Intuit is planning a show for the fall and it sounds like its competition with Xero is triggering a full-scale press. The show, called QuickBooks Connect, kicks off on October 21 in San Jose, Calif. Apparently, Intuit is talking of attendance of 4,000 to 7,000, bringing together small business owners, accountants, developers and entrepreneurs. The show kicks off on October 21 in San Jose, Calif. Xero has already said it will postpone plans for its second Xerocon to 2015.

After I finished our voice recital, in which I performed the difficult monologue, the Prologue from Pagliacci, someone from the audience told me, "I almost cried while you were singing that." "Yeah, when I sing a lot of people almost cry." "I was surprised you weren't wearing the clown outfit and beating a drum," she continued. "The tenor wears the clown garb. I'm a baritone." "Pity, you'd look better if you covered your face in clown paint." "People often think I play the drum; they are always telling me to beat it. But, everybody loves a clown." "There's always exceptions," she responded.

Three American businesses were chosen as finalists for Microsoft's award for Enterprise Resource Planning. But the winner was Surry, England-based HSO Group, which markets Dynamics AX and CRM. The companies were part of a laundry list of winners and finalists as Microsoft this week released Partner of the Year honorees in the run up to the 2014 Worldwide Partner Conference. HSO operates in retail, manufacturing, distribution and services and says it has more than 350 professionals worldwide.

QAD, which makes manufacturing software, is in the same boat as everyone else. Or should we say on the same cloud as a 53-percent increase in subscription revenue from cloud software sales helped the company to an 11-percent revenue increase for the first quarter ended April 30. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company also sliced its loss to $76,000, compared to a year-earlier loss of $1.3 million and posted operating income of $298,000 in the most recently ended period, as opposed to an operating loss of $1.7 million a year ago.