Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
Issue link: https://cpapracticeadvisor.epubxp.com/i/411648
18 November 2014 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com CLIENT PORTALS Reviews BEST FIT Tax and accounting firms using other parts of the Tomson Reuters CS Suite, particularly the document management, tax preparation and Accounting CS systems for client services. Te system is tailored to give these frms the ability to send invoices, tax returns, payroll items, and documents to clients from within these other CS applications. STRENGTHS • Strong integration with various T hom s on R e ut e r s pro d u c t s , i n c l u d i n g F i l e C a b i n e t C S , GoFileRoom, Accounting CS, the online tax organizer for UltraTax CS, Virtual Client Ofce, Practice CS, and Virtual Ofce CS. • Te NetClient CS mobile app can be branded with frm logos, and gives iOS and A ndroid users a mobile tool for interacting with clients. • Te Task Center acts as a "To Do" l ist, prompting cl ient users to prov ide the f irm w ith missing items, such as ta x documents. Data collection is streamlined t h roug h tool s l i ke on l i ne t a x organizers can be facilitated by NetClient CS. • Fr iend ly inter face that can be customized to highlight frm logos and branding, with easy-to-use drag and drop functionality for uploading and downloading fles in the portal. • An optional portal for employees of a client lets them enter their time and other payroll data, which enables the f irm and clients to deliver paychecks, pay stubs and o t h e r c o n f i d e n t i a l d a t a t o employees. • Firm clients can receive invoices f rom Practice CS and can pay them from within their portal if the frm is also using the merchant services from InterceptEFT. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS Some integration f unctions in Tomson Reuters CS Professional Suite use data stored in FileCabinet CS to present to the client. Tere- fore, frms not using FileCabinet CS may have fewer integration options. SUMMARY & PRICING Plans start at $175 per month for up to 1,000 client portals. cs.thomsonreuters.com BEST FIT SmartVault offers excellent client communication tools, document storage, integration w ith many accounting and tax systems and other features that make it a valuable portal for most firms. The program has o f f ered t ig ht i nteg rat i o n w i t h Q u i c k B o ok s an d Q u i c k B o ok s Online for many years, and recently became the preferred document storage and portal solution for Intuit's professional tax programs Lacerte and ProSeries. STRENGTHS • E a s y- t o - u s e a nd f le x i ble f i le sharing and document storage features. • Supports storage and sharing of most fle types (PDF, Microsof Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook E-ma i l, images), wh ich can be viewed in a web browser without having to download the fle. • Portals are fully customizable with domain names as yourfrmname. smartvault.com. Portals can be branded to match a frm's website. • E x c e l l e n t i n t e g r a t i o n w i t h QuickBooks, Lacerte Tax, ProS- eries Tax, Results CR M, Meth- o d C R M , S p r i n g A h e a d , a n d XpandedReports. Can be hosted by InSy nq, Cloud9 Real Time, Ngen x , R ig ht Net work s , a nd Swizznet. • SmartVault ofers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, and has add-ins for Outlook, QuickBooks, and QuickBooks Online. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • Data is not always backed up in real time. SUMMARY & PRICING Plans range from $19 per month ($205/yr) for a single user and 5 GB of storage to $99 per month ($1,069/yr) for 10 users and 40 GB of storage. Ever y plan includes unlimited guest users. And there are no bandwidth charges. Add-on ser v ices are $10 per month for each additional user, $5 per month for each 5GB of addi- tional storage, and $9 per month for e a c h a d d i t i o n a l Q u i c k B o o k s Company. Some features require t h e Te a m o r P r o f e s s i o n a l p l a n s , w h i c h a r e d e t a i l e d a t www.smartvault.com/pricing www.smartvault.com Thomson Reuters NetClient CS Portals SmartVault Client Portals Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12012573 Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12012563 5 4.5 2014 OVERALL RATING 2014 OVERALL RATING BEST FIT Accounting and tax professionals who want a secure, but simple tool for online document storage and two-way collaboration and sharing of documents and fles with their clients, staf and vendors. STRENGTHS • Te system is fexible, secure and stable, ofering frms a variety of features and plans that can be scaled to meet the needs of frms of all sizes. • Firms can customize and brand t he por t a l s to resemble t hei r primar y website (colors, fonts and styles). Te portal websites use a subdomain format (yourf- irmname.sharefle.com). • A va r iet y of add-i ns a nd s y nc tools are available for Windows and Outlook that let users work with fles without using a web- browser. • The system has enterprise-level support and infrastructure from Cit r i x , wh ich is t he compa ny beh i nd t he wel l-k now n cloud service GoToMeeting, and also ofers infrastructure sofware to mid-sized and large organizations. • ShareFile also has mobile applica- tions for iOS, A ndroid, Black- Berry, Windows RT/8, and Win- dows Phone, and many of the apps allow administrators to view an audit trail for mobile access and automatically wipe any cached data from the remote application. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • T he system has limited direct integration with professional tax and accounting applications. • ShareFile usage and storage has data transfer limits, which can cause frms that use the product heavily, or those who use the fle s y nc feat u re, to go over t hei r a l lotted quotas and face add i- tional data usage charges. Firms a re a ler ted to a ny i mpend i ng usage fees. SUMMARY & PRICING Basic plans star t at $29.95 per m o nt h , ba sed o n q u ar ter l y o r annual billing, with two included frm staf accounts and unlimited client users. Certain features, like the Outlook plugin and Desktop Sync, require a higher level version of ShareFile, such as the Profes- sional plan ($59.95 per month supporting 10 staf accounts) or the Corporate plan ($99.95 per month, supporting any number of staff accounts). www.ShareFileCPA.com Citrix ShareFile Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/12012580 4.25 2014 OVERALL RATING