Kicking Your Technology Investment
Into High Gear

InfoTech Update
An AICPA Publication
Vol. 16. No. 3
May / June, 2007
By Stephen Barrett, CPA.CITP, MCP
DOWNLOAD THIS ARTICLE

Manual vs. Automatic

Like many other technology terms, “automation” has been thrown around quite a bit over the past few years and can mean many different things. Automation could mean something as simple as sharing contact information among multiple applications, or something as complex as creating engagement files based on information entered into the
practice management system.

By using automation, we can drastically condense data entry, lessen the amount of time spent entering new clients into the various systems and decrease time spent “rolling forward” engagements from year to year – all while increasing the accuracy of these tasks, which ultimately results in the reduction of staff time and review time.

Automating processes takes time. As a result, careful consideration must be given to determine which processes are good candidates for automation and what will be required in order to achieve the desired results. Because the data will be shared between multiple systems, it is important that the systems allow for such access.

NextPrevious