DMS for Accounting Firms

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Accounting firms deal with some of the most important documents in the business world, including financial statements, management letters, tax returns and the complex records and other sources that back-up those documents. Nearly all of the documents prepared by accounting firms share two significant attributes:

• They are the product of collaboration.



• They are very important and therefore need to be stored securely and easily retrieved.

If you are running a small to medium-sized accounting firm, you already have methods for storing and retrieving hard copies of important documents, including file cabinets and even secure off-site storage. You also have at least thought about how you should manage electronic versions of important documents. Indeed, some important documents and records may only exist in electronic form. The problem, of course, is that thinking about your electronic documents and doing something about them are two different things. Most small and medium-sized accounting firms are extraordinarily busy serving their clients. Intentions may be good, but in many cases electronic document management is nothing more than the hard disk on a professional's computer with files organized in a way understood only by that individual and possibly protected by a password known only to that individual.

If your accounting practice fits the description above, then your electronic documents are not situated for easy collaboration, are not stored securely and are not easily retrieved. Large accounting firms spend hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of dollars to address these needs with expensive hardware, software (usually with a large upfront license fee followed by substantial on-going maintenance fees) and dedicated technical staffs. They can afford to do so because of their large scale. DMS brings the economies of scale enjoyed by the largest accounting firms to all accountants, even those in solo practice.