Accounting firm in need of client management software
May 19, 2008 2:03 PM Subscribe
Background - I work for a small accounting firm of six people right now. We have 1 cpa, 2 staff accountants (Im one, currently working on my CPA) and the rest is bookkeeping/admin staff. We just hired a new administrative assistant because of the growth we experienced this year and plan on hiring more CPAs in the future. With this growth comes the need to be more organized, no longer is it possible for my boss to keep track of where every project is, how far it is along and who it is assigned to it. So we need some sort of well known software. (Nothing terribly obscure please)
So what sort of software is available to help us with this situation? Currently we use Lacerte for returns, outlook for mail and contacts (though we use a third party addon to bandaid a group contact list and share calendars). I would even be interested in a practice management software that replaces outlook if it could handle email and a shared contact list.
Please help! :)
So what sort of software is available to help us with this situation? Currently we use Lacerte for returns, outlook for mail and contacts (though we use a third party addon to bandaid a group contact list and share calendars). I would even be interested in a practice management software that replaces outlook if it could handle email and a shared contact list.
Please help! :)
Maybe check out 37signals? With the company large enough to need an infrastructure like this but small enough that you don't have IT people, a managed and hosted solution like Highrise for CRM might be useful.
posted by joshrholloway at 2:28 PM on May 19, 2008
posted by joshrholloway at 2:28 PM on May 19, 2008
Seconding either Highrise or Basecamp. Both are apps from the 37 signals guys, with slightly different focuses.
Highrise is a CRM (customer relationship management) tool. You enter people, and companies, and then detail your back and forth with them. It is great if you have to remember conversations, and assign tasks. Typically this is aimed at sales, but it might work for accounting.
Basecamp is a true project management tool. This is great for managing deliverables and deadlines on a well defined project. It can be an open ended project, but still have a fairly well defined scope.
My suggestion is try out the the free version of both, and see which one fits your model of business better. Both are great tools.
Why do I keep recommending 37 signals tools? I'm not a shill, I swear!
posted by cschneid at 3:22 PM on May 19, 2008
Highrise is a CRM (customer relationship management) tool. You enter people, and companies, and then detail your back and forth with them. It is great if you have to remember conversations, and assign tasks. Typically this is aimed at sales, but it might work for accounting.
Basecamp is a true project management tool. This is great for managing deliverables and deadlines on a well defined project. It can be an open ended project, but still have a fairly well defined scope.
My suggestion is try out the the free version of both, and see which one fits your model of business better. Both are great tools.
Why do I keep recommending 37 signals tools? I'm not a shill, I swear!
posted by cschneid at 3:22 PM on May 19, 2008
Seconding Salesforce, with a caveat.
Once you roll in utilities from AppExchange, you do end up with a full suite of what you need, from CRM to project management to expense tracking and so on ad nauseam. But it will cost you upwards of a grand per seat per year (and yes, you do need everyone on it. Why? Because you want to use the Outlook plugin to automagically associate emails with specific contacts, clients, and projects to facilitate transitions when they occur).
SugarCRM might be a better route for you.. $40pp or something, but not quite as robust.
That being said... SFDC has an incredible user base, and an amazing variety of people writing new apps for the service. And with the force.com launch, you could actually just roll your own apps, depending on programming skill.
I don't work for SFDC, but I am the admin for it at my company.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:20 PM on May 19, 2008
Once you roll in utilities from AppExchange, you do end up with a full suite of what you need, from CRM to project management to expense tracking and so on ad nauseam. But it will cost you upwards of a grand per seat per year (and yes, you do need everyone on it. Why? Because you want to use the Outlook plugin to automagically associate emails with specific contacts, clients, and projects to facilitate transitions when they occur).
SugarCRM might be a better route for you.. $40pp or something, but not quite as robust.
That being said... SFDC has an incredible user base, and an amazing variety of people writing new apps for the service. And with the force.com launch, you could actually just roll your own apps, depending on programming skill.
I don't work for SFDC, but I am the admin for it at my company.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:20 PM on May 19, 2008
Best answer: Practice CS from Thomson Reuters sounds like a good fit.
posted by dzot at 6:56 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by dzot at 6:56 AM on May 20, 2008
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Basically, SalesForce is the customer management part.. if you want to add in project management and other sorts of things - there's probably an application in the AppExchange network that will talk to SalesForce enough to be useful to you and feel closer to an "all in one"-ish solution...
posted by twiggy at 2:24 PM on May 19, 2008