Is your accounting firm operating at its fullest potential? Productivity, efficiency and a positive customer experience is what is most sought for. This research study is put together to review practice management applications that will streamline your office’s processes in-order for you to improve worker productivity and produce an exceptional customer experience. These practice management tools enhance your office workflow which connects everyone involved in the business – accountants, administration, and clients.

We’re not going in-depth on every single point but these are some of the Practice Management systems we have been in contact with. They were kind enough to tell us more about their products and open to share their strengths and limitations. To further our primary research we were able to interview our clients that use these products for insight on their experience with the products.

Overview

It’s no secret; all Practice Management products are or come close to a walled garden. This is to ensure your firm’s workflow is running at an efficient manner and boost your ROI.

Thomson Reuters has created an environment for firms that have already been using the CS suite. This can be one of the barriers of entry for those are just stepping into Thomson Reuters’ products. If you have been a Thomson Reuters users for a while – this would be the right choice. Practice CS’ dashboards are scalable to user preferences and can be configured to their liking. Permissions and security is included with the scalability functions and is highly customizable to ensure the right user seeds the right content.

CCH ProSystems fx Practice Management is part of the CCH ProSystems fx Suite. Similar to Thomson Reuters, they work best with its own products that can be integrated within the suite. The difference is that it is a little more flexible by being able to integrate with other applications. Users are highly satisfied with the product and brought up no issues with it. It would be best used with larger firms. ProSystem fx Practice Management is best suited for mid-sized to large firms.

Vohcom Page is optimized for firm sizes of 1 to 50. They are a complete walled garden which can be a major strength to some firms. There is no need to even purchase other add-ons and is one complete suite.

Ease of Use

Practice CS has automated with the CS environment. The dashboards are very easy to understand but might be too easy. Larger firms that tend to have a more complex ERP may find it to have limited functionality. They also provide users with an opportunity to send invoices electronically.

The intuitive main menu of ProSystem fx Pracitce Management is easy to navigate through and displays an excellent hub that leads you to all of the important features throughout the workflow. There is a menu that segment different functions. The dashboards are setup to ensure the processes from accounts receivable to generating statements are easy to use. There are a lot of built-in timers to assist users to capture billing time. There is an automated feature that allows users to generate invoices directly from the accounts receivable module.

Vohcom Page’s automated time tracking feature ensures quick and easy billing. It really streamlines the process and removes the guess work out of overhead planning. All of the files and information are stored in one convenient place for quick access and removing the need to navigate to different locations.

External Integrations

Practice CS is able to connect with other Thomson Reuters’ products, such as UltraTax CS and Accoutning CS. Although it cannot integrate fully with the Microsoft Office Suite it can integrate with Outlook.

ProSystem fx Practice Management not only integrates with other products from CCH but also other 3^rd party applications such as Microsoft Office.  The integration possibilities are one factor that sets ProSystem fx Pracitce Management apart from other products. This can make it a little easier for firms to transition to this Practice Management process.

Vohcom Page currently does not integrate with 3^rd party applications but will be explored for future versions. This ensures that nothing else is needed besides Vohcom Page but may be one of Vohcom Page’s weak points for firms that are not ready to let go of their current applications.

Summary

What set these products apart is the integration and the ease of use when comparing to the size and complexity of your firm. There is no one-size fits all but we believe that CCH ProSystems fx Practice Management is the most versatile, followed by Vohcom Page, when getting ready to add this type of software into your systems. Like any other major expense, due diligence is required and it is best to start with your motivations.