Portals may have been one of the hottest discussion topics for people buying technology products for the tax and accounting community. But hot topics don't equal hot sellers and a recent study of technology use by accounting firms showed that their use of portals is not quite what headlines and stories would lead us to believe. And there may be a very basic reason for that.

Intuit has 550 CPAs participating in its TurboTax CPA Select program, the company said in a recent earnings webcast. Begun last year, the program is in what CEO Brad Smith this week called a “full live beta” test. Although he did not quantify results during the earnings presentation, Smith said, “We like the early results of this experiment.”

North American Tax & Accounting operations turned in 4-percent organic growth for 2013, Wolters Kluwer said this week. Software revenue growth for the CCH parent was offset by decline in bank product and print revenue last year. Meanwhile, the parent company reported earnings for the year were up while IFRS revenue was down 1 percent, although up 2 percent in constant currencies.