Declines in the demand financial planning services led Gilman+Ciocia to a loss of just under $2 million for the year ended June 30, a turnaround from $3.7 million in net income a year earlier, while revenue dropped to $41.6 million, down $18.3 million from $50.9 million from fiscal 2008. Financial planning revenue, by far the largest component of revenue, dropped to $34.2 million, a decrease of 22.8 percent from $44.3 million a year ago.

One out of five people who purchase QuickBooks don't end up using it, Kiran Patel, EVP and general manager of Intuit's Small Business Group, told attendees at Intuit's annual Investors' Day yesterday. Patel made the point to show how much revenue Intel could generate if it can pick up more of these users and those who bail on other Intuit products.

That rate implies there are many thousands of users who leave the software sitting on their shelves. For the year ended July 31, Intuit sold 1.6 million QuickBooks units, along with providing 224,000 free Simple Start activations.

The pace of adoption of Web-based programs by tax and accounting firms is accelerating. But can a application like fixed asset software, which changes with regulation but not so much with technology innovation, be a worthwhile part of the Software as a Service trend. The answer is yes from a vendor point of view. Whether users are as enthusiastic remains to be seen, but the software publishers are betting they will be.