Elevate your accounting firm: Building the ideal tech stack

Productivity doesn’t happen accidentally. 

It’s the result of thoughtful planning, attention to detail, and systems and processes that allow accounting firms to get more work done, more efficiently. 

This comes back to the quality of your accounting firm’s tech stack.

The right tools, with the right integrations, are the engine behind the modern accounting firm. They standardize recurring processes, streamline communication, centralize your most important documents, and automate manual work.

Here is how to evaluate, build, and improve your firm’s tech stack to create a more efficient workflow, a more productive day-to-day, and a more rewarding experience for accountants and clients alike.

A framework for evaluating accounting firm software

Today, there are thousands of accounting tools on the market—and the accounting software market is projected to keep growing by 55% in the next 5 years, which means accounting firms face more analysis, decisions, and necessary proficiency than ever before.

Put simply, software shopping is overwhelming. 

Among the essential questions of building your tech stack, you need to know the non-negotiables of an accounting tool, taking into account firm size and scalability. Here are eight must-have tools, and the best software recommendations for each:

Practice management

The most valuable tool in your tech stack is an accounting practice management software that centralizes your workflows, communication, client accounts, and data, uniting all the non-negotiable features for a firm in one integrated ecosystem. 

The benefits of accounting practice management software are experienced by thousands of global firms looking to increase efficiency. Take BNA, for example—an accounting firm that implemented robust practice management software and can now complete tax returns in three days.

Here are some tools that can help you get there:

Karbon

Karbon is the #1-ranked accounting practice management software and category leader on software review website, G2.

It’s built for accounting, tax and bookkeeping firms of any size that need a practice management solution to meet their operational and strategic needs.

Karbon helps firms manage internal and external communication, CRM, email, workflow automation, billing, invoicing, payments, team collaboration, documentation, approvals, e-signatures, and reporting and analytics. Plus, it leverages secure AI and GPT and has an open API.

Canopy

Canopy is an accounting practice management solution that started as a tax resolution tool, therefore it’s best-suited to firms that value its tax resolution cases and integration with the IRS.

Canopy’s pricing is modular, which means it can get complicated and expensive quickly, plus limited workflow templates mean creating work is an unnecessary time-waster.

👉 Compare Karbon and Canopy

Financial Cents

Financial Cents is a practice management solution for accounting firms looking for a solid entry-level tool. It’s quick to implement, but that means there are limitations, including limited integrations and reporting capabilities.

👉 Compare Karbon and Financial Cents

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Excellent client or customer relationship management isn't simple—not without the right tools, processes, team, and communication strategy. 

Most CRM software is generic and built to cover needs across multiple industries. But when you’re finding the right software for your accounting firm, there are purpose-built tools that provide accounting-specific features.

The right CRM system for your firm will leverage automation and provide features like document management, a client portal, activity timelines, centralized communication, onboarding assistance, and integrations that make sense for you.

Here are some CRM options to consider, including a mix of accounting-specific and generic solutions:

Karbon

Karbon is an accounting practice management tool equipped with CRM features. Because it’s not a traditional, standalone CRM solution, it doesn’t offer every single piece of CRM functionality. 

But it does bring a significant advantage of being part of a wider practice management platform—and with that comes many other features and functionality from one single app.

Hundreds of accounting firms of various sizes leverage Karbon’s CRM as a system of record for their clients and the related information that they need to track in order to deliver services (e.g. TaxID, entity type, DOB, address, email, phone number, etc.).

Hubspot CRM

Hubspot is a CRM tool that manages contacts as well as sales, pipeline, digital marketing campaigns, and lead nurturing. It’s not specific to accounting firms, and appeals to a wide array of small businesses.

It’s best suited for firms with a heavy focus on sales and marketing, and those that don’t mind a relatively shallow integration pool with accounting-specific software.

Zoho CRM

Zoho is a comprehensive software suite for small-large businesses. Zoho offers an online accounting software called Zoho Books, which integrates with Zoho CRM, as well as over 50 other Zoho products. It’s highly customizable, but can be complex to navigate and set up.

And because it’s not built for accountants, it lacks industry-specific features.

👉 Here’s a bigger breakdown of the best CRM for accounting firms.

Workflow automation

Workflow tools help accounting firms work smarter, not harder, by automating low-value administrative tasks so you can spend time producing high-quality, revenue-driving work.

Workflow tools should offer features and functionality that streamline your firm’s production flow, including automation, work templates, recurring work schedulers, time and budget tracking, centralized communication, work dashboards, and integrations with the other tools you use to power your firm.

Here are workflow options to consider:

Karbon

Karbon is an accounting practice management software with advanced workflow automation capabilities. Accounting firms use Karbon to automate low-value workflow tasks so they can focus on high-value client service. 

The only accounting workflow solution with a true email integration that deeply embeds email into your workflow, and uses AI to streamline the relationship between communication and work. It’s highly customizable to match your practice’s unique workflows, and offers over 300 pre-built accounting workflow templates for you to make your own.

Plus, constant innovation, frequent product releases, and an open API means that Karbon is continuously developing to help your firm grow.

Jetpack Workflow

Jetpack Workflow is a simplified workflow software solution. It focuses on delivering the most commonly requested features at a high level in a trimmed down package. As a result, Jetpack Workflow is suited for small firms (less than three staff) that want a basic solution that they don’t anticipate outgrowing.

👉 Compare Karbon and Jetpack Workflow 

Aero Workflow

Aero Workflow is a basic accounting workflow management tool that prides itself on being ‘built for accountants, by accountants’. Because it’s an affordable solution with basic functionality, it’s suited for solo accountants looking for an accounting-specific tool (rather than generic tools like Asana or ClickUp).

👉 Compare Karbon and Aero Workflow

Project management

Good accounting project management software will give you visibility over projects on a macro level, enabling you to understand what’s happening within any given project, and then control it by making relevant changes where needed. 

It’s important to note that robust practice management software will offer project management capabilities. If practice management was the house, then project management would be one of the rooms.

46% of accountants believe that project management is the most critical skill for future accountants. But despite this, there are no project management tools built specifically for accounting teams. 

As a result, the recommendations below are a combination of accounting practice management tools and generic project management tools.

Karbon

As an accounting practice management solution, project management is a critical aspect of Karbon's comprehensive feature offerings. 

Its project management features include workflow automation, work templates, integrated email, built-in CRM, automatic client reminders and client tasks, time and budget tracking, internal collaboration, document management, invoicing and payment processing, business intelligence and reporting, and accounting-specific integrations.

Asana

Asana is a leading project management tool and is designed to help you manage and streamline projects, organize work in a single place, and collaborate easily. 

There’s a lot to love about Asana. It’s powerful, customizable, and fun to look at. While that’s nice, ‘nice’ doesn’t get work done for those in accounting. 

If you think about an accounting process, like weekly payroll, Asana’s offering has some serious gaps and limitations. For example, there’s no way to send clients automatic reminders and no direct email integration. This means you’ll still be chasing your clients for information and be constantly switching tabs between Asana and your email provider. 

👉 Compare Karbon and Asana

ClickUp

ClickUp is designed to help you manage your projects from one tool. In fact, that’s one of their taglines: One app to replace them all. That might suit the many marketing teams and advertising agencies using ClickUp. But for accounting firms, using ClickUp without any complementary apps just isn’t realistic.

That’s because, like Asana, ClickUp doesn’t specialize in accounting. And it’s not a practice management tool. As a result, there are large gaps in its functionality that are critical to how you run your firm and manage your work.

For example, ClickUp doesn’t directly integrate with accounting software, nor does it offer a built-in client portal. Its accounting templates are limited, and ClickUp’s customer support isn’t specific to accounting and bookkeeping firms’ priorities and nuances.

👉 Compare Karbon and ClickUp

Cloud-based document management

Cloud-based document management tools are foundational to any best-of-breed tech stack. They enable your team to easily access, share, and store financial documents in one secure location, no matter where they are in the world.

The best tools take it a step further and offer individual client portals for even more granular, accessible, and personalized document storage.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the most universally-used document management solutions used across many different industries. It offers real-time synchronization, storage, and document collaboration.

Google Drive

Google Drive is a component of Google Workspace, which enables teams to connect and collaborate on work. Google Drive offers cloud storage that works seamlessly with its Docs, Sheets, and Slides software.

Microsoft OneDrive

Similar to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive is just one component of the Microsoft offering. It’s the storage solution for Microsoft-powered businesses, and it’s how online Excel, Word, and PowerPoint files are stored.

SmartVault

SmartVault is a document management tool that allows you to share, request and manage documents, PDF forms, engagement letters, and proposals. It also offers a client portal, streamlining your workflow with clients.

Karbon

Karbon has built-in document storage and integrations with document management systems like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive. 

This means that you’re able to manage documents in the context of your workflow, and make it easy for clients to collaborate with you by requesting and collecting documents through your branded and secure client portal.

Communication and email

People say there are two certainties in this world: death and taxes. For accountants, you could add one more to that list: email. 

It’s at the heart of your client relationships. Not only is it a universal communication medium, but most client inquiries still come through email first, and it’s used to share documents, kick-off jobs, provide updates, and request more information.

Gmail and Outlook are the most used email providers, and the majority of accounting firms use one or the other. With that in mind, here is a round up of other communication tools that help to foster internal and external communication at your firm.

Karbon

Karbon is an accounting practice management software with email integration and robust collaboration tools. It offers a two-way email sync—once you connect your Gmail, Outlook or Exchange account, you can receive and send emails from within the app. 

You can also turn emails into tasks, and assign emails to colleagues, client accounts, and project timelines. Plus, you can @mention colleagues and leave comments on emails, turning your communication into threads and giving you a true single source of truth.

You can also create email templates, and generate reports to better understand email response times and daily email volume.

Plus, Karbon AI makes you more efficient with your emails and how you communicate with clients. You can use it to summarize long email conversations and internal discussions, compose email drafts, send automatic progress updates to clients, and improve your writing.

Slack

Slack is one of the most popular messaging tools. It’s user-friendly and feature-rich, with many integrations. It truly is a useful tool for real-time asynchronous communication, particularly within your team.

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is essentially the Microsoft version of Slack. It enables teams to chat and collaborate in real-time, and includes the ability to video call.

👉 Compare Slack vs. Microsoft Teams

Time, billing, invoicing, and payments

Accurately billing hours, categorizing expenses, creating invoices, and getting paid in-full and on-time is a key part of doing your job and doing it well. And as you juggle ever-growing responsibilities, it’s become increasingly important to have the right tools to help you get there.

Before you make a purchasing decision, you need to carefully assess your options and choose a solution that gives you a deeper understanding of firm profitability while actively helping you become more profitable.

Here are some options:

Karbon

With Karbon, you can manage workflows, communicate with teams, and deliver client work in one streamlined practice management solution.

Which is what makes the time and billing features so powerful.

In Karbon, you can track time, estimate budgets, bill and invoice your clients, and collect payment. All in one single location.

Learn more about Karbon’s billing and payments features.

HubStaff

HubStaff is a time-tracking and employee-monitoring software that gives you specific insights into your employees’ and freelancers’ workloads. It helps accounting firms manage their teams by tracking work hours, paying team members, invoicing clients, and providing performance reports.

But keep in mind that it’s not part of an accounting practice management platform, which means your work and time are tracked in two separate places.

Harvest

Harvest is a time and expense tracking tool for teams and projects of all sizes. It’s a simple, easy-to-use platform that offers time tracking, reporting and analysis, and invoicing and payments.

Because of its simple, easy-to-use interface and project management features, Harvest may be a good option for small firms and solo accountants and bookkeepers. But it’s important to note that Harvest is still a time and billing tool, not a comprehensive workflow tool or practice management software.

Artificial intelligence

The future of accounting is collaborative: AI will work alongside you to enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and help you focus on higher-value accounting tasks. In fact, increased efficiency and accuracy are the top two AI benefits that accounting professionals are most excited about.

Here are three tools that leverage AI to help your firm run more smoothly:

Karbon AI

Karbon AI is an award-winning AI feature within Karbon’s practice management software. It combines the revolutionary power of generative artificial intelligence and GPT technology with the context of your accounting firm—specifically within email and task management.

With Karbon AI, you can summarize long emails and internal discussions, compose emails and quick email replies, create emails from tasks, adjust your email tone and voice, and summarize client emails, notes, work, and billing data.

Docyt

Docyt (pronounced ‘docket’) is an accounting automation software that offers a comprehensive suite of tools powered by machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence. Its AI tool is bundled into two independent AI systems: Precision AI and Generative AI.

Docyt automates bookkeeping workflows, extracts information from documents, builds financial reports, enhances collaboration, categorizes transactions, and supports revenue reconciliation.

RowsAI

Rows AI is a modern spreadsheet editor that uses AI to analyze, summarize, and transform data. It leverages a direct integration with OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT. 

With Rows AI, you can use its AI Analyst function to simplify, structure, clean up, enrich, and dig deeper into your data. Keep in mind that the direct integration with OpenAI means that your data is being sent to OpenAI, which may include identifiable data.

Building your accounting firm’s ideal tech stack

Knowing what to look for is just the first step. Knowing how to find and implement the right tools for your practice is the main mission. 

Luckily, there’s a straightforward process you can follow:

1. Define the objective

What’s your end goal? Your tech stack acts in service of that.

For example, if your goal is protecting client data, a robust cloud-based software with enterprise-grade security might be your first priority.

Focus on the right problems, and you’ll build the right solutions.

2. Choose specialized software

While generic tools can be a great addition to your tech stack, industry-specific accounting tools offer solutions to problems that are specific to your business.

Consider your area of specialty and use that to create a checklist of features to look for, in addition to the non-negotiables. 

Actionable tip: Look for industry-specific software reviews and case studies to see how other firms are using the tools.

3. Identify the flaws in your systems

Review your current systems—are they as efficient or productive as they could be? 

Once you understand what needs to change, you can understand how technology can be part of driving that change.

Try these review methods to get you started:

• Use process mapping to visualize your bottlenecks

• Request team feedback to understand their everyday pain points

• Perform internal audits to regularly check in on the effectiveness of your current systems

• Prioritize software that records audit trails or performance data so you can track workflows, and continuously improve

4. Plug the gaps

Once you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and what your roadblocks are, you can start the software search with a clear direction in mind.

Consider the gaps in your strategy, so you can patch them with your accounting tech stack. And remember: your software should grow with you, accommodating increasing data volumes, various firm sizes, and new service offerings.

Scalability is more sustainable than short-term solutions—plan ahead, and your software will sustain your firm for years to come.

5. Consider integrations

To implement new software with ease, you need a seamless integration process that can immediately slot in with your existing tools and workflows, and avoid unnecessary disruption. 

Look for software that:

• Offers a direct integration with your current tools

• Has an Open API so you can build your own workflows

• Offers extensive training resources, such as webinars, manuals, and support services

• Is relatively easy to onboard and introduce to your team

Improving firm practice management with Karbon

In a fast-paced tech-driven world, the modern accounting tech stack needs to do a lot. But the reality is: your firm has limited time and resources to pay for, onboard, manage, and master a dozen different tools to get the job done.

That’s why unification and efficiency are key.

Accounting practice management tools like Karbon offer a full-scale solution in one tool, addressing the majority of accounting firm’s top challenges. Growing firms have seen practice management results across the board:

• Tabworks streamlined client onboarding down to five days

• Black Sheep Services is saving more than 40 hours a week and improving work-life balance

• TMS Tax, Accounting & Financial Services addressed efficiency issues and increased productivity by 40%

To learn how Karbon can empower your accounting tech stack, schedule a demo.