Software for Accountants: From Tax Preparation to Full Service AccountingWhether your business exclusively offers tax preparation services or provides full-spectrum accounting services, it's important to maintain a profitable investment in software tools that allow you to accurately and efficiently perform your professional services. Typical tools for accountants include client write-up, auditing, tax preparation, payroll, and time and billing modules. Each of these modules are designed with the end-goal of managing 3rd party accounting more effectively and efficiently.Multi-Company AccountingAccounting software designed for the professional accountant offers an advanced set of features beyond what is typically found in standard commercial accounting packages. One critical capability of software designed with the accountant in mind is the ability to handle accounting for numerous corporate entities. Your accounting business may have dozens or even hundreds of clients, whose financial data all needs to be accessed from the same software, yet kept completely separated. Increased security measures and a more complex database structure are two of the ramifications of managing books for multiple companies. Given the amount of data your business may store on clients, it's important when considering different options, that you consider how the software handles tens of thousands of individual records. Even accountants with few clients can easily exceed the record capabilities of many non-accountant specific systems. The effects of overloading a system can include reduced performance (freezes, waiting on reports) and even system access issues.An Emphasis on ReportingStrong reporting features are critical for accountants. Accountants are constantly creating reports for clients. If clients can't understand the reports, there is a major problem. Software designed for accountants typically offers additional report views distilling information into easily understandable formats
