Intuit has developed an online payment system that will enable customers to pay invoices online with funds transferred directly between the customers' and buyers' bank accounts. The Intuit Payment Network will not only enable these electronic payments, but the record of the transaction can automatically feed into QuickBooks 2011.

The computer system outages that hit Intuit during the summer stemmed for a series of human errors. CEO Brad Smith told attendees Wednesday at the annual Intuit Investors Day. "If I walked you through all the things that happened, it would be a very disappointing comedy of errors," Smith said. Intuit, he continued, had the right systems and procedures; they just weren't followed.

Technical support in the tax and accounting profession once meant one thing overwhelmingly--telephone support. And during the pressure cooker of tax season, it's still the mainstay of those seeking to solve software problems. But the advent of the Internet and social media have dramatically altered the support landscape, at once providing more tools for solving problems, but making it more complex at the same time.