CPA Practice Advisor - 7

FROM THE TRENCHES
any device, at any time, and in any
place (=AAA), as we have discussed
so many times in the past
■ File independence - the ability
to store a document in its native
format, including Word, Excel,
CaseWare, PDF, and email formats.
Most of our professional publishers still store our tax and audit
documents in a proprietary format.
Others, such as accounting software
vendors, have generally shifted to
SQL databases to store the data,
but only make this data readily
available through an Application
Program Interface (API) or direct
connection to the data. A good DMS
stores any type of file, including
JPEG and MP4. In other words,
any pictures, video, sound, or any
additional digital files should be
able to be stored and processed in
a comprehensive DMS system
■ Document assembly - this feature
was widespread in the 1980s in
law firms and is still frequently
used today. With the dominance of
Microsoft Word, only sophisticated
users have this capability. We
sometimes see this capability in
our audit or practice management
software. Only occasionally are
advanced features like the CCH
Correspondence Manager used.
St ill, we rarely see document
assembly features that can be
used to create highly customized,
routine documents for engagement
letters, tax organizers, and financial
reports. Instead, we buy tools that
create these items in the way the
vendor thinks we want them to look
for our clients. How many of you
think the three items just named
look precisely the way you would
prefer? Or are you simply settling
for convenience and "good enough?"
■ Document governance - do you
have and follow a records retention
policy? Is your firm applying the
records retention policy to all
types of files, including tax, audit,
productivity, email, portal, and

backup files? We expect litigation to
increase in the post-COVID-19 peak
time as businesses that have failed
try to recoup losses from those
involved. Did you assist anyone
with PPP and SBA loans? And are
those clients still in business? Do
you have any work that you have
completed for any client where
your supporting workpapers or final
deliverable could be contested by
a hungry attorney representing a
damaged client?
■ Workf low - since workf low is a
collection of related, structured
activities or tasks that produce a
specific service or product (serve a
particular goal) for a specific client
or clients, workflow manages the
tasks related to documents that
support these activities or tasks. A
well-thought-out workflow system
can live in a DMS, or you may
look for more sophistication in a
workflow system like XCM
■ OCR (Optical Character Recognition) - all documents throughout
your system should be able to be
searched on a word by word or
character by character basis. Do
you get frustrated that Microsoft's
search capability does not work in
Outlook? And at other times, aren't
you amazed at how well the search
works? (By the way, Microsoft made
a significant change in the search
used throughout their system this
year. That is a good topic for another
day.) In a good DMS, you should
be able to find any current year
document instantaneously, and any
document for the past three to ten
years in a few seconds.
My top projects for Top 100
firms in the past three years have
been document management and
practice management replacement
engagements. Why? Because the
systems that have been in use are so
inflexible, that key management goals
and tasks are not getting completed
or measured. On the other hand, a
top issue in small firms is the perfor-

mance of a DSS or DMS that is so slow
that it gets in the way of routine work.
Far more time is wasted in finding
documents for routine engagements
than most firms admit. Plus, spending on a DMS seemed like a "nice
to have" rather than a "must-have."
Further, collaborating on documents
or working from the most current
version is still difficult in these days
of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.
How many times do you get a Word
document or an Excel spreadsheet
for review and wind up with multiple
versions circulating in your firm or
between you and your client?
Please ask yourself what are the
key DMS problems my team faces and
what can be done to address these
issues?

AND WHAT DMS
TOOLS ARE THE MOST
EFFECTIVE?
We should recommend DMS
products that are not so common
in public practice firms because
there are operational benefits to
DMS solutions used in other professions. However, many of you want to
stay in a single suite from Wolters
Kluwer or Thomson Reuters, and
you will have obvious choices from
these publishers. Other DMS tools
to consider include:
■ DMS solutions with integration
with AccountantsWorld Cloud
Cabinet, CCH Axcess Document,
or GoFileRoom
■ Extended functionality with Conarc
iChannel, Doc-It, iManage Work,
Lucion FileCenter, or Virtual Cabinet
■ Point solutions with Citrix ShareFile,
L i s c io, M ic r o s of t Te a m s , or
SmartVault
■ And more with higher end and lower
end features available
Whichever DMS solutions you
choose, however, make sure you set
document policies, revise workflows,
and teach clients to use portals. If you
are not stepping up to identify and
manage operational problems in your

SEPTEMBER 2020 ■

firm, all the technology in the world
will not make you more efficient.

DECIDE THE RIGHT THING
FOR YOU, YOUR FIRM,
AND YOUR CLIENTS!
What experience do you want your
team members to have? What experience do you want your clients to
have? Is your DMS "good enough?"
Or are you really thinking about the
future, how you want your firm to
operate, and what experience you
would like to provide to your clients?
Our DMS applications are not
advancing as quickly as we all would
like, in both ease of use and advanced
functionality. If you are using legacy
DMS products and your vendor is not
moving forward, then your firm is
falling behind in this crucial area.
The more "cloudified" we become, the
more critical it will be to have the
right document accessible, whether
you are in the office, working from
home, or at a client site.
While managing your documents with a DMS may seem like
a mundane and solved problem,
improvement is almost certain if
you have not reviewed your DSS or
DMS in five or ten years. A good rule
to apply for this technology, and any
other, is that the technologies change
so much that every ten years, you
need to stop, see what is new, and
determine if your vendor, publisher,
or supplier is keeping up. If your vendor is keeping up, you can accept the
evolutionary changes that arrive with
each version, but you need to make
sure to train your team on the new
features and capabilities. If not, you
can make a revolutionary change and
make a significant leap forward. And
how often do you get to leap around
the competition by making a smart
technology choice? ■

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