There’s a famous Maya Angelou quote: “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.” This can apply to most things in life, and the digital age of accounting is no exception. 

There was a time when email was revolutionary, lightning-fast compared to other methods of communication. It would have seemed like a wonder for client accounting collaboration. Today, however, there are many options that are faster, more secure and much easier to organize. 

So if you know better, why not do better? Here are a few reasons why accountants shouldn’t use email as their client collaboration software.

A brief history of email

The internet was not always as common as it is now. In the early 1980s, most forms of communication involved writing letters or calling someone by phone. And paying extra if they lived outside your area code. 

The idea of sending a message instantly to anyone, anywhere, from your computer seemed futuristic. But it quickly became common, revolutionizing communication through the 1990s and early 2000s. 

Email removed geographical barriers. It was as fast as digitization. It was reasonably secure, appearing in your online mailbox and able to be deleted when read. At the time, it was simply the most efficient form of communication for accountants to reach out to their clients and for clients to respond in their own time. 

Today, however, it’s one of many forms of digital communication. Instant messaging, in-app communication, online video chats, and more are all at our fingertips. The idea of sending accounting email to a digital inbox simply isn’t world-changing anymore. Nor is it the most efficient option.

Problems with email collaboration

Alright, so email might be a little old-fashioned by now. But why change if it’s served you well for years? If it’s not broken, why fix it? 

The truth is,  using email as a client collaboration tool is problematic. It’s always come with its own issues, but there weren’t better solutions at the time. Now that there are, some of those issues are more glaring.

Security

Most of us have either at one point had our email hacked or we’ve received a message from a friend whose email was hacked. These unfortunate events occur because, quite simply, email is not secure. Email messages aren’t encrypted. As long as a hacker can figure out your password, they can get into your email and access all your messages, and even start sending sensitive information via email themselves. 

Email scams are common, as well as viruses sent through email. Digital security in accounting is an absolute must in today’s world. If you want a truly secure form of client collaboration, an encrypted, in-app style of messaging is usually the best.

Organization

When file-sharing with clients over email, it’s easy for important messages to get lost in the shuffle. Of course, most email servers come with built-in folders for organization. But even then, with so many folders it can be difficult to remember which email went where and all too easy to sort something into the wrong folder. 

One famously problematic issue is the spam folder. This is built into almost all email servers and designed to catch junk email. The problem is that the algorithm that recognizes junk sometimes gets it wrong. If a client is emailing you for the first time, their email can often end up in the spam folder. That important notice you sent to them could do the same on their end. 

On the other hand, cloud-based platforms like Caseware can allow for easy, centralized communication where nothing gets lost in the shuffle. Clients can receive email notifications that they have a message. But even if they lose that email, the message itself will be easy to find in the app. 

Data and analytics

Client communication can be an important source of data and analytics. Clients need to send over important documents about their finances and business that you may need in order to help them with their accounting needs. 

Losing that information through a mass of emails can be more than frustrating. It can slow down your process and lead to a poor rapport with the client. Again, this is where a more centralized, organized option can better serve you and your clients.

Time-wasting

Reviewing multiple emails takes time. Especially if you have to review all the attachments to one and then find the next relevant email through a sea of such messages from all clients. Plus, most email servers will only hold so many emails. At some point, you have to start deleting important messages to make room for more. Your best hope is setting up paper files.

Imagine if all of your communication with one client was in one central location, including all of their documents. And you could easily shift from one communication to the next. Fortunately, this is more than just an idea. It’s very much a possibility with cloud platforms like Caseware PBC Requests. 

Making email collaboration obsolete

Email has its place in the history of accounting and client collaboration. Today, however, more efficient options have simply made it obsolete. 

PBC Requests is just the latest from Caseware’s suite of cloud-based accounting solutions. With PBC Requests, you can communicate with clients easily from a central, encrypted location for optimized organization and security. 

You can manage client requests with automatic tracking and send real-time status updates so you’re always on the ball. Keep all your client communication in one place and send messages individually or to all your clients in bulk.

It’s easier than ever to integrate and review new documents from clients and to automatically designate where they’ll go within your platform. Plus, there’s customizable content so you can easily meet your firm’s, and your client’s, specific needs. 

Want to learn more about how Caseware PBC Requests can help revolutionize your accounting client communication? Contact us today for more information. 

With the pace of business moving faster than ever and client expectations at an all-time high, accounting practices are under pressure to find new operational efficiencies.

A new Caseware white paper, titled The Benefits of Moving Your Accounting Practice to the Cloud, examines how the cloud computing model is helping firms streamline their work and unlock new savings — both in time and money. This revolutionary approach is enabling easier engagement management, improved time-tracking and higher client satisfaction rates, among many other benefits.

Read the white paper today and discover how cloud:

• Differs from traditional practice management technologies
• Eliminates repetitive, tedious processes
• Helps bring in new business
• Can be adopted at a pace that’s right for any firm

As the white paper shows, running a highly efficient accounting practice is no easy task. Challenges exist around every corner: keeping track of hundreds of client files across multiple engagements; making sure staff are tracking their time accurately; waiting for client responses while the clock is ticking toward a deadline; watching work grind to a halt due to unplanned server downtime.

Dealing with these issues costs precious time, impacting everything from team morale to the all-important bottom line. They have, unfortunately, been an inescapable reality for years.

Now, however, the concept of cloud computing is helping many firms put these nagging problems behind them for good. Cloud computing-based technology offers an innovative approach that delivers newfound savings and efficiencies, and provides easier customization capabilities for all types and sizes of organizations. 

The Benefits of Moving Your Accounting Practice to the Cloud will describe the improvements the cloud model makes on traditional approaches. It will also take an in-depth look at the main benefits of moving to the cloud, including time savings, which can be used to carry out work that was previously eaten up by repetitive and tedious processes.

Finally, the paper will describe the hybrid model of cloud computing, an approach that allows for gradual cloud adoption, rather than having to make a full transition. 

Complete the form on the right to download your copy of the white paper!

More and more accounting practices are turning to the cloud for improved efficiency, cost savings and collaboration capabilities. For example, recent research found that 87 percent of accountants intend to use some type of cloud technology for their engagement management work over the next two years.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting firms, like most organizations, were forced to work remotely. This meant team members had to find new ways to work together on projects and to collaborate remotely with clients. Cloud accounting solutions helped many accountants overcome this challenge, and as firms emerge from the pandemic, the cloud continues to allow teams to work collaboratively from wherever they happen to be — at the office, at home or at a client’s site.

Practices that have adopted the cloud model save time, work more seamlessly as a team and are able to access files and key data more easily.

A new Caseware white paper, The Benefits of Moving Your Accounting Practice to the Cloud, takes an in-depth look at the key factors that are driving widespread cloud migration. Let’s look at a few that this valuable asset covers:

Better client collaboration

For years, accountants and their clients have collaborated by email. If you needed a file, you sent an email message to your client and they would respond by emailing back the appropriate document. This system worked better than shuffling heavy boxes stuffed with paper files back and forth, but the cloud offers new levels of collaboration and security.

Through the cloud, you can create client portals which allow you and your clients to collaborate on files and communicate in real time, securely. If you and a client are both working on a file in the cloud, you can see changes as they occur without needing to worry if you’re working on the most recent version. You can also message clients through a cloud portal and see their responses in a single thread, ensuring you don’t miss any responses.

A more secure environment

Cloud environments are typically secured through passwords, user access controls and multi-factor authentication. User access controls are crucial because they restrict access to important data. Only users who are approved to access particular files by the person controlling cloud security (often a system administrator) can see them.

This helps you keep sensitive information secure. User access controls are also helpful during audits because they allow you to restrict access to only those accountants working on the audit, preventing potential conflicts of interest.

Superior insights

The cloud gives you one central repository for all your files and documents. This means you don’t have to search multiple drives to find the information you’re looking for. All the information you need is in one location.

You can save years, or even decades, of data and engagement files in the cloud. And because all your data is in one location, you can easily apply analytics solutions to your data, helping you better identify trends, establish benchmarks and identify potential risks.

Equip yourself for tomorrow’s challenges

The cloud is playing a crucial role in accounting practices, helping them work better with clients, support hybrid work models and deliver more insights. If you’re interested in shifting to the cloud, but are worried about disrupting your existing processes, you can take a more gradual approach by moving to a hybrid cloud model that combines your familiar desktop applications with cloud capabilities. Whichever cloud approach you take, you’ll be making your practice more efficient and competitive.

For a more detailed examination of how the cloud can help you get an edge on your competitors, download your FREE copy of the Caseware white paper, The Benefits of Moving Your Accounting Practice to the Cloud.