Life can be funny at times. For the past five years or so, those of us who inform, educate and advise accounting professionals have been beating the drum about the virtues of “going paperless.” Well I just returned from a conference of CPA firm IT directors, where I facilitated a panel discussion on electronic document management systems (EDMS).  I was only half surprised to hear a number of the participants complain that despite having implemented an EDMS, they are printing more paper than ever before.  There is nothing like the real world to screw up a good theory!

It’s that time of year again! As you read this review you’re knee deep into busy season and beginning to think about putting the finishing touches on another pressure packed tax season. So it’s a great time to begin the perennial exercise of exploring ways that you can improve the efficiency of your workflows so that you make next busy season more efficient and profitable. Or in other words, get more done by doing less. That concept should sound real good to you about now. This review of document management systems (DMS) is intended to help you down that path and to short circuit some of the research that can consume a lot of your valuable time.

Before we get into a discussion of specific vendor solutions, I would like to set the table by offering some insight into the benefits that firms that have gone down this path before you are experiencing. In order for you to believe that you are making the right decision for your firm to invest your time and money to deploy a DMS, you have to develop an appreciation for the benefits.