Accounting Today - Paperless and Beyond

Making the move to paperless: Tools and tech

hHelping an accounting firm make the move to the new technologies of content management is not always easy. People grow accustomed to the ways that things have always been done, even if those things are neither efficient nor comfortable. “Start by learning the areas of ‘paper pain’ in the office,” advised Kim Hogan, business development manager — accounting, at Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc.
“If there are still paper processes, there is still some level of
pain. Before you can educate your staff to find a better way,
you have to investigate the ways that are not working.”
A state-of-the-art document management system
handles a number of critical tasks simultaneously:
• Metadata, such as the file date, the client and the
name of the file creator.

• Integration with tax, accounting and other apps.

• Using a scanner to capture paper documents, and character recognition software to convert the document to an electronic file.

• Indexing the document to make it text-searchable.

• Storage and retrieval of the document.

• Security of the document.

• Workflow, collaboration, publishing and distribution of the documents.

• Versioning, to ensure that only the most current copies of documents and workpapers are shared.

But there is no requirement that firms start with all of these tasks. Select the few that will immediately drive customer service and productivity at the best cost.

And look for ways to adopt new concepts without just buying a document management system. There are plenty of opportunities to adopt more current systems for customer relationship management or workflow management that may not involve direct content management but nonetheless reduce bottlenecks and the use of resources at a relatively low cost in both cash outlays and learning curves.

Finally, consider the type of system that best fits the productivity needs of the firm. If the basic need is to send people out into the field, with collaboration and the means to securely store and share documents, then a turnkey system of hardware, software and best practices may do the trick. For an enterprise-level adoption project, the firm will be better off selecting best-of breed components for each of these three solution classes — that is, selecting best-of-breed software, hardware and management systems for CRM, workflow and practice management.

While there are any number of hardware and software options that can be integral to a firm’s solutions for document management, there are three core pieces that are necessary for all solutions — a scanner, the document management software, and a storage solution.

SCANNERS

In terms of things to look for in a scanner, the rules are
pretty simple. If you plan to scan documents, you want a
scanner that will handle the photo resolution of a printed
document — 600 dpi, or dots-per-inch. For photos, you’ll
want to kick that up to at least 4,800 dpi for better results.

•Hewlett Packard Scanjet G4050 Flatbed Scanner. The HP Scanjet is an industry icon — one of the first models of affordable, high-quality scanners. The G4050 is no exception — an elegant, $199 scanner with superior color accuracy, 4,800-dpi scans and excellent software for image cleanup. It comes with OCR software.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Document management software generally focuses on the need for security, ease of storage and retrieval, and the ability to share or collaborate on documents easily.

Here is a sampling of some of the market-leading
software solutions:
•CNG-SAFE. Cabinet NG’s CNG-SAFE (Shared
Access Filing Environment) is a client-server system designed
to automate workflow processes for accounting, tax and
financial planning/wealth management. Built on the .Net
and Microsoft SQL platforms, CNG-SAFE follows a
standard filing-cabinet architecture of drawers, folders, tabs
and documents that is consistent with the filing systems used
in typical accounting firms.

• Doc.It Suite. Doc.It Suite is a workflow management, work-in-progress binder, archiving and client portal solution that aims for a combination of usability and effectiveness for firms with as few as five employees, but that also scales upward to mid-range and larger accounting operations.

• FileCabinet CS. Thomson Reuters’ FileCabinet CS is a tightly constructed solution for document management and workflow management built around the concepts of paperless workflow, integration with other accounting applications, and Internet access to the archived documents for both professionals and their clients.

•GoFileRoom ES. Thomson Reuters’ GoFileRoom ES is the document management and workflow solution for the Enterprise Suite that includes Practice ES, GoSystem Tax ES and Engagement ES. In addition, it provides native support for Microsoft Office file formats, and one-click integration with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes.

• Lacerte DMS. Intuit’s Lacerte DMS is a very functional and straightforward document archiving and retrieval system with capabilities for security, search and backup of files. It offers built-in seamless integration with Lacerte Tax Software and all Lacerte add-on solutions, including Tax Planner, E-organizer, and Trial Balance Utility.

• ProSystem fx DocumentASP. CCH offers two dynamic document and workflow solutions under its ProSystem fx brand, a PC-based system and ProSystem fx Document ASP. ProSystem fx Document stores electronic workpapers, binders, client source documents, financial statements, human resources data files and back-office documentation, and in addition secures client communication by moving it to a secure server where access can be better controlled. ProSystem fx DocumentASP is a hosted solution that provides secure document transfer and storage from any place with an Internet connection.