Help with software

Good afternoon.

I recently bought into a practice in small town america. We offer general bookkeeping and payroll services along with tax preparation. The practice's technology is currently very limited. We use Lacerte and Drake for tax preparation. Our GL and payroll software is a program called Easyacct. Our only filing cabinet consists of paper files and we do not even have a website.

I would like to update this firm out of the 1990's. My questions is what is the best course for upgrading that would get me the most bang for my buck. should I start with a practice management software, or change my GL software, perhaps digital storage, or make a website first. I ask this because I can't make all the changes at once (costs and older employees fighting change).

I would really appreciate any responses I am feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment.

Get your office functioning to a more efficient and modern level before you worry about a website. You have various options for accounting--Quickbooks, Freshbooks, Xero, AccountingSuite, etc. I heavily use Quickbooks because it is so relevant, but it is becoming increasingly unreliable and QBO still sucks. Pending a demo, I am likely going to begin converting over to AccountingSuite.

Why are you using both Lacerte and Drake? Lacerte can do everything Drake can, and includes some nice features such as Intuit Link, ability to integrate with SmartVault (document management system, also serves as a client portal).

Do you use MS Office? If so, sign up for MS Office, convert to Exchange for e-mail, and utilize OneDrive for cloud storage of your files. OneDrive is pretty secure and works very well. You can grant access to OneDrive folders to users within your organization, and even outside of it, if needed. And get backups in place, both local and cloud. I like CrashPlan Business for cloud backups, Spanning for backups of everything with MS Office 365, and then I use a backup program for rotating local backups (one is always in a safe).

As for website when you reach that point, you can always go with standard accountant/CPA boiler plate sites like most firms...they typically look like ****, too, and cost entirely too much. I can almost always tell when a firm uses one of the standard service providers for accounting firm websites. Or, you can go with a WordPress based site that is very powerful, customizable, and scalable.

Just my initial thoughts...

First of all, congratulations!

It looks like Easyacct is Intuit's write-up software. If you like it, great, if you and/or your staff don't, obviously look for something more forward-facing. I assume that its integration with Lacerte is better than QuickBooks, etc so there is some logic there. I assume that Lacerte is used for business returns and Drake for individuals, or some sort like that? That would save on expenses, for sure, at the price of learning multiple tax software programs.

As for first steps, look for the easy wins. Digitizing your file management is a pretty good place to start, and after the initial resistance fades people will tend to become comfortable with it, granting goodwill for future changes. Changing software right away, is much less likely to be an easy win with your employees, and adding a PMS definitely won't be an easy win.

For website... I'm a happy user of TheSiteFactory. A site that is mobile-friendly and shows up on a Google search for "[your city] CPA" is all you need. I'm a small town CPA, too, and a major part of my USP is that I speak English rather than Accountantese, so the sites that offer newsletters, Facebook posts, and e-mail marketing are useless to me because they're not written for my audience.

As for website when you reach that point, you can always go with standard accountant/CPA boiler plate sites like most firms...they typically look like ****, too, and cost entirely too much. I can almost always tell when a firm uses one of the standard service providers for accounting firm websites. Or, you can go with a WordPress based site that is very powerful, customizable, and scalable.

You could also do worse than to try the service offered by the person who graciously hosts this forum (through a corporation).

https://thesitefactory.com/accounting.html

For website... I'm a happy user of TheSiteFactory. A site that is mobile-friendly and shows up on a Google search for "[your city] CPA" is all you need.

+1

I recently bought into a practice in small town america.

Before you spend a lot of money upgrading your operations to your standards, will the small town america support your billings.

If this is a fully functional shop with staff, I would try to trim the fat first or inefficiency before going for major upgrades right after purchasing. I need to see my billings and P/L first.

You really don't need Lacerte and Drake together. Use the one staff is most familiar with. I can tell you Drake will be much less expensive.