Avalara has launched a program for QuickBooks ProAdvisors and their QuickBooks Online clients in the United States. The Bainbridge Island, Wash.-based sales-and-use tax vendor is providing participants with not-for-resale copies of AvaTax for QBO. They receive a six-month free trial of the Avalara Sales Tax Compliance App for QBO for ProAdvisors' QBO clients.

Sage has officially described new features for Sage 50 Accounting U.S. Edition (formerly Peachtree for the first time in more than two years. The company, which has abandoned its former annual updates, says the new version has a streamlined installation and it has added access to chat support throughout the product. But at the center stage of the enhancements are apps for the iPhone and the iPad.

Bob Scott, editor of The Progressive Accountant, sits down Ben Spoerl of iChannel to discuss the enterprise document management company’s role in the accounting marketplace. Working with firms that range from 50 to 900 user accounts, iChannel provides a central point of view of all documents-in any format, enable clients to communicate more effectively and more efficiently with their customer base. The iChannel application is available in both the private and public cloud models.