Intuit has made a limited release of QuickBooks Online Advanced. The company said recently the new product represents a step up from QBO Plus, which can support up to 25 users.

Intuit is integrating DocuSign's Digital Transaction Management (DTM) and electronic signature technology with Intuit Tax Online, Lacerte and Intuit ProSeries. Available for purchase with those products, DocSign enables preparers and clients the ability to add electronic signatures on returns.

Intuit's directors apparently liked what they saw in the performance of CEO Brad Smith as they approved a nearly 19-percent raise in base salary, effective for the year ending April 30, 2011, and a 46 percent increase in bonus awarded for fiscal 2010. Although bonus and salary often have less value than stock and option awards as part of executive compensation, it was a good result for Smith, who completed his second complete fiscal year in April. And performance-based bonuses for all executives were generous.

Other than the fact that the number of tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service are down by 2.9 percent through March 12 and that two major preparation chains shared in that hit, the 2009 tax season looks like a success in one respect--tax software has worked even if a lot of taxpayers haven't, the major factor in the filing decline.