Wish there were a way to streamline tedious tax work? Check out your Online Tax Organizer.

Websites for accountants help you serve all your clients – whether you manage their books, run their payroll, or act as their part-time CFO.

But the bread and butter of most small to medium-sized accounting firms is taxes.

How can you speed up the time-consuming and laborious process of completing 1040s?

With your Online Tax Organizer, of course!

Save Time

The Online Tax Organizer saves you time in 3 ways:

1. Because the organizer is online, there’s no need to mail a tax info sheet back and forth. The client fills in the information online at his or her convenience, as they gather data (and at any time throughout the year) – and you can see it right away.
2. It’s easy to collaborate with your clients and your staff. Everyone has access to the same document right at their workstation – cutting down on the need for face-to-face meetings.
3. With your Tax Organizer, it’s a cinch to compare a client’s information year to year so you can check your work and cut down on errors. Say good-bye to flipping through pages while you struggle to keep your place.

Work Flexibly

Every client is different – so not every client will need the same Tax Organizer. That’s why we made your Online Tax Organizer easy to customize.

You can customize an organizer for a particular client – or create multiple organizers, one organizing Real Estate transactions, one organizing Stock transactions, one organizing interest income, and so on.

And as your practice grows, so does your Tax Organizer. Not only can you create and store up to 200 Tax Organizers per client, but the Online Tax Organizer also allows you to support up to 10,000 clients. You’ll always have enough capacity to store as many Tax Organizers as you need.

Enjoy Top Security

All of your clients’ data is stored on our secure server, which uses 128- to 256-bit file encryption. You can be assured that critical financial information is fully protected.

Update Now to 2010

When it’s time to update to the next year’s organizer, it’s easy to do. Once you’re in the Tax Organizer Administration in the Portal, click on “Manage Organizers.” On the next screen, you’ll find a link: “Add 2010 Organizer.” Click that link, check the box next to the 2010 Organizer now listed in the table, and hit “Publish.”

Check out our Help file for detailed instructions and screen shots.

Tax Season Is Coming…

Do you have questions about the Online Tax Organizer before tax season hits? Give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com. We’re more than happy to help.

If you don’t yet have a Complete Web Suite with CPA Site Solutions, remember that the Online Tax Organizer is included in your subscription fee. Give us a try free for 60 days!

Consider having a "business breakfast" with your clients a couple times a year.

Do you want to know the best marketing trick for accountants?

Well, okay, it’s actually not a trick. It takes time, attention, and effort.

But it’s the number one way to retain your clients.

Be a real person, and get to know your clients as real people.

Perform this “trick” on a regular basis and your clients will find it very difficult to leave.

Don’t Sell. Build.

Rather than selling to your clients and potential clients – get to know your clients.

What do they do for work, and how do they like doing it? What’s their family structure? What are their hopes for the future?

Likewise, let them in a little. It doesn’t mean you should be unprofessional – but find common ground with your clients.

This is very powerful and leads to an actual relationship – not just one person delivering a service to another.

Even More Important for CPAs

Certainly all service-based professionals should focus on building relationships with clients. But it’s especially important for CPAs.

Despite the accounting scandals of the last two years, accountants – especially small to medium-sized firms – are one of the the public’s most trusted professionals.

This means your clients are already receptive to you on a more personal level. Use this trust as a starting point.

Strong Relationships Lead to Cross-Selling

Of course, you would never refer to it as “cross-selling” with your clients. But the truth is, if you know your clients well, you have the leverage to offer them your full range of services.

Our CPA websites are an excellent way to meet all your clients’ needs:

• Your clients receive a Monthly Client Newsletter stuffed with tax tips, helpful articles, and even QuickBooks information. The articles remind your clients to get in touch with you for further details – thus driving more business back to your firm.

• Your Online Accounting services help you manage your clients’ books while keeping their data fully backed up and protected.

• 56 Interactive Financial Calculators allow your clients to make sense of their finances – including the gaps, where they might need more assistance from you.

• When you add the Online Payroll feature to your site, you show your business clients how you can safely and cost-effectively meet their payroll needs.

• A 10-page Tax Resource Center – including an Online Tax Organizer – allows clients to work on their taxes 24/7. This effectively tethers them to you and your offerings.

Don’t forget that your site includes 35 pages of details on the services you offer. Once you have a strong relationship in place, and you’ve identified a need of one of your clients, you can professionally “soft-sell” your services.

Start Building Relationships Today

If you have a website with CPA Site Solutions, you’re on your way to building strong client bonds. Consider adding the Online Accounting or Online Payroll modules to your site. And use your website as a meeting ground with clients – a place to connect and establish trust.

If you’re an accountant who needs a website – or thinks your current website could be improved – give us a call at 1-800-896-4500, or email us at support@cpasitesolutions.com. You get the first 60 days free!

What methods have you found to be most effective in building strong client relationships? Share your suggestions in the space below, or tweet us at @cpasitesolution.

A new Security Measures page helps clients understand the Web is not the Wild West anymore.

Are your clients afraid of the Internet? Do they mistrust the security of cyberspace? And does this prevent them from taking advantage of all CPA websites have to offer?

The Internet is not the Wild West anymore. Safety measures are now in place – firewalls, encryption, and anti-virus software – that make it a much more trustworthy environment.

It might be time to give your clients a little push – to show them how secure the Internet is these days. With a bit of encouragement, clients start to feel comfortable using the Web for more than just contact information.

A great place to start is your secure Client Portal. Once clients see how it improves their financial lives, they’re hooked. They’re more satisfied with your services…

And you reap the reward in higher retention.

Our New Security Page

You have an easier time convincing your skittish clients to use the Client Portal with the new Security Measures page.

Clients get to the new page with a link on the updated Client Portal page.

When clients go to the updated page on your site, they see this:

Your updated Client Portal page includes a link to information on Security Measures. Click on the image to enlarge.

When they click on that last link, they’re sent to a Security Measures page detailing the Portal’s impressive 14 layers of security.

Benefits of the Client Portal

Although they might need some encouragement to try it out, once your clients do take your Client Portal for a spin, they love the benefits.

The Client Portal provides…

• a secure, convenient, and easy way for you and your clients to exchange and share files;

• 24/7/365 access for clients to their tax returns, financial statements, scanned documents like W-2′s, employee data, corporation papers, and legal documents;

• secure access to their tax information – with your Online Tax Organizer – anytime from anywhere, so they no longer need to complete and mail paper organizers;

• a way for them to make entries, print reports, and have full access to QuickBooks, Sage Peachtree, or any accounting software from home, office, or any location in the world (when you add the Online Accounting module); and

• a secure environment to enter their hours and earnings, print detailed reports, print checks, make direct deposits, and file all federal and state payroll taxes (when you add the Online Payroll option).

There’s no question that the Client Portal improves your clients’ financial lives.

And in a way, when you push them to try the Portal, you’re doing your job at a high level – offering information, technology, and support to help your clients stay organized and in control of their finances.

How to Get the New Pages

Let us know if you want the new Security Measures page on your site. It means adding two pages – the updated Client Portal page as well as the Security Measures page.

If you’re at the Silver service level, visit our Help file called “Adding the Updated Client Portal and Security Measures Pages” to learn the steps involved in publishing them.

If you’re a Gold or Platinum client, give us a call at 1-800-896-4500 or email support@cpasitesolutions.com to request these pages. We’re happy to add them.

Every website with CPA Site Solutions comes with a free Tax Organizer. There is a previous post that details about how you can generate a PDF of the Tax Organizer to be used offline. The Online Tax Organizer has been recently improved making it faster and easier to use.

Save and Finish Changes for Later

Save and Finish Later. Although the Tax Organizer had an automatic save feature, there is now a button at the bottom of every page. Clients can now click on the Save and Finish Later button at anytime in the process.

Timeout. The Tax Organizer has a time out feature. This is designed to bump any user out after a long period of inactivity.

Although previously there were times when the Organizer would time out prematurely, that issue has been fixed. The current timeout is after approximately twenty minutes of inactivity. To avoid data loss, clients should save and close before they have to walk away from their computer.

Better, Faster, Stronger. It may not be the Six Million Dollar Man, but the Tax Organizer is faster then the previous version. This means that both you and your clients save time when using it.

Adding Client Access. Make sure you have either modified the default access rights or changed a specific user to include the Tax Organizer. This step assures that when they client logs into the portal they will see the Tax Organizer icon and have access to the Tax Organizer.

Add and Publish the 2009 Tax Organizer

Adding 2009 Tax Organizer. If you are unfamiliar with how the Tax Organizer works you can get help. You can add the 2009 Tax Organizer by logging in, choosing Manage Organizers and then clicking on Add 2009 Organizer near the bottom of the Subscriber Center.

Draft Versus Published. When the 2009 Organizer is added it is in draft mode by default. None of your clients see the Tax Organizer until it is published.

Before you publish the 2009 Tax Organizer you can edit the questions or add some of your own. Once you are satisfied then you can publish and all clients will then have access.

An important note to this is that once you publish the Tax Organizer you cannot edit it. It is good to make sure of your changes and then hit publish. If need be you can add another 2009 Tax Organizer and make a new draft with the changes in place that you need. This isn’t as efficient and should therefore be avoided.

The Online Tax Organizer is just one of many features included with any website hosted by CPA Site Solutions. Send us a comment on any of these by filling out the form below.