5 Benefits of Client Portal Software for Accountants

Published on: 23 December 2021 Last Updated on: 05 February 2025

The use of portal software to serve accounting clients benefits both accountants and customers. This innovative cloud platform gives accountants on-demand access to their customers’ documents while providing a workspace for productive employee-client collaboration.

The following information will give you further insights into how this technology saves time and secures your client’s data on a convenient, easy-to-access cloud platform.

The choice of software is important as it can mean the difference between efficient file management and unexpected operational setbacks. Therefore, the addition of customer portal software gives you the edge you need to meet your clients’ accounting and service requirements.

Selecting the Right Client Software for Accountants

Integrating a client portal software for accountants into your IT operations offers five key benefits. Not only does the software increase brand awareness, but it also helps you manage files and tasks, communicates better with employees and clients, and saves you time and money. The following information further explains these five advantages.

1. Highlight Your Brand

Impress your clients with your brand by white labeling your software. Doing so will allow anyone visiting your portal to easily identify your practice and review your services. Customize your software – choose your color scheme and underscore your business logo.

2. Manage Several Files Simultaneously

Do you have problems locating files? If so, portal software for accountants can keep all your files managed in one place so you can access them instantly.

The files archived in a portal application can assist you in handling a number of reports proficiently and easily. These documents include payroll, tax data, profit and loss information, and similar financial info.

You can retrieve multiple files as well as control document access. The system also allows you to share external files, as needed. All this is done in a secure virtual environment.

3. Plan and Organize Tasks More Efficiently

Not only can you access files quickly with a customer portal software program, but you can also enhance task management and organization. The use of a task management application enables you to expand your practice, allowing you to:

Improve internal processes
Schedule meetings and projects for employees and customers
Keep track of upcoming deadlines
Give progress updates

When you have this ability, both your employees and customers feel more engaged and confident. Organizing and prioritizing tasks lends to a more productive and satisfying workplace.

4. Enjoy Better Communication and Client Support

As an accounting practice, it is important to keep the line of communications open and transparent. This applies to both your clients and employees. Doing so supports solid connections and open and honest support.

When you use a customer portal, you immediately enjoy competitive advantages over other accounting firms. Why use email when your employees and clients can access one portal to collaborate on tasks?

5. Increase Your Revenue Stream

Make it easy for customers to pay for your services by including subscriptions to your portal software. Subscriptions allow you to receive ongoing payments each month. Customers like this feature, as it does not place them under any lengthy contractual obligations.

Final Analysis

You cannot run an accounting practice today without the proper software in place. That is why it is important to depend on portal software that you can share internally and with clients. Cut your operational costs, build your brand, and add to your influence in the accounting industry. The best way to do this is to choose software that is client-based.

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Waterjet Vs. Laser Cutting: Which Is Worth The Hype?

Waterjet and laser cutters can slice through materials that no other cutting tool can. They are invaluable for prototyping products and precision manufacturing. But which one is worth the hype - waterjets or laser cutters? This article provides everything you need to know about waterjet vs laser cutting units. Learn how they work and which one is best for your industrial manufacturing facility. Waterjet Vs Laser Cutting: Unlike the vast majority of blades and saws, waterjets and laser cutters don't have a blade. The lack of a blade makes engraving and detail work much more precise. And, waterjets and laser cutters are computer operated, as to achieve a very high level of precision. Both machines can engrave minute lettering and symbology into a wide range of manufacturing materials. But each machine goes about it a very different way. Both methods of cutting excel with 2D objects and engraving, but which is better: waterjet or laser cutting? What Is Laser Cutting? Laser cutting uses a high-focus laser to cut or engrave materials. Laser cutting is a method of subtractive manufacturing, which means it only takes away material. This is in opposition to additive manufacturing, like 3D printing. Special software guides the lasers using mirrors. A gas power source provides energy to the system, usually in the form of CO2. The CO2 fuels the laser which outputs between 1,500 and 2,600 watts. Some systems implement an additional gas jet to expel the excess material. Laser cutting is a very precise form of subtractive manufacturing. The intense heat of the laser cuts through material like a razor using a precision burn. Laser systems cut material from sheets or large panels. Laser Cutter Materials: Laser cutting systems make precision cuts in a wide range of materials. The only material that a laser cutter is not "cut-out" for is reflective metals. The reflective property of some metal reflects the laser off of the cutting surface, which can be dangerous. Laser cutters are great for cutting glass, wood, plastic, and a wide range of metals. Laser cutters encounter obstacles, however, when trying to cut compound materials. If the material contains multiple materials, then it has multiple melting points. If the material has multiple melting points, then a laser takes longer to cut through it, and cuts can become uneven. Laser cutting systems work the best with flat sheets of material, with a thickness range between 0.1 inches to just under a half-inch. And, most laser cutting systems proficiently perform the functions of cutting, drilling, engraving, welding, ablating, and structuring. What Is Waterjet Cutting? Waterjet cutting systems utilize a high-pressure waterjet to slice through materials. The water is shot through a very fine point and creates over 60,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. For tougher materials, a mixture of water and an abrasive acts like a diamond saw blade. Garnet is a common abrasive for use in waterjet cutters. Aluminum oxide is another common abrasive that you can use with a waterjet cutter. The process of waterjet cutting is a high-speed version of natural erosion. With a big enough waterjet cutter, you can make another grand canyon in a fraction of the time. Read more about how the best water jets can cut through anything nature makes. Waterjet cutters differ from laser cutters in that the power source does not reside with the cutting unit. Since a waterjet cutter outputs between 4 to 7 kilowatts, the water pump is located away from the worksite. This is also true because the water source is rarely nearby your bench. Waterjet Cutting Materials: Unlike a laser cutter, waterjet cutters can effectively cut almost any material. They have no problem cutting through compound materials with multiple material types. The pure pressure of the water jet is enough to cut cleanly through anything. Waterjet cutter units are especially useful for cutting precisely through masonry. They're also good for cutting and structuring stone, thick metals, ceramics, and glass. Waterjets handle thicker material than laser cutters. They can handle material that is up to around 2 inches thick. But they don't do as well with material thinner than 0.4 inches. Level of Waste from Waterjet vs Laser Cutting: Laser cutters create a minimal amount of off-fall and waste. Very little, if any, cleanup is required after cutting. The only waste that laser cutting produces is a small amount of dust that is easily vacuumed up. Waterjet cutting, on the other hand, creates a lot of waste. You might think that waterjet cutting would be cleaner, but it is not. The abrasive material in the water adds a toxic element to the off-fall liquid. For this reason, waterjet cutting requires special waste-water disposal, safety gear, and a bigger project budget. What's the Cost to Purchase and Operate a Waterjet vs Laser Cutter? A plasma laser cutting machine will cost between $15,000 to over $250,000 at the initial purchase. Waterjet cutters are more expensive because they require more specialized materials. They range from $100,000 to around $400,000. On average, either machine will cost around $350k. Expensive industrial machines can exceed $1,000,000. On average, a laser cutter costs between $13 to $20 an hour to operate. Waterjet cutting systems run between $15 to $30 an hour to operate. Final Thoughts: At the end of the day, waterjet cutters cost up to five times more to operate than laser cutters. Waterjet cutters can cut thicker and more complex materials, but they are slower than laser cutters. So, when considering waterjet vs laser cutting, laser cutting will save you time and money. If you like this article on which is better, share it with your friends on social media. And check out the blog for more resources on hardware and gadgets. Thanks for reading! Read Also: How Portable Metrology Tools Are Making Manufacturers More Flexible

Top cloud security controls you should be using

Most organizations use at least some form of cloud storage, yet security issues are still a top concern. Data loss and security breaches are always in the news, with some of the most high profile data breaches to happen in 2018 so far including those that occurred at Reddit, Timehop, and FedEx. What this shows us is that even large companies can make mistakes that seriously compromise the security of their data. A 2017 survey conducted by Clutch revealed that while confidence in cloud storage security is high among small businesses, most are not doing enough themselves to protect their cloud storage. After all, cloud security requires involvement from the user, as well as the provider. We go over some of the top cloud security controls your business should be using to help ensure your data is adequately protected. Why do you need cloud security control? Every day, sensitive information continues to fall into the wrong hands. That’s according to Breach Level Index, as of August 2018. While cloud computing can be great for businesses, providing several benefits such as cost savings and data portability, it does come with certain information security risks. To protect your business against vulnerabilities, you need to put specific controls and standards into place. That’s where cloud security controls come in. They help to address, evaluate, and implement cloud security. They can include the following types of controls. Deterrent: These serve as a warning to potential attackers, warning of possible adverse effects if they were to proceed in their attempt, thereby helping to deter unlawful access. Preventative: These controls strengthen the system against attacks, protecting and managing vulnerable parts of the storage. Corrective: These help to reduce the consequences of an attack, which typically involves limiting damage. This could take place during or after the incident occurs. Detective: These controls will identify or detect an attack, and then respond to the incident. If an attack is detected, the detective control will signal to the corrective and preventative controls in an attempt to minimize damage. Using different types of controls will help to limit and prevent potential damage when using cloud storage solutions. What seems to be the problem? What businesses need to understand is that you cannot rely on your provider to do all the hard work. The issue is not that the cloud environment itself is insecure, but that customers are failing to configure their networks, applications, and data accurately. For instance, let’s take a look at what went wrong with Timehop. On 7 July 2018, the company was affected by a significant data breach that included email addresses, names, dates of birth, and phone numbers being taken. What was the issue? A cloud account that didn’t have multi-factor authentication. For Reddit, although they had two-factor authentication in place, their SMS-based authentication was not as secure as it needed to be. As for FedEx, the problem traces back to Bongo International LLC, a company bought by FedEx back in 2014, which had been storing sensitive client data on an open Amazon S3 bucket. The data had been available for public access for several years, having been collected from 2009 to 2012. Data can be put at risk in many different ways, so it’s essential to have the proper controls in place from the start. Find out what you are responsible for Many cloud services will offer some level of security. What companies need to do is find out exactly what they are responsible for when it comes to securing the data that is uploaded to the cloud. Ignorance is no excuse. Speak to your provider and find out which cloud security controls you are responsible for and what services they offer. Whatever tools are at your availability, make sure you use them all. Ultimately, you are responsible for securing your data, so take advantage of any security tools at your disposal, then make sure you take care of the rest. Limit cloud access A good way to reduce risk is to limit who has access to the sensitive information you are storing. Public cloud storage resources, such as Amazon’s S3 bucket, should not allow external access. Leaving SSH open is another common mistake. You should only allow those who must use the data directly to carry out their job to have access to the data. You can grant temporary access on an as-needed basis to any additional employees. Make the most of the identity and access control tools used by most major cloud providers, so you always know who has access to your data. When granting access, you have the option to limit what data someone has permission to access. Delegate appropriate permissions as needed and remove or disable accounts if an employee leaves the company. Keep your data secure One of the most common mistakes that companies make is to leave data unencrypted. You want to be sure that even if all other security measures fail, you have at least encrypted your data as a last measure of protection. While some providers offer encryption, companies should still use their own encryption techniques alongside these. Your decryption keys should remain within the company so that you can maintain control over these at all times. Learn from past mistakes Even large companies make mistakes when it comes to cloud security. You cannot merely rely on your provider to handle all aspects of security. Users need to ensure they are using current cloud security controls to ensure their data remains secure. The good thing is that we can learn from others’ mistakes. You can take extra precautions and implement certain controls and standards to improve security. Just make sure you pay attention to what is happening in the world of cloud security and update standards and controls accordingly. Read Also : What You Are Paying For With A Virtual Data Room Top 10 Computer Security Mistakes

The Complex World of Plastic and How Useful is it to Humanity

Plastic and plastic polymers are very useful elements that form an important part of our daily lives. Anyone can find in nearly every product we use. Manufactured and synthetic polymers scientifically discovered and introduced for consumption usage in the 17th and 18th century. Ever since then they have helped improve the quality of human life by helping humanity in a wide variety of ways. You may be wondering what the difference is between plastic and polymers — and the key distinction is that plastic is a specific type of polymer. Plastics manufacturers make plastics from a chain of polymers, where polymers manufacturers compose polymers of smaller, and uniform molecules. Humans would never have designed and developed a number of everyday products and articles if plastics had not been invented. If we are to ascertain the usage of strong and lightweight plastics, we find that they have contributed immensely in the automobile and aviation industries, making cars and airplanes significantly lighter, thereby cutting down drastically on the total value of energy required to make them operational. Plastic usage in such industries has also led to a reduction in emissions. What are plastic polymers? Plastic is not a naturally occurring material in nature which means that they are synthetically produced in laboratories and factories. Polymers usually bind with substances occurring organically in nature and create newer properties and elements. For example, synthetic polymers comprise of collective materials like polyethylene, nylon, and polyester that have a percentage of organic mixtures. Synthetic polymers combined with organic compounds which plastic producers found in everyday consumer products like optical devices, adhesives, textiles, automobiles, foams, and coatings. Aside from that one can also use in medical devices, packaging products, and other things. How is plastic made? The complex compound of plastic usually evolves from elements occurring naturally in the world. After all, researchers have stated before. Organic elements like crude oil, natural gas, cellulose, and salt are a few of the naturally found elements that plastic producers use in the production of plastic. Crude oil is a complex mixture of thousands of compounds. Polymer manufacturers mainly process this before you are using this. The first step of the production of plastic begins by processing crude oil. In other words, crude oil starts as the base element, which is then technologically separated into segments, divisions, and elements. This is mainly variable mixtures of hydrocarbons. Each of these elements varies from one another in shape, structure, and size. The complex mix of chains of hydrocarbons is instrumental in creating polymers, which are of a synthetic nature through twin processes of polymerization and polycondensation. Once these two processes are complete, the polymer chains need to be converted into the finished products. The final product is a result of one of two things: extrusion or injection molding. Extrusion vs. Injection Molding: There are several differences between the two, but the first thing to know about the injection molding process is that it uses a die. This is essentially a recreation of the object that you wish to produce, however it takes on the appearance of a container. This container is “injected” with the plastic substance which will then harden and take on the form of the product. Once the cooling is complete, polymer manufacturers demold the component. Manufacturers such as Solex Thermal Science have created processes that make the injection molding process more efficient and inexpensive. Their heat exchanger is capable of handling any relatively free-flowing powder or crystalline bulk solids. This new heat exchanger technology makes it the perfect candidate to heat and cool polymers in an energy efficient manner. This exchanger heats and cools to uniform temperatures while using up to 90% less energy. Controlling the temperature of the polymer is an important step in maintaining product quality and ensuring a consistent capacity. In comparison to traditional technologies, such as the drum dryer, which uses a large quantity of hot air to direct dry the product, this solution separates the heat transfer and moisture removal components, significantly reducing energy consumption. Extrusion uses a different process as it also uses a die, but in a completely different manner. During the extrusion molding process, plastic manufacturers melt the plastic materials and place into the die under pressure. In this case, however, the die will eject the material and it will take on the form of said die. Plastic manufacturers complete this procedure in a continuous manner. Even they sometimes consider to be a bit faster than standard injection molding. How It Shapes Up: Once these processes are complete, after that plastic manufacturers determine the purpose of the plastic. It takes its permanent shape or form and polymer manufacturer industry transfers to its final destination. In the end, all plastic production processes take the same steps but some may be more time and cost efficient. The key is to look for agents in the plastics supply chain that provide optimal heating and cooling solutions using cutting-edge, energy-efficient technology. Read Also: Less Waste – Something You Can Do For The World

5 Benefits of Client Portal Software for Accountants