Choosing the right accounting practice management software

The orientation phase of new accounting practice management software

In the orientation phase, you will see that every accounting product has features, expansion options, and associated costs. As you delve into the accounting practice management software market, you should prepare an overview of your needs, considerations, knockout criteria and themes so it is easier to decide.

Searching through various features and software options can be overwhelming when you start looking for new accounting practice management software. The easiest way to cut through the noise is to start with your needs and ignore the features.

No solution for accountants and bookkeepers is the same. Every accounting practice management solution has features, expansion options, and associated costs and rates that you must consider. For more on accounting practice management software pricing, check out our guide: How much does accounting practice software cost?

To ensure accounting practice management software is the right solution for you, check out our guide: why do you need accounting practice management software?

Accounting practice needs will drive the decision-making

We all want the world when we make a new purchase and buying new accounting practice management software can be no different.

You may need to conclude however that not everything can be done. However great your chosen accounting practice management solution is, there will inevitably be moments when certain functionality cannot be implemented for various reasons.

Come to peace with this. It becomes a battle of the best accounting practice management software solution, not the magic bullet solution.

Ask yourself and write down the following four questions:

1. What improvements and innovations do you need to implement in your accounting firm?
2. What features need to be solved with accounting software for practice management?
3. Which accounting practice management software features would benefit your clients most?
4. Which developments inside and outside your office, existing systems and processes are factors you want to include?

If you write down the answers to these questions and keep them handy during meetings, you can refer to them after every single discussion you have with online accounting software providers.

This may sound obvious, but many accounting firms fail to keep strict and constantly referenced criteria – allowing distractions to creep in.

For more on this topic, check out our guide: is it time to switch your accounting practice management software?

Keep it on task

Throughout the entire accounting practice management software buying process ignores everything other than that which is simple, coherent and logical.

What often happens while looking for new accounting practice management software is that while searching, people discover more and more possibilities, want more and more and lose sight.

This is why the needs list for accounting firms is all important.

Keeping things simple and purposeful ensures the project stays on task and stops you from being led astray by sales staff, only to be sold features you don't need for problems you don’t have. Otherwise, your project will become time-consuming and way out of scope.

Keep reminding yourself: what is really going to help you provide a better service for your clients?

Knock out criteria

By now you should have a short list of needs for your accounting business and have actively pushed away any distractions that take away from the simple aim of your project.

The next step is to decide what will be the nail in the coffin for prospective practice management software solutions.

You’ll need to create a simple list of knockout criteria. These deal breakers complement your needs list and will make the selection process easier.

Some examples include:

• Budgetary concerns
• Lack of integration with other accounting software
• Perceived lack of product support
• Insufficient alignment with your needs list
• Lacking the functionality your practice requires

Another important consideration in your knockout criteria is the following features that are essential to your accounting practice management software shortlist:

• Accounting client management software: a collaborative practice management platform should allow you to access all your client information from one centralised location, enabling you to connect with your clients like never before.
• Workflow software: to save you valuable time through accounting automation and configure how you want to work. 
• Accounting practice reports and insights: giving you complete performance visibility to enable better data-driven decision-making.
• Time and billing software: enabling you to work more efficiently with the potential for greater focus on your staff, jobs and time management.
• Accounting practice management software should include integration with compliance software components, to provide you with a single platform to perform all your compliance work in one place.

Making your accounting practice management software selection

You should now have a list of possible accounting practice management software solutions and suppliers that may match your requirements. This is where we start to whittle down the contenders, in what we call the selection phase.

Once you have created your list of needs and deal breakers, you can start searching for your possible suppliers and matching them up, now that you have established the criteria of what you're looking for.

When researching on Google, remember that the topmost paid ad will not necessarily fit your accounting practice better. When researching, widen your search by canvasing your network and industry contacts. Ask around. Look at the most respected peers in your industry – what do they use? Start there.

Cast your net a bit wider here and bear in mind that scrutinising these options against your criteria will come next – so, make sure your criteria seem satisfied and add them to your list.

Drawing up your accounting practice management software shortlist

This next step in the accounting practice management software buying process will usually involve meetings and phone calls with BDM’s and technical staff from providers on your list to hear a proposal on a solution. Here, distractions and sales discussions about unnecessary functionality come into play. Remember to keep on track with your criteria and don't deviate or compromise.

With the knock-out criteria that you were able to prepare during your orientation phase, you can now start whittling down your options.

This starts by cross-checking the functionality. Through this process of elimination, you will arrive at a shortlist of solutions and suppliers worth considering for improving your practice operations.

If an accounting practice management solution does not meet one or more knock-out criteria, it should not continue to the next round.

For example, a knockout criterion may be the availability of an integration link with your data collection. Or perhaps the presence of automation that’ll optimise your accounting practice workflows.

From shortlist to choosing your accounting practice management software

When selecting the best accounting practice management software solution, you must test the capabilities against your requirements and wishes. So, what is the best approach to this?

You can approach this in a structured way by working with a scoring matrix.

You could start this by creating a simple Excel spreadsheet of criteria (needs and deal breakers) against your shortlist of supplier functionality and features.

The next step is to score each solution based on your requirements. Some requirements are probably more important in your choice than others. That is why you apply a personalised weighting factor: from 1 for the least important to 5 for the most important requirements.

This will ensure that you assess all accounting practice management software solutions similarly and that you don't become distracted by side issues.

The choice is obvious

Well, there you go – what do you have now in front of you?

Scores are plotted against your shortlist of solutions, features and accounting practice management software providers. Tally up that score!

The winner should now be very clear. You are ready to move on to implementation for your business.

Everything you need to run your practice efficiently

The top accounting practice management software will be designed to run every aspect of your accounting practice, helping you provide better team collaboration and client experience, manage jobs, track time and maximise your opportunities for the present and the future.

Every business needs to evolve to keep up with a changing world, and accounting practices are no exception. Access accounting practice management software provides software options to set accounting firms of all sizes up for future success.

Speak to a specialist today.

Access Handisoft Cloud is an all-inclusive cloud-based accounting practice management suite for smaller accounting firms. Book a demo today. 

For larger practices, we have APS software which is used by large scale accounting firms, due to its capacity to access everything you’ll need in one powerful cloud. Book a demo today.