Depending on your firm’s strategic goals and how you approach the balance of people, processes, and technology, your tech stack could look very different from your competitors, even though you may provide similar solutions.
The Wolters Kluwer 2024 Accounting Industry Report shows that small firms are prioritizing investments in tax workflow solutions, client portals, and tax return automation tools to streamline operations and improve client experience.
Unfortunately, not every firm is taking advantage of all the functionality their tech stack offers - only 9% of firms believe they are currently maximizing the use and value of their current technology. To maximize the ROI from your accounting software and save your staff time, don’t ignore integration - your solutions must play well together.
Why an integrated accounting technology stack matters
Whether your core tech stack solutions are from multiple vendors or a single provider, it’s important to understand how to get your data from one solution to another without manually entering it multiple times.
As the amount of data available continues to increase, firms are unlocking greater opportunities to build strong relationships and grow revenue opportunities. However, taking advantage of these opportunities is difficult if you can move data seamlessly within your workflows, regardless of the solution it leverages.
If data is stuck in different programs or platforms and does not integrate with the rest of your tech stack, it can create significant challenges. Without an integrated tech stack, data might be unavailable from one system to another, or you might not be looking at the most current data. Either way, it takes time to verify and can undermine confidence in your systems. That’s a problem in a business that demands accuracy.
Integrated systems help your firm ensure data integrity, save time on data entry, and reduce errors. You’ll also boost staff productivity with more streamlined processes.
How to ensure your tech stack “plays well with others”
Regardless of your tech stack strategy, any tech tool your firm invests in should be able to scale with your firm as it grows. In today’s ever-changing tech landscape, that means choosing a vendor who strongly supports integration and APIs, both between their solutions and with third parties. Especially for firms who build a tech stack with solutions from multiple vendors, APIs can be the lifeblood of a firm.
Why does your technology vendors’ API policy matter?
An application programming interface (API) enables you to leverage your data with other software and systems you use. APIs make data available across multiple platforms to create a better end-to-end experience for your clients and staff by allowing you to:
- Automate many of the most time-consuming data input and output tasks in your digital tax, audit, and firm management workflows.
- Connect disparate systems to import data, eliminating duplicate and manual data entry.
- Move data seamlessly — and accurately — between applications, reducing human error and data entry mistakes.
- Leverage the valuable data within your system for reporting and identifying growth opportunities.
- Provide ready access to accurate, up-to-date data in whichever tech tool you use.
Without APIs allowing integration, successfully adopting new software or adding services can be extremely challenging. And, of course, even after a successful implementation, a change in one tech solution might require significant IT infrastructure upgrades.
An integrated solution with access to third-party APIs allows your firm to add new functionality quickly and easily without doing time-intensive and expensive IT work.
This means your firm can scale faster with fewer growing pains, spending your time solving your client’s problems and not your own.
