What is accounting practice management software?

Ideally, accounting practice management software is an all-in-one platform that brings together all the critical functions of your accounting practice in one place. It's a complete solution that lets you collaborate with your clients, manage your tasks, assign sub accountants and do more.

The disconnect between clients and accountants

The importance of accounting practice management software can't be stressed more when customer expectations are constantly changing and remote work is becoming the standard. A few key aspects of client collaboration within accounting practice management software could go a long way in improving client-accountant relationships, reducing client attrition, and improving collaborative workflows. It can also improve interactions with clients, streamline accounting processes, and increase an accounting practice's overall productivity.

The major setback accounting practices face is that the work they do is much different than the normal financial work their client does on their own. This puts the client in the dark about their own financial well-being. The clients no longer want to be accounting service recipients alone. Instead, they prefer participating in managing their financial affairs to make informed decisions along with their accountants.

With this being a big part of the changing landscape, accountants using a basic accounting software or multiple accounting applications to manage a wide range of clients fall behind in business. Take a look at the frequent challenges an accounting firm experiences when dealing with their clients.

Challenges of an accounting firm when facing clients

Delivering accurate data on time:

Clients might not always provide financial data that is both accurate and timely. To ensure clients deliver the required information both accurately and on time, you must set clear expectations and timelines well ahead and establish clear communication.

Security and privacy concerns:

Clients share confidential and sensitive financial data with you for tax purposes and could be concerned about their privacy and security. It is important for you to assure utmost safety and use highly secure accounting software.

Dealing with excess information:

Clients have to deal with a lot of information from accountants and vice versa. It is natural to lose track of requests for both parties. To keep the communication simple and linear, it is best to communicate within the accounting and bookkeeping practice management software.

Staying updated with tax regulations:

You may have to keep your clients updated on frequently changing compliance rules and regulations that could impact their businesses. This requires you to use a scalable online accounting practice management software that can adapt to different tax requirements.

Changing existing accounting software:

When onboarding a new client, you may encounter resistance to adopting the cloud-based accounting software you recommend. However, while dealing with finances, it is important that both the accountant and their clients use the same accounting software to save time and effort.

Getting important papers signed:

You may need your client's signature for various documents during the accounting process. This could be a challenge if you're using outdated accounting software that doesn't support e-signatures, forcing both parties to rely on scanning and re-uploading documents which not only complicates admin work and is prone to misplacement, unauthorized access and security breach. 

What should the best practice management software include?

A good accounting practice management software should do more than pack in features. It should provide a clear picture of your business's financial health and make it easy to handle all your financial tasks in one place.

• Task automation: The practice management software should let you streamline and automate repetitive tasks to save time and effort while boosting overall productivity.
• Inbox integration: The software should help you communicate without having to hop out of the application and ensure critical messages aren't missed.
• Task monitoring: With the bookkeeping practice management software you should be able to simplify task monitoring for better project management and ensure timely progress.
• Internal messaging: The accounting practice software should allow you to share requests, and get your doubts cleared with the help of an internal messaging facility.
• Secured document sharing: It should let you enable teams to access and collaborate on shared files and data easily while ensuring data security.
• Workflow management: A full-fledged accounting practice management software should let you structure projects effectively for improved efficiency and help you prioritize assignments to stay focused on essential tasks.
• Practice report: The software should give you periodical reports of your practice's performance and help you find out what areas need more attention.

Should you choose accounting practice management software or project management software?

Most accounting practices use multiple software to track tasks, connect with clients, collaborate with different teams, and perform other business operations. However, the challenge comes when these different platforms aren't connected with each other. Juggling multiple apps for trivial tasks can overwhelm both the teams and clients. An ideal accounting practice management software should let you do everything from one place, leading to better visibility throughout.

Initially, while looking for accounting practice management software, you may gravitate towards a simple project management software, but that may barely satisfy your specific accounting practice needs, such as financial reporting, invoicing and more. This will, again, force you to use multiple applications to fill in the industry-specific gaps. However, when you use a comprehensive accounting & bookkeeping practice management software, that has many options to streamline your accounting workflow, give you compliance updates, helps you maintain and review your books, you end up providing better client services beyond just accounting services.