5 Best Accounting Practice Management Software

Accounting practice management software allows accounting firms who provide tax, bookkeeping, and payroll services to manage their client work in one system. We looked at over a dozen options and narrowed it down to five based on cost, project tracking, time and billing, and reporting features; pricing range from free up to $3,950 per month.

Top 5 Accounting Practice Management Software 2019

How We Evaluated the Best Accounting Practice Management Software

A good accounting practice software includes the ability to manage customer relationships, track projects and employee productivity as well as generate detailed reports by project, employee, and client. Having each of these integrated into a single workflow can save accountants a lot of time and money that would have been spent using multiple systems.

We assessed which accounting practice management software is best based on the following:

• Cost: We chose products that range in price from 100% free to as low as $39 per month, per user up to a flat $3,980 per month.
• Project tracking: The ability to track projects and tasks is a critical component of a practice management software.
• Time and billing: The ability to track the hours an employee or contractor spends on a project or job is key to ensure all hours worked are billed to the client. Unfortunately Karbon and QuickBooks do not have an integrated time and billing tool; however there are workarounds that we will discuss later in this article.
• Collaboration tools: Being able to track all communication between clients and team members in one central hub is very important. Every product that we chose offers some type of integrated email or client portal to log calls, appointments and to send or receive documents.
• Reporting: Each product that we chose allows you to run detailed reports to analyze projects by client and by employee. In addition, the products that include time and billing also have employee productivity reports and customer accounts receivable reports.
• Integration with other systems: Having the ability to share data with other systems can save you a lot of time because you can update just one system and a data sync will update all the rest. All five products that we chose integrate with one or more systems.
• User access and permissions: The ability to control the information that each staff member has visibility to is key. All five products allow you to set user permissions at a very granular level.

Based on the criteria above, OfficeTools Workspace is the best overall accounting firm practice management software. It is ideal for small or large practices, it includes all seven criteria that we used to evaluate these products and it integrates with more than 10 other systems to make it easy to share contact info as well as invoicing and payment information.

Best Overall Accounting Practice Management Software: OfficeTools Workspace

OfficeTools Workspace includes everything you need in an accounting practice software. It includes time and billing, the ability to email your clients directly from OfficeTools, a secure client portal that allows you to send or receive documents from clients. Clients can also review their outstanding invoices and pay them in the portal. If you use QuickBooks Desktop to manage your bookkeeping, OfficeTools will sync all invoicing and payments data with QuickBooks so that your financial statements are always up-to-date.

OfficeTools Workspace Pricing

OfficeTools Workspace offers very simple pricing. The cost is $60 per user, per month, and includes a client portal, an unlimited number of users, and unlimited telephone and email support. There is a one-time fee of $2,000 for on-site setup and training or you could book a remote setup and training session for $197 per hour. This setup fee is required so that OfficeTools can customize the software to meet your specific needs.

OfficeTools Workspace Features

OfficeTools allows you to easily manage work by client or project. Similar to Xero Practice Manager and TaxWorkFlow (which we will discuss later in this article), OfficeTools includes a time and billing feature so that you can easily track the amount of hours for each team member and bill your clients in a timely manner for completed work.

One of the features that sets OfficeTools Workspace apart from its competitors is the seamless integration with QuickBooks Desktop, MS Outlook and many other systems. We will discuss this in more detail in the Systems Integration section below.

Collaboration With Clients

OfficeTools Workspace allows you to collaborate with your clients in multiple ways. For example, you can send and receive emails directly from OfficeTools to your client. Another great feature that is included with your OfficeTools subscription is a secure client portal.

The client portal can be accessed by each client with a secure user id and password. The portal can be used to post announcements, send and receive important documents and clients can also view and pay their outstanding invoices from within the portal.

Project Tracking

In OfficeTools Workspace a project is created for work that will include several steps and several staff members to complete. You can assign a staff member to a project and then assign a due date as well. Within each project you will create assignments and designate staff members who will be responsible for completing the work by the deadline.

Staff members can view their list of assignments in the activity list. Unless permissions have been restricted, each staff member can view, add, or change the owner for both their assignments as well as any staff member. This feature works great for managers who need the flexibility to move work from one staff member to another.

Time & Billing

OfficeTools Workspace includes a time and billing feature that allows you to track time in three different ways: enter time manually, create a timecard, or use the built-in timer. You can easily transfer the time entered to an invoice to bill the client for work completed.

Payments from customers are also tracked in OfficeTools, which means that the open customer balances remain up to date. If you use QuickBooks, OfficeTools Workspace integrates with QuickBooks by transferring invoice and payment information directly into QuickBooks to avoid double entry. This ensures that your financial statements are always up-to-date.

Reporting

Similar to Xero, OfficeTools Workspace includes a number of reports that will allow you to review and analyze the work that is in progress and on the horizon by staff member, client, or project. There are five broad categories of reports available in OfficeTools Workspace. Within each report group, there are a number of reports that you can easily customize and save to a custom report group so that you don’t have to recreate them.

Below are the five groups of reports available in OfficeTools Workspace:

• Billing Reports – stay on top of outstanding customer invoices with this detailed report.
• Contact Reports – this report includes contact information for each client.
• Project Reports – reports to show the details of all projects by client.
• Schedule Reports – schedule reports to automatically be emailed to clients or internal staff.
• Staff Reports – reports to help you stay on top of staff productivity.

System Integrations

OfficeTools Workspace integrates with QuickBooks Desktop to share contacts, invoicing, and payment information. It also integrates with MS Outlook email and calendar so that you can keep track of all email communications within OfficeTools Workspace.

OfficeTools Workspace Customer Service

OfficeTools Workspace provides a number of resources available to get assistance if you need it. You can call the support team Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST; within the program you can create a support or training ticket which will send an email to the support team along with the details of the issue you are having or you can access their extensive database of articles and step by step video tutorials.

What OfficeTools Workspace is Missing

Unfortunately, you cannot access your customer’s financial data from within OfficeTools like you can with some of the other accounting practice software products we evaluated, like QuickBooks and Xero Practice Manager.

Best Accounting Practice Management Software for Firms with QuickBooks Online Clients: QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA) Practice Manager

QBOA Practice Manager is the best practice management software for accountants that have QuickBooks Online clients; unfortunately it is not fully compatible with QuickBooks Desktop. While you can use QBOA Practice Manager software to manage clients who are using QuickBooks Desktop or another accounting software, you won’t be able to take advantage of the built-in collaboration features and the ability to easily access your client’s data like you can with QuickBooks Online clients.

QBOA Practice Manager Pricing

Unlike most practice management software for accountants, QBOA practice manager is 100% free to all bookkeepers and accountants. In order to access QBOA practice manager, you must sign up for a QuickBooks Online Accountant account, which is free. With QBOA, you have access to the practice manager tools, a free QuickBooks Online account to manage your books and many other resources to help you grow your practice.

QBOA Practice Manager Features

One of the best features QuickBooks practice management has to offer is the seamless integration with QuickBooks Online. Within QBOA, you can toggle between client company files, create tasks for both clients and staff and bill your clients for work that has been completed.

Toggle Between Client Files

One of the benefits of having clients that use QuickBooks is they can invite you as an accountant user so that you can access their data. Once you accept their invite, you can easily access your client’s data by signing into your QBOA account and then clicking on a drop-down to select the client; there is no additional login required. Every client who has invited you to their QuickBooks file as an accountant will appear in your drop-down menu. You simply toggle to the file you want to work in and proceed to review or edit the data as needed.

Collaboration With Clients

QBOA Practice Manager allows you to collaborate with clients by creating tasks such as send bank statement or need copy of receipt and assigning the task to the client. Your client will see these requests appear in the My Accountant tab of their QuickBooks file. You can assign a due date for these tasks along with a detailed explanation of what information is required.

If you want to make sure your client sees this request right away, you can choose to notify clients so they receive an email directly from QuickBooks with the details of the task. Unfortunately clients are not able to initiate communication unless they are responding to a request.

Project Tracking

You can track projects (e.g., tax return prep) across multiple clients and duplicate projects which will also duplicate the tasks and make any necessary modifications. Think of tasks as the individual parts of the project that must be completed in order for the project to be considered done. Similar to projects, you can assign tasks to various staff members along with a deadline.

Time & Billing

Unfortunately, there is no time tracking feature available in the QBOA practice manager tool. While this is a shortcoming, you can easily create invoices within QBOA to bill your clients for work that has been completed. You can also track customer payments, which means that your accounts receivable will always be up to date.

Reporting

Another area where QBOA practice manager falls short is reports. Currently there are no reports available to keep track of staff or client work. However, there is a detailed dashboard that can be filtered to show the following info:

• Work for a specific client
• Work assigned to a particular team member
• Items by type (project, task, client requests)
• Status of work
• Due date

System Integrations

While QuickBooks Online Accountant integrates with over 300 different apps, QBOA practice manager only integrates with QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Practice Management Customer Service

There are several ways to get help with QBOA practice manager if you get stuck. You can contact a dedicated customer support line between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. PST. Chat support is available directly within your QBOA account or you can check out the detailed article on Getting Started with Practice Management.

What QuickBooks Practice Management is Missing

While Intuit has made several improvements to the practice management software for accountants (QBOA) since it was first released, there is still room for improvement. In addition to not having adequate reports and no time and billing feature, the lack of integration with QuickBooks Desktop is probably the biggest drawback.

Best Accounting Practice Management Software for Firms who Provide Tax Prep Services: TaxWorkFlow

TaxWorkFlow is the best practice management software for firms who provide tax prep services. It was designed, developed, and tested by CPA’s to address common pain points like having a centralized location for all client communications. TaxWorkFlow allows you to create business process templates for every type of service offered (e.g., tax prep, bookkeeping, payroll). It is ideal for firms with repeatable services like annual tax returns, monthly bank statement reconciliation, review financial statements.

TaxWorkFlow Pricing

TaxWorkFlow pricing plan is simple, $1,500 per year for unlimited users. While this may seem a bit steep, it’s pretty reasonable considering everything that is included. At no charge to you, the technical team will install and customize the software based on your requirements. They will provide free training to your staff and a three week grace period to give your team the opportunity to learn, customize and decide if TaxWorkFlow is really right for your business.

TaxWorkFlow Features

TaxWorkFlow goes beyond project and task management to include a client portal, a mobile app that you can use to stay on top of things while away from the office and customer relationship management tool (CRM) functionality that not only allows you to send or receive emails but also create email campaigns to market different services to your clients.

Collaboration With Clients

There are several ways to collaborate with clients directly within TaxWorkFlow. You can use the integrated Outlook calendar to schedule an appointment or send an email directly from TaxWorkFlow to request documents and other pertinent information from a client. If you need to communicate an important update or message to all clients or even a group of clients, you can create email campaigns directly within TaxWorkFlow; none of the competitors that we looked at offer this feature.

Project Tracking

Client tickets are the backbone of how work gets done in TaxWorkFlow. A ticket is a set of instructions that allows work to be completed in sequential order. For example, a ticket can be created for a body of work such as Complete Tax Return for 2019 and assigned to a client. Within the ticket, individual tasks are created and assigned to staff members along with a due date. Once a task has been completed then you can move over to the next task in the queue.

Time & Billing

Staff can enter their time manually in hours or they can start/stop the timer as they are working on client files throughout the day. Using this information, you can quickly create an invoice to bill your clients as soon as work has been completed.

With TaxWorkFlow, you can keep track of employees time and also bill customers without leaving TaxWorkFlow. In addition to tax work, you can bill clients for other types of work such as bookkeeping and payroll services that you provide. Similar to OfficeTools, TaxWorkFlow will transfer customer invoices and payment information into QuickBooks so that you don’t have to enter it again. This will ensure that your account receivable balances will always be up to date.

Reporting

The reporting tool available in TaxWorkFlow is unique. Instead of providing you with a list of canned reports that you need to customize and filter to get the data that you want, you can create your reports from scratch and save them as templates. This tool is as easy to use as dragging and dropping columns. You can create all sorts of reports, including employee productivity reports, projects by client reports and projects by employee reports to name a few.

System Integrations

TaxWorkFlow integrates with the following systems:

MS Excel

You can import client information such as address, telephone number, email from an Excel spreadsheet into TaxWorkFlow.

Adobe Acrobat

TaxWorkFlow is compatible with Adobe Acrobat which means that you can save any report or document as a PDF. You can also merge multiple PDF documents into one and you can take a picture of a document (i.e., 1099) and save it as a PDF.

MS Outlook

Similar to other accounting firm management software, TaxWorkFlow integrates seamlessly with MS Outlook. This means that you can transfer existing contacts, emails and calendar appointments to TaxWorkFlow.

Gmail

Contact information that you currently have in Gmail can easily be transferred over to Tax WorkFlow. This includes telephone, email, and mailing address info. If Gmail is your current email provider, you can also sync emails between Gmail and TaxWorkFlow.

QuickBooks Desktop

There is a two-way sync between TaxWorkFlow and QuickBooks. This means that updates go both ways; for example, if you change contact information for a client in QuickBooks or revise an invoice in TaxWorkFlow, changes will sync both ways so that both systems remain in sync. Once you are all set up in TaxWorkFlow, it is recommended that you initiate all changes from TaxWorkFlow to ensure accuracy.

TaxWorkFlow Customer Service

TaxWorkFlow offers both telephone and email support to their customers. In addition, it offers a comprehensive downloadable user guide that includes both step by step instructions and screenshots. Instead of trying to set up the system on your own, I recommend that you allow them to do that for you since it is included at no additional cost. More details on this can be found below in the Where to Find TaxWorkFlow section of this article.

What TaxWorkFlow is Missing

Similar to Karbon and OfficeTools, you cannot access your client’s books from within TaxWorkFlow. If they use a desktop product, you will have to get them to upload the file to the client portal. If they use a cloud accounting software like QuickBooks Online, you can obtain your own user id and password to access the information outside of TaxWorkFlow.

Best Accounting Practice Management Software for Firms With Xero Clients: Xero Practice Manager

Xero Practice Manager is the best practice management software for accountants with a majority of Xero clients. Similar to QBOA practice manager, you can use Xero practice manager for clients who are not using Xero to manage their books. However, that just means that you won’t be able to access their data from within Xero.

Xero Practice Manager Pricing

Xero Practice Manager is available for free to all Xero partners at the silver, gold, and platinum levels. All other partners must pay $149 per month to use practice manager. However, you can sign up for a free 14 day trial to see how it works.

Xero Practice Manager Features

Xero Practice Manager is packed with many of the features that you would expect to see in an accounting practice management software. It allows you to easily access your client data, create and assign jobs and tasks to staff members and run detailed reports to analyze time and billing by client, staff, and job.

Toggle Between Client Files

Similar to QuickBooks, you can toggle between any client file that you have been given access to. If you don’t have access to your client’s file, have them invite you as an accountant user. Once you do that, you will be able to add, edit, and review their data without having to log in and out of their file.

Collaboration With Clients

There is no collaboration tool within Xero practice manager to communicate with clients. Therefore, if you need to request documents or if your client has a question you would have to utilize a tool outside of practice manager such as email.

Project Tracking

In Xero practice manager, a job is similar to a high level project (e.g., company setup). Each job is then broken down into tasks and assigned to your staff along with a due date. Before you can create a new job, you need to configure job states. A job state is essentially a stage in a job’s life (e.g., planned, in progress, ready for review etc.)

In Xero Practice Manager, tasks are components of a job. You must create tasks for each job which is essentially the work that must be done to complete the overall job. You can use tasks across multiple clients and you can assign a task to a team member along with a due date. Unlike QuickBooks practice manager, a time and billing feature is integrated with Xero practice manager so it’s important that your tasks reflect items you would include on a client invoice.

Time & Billing

Unlike QuickBooks practice manager and Karbon, there is a time and billing feature in Xero practice manager. There are a number of ways to track your time. You can enter your time against jobs and tasks or enter your timesheet on a daily or weekly basis. Time is easily transferred to an invoice to bill clients. You can also set up recurring billing for clients who pay a set amount on a periodic basis (i.e., weekly, monthly, quarterly).

Reporting

When it comes to reports, Xero Practice Manager knocks it out of the park. There are several pre-built reports available as well as a report builder which allows you to create your own reports.

Listed below are just a few of the reports available in Xero Practice Manager:

• Client Time Summary and Detail Reports
• Job Time Summary and Detail Reports
• Staff Time Summary and Detail Reports
• Hours Analysis Report
• Estimated Billings Report
• Job Cost Report

System Integrations

Similar to QBOA practice manager, Xero practice manager only integrates with Xero which means that if your client does not use Xero for their bookkeeping, you won’t be able to access their data within Xero..

Xero Practice Manager Customer Service

Unfortunately Xero does not offer live telephone or chat support. However, it does have an extensive library of articles and video tutorials that explain step by step how to use Xero Practice Manager. Once you are logged in to practice manager, just click on the question mark right below your business name to access these help options.

What Xero Practice Manager is Missing

While Xero practice manager beats QBOA practice manager when it comes to time and billing features, there is no collaboration tool to communicate with clients. This means that if you need to request copies of bank statements or receipts, you will have to send an email to make this request or give your client a call.

Best Accounting Practice Management Software for Firms Who Prefer Their Existing Time & Billing Software: Karbon

Karbon is the best accounting firm practice management software for businesses who are happy with their existing time & billing system but need a better way to track projects and collaborate with clients and team members. With Karbon’s robust project management system, you can assign tasks to team members and clients, send automatic reminders when due dates are approaching, and customize the software to meet your needs. While Karbon does not track time and billing, it does integrate with TSheets, which does.

Karbon Pricing & Features

Karbon offers three pricing starting at $49 per person, per month. While Karbon includes all of the basic features like managing tasks, assignments, and contacts, it does not include the ability to track time or bill clients for work completed like the other competitors we looked at. This means that on top of the cost you will pay for a subscription to Karbon, you will have to budget for another system to take care of time and billing.

Karbon Tiered Pricing & Features Table

Karbon Team

Karbon Team is the most economical tier out of the three plans. If you prefer monthly billing then you are looking at $49 per month, per person. It includes internal tasks and assignments and automatic client reminders. Plus, eight work templates that can be created for recurring tasks and the ability to customize work statuses (e.g., in progress, completed, pending) and it integrates with QuickBooks, TSheets, and Microsoft Exchange.

Karbon Team is a great solution for an accounting practice that generally has many tasks assigned to clients and would like the ability to keep track of them and remind clients when the due date is approaching. In addition, if your company uses Microsoft Exchange, QuickBooks, or TSheets, you can sync information such as emails and contacts with Karbon.

Karbon Business

Karbon Business is the middle tier that costs $69 per month, per person. This is $20 more per month, per person than Karbon Team ($49 per month, per person). Frankly, unless you really need the get started training session, I would opt for the Karbon Team subscription which has the same features but does not include the get started training session. Be sure to read the Karbon Customer Service section which details some of the great self-paced training available.

Karbon Practice is the ideal accounting firm management software for a medium to large sized accounting practice that needs the ability to have unlimited capacity in every area of the system as well as advanced features like reporting, advanced filter features, and integrations with multiple systems. In addition to email and live chat support, you also get an initial getting started training to help you and your staff get up to speed quickly on how to use Karbon.

Karbon Enterprise

Karbon Enterprise is the top of the line subscription plan. Other than pricing, the primary difference between Karbon Enterprise and the other pricing tiers is you can tailor Enterprise to meet the individual needs of your practice. This includes report customizations, custom integrations, and other advanced features. In addition, you have a dedicated account manager who will work with you to build out your business requirements.

Karbon Enterprise is right for a large accounting firm that would like the ability to create a customized accounting practice software that will meet all of their individual needs. If your firm operates on a global scale and is growing rapidly, Karbon Enterprise is a great product that will grow as your business continues to expand.

Karbon Customer Service

The level of customer service offered by Karbon is dependent on which pricing plan you have purchased. As you may have guessed, the higher the pricing plan the more options you have when it comes to customer service. While I was disappointed that Karbon does not offer telephone support for all plans, it does offer call-back support for Enterprise customers. Plus, you can add call-back support to the Business plan for an additional fee. Live chat support is available 24 hours a day for three tiers.

Below is a table that shows the support available by pricing plan for Karbon:

Karbon Support By Pricing Tier

One of the areas that Karbon falls short in is time and billing. On its own, Karbon does not have the ability to track the time your team works on a project. However, Karbon integrates with TSheets which allows you to record time worked by project or client and create time cards. You can use an existing TSheets account or create a new one; keep in mind that additional fees may apply.

Complete List of Accounting Firm Practice Management Software

Bottom Line

Now that you know our top picks for the best accounting practice management software, it’s time for you to pick one. If most of your clients use QuickBooks Online, go with QuickBooks Online Accountant Practice Management. However, if you’re looking for an all-inclusive software then you should go with OfficeTools Workspace.

OfficeTools Workspace is easy to use, includes unlimited number of users and unlimited live telephone and chat support. In addition, you can track all projects and tasks by client and employee as well as invoice clients for work completed all from within OfficeTools Workspace.

Visit OfficeTools Workspace