In a broad presentation of new products and discussion of strategy, Intuit executives this week outlined plans to dominate their markets; that’s even more than they now do in consumer and professional tax software and low-cost accounting. CEO Brad Smith pledged “to allow no U.S. beachhead” in accounting software in remarks made during this week’s Investor’s day. Smith made that comment – obviously aimed at Xero – after noting the introduction of wholesale QuickBooks pricing for Pro Advisor.

The departure of Peter Karpas, CEO of Xero North America, last month is a sign that things are less smooth for the Australian cloud software provider. In a “New Zealand Herald” article, Xero CEO Rod Drury was quoted saying it was probably too soon for Karpas’ strategic view. The article notes the stock price is half of March’s highs and says this: “However some analysts have questioned whether the company has just shown its competitor what it needs to do to keep market share.” Does that fit with Xero's plan for a U.S. IPO before the March 31 fiscal year end?

Sage reseller SWK Technologies has hired Mark Janecek as director of product management and development. Janecek, who joined the Livingston, N.J.-based VAR last month, had been with Sage since June 1997. He held product manager and senior product manager positions at the software company from October 2008 until accepting the new job. SWK says Janecek joined in advance of the TBX--‐Time and Billing Exact product launch.

Intuit has begun providing wholesale billing to its ProAdvisors so they can mark up the price of products and services delivered to their clients. In this week’s very newsy Investor’s Day, SVP Dan Wernikoff said Intuit had always had a referral model for QuickBooks. “We allowed you to give a discount, but we didn’t allow you in the business of doing the books for them and marking it up it,” he said. Executives did not give details about how this pricing works. Also during the session, Wernikoff outlined plans to replace QuickBooks Online Accountant and replace it with QuickBooks Accountant.