Accounting practice management tools are specifically designed to solve common practice management frustrations that accounting, CPA, tax, and bookkeeping firms face, such as capacity planning, and maintaining visibility across a remote accounting team, tasks and projects, and client communication.
Accounting practice management software is used by accounting firms to manage and streamline each part of their firm’s operations—including capacity management, internal and client communication, workflow management, and more.
And the benefits accounting firms receive from implementing accounting practice management software are transformative:
BNA, on average, are now able to complete tax returns in 3 days.
Tabworks streamlined their client onboarding down to 5 days.
Black Sheep Service is not only saving more than 40 hours a week, but owner Marni Garcia could finally take a vacation with the confidence her staff could manage without her.
Without a strong accounting practice management solution, you’re missing out on untapped potential to scale your operations and grow your firm.
Here’s what you need to know when considering your accounting practice management software options.
Not all accounting practice management solutions are created equal. For example, some are built with either small or large firms in mind, and the price and features reflect that. So it’s crucial that you understand your own firm’s specific needs and challenges, and carefully choose the practice management solution that will best meet those needs and solve those challenges.
According to the 2022 Practice Excellence Report, leading accounting firms—those excelling in the key areas of firm strategy, growth, efficiency and management—are leveraging tools that directly feed into their firm’s productivity and profitability.
The basic features to look for in an accounting practice management solution to similarly boost your firm’s performance include:
Internal and client communication: Email is embedded to your workflow, team and every client and job, not locked away in individual inboxes.
Workflow and project management: Align your team to the same goals, adjust priorities and have confidence that nothing will fall through the cracks.
Automation: Automate common, time-consuming tasks to allow your team to focus on more valuable work and provide higher quality service to clients.
Client management: CRM capabilities, including a client database, activity timelines and client groups.
Client portal: Send client tasks, engage with your clients, and securely share information with ease.
Business analytics: The insights you need to guide critical decisions and improve efficiency at your accounting firm.
Document management: The ability to store documents or connect your document management system, and manage client work files from a single source of truth.
Work templates: Pre-built and customizable workflow and accounting templates so you can standardize your firm’s processes and scale.
Time tracking and billing: So you can plan your team’s capacity, track hours spent on projects and clients, and charge clients accurately if you bill against time.
Integrations with other accounting apps: A practice management solution must be able to integrate with other accounting apps to enable you to create a connected tech stack.
Practice management
Practice management focuses on running a professional services business, like an accounting firm. Everything practice management software offers should work towards improving efficiency, communication and profitability across the entire firm.
You can expect to see features like a CRM, client portal, embedded communication, and billing and payments in practice management software.
Project management
On the other hand, project management is all about getting a specific project over the line. It focuses on the processes and execution of workflows.
If practice management was a house, then project management is just one room.
This means that for accounting firms, project management is one part of what a practice management solution offers.
Karbon is the collaborative practice management platform for accounting firms and the category leader on software review website, G2.
Who is Karbon best suited for?
Karbon is built for accounting, tax and bookkeeping firms with teams of 5+ members that are looking for a practice management solution that meets the operational and strategic needs of their firm.
What do Karbon customers say?
“Karbon is so well-thought-out and robust, but still simple to use. It would take at least three different systems to replace what Karbon gives us today, if we could even do it all.”
— Jason Ackerman, BNA
Karbon pricing
Karbon has three pricing plans: Team, Business, and Enterprise.
Annually:
Team: $59 USD/month, per user
Business: $89 USD/month, per user
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Monthly:
Team: $79 USD/ month, per user
Business: $99 USD/month, per user
Enterprise: Custom pricing
Firms under 50 users can choose either a Team or Business plan and the total cost is simply the number of users multiplied by the subscription per month (paid monthly or annually).
Features
Direct email integration (Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange)
Built-in CRM
Automatic client reminders and client tasks
Collaborate in context with @mentions and notifications
Template library with 250+ accounting-specific workflow templates
Time and budget tracking (including timesheets)
Document management integration (Dropbox, OneDrive and SuiteFiles)
GPT-powered Karbon AI (currently in beta)
Engaged user community with 3,000+ members
Real-time integrations that make sense for you (i.e. other leading accounting software, including Xero Practice Manager)
Reviews
Pros
Karbon is the only accounting practice management solution that allows you @mention colleagues and comment on emails, turn emails into tasks, and assign emails to colleagues, and client and project timelines
Constant innovation and frequent product releases
Open API so you can integrate apps, build custom solutions, and optimize workflows
Work smarter, not harder with automated workflows and client reminders
Unite your team and collaborate with a single source of truth for all communication and client information
CRM capabilities allow you to track your firm’s relationship with every client and deliver the service you promise
Reveal insights to guide critical firm decisions and improve efficiency with Karbon Practice Intelligence
Built by a team of accounting professionals and those with experience in the accounting space
Highly customizable to match your practice’s workflow
By centralizing firm and client data, your client experience and client relationships are enhanced
Cons
May require more time to be set up effectively than basic alternatives, because it is a robust solution
Functionality is geared towards teams, so may not be suitable for sole practitioners or teams of 2-3 staff
Why Karbon?
To better understand the benefits of using Karbon, you can calculate your firm’s ROI using Karbon’s ROI calculator.
For example, if your firm has 20 employees, you would:
Save 858 hours per year, per employee
Save $29,824 USD per employee
Increase revenue by $455,000 USD per year
Learn how Karbon can give you the practice management confidence you need. Book a demo.
Canopy is an accounting practice management solution that started as a tax resolution tool. Canopy’s modular pricing means that accounting firms can pick and choose which features to add on.
But keep in mind that most add-on features are core to accounting practice management. This means you’ll likely want them all, which will end up significantly increasing how much you spend.
Who is Canopy best suited for?
Canopy is best-suited for accounting firms that value the Canopy tax resolution cases and integration with the IRS.
Canopy pricing
Canopy has a modular pricing model that charges by the number of features you add on.
Their Standard and Pro pricing tiers include 250 free contacts and charges extra for these add-ons:
Document Management: starting at $40 USD/month, per user
Workflow: starting at $35 USD/month, per user
Time & Billing: starting at $25 USD/month, per user
Tax Resolution: starting at $50 USD/month, per user
Canopy also offers two other tiers for firms with fewer than four staff members:
Starter:
$45 USD/month per user, plus $50 USD/month per user for their tax resolution feature.
Essentials:
$45 USD/month per user, plus $50 USD/month per user for their tax resolution feature.
Features
Integrated email inbox
Task and project management
Client tasks and auto-reminders
Client portal
CRM and client management
Invoicing and payments
Time tracking
Document management
Budget planning and tracking
Basic analytics
Integration with ChatGPT AI (for email creation)
Mobile app for both you and your clients
Reviews
Pros
Tax resolution cases and integration with IRS (paid add-on)
Flexible document and file management functionality (paid add-on)
Time, billing and invoicing capabilities
Comes with pre-built reports on firm efficiency, revenue, and billing
Cons
Key product features are only available at additional costs (e.g. workflow management and document management)
Complicated and expensive pricing (pay per client, per add-on module, per user)
Limited workflow templates
Despite the prebuilt reports available, customized reporting is minimal
Get a side-by-side comparison between Karbon and Canopy and find out which practice management solution is right for your firm.
Financial Cents is a simple practice management solution for accounting firms looking for a solid entry-level tool.
Who is Financial Cents best suited for?
Financial Cents is best suited for small and mid-sized accounting firms who want to start off with a basic accounting practice management solution.
Financial Cents pricing
Financial Cents pricing starts at $49 USD/month per team member, billed monthly ($39 USD/month on an annual plan).
Features
Workflow management
Time tracking and invoicing
Client management
Client requests and auto reminders
Email integration
Capacity management
Reviews
Pros
Affordable pricing
Quick to implement (however this might be a drawback for some firms looking for a more powerful solution)
Responsive support
Cons
Limited workflow templates
Limited app integrations
Lacks reporting, insights and business intelligence analysis capabilities
TaxDome markets itself as the ‘all-in-one platform for accounting, tax, and bookkeeping firms’. It offers a breadth of basic functionality.
Who is TaxDome best suited for?
TaxDome is best suited for tax firms that are looking for functionality across a wide range of features, but don’t require depth to these features.
TaxDome pricing
TaxDome offers one pricing tier: TaxDome Pro.
The monthly price depends on how many years you sign up for (payment is required upfront):
3 years: $50 USD/month per user
2 years: $58 USD/month per user
1 year: $66 USD/month per user
For a 5-user firm on a 1-year contract, the total price would be $330 USD/month.
Features
Workflow automation
CRM
Document management
Client portal
Client-facing mobile app
Website creation service
eSignature capabilities
Invoicing and payment processing
Reviews
Pros
Robust and customizable client portal
Unlimited document storage with a PDF editor
Affordable pricing (however the primary user must sign up to an annual subscription)
Cons
TaxDome has a large amount of features, which makes it difficult to do them all well—this means they generally feel underdeveloped
No budget vs. actual reporting
No high-level visibility across your entire firm’s work (limited to each ‘pipeline’)
No built-in reporting and analytics or customizable business insights dashboards
Karbon vs. TaxDome: which practice management solution is right for your firm?
As its name suggests, Jetpack Workflow provides workflow management for accounting firms. So it’s important to note that Jetpack Workflow is not a practice management solution.
As a result, its offering is on the basic side.
Who is Jetpack Workflow best suited for?
Jetpack Workflow is suited for smaller firms wanting a basic solution that they don’t anticipate outgrowing.
Jetpack workflow pricing
Jetpack workflow has two pricing plans: Organize and Scale.
The Organize plan costs $45 USD/month, per user on a monthly subscription ($36 USD/month on an annual plan).
The Scale plan costs $50 USD/month, per user on a monthly subscription ($39 USD/month on an annual contract).
Features
Job and task management
Basic workflow automation
Job templates and template library
Time tracking and budgets
QuickBooks Online and Zapier integration
Work dashboard
Calendar view
Reviews
Pros
Affordable pricing for simple workflow management
Time tracking capabilities
Useful dashboard with a high-level overview of work
Cons
Limited email management capabilities, which means you have no single source of truth and will need to constantly switch between Jetpack Workflow and your inbox
Limited automation that doesn’t provide the complexity that most accounting processes require
No client portal means you’ll need to find a separate solution to securely streamline client communication and collaboration
Karbon or Jetpack Workflow? Get a side-by-side comparison so you can decide which is better for your firm.
Pixie is a practice management solution that primarily focuses on smaller firms across the UK.
Who is Pixie best suited for?
Pixie is a solution to consider if your firm is small (1-3 employees) and you don’t yet require robust functionality that can handle complex requirements.
Pixie pricing
Pixie’s pricing is based on the number of clients you have and includes an unlimited number of users:
Less than 50 clients: $69 USD per month
51-250 clients: $129 USD per month
251-500 clients: $199 USD per month
501-750 clients: $249 USD per month
751-1,000 clients: $329 USD per month
More than 1,000 clients: Custom pricing
Features
CRM with custom fields
Workflow management
Email management
Workflow template library
eSignatures
Client reminders
Reviews
Pros
Affordable solution, especially for small firms with 1-3 employees
Flexible recurring work functionality that can be based on a client’s specific year end date
Best-practice template library
Cons
Limited collaboration functionality (unable to @mention colleagues in comments or notes, making teamwork difficult)
Limited automation
No time and budget tracking means that productivity and profitability insights are limited
No Kanban board view, which makes it difficult to get a high-level view of your firm
No ability to assign subtasks within a piece of work to different team members
BrightManager (formerly AccountancyManager) is an accounting practice management system that specifically deals with markets in the UK and Ireland only.
Who is BrightManager best suited for?
BrightManager is best suited for small firms in the UK and Ireland that require UK-specific authorizations and AML checks.
BrightManager pricing
BrightManager starts at £31.20+VAT/month per user (billed annually), with Enterprise pricing available for firms with 7+ users.
Features
Workflow automation
Client management
Time and billing
Email management
SMS capabilities
Email templates
eSignatures
Proposal and engagement letters
Reviews
Pros
Strong CRM capabilities with custom forms and fields
Bulk email, email templates, and email placeholders
Built-in SMS functionality provides an additional way to contact your clients
Automatic client reminders in email and SMS
Cons
Limited to markets in the UK and Ireland
Suited to smaller firms, which means you’ll likely outgrow it
No Kanban board view, making if difficult to get a high-level overview of your firm
Senta is a practice management tool that mostly serves UK accounting firms. It was acquired by IRIS Software in 2021.
Who is Senta best suited for?
Because Senta is part of the IRIS suite, it’s best suited for UK firms that are existing IRIS customers.
Senta pricing
Senta starts at $29 USD/month for one user ($23.20 USD/month when billed annually), with the price decreasing per user as you add more users.
Features
CRM
Workflow management
Document management
Client portal
Time tracking
Basic service templates
Reviews
Pros
Comprehensive client portal with built-in document storage and eSigning
Built-in SMS functionality provides an additional way to contact your clients
Unlimited document storage with the ability to extract text from documents and generate documents in-app
Cons
Visibility is limited at the task level, which means you can’t get a high-level view of your firm when you use Senta
No ability to use @mentions for internal collaboration
Senta is very UK-focused, which means the payment function is only optimized for the UK and the integrations are mostly UK-specific
Outdated and counterintuitive user interface
Here’s a side-by-side comparison between Karbon and Senta to help you decide which practice management solution is right for your firm.
OfficeTools was originally built in the old era of server-based practice management technology.
To keep up with modern, cloud-based accounting firms, they now offer two versions of accounting practice management:
OfficeTools Cloud: Their answer to web-based technology
OfficeTools WorkSpace: Their original desktop-based software
Who is OfficeTools best suited for?
OfficeTools WorkSpace is primarily used by long-standing customers. Due to it being outdated desktop software and not cloud-native, it is rarely considered today as a solution for new customers.
OfficeTools Cloud, on the other hand, is suited for accounting firms that are willing to trade certain practice management features—like customizable reporting—for flexible document and file management capabilities.
OfficeTools pricing
OfficeTools Cloud pricing starts at $59/month per user billed monthly ($49 annually), and OfficeTools WorkSpace requires custom pricing.
Features
Contact management
Workflow management
Billing and invoicing (with pre-built invoice templates)
Payments
Calendar integration
Client portal
Reviews
Pros
The robust calendar integration means you can set your appointment availability and view calendars by department (only available in OfficeTools WorkSpace)
Flexible document and file management that organizes and tags documents
Track time, billing, invoicing and payment collection
Intuitive client information import from Excel spreadsheets
Integration with QuickBooks and Lacerte Tax (only available in OfficeTools WorkSpace)
Cons
Long and difficult implementation process, with minimal support
Outdated and counterintuitive interface that requires workarounds to function as expected
Limited internal and external communication functionality
No customizable reporting
Setting up the customizable client portal isn’t straightforward
Users report having issues with the QuickBooks integration breaking
CCH iFirm Practice Manager is a Wolters Kluwer product that makes up one part of a larger CCH app ecosystem.
Who is CCH iFirm Practice Manager best suited for?
CCH iFirm Practice Manager is best suited for firms that require their practice management tool to deeply integrate with the CCH ecosystem.
CCH iFirm Practice Manager pricing
CCH iFirm Practice Manager starts at $640 USD for one user (only available as an annual payment). You can then add an additional single user for $165 USD per year, or a three-user bundle for a total of $385 USD.
This doesn’t include pricing for their client portal, which starts at $575 USD (annually) for a single user, and an additional $165 USD or $386 USD for a single user or a three-user bundle, respectively.
Alternatively, you can purchase both the practice management and client portal solutions together for $1,020 USD for a single user and an additional $165 USD for another user or $385 USD for a bundle of three additional users.
Each option requires an additional single payment of $124.50 for set up, and storage is available in 5GB increments for $32 USD as an add-on.
Features
Time tracking and invoicing
Basic insights and reporting
Billing and payments
Workflow management
Reviews
Pros
Highly customizable dashboard with widgets
Deep integration with other CCH products, which is useful for firms within that ecosystem (however this can be seen as a drawback for firms that also want to integrate with apps outside of this ecosystem)
Cons
Limited work templates
No Kanban board view
No task dependency automators, so work statuses must be updated manually
No team collaboration tools like @mentions
Unreliable and clunky user experience
Onvio is a Thomson Reuters product that makes up one part of a larger CS app ecosystem, including CS Professional Suite and UltraTax CS.
Who is Onvio best suited for?
Onvio is best suited for firms that require a deep integration with other Thomson Reuters products and don’t mind trading usability for that.
Onvio pricing
Unfortunately, Onvio pricing isn’t made publicly available.
Features
Document management
Client portal
Project management
Billing and payments
Time tracking and invoicing
Customizable client fields
Basic workflow templates
Reviews
Not listed on Capterra
Pros
Flexible document management functionality that allows you to view and edit documents in Onvio
Deep integration with other Thomson Reuters products like CS Professional Suite, which is useful for firms within that ecosystem (however this can be seen as a drawback for firms that also want to integrate with additional apps outside of this ecosystem)
Cons
Overall, Onvio is an underdeveloped product, which means you’ll find that features don’t work or look like they should
No email integration means you can’t assign emails, add them to a client’s record or turn them into tasks
No task dependency automators and no automated client reminders, which means you’ll be spending time on manual processes and data entry
No team collaboration tools like @mentions
No workflow template library
Now that you have a clearer understanding of the accounting practice management tools on the market, you should have an idea about which options best-suit your firm.
If that’s Karbon, you can learn more and book a demo.
If you need more convincing, you can explore the Karbon Effect. It shows that Karbon firms save every employee 16.5 hours each week, on average.
Or you can hear directly from Karbon customers about what Karbon is enabling them to do at their firm (and for their clients).
