Wolters Kluwer North America Acquires Epace! Software

 (CHICAGO, March 19, 2001) – Wolters Kluwer North America (WKNA) said today that it has acquired ePace! Software, Newport Beach, Calif., a provider of audit and engagement software for accounting professionals. ePace! will be integrated into CCH Tax Compliance, Torrance, Calif., which produces the ProSystem fx Office software suite for CPA and accounting firms. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Founded in 1997, ePace! is considered an innovator in the accounting industry, which annually spends hundreds of millions of dollars managing, filing, retrieving and storing documents such as workpapers, financial statements and tax forms pertaining to their clients and practice. ePace! offers a highly automated and intuitive audit engagement system featuring trial balance software and is strengthened by a virtually paperless file management, storage and retrieval system and remote access to client and firm files.

Its core product, ePaceEngagement, streamlines reviews, compilations and audits while helping firms control engagement costs. Ease of use and training are enhanced by ePace!’s Microsoftâ Wordä - and Microsoftâ Excelä -based operating environment.

The trial balance process is fully integrated with a digital filing system that provides a series of customized templates categorized by industry that speed the audit engagement. The ePace! templates use information developed from the highly regarded Miller Accounting Guides, published by CCH sister company, Aspen Publishing, Gaithersburg, Md. All filing and document storage is electronic, with the flexibility to organize all other work output completed for a client, such as tax returns and financial planning.

The addition of ePace! to CCH’s product line up allows the company to maintain its leadership in providing innovative, integrated software to accounting firms, and more rapidly meet a growing demand for automated tax, accounting and productivity tools.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer North America, headquartered in Chicago, is a unit of Wolters Kluwer nv, Amsterdam. It is composed of a number of highly respected legal, tax and business information, software and service companies, including Aspen Publishing, Inc., Gaithersburg, Md.; CCH Canadian, Toronto; CCH INCORPORATED (CCH U.S. Publishing and CCH Tax Compliance), Riverwoods, Ill., and Torrance, Calif.; and Legal Information Services, New York City. 

Wolters Kluwer nv (www.wolterskluwer.com) is a multinational information services company with annual sales of more than EUR 3 billion, employing approximately 19,000 people in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. The company’s core activities are Legal, Tax & Business, International Health & Science and Education. The Wolters Kluwer shares are quoted on the Euronext Amsterdam. Financial results for 2000 will be announced on March 27, 2001.

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