SalesForce.com (NYSE: CRM) division FinancialForce.com announced that the “2012 Cloud Accounting Evaluation Guide,” written by research firm Vital Analysis, is freely available on its website. The report is meant to help companies research current cloud accounting software, describing the “unique selection process and purchase criteria that should be used when buying an accounting solution today.” Also on the site is an on-demand webinar entitled “The Top 6 Things You Don’t Know About Cloud Accounting (but should).”

FinancialForce.com builds business applications for accounting, billing, professional services Automation (PSA) and services resource planning (SRP) to help customers to align finance, sales and service for profitable growth. In addition to SalesForce.com, FinancialForce is also backed by UNIT4. Vital Analysis researches the technology marketplace and has consulted with technology executives in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.

“Every 10 to 15 years or so, the accounting software space undergoes a fairly radical change. These changes are often triggered by the introduction of all new technologies that enable accounting software to look, act and empower users differently,” said Brian Sommer, founder, Vital Analysis, in a prepared statement. “Today’s new solutions were built with mobile, social, platform and cloud capabilities in mind from the very beginning. The leader board is changing and so have the methods needed to choose a new accounting solution. This guide will give companies all the tools they need to navigate this new marketplace, where even ROI calculations require a completely fresh approach.”

Meant for companies of all sizes, the Cloud Accounting guide:

At the end of April, SalesForce announced the launch of a dedicated U.S. government cloud and app store. In March, SalesForce.com released Rypple, a performance management program, which for Talkin’ Cloud meant greater competition with SAP and Oracle due to SalesForce’s entry into human resources applications.

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