Accounting Firm Website Imperatives

To meet the needs and expectations for your clients in today's day and age, these are the things that you should expect from your website.

• Secure document exchange – In today's electronic world, accountants need to ensure that sensitive personal information is encrypted to safely protect inbound and outbound documents and the technology is integrated into the website for ease of use. With the plethora of hackers out there, your website should be use bank grade security (256 bit encryption) at all times. Some website providers drop their encryption levels when documents are resting to 128, which is not what you want.
• Electronic payment processing – Your website must help you get paid faster so you no longer have to wait for checks in the mail. Like direct deposit for payroll, accountants should be using ACH (eCheck) and credit card processing to get paid faster and avoid waiting 35-45 days for checks to arrive in the mail.
• Easy to locate your website on Google, Bing and Yahoo – To generate a steady flow of leads, your website must be search engine optimized so it's easy for prospects to learn more about what services your firm provides.
• Reputation management – Your website should help improve your reputation locally. That's right, your website should integrate with a reputation management tool which makes it easier for clients to place reviews online.
• Branding – Your website should create a favorable impression upon your prospects that helps put your best foot forward. The photography, colors and content should create an impression which is stronger than if they walked into the front door of your office. In today's world, websites educate prospects and replace the need for printed promotional pieces that were used in year's past. With the right website, a small accounting firm can compete more effectively with larger, more established firms.
• Client Communication system – Your website should distribute email newsletters, provide best practice articles, automate birthday greetings, provide blogging, encompass social media into the website and other types of communication that help you stay connected with your clients throughout the year.
• Integrate third party applications – Your website should integrate third party Saas applications so it's easy for clients and employees to quickly access information from the home page of your website. These third party applications can be for online payroll, accounting software, bill payment and cloud computing software programs.
• Mobile friendly – Your website should use responsive design to deliver the right layout to the right device. In other words, a cell phone visitor should be directed to a website designed for cell phones and a tablet visitor will receive a different version.

Build Your Firm's websites for accountants provide all of the above technologies and recognize the differences between the types of accounting firms out there. In other words, we understand that a website for a multi-partner CPA firm looks different from a sole practitioner, which also looks different from a small bookkeeping practice. Check out our gallery to see examples of websites that are just like your accounting firm.