How your firm works, with client files kept out of it

The first question accounting firms ask is what happens to client and taxpayer information. The short answer is that it can stay out.

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What tends to be useful

For a model, the value of an accounting firm lies in how its people review and check work. That shows up in the firm's own material:

Workpaper templates and engagement checklists
Procedures for closing the month and the year
Notes from review and the sign-offs that close each one
Internal knowledge bases and how-to guides

Concern number one: client files and tax data

You can leave client files and taxpayer data out. Strict confidentiality rules apply to tax information, so whether any of it is in scope is for your firm and its own counsel to decide. Plenty of firms exclude their tax software and client folders completely and share only internal know-how. What your obligations allow is a legal question, and we do not advise on it.

You keep your templates

What you license is a copy, not the practice. Your originals never leave your systems, and work carries on with them as usual. Any template or method you see as core to the firm can stay out. You can exclude any system, folder, client or engagement.

Common questions from firm owners

Do we need every system?: No. A library of firm procedures, or a practice management system kept in good order, may be all you need at first.
Who from our firm should take part?: Normally a managing partner, the person who runs practice and document management, and your firm's counsel.
Does busy season matter?: The call takes 15 minutes, and the rest moves at your pace, so you can pick a quieter month to review the sample.

How the copy is prepared and reviewed

The first step is an NDA. In the de-identified copy made by License Your Data, our licensing partner, placeholders replace names and identifiers, including those of your staff. Nobody asks for a password, and none is shared. You approve a sample before anything goes out, and there is no cost to your firm.

A typical fit

A typical fit is a firm with 20 or more full-time staff and 3 or more years of procedures and templates kept in practice management or document management software. Smaller practices may qualify too if their history is long and well documented. The estimate is the same whatever services you offer.

See the value of your firm's records

License Your Data has a specialist call you within minutes to arrange a 15-minute call.

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