10 Steps to a Digital Practice in the Cloud, 2nd Edition

11

Cloud-Based Client Accounting System

We have covered a lot of territory in this book to help guide you through the transformation to a 21st century digital practice model. We talked specifically about how your client portal can fundamentally change the way you service your clients by acting as their gateway to cloud computing. The concept of offering a shared, cloud-based accounting system to your clients opens up a whole new frontier of opportunities to improve and expand the services you offer them. This is a true win-win service for you and your clients.

The concept, shown in figure 11-1, is to offer your clients the opportunity to access their accounting system directly through your portal and provide shared access to their system by your firm so that you can provide the appropriate level of oversight and assistance to your clients in real time without having to transfer data files back and forth.

Figure 11-1: The Cloud-Based Accounting System Paradigm

It Is Time for a Change

Think for a few moments about how much the information-sharing model has changed with the evolution of technology in recent years. We have talked extensively about the cloud and all the benefits it brings to information services. This is the opportunity for CPA practitioners to fully embrace and leverage ...