - or let's face it any large corporate - I don't think I'd be rushing out to kit everyone out with a shiny new Skype phone. Stewart Twynham tackles the question, "Skype sounds great - but is it safe?"

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"I have stuck with Excel in preference to the free OpenOffice suite because I don’t want to retrain my team, and it is good to be compatible with the rest of the world. But there is a good deal of retraining involved in moving a team of 2 to 5 percenters to Excel 2007, and I am beginning to wonder whether I could not redirect that effort more profitably elsewhere." In a devastatingly detailed review, John Francis of Lindeyer Francis Ferguson concludes that for accountants and power users, "Excel 2007 Beta doesn't cut it".

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"Accountants... wanted an alternative to Sage Line 50. They told us it was an OK product, but didn't meet all of their requirements. They were looking for a little more depth of functionality, without having to make the full step up to a mid-market system." IRIS Group SME product director Rob Steele tells AccountingWEB about the company's motivation to introduce IRIS Accounts Online, a new, hosted application.

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"It's not something our existing customers have been breaking our door down for, but it offers an alternative to customers who want a hosted alternatives, for all sorts of reasons." Access Accounts marketing director Barry Anderson explains why the company decided to revive its hosting strategy after withnessing the rise of "software as a service" start-ups and the arrival of hosted versions of Sage 50 and IRIS Accounts Office Online.

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"We have learned some painful lessons. What we realised is we've got to offer more power to Line 50, so it will go up to 15 or 25 users. A company or accountancy firm with all the different systems could have up to 100 users all powered off MySQL - with the ease of use, easy self-admin and low cost of hardware that is the Sage 50 promise." Sage UK CEO Paul Stobart explains the company's move to the open source MySQL database - and not Microsoft SQL Server - for next release of Line 50.

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"What we need to do is to enhance the bank statement in order for it to become a complete accounting record. This means persuading the banks to allow users to record additional information with each transaction... If the banks and accountants between them could set up a system that maintained a business's accounting records pretty well automatically, we'd make our own lives simpler and be doing a great service to small businesses everywhere." David Carter suggests an alternative solution for the future of accounting software as we know it.

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"The term paperless has set technology back by 5-10 years. The technology is less to do with paper and all to do with filing." Simon Hurst explains to the audience at our September Paperless Practice event that "it's not about the paper".

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"If a client brings in papers to our offices and asks for a receipt, we would surely give one as a matter of customer relationships... If HMRC is going to refuse receipts, perhaps it should reconsider its policy of referring to taxpayers as 'customers'." Andrew Bassett on the joys of self assessment 2006, when many local offices refused to provide receipts for hand-delivered returns in the final countdown to the 31 January deadline.

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“We need to work in partnership with agents, practitioners and software houses and we are trying to strengthen those relationships. They can influence the shape and design of our services. Success will not be defined by delivering a raft of service that will enable users to comply with rules. Success will be when we have a strong and decent customer experience and users continually use the services.” Julian Hatt, head of communications and stakeholder engagement for HMRC’s Carter Programme, sets out HMRC's new "customer-friendly" philosophy in December.

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