Paychex had its "best selling season in seven or eight years," CEO Martin Mucci said this week. Mucci made his comments during the week's webcast for earnings for the third quarter ended February 28. He said referrals and sales were strong in all of the payroll company's channels in what was the strongest selling season since the recession began in 2008.

Xero has named Amy Vetter as its first Head of Accounting in the United States. Vetter's position is one in which she is described as evangelist for accounting, practice management and supporting financial solutions. It is not one in which she is involved in the company's accounting department.

The VP who has headed QuickBooks Online tfor he last 19 months has left Intuit after 15 years with the company. The LinkedIn page of Terry Hicks, VP and general of QuickBooks Online, shows his job supervising Intuit's fastest growing product ended last month.

Planning for succession at many CPA firms is often treated as if dealing with a serious medical condition. Sadly, too many practitioners feel that if they ignore it long enough, the succession problem will go away. Therefore, they procrastinate until they are faced with a number of unpleasant alternatives – such as a hastily arranged merger with unfavorable terms, or shutting down the business entirely.