Why You Need to Integrate Your Accounting Software with Practice Management Software

When you run a business, every minute matters. That makes it frustrating for accountants when accounting maintenance tasks take up a quarter of their time overall. (And no surprise here: when a quarter of your day is spent on non-billable tasks, it eats into your bottom line.)   

That’s why you need an accounting practice management tool that integrates with the accounting and tax software that your team already uses. When you simplify communication, automate administrative tasks, and keep all of your firm’s data stored in one place, it allows you to streamline workflows to find more time for billable hours.  

Don’t give up the software you know and love—and already know how to use. Keep reading to learn why integrating your current tax and accounting software with the right accounting practice management software is critical to scaling your accounting firm.

1. Keep all documents secure and organized in one place

If you’ve ever wasted time trying to find tax returns or business ledgers or accounting schedules for a client, you probably wish you had a better way to organize your documents. Thankfully, an easy solution to this already exists: integrating your practice management and accounting software.  

Integrating these two tools means you get to keep all of your documents stored in one place and under one organizational architecture. This allows you to use a consistent, firm-specific filing system that works for your services and clients, including custom folder structures, tagging systems, and naming conventions.  

In short: no more endless searching through folders on your desktop or inconsistent file names.  

Integrating your practice management and accounting software also creates a more secure environment for client data. With granular permissions that can be set down to the employee level, you can ensure that all sensitive client information remains protected.  

2. Create consistency across multiple programs

When you patchwork different types of software, it’s easy to misenter or confuse data in your systems. Instead of hopping around between different software programs and manually typing client information into each one, use an accounting practice management software that integrates with your tax and accounting software. 

With integrations, any change you make in your accounting software will be made in your practice management software. Pertinent contact information, clients’ emails and addresses, and other data points will stay updated and synced across software platforms. If you’ve ever had to track down a client’s new phone number that you didn’t save in your contacts, you know how critical this is for your practice.

3. Automate time-consuming administrative billing work

Your QuickBooks data is crucial to your accounting firm, but the invoicing process can eat up your whole day. To speed up billing, take advantage of robust invoicing tools that automate your workload.  

When you integrate QuickBooks with accounting project management software, you can import: 

• Client names and addresses 
• Unbilled time slips 
• Accounts receivable data 

Once the pertinent data from QuickBooks is imported, automated billing tools speed up the process. Options include:  

• Run paperless invoice reviews 
• Batch invoicing to generate multiple invoices of the same type all at once 
• Set recurring invoices 
• Automate reminders with a built-in CRM to prevent late payment  

4. Implement helpful practice management tools in tandem with your accounting and tax software

Accounting and tax software is where most of your work happens. But you still need to communicate with your team about what needs to be done.  

If you rely on outdated tech like emails, team members can end up out of the loop if they fail to check email regularly, accidentally delete something important, or miss a message completely because it went to spam. To assign work to be completed in your tax and accounting software more efficiently, use a project management software.  

With project management software, your team sees the big picture of any given project on the project dashboard. Consider it your virtual to-do list. Once you assign tasks to your employees, every user can see the tasks and status of each project.  

No one will create the same invoice twice or accidentally miss an important detail that needs to be done in accounting software anymore. Every deadline will be met because you can get ahead of it by checking on the dashboard that every time-bound task is completed before the due date. 

Plus, project templates make it easy to create custom tasks. Any time you do a certain type of project, the template populates the relevant tasks so you don’t have to start from scratch every time. 

5. Keep your remote employees informed about projects and updates

After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is here to stay. QuickBooks Online offers a mobile app that works with iPhone, iPad, and Android phones or tablets. You need accounting practice management tools that offer the same level of flexibility as the software you already use. 

When you use a cloud-based accounting practice management tool that integrates with your accounting software, your remote workers can access the relevant tax documents for clients from anywhere. If any changes need to be made in a document, update them with an assigned task in the project dashboard.  

Taking a phone call from the school pick-up line or while walking the dog? You don’t have to keep track of the time and log it later because team members can track all their time from mobile apps. When they’re finished with time tracking, they can link it to the task they were working on in a time record.

6. Use actionable trends to improve your workflows and pricing

One of the best ways to improve your accounting firm’s workflows and bottom line is to use the data collected from your clients. Look for an accounting firm management tool with reporting and analytics dashboards. These dashboards take data from your practice management software, accounting software, and tax software to highlight opportunities for growth and improvement. 

Take your key metrics and compare trends by year to see where your firm can improve. Break down billing information to see which clients are profitable and which ones need you to revisit the scope of work. You can also build reports to do a deeper dive into your data and examine granular metrics to improve your firm’s performance.  

Make the most of your tax and accounting software with Mango 

Mango Practice Management offers comprehensive accounting firm software that integrates with your tax and accounting software. With Mango, use the software you know and love in tandem with our time-saving tools, including: 

• Project management software 
• Document management software 
• Time and billing software 
• Secure file sharing and e-signature capabilities 
• Reporting and analytics software 

Plus, Mango offers free data migration and training. Our support team will help you implement our software and ensure your accountants are experts at using it. 

To integrate your tax and accounting software with critical time-saving tools that help you scale your firm and do less busy work, schedule a demo with Mango today.