Intuit's board of directors slashed the bonus of CEO Brad Smithby 51 percent for the year ended July 31, but more than made up for that drop with increases in stock and options awards. The result was that Smith's total compensation crept up 3.4 percent from the 2008 total. His compensation rose to $4.81 million from $4.65 million. And the compensation committee praised Smith's overall performance saying it had "determined that Mr. Smith had delivered outstanding progress toward the following longer-term goals which were established by the Committee earlier in fiscal 2009." 

Over the years, Gary Boomer's proselytizing about properly funding technology in a tax and accounting firm has had many variations. But judging from his presentation at a session at the annual CCH User Conference yesterday, one thing hasn't changed: Firms still don't know what they are spending for technology. Another thing should probably be added is that it isn't enough, especially in the soft costs, which are areas that get whittled away during a recession.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - CCH plans a second release of IntelliConnect, its ambitious new tax research platform, for a Thanksgiving release to fix some of the issues users have been facing with the product, which is designed to replace the company's Tax Research Network. CCH president Mike Sabbatis said the next release would incorporate enhancements to enable users to get to content easier via the browser.