AUTOMATED CONTENT – 5 Stars
Users can choose to place content
on their sites that includes CCH’s
annual Tax Guide (which provides
a variety of information and tools,
up-to-date news and financial data),
federal and state-specific tax alerts
that keep clients informed of changes
that may affect them, a tax due
dates calendar and an assortment
of financial calculators. The Lifestyles
Reading Rack provides a series of
guides that cover the basics of
financial management and tax tips,
from individual to business topics.
Reading Rack content can be chosen
by the professional and customized
with the firm logo. The web site
can also offer a tax organizer and
various IRS forms and publications
if the firm wants to provide these.
CCH’s content can also be
syndicated by professionals who
already have their own web site
and don’t wish to use ProSystem
fx Site Builder. The content
is available in three modules: the
Main module, which provides an info
center page with a tax calendar
and IRS tax forms and publications,
a monthly newsletter page, and a
financial tools page. The Life Cycle
Events module provides brochures
on individual and business tax events;
and the CCH Tax Guide Module offers
more than 500 web pages covering
virtually all tax issues.

EDITING/UPDATING EASE-OF-USE – 4 Stars

Creating and editing web site information
is performed through a well-designed
interface that breaks the tasks
into 12 steps, from entering basic
firm information and contact data,
to customizing the look and feel
of the page and adding content and
tools. This interface makes it easy
for a user to see where he is in
the process, and also makes it easy
to go in and edit specific web pages
or sections later. The system offers
more than 30 color/style design
templates that help maintain consistency
throughout the web site, while providing
an aesthetically and professionally
appropriate interface, although
the degree to which pages can be
customized is limited. The web site
includes default text that can be
modified to fit the firm or re-written
entirely if desired.

Font size and style are editable,
but not easily. The primary editing
interface includes a link to an
HTML primer that gives tips for
inserting bold or italic text and
changing font size, but this will
not be intuitive for most users
unfamiliar with HTML. Domain name
and e-mail capability can be purchased
separately.

TOOLS – 5 Stars
For clients, this web site building
tool offers an impressive selection
of almost 100 financial calculators
that can easily be included with
a web site. For the practitioner
and firm, the system includes POP
and WebMail e-mail services that
can be used for mass client distribution
of newsletters and other content.
Through ProSystem fx File
Share (coming soon), professionals
and clients will be able to exchange
documents securely, enabling clients
to use an encrypted and password-protected
portal to safely access their financial
records or other documents as determined
by the professional. The web site
can also include CCH’s Tax
Notebook online tax organizer (which
integrates with ProSystem fx
Tax) and GainsKeeper Pro (which
provides clients with a capital
gains and online portfolio manager).
GainsKeeper Pro ‘ an investment
aggregator ‘ is available
with cost basis tracking that automatically
adjusts for wash sales and corporate
actions.

Additionally, a link to CompleteTax
Pro can also be added, allowing
the firm to realize revenue from
do-it-yourself tax preparers while
also collecting information to help
market to them. An optional Lead
Generator plug-in provides a guestbook
with an ‘ask a question’
form that promotes interaction with
potential clients.

VISUAL QUALITY/USER NAVIGATION – 4 Stars

The program offers optional Flash
and animated entry pages as a custom
service, which can be posted in
a variety of locations. The template
designs are crisp and professional,
and firms are assisted in writing
tasks by templates that already
contain standard text for introduction
and firm profile pages. The system
prominently displays ‘Designed
by ProSystem fx Site Builder’
on every page it creates, which
may optionally be removed at the
firm’s request. Bolder, Colorado-based
Brock & Company CPAs uses the
system for its web site (www.brockcpas.com).

SITE MARKETING – 4.5 Stars
CCH promotes web sites created with
ProSystem fx Site Builder
to the top search engines and offers
a visitor analysis tool that provides
statistics on usage. The system’s
integration with the CompleteTax
Pro do-it-yourself tax preparation
system enables professional firms
to profit from these users while
at the same time building a potential
client database with complete contact
and financial information.

PRICING/VALUE – 4.5 Stars

ProSystem fx Site Builder
has an initial setup fee of $295,
with annual costs of $895. While
monthly newsletters and tax alerts
are included in this price, additional
‘premium’ content is
available, along with customizable
marketing brochures that can be
added for $250 to $600. Technical
support is free, and the company
offers a $75/hour customization
service that can further enhance
the design of the site or add specialty
components.

SUMMARY
ProSystem fx Site Builder
has an easy-to-use interface that
makes creating and editing a web
site simple, and it provides good
template options that help the site
maintain a professional appearance.
Integration between the program’s
web-based client organizer Tax Notebook
and ProSystem fx Tax preparation
software will likely reduce data-entry
time enough to more than pay for
this system. CCH offers a free 30
day ‘test drive’ demonstration
of its web site builder.

2004
OVERALL RATING: 4.5

This review looks at several web
builder solutions that are designed
for accountants, tax preparers and
other financial professionals. They
range in cost from free to more
than $1,000 per year and offer significantly
varying degrees of content, tools
and ease-of-use, so firms should
identify the needs that are most
important to them. Based on input
from accounting professionals and
the system vendors, we scored these
systems in the following areas:

Automated Content: This section
looks at the financial content provided
by the vendor, including quality/reliability,
whether it is automatically updated,
newsletter offerings, and other
material that would be valuable
to a visitor of the web site.

Editing/Updating Ease-of-Use: After you build it, you still need to update

contact and service
information periodically. This
section looks at the tools the
vendor provides for creating and
updating the site, which are usually
accessed through a browser. Ease-of-use
is an important factor here, because
users may only work on the site
a few times per year.

Tools: In addition to rich financial content, tools such as financial

calculators, calendars, useful links and online tax preparation keep clients and prospects

coming back to a web site. Additionally, options such as secure file transfer enhance the

client relationship. This section considers such tools as well as e-mail and Intranet

capabilities.

Visual Quality/User Navigation: How a web site looks and whether navigation

is intuitive plays a very large role in whether visitors will return, and can certainly

influence the impression the site has on clients and potential clients. This section also

evaluates the templates used by the system, and how logos and other image files are

incorporated.

Web Site Marketing Tools: If you build it, they still need to find it

before they can come. This section identifies whether the vendor assists in registering the

site with search engines and other directories, as well as other marketing assistance. And

since measurement tells you how you’re doing, the availability of web site visitor stats is

also addressed. Who owns the web site?
Firm’s need to own their
primary domain name (www.firmname.com).

Pricing/Value: Is there an initial setup cost? How much does it cost per

month/year? Are there any other fees?