Pricewaterhouse Coopers is significantly increasing its activities with low-cost, cloud-based accounting software. The firm has made important steps in its relationships recently with Sage and Xero and appears to be ready to grow its business in this field.

Payroll provider Paychex reported a 22-rise in net income for the first quarter ended August 31 as the company took advantage of a federal tax program involving its software. Without the tax benefit, earnings would have risen 11 percent on an 8-percent increase in revenue as results were helped by price increases.

Intuit, pointing to accelerating sales of its web-based accounting software, says 60 percent of new QuickBooks users are purchasing the cloud-based QuickBooks Online. The company has also hiked projections for the total number of QBO users it will have in two years by 10 percent. Intuit issued the data as part of its Investor's Day webcast last week.