Tech Stack and Your Accounting Practice

Every PA accounting or CPA firm needs to integrate technology into its practice. A strong tech stack will improve efficiency, provide a better client experience, safeguard against accounting or compliance errors, and allow for scalability and growth.

The challenge is to determine which technology platforms your particular practice needs, which to implement first, and how to ensure that they are used properly by your team. Cost may also be a factor, but it’s a mistake to choose a product simply because you like the price. A more expensive option may provide more functionality and protection and may require lower setup, training, and maintenance fees. All these factors should be considered in determining the true ROI of any given platform.

It is also critical to involve your team in determining what technology changes you need to make. They will certainly be able to tell you their pain points, the inefficiencies they have seen, and solutions they may have heard of. Involving your staff will increase morale and develop a spirit of ownership in the new technology, improving acceptance and proper application of the features.

There are many options for the accounting field, but you need to assess what is necessary for your own practice, based on the types of clientele or industries you specialize in, the number of employees you have, and your expectation of future growth.

Audit your current tools and identify outdated features or gaps that cause manual work or duplication of effort. Then look for accounting technology that may integrate a number of functions and that can be easily connected with other tools, as needed.

Consider these types of functionalities that you may need in your firm’s tech stack:

• Accounting and bookkeeping integration with clients

• Tax preparation tools

• Expense management

• Practice management/project management

• Client relationship management (CRM)

• HR and payroll tools

• Reporting and business intelligence (metrics, KPI, benchmarking, etc.)

• Payments, billing, invoicing software

• Client proposal software

If you identify several functions that you should implement or upgrade for maximum efficiency, choose one or two tools to start with, preferably platforms that offer multiple functions in one place. This will allow your staff time to become proficient at using it and allow for an easier learning curve for the next technology that you integrate. It will also spread the expense over a longer period of time.

PSTAP helps its members by providing a free VeriFyle Pro account with membership. VeriFyle offers digital signature capability, invoicing and payment, file-sharing, messaging, and 30 workspaces, with the most powerful encryption technology available in order to safeguard your clients’ information.

Plan a comprehensive training program for your staff so you can fully utilize the platforms, with very clear guidelines on how tools can and cannot be used.

Commit to continual learning, so that you can remain up to date on the latest breakthroughs. Major advances are being made in AI for data analysis, blockchain for transparency and security, and improved cloud-based technologies. When you are among the first to apply new advanced technologies that benefit your clients and improve the efficiency of your firm, you will find yourself at the forefront of your particular niche with the ability to scale and grow successfully.