The Fitzgerald Group hosted Evolutions²⁰⁰⁶, our seventh annual User Conference, on August 10^th at the beautiful Four Points Hotel & Conference Center in nearby Norwood, Massachusetts.  We were pleased to welcome nearly one hundred guests, some attending their first Conference, some who’ve attended for many years in a row!

This year, our conference “evolved” with an all-new format, based on feedback from our clients who have attended prior years’ conferences.  Among the new features were:

• Hands-on computer labs, to try out new features, enhance skills, and address specific “How do I …”questions.  Hands-on topics included Version 4.1 New Features, Help Resources, Business Insights Reporter, and User-Defined Fields & Tables.

• Roundtable sessions with our consulting teams, structured around questions submitted by attendees.  These sessions were very popular, and included lots of audience participation!

• More breakout sessions and less corporate promotion!  With 19 breakout sessions in all, there just wasn’t time for any of the usual speechmaking from corporate executives.

In addition to the Hands-On and Roundtable sessions, other topics included Sage Extended Solutions, Integrating Act! by Sage, Sage Payroll Options, and Sage MAS 90 & 200 Version 4.2 Preview.

Following up on last year’s success, we again invited a select group of vendors to exhibit their products and services.  These included:

• CCH, a Wolters Kluwer Business (SalesTax.com)

• Data Habitat/Data Self (www.datahabitat.com)

• Dresser & Associates (dresserassociates.com)

• Hightower, Inc. (hightowerinc.com)

• On The Verge (ontheverge-inc.com)

• Safeguard Business Systems (onlinesafeguard.com)

• Sage Software Extended Solution (sagesoftware.com/mas90/extendedsolutions)

• Scanco (scanco.com)

• Technical Support International, Inc. (tsisupport.com)

All in all, it was a fast-paced and fulfilling day for our staff and guests, and the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive.  Our team is already hard at work making plans for next year’s conference, and in order to keep this event “evolving” we need your help.  Please be sure to pass on any suggestions you have to your Consultant or Account Manager!

On December 6, 2005 The Fitzgerald Group hosted a workshop on year-end reporting, focusing on the reports and data needs of the outside accountant.  In spite of threatening weather, personnel from 15 clients attended, many with their CPAs, for a discussion of the wide variety of reporting options available in the Sage MAS 90 and MAS 200 systems.

Mike Fitzgerald welcomed our clients and their CPAs, then opened the session with a general overview of Sage MAS 90 and 200, aimed primarily at the CPAs in attendance.  He covered topics including general usage, dates & closing conventions, system reports and audit trails, and data import/export capabilities.

Senior Consultant Lisa Dudek and Staff Consultant Rob Gagne teamed up to present a great review of reporting options.   Lisa and Rob started with discussions of distribution, receivables and payables, covering most of the options available in many of the reports.  Rob’s experience working in public accounting helped out here, as he knows the kind of reports and information that CPAs need to get from their clients.

Rob and Lisa also covered the various financial reporting alternatives available, from General Ledger Standard Financial Statements through fantastic custom reports in FRx, including working with and reporting on budgets.

Throughout the program, all the presenters emphasized the ability of companies to prepare and present all the necessary reports and data to their CPAs in electronic format, eliminating the piles of paper that traditionally accompany the year-end interaction with your CPA.  A number of alternatives were covered, from printing reports to PDF formats, through ODBC access for specific data inquiries.

If you were unable to attend, but would like more information on the material covered in this program, please give your Account Manager, Tony Bella, a call at our office. 

2005 Best Software New England User Conference

On Thursday, August 4, 2005, we co-hosted (with Dresser & Associates) the Best Software New England User Conference at the Fidelity Investments Clubhouse at spectacular Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.  We were pleased to welcome nearly 300 guests who found the day fun and informative.

Our opening speaker for the day was Himanshu Palsule, Senior VP and GM, Mid-Market Accounting Solutions at Sage Software.  Mr. Palsule’s presentation included an introduction to Sage Software and the name change from Best Software, an overview of upcoming product releases and new additions to Sage’s product and services lines, and a discussion of commitment Sage feels to maintain end-users as Customers for life.

Participants then broke into smaller groups for presentations including:  

	Abra HRMS Version 8
	Crystal Basics for Abra
	MAS 90 & MAS 200 Version 4.1 Preview
	Business Alerts for MAS 90 & MAS 200
	Overview of MAS 90, MAS 200, MAS 500
	Abra HRMS Customization
	Workflow Process Understanding
	MAS 90 & MAS 200 Advanced Custom Office
	Abra Tips & Tricks
	What’s New in MAS 500 Version 7.0
	MAS 90 & MAS 200 Tips & Tricks for Distribution & Manufacturing
	Overview of Abra HRMS
	Sage Pay Services
	MAS 90 & MAS 200 Tips & Tricks for Core/Accounting Modules
	System Security

One of the highlights for many participants was the tour of beautiful Gillette Stadium.  Many even caught a glimpse of a famous player & coach!

We ended the day with Guest Speaker Gino Cappellitti, who played for the Boston Patriots and is now a member of the New England Patriots radio broadcast team.  Gino was a favorite!

This year, for the first time, our Conference included a number of select vendors exhibiting products & services we thought would be of value to our clients.  The exhibitors included:

	Core Solutions
	Officeland/LTR Systems
	On The Verge
	Oz Development, Inc.
	Peerless Business Forms
	Sage Software - Extended Solutions
	Scanco
	Technical Support International, Inc.
	True Commerce, Inc.

Click here for a few photos from the conference. 

Believe it or not, we're already working on plans for our next year’s User Conference to be held in 2006.  Please check back often for more information!

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On December 8th & 9th, 2004 at our Sharon, Massachusetts training center, the Year-End Classroom Training & Webinar sessions were offered for MAS 90^® and MAS 200^® versions 3.71 and 4.0 in three processing areas:

2004 MAS 90 and MAS 200 User Conference

On Wednesday, August 11, 2004, we hosted our 5^th Annual MAS 90 and MAS 200 User Conference at the beautiful Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA.  A capacity crowd joined us and most everyone found the day useful and informative.  Our special guest, Kevin Rooker, Vice President at Best Software, was the keynote speaker and gave us a great overview of Best Software's overall strategy and plans for the future.

Participants then broke into smaller groups for presentations including:  

10th Annual CPA Technology Update

On June 3, 2004, we presented our 10th Annual CPA Technology Update at the Four Points Sheraton Conference Center in Norwood, Massachusetts.  Our topic this year was CRM for CPAs, and we featured industry experts and CPA's in local practice to discuss how Customer Relationship Management can give help you enhance your firm's competitive edge. 

This year we are very fortunate to have as our speakers Anne Stanton, President and CEO of The Norwich Group, and Lindsay Garrison, President of On the verge, incorporated.   Both speakers provided our attendees with a broad overview of the benefits of implementing CRM systems for CPA firms.

If you would like to be notified of future events designed for CPA's, please call Anne Andrea at 781-232-1212.

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Year End Processing Seminar

On Tuesday, December 9, 2003 our staff presented our new Year-End Processing Seminar in our training center for several clients. In 3 separate sessions we covered the steps necessary to close Core Accounting (G/L, A/P, A/R), Distribution (I/M, S/O, P/O) and Payroll.  Attendees could choose only those sessions that applied to their particular situation.

Abra User Group Conference

Best Software and Dresser Associates held a special Abra Software Human Resource/Payroll User Group Meeting on December 4, 2003, and they graciously allowed us to invite any of our clients that might be interested to attend. 

This was an opportunity for those struggling with the administration of Human Resource or Payroll functions to hear first-hand how Abra’s HR and PR systems can help.  Speakers included:

Taylor Macdonald, Senior VP from Best Software, on Abra technology can help improve your business process;

A Labor Law specialist, who addressed the importance of HR systems on your compliance with current labor statutes; and

 Current Abra Software users, who discuss how they have benefited from automating their HR and Payroll systems.

User Group Conference
2003 MAS 90 and MAS 200 New England User Conference
August 7, 2003 Warren Conference Center, Ashland, MA

Over 100 clients and guests joined us on August 7, 2003, for our 4th Annual MAS 90 and MAS 200 New England User Conference.

This year’s Conference was held at the Warren Conference Center in Ashland, MA. Conveniently located near the intersections of Route 495 and the Massachusetts Turnpike. The Conference Center is situated on the beautiful 175-acre grounds of the former estate of industrialist Henry Warren. The Center combines the best of a world-class conference facility and the beauty of a classic New England estate.

The Conference to include a number of Breakout Sessions to give attendees the opportunity to select from subjects that were of particular interest to them. In addition to a General Session and our regular Tips, Tricks & Stump The Experts Panel, sessions being offered included:

	A sneak preview of MAS 90 and MAS 200 Level 4.0 including the new Report Wizard; A Paperless Office (that’s right, no more printing of all those registers and journals); Getting more out of Custom Office with User Defined Fields and Scripting; How to automate repetitive tasks with Visual Integrator and ODBC; MAS 500, the next step up from MAS 90 and MAS 200; and Integrating ACT with MAS 90 and MAS 200.

If you could not make it this year, make sure to contact us to get on our mailing list for next year's Conference to be held in the late summer/early fall timeframe.

  2003 CPA Technology Conference

BROCKTON AND DEDHAM, MA, ISSUED June 21, 2003… Over 100 CPAs recently attended the CPA Technology Updated hosted by The Fitzgerald Group, the region’s leading reseller and support organization for MAS 90 and MAS 200 accounting and business software.  The half-day event took place Friday, June 20, 2003 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Dedham Hilton Conference Center.  The four-hour seminar carries with it four hours of CPE credit. 

The lead speaker will be Roman H. Kepczyk, from Info Tech Partners in Phoenix, AZ.  He is recognized nationally as one of the premier resources for technology planning within the CPA community.  Kepczyk was listed as one of Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People within the Accounting Industry in their year 2000, 2001, and 2002 listings.  He is currently the Chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) IT Executive Committee.

Also speaking will be Mark Albrecht from Kirkland, Albrecht and Fredrickson, who will bring first hand experience of a local firm that has already made significant strides in implementing a paperless office.

The Fitzgerald Group hosts this annual technology update for the CPA community to assist local firms in planning their technology future.  This year’s session will explored software and technologies that can help firms continue to reduce paper and migrate to a true digital environment.  The seminar provided a unique look at technologies that are shaping the future of CPA firms from the viewpoint of one of the accounting industry’s leading technology consultants.

Topics covered included:

• Paperless Auditing
• ASP and Outsourcing
• Digital Capture and Scanning Technologies
• Digital vs Paper Storage
• Digital Security
• Software and Hardware Options
• Controlling Costs and Avoiding Pitfalls in Implementing Digital Technologies

Michael Fitzgerald, President/CEO of The Fitzgerald Group, said, "Our aim is to provide continuing education credit for the CPA field and send attendees away armed with information that it might take them weeks or months to accumulate elsewhere," he noted.  Continuing, he said, "With the trend toward technology and less-paper environments, there is a wealth of information to be gained to help CPAs run their firms more efficiently and in a more cost-effective manner.” He added, “This was a 'must attend' for any CPA who wants to stay abreast of the industries emerging technologies”.

The Fitzgerald Group
27 Route 101-A
Amherst, NH 03031
V:(603) 672-1830
F:(603) 672-5665