Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/116963
FROM THE TRENCHES By Randy Johnston Portals, Email or O ver the past 20 years we have had the pleasure of assisting many frms down the paperless path. In the last fve to ten years, por tals have become popular. My Network Management Group, Inc. team (NMGI) has assisted in implementations of CCH Portal, NetClient CS, ShareFile and other popular solutions. Portals are clearly Mr. Johnston is executive vice president and partner of K2 Enterprises and Network Management Group, Inc. He is a nationally recognized educator, consultant and writer with over 30 years��� experience. He can be contacted at randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com. 12 a more secure way of transferring data to and from clients, but some clients just don���t want to go there. How do we manage people that we can���t control? Do we simply let them do what they want? Do we try to educate them on the benefts of using the technology that can protect them? Or do we cave in in the name of client service? Tere is no clear answer, but you knew that before reading this article introduction. Until proven w rong , we w ill maintain the position that using portals is a secure document transfer strategy that a CPA frm can take. Additionally, if your frm can drive more trafc through your website because of your portal, the additional traffic can improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and local search results. Trafc to your website is a good thing. Unfortunately, if your site is down, or your portal is clumsy to use, your client experience won���t be a good one. Further, new generation applications that are available as a April 2013 ��� www.CPAPracticeA www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com Sof t w a re a s a Ser v ic e (Sa a S) ofering, don���t always have the best way to integrate to your website. All of these applications belong on your website or in your portal as well. We believe it is in your frm���s best interest to have your clients visiting your website on a regular basis. Using applications provided by the frm such as accounting, payroll, bill payment or portal transfer may be reason enough for a client visit. However, content including video postings, RSS feeds of news and other information pertinent to clients can promote return visits. A litle humor and local favor can also help build client relationships. However, all of these actions take time. If you try to stay informed and current on professional reading, you can provide updated content for all of your website���s visitors using an RSS reader and tagging or posting items from your daily readings. Integrating all of your social media feeds, including Twiter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others will also help with SEO and trafc on your website. The Goal However, the heart of the mater is doing business in the easiest way possible on your website. If you have not found a website developer that understands this, you may need to look for a new developer. Many of the canned website tools won���t provide the level of customization needed to ma ke you r website ���business friendly.��� We suggest using a website and marketing company like RootWorks to get unique portal capabilities with market leading tools like ShareFile, SmartVault, Bill.com, Thomson NetClient CS, CCH Portal, Intuit QuickBooks and other key practice tools. Te RootWorks team will give you a professional look and feel and will also provide options to interface to a number of client friendly tools. Another high value addition to your website can be collaborative accounting. This can be provided with hosted capabilities for products like QuickBooks, or can be new generation SaaS accounting tools like Xero, Monchilla, SageOne, Wave or QuickBooks Online. If your clients��� mission critical applications are provided by the frm, don���t you think they will visit your website frequently? Don���t you think this will result in more exposure in your community? Most firms think about portal capability for sending and receiving documents for tax returns, compilations, reviews, or audits. While these are certainly important and may be justifcation for a portal by themselves, you should consider the evolution occurring with electronic signatures. Since electronic documents and eSignatures are legally binding in all 50 states because of