Managing all your clients effectively and building strong relationships with them can be a great formula for success for any business. For accountants and CPAs, this can be achieved by relying on accounting client management software that works. If you want to know what client management software can do for you and how you can find the right one, here’s a simple guide for you.

Different Types of Client Management Software

Client management software is a way to centralize, manage, and track all of your client information. This is a vital tool for accountants, CPAs, and tax professionals since they deal with a variety of clients on a daily basis. Now, client management software is further classified into two major types—Client Relationship Management and Client Management Software. Let’s explore both:

Client Relationship Management (CRM)

A customer relationship management tool or a CRM is designed to help firms establish and maintain relationships with potential leads and existing customers. It tracks interactions with potential and current customers for you. A typical CRM has the following features:

• Contact Management
• Sales Forecasting
• Workflow Approvals
• Sales Analytics
• Lead Management
• Email Client Integration
• Sales Team and Customer Opportunity Management
  

CRM’s are typically more sales-focused, and that is apparent in the common features in most CRMs. Now, CRM allows you to store a large amount of client data in its systems. However, they are less than ideal because the feature set is typically very limited for client-driven firms. One good example of a CRM is Salesforce, which is currently the market leader, while there are numerous other similar applications that have pretty much the same functionality.

Client Management Software

A client management software, on the other hand, is less about the “sales pipeline” as it focuses more on the ongoing management of the client relationship. Client management software can go by many titles, such as client contact software or customer management software. Whatever name you use, they all focus on a single goal, which is to maintain a single point of record to manage and track your client work.

While some management software has similar features as a CRM, they’re not optimized for sales pipeline management. What you would find in a client management software are things like:

• Team Collaboration
• Project Management
• Due Date Tracking
  

Those are just a few of the core features you’ll find in a typical software. What sets most client management software from CRMs is its huge impact on your bottom line. You’ll be able to perform project management more efficiently, adhere to schedules a lot easier, and overall boost your productivity.

Finding the Right Software

Finding the perfect tool for your firm requires a lot of research and consideration. Some of the most notable things you need to look out for are the software’s utility, price, support and service, as well as familiarity and understanding of your industry. Not all software will be designed for your industry or needs, so you need to look for something that works well with your industry. 

Conclusion

Choosing what client management software is best for your firm and for your clients isn’t an easy decision to make. But you can be sure that you’ll need a reliable tool to help you manage all of your client’s information. This guide should help you make better sense of what these tools can do for you and which of them will work best for your firm.

Your quest for the perfect software for your team ends now. Firm360 is an all-in-one platform designed to help you streamline your accounting practice so your team can get more work done. If you’re looking for a reliable and intuitive client management software for accountants, Firm360 is your first choice. Contact us today to book a demo!