These days there’s very little done in accounting that doesn’t involve some application or system. The problem is, they’re often disparate, with some being pure cloud, SaaS-based or purely desktop. Either way you slice it, security risks abound as most firms simply don’t have the bandwidth for an IT department or dedicated professional.
Luckily, there are managed service providers in the market that can help you to use your favorite applications and systems, regardless of their origin, to run your practice and work with clients with ease and peace of mind.
Bryan Cohen
This article is a look into one of those firms, why they made their specific technology and the managed service to tie it all together conveniently and securely. We specifically spoke with Bryan Cohen, CPA, a partner at Jameson & Co. who gave a candid account of how his practice runs and the importance of using the tools they do in the way they need to.
The Firm: Jameson & Co., Bedford, Ma.
Size: 25 staff, 7 remote (4 around the Northeast and Utah)
Focus: Outsourced accounting services for government contractors (bookkeeping, payroll, bill payment, month-end and year-end close as well as negotiating with the federal government for indirect rates, and occasionally representing clients in a government audit.
Given this kind of practice, and the way it needs to work, cloud and remote access to the applications it uses are essential. As mentioned, security is also a concern as well so you need to know that the maximum amount of “up time,” overall functionality of your apps, as well as the data security and customer service you are receiving, are in place.
Bryan Cohen explains: “Cloud access [to QuickBooks and accounting data] has been critical to us even before the pandemic. For us, the need for cloud-based applications was about the need to share information with our clients.”
Cohen continued to note that the firm has long used QuickBooks for its bookkeeping and write-up work, first in its desktop form (and still does for some clients) and eventually QuickBooks Online. For his firm, he admitted it took some time to be convinced to use QBO over Desktop because the former did not have job-cost accounting, which was essential to the firm’s business.
Over time, the firm realized that while QuickBooks Desktop performed all of the accounting functions it needed for its clients, there were some inconveniences. Specifically, clients were on different versions and files had to be physically shared or exchanged between the firm and the companies they worked with, which took time.
“Then we dealt with version control, large files, it was difficult to send via email, files would sometimes be corrupted. Then we went with cloud-based access from Ace Cloud and all of that changed.”
These days, most of the firm’s clients are on QBO since the platform has evolved, though Bryan admitted some clients are still on desktop. Regardless, they’re able to work in both applications via its managed service provider.
So What Else…
The firm’s current practice management system (CCH Access) is also cloud-based, which it uses for time keeping, document management and the firm’s client portal as well. Payroll work is also conducted through a variety of applications and services including: ADP, Gusto and Justworks. Accounts payable work is also part of the firm’s offerings as it uses BILL for that. In addition, it uses QuickBooks Time for time tracking.
“There really is not much on our server anymore, it’s all cloud and hosted on by our managed service provider, which is able to manage all of it,” Bryan says.
Advantages to Hosting
As indicated above, Jameson & Co. is like most firms, using what they like which often means a mix of pure cloud and desktop applications. Bryan was quite candid about the reasons for his use of hosted, managed services for all of it which ranged from security to ease of use.
“The fact that we don’t need to have anything on our servers means we don’t have to worry about security or server maintenance or even the insurance behind it,” Bryan says. “In terms of our IT costs it has definitely lowered. We also get very responsive customer service [from our managed service provider] they have been very receptive to any requests we have to add specific applications to a client’s server [each client has an individual server in the hosted environment]. Clients can only see the files they have on the system and no one else’s, even by company name. No one knows who else is on there. Overall, it’s been great to have everything we need there, lots of flexibility.”
Final Thoughts
“We’re always looking for efficiencies [and tools that help with that], we’ll be ramping up some new systems going into the New Year. We also use a data extractor for QuickBooks to manipulate into reports. We need to implement billing as well. All of this will be in the cloud for us.”
Seth Fineberg
Seth Fineberg
Seth Fineberg is an accounting industry consultant & Content Strategist and editor. He recently founded Accountants Forward, where he provides these services to companies looking to have a better, more meaningful relationship with the accounting profession, as well as helping accountants do the same with their clients.
He has been an editor and journalist for over 30 years, the vast majority of which has been spent overseeing the accounting profession at large, with a focus on the evolution and applications of accounting-related technologies. To this end, he has served as Technology Editor at Accounting Today and the lead Editor of AccountingWEB's US team. He remains an active writer, speaker, live and digital event host.