Best Accounting Workflow Software for Accounting Firms 2024

With automation rapidly changing the way accounting tasks are done, accounting firms are faced with challenges never seen before in the industry. What should the response be?

The State of Accounting Workflow Automation Report, based on insights from 367 accountants, bookkeepers, and tax firm owners primarily in North America, sheds light on these challenges and the critical role of workflow automation software in addressing them.

This article looks at the findings and then recommends three leading accounting workflow software that will help you deal with the challenges the accounting industry faces, and automate your accounting workflow – taking your practice to the next level in 2024.

Insights from the report

The report provided some important information that not only highlights the urgency to automate your workflow but also gives you a solid business case for doing so.

Key challenges

• Getting documents and information from clients was the biggest workflow issue firms faced in 2023. This was a step forward from 2022 when manual data entry presented the biggest headache for firms.
• Workflow issues impacted the personal and social lives of firm owners and their employees because they regularly took work home and thought about work during social outings. They felt a great deal of stress and anxiety about gaps in workflow efficiency.
• Firm owners realized they needed to move to automation when they started adding extra employees, lost track of important information, and no longer had the capacity for new clients.
• Many firms are still on spreadsheets, wanting to make the shift to automation but are overwhelmed by the number of apps they have to choose from.
• 66.1% of respondents consider recurring tasks as the most important feature of accounting workflow management software.
• 66.8% assess the effectiveness of a workflow management solution by how smoothly their processes run.
• With nearly half of the respondents working remotely, the demand for a robust, workflow management tool is more apparent than ever.

The 12-step accounting workflow ready for automation

Setting the foundation for finding good workflow management software begins with understanding where in the workflow the software can automate tasks.

1. Client onboarding

The gathering of necessary client data and documents from new clients, establishing client communication terms, and setting up client accounts in the firm’s systems. Also, the introduction of the client to a client portal.

2. Document collections

Collecting financial documents such as bank statements, sales and supplier invoices, receipts, payments, and payroll records from clients. Part of this client management task is to set up communication tools for the smooth transfer of electronic documents to and from the client.

3. Data entry

Entering client financial data into the firm’s accounting software or spreadsheets for further analysis and processing.

4. Bank reconciliation

Comparing client bank statements with their accounting records to ensure accuracy and identify any discrepancies.

5. Categorizing transactions

Classifying transactions into appropriate accounts such as assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses.

6. Journal entries

Recording adjusting entries and other necessary journal entries to accurately reflect the financial position of clients.

7. Financial statement preparation

Generating financial statements including the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement based on the client’s financial data.

8. Tax Preparation

Preparing tax returns for clients, including income tax returns for individuals, businesses, and entities, as well as other tax filing such as sales tax and payroll returns.

9. Financial analysis

Analyzing client financial statements to assess their financial performance, identify areas for improvement, and provide financial strategies.

10. Client communication

Communicating with clients to discuss their financial reports, tax obligations, and any recommendations for optimizing their financial situation. Also, follow up with clients regarding any concerns they may have regarding their tax returns or financial statements.

11. Compliance review

Reviewing client financial statements and tax returns to ensure compliance with accounting standards, tax laws, and regulations.

12. Client relationship management

Building and maintaining strong relationships with clients to foster loyalty and encourage repeat business.

3 of the best accounting workflow management tools

Drawing from the 12-step workflow we evaluated three accounting workflow tools to understand where and how they would be able to increase efficiency and save you time and money.

1. Envoice – the comprehensive solution

Take your practice to the next level with workflow automation software by Envoice

Envoice might not be the best-known accounting workflow software, but this Estonian company has developed a product that is full of powerful and dynamic features that will greatly enhance your capability to scale your business.

What’s more, they’ve worked out how to offer this powerful automation tool to their clients for a very low monthly fee compared to their competitors ($11 a month for a business subscription, with no additional user fees). This makes the product accessible to small businesses and accounting firms, without reducing the quality of software you need to run your business.

Test it for 14 days – you won’t want to find anything else.

Let’s take a look at the product features that will help you sort out your workflow challenges within 2024.

Client onboarding

Envoice simplifies these initial steps by providing a collaborative workspace that is intuitive for clients, fostering effective communication, and reducing paper-based processes.

Document collection

 

Go fully digital with Envoice’s complete document management feature

You can transform document management into a fully digital, paperless experience with Envoice. Clients submit their documentation electronically, using a unique email address. Envoice eliminates the hassle of collecting and managing paper documents.

This significantly reduces the risk of misplacing important documents. Your clients can feel confident that you will receive the documents that they send you and that they will be kept confidential.

All invoices, receipts, payments, and financial transactions can be directed and sent to the Envoice inbox, where they can be sorted and categorized according to the rules you set up. With the Envoice mobile app, clients can capture their expenses on the run and send them directly to the system.

After using just two of the features you will already have saved time and money, but let’s continue because here is where Envoice really shines with its powerful data extraction technology. However, if you’ve seen enough and want to try this powerful software for 14 days, you can sign up for a FREE TRIAL NOW.

Data entry

 

Reduce manual data entry by 8 hours a week with Envoice

Perhaps the strongest feature of Envoice is that it makes pre-accounting work easy with its ability to extract data from electronic documents. Free yourself from actions that technology can do better, and get your accounting data extracted up to 99.9% accurately in seconds.

With Envoice, you can streamline your workflow and concentrate on more important tasks, confident that your financial data is accurate. With Envoice’s next-generation technology, bookkeeping has never been easier. Envoice’s advanced automation analyzes your recording patterns, providing accurate data extraction and categorization.

Work tracking

Optimize your processes with automation to ensure your team consistently follows crucial steps, ultimately improving efficiency and delivering value to clients more rapidly. You can have eyes on all outstanding tasks and approvals from the Envoice dashboard. Customize it to suit your needs, and get information quickly to act on it.

Envoice automatically sends alerts and notifications about the need for reviewing or approving a document expediting the workflow. Documents may have to go through multiple rounds of edits before they are approved, so notifications can ensure that items are accomplished quickly and that everyone is aware of the current status.

Rules for automating workflow

With Envoice you can run manual approval workflows where employees select approvers manually for each purchase or expense document or apply an automated approval process whereby approvers are predefined according to the supplier.

Record/Log

Having a record of every step in the approval process is one of its greatest benefits for increasing transparency and ensuring consistency. In the Approval log, you can view user history. See who has made changes, to what, and when.

Integrations

 

Envoice integrates with over 20 accounting software, file management and payment apps

Seamlessly integrate Envoice with your go-to software solutions and streamline your workflows. The automated syncing feature ensures that your data is always up-to-date across all platforms, saving you time and effort. Envoice integrates with over 20 popular accounting software, file management, and payment apps. This is the one platform that you’ve been looking for to get automation going in your accounting firm.

Collaborative workspace

Reduce delays by allowing your teammates and clients to send in-app messages to each other. Leave comments, ask questions, or send reminders by mentioning teammates to get quick responses and keep everyone on the same page. Give team members access to the expense and sales information for real-time overview so they can take immediate action. You can also sign documents electronically with Envoice, eliminating paper-based documents in your firm.

Explore all the features

Client Testimonials

But what do other clients think about Envoice? You can read some of their thoughts here:

“We actually think about Envoice as an accounting assistant. So instead of a human assistant who takes care of the more tedious tasks like data entry and other bookkeeping tasks, Envoice does it for us much quicker than any human would.”

Liis Laanesaar
Founder and COO, Klaar.me

“Our aim is to simplify business management processes for our clients even more while automating our processes but still offering a personal approach and direct contact to our accountants. Our cooperation with Envoice has enabled us to do all that.”

Ketlin Genergard
Head Accountant, 1Office Estonia

Take the first step to an automated workflow

Developed for accountants, you can trust Envoice to take your accounting firm to the next level. Envoice doesn’t lock you into annual contracts, so if it doesn’t meet your needs, no hard feelings. You can cancel anytime.

Sign up in three easy steps

2. Karbon

Following hot on the heels of Envoice is Karbon. They have made huge strides in developing a fully-fledged practice management platform. Similar to Envoice in many of the features, we give Karbon the thumbs up for:

• Simple and comprehensive pricing – at $89 a month, it’s not the most expensive option on the market, and yet it’s not $11 a month either. We like that everything is transparent and simple to understand.
• Holistic and powerful user experience
• Open API so you can integrate apps, build custom solutions, and optimize workflows
• Highly customizable to match your practice’s workflow
• Unite your team and collaborate with a single source of truth for all communication and client information

Client Testimonials

“Our firm has grown because of our reputation for communication and responsiveness. Karbon helps us provide that. We’re able to focus on the meaningful relationships and stand out against the crowd.”

Gary Wood, Compere Robinette CPAs

“We had been looking for the right platform for our team, for our clients, for ourselves and we feel like now that we have Karbon, we are in great hands and are looking forward to the future.”

Marisol Orozco, BWCO CPAs

If we look back at some of the challenges mentioned earlier in the article, Karbon is likely to get your workflow streamlined in a short time and you can automate recurring tasks, cutting down on time and resources needed. So it’s a yes from us, as an alternative to Envoice.

3. FinancialCents

A no-frills, easy-to-use practice management software that claims to be used by over 1,000 accounting firms, FinancialCents offers the following features:

• Project Management
• Workflow automation
• Email management
• Task management
• Client database
• Client portal
• Document management
• Time tracking and billing

At $69 a month, FinancialCents provides you with most of the features you’ll get from Envoice or $11 a month. Yes, we know we’ve mentioned this, but we’re still trying to get over it. You can track all the work going on across your firm from the dashboard and manage recurring tasks.

You can also sync with Outlook or Gmail to read all your emails from inside the FinancialCents platform. Set up automatic requests for clients to send you their documentation, and the software will track any outstanding requests.

After taking a look at the software demo, and comparing it with competitors such as Taxdome, Jetpack, and Clienthub it deserves third place on our list of best accounting workflow software.

Client Testimonials

“The business problem we are solving with Financial Cents is two fold. First, we are improving our internal communications. Second, we are ensuring that no project falls through the cracks.”

Michael McMullin | Managing Partner, Jack Trent & Co

“Clients can get reminded for task they need to complete and they can upload right into the software without setting up a login for themselves.”

Krista Sievers | Owner, Advanced Plus Bookkeeping

Last thoughts

In this article, we examined the workflow challenges that accounting firms face in 2024. Then we looked at three accounting workflow software that we believe could handle these challenges, and help you to move ten steps forward with automation this year.

Of course, we’re aware that we didn’t go into all the nitty-gritty of our second and third choices, but honestly, no one ever delves into the technique of the runner-up in a race. Everyone wants to know more about the winner, and our clear top choice is Envoice. But to be fair, people want choices and we’re happy to oblige.

The price and quality of the Envoice software mean you can’t go wrong by giving it a try. It is a powerful pre-accounting tool that will whip through your data capturing tasks, with the accuracy that no human can achieve. If that was all it offered, that would be enough, but it also extends to other areas of your workflow such as client communication, document uploading and storage, workflow approvals and a mobile app for scanning expenses on the move. What’s not to like?

If you agree, sign up in 3 easy steps and be well on your way to workflow automation by close of business.

All the best for 2024 and beyond, we hope this will be the year that you fully embrace automation and burst into the world of doing things smarter, not harder.