Client Accounting for 2010 and Beyond
Column: From the Trenches
An additional model of Client Accounting is evolving because of the SaaS model. Easily accessible data and applications via the web has been the building block of AccountantWorld’s Accounting Relief. This product handles normal client accounting via a web browser. The accountant can decide how much or how little of the system to make available to the end-user. If the end-user should only enter checks and cash deposits, so be it. If the end-user can do more sophisticated accounting, this can also be allowed. Accountanting Relief is designed to keep the accountant in charge and in control of the client’s accounting. They even have an integrated Payroll system that can be far less expensive for the firm, providing even greater, recurring profitability.
IS IT TIME TO MAKE SOME NEW YEAR’S BUSINESS RESOLUTIONS?
After considering your client accounting, it might be time to reflect on your firm’s strategy and technology. Do your technology tools fit your practice? If you haven’t looked at practice management, paperless, research, tax and audit tools in a while, you may be surprised how much progress publishers have made. You may find that you only need training on how to better use new versions of the products you already have. Or you may discover a whole new way of doing business.
Other technologies you will want to implement in the coming year or two include the following: Windows 7, Office 2010, Office Web Applications, Exchange 2010, SharePoint 2010, Windows Server 2008 R2 or a new version of Windows Small Business Server, the arrival of 802.11n wireless, as well as a new generation of high-speed cellular. We’ll get the opportunity to look at most of these in the year ahead. Instead of rebuilding your entire internal network, you may opt to use hosting or SaaS applications.
WHAT CHOICE MAKES SENSE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?
One of the easiest things to do in business is to do the same thing. This may or may not be the best thing for the firm, your clients or you. Consider the products you are using, and determine if they are accomplishing what you’d like to have done. Are you able to complete work easily and quickly? Are you able to retrieve and see client data easily? Can you answer clients’ questions about their financials easily because everything you need is at your fingertips? If not, then you should take a look at some of the Client Accounting products named above, and determine which one solves the majority of the problems you have identified.
It is a good use of time to list the 10 to 15 things you’d like a product to do if you change, and five to seven things you would not want to lose if you did change. Don’t be afraid to make a change for the improvement of your firm. You’re likely to increase client satisfaction, while making more money and having more available time. And wouldn’t that make the next 10 years more pleasant?
