The 10 best accounting workflow software tools

Accounting workflow automation has the potential to completely transform how your accounting firm operates.

An image of a person working at a desktop Mac. There are others working in the background doing the same.

Get more work done with fewer (or the same) resources. This can help you navigate the current accounting labor shortage, streamline your workflows, provide a better service to your clients, and boost your firm’s profitability.

According to the 2022 Practice Excellence Report, an analysis of over 1,000 accounting firms across the globe, the highest performing firms are those that use workflow automation. These firms are working smarter, not harder and delivering high-quality work. 

For example, Tabatha Morrison, owner of Canadian firm Tabworks, is doing just that. By finding and implementing the right accounting workflow software solution for her firm, she reduced her client onboarding time by 80% and now delivers work within 5 days of an initial client inquiry.

And the team at BNA, on average, are now able to complete tax returns in 3 days. Can you imagine tax season with results like that? Owners Bernie and Jason are now able to focus their time on attracting new clients, producing high-value client work, helping their small business clients, and working on their own firm’s needs (such as hiring and ensuring cash flow).

Accounting firms in need of workflow or project management software are often impacted by:

  • Client work and tasks falling through the cracks

  • Missed deadlines

  • The inability to scale operations

  • Processes that are inefficient and not standardized from employee-to-employee and/or client-to-client

  • The inability to visualize capacity and bottlenecks

  • An overwhelming sense of chaos

To overcome these challenges, you need the right accounting workflow solution for your firm. Here’s what you need to know when considering your accounting workflow management software options.

Recommended reading: Accounting automation guide

What to consider when selecting an accounting workflow solution

There are two main considerations involved in selecting the right accounting workflow solution:

  1. How does it benefit your firm overall?

  2. How does it benefit your team members? 

How accounting workflow management benefits your accounting firm

  • Increase visibility across capacity and work bottlenecks

  • Provide insights on productivity

  • Improve and centralize collaboration

How accounting workflow management benefits your staff

  • Increase efficiency and productivity, particularly across repetitive tasks

  • Simplify day-to-day operations

  • Know exactly what has to get done and when

Accounting workflow features that benefit accounting firms

  • Kanban board: A high-level overview of upcoming and current work so you can understand staff capacity and predict workflow bottlenecks

  • Centralized communication: Remove information silos and increase visibility over client and internal communication, fostering an agile team

  • Cloud-native: Improve employee satisfaction and widen your hiring pool by deploying a remote or hybrid work culture

  • Business analytics and reporting: Measure and understand productivity and profitability metrics so you can make critical and informed business decisions

  • Time and budget tracking: Estimate and track time to understand profitability and allocate resources

Accounting workflow features that benefit accounting firm staff

  • Automation: Work smarter, not harder by automating low-value administrative tasks so you can spend time producing high-quality, revenue-driving work

  • Templates: Standardize recurring work and never start from scratch with customizable workflow templates

  • App integrations: Reduce the need to double-up and cross-check several systems and expedite workflows

  • Client portal: Collaborate with clients in one streamlined workflow using tasks and document sharing

  • Work scheduler: Set recurring work to automatically repeat on schedules

The best software for automating accounting workflows

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.

A capacity dashboard view in Karbon—an accounting practice management tool with deep project management capabilities—using the Kanban view functionality.
Karbon’s capacity management dashboard

Who is Karbon best suited for?

Karbon is geared towards accounting firms, CPA firms, tax professionals and bookkeeping firms with 5+ team members that need a comprehensive workflow management solution that will grow with 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

  • Workflow automation

  • Direct email integration (Gmail, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange)

  • Built-in CRM

  • Automatic client reminders and client tasks

  • Client portal

  • Collaborate in context with @mentions and notifications

  • Template library with 250+ accounting-specific workflow templates

  • Kanban board work view (sortable by due dates, status, employee capacity, and more)

  • Time and budget tracking (including timesheets)

  • Document management integration (Dropbox, OneDrive and SuiteFiles)

  • Calendar integration

  • Invoicing and payment processing

  • 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)

  • Business intelligence and reporting

Reviews

Pros

  • The only accounting workflow solution with a true email integration that deeply embeds email into your workflow

  • 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

Karbon's ROI calculator explaining that for a firm with 20 employees using Karbon, they would save: 858 hours per year per employee, $29,824 USD per employee, and increase revenue by $455,000 USD per year.
Karbon’s ROI calculator


Learn how Karbon can give you the workflow management confidence you need. Book a demo.


Jetpack Workflow

Jetpack Workflow is a simplified automated workflow software. It focuses on delivering the most commonly requested features at a high level in a trimmed down package. 

Dashboard view in Jetpack Workflow
Jetpack Workflow dashboard view

Who is Jetpack Workflow best suited for? 

Jetpack Workflow is best suited for small firms of no more than three staff that want 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 per month, per user on a monthly subscription ($36 USD annually).

The Scale plan costs $50 USD per month, per user on a monthly subscription ($39 USD annually).

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

Get a side-by-side comparison between Karbon and Jetpack Workflow and find out which platform is right for your firm’s workflow needs.


Canopy

Canopy is an accounting practice management tool with workflow capabilities 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 crucial to successfully running an accounting firm. This means you’ll likely want them all, which will end up significantly increasing how much you spend.

A mock up of a client view in Canopy.
Client view in Canopy

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

  • 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. 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

Karbon vs. Canopy: Which platform is right for your firm’s workflow needs?


TaxDome

TaxDome markets itself as the ‘all-in-one platform for accounting, tax, and bookkeeping firms’. It offers a breadth of basic functionality.

A screenshot of the To-Do view in TaxDome
To-Do view in TaxDome

Who is TaxDome best suited for?

TaxDome is best suited for tax firms that are looking for basic functionality across a wide range of features, but don't mind these features lacking any kind of depth or usability.

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 TaxDome Pro plan, the total cost 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 for an annual subscription)

Cons

  • TaxDome has a wide variety of features, which makes it difficult to do them all well—this means a lot of functionality is 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 or TaxDome? Compare them to find out which tool is right for your firm’s workflow needs.


Aero Workflow

Aero Workflow is a basic accounting workflow management tool that prides itself on being ‘built for accountants, by accountants’.

Team capacity view in Aero Workflow
Team capacity view in Aero Workflow

Who is Aero Workflow best suited for?

Aero Workflow is best suited for solo accountants looking for an accounting-specific workflow tool.

Aero Workflow pricing

Aero Workflow has four pricing tiers:

Sole proprietor: One user at $39 USD per month (billed annually)*

Small firm: 2-5 users at $79 USD per month (billed annually)*

Large firm: 6-25 users at $149 USD per month (billed annually)**

Enterprise: 25+ users with custom pricing

* Upgrade to premium subscription required to access their premium library content for $40 USD/month per user

** Upgrade to premium subscription required to access their premium library content for $80 USD/month per user

Reviews

Features

  • Checklist templates

  • Recurring work scheduler

  • Secure vault for client passwords

  • Capacity viewer

  • Time tracking

  • Basic reporting

  • Resource storage for standard operating procedures

Pros

  • Affordable solution with basic functionality for a solo accountant

  • Built-in ability to create, store and update standard operating procedures

  • Automatic timer that begins when you open a task (although that might be a downside if you’re opening a task before you’re ready to actually begin work)

Cons

  • Limited direct integrations with accounting apps

  • Clunky and unstable user experience

  • Counterintuitive user experience


Pixie

Pixie is a practice management solution with workflow management capabilities that primarily focuses on smaller firms across the UK.

Work view in Pixie
Work view in Pixie

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 workflow 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


OfficeTools

OfficeTools was originally built in the old era of server-based 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

A screenshot of the client view in OfficeTools WorkSpace
Client view in OfficeTools WorkSpace

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 workflow features—like customizable reporting—for flexible document and file management capabilities.

OfficeTools pricing

OfficeTools Cloud pricing starts at $59 USD/month per user billed monthly ($49 annually), and OfficeTools WorkSpace requires custom pricing.

Features

  • Contact 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 (Wolters Kluwer)

CCH iFirm Practice Manager is a Wolters Kluwer product that makes up one part of a larger CCH app ecosystem.

A screenshot of an example dashboard in CCH iFirm Practice Manager
CCH iFirm dashboard

Who is CCH iFirm Practice Manager best suited for?

CCH iFirm Practice Manager is best suited for firms that require their workflow 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

  • Client portal

  • Time tracking and invoicing

  • Basic insights and reporting

  • Billing and payments

Reviews

Pros

  • Highly customizable dashboard with widgets

  • Deep integration with other CCH products, which is useful for firms within that ecosystem (but 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

  • Poor customer reviews


ClientTrack/Clear Biz

Known as ClientTrack in Canada and Clear Biz in the US, this option is one of the original accounting practice management tools on the market. Unfortunately, it still looks and functions like it did in the early 2000s.

A screenshot of a communication log in ClearBiz
Client communications log in Clear Biz

Who is ClientTrack/Clear Biz best suited for?

ClientTrack/Clear Biz is best suited for smaller firms that don’t need as many communication tools from their workflow management solution.

ClientTrack/Clear Biz pricing

The ClientTrack/Clear Biz pricing is complicated.

Clear Biz pricing (US)

Basic Edition: $34.96 USD/month per user

Workflow Pro Edition: $49.95 USD/month per user

Optional support packages

  • 1-hour set up: $100 USD

  • 6-month support: $425 USD

  • 12-month support: $650 USD

ClientTrack pricing (Canada)

ClientTrack pricing is extremely complicated and involves separate pricing for the client portal and document e-signing. You can view the pricing here.

Features

  • Appointment scheduler

  • Automatic client reminders

  • Time tracking and billing

  • Document vault

  • Client portal 

Reviews

Pros

  • 30-day free trial

  • Advanced reporting options that can be grouped by firm, partner, manager, employee or client and then sub-grouped by tasks, projects and work codes

Cons

  • The outdated user interface is clunky and difficult to use

  • No email integration—instead, staff are required to manually log their communication with clients as additional data entry activities

  • The client portal is an additional cost

  • Complicated pricing model

  • Initially built for Canadian firms and hasn’t adapted to a global (or US) market

  • Support is an additional cost


Try Karbon for free

Now that you have a clearer understanding of the accounting workflow management tools that are available to you, you should have an idea which options best-suit your firm.

If one of those is 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).