Software for Accounting Firms

Accounting services is a challenging business - it all comes down to people, knowledge, and relationships.

Your accountants, bookkeepers, and related professionals go to work each day to address key financial issues for your clients. Ensuring they can do their job effectively is not easy: How do you train and develop them? How do you equip them with the tools they need to do the job? Or to leverage knowledge from across the firm? Or even to manage time and expenses without undue administrative hassles?

In addition to the day-to-day work, there are a number of specific challenges at the overall firm level. How do you raise the profile of your accounting firm and communicate with clients, prospects, and the broader business community? How do you get real-time visibility on the key drivers of your profitability? How do you manage the selection, retention and training of your valuable professionals? Or manage the sales process and keep track of client relationships? What about managing your highly mobile IT assets?

The right software can be a powerful asset in running a successful accounting practice. There is software available to streamline and improve each key function in your business - are you taking full advantage of it?

Common types of software for accounting practices

Software is available for each key function within your consulting practice. Some of the most common software solutions found in consultancies are:

Office Productivity Suite	Software to help accounting professionals perform their day-to-day tasks includes email, calendar, word processing, slide show, spreadsheet, and database software. The most common suite is from Microsoft, with Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, etc. Other alternatives are becoming more common, such as the free OpenOffice suite, or online applications such as Google Docs or Zoho Sheet.
Timesheets	Keep track of your accounting professionals' time against clients, projects and tasks, and use this to generate invoices and get insight into how projects or the firm as a whole are performing. Typically, timesheet software allows to you distinguish between billable and non-billable time, set different billing rates for different situations, and manage the approval process - amongst other things.
Expense Management	Tracking expenses on client work is easier with the right expense management system. Accountants, bookkeepers, and other professionals can lodge their expenses, managers can approve them, finance can reimburse them then and charge the client accordingly.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)	Relationships are key in accounting, and CRM software allows you to get proactive in managing your client relationships. From keeping track of client contact details through to a more sophisticated system that manages your sales prospects and records all interactions, there is a CRM system that can help improve your client relationships.
Human Resources Management (HRM)	People are one of your biggest assets, so it is important you manage them appropriately. Keep track of all your staff, manage their training and development schedules, and streamline the recruiting process. This and much more is possible with the right HRM solution.
Email Marketing	Manage your email campaigns to clients, prospects, staff and alumni with powerful email marketing software. Ensure high delivery rates, learn which content is working best, see who opened and responded to your messages, and much more.
Practice Management or Professional Services Automation (PSA)	Manage all aspects of your accounting practice with a single, integrated system. There are typically modules available to handle each of the above specialist functions, such as timesheet, expenses, project management, CRM, and HRM. If your accountancy is large and growing, it may well be worth investing in a fully-integrated solution.

Find the right software for your accounting practice

Timesheets for Management Consultants

There are many choices you will face in choosing the right software for your accounting practice. Should you buy separate software for each function, or should you get an integrated practice management or professional service automation (PSA) solution? Should the software be installed on your servers or hosted by the vendor? Do you need internet or mobile phone access? And many other questions…

Rather than trawling through the many available options yourself, why not use Software Shortlist’s expertise to help you find accounting practice software that is right for you?

Software Shortlist helps you build a shortlist of the best software to meet the unique needs of your accounting practice – quickly and easily. Time is money, after all!