Driven by the growth of cloud computing and an understanding of how little most small businesses want to delve into the minutiae of accounting, the market for small business accounting software has exploded in the last decade. Still, it remains a hard market to serve. The new entrants are able to make use of the economies of "software as a service" in ways that the larger, more established vendors with their legacy customer base have some difficulties in matching.

Despite the profits it can generate and the benefits it may offer in client relationship management, these are difficult times for payroll vendors and their accounting partners. Competition continues to increase from banks and other financial institutions, driving a wave of consolidations and undercutting prices.

In the "2014 Accounting Firm Operations and Technology Survey and eBook," a report from Insight Research Group and the Network Management Group, Inc., 32 percent of accounting firms reported that the most significant technology challenge they face in the next three years is to enhance workflow and internal efficiency. This challenge tops the list of critical management issues industry-wide. Yet at the same time, the report notes that 59 percent of firms are using no formal document management system, or are still using a paper-based manual system.