Building a Robust Tech Stack for Your Professional Accounting Firm

A growing shift towards technological assistance has been observed in the accounting fraternity. Tax preparation guides for freelancers are now being provided online, along with software applications that can really help accounting professionals gain an extra edge.

These software apps provide the additional help that you will eventually need in order to scale.

At some point, your business may get a boost from the employment of a tech stack, which is usually furnished with all of the software advisories that you would need.

A tech stack will help you step up your game in the marketplace and will add tremendous value to your business and to that of your clients.  However, in order to build a robust tech stack, you must first be able to understand your own business needs.

An accounting tech stack usually refers to a set of software and online applications that take care of your clients’ accounting needs, whether it is tax preparation for entrepreneurs or bookkeeping. The tech stack covers it all for you, in your capacity as a service provider.

All you have to do is make regular checks to ensure the smooth functioning of the tech stack.  If you are an accounting entrepreneur who is looking for a comprehensive guide to help you get the right tech stack for your client’s accounting needs, then you have clicked on the right online article here!  Go on and plunge into the details.

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Aim Straight for the Fundamentals

The one common dilemma that the majority of accounting business owners trying to manage their processes initially get stuck up on is advisory inertia, a/k/a “analysis paralysis.” As an entrepreneur, you might have a constant urge to take all matters into your own hands and to find a solution for all through extensive research.

The only conclusion that comes out of that is, you now have a zillion options to choose from and are perpetually confused about which one is right for you!  This tyranny of choice can turn out to be a real headache.

The simplest way to get yourself out of this dilemma is to re-evaluate your company goals and the accounting needs of your clientele.  First, decide whether or not you are actually interested in the technology, or that all you really need to do is hire another individual to take care of things.  Second, whether or not the tech stack will add value to your present clients and attract even more clients.

Third, if the resultant, a proactive set of the software will recalibrate your relevance in the marketplace.  Once you take into careful consideration of these fundamental factors, it will become much easier for you to filter out a bunch of software apps that you were otherwise confused about earlier.

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Categorized Marketplace

Cloud accounting software has been dominating the industry for the past few years now.  However, the respective software vendors have not done anything other than over-complicate their “accounting solutions” in order to retain relevance in their own marketplace.

Even though there are continued added functionality to this software, the efforts needed to figure them out and to use them make them time-consuming and tricky.  This gives rise to the possibility of accounting and compliance becoming incidental and potentially invisible, or in the background, to the end customer.

This will eventually result in front-end software and applications turning out to be a necessity rather than an option. Nonetheless, the categorization of accounting applications was done in recent times only. Categorization is what differentiates one application from the other.

This phenomenon has made it even easier for accountants and advisors to build a tech stack.  All you have to do is analyze your client base’s parameters and choose your apps for different categories; shortlist the ones that meet the needs of any set, particular category.

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Beyond Core Accounting

The creation of a tech stack may sound alluring, but you must understand your business needs as those of another accounting professional could vary widely; said other professionals may or may not be dealing in core accounting, for example.

So, it is your responsibility to understand the needs of your own clients and to build a tech stack accordingly.  One way to do this is to apply a filter in order to recognize a suite of apps that could facilitate serving 80 percent of your client base.

Once you come up with this tentative suite of apps, check your stack against the client base and see if 80 percent of the applications are, indeed, compatible with 80 percent of your client base.  This will help you tailor your tech stack, thus becoming able to zoom in and capitalize on your market niche.

The following is a list of the most commonly used applications you can add to your tech stack, after making careful consideration of your clientele.

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Marketing & Campaign Management
• Advanced Payroll
• Document Receipt Capture & Expense Management
• Bookkeeping
• E-Commerce, Web Store, Point of Sale, Mobile Payments

The 3:2:1 Rule

This is a golden rule, to be followed by accounting professionals who usually offer tax preparation for entrepreneurs. The golden rule helps you keep the best interests of your clients at heart while safeguarding your independence at the same time. In order to create a perfect tech stack, review THREE vendor solutions in the category of your choice, try out or partner with TWO of these vendors, and you will end up favoring ONE of these 3 solutions.

A trick to finding the right tech stack is to consider your enterprise from a business perspective, rather than as an accounting platform. It will help you understand the accounting needs of your clients in a much more simplified and nontechnical manner.

Hopefully, this article was helpful enough to guide you in building a tech stack and taking your accounting business to the next level.

Please visit agroaccounting.com in order to reach out to accounting and tax professionals – and tech stack builders.

Agro Accounting CPA’s platform is best-in-class when it comes to managing income tax services for startups and entrepreneurs and building a tech stack!