CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business — ProSystem fx Document ASP

From the July 2009 Review of Document
Management Systems

The
evolution of ProSystem fx Document continues to progress very nicely
since CCH acquired it from the CPA firm of Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, LLP a
few years ago. The biggest improvement this year is the addition of a web hosted
option for firms that don’t want to deal with the challenges of implementing
and managing the server infrastructure required to deliver Document throughout
the enterprise. So now you can choose the deployment model that best suits your
firm’s IT strategy.

USABILITY:
The Document interface is well designed to give you direct access to many different
functions from a user-customizable home screen. The left side of the screen
displays the command menus, including search tools, adding documents and files,
reports, and direct access to up to six user-configurable panels. The configuration
that was demonstrated for me displayed the following panels on the home page:
a hit list of recently accessed files, a listing of discussion notes related
to specific documents, a similar listing of discussion notes related to a particular
client, user information, links to specific document data-bases, and a list
of checked out files. All of this information was directly accessible from a
single screen.

FILE ORGANIZATION/MANAGEMENT:
ProSystem fx Document uses a very simple file organization model. It
starts with selecting the desired database you define, i.e., client files, firm
files, etc. From there, the files are indexed according to the year and a set
of class and sub-class tags that you define. Keywords can be assigned as metadata
to a file to facilitate search and retrieval.

A configurable document version feature can be activated to let you track
a series of file versions. The document retention policy is assigned via the
associated class/sub-class of the file. When you display the document hit list,
you can rearrange the columns of information that display and drag one or more
columns above the hit list to display them in groups, i.e., tax files, A&A
files, permanent files, etc.

A feature that I find particularly helpful is for users to subscribe to be
notified when there is activity with a particular file, such as publishing it
to the portal.

INTEGRATION:
As you would expect, the strongest integration is with other ProSystem fx
applications. Tax returns from ProSystem fx Tax can be published directly
into Document, as well as ProSystem fx Engagement binders. Tax client
files can be searched from within Document. Engagement Binders can be launched
from Document, as well. Integration with ProSytem fx Practice allows
you to link files to specific client projects setup in Practice. This includes
a feature to display a list of files related to the project from within Practice.
Additional integration includes storing links to information in the online Accounting
Research Manager.

For those of you who are using Microsoft Office 2007, you will find a Document
tab on the ribbon to provide direct access to files stored in Document from
within the Office applications. On the capture side, Document integrates with
ProSystem fx Scan, a utility module that provides forms recognition
and organization of scanned 1040 documents. An integrated portal module lets
you publish and unpublish documents to the portal with one-click.

RELATIVE VALUE:
Pricing for ProSystem fx Document starts at $2,175 for the server and
initial user license. Each additional user license is $565, and the portal module
fee is $1,175. The ASP option starts at $3,180 for the initial user and $530
for each additional user.

If you are a “CCH Shop” then ProSystem fx Document should
be at the top of your short list of potential solutions. The integration with
the other CCH applications is compelling and brings out the ultimate value of
going with a single vendor suite approach to your core accounting, tax and firm
administration applications. I fully expect that we will see this integration
expand in breadth and depth over the next few years.

2009 OVERALL RATING: