The usual Random Thoughts item is on a brief break because of the impact of the winter ailment season on the writer. It should return on Friday, January 16, as this week looks potentially funnier. How long is a hiatus, anyway? What's half a hiatus? My cousin once took a hiatus and got 30 days for it, but we don't talk about him at family gatherings. If I show you my hiatus, will you show me yours? If it hiatuses or hiati? Never mind, next week.

AccuFund has added a Travel Advance Management module to its accounting suite, which tracks employee travel and expense requests. It feeds a bill to accounts payable once travel advances are approved. When detail is entered during reconciliation, users can indicate if the bill was paid for by company credit card.

Inventory software vendor Fishbowl has introduced a new user interface with Fishbowl 2015. The company says Fishbowl Manufacturing and Fishbowl Warehouse "have been completely redesigned and updated with new module and toolbar icons, a new home screen", but wait there's more. Besides the new look there are speed and capacity improvements and the company has added an option to automatically commit inventory for orders, enabling the products to automatically reserve inventory for orders.