Your firm's workflow is valuable know-how. Your clients' financials stay out.
Accounting firms run on repeatable, well-documented processes: engagement checklists, review notes, client requests and deadline tracking across tax, audit and advisory work.
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Who fits
- CPA firms and accounting practices
- Tax, audit, bookkeeping and advisory practices
- Outsourced accounting and client accounting services (CAS) teams
- In-house finance and accounting departments
What a provider looks at
- A desk team: employees and contractors who work at a desk in your company's email and software. Field and hourly crews who aren't in the systems aren't the desk count.
- Several years of history in your systems.
- Work across systems, such as email, chat, file storage, CRM, tickets and billing.
- Requirements vary by provider, sector and dataset, and the provider confirms fit.
What a licensable workflow can look like
A client's year-end engagement opens in practice management, moves through document requests by email, staff preparation, reviewer notes and sign-off, then invoicing and a follow-up for next year's checklist.
A generic illustration, not a real client. Labs value the sequence of steps, decisions and handoffs across systems; how personal details are handled belongs in the agreement.
Records that count
- Client service emails and request threads
- Practice management workflow: job tracking, due dates and staff assignments
- Review notes, checklists and engagement procedures
- Internal SOPs, templates and training material
- Invoicing and billing workflows for your firm
- Workflow from QuickBooks, NetSuite and HR systems (not the financial reports themselves)
Good to know
- Financial reports and statements, including your clients' returns and financials, are excluded upfront. Your firm's own workflow around that work is what counts.
- Client files you hold under engagement letters may belong to your clients, and professional confidentiality rules apply. The provider's review sorts out what your firm can license, and your own advisors should weigh in. We don't give legal or accounting advice.
- Client names, taxpayer details and other personal information are handled as the agreement specifies.
- Kept out unless a review and the agreement say otherwise: privileged material and client matter files, health information and biometric data, payment card and bank account numbers, passwords and credentials, data about minors, export-controlled or classified information, another party's data or licensed third-party content, and sensitive personnel, safety or critical infrastructure details. Scope is a choice, so you can leave out anything else, such as pricing or trade secrets.
- Workflow data from QuickBooks, NetSuite and HR systems still counts.
- Usually not a fit anywhere: data involving minors, export-controlled or classified data, mostly paper records with little digital history, or records you don't have the rights to license.
- How personal details are removed or replaced belongs in the agreement, and the provider's review sorts out what's licensable. When in doubt, it's worth a conversation.
Tools your team already uses
Common accounting & cpa firms software we see. Don't see yours? Other systems can hold the same kind of work, and old or retired systems can count too.
Tax
- CCH Axcess Tax
- UltraTax CS
- Lacerte
- ProConnect Tax
- Drake Tax
Audit & workpapers
- Caseware
Practice management & portals
- Karbon
- Canopy
- TaxDome
- CCH Axcess Practice
- SmartVault
Client accounting
- QuickBooks Online Accountant
- Xero
- Sage Intacct
- BILL (formerly Bill.com)
What counts is your team's own work in and around these tools: the emails, tickets, notes, tracking and billing. No files are collected on this site, and we never ask for passwords.
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are listed for reference only; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.
See If You Qualify
A few quick questions. No files needed, and we never ask for passwords.
Opens the fit check on historypays.com in a new tab. No files are collected on this site.