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The IT Zone guide to practice management software 2006. By John Stokdyk

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7th Mar 2006
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CONTENTS

Selection criteria - what are your needs?
Time & fees and billing
Integration
Reporting capabilities
Client relationship management
Web functionality
Document management
Workflow

Key issues
Database transition
Customer service

Software options
Big firm specialists
Mid-market integrated suites
Niche suppliers
Online options
Time & fees programs

Introduction
Slowly, but surely, accountants are moving away from Outlook and Excel and realising they can improve their efficiency and profitability by using umbrella systems to tie together the different elements of their computerised office software.

Word from the marketplace is that 2006 is unlikely to see a boom in practice management software sales, but that hasn't stopped suppliers from racing ahead with new product developments, driven in particular by a mass migration to Micrsoft's SQL Server database.

Practice management can mean different things to different people. Someone with a time & fees application to sell, for example, will emphasise these housekeeping functions. What is clear, however, is that practitioners are becoming aware of the need to market their services and are increasingly looking for software that will help them manage client relationships and new business activity.

This software review discusses key selection critieria identified in discussions with practitioners, consultants and suppliers. These factors include basic admin tasks such as time & fees and billing, the merits of integrated systems and more advanced functions such as document management, workflows and browser-based systems. To reflect readers' concerns, we paid particular attention the CRM aspects of practice management, and to the reporting capabilities of the systems on offer. After all, what is the point of management software if it cannot produce accurate and timely performance measures that allow you to manage?

While any mistakes and omissions are IT Zone's responsibility, we would like to thank Mark Ryan of Cynare, Simon Hurst of The Knowledge Base and Nigel Harris of Burton-Sweet for their advice and observations. If you feel an application has been omitted or misrepresented, either add your comment at the end of the article, or email the editor in confidence.

Time & fees and billing
The saying goes that if you put 20 practising accountants in a room, they will bill their clients in 20 different ways and will all want different summaries of their fee income. This is an issue all of the software developers understand. Even though it is easier to design a standardised process, they have all built flexibility into their tools to ensure users can carry out their preferred processes.

Good, solid time & fees and billing functions should be a given in any practice suite. The system will be used by everyone from the 16-year-old trainee to the semi-retired partner acting as a consultant: to be effective, it must be able to capture the time they spend on client work and make it easy for managers to work the timesheet data into bills.

The current trend is for fee earners to input their own timesheets, preferably daily or in real time. In terms of idiot-proofing, look for validation checks that prevent users from posting their time on to the wrong lines or clients. Updating your software can be a great opportunity to move from weekly paper timesheets to real-time online recording, giving you a far greater control of your business.

Key questions How do you currently input timesheets and issue bills - and how often? Do these procedures cause problems such as slow turnaround for bills or a high incidence of errors? For billing, does someone collect sheaves of paper and create the bills? And is there a formalised system for approving them? If you use value billing rather than timesheets, will the software cater for you? If the system is not able to handle timesheets the way you want, you could be heading for problems. Look for a system that supports the billing routines that firm would be happy to implement.

Integration
Noticed how rarely you hear the phrase "best of breed" in practice software circles these days? As one vendor put it, these days "everyone is buying integration".

Developers are working on a data exchange standard (xPS) that will allow them to pass client details between practice management, tax and accounts production systems. That represents a fairly basic level of integration that will help you eliminate some re-keying of data in different modules. In more productive terms, however, integration could mean having your master client database update the tax return form (or vice versa), or searching through the tax database to find high net worth taxpayers who might be interested in savings and pensions advice.

An integrated system can also give partners a view of the firm's state of affairs across all departments, without having to dig into the individual applications. For example: how many tax returns remain uncompleted; what is the current work in progress status is for individual clients; and who are the biggest and oldest debtors?

In some cases, management and credit control information may need to come from the firm's own accounts system. If these aspects are important, it may be worth investigating whether billing modules are self-contained, or are able to populate your accounting ledgers - and how the updates are carried out. Also consider whether you will be able to incorporate scanned documents within your system if you are looking for paperless options.

Key questions How many times are you storing the address information for each of your clients? If a client phoned up, how many different screens or applications would you need to open to access the information you wanted to have at your fingertips for that client?

Reporting capabilities
To be blunt, extracting meaningful information has been a traditional shortcoming of practice management systems. This is a side-effect from the software's origins as time & fees tools. The shift towards CRM has encouraged more sophisticated reporting, but the capabilities of different systems can vary considerably.

For top level partners and managers, the most important reports will reveal which clients (and staff members) are making you the most money. If you are experiencing under- or over-recovery, you should be able to spot where this is happening in your time & fees reports. Most suppliers will have set up templates for the most popular management and client targeting reports, allowing you to shuffle and tweak them to match your preferred formats.

You will need to ensure that the supplied reports are comprehensive and that the report creation and editing tools are adequate to help you obtain or design your own variants. The facility to interrogate the database using a tool such as Crystal Reports may seem attractive if you have your own IT department - if not, make sure the supplier will support you fully.

The latest buzz is to move away from reporting as the passive consumption of of data to setting up alerts that are triggered when certain pre-defined conditions are exceeded - for example when a client goes beyond the limit you set for the value of work in progress on their behalf. The responsible manager can be notified via email or even in some systems, by an SMS text message to their mobile.

Key questions What reports do you compile? How are they put together and how are they used? Use your existing reports as tests for prospective suppliers and consider whether they contribute to your overall efficiency. For example a report on outstanding work in progess listed in alphabetical order is not as helpful to you as one that shows the biggest totals first.

Client relationship management
With the profession becoming ever more competitive, winning new business is likely to become a bigger priority than measuring utilisation and recovery rates. In which case you will need to stop thinking of your practice management system as a housekeeping tool and start using it to target new prospects and opportunities. You have already probably collected a lot of the information on your clients, but can you compile it to identify the people who are your best prospects?

The most common approach is to mailshot clients with budget briefings, newsletters or invitations to social events. As a basic benchmark IT Zone used asked suppliers to store details of a prospect's golfing handicap and to retrieve their details to dispatch an invitation to a mythical firm golfing day. Most were able to do so without difficulty.

The second element of CRM is contact management. In larger firms where several departments may be involved with a client, maintaining consistent records on your interactions and the progress of their work makes it possible for any member of your team to find out quickly what was promised, and when. This facility can save a lot of time and stress for both clients and staff members and can be a great boon for client service and opportunity spotting.

Key questions How do you currently handle prospects? Do you want the new business process to be integrated into your wider system? How well does your chosen software handle new business introducers and contacts and prospects who are not (yet) clients? And how desirable is it to have the whole-client view that integrated contact management systems give you?

Web functionality
Practice management boils down to some pretty basic administrative functions: keeping an accurate database of client contacts; recording and accounting for project time; monitoring work in progress and the completion of assigned tasks. Software systems have been doing this sort of thing for years and the benefits of carrying out these administrative tasks via web-based systems are becoming increasingly apparent. From a systems point of view, it's a lot easier to maintain and support systems where your users only need to have access to a computer that runs a web browser.

Firms that have multiple offices that aspire to a unified practice environment can either invest in their own virtual private network (VPN), or they could sacrifice a degree of security and save a lot of money and hassle by adopting a web-based systems. Browser-based applications are ideal for capturing time and work data from part-time staff, or auditors who spend a lot of time on the road with their clients. If any of these scenarios apply to you, ask potential suppliers what facilities they can offer for web-based time and contact management.

Remote staff and managers should also be able to access reports showing their status on particular jobs - for example if they're running up against the budgeted time for the project. It's not much use investing in real-time reporting if you have to sit at your desk to view the results or wait for a paper print out.

Key questions How many ways do you provide staff to submit their timesheet information - would a remote capability improve your administration? If an audit team is away from the office for a long period, how would they make entries on timesheets back at the practice? If a partner wanted to catch up on billing, would they be able to do it from home?

Document management
Second only to CRM, going paperless is the second biggest lure for computerisation within accountancy practices. Often the initial interest arises for very basic reasons - paper files take up valuable office space and a paperless system could free up rooms where you can install new fee-earners.

But document and knowledge management are natural extensions of practice management. How much time do you and your team waste wandering around from desk to desk looking for someone's dividend certificates, or some other vital piece of correspondence? Having all the documentation collected in one place, where you can accesss it in a matter of seconds has benefits for your peace of mind and the service you provide.

Some of the specialist document management systems designed for practitioners (Cumulus from Newleaf Software and Business-Work-Ware) include features found in the well known practice management suites. Most of the full service systems reviewed below either include document management facilities of their own, or link to third-party paperless systems. At different ends of the market, APS Advance, Star and Keytime's DRIVE offer integrated document management. Other suppliers such as Sage, IRIS and CCH are aware of this need and are working feverishly to deliver it. Practice document management systems are discussed in more detail in IT Zone's 2004 expert guide on the subject and 2005 paperless office guide

Key questions What do you see as the main benefits being of having a paperless system - reduced storage space, better client service, or knowledge-sharing within the firm? How important is it to achieve these objectives? How willing are the older partners and staff to give up paper? Going paperless requires a 100% buy-in by the whole firm. If your senior tax partner wants to opt out, don't even try to implement a paperless system.

Workflow
Like web browsers and paperless technology, workflow management has been around for years, but has so far made few inroads into accountancy practice. The scope of workflow can range from simple tasking tools - where someone has to tick a box when a task is completed, to more personalised assignment, authorisation and progress monitoring tools. Also look for systems that make it possible to raise alerts when tasks fall due, or that can warn managers if their department is failing to keep up with the workload. At the top end of the scale, Star offers a workflow system that also integrates with budgeting and resourcing so you can define the budgets and team members for particular jobs as you enter them into the system - and set up timesheets and milestones against which you can monitor the engagement.

Key questions How do you currently assign work and measure progress within the practice? What kinds of savings could you make if you automated these processes? What is the client ownership hierarchy within your firm? Is one partner responsible for everything to do with a specific client, or are the responsibilities shared among different teams? Can prospective systems cope with this structure? Do you want the additional advantages (and occasional irritations) of computerised alerts?

KEY ISSUES

Databases: the rise of SQL Server
As predicted in IT Zone's 2003 review of the practice software marketplace, Microsoft's SQL Server database has become the industry standard database. Because almost all of the suppliers rely on SQL Server, the database is not much of a differentiator - there is no point switching suppliers if all it's going to give you is a new relational database management system.

Having brought the SQL Server-based DRIVE to the market, Keytime's Anthony Boggiano predicted that the anticipated migration could be a little more bumpy than some suspect. "The big problem most suppliers will come across is the state of hardware and networks used in many practices," he said. "The last time most firms did a big upgrade was probably to cope with the year 2000 - and frankly they won't be equipped to run SQL Server. Our research shows that the hardware picture is not particularly bright and quite a lot of work has to take place to get many firms ready to introduce it."

SQL Server may well require extra investment in the initial software licence as well as in hardware and system support. But smaller practices can at least avoid the Microsoft licence fee if their database is smaller than 4Gb, or they run the software on a server with less than 1Gb of RAM.

Customer service
So much for technical wizardry. The practice management systems on offer are targeted at different sized firms and priced accordingly, but in many areas there is not a lot between what they offer. Any developer who comes up with a particularly innovative trick can guarantee that its rivals will copy the feature.

Accountants are demanding customers and one of the most important factors that can set suppliers apart is how well they take care of their clients. Among the big firm suppliers, CCH (77% satisfied/very satisfied in 2003 IT Zone survey), APS (71%) and Star Computer (56%) scored better than average. In the mid-market, IRIS has historically performed well on this score across all of its practice tools, but as it started building up new SME and enterprise accounting divisions, occasional grumbles have surfaced in AccountingWEB's Any Answers section. And, like Sage, IRIS faces a challenge to keep its customers happy as it introduces an upgrade that requires them to install a new database engine.

Where your firm already has a relationship with a supplier (for example with tax and accounts preparation tools), this will obviously have a major bearing on how you view their practice management offerings. It has been some time since IT Zone surveyed members for their satisfaction levels on practice management software, but such information has been published by the ICAEW IT Faculty. In any case, if you are considering a completely new supplier, always ask for some reference sites - and follow them up to see how well they are served by the vendor.

Advance Practice Management
Over the past couple of years, New Zealand-based practice software developer APS has built on its reputation as the pioneer of Microsoft-based solutions and is beginning to reap some advantages. This technical lead is most apparent in the PracticeIQ module it has built on top of Micorosft SQL Server. Designed as a Microsoft SharePoint reporting portal, PracticeIQ can feed your browser with real-time reports on practice tasks and work in progress, or even give you a visual representation of your new business pipeline. The reports are rendered as Microsoft Office web components, so you are effectively viewing the results in Word and Excel. You can alter them for your own needs (including pivot table views), expand and contract hierarchical trees and drill through to the underlying data by clicking hyperlinks in the on-screen reports. The suite's AdvanceDocs module saves all the documents you generate as PDF files and store them within Interwoven's Worksite archive. Intranet and Extranet modules can deliver many of the suite's functions to users via web browsers, which is particularly useful for firms with multiple offices. This is cutting-edge stuff, claimed by APS to be used by 15 of the UK's top 100 accountancy firms. Implementing APS Advance may demand a change of culture as well as software, so plan for a healthy consultancy and training budget alongside as the software licence costs.
More information
APS adds client management module to Advance
Case study: APS and Microsoft tools at Menzies Chartered Accountants

Star Computer
In terms of functionality and the kinds of users it caters for, Star Practice Management is probably the UK's closest rival to APS. Star may lag behind APS slightly on some of its OLAP reporting tools, but in key areas such as resourcing, job planning and budgeting, it offers a lot of straightforward functionality that may be more attractive to mid-size firms. It boasted more users among AccountingWEB members who responded to our 2003 IT Zone practice software survey. Where APS links to Worksite, Star has a similar paperless partnership with Easy Software. What Star does offer users is a migration path that can cope at the low end with Microsoft's Access database or move up to SQL Server. If you prefer, it will support an Oracle database system on Unix.

Practice Engine
Like APS, Practice Engine is a technology pioneer, and offers a web-deployable .NET system that can link into other products such as Digita's tax applications and VT Accounts. The technical sophistication is a plus, allowing users to input timesheets and process fees using a Web browser. Practice Engine is strong on time recording and accounting. It gives you a client-based hierarchy for managing files and documents and workflow controls to assign and monitor their progress around the firm. While these processes are robust, Practice Engine has yet to come up with the flexible OLAP reporting tools APS and Star provide to let you extract and analyse your practice data.

CCH ProSystem
Launched in 2006, the rebranded ProSystem practice software suite from Wolters Kluwer subsidiary CCH boasts a universal browser interface that links together more than 20 tax and practice tools. This is probably the most comprehensive tax and practice management software collection currently available and the central database directs the user to the client file in whatever application is relevant. The billing module can pick up WIP and timesheet information from all the other applications and provides a variety of automated processes to generate and authorise client bills. ProSystem's Active Reporting tool can be used to schedule regular reporting runs, or to alert managers and partners when deadlines are nearing or other criteria are exceeded. This feature adds a welcome element of pro-activity, but ProSystem's reporting environment is less flexible than the bigger practice management specialists and some of tools in rival integrated suites.
More information
ProSystem review by John Stokdyk

IRIS Practice Management
Having built the first integrated practice suite around Pervasive's Btrieve database, IRIS has now made the transition to Microsoft SQL Server. The new IRIS Practice Management application retains the look and functionality of the old suite, but will provide a better platform for integration to other applications, said IRIS group chief executive Martin Leuw. IRIS was one of the first to encourage users to mine their client data for marketing opportunities and also built in a Communication Tracker facility to log emails, phone calls and documents raised against each client. These in-house tools certainly point in the right direction, but have not been adopted by users or matured as quickly as some might have hoped. IRIS also plans to introduce its own document scanning and management facility, but for the moment it continues to link to third party systems such as Easy Software. Having acquired the developers of PAYE Master and Exchequer Enterprise, IRIS is going through an organisataional transition to parallel the SQL Server technology migration. It will be a challenge for IRIS to keep its clients as happy as they have been in the past while keeping all of these plates spinning at the same time.
More information
IRIS sets out new SQL Server-based product strategy

MYOB
MYOB's practice software offering is a hybrid of two products. Viztopia Practice Management is a solid set of admin tools for handling client data, timesheets, billing, and staff resourcing, while Singleview is more of a knowledge management intranet. The combination doesn't quite match the workflow and reporting capabilities of APS and Star, but thanks to Singleview, MYOB's suite offers a lot of sophisticated features for the mid-size firm. Singleview templates are used to create new Emails, Word and Excel documents, which are then automatically filed in the correct client folder. The system also stores scanned documents as PDFs. Originally designed as a document management companion for Practice Engine, Singleview can work with other practice management systems besides Viztopia and indexes everything on the prctice's network, acting as a search engine that can instantly retrieve just about any document relating to a specific client or issue. Because of the way Singleview constantly indexes documents as they are stored, you may need to consider installing a separate database server to handle the extra workload.
More information
Viztopia Practice Management - Product overview
Singleview - Product overview
Practice automation: a user's-eye view

Sage Practice Solution
Released early in 2006, the Sage Practice Solution is a modular system that brings together a Practice Hub client database with a new Time & Fees application and Sage Practice Manager, which includes practice letters and reports, plus basic document and communication management tools. The wider Sage Accountants suite extends to Sage tax, accounts production and related applications. Like many other applications in this market, Sage's Practice Hub presents users with an Outlook-like portal showing a central client database, with a favourite listed on the left hand side of the screen. The client listing can be customised to each user's own tastes. Flexible filtering and sorting tools make this interface an effective enquiry screen, which you can either print or export to Excel for further analysis. Sage Time & Fees supports both time-based and fixed-fee billing and includes two-way links to Sage Line 50. Ad hoc reporting can be carried out via a dialogue box that gives you a tick list of data fields to select those you want to see. Sage Accountants Division characterises its new Practice Solution as a work in progress, with new functions being developed for document and workflow management. Other suppliers currently boast more powerful features, but Sage's new interface makes it very easy to move around the different tax and practice modules to get the information you want. After a difficult period in this marketplace, Sage has made good progress with its new SQL Server-based practice management suite.
More information
Sage Practice Solution review by John Stokdyk

Integrated suites - coming soon
Three leading "best of breed" developers have been working over the past couple of years to offer complete suites to compete with CCH, IRIS and Sage.

Digita
Having added an accounts production module to its tax and practice software portfolio, Digita is now working on a practice management module to complete the set. Due to make its public debut in March 2006, the SQL Server-driven Digita Practice Management system will look very similar to Taxability Pro and feature the Microsoft-style user conventions that Digita has enthusiastically embraced. A Daily Dashboard presents a menu of client data and practice tasks, as well as alerts and snapshot views of things like WIP and project progress. The company is keen to integrate the program with Microsoft Office as a front end to manage and track client communications. Digita's data interface, codenamed "Marvel", is being rolled out as part of the company's 2006 release cycle and will manage data flows within the expanding suite. Once it has delivered Marvel, Digita managing director Jeremy Rihll said the firm will turn its attention to client relationship management and data mining functions. "Digita Practice Management is a journey for us - over the next two years we will build up a full suite based on a series of releases to handle time & fees, document management and workflow," he said.
More information
Digita promises practice management 'by Christmas'

Keytime DRIVE
Keytime is challenging the likes of IRIS and Sage with a newer, cheaper practice suite with what the author claims to be better functionality. Aimed at the mid-market, DRIVE includes accounting ledgers to handle the firm's finances. While it currently lacks the tax and accounts production tools that its bigger rivals possess, a final accounts module is being developed and the product has close ties to LKA's Objective tax tools. DRIVE features a central launch pad that takes you into different views and modules. Users can configure screen views to suit their needs and export different views of their data to Excel. The program's secret weapon is the Communications module that maintains a record of all communications that have taken place with each client. DRIVE also comes with its own scanning and document indexing facility, giving you basic document management tools without having to buy a separate application. DRIVE does not claim to provide the full workflow environment promised by some more sophisticated systems, but many internal processes can be activated and monitored using the Tasks and Alerts facilities.
More information
DRIVE Practice Management review by John Stokdyk

PTP Software
Best known for its tax software and training wing, PTP Software has also developed The Professional Office, a time & fees and billing application that includes a complete ledger system, client reporting tools and a Task Tracker. The application tackles these activities in a straightforward way and offers good value for money with a £149 starting price. PTP Software managing director Tim Good told AccountingWEB: "Our suite is already integrated sufficiently for clients to be able to enjoy the benefits promoted by our larger competitors. We do not however anticipate replicating their model exactly, and feel that some separation of database information can be beneficial. Our compliance products are fully integrated because this has clear benefits to our users. Our added value products however remain separate stand alone programs. This is because the duplication of data is practically zero, making integration an unnecessary complication. Keeping them separate allows us to keep sophisticated programs simple to install and to use."
More information
Q&A - Tim Good, PTP Software

IPS Insolvency Practitioners System
Glasgow-based Turnkey Computer Technology has constructed a complete suite for insolvency practitioners based around Microsoft's Navision business software. It can take care of all the practitioner's accounting requirements, plus cash management, asset recovery, forms production, diary management, accounts production. It will output full SIP 9 reports.

Orbis TaskCentre
TaskCentre is a specialist business activity monitoring system based around programmable alerts. It provides a process modelling and workflow environment within which you can specify exception conditions that will generate automatic alerts from any of your business systems.

Pentana Audit Work System
The Pentana Audit Work System (PAWS) is primarily designed to support audit management, with risk management tools to help users comply with corporate governance requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley and the Combined Code. In addition to a set of web-based tools for audit scheduling and management, it has optional links into Pentana's Retain resource planning and time management modules.
Pinacle
Pinacle is an integrated practice suite accounts, tax, practice management and payroll bureau functions. It includes final accounts templates for sole traders, partnerships and limited companies plus personal, partnership and company tax routines. Practice management mdules include time recording, fees ledger and client managment.

Practice Accountant
Practice Accountant does what it claims, providing a nominal ledger alongside a time recording application, billing tools and a report generator. Specialist "extras" include a subcontractors’ ledger and remuneration facility, WIP records and a system for collecting fees by standing orders.

Practys
Practys from Sussex-based Commercial Software is designed to handle accounting, project costing and time & fees for professional firms. It comes with nominal, sales, purchase and cash ledgers, plus accounts production, cost, stock and time recording modules.

ViewPoint
Catering mainly for offshore accountants and company administrators, Viewpoint is built around a shared central database, with modules for company and trust administration, billing, time and disbursements, and client accounts. Users can look at documents over the net with the the systems eView document management module.

Bizezia
Haywards Heath-based Bizezia.com started out as a vehicle for online marketing and practice documentation, but has been expanding its practice intranet service to incorporate more and more of the elements found in full blown practice suites. In addition to around 130 engagement letters and reports, the Bizezia portal gives you a customisable home page with access to rudimentary online expenses, calendar and task management. It also has a shared document storage area and a library of databases such as contacts and assets that could form the basis of more sophisticated tools you develop. It can also link to the More Online accounting system. The functional ingredients are still a bit thin, but Bizezia points the way to a new way of sourcing your practice technology..

Sage CoreTime Tempus Pro ASP
Sage's move towards hosted versions of its applications has been the source of considerable debate both inside and outside the company. But when it acquired Irish time & fees developer CoreTime in 2004, it also gained access to a hosted version of CoreTime's Tempus Pro time & fees application. Available through the Sage CoreTime site in Ireland, it promises "exceedingly rapid" returns on investment with no sacrifice in functionality. Having charted the course and proved the case for online time & fees management, will CoreTime lead Sage's Accountants Division in the same direction?

Twinfield
From its origins as a supplier of online accounting in the Netherlands, Twinfield has expanded across Europe with a range of collaborative, online applications for accounts, time & fees, billing and expenses management. According to UK managing director David Terrar, many firms not only recommend their clients use these systems, but take them up themselves. "Practice management is a direction we want to go in, as much of what we do overlaps with that space," Terrar said. The company does not offer a CRM capability, but via alliances with other software as a service providers, Twinfield is looking to move in that direction too, he added.

CaseWare Time 2005
A North American application supplied by one the international accounts preparation specialist. Along with links to CaseWare's accounts and "paperless engagement" audit tools, Time can integrate with Microsoft Outlook data via an optional add-on, CaseWare Today.

FourFourTime
As featured in a recent Any Answers thread, FourFourTime is a £50 time clock "designed for people who wanted it simple". You shit the on-screen start when you start working and click Stop when you stop. A dialogue box to let you enter what you did in that period, and the results are output in a simple report.

Sage time & fees add-ons from Deepak Sareen
This accredited Sage developer produced the Timeslips application now owned by Sage, but also supplies a more sophisticated Timesheet system that trackd your work and sends the data back to Microsoft Project. At the lower end of the scale, Sage Carpe Diem is a time and expense tracking system suitable for up to 25 employees.

TimeBox
Another software punch-clock, enhanced by a mini-web server that lets you record your work time remotely. You can print, view, or save summary reports to disk, or export them to a spreadsheet or database application for further analysis.

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Replies (7)

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Mark
By MarkRyan
12th Mar 2006 12:17

Alastair - I have to agree
Try looking at the nonchargeable time posted by senior Team Members

Headings like "Practice Admin", "General", "Practice Development", "Internal" etc

Then value the time at charge rate..
(Actually, don't. Unless you have a strong stomach or a good sense of humour.)

So what's the answer?
1)
Getting the right people at the right level to do the right work.
2)
Automation

So, there's another selection-requirement...look at the level of automation offered and being used by the various products

Mark Ryan
[email protected]

Thanks (0)
avatar
By listerramjet
12th Mar 2006 22:44

Hi Mark
key question is, is there any value in measuring it. I once worked for a guy whose mantra was "you can't change it unless you can measure it". He had a point, but I tend to agree with Demming - much of what you should change cannot be measured.

My own view is that if you are going to measure it you should make sure you know what its value is. Many partners spend a lot of time on client development, but do they really test the value of that time or the benefit they get from it?

I would question how many practices really need a time recording system that accounts for all professional staff time, and I would also question how effective that is given my assumption that on balance staff record a 37.5 hour week, regardless of how many hours they actually put in, and in many cases the client is on a fixed fee for compliance work.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By bullfrog
09th Mar 2006 13:12

ACCA Practise Manager
I too have been using ACCA practise manager and it is Excellent.

Not only that but their service is fantastic. They can add on just about anything to tailor it to individual user needs.

How come this was missed out here?

Thanks (0)
avatar
By listerramjet
10th Mar 2006 08:57

i tried not to, but could not resist
surely you can have too much management?

Thanks (0)
Mark
By MarkRyan
09th Mar 2006 18:10

As my name was mentioned above, I feel I must add a couple of po
1)
They all do time-and-fees, but many of the vendors listed try to differentiate themselves by offering a variety of features.
In many firms these features are simply not being used. Some of the vendors listed have very few (if any) users of these "advanced" features.

So, when selecting a product, don't just tick the boxes. Make sure the reference sites you visit are actually using the features you're interested in.

2)
Is Practice Management the same as CRM?
No. CRM is a subset of Practice Management, along with
Team-management
knowledge-management
document-management
budget-management
and financial management
(and probably a load of others...but it's been a long day...)
We need them all...

Mark Ryan
[email protected]

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
07th Mar 2006 17:11

What about ACCA Practice manager?
You have overlooked this fab bit of kit that does all that its big name rivals does for about a tenth of the price.

I have used this for about two years and wonder how I survived before!

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Dennis Howlett
By dahowlett
08th Mar 2006 05:11

I know we've discussed this but...
A great roundup John - congratulations on a serious piece of work. But...I'm not seeing anything fresh or innovative here from the vendors' perspective.

You say the market is pretty stagnant. Is there any real understanding why that might be? Have any of the practices and vendors you've approached attempted to understand what's holding the market back? Is it that case that the whole CRM thing is a bit of a dirty acronym? Or is it the case that professionals struggle with the core issue of client relationships?

I'm raising the same questions at my place.

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