Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/123770
Reviews For Your Firm DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS REVIEW SECTIONS CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES • Overall ease of use and intuitiveness of the application • Ability to upload fles easily • Confgurable metadata for cataloguing documents and fles • Reporting tools DOCUMENT WORKFLOW • Tax software integration • Audit / accounting software integration • MS Offce / Outlook integration • Document / fle routing features DOCUMENT CONTROL • Document security – user access and editing controls • Retention management - automate the purging of expired fles • Version control – managing the iterations of a fle throughout its life cycle • Check-in / Check-out – control simultaneous access and editing of fles SPECIAL FEATURES • Integrated client portal • Integrated scanning and document recognition • Browser based • SaaS / hosted option Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP Technology Editor Brian is a fequent speaker at national events, and a consultant, coach and instructor for K2 Enterprises. 46 Document Management Systems Offer Variety of Features for Different Types of Practices D igital Document Management Systems (DMS) have been widely used for the last decade, and the product categor y continues to evolve and see new innovations each year. While there are not many new product oferings, the existing products continue to add features like mobile/web access to data and secure commercial hosting of the applications. Because diferent frms need diferent capabilities in their document storage and management systems, we typically break tools for working with documents into fve separate review categories: • Document Management Systems • Document Storage Systems • Engagement Management Tools • Workfow Management Tools • Client Portal Applications We are focusing on document management for purposes of this review, and traditionally review features associated with each of the other categories at different times throughout the year. Since most of these applications could be considered in more than one of these categories, we have added some discussion to the reviews about other features included within each product. The primary distinction between document management and document storage solutions is the breadth and depth of functionality. • Document Management Systems (DMS) are designed as comprehensive enterprise solutions for automating the capture, storage and dissem ination of a l l electron ic documents and fles in an organization. DMS applications typically, but do not always, have the ability to connect with products from multiple vendors and multiple index felds so that a single document can be simultaneously fled more than one way. May 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com • Document Storage Solutions (DSS) typically have a more focused set of features and functions, which are ofen targeted to a specifc niche such as direct integration with a particular tax prep package, integration with QuickBooks, or providing a secure fle sharing solution. Tese applications are generally designed to index data in a single (or small number) of ways, and may have a fxed organizational hierarchy. As mentioned earlier, document management systems are more sophisticated than document storage solutions (which we will review in the July issue). DMS applications are designed to address the need for long-term storage and tracking of documents throughout a specifed useful life. Common features which are available in a DMS which are typically not included in a simple document storage product include: • Check In and Check Out – This feature allows users to select and download a fle for ofine editing. • Versioning – The product saves multiple versions of a fle so users can see the evolution of the document through multiple edit cycles. • Index Fields – Index felds are identifers associated with a document that are used to categorize and identify documents in multiple ways so that one document can be stored and retrieved using many search criteria. • Routing and Workflow Management – These features help users assign and track tasks or documents through a work process like bill approval and payment. • Multi-layer Security – Tis feature allows frms to have complex permissions at diferent levels of granularity depending on the user's needs. For example, a firm could have assign rights to staf at the client level, the engagement level, and the fle level. Moving to a different document management system or reindexing a poorly designed archive can be very time consuming and costly, so practitioners should evaluate, implement, and use their document management system carefully. Any modifcations to a frm's DMS should also afect the work processes that regulate the movement of documents through the organization, and will likely require changes to procedures. Issues in other areas of the practice, like inconsistent processes, are frequently revealed when a DMS is implemented or modifed, and failure to address these firm management issues can cause the tools to be deployed in an inconsistent fashion. Although each practitioner is usually confident that the way they process documents is the "right" way, partners must fnd a way to work through the issues and optimize the tools to meet the needs of the entire Firm. This year's review of document management solutions includes seven applications. • Cabinet SAFE CLOUD • CCH ProSystem fx Document • ConArc iChannel • Doc-It Suite • NetDocuments • Tomson Reuters GoFileRoom • Treeno Document Management When evaluating solutions, it is important to remember that many of these solutions are bundled with features which fulfll the need for more than one category. For example, the Doc-It Suite includes a DMS (the Doc-It Archive), a full-featured portal solution, a product for managing in-process engagements (Work Binder) as well as a tool for annotating and editing PDF documents as part of the overall solution. Some solutions may have integrated portals available (for an additional fee) or integrated portals may not be available for the solution altogether. ●