Prosper is a workflow-based practice management system that allows accountants to prioritise tasks within their teams. The product emerged from the desire of its founders for a program that focused on client interaction and automated workflows.
Prosper is driven by a Kanban-style interface that allows users to view which projects need their attention and move on-screen cards to show what’s been done. This scheduling overview can be filtered to see what different teams will be working on in the next week or month. Individual appointments and notification alerts are built into the system.
To foster collaboration, clients can access their own work schedules. This is a novel concept for online practice management, but old-fashioned email tracking is not supported.
The client onboarding process pulls all of these ingredients together into one of the strongest sections of the program.
Prosper features a Practice Watch screen designed to help managers track activities awaiting completion and monitor key performance indicators for different areas within the firm.
The program was developed using the Amazon Web Services infrastructure, so it can scale to any size as the firm grows.
Strengths
- Kanban-like dashboard layout shows appointments, notifications, and task prioritisation using red, amber and green indicators. To-do items are presented as awaiting attention, in progress and done.
- The Calendar dashboard can be filtered by staff member, client, services, types of work and meetings, all of which can be shown for the next week, fortnight or month. When initiated, the task is moved to the In Progress column and a time recorder is launched to measure the time elapsed on an activity. A pause button lets the user break off for other activities.
- The Calendar includes an Auto Schedule command to set out tasks such as payroll and tax returns that need to be done over a set period leading to a deadline. These can be preloaded according to rules defining the firm’s usual work patterns and standards.
- Onboarding: The minute a prospect calls Prosper can check the company at Companies House and auto fill the company number and details into records for tax, accounts and management reporting tasks. At the same time it will help the accountant construct a proposal for services and dispatch an active email to let the prospective client into the Prosper portal. When they accept the proposal, the engagement letter is dispactched by return email.
- The onboarding process includes an anti-money laundering checklist soliciting all the compliance and client information the accountant is likely to need. With their own sign-ins to the program, clients can access their documents and track how their work is progressing on their own Kanban board. Prosper will timestamp any actions they take to load up documents or verify their content.
- Prosper exposes the firm’s activity to the client via their own online dashboard. Work is in hand to alert them when new jobs start by sending messages to their mobile phones.
- CPD processes and tracking are built into Prosper. Regular training initiatives can be set up within the Scheduler to generate invitations ahead of time, and a CPD option allows users to record the episode and their reflections on it when complete. All this will be output as a report if and when needed.
- Another novel innovation are short “Walk-me” walthroughs stored within the system that show users how to carry out particular operations.
- Integrations: The Companies House API allows Prosper to confirm business identities and prepopulate their records. It integrates with QuickBooks Online and working on Xero integration. More developments are promised over the summer of 2017. Prosper is working with HMRC to get access to its APIs and pin down the requirements to ensure the software can work effectively with the tax department’s new Making Tax Digital systems.
Weak spots
- Some Prosper features are ambitious, but not wholly formed yet. For example, the Prosper portal posed as many questions as it answered. Will collaboration take place exclusively within the practice management system, or will the program track client emails separately? Some of these questions will be addressed when Prosper completes work on its mobile app.
- Billing is absent from Prosper and relies on CSV outputs to Excel. This was another area where the developer indicated that it was planning to integrate with a billing solution later in the year.
- Prosper is priced according to the number of clients supported rather than users within the firm. This formula could make it too expensive for sole practitioners.
Pricing
Prosper is available with unlimited users for accountants, up to 15 clients for free with no limit on time or functionality. It is then priced at £50 from 16-50 clients, £100 up to 100 clients, £150 up to 150 clients, £200 up to 200 clients and £250 up to 250 clients.
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For a detailed comparison of best practice management software for accountants and individual software user reviews, visit AccountingWEB’s Practice Management Software category page in Software Reviews.
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