how to choose what’s best for your team and clients.
by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers
with accounting software and add-ons, from the standpoint of the person maintaining the “books,” the accounting program is the focal point. however, consider the focus of your business-owning client.
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their focus is operational. so, consider that for the business owner, the add-on is the accounting program. having the correct package of cloud-based programs turns the accounting program into a basic general journal that you, in your accounting hat, use to find any inconsistencies.
the operational apps are used to manage the day-to-day of the business. from those, reports and hopefully a good financial planning and analysis (fp&a) program, managerial decisions can be made. the add-on accounting program is in the middle, receiving all the data to produce reports on finances and any potential issues with feeds.
the fp&a kpi program is where we can get into actionable discussions with the client. jirav, finagraph, float, fathom, qvinci and profitsense are examples of great fp&a programs. check these or any others out, and pick the one that feels best to you and your team.
if you are going for a vertical business, there are very good reporting and operational programs that work with cloud-based general ledgers (gls). earlier this year my nephew, brady, was visiting us. he is executive chef for a rather well known restaurant in jackson, wyoming. he walked into my home office while i was demoing margin edge and xtrachef. brady has won iron chef contests and worked with james beard. he was so excited to see how those particular apps work. i had him feeding me questions in the background while i was going through the demos of both apps. both of these hit all the marks of a vertical add-on app for anyone working with restaurants and both made that executive chef take notice.
this year we also did some quality control work for a vertical reporting app for the dental industry, practice gauge. these vertical-focused apps integrate with most of the cloud-based gls, from small business gls like qbo and xero to mid markets like dynamics and sage intacct. so if you are going the vertical route for your back office support (bos), check the industry-specific applications, then look at the gls they integrate with, rather than starting with the gl app.
applications
list all the programs you currently support. are there any redundancies? is it out of date? do your employees know how to use it and where to obtain support (not from you)? if it’s client-facing, are the clients actually using it? if the clients are not using the apps, find out why. do not assume it is the app. many times we find firms that have invested in learning an app from their side, then tell clients to use the app without investing in teaching the client the wiifm (what’s in it for me?) aspect. consider adding an onboarding agent to your team. this would be someone who does not do the bookkeeping or accounting, but who likes technology and enjoys speaking with people. this person can also be the main contact back to the app support.
| application | function | version | # users | supported | location |
hardware/network
list all the hardware utilized in your office to manage client work.
| h/n | # users | type | age |
| local server | |||
| asp | |||
| msp | |||
| pc | |||
| laptop | |||
| mobile | |||
| scanner | |||
| other | |||
| cloud apps |
terminology and acronyms
if you didn’t use these apps or technologies before covid-19 hit and forced remote work in 2020, chances are you are now using these out of necessity.
apps: we all use these on our phones, tablets, tvs and computers. they are ubiquitous in our lives and, when grouped and linked together, can provide a formidable amount of data into a general ledger such as qbo, xero, accountingsuite, netsuite etc.
paas: platform as a service (paas) is a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, with resources that enable you to deliver everything from simple cloud-based apps to sophisticated, cloud-enabled enterprise applications. think aws and azure.
saas: software as a service is a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers. qbo, xero, accountingsuite and sage are all examples of general ledger software that is delivered this way. many industries have specialized vertical accounting applications. one example is yardi for property management companies. if it’s in the cloud and has a recurring subscription fee, it is saas.
managed service provider (msp): msps manage your entire server environment. if you are providing bos-level services for your clients, you will need to have them log into their documents, portal and perhaps occasionally the desktop variety accounting/bookkeeping software. all this access should be shared in a secure permissions-based environment. find an msp that knows the accounting industry and understands the applications and security. make sure the msp is aware of web-based add-on applications that will work with your server and desktop-based software. for example, if you are using bill.com with quickbooks desktop, the msp will need to understand the requirements for them to operate properly in a secure shared environment. not all do, so ask before you leap. as for what you put up there – everything!
we have never had an in-house server. in fact, i gave up my in-house server in 1999. i also gave up all the costs associated with its maintenance, replacement and the people i paid to run it. now i have a flat monthly recurring bill from an msp and better security, support and it. keep in mind if you are using your own servers and having team members use a remote desktop protocol (rdp) into the server, think about adding multi-factor authentication, as it increases security on the highly problematic rdp.
application service provider (asp): there are many providers. some asps only do just that: they only provide applications and do not host full servers. your clients can use the asp, but you should have a dedicated server in a hosted environment to carry out all the functions of the bos.
document management system (dms): typically, an accounting firm returns all documents to their clients. in this scenario, the bos still needs to hold on to documents as well as have access to archived documents. storing pdf files can take up considerable space, so you, your team and your clients will need to develop and implement a policy for document storage, retrieval archiving and deleting. most online, web-based systems have a per-user cap before fees increase.
mandating the settings for scanning of documents can help you manage storage space. if you look at the pdf files received from banks or other online applications, you will notice the following: they are 300 dpi or less and scanned to grayscale. when named, they do not have apostrophes or commas, and if there is a space, it often has an underscore. these attributes benefit the user of a pdf as well as reduce storage capacity needs. remember proper english spelling is great when writing a novel, however it is not necessary and often detrimental to names in the digital world.
our personal favorite sharing app for desktop applications is qbox. you can set up quickbooks company files in qbox, and share and collaborate with any number of users. qbox locks the file to protect your changes so there are no conflicting copies or data corruption. you can also create and share other documents in word, excel or pdf formats. qbox also supports ms office, jpg and png formats.
two dms that interact with the client for sharing and storing are smartvault and sharefile. they cannot be used to create documents, but can easily share and organize documents that need to be retained and accessed easily.
when choosing a dms system, another key question to ask is how to retrieve documents if you need to change dms providers. watch out for terms like “non-proprietary” and “native format.” this will allow you to easily retrieve the documents later if you change providers.
case study: beware of proprietary dms formats
a cpa firm dissatisfied with their dms asked for their documents to be returned to them by their soon-to-be former provider. the provider complied and returned their documents. however, the documents were unrecognizable. not only had the format been changed to a proprietary file extension, but the files had also been named according to their proprietary naming convention – a series of 16 alphanumeric characters. the documents were useless without the dms, so the firm had to maintain two systems for a number of years while they migrated to a non-proprietary system.
the lesson? always ask what happens if you go somewhere else. always!