SageSpark, a program that is designed to move Sage down market, is going to provide common human resource forms for its small business members under a new program called HR Advice. Templates and instructions will be available for commonly used forms such as employee evaluation forms, offer letters and employee appraisals.

"We are going to be doing a pilot of this in Canada at the end of this month," notes Chuck LeDuc, the senior director of development for the Spark program.

Accounting firms that perform audits need to be more aware of unclaimed property, held by clients, property that must be handled correctly and properly reported to state governments. But too often, says Thomson Reuters' Valerie Jundt, companies spread the amounts across different accounts and report "This is what this is what the accountants told us to do."

Properly recording unclaimed property during audits was one of the topics that Jundt, director of the unclaimed property group for Thomson Reuters' Tax and Accounting business, is addressing in the 2009 Seattle Roundtable for Unclaimed Property and Property Tax, led by Thomson professionals in Seattle on Sept. 18.Teaching accounting firms the ins and outs of handling unclaimed property is a something that Jundt, a former state audit administrator, had experience in. A few years ago, she reached out to a CPA society and ended up speaking on this topic annually. Among her topics was the information that unclaimed property should be placed in a reserve or protected account.

KANSAS CITY, MO. - H&R Block said it is continuing its negotiations with McGladrey & Pullen in an effort to convince the accounting firm to maintain a 10-year old agreement under which M&P and Block's RSM McGladrey jointly service clients, but noted it is talking to other audit and attest firms as possible replacements.

Legal arbitration is also continuing over certain provisions of the operating agreements that regulate the relationship.
M&P notified RSM McGladrey on July 21 that it intended to end the relationship. Block CEO Russ Smyth said that "We have been quite clear in our communications that we believe the firms are better off together and that this course set in motion by the ten member board of M&P is risky from both a business and a financial perspective and is not in the best interest of our partners, employees and clients."