Are They Serious About Paperless Accounting?

Brigante, Cameron, Watters & Strong, LLP
By John Cameron, Managing Partner
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Q: And how secure is the system from fire, earthquake and other disasters?
Cameron: All our firm’s records are backed up by remote data storage systems, including some in other states. I’m sure most of the larger accounting firms do the same. So, the protection is much better than with paper records that would have to be copied, shipped and stored off-site.

Q: Are there differences in accuracy, as between paper and electronic systems?
Cameron: Sure. Any time you move a piece of information from one place to another or one user to another without re-entering it on a keyboard, you’ve removed an opportunity for error. We routinely move data between accountants, and between our firm and its clients, and almost all of it is done electronically.

We also provide our clients financial statement templates that allow them to transmit their data so it can be entered directly into our system. That way, there’s no need to repeat the keystrokes and no danger of transposition or other error.

This becomes very important at tax time. We receive a lot of information from our clients electronically, and actually keep very few of our clients’ paper records in our office.

Q: What portion of your clients’ returns are filed electronically?
Cameron: About 95 percent. We file all that we can electronically; the few exceptions are those that for some technical reason must be done on paper. The State of California now requires that all individual returns be filed electronically.

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