Preparing for a Paperless Tax Season

By Kenneth McCall
December 2006
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These client portals are an underutilized and often underappreciated key to better client service and to reinforcing relationships with clients. One of the important benefits of a web portal is its security model. Many firms face problems with sending and receiving large files to and from clients, and unless specific steps are taken to secure them these attachments travel the Internet un-securely and open to interception. A client portal provides the same Secure Socket Layer (SSL) security that commercial websites use to protect credit card transactions, and can easily handle the upload and download of large files. Thus they can provide an attractive solution to both of the email issues addressed above. Once you publish a document to your client portal, you can send a simple email with a link included instructing your client to click the link, log into the portal, and retrieve his or her documents. It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s secure.

Process Improvements:
The benefits of “going paperless” in your tax department don’t end with the filing and delivery of finished products. In fact, the most significant benefits begin at the other end of the process chain.

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