Accountants – How to Setup your IT Systems

If your Accountancy firm requires an updated or new system, this blog will help advise you on how to choose the most cost-effective way to modernise the business that is best for you. We specialise in assisting and working with accountancy firms, and we often design them a new IT system that suits their needs. For example, many of our clients prefer working completely using the cloud system, whereas others use servers in the office. The best option for the business depends on these four factors:

• Office quantity
• Growth strategy
• Remote working
• Software

Before I expand on these points, one thing to note is that Cloud is often seen as the ‘modern’ way and moving with the times into the future. However, this does not mean this is the best option for every business. Another note is that this is about your business applications, such as Iris, Sage and CCH, not Email services.

Number of offices

The number of offices is a huge factor to look at when choosing which system to have for your business. The Cloud can be much more expensive to run than a server for a small business. For example: 1 office with 25 users that has a server would look like this 1 0ffice x 25 employees/users = £15,000 – £20,000 This would be a one-off payment and last the company for 5 years. 1 office with 25 users that uses the Cloud would look like this: 1 office x 25 employees = £50 per month £50 per month over 5 years would look like £75,000 There is a clear difference between those two choices, and it is evident which option is more cost-effective for this office situation. However, what if there were multiple offices and more employees? The employees would all want to use the same applications and systems in each office. It would be impractical for there to be one server and for all other offices to try and connect to the same one, meaning the Cloud would be a better fit.

Growth Strategy

This section is about where the business is planning to go, whether it is building itself up to be acquired or preparing to expand and grow. These choices can make all about where the business is planning to go, whether it is building itself up to be acquired or preparing to expand and grow. These choices can make a substantial difference in what system they are looking to choose. Here’s an example: A customer asks for a server to be installed in their office; this will last them 5 years and is appropriate for an accountancy firm with one office. However, the business then buys a second office, doubling in size. This then results in trying to squeeze the second office onto the server. If the customer had made it known that they were planning on expanding into more offices, then the strategy that would’ve been chosen would have been the Cloud, as it is much more suited for growth. If accountancy is looking to sell their business, the cloud solution would also be more appropriate as it is attractive to the potential buyers.

Remote Working

While some practices have moved back into the office, many others have chosen to stay online and remote. Selecting a system that works for this may be different to the one that was used previously as employees are not all in one place; they are working from home. This means the cloud system is the most beneficial and well suited for remote working.

Business software

Although it is not easy for a business to change software, it can make them more flexible and embrace software as a service solution. Caseware and Silverfin are both fully cloud-based, and workover applications or web browsers don’t require a server in the office or the Cloud.