july2021 - 11

FROM THE TRENCHES
able/Collections, Expenses, Document
Management, Document Gathering,
Forecasting, Reporting, KPIs, Time
Entry, Payroll, Sales Tax, Tax Returns,
Data Import, RPA/automated workflow,
Tax Specialty (Property, Planning), and
more. We prefer offerings that are billed
at a flat rate as a package, in advance
via ACH, and reviewed annually to reset
the fees for that client.
While many profess " throwing
away the timesheet, " we believe that
time tracking establishes the people
costs of services and that workflow
is needed to assure that no balls are
dropped and that all due dates are
met. Standard operating processes
or workflows are mandatory to
optimize profitability. Automation of
transactions with pre-accounting or
automation tools like Vic.ai, Hubdoc,
Anduin, Digilence, Sage AutoEntry,
Dext, FileThis, and Botkeeper can
optimize the input cycle and provide
scale without adding labor on-shore or
off-shore.
HOW DO WE CHOOSE
CAS TOOLS?
If you are starting a CAS practice today,
you should pick a SaaS toolset. While
many accounting platforms could
be used to provide CAS services, a
few leaders for the profession have
evolved, including Accounting Power,
QuickBooks Desktop or Online, Sage
Intacct, and Xero. Other candidates
include AccountingSuite, Acumatica,
Aplos, Thomson Accounting CS, and
Zoho Books.
A complete system like Accounting
Power with Payroll Relief from
AccountantsWorld will provide the
most efficiency and profitability
because it includes bill payment/AP,
expense processing, ACH support,
workflow, and a tightly integrated
payroll. This minimizes your efforts
to choose and pay for additional tools
to provide a complete service, as you
will see below. Founders Chandra and
Sharada Bhansali and their team have
built a highly efficient, effective, and
profitable system that you can use with
your clients in a matter of 30 to 60
days. Further, they have an offering
this year that reduce your costs further
and allow effective conversion from
Intuit Online Payroll (IOP) to the Payroll
Relief platform.
You can build a system by choosing
a base accounting product like QuickBooks
or Xero and choose additional
tools to integrate and maintain. You
need to choose your base product and
partners carefully with a provider that
values accounting professionals. The
accounting profession should not be a
sales channel, but many software publishers
believe that accountants can be
used to sell their products to customers.
You want a software publisher that will
help you with your clients.
K2 colleague Brian Tankersley and I
have developed and maintained a grid
of solutions that have evolved through
the years. While not a specific recommendation,
this grid from a recent
consulting engagement shows some
of the products that could be used to
augment a base system to deliver a
service.
A QUICK HISTORY
LESSON
Recall that the transition from
write-up to in-house accounting to
Client Accounting Services has been
circuitous. Write-up tools allowed our
firms to be very efficient at taking client
records, converting them to trial
balances, making adjusting entries,
and preparing financial statements,
which could be used to prepare tax
returns. Initially, this work was
done with service bureaus and minicomputers.
However, as accounting
software and computer hardware
become more affordable, many smaller
clients chose to take their accounting
in-house with Peachtree (now Sage
50cloud), Quicken (no longer owned
by Intuit), QuickBooks, and One-Write.
The first breakthrough for Client
Accounting Services occurred when
applications could be hosted. When
Intuit and Sage finally concluded that
they would allow hosting companies
to install and run QuickBooks and
Peachtree, collaborative accounting
was born. While lucky enough to
contribute some ideas and approaches
to this thinking, which led to the Intuit
commercial and standard hosting
programs (http://www.intuithostingprogram.com/),
we knew the second
breakthrough was not far behind.
That second breakthrough came
when we assisted with some of the
earliest accounting programs that
ran in a browser. Accounting Power,
NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, and
Sage Intacct all came out of this
period in the late 1990s as developers
started to leverage the increasing
availability and speed of the internet
plus the ubiquity of the browser. Thus,
collaboration in real-time for small
businesses was born.
HOW DO WE CHOOSE
ADVISORY TOOLS?
The best advisors always put the client
first in their advisory practice. I had
committed to continue coverage on the
30+ advisory services you can offer in
prior columns, and we'll point you to
more true advisory options instead
of the " fake " advisory commonly
promoted. We'll also learn more about
" whole-of-client " at a future time. We
recommend that you build an advisory
culture in your firm. The best way to
start is with solid advisory education.
First, make sure you take the time
to learn how to create an advisory
practice with resources like Upward
Spiral North America, Oodles, or
Advisory 101. We also have Advisory
course content at K2 Enterprises on our
online website. Second, remember that
advisory services are proactive and not
reactive and involve more recurring client
advice and less consultation. We'll
be covering many of these advisory
tools in our Technology Lab Podcast.
There are fee-based advisory
courses you can take from K2 and other
education providers that provide CPE
JULY 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
11
credits and advisory certifications, providing
your team with the knowledge,
understanding, and credibility you need
to be successful.
Finally, you can support your
evolving advisory practice with tools
like the Complete Advisory Solution or
Thomson Reuters Accounting advisory
services, including Practice Forward.
SO, WHAT CAN WE
DO TODAY?
First, decide if you are satisfied with
your practice as it stands now. Do you
like your compliance and consulting
practice? Are you providing the services
your clients want? Most importantly,
are you providing the services your
clients need? Are you working hard,
or are you working smart?
As I noted in many previous columns,
most CPAs I know want to and
do serve their clients well. However, do
you always want to have the client's
best interest and goals in mind? Have
you developed both a personal plan and
a business plan with your client? Are
you sure they have all their personal
and business assets protected? Do you
know that they have a valid will or
trust in place? Since it is estimated that
15 trillion dollars will be transferred
from one generation to the next in this
decade, how do you help your clients
transfer or dispose of their personal
and business assets in the best way
possible? How do you minimize the
impact of tax law changes?
You need to apply advisory thinking
to your practice and pick technology
tools to support those efforts. Use the
whole-of-client advisory approach to
build a practice and relationships that
can last for decades and generations.
Assist with day-to-day transactions
with CAS. Look for services that your
client base needs and provide those as
a packaged bundle. And always look
for ways to create the very best client
experience! ■
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july2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of july2021
