Keys To Building A Tech Stack For Cloud Accounting Firms via Kellie Parks

Some of the many apps available to accounting and bookkeeping firms.

Kellie Parks is a thought leader at the intersection of accounting and tech. Check out her Cloud Accounting Templates. She recently shared her framework for evaluating software and invited recipients to share it so we wanted to pass it along to our audience. It’s our goal at Uncat to save you time by helping you fix uncategorized transactions with your clients. Here’s Kellie’s list:

Evaluate tech based on whether it:

• Solves a problem you have

• Improves a process you have

• Won’t distract you more than it will provide benefits

• Will move you forward

• Will be fun

We need tech for these buckets:

1. To communicate

   • Internally and with clients

2. To schedule our time and work

3. To gather and vet information

4. To share

   • Internally and with clients

5. To create data location redundancy

6. To create and manage recurring, project, and out-of-scope work

7. To get work done - service delivery, like say, actual accounting ;-}

A rubric for evaluating vendors:

• Why they started

  • Problems solved

  • Owners' background and involvement 

• Security 

  • On any app stores

    1. App stores have very rigorous acceptance criteria

  • Where data is stored 

  • What are the data storage redundancy policies

  • 2FA processes

    • Authenticator or sent

    • Inactivity logout time settings

  • Proprietary code or built on a website

• Integrations

  • Direct or integrator (Make/Zapier)

  • 1-way or 2-way 

  • Open API

• Sustainability of the business

  • Qs around user base and funding

  • Is the app live

    • How long in biz or when going live

    • Available countries

• Corporate values

  • Mission and value statement

• Pricing structure

• Support channels

• Marketing channels