AccountantsWorld — Accounting Relief

AccountantsWorld also offers live and after-the-fact payroll, sales tax compliance,
practice and document management systems, website development tools, and systems
for financial planning and 401(k) administration. Pricing for Accounting Relief
is $995 per year or $99 per month, which gives firm’s multi-user access
to the full system, along with bookkeeping modules for any number of clients.
Firms can alternatively pay $99 per year per client.

LEARNING CURVE & EASE OF USE – 5 Stars
Accounting Relief is designed so that practitioners can access it via a secure
link on their firm’s website, which opens the Accountant’s Office
Online home-page, a site that gives the user access to accounting programs,
practice management tools and other available modules for which they have authorization
to access. Accounting Relief sports a recently enhanced interface that starts
with the Client Center, which offers a searchable and filterable spreadsheet
list. This initial screen also offers links to Reminders, Resources and Help.
After selecting a client, the system opens to the Activity Center, a customizable
screen that can include summaries of key business components (such as AR and
AP issues), cash flow, expense analyses, sales comparisons and bottom line financials.

These elements can be presented numerically or via graphical elements. Text
links and icons across the top of the screen give access to customer and vendor
selection lists and specific modules, such as Bank-ing, Trial Balance, Utilities,
Reports and Financials. Initial setup of client companies is simple, with guides
and template charts of accounts speeding the process. Data-entry screens are
intuitive, with transaction screens providing selection lists and multiple view
options that allow the user to quickly post disbursements and receipts, make
correcting entries, and perform other tasks.

As previously noted, one of the key benefits of Accounting Relief is that it
includes an integrated client bookkeeping system. This web-based system acts
as their small business accounting program, but it’s actually a module
of the professional system. The accountant can determine specific functions
that client users can access, such as posting transactions, making journal entries,
accessing the chart of accounts, checkwriting, managing receivables and payables,
accessing reporting functions, etc.

Since each client has different capabilities and needs, the client bookkeeping
system can be customized for each one, allowing the accountant to stay in total
control of the accounting data, which helps maintain its accuracy and integrity.
And since both sides are working on the same data, when it’s time for
the accountant to perform write-up tasks or the client needs assistance, the
work can be done in real-time and without the need to transfer data. Accounting
Relief offers automated bank and credit card reconciliation functions, and a
new communication tool offers instant messaging between the accountant and the
clients from within the accounting package.

REPORTING & FINANCIAL STATEMENTS – 5 Stars
Accounting Relief’s report-ing capabilities are easily accessible either
from the Activity Center or from the Reports and Financials screens, providing
full drilldown access to transactions and offering good customization options.
Traditional financials include single period or comparative balance sheets and
income statements, while additional options are available for retained earnings,
trial balance reports, budgets, variances, ratios, supplemental schedules and
engagement letters. When viewed on-screen, financial statements offer drilldown
access to individual transactions and accounts. Accounting Relief can generate
reports and financials to Excel, PDF or Word formats, and it integrates with
the vendor’s CyberCabinet document management program.

A Practitioner Says:

“I have a small firm in Maryland with a staff of one to five. Accounting Relief was the first product I viewed that seemed to have a completely comprehensive approach to the accounting process, including all the financial reporting. They go above and beyond, including the letters available to generate for the client with compilation of the schedule deadlines. The program helps me showcase what I can do online. I can attach a little marketing piece to this product and use it to show my ability to meet the clients’ needs. It has allowed me to substantially cut down the human resources time for me to put the data into the system because the clients enter much of it themselves, which saves me a lot of labor hours and dollars. Because of the cost savings to the practitioner, Accounting Relief allows you to be more competitive in the market. But as you research the options, my recommendation is that you use what will make you most marketable and most competitive in your area. And if you choose this product, consider the vendor’s payroll product, as well, because the two products are great sister products that communicate very well and seamlessly.”

INTEGRATION, IMPORT/EXPORT – 5 Stars
Since Accounting Relief includes a client bookkeeping side, it is more than
integrated with the client’s files because it is the same system. Think
of it as setting up a workstation for your client in your own office to which
they could post transactions, but only with the ability to access the specific
features you allow and with you or your staff watching them.

When reconciliation tasks, adjustments or period ends are processed, live data
is accessible to the accountant at any time without having to transfer it. Accounting
Relief can also import from QuickBooks, Excel, RTF and ASCII formats, and it
offers export into most tax compliance programs.

SUPPORT, TRAINING & HELP – 4.5 Stars
Accounting Relief offers a traditional Help utility and links to technical assistance
tutorials and other options, while the AccountantsWorld online support center
provides access to various training videos, webinars, tips and articles. Tech
support is included in program pricing. The web-based program is automatically
maintained and updated by Accountants-World staff.

RELATIVE VALUE – 5 Stars
For firms that can transition some or all of its small business clients to the
client bookkeeping system in Accounting Relief, the program is exceptionally
beneficial since it can greatly reduce client errors, speed up many write-up
processes and put control of the accounting relationship back in the professional’s
hands. The system can also import from most small business account-ing programs.
The web-based nature of the system is also useful since it enables the professional
to securely access client and firm data remotely.

2008 Overall Rating: