Accountancy IT
IT support for accountants, built around the filing calendar
An accountancy practice runs on a calendar it cannot move. The last week of January is not a week where a server can be down for a morning, and it is also the week when everybody is tired, working late and most likely to click something they should not.
- On-site visits included
- Maintenance around deadlines
- MFA and access control
The deadline calendar changes how support has to work
Most businesses have busy periods. An accountancy practice has dates that are legally fixed, and the cost of downtime is not evenly distributed across the year. An hour lost in June is an inconvenience. An hour lost on the thirtieth of January is a genuine problem, and it arrives at exactly the point when everybody is already at capacity.
That has a practical consequence that most providers ignore: maintenance windows have to be planned around the calendar rather than the other way round. Nothing structural in January, nothing risky in the week before a quarter end, and updates scheduled where a problem has room to be fixed.
The second consequence is about people rather than machines. Tired staff working late are the most likely to approve a payment they should have questioned or enter credentials into a convincing fake login page. The controls that matter most in a practice are the ones that still work when somebody is not paying full attention.
The plans and coverage behind this are set out under business IT support.
What we cover for a practice
- Maintenance and updates scheduled around the filing calendar rather than dropped into it
- Practice software, tax and accounts packages kept working, with the vendor dealt with directly when the fault is theirs
- Secure document exchange with clients, so sensitive records stop travelling as email attachments
- Multi-factor authentication everywhere, because a stolen password on its own should never be enough
- Access control that reflects who should see which client, including the partner-only material
- Backups with restores tested on a schedule, and the date of the last test available on request
- Starters, leavers and the seasonal staff a practice takes on, offboarded properly rather than eventually
- On-site visits included in the monthly plan, so a fault during a deadline week gets somebody in the room
Email attachments are the weak point in most practices
The routine way client records move in and out of a practice is as email attachments, often to personal addresses, frequently with no password on the file. It is convenient, it is what clients expect, and it is the single most likely route for a confidentiality problem.
A portal or a secure exchange route fixes it, and the reason it usually fails is not technical. It is that clients will not use anything awkward. Getting the balance right, secure enough to matter and simple enough that a client actually uses it, is the part worth thinking about.
- Client records out of ordinary email attachments
- A route clients will actually use rather than work around
- Records of what was sent and when
Invoice fraud is aimed directly at you
Practices are a specific target, because a message that appears to come from an accountant carries authority with the client and a message that appears to come from a client carries authority with the practice. The attack is rarely technical. It is a well-written email about a change of bank details, arriving at a plausible moment.
The defences are unglamorous: authentication records on your domain so your name is harder to imitate, filtering that catches impersonation of your own address, multi-factor authentication so a compromised mailbox is harder to obtain in the first place, and a rule that bank detail changes are verified by phone on a number you already hold.
We would rather spend twenty minutes walking your team through the actual fraudulent emails that have reached practices than sell you another product.
Those controls are covered under cyber security for small businesses.
Book the review outside January
The worst time to change IT provider is during a deadline period, and the best time to plan it is well before one. A review in spring or early summer leaves room to fix what it finds.
You keep the written findings and a fixed quote whether you work with us or not.
Get in touch
Talk to us about it support for accountants
A few lines is enough. We will tell you straight whether we can help, what it would cost and how quickly we can be there. No hard sell, and no follow-up sequence if you decide against it.
- We reply within one working day
- A straight answer, including when it is no
- Free process review available, before any money changes hands
Would rather just ring? 01623 354250, Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm.
Frequently asked questions
If the answer is not here, ask us. You will get a straight one, from someone who does the work.
Mon–Fri, 9am–5:30pm
Can you work around our filing deadlines?
That is the main thing that changes for a practice. Maintenance and updates are planned around the calendar rather than dropped into it, nothing structural happens in January, and anything with risk attached is scheduled where there is room to fix a problem.
Do you support practice and tax software?
We keep it working: the machines, the network, the data, the updates and the access. Where a fault belongs to the software vendor we deal with them directly rather than passing you between two suppliers.
How should we exchange documents with clients securely?
Through a portal or a secure exchange route rather than ordinary email attachments. The technical part is straightforward. The part that decides whether it works is whether clients find it simple enough to use, and that is worth designing for rather than mandating.
Do we need Cyber Essentials?
It is increasingly expected where practices work with larger clients or public bodies, and the five controls it checks are worth having regardless. It is achievable for a practice of any size and we prepare clients for it as part of the Complete plan.
What about seasonal staff?
They get the same treatment as permanent staff and, crucially, they get offboarded when they leave. Temporary accounts left open after a busy season are one of the most common findings in a practice, because nobody owns closing them.
Are you working with accountancy practices already?
We work with professional services firms across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and we would rather be straight that we do not currently hold a named accountancy client we can point you at. What we can show you is exactly how we would run it, and put you in touch with clients in comparable sectors.
