So why the portal?

A good portal today:
•    Creates a secure pipeline between the CPA Firm and the client
•    Allows the CPA Firm to easily store documents and files
•    Allows the client to easily access documents and files
•    Allows the client to upload documents and files for access by the CPA Firm.

With the influx of more and more documents in digital format (tax returns, financial statements, bank statements, brokerage statements, loan agreements, proposals, etc..) it only makes sense to create a conduit to easily transfer these documents between all parties involved. Many CPA Firms have decided that conduit should be the “portal.”

If setup properly, the portal will:

•    Be more secure than sending the file as an email attachment
•    Have the ability to control file access
•    Have the ability to control file versions
•    Easier to manage than encrypted emails
•    Create an environment where only one file will exist (as opposed to emails, where a copy will end up in a sent box, another copy in an Inbox and countless other copies stored on local and network storage devices.

When it comes to security, many firms are also quickly becoming more aware of the litigious environment in which we do business. Today, forty-eight states have security breach legislation or laws in place.
Here is a graphic depiction from the State Privacy Regulations as found at: http://infotech.aicpa.org/Resources/Privacy

/Federal+State+and+Other+Professional+Regulations/State+Privacy+Regulations/

There are many ways to disseminate confidential and financially sensitive information to a Firm’s client base. Firms that have not yet implemented a content management system generally opt to go with applications that either encrypt the email message or the attachments to that email. Email encryption applications can sometimes be tricky to use and cause frustrations on the part of the client when they attempt to unencrypt the message and/or the attachment.

Many firms jumped on the content management bandwagon three to five years ago. Today, a good content management system acts as the central respository for documents and other files shared with a Firm’s client base.

Many content management systems offer a very easy to implement, client portal module or add-in. Some of the best systems allow the CPA Firm to flag specific documents for access by their clients, while at the same time not allowing access, or even the ability to view, certain other files stored in the content management system.

So how does the client access the portal?

A good portal, regardless of whether the portal is housed on servers physically located within the CPA Firm or on servers located outside the Firm stored at an ASP (Application Service Provider), will have the same look and feel as the Firm website that the client may have become accustomed to visiting. Clients are generally given a unique login name and assigned a password which they have the ability to change upon their initial login. Once securely in the site, the client is generally presented with their own window into the Firm’s content management system. That window allows them to view and access files which have been pre-selected for them to view and access by the CPA Firm’s staff.

For those Firms with an existing content management system, implementation of a portal is generally quick and easy. Within my own firm, we implemented our portal in February 2006. Even with the start of tax season well underway, the transition to the portal, as a primary means of information dissemination to our clients, was a seamless process.

I am aware of many firms today that have selected their portal as the preferred method of delivery of all of the tax returns prepared by those firms to their client base. Under this scenario, a firm will see an immediate reduction in costs associated with processing time, paper and printer supplies, postage, etc…, not to mention the significant inroads the firm will make in protecting the confidentiality of its client data.