DRAKE SOFTWARE ACQUIRES COPANION’S GRUNTWORX FAMILY OF PRODUCTS

Acquisition accelerates Drake’s calculated move into the SaaS space

FRANKLIN, NC & ANDOVER, MA – Drake Software, a leading tax preparation software vendor, today announced it has acquired the Copanion GruntWorx product line—the profession’s most advanced SaaS-based paperless tax workflow system. Acquiring GruntWorx firmly positions Drake within the cloud technology space and further augments their current product offerings.

“This is an important move for Drake,” stated John Sapp, Vice President of Strategic Development at Drake Software. “GruntWorx allows us to rapidly expand our offerings into the cutting-edge document automation technology arena. This enables us to provide tax professionals with a true end-to-end paperless tax solution and deliver extremely high accuracy rates.”

Copanion’s GruntWorx product family offers advanced scan, organize, and populate paperless tax workflow technology for the accounting profession. The solution automatically identifies, organizes, and labels scanned tax forms into a single bookmarked PDF file. Data from the PDF can be seamlessly imported into tax preparation software for automatic population of the tax return. Scanned data can also be ported to a spreadsheet.

“With an established and long-standing reputation for providing superior products and customer service, expanding into the SaaS space was a logical next step for Drake,” said Ed Jennings, CEO of Copanion. “This is also good news for current and future GruntWorx clients. With 35 years serving the profession, Drake offers the assurance of ongoing product quality—committed to consistently enhancing the GruntWorx line.”

Drake will continue to serve Copanion customers with the solutions they value, while simultaneously rolling out the GruntWorx line to Drake customers and the broad profession. The advanced features and functionality of the GruntWorx products will continue uninterrupted, including integration with the leading Tax Software applications in use by professionals today.

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About Drake Software For 34 years, Drake Software has been committed to providing tax professionals the tools they need to build their businesses and attract new clients. Drake maintains a steady focus on value, consistent excellence in federal and state programming, and free electronic filing. In addition to tax preparation software, Drake offers real-time web reporting, preparer websites, free online tax research, free bank product software, and free state software for all states. For more information, visit drakesoftware.com.

About Copanion Copanion is the leader in paperless tax workflow technology—providing a comprehensive and integrated family of web-based products that automate client tax document retrieval, organization, data entry, and review. The GruntWorx family of products has been in use for multiple tax seasons by thousands of accounting professionals—from sole practitioners to those working in large regional firms and the Big 4. GruntWorx is the product of choice for tax professionals—with more than 4 million processed tax forms this past tax season. To date, Copanion products have earned multiple accolades, including back-to-back Technology Innovation Awards (2008 & 2009) and a Readers’ Choice Award from The CPA Technology Advisor, Accounting Today’s Top 100 Ones to Watch, and a K2 Annual Quality Award. For more information, visit Copanion.com.