Cloud Technology

Venture capitalist and serial entrepreneur Marc Andreessen and Arianna Huffington, the editor-in-chief of Huffington Post, will headline an impressive lineup of featured speakers at Intuit Inc.’s upcoming inaugural QuickBooks Connect conference, scheduled for Oct. 21–23 in San Jose, Calif.

Already public in New Zealand and Australia, Xero is now valued at $2.7B and part of the rising cloud economy.

Cloud accounting software maker Kashoo has released a new iPhone app that gives small business owners the ability to manage their finances from anywhere.

Outsourced billing services provider Billtrust has acquired cash application software development company Open Scan Technologies, Inc. Already working together under an alliance announced late last year, the combined companies will represent the first end-to-end Invoice-to-Cash infrastructure for B2B billers, dramatically increasing efficiency in the billing and payment ecosystem.

The online small business accounting system Xero now has the ability to integrate with Silicon Valley Bank, a technology and start-up focused financial institution, the companies announced on Wednesday morning.

Brad Smith, the CEO of Intuit, which makes QuickBooks, TurboTax and many other personal and small business management systems, met with President Barack Obama on Friday to discuss how big business and government can work together to support small business. Smith joined other leading executives at a roundtable discussion during which the companies will champion new ways of helping finance small businesses to help them grow and succeed.

With news that Intuit's QuickBooks Online can now accept Bitcoin transactions, the virtual currency may finally be ready to go more mainstream.

Avalara and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants have reached an agreement where VSCPA members will have unlimited access to up-to-date sales and use tax rules, rates, forms, and related reference resources, to better assist their clients, and/or their employers, in complying with a rapidly changing and complex regulatory environment.