Depending on your firm’s strategic goals and how you approach the balance of people, processes, and technology, your tech stack could look very different from your competitors’. However, most small firm tech stacks share the same fundamental solutions.
According to research conducted by Accounting Today on behalf of Wolters Kluwer, more than half of small firms have invested in software to handle tax prep (86%), practice management (71%), document management (68%), and workflow (61%).
But are those solutions actually going to save your staff time if they don’t play well together?
Why an integrated accounting technology stack matters
Whether your tech stack includes solutions from multiple vendors or an integrated solution that offers everything you need, it’s important to understand how (and if) you can get your data from one solution to another. Preferably without having to manually enter the data multiple times.
With a fully integrated system, your firm can leverage data across your firm to gain insights and drive better decisions for the client and your firm. Integrated systems help your firm ensure data integrity, save time on data entry, and reduce errors. You’ll also boost staff productivity with more streamlined processes.
How to ensure your tech stack “plays well with others”
Regardless of your tech stack strategy, any tech tool your firm invests in should be able to scale with your firm as it grows. In today’s ever-changing tech landscape, that means choosing a vendor with an open API policy. Why does your technology vendors’ API policy matter?
APIs are what enable you to leverage your data with other software and systems used in your firm. They create a better end-to-end experience for your firm’s clients and staff by allowing you to:
- Automate many of the most time-consuming data input and output tasks in your digital tax, audit, and firm management workflows.
- Connect disparate systems to import data, eliminating duplicate data entry.
- Move data seamlessly—and accurately—between applications reducing human error and data entry mistakes.
- Leverage the valuable data within your system for reporting and identifying growth opportunities.
When you’re ready to grow or add new services, an integrated solution with access to third-party APIs allows your firm to add new functionality quickly and easily without implementing new IT infrastructure. That means your firm can scale with fewer growing pains.
Reduce data integrity issues and be prepared for growth
Manually transferring data from one system to another can be expensive, time-consuming, and introduce data validity concerns. Whether a firm has outgrown the core solutions in its current tech stack or its current technology vendors have a closed API policy that won’t support business-critical technology, it doesn’t matter. The end result is that the firm feels trapped and unable to grow.
An open API policy like the one offered by CCH Axcess™ prevents that from happening by allowing you to build integrations and automation to expand and enhance your processes. And with an API marketplace, firms can quickly see what’s available (or learn how to develop their own APIs with the CCH Axcess Open Integration Kit, if so inclined).
Find out more about the APIs that CCH Axcess offers and learn how customers have been successful with CCH Axcess APIs by visiting the CCH Axcess Marketplace.
