Industries · Accounting firms
IT for accounting and bookkeeping firms
From February to June your practice cannot afford a bad day. We keep accounting firms across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley running through tax season — with client data handled the way your clients assume it already is.
IT priorities
- Multi-factor authentication on email, the portal and remote access
- A change freeze and a support plan for tax season
- Backups of both cloud data and any on-premises document store, with restores tested before January
- A written process for verifying payment or banking changes by phone
- Offboarding that removes seasonal accounts the week they end
- Workstations and scanners fast enough to keep preparers working
Overview
Technology for accounting firms
Accounting practices run on a short list of systems that absolutely have to work: tax preparation software, a document manager holding years of client files, a portal clients use to send documents, and payroll or bookkeeping platforms that touch client bank accounts. Most of the year that stack is quiet. For four months it decides whether the firm makes its deadlines.
The risk profile is unusual too. Your firm holds SINs, banking details, corporate records and personal financial history for hundreds of people — the exact material behind tax fraud and payment redirection scams. Criminals know accounting inboxes are worth taking over, and invoice fraud aimed at a bookkeeper is now routine rather than rare.
We support accounting firms remotely first, which matters when something breaks at 9pm in April, and on site across the region when equipment needs hands. The work is the unglamorous kind: sign-ins locked down, backups that restore, workstations that stay fast under a scanning and filing load, and file exchange that doesn't rely on emailing attachments.
Scope
What we look after
What we keep running
- Tax preparation and engagement software, including the seasonal version updates
- Document management and the years of client files behind it
- Client portals and secure file exchange
- Bookkeeping and payroll platforms
- Scanners, multi-function printers and dual-monitor workstations
Microsoft 365 for a practice
- Email with multi-factor authentication on every account
- SharePoint and OneDrive structured by client, not by whoever saved it
- Shared mailboxes for admin, payroll and year-end enquiries
- Retention settings that match your records policy
- Independent backup of mail and files
Security that fits the data
- Protection against mailbox takeover and payment redirection fraud
- Email authentication so your domain is harder to spoof
- Encrypted laptops and managed devices for staff working from home
- Access that ends the day someone leaves, including seasonal staff
- Tested restores, not just backup reports
Pressures
What makes IT different for accounting firms
A season, not a year
Capacity, support and change freezes all have to be planned around filing deadlines. Upgrades happen in the summer, never in March.
Client money is the target
Compromised email is used to redirect payments and file fraudulent returns. Sign-in security and payment-change verification matter more here than almost anywhere.
Seasonal staff, permanent access
Co-op students and contract preparers get accounts each spring. Without a clean offboarding routine, those accounts quietly accumulate for years.
Records that must survive
The Canada Revenue Agency requires books and records to be kept for six years, and electronic records must stay readable for that period — which is a retention and backup question, not a filing-cabinet one.
Clients email things they shouldn't
Statements and identity documents arrive as plain attachments. A portal only helps if it's easier than replying to the email.
Privacy obligations
BC's Personal Information Protection Act requires reasonable security for the personal information your firm holds, and clients increasingly ask how it's protected before they hand it over.
Priorities
Where we start
- Multi-factor authentication on email, the portal and remote access
- A change freeze and a support plan for tax season
- Backups of both cloud data and any on-premises document store, with restores tested before January
- A written process for verifying payment or banking changes by phone
- Offboarding that removes seasonal accounts the week they end
- Workstations and scanners fast enough to keep preparers working
Other sectors
We also support
Every sector is supported across Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
FAQ
IT for accounting firms: questions
Can you support our tax software?
Yes. We support the workstations, servers, permissions and updates that tax and engagement software depends on, and we coordinate with the vendor's support when the application itself is the problem. The seasonal version update is the one we plan around first.
Is it safe to keep client files in Microsoft 365?
Yes, with the settings done properly: multi-factor authentication, sharing rules that don't default to "anyone with the link", a structure organized by client, retention that matches your records policy, and an independent backup. Most firms already pay for these capabilities and simply haven't had them configured.
How do we stop invoice and payment fraud?
Layer it: strong sign-in security so mailboxes aren't taken over, email filtering and domain authentication so spoofed messages are caught, alerts for suspicious forwarding rules, and a rule that no banking change is actioned without a phone call to a known number. Our cybersecurity checklist covers the technical half.
Do you work around tax season?
Yes. We schedule projects and upgrades for the quiet months, keep changes to a minimum during filing season, and plan support around your deadline weeks rather than a standard calendar.
Can AI help in a practice like ours?
For the administrative work, often yes — drafting client correspondence, summarizing meetings, sorting documents and chasing missing paperwork. It should not be pointed at client data without checking where that data goes first. See AI consulting and our guide to what to automate first.
Services
Services for accounting firms
Managed IT Services
Help desk, device and Microsoft 365 management, security and backups — your outsourced IT department under one agreement.
Learn more->Cybersecurity
Security assessments, MFA, endpoint protection, email security, backups and staff training — the controls that stop common attacks.
Learn more->Cloud Services
Microsoft 365 migrations, Azure and AWS infrastructure, cloud backup and server replacement — planned, migrated and managed.
Learn more->
Guides
Guides for business owners
[Security]
Cybersecurity Checklist for Small Businesses in BC
A cybersecurity checklist for BC small businesses built on the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline controls, plus what to do after a breach.
[Cloud]
Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for Small Businesses
A Microsoft 365 (Office 365) migration checklist for small businesses: migration types, licence choices, DNS and cutover steps, security settings and timelines.
[Costs]
How Much Do Managed IT Services Cost in Vancouver?
What managed IT services cost in Canada: pricing models, what's included, published Canadian rates, a 15-person Vancouver office budget and how to compare quotes.
Get in touch
Talk to us about IT for your accounting firm
Tell us about your business and what you need from technology. We reply within one business day.
Tell us what's going on
Send the form or call. A rough idea of your team size and current setup helps us come prepared.
A 30-minute conversation
We ask about your people, systems and goals, and flag anything urgent we notice along the way.
A written proposal
Clear scope, a plain-English plan and pricing laid out line by line. Nothing starts until you approve it.