CCH’s Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Brings Better Way of Working
CCH has introduced a fundamentally new way of working for tax and accounting professionals with the release of its next generation ProSystem fx Suite – connecting clients, staff and information on a dynamic, centralized and integrated platform. The...
The new User Interface ensures all of the applications in the next generation Suite share the same crisp text and streamlined look. A common look and feel across multiple Suite applications will help users get up to speed more quickly and improve their ease of use. In addition, ribbon-style menus leverage staff’s familiarity with Microsoft Office 2007.
Each of the new solutions will be made available first as a SaaS deployment, hosted by CCH. SaaS solutions are delivered via the Web, which provides the benefit of anytime, anywhere access and collaboration. SaaS also offers a wide range of other benefits – from reducing costs and enabling firms to benefit from the latest technology and features, to shifting the burden of deploying and managing applications away from the firm, so tax and accounting professionals can focus on what they do best – serving client needs.
“SaaS is also an important lever in helping firms attract and retain professionals,” said Sabbatis. “Increasingly, people expect the information and tools they need to do their jobs to be available wherever and whenever they need it.”
Starting Now
Professionals can benefit from these advances starting today. Available now are new versions of ProSystem fx Tax, Document and Practice, as well as a new applications, ProSystem fx Workstream and ProSystem fx Portal.
“As powerful and well-designed as each individual application is, their real power is revealed when they’re deployed together,” Sabbatis said. “Then you see how intuitive work becomes, when the tools and information you need are always there, exactly where and when you need them.”
The next generation ProSystem fx Tax is dedicated to saving time – the time it takes a preparer to move a return through the preparation steps, the time it takes to review and communicate with others on your team regarding issues and status and the time it takes to assemble all the forms in the right order, with the right attachments, along with professional, customized correspondence. It’s also dedicated to eliminating wasted time, such as the time it takes to reenter data that already exists in other applications and the time it takes to trace input data and to understand the calculation.
The next generation ProSystem fx Document features streamlined and more capable document management. Users can simultaneously import multiple files; or save any document to multiple entities, clients or projects. They can custom-configure e-mail messages by grouping e-mail threads and manage e-mail history to gain a clearer picture of the firm’s correspondence with clients.
With Document, it is now also possible to create ad-hoc file groups without copying files. For example, users can simply select files from multiple applications and multiple years to create a group that will be accessed for processing a tax return.
Next generation ProSystem fx Practice integrates with ProSystem fx Tax, Document and Workstream to most effectively drive the progress of any given project. Additionally, because next generation ProSystem fx Practice is embedded throughout the ProSystem fx Suite, firms can update time and billing information and access reports anytime, anywhere.
New options include the ability to set up a review process for employee managers, enter estimated time remaining on projects, enter reasons for overriding a standard rate, or view CPE tracking and historic bank hour entries.
Next generation ProSystem fx Workstream is a completely scalable work-tracking application that can be used as a simple, easy-to-use due date tracking system, a full-featured project management system with robust capabilities, or anything in between. It features project templates for ease of setup, saving time while allowing firms to tailor types, masters and projects to fit their needs. Workstream has an easy to use budget-to-actual system and a look-ahead estimate of hours for completion to trigger notifications. It also allows firms to customize their own route sheets.
With ProSystem fx Portal, firms can exchange client documents of any size confidentially and securely. Portal provides quick and secure bi-directional file exchange capabilities, enhancing collaboration and service to clients . Portal is tightly integrated with other solutions in the ProSystem fx Suite including ProSystem fx Tax, ProSystem fx Engagement and ProSystem fx Document.
