{"id":55492,"date":"2019-01-29t12:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-29t17:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=55492"},"modified":"2021-03-11t19:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12t00:00:36","slug":"your-it-strategic-plan-needs-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2019\/01\/29\/your-it-strategic-plan-needs-a-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"your strategic technology plan needs a budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
do as you tell your clients to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n by roman h. kepczyk<\/i><\/p>\n we have all heard the saying that if you don\u2019t know where you are going, you\u2019ll end up going nowhere (or\u2026 you won\u2019t ever get there). unfortunately, many accounting firms do not do a good job of integrating their information technology requirements into the firm\u2019s overall strategic vision.<\/p>\n more: <\/b>survey: 57% of clients provide audit documents digitally<\/a> | 2019: the biggest tech changes yet<\/a> | survey: digital audit confirmations not the norm<\/a> | survey: the best way to handle crm<\/a> | portals, encryption vital to securing client documents<\/a> information technology impacts virtually every aspect of accounting firm production and is usually the biggest expense after your personnel costs. accordingly, it should be managed as the critically important asset that it is. the most effective budgets actually begin by analyzing last year\u2019s numbers and breaking them down by applications, services, equipment, and any other licenses required and then projecting all recurring items three years into the future. this establishes an it \u201cbaseline\u201d that the other owners and managers can understand is required just to keep the doors open.<\/p>\n by running out the budget at least three years, the firm can project when new servers and desktop computers (which have a projected four- to five-year life) will need to be replaced, as well as plan for laptops that must be replaced every three years. this format also allows for new initiatives and \u201cone-shot\u201d items to be broken out and managed separately by individual line items, which is much easier for owners to evaluate the roi (return on investment).<\/p>\n as specific servers reach the end of their functional life, it is imperative that firms also evaluate the cost of moving those applications individually to the cloud, which the budget is helpful for monitoring. for firms where their entire server infrastructure is nearing the end of life, hosted cloud providers should also be considered as they include it staffing, support, updates, backup, and disaster recovery into a fixed monthly fee per user, allowing the firm to focus on the practice of accounting instead of worrying about it.<\/p>\n having a detailed budget will allow the firm to calculate the average cost per workstation, which can then be added into the calculation whenever a new person is hired. industry statistics point to firms spending between $6,500 and $8,500 per seat each year when all costs are taken into account or 5 percent for single-office firms, 6 percent for multi-office firms that average approximately $135,000 net production per person.<\/p>\n recommended actions:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nthis is one case in which firms need to do exactly what they advise their clients to do, and that is to manage information technology with a detailed budget that ties into the firm\u2019s strategic plan.<\/p>\n\n