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Firm Management

2013 Review of AccountantsWorld – Website Relief

Nov. 29, 2013

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Website Relief from AccountantsWorld is a website creation tool for professional accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, and tax practitioners.  The service is part of the PowerPractice Suite, which includes products such as Accounting Relief, Payroll Relief, Practice Relief, CyberCabinet, and PFP Relief.  When combined with tools for sales tax and income tax preparation, the solution is a strong suite of applications for practitioners who work with small businesses.

Website Relief is a menu-driven website builder which allows users to control all aspects of the firm’s internet presence, including content, navigation structure, search engine optimization, newsletters, and e-mail accounts.  Firms can create their own website using the included templates, use an outside consultant, or engage AccountantsWorld to create a custom design and special content for an additional fee.  We were able to work with the website creation tool, and although the user interface was rudimentary, it was effective and made it possible to change the major aspects of the site without writing any code.

Users are provided with a basic listing in the AccountantsWorld directory listing of practitioners as part of the subscription.  Sites are automatically submitted to Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and optional services include search engine optimization and premium placement in the AccountantsWorld directory.  Tags for a subscriber-provided Google Analytics account can be added through the website control panel.

Website Relief includes one domain name for the firm’s use, and additional domains can be added if desired.  The internet domain for the service (e.g. firmname.com) is held by AccountantsWorld for the firm, and can be transferred to the firm’s control at the conclusion of a Website Relief subscription for a $50 per domain fee.   The service is operated on virtual servers by a leading cloud computing company in a secure data center with third party security reviews.  Backups are maintained in multiple data centers, with the databases mirrored to multiple locations for redundancy.  The product includes five configurable POP e-mail boxes with 10GB per account of storage.

Integration with the AccountantsWorld CyberCabinet cloud-based document management and client portal service is available for those who subscribe to both services.  The company reports that CyberCabinet can be operated in compliance with major regulatory requirements, including HIPAA, FERPA, and GLB.  All of the AccountantsWorld PowerPractice suite applications are hosted in data centers within the United States.

Best Firm Fit:

Firms who use the AccountantsWorld Power Practice Suite of applications for client engagements.

Strengths

  • Website Relief allows users to create a firm’s website using a graphical page editing application.  Users can easily include pages for social media, financial calculators, and news feeds within the site, and advanced users can modify the HTML code for the pages.
  • Users can administer e-mail accounts and forwards from within the application. 
  • Information for search engine optimization is accessible from within the control panel for the website.

Potential Limitations

  • Some of the vertical menu website templates look somewhat basic and dated.
  • Website Relief is limited to maximum of 40 pages, which is adequate for most firms, but may be a limitation to some larger firms.
  • The e-mail hosting included with the service provides only POP e-mail access, and does not support either IMAP or Microsoft Exchange connections.

Summary and Pricing

Website Relief is priced at $59 per month, or $595 per year (if paid in advance).