AAA 2007 Benchmarking Paperless Office Practices 

2007

2005

1. TAX - Is your firm storing a firm copy of client tax returns in a digital (PDF) format?

87%

76%

2. TAX - Is the due date status of returns updated electronically by personnel in a real time format?

69%

66%

3. TAX - Is your firm scanning client supplied information for storage of tax return supporting documentation?

75%

56%

4. TAX - Does your firm primarily utilize email for communicating with tax clients for additional information requests?

54%

37%

5. TAX - Does your firm have a policy to deliver electronic tax information to your clients in a secure password protected or encrypted method?

45%

14%

6. TAX - Does your firm utilize dual monitors for all tax personnel?

69%

52%

7. TAX - Does your firm have any personnel with three or more monitors?

10%

NEW

8. TAX - Is your utilizing any intelligent scanning to organize scanned documents or input them into the tax return?

29%

NEW

9. AUDIT - Are documents prepared by clients requested in an electronic format such as a PDF, spreadsheet or scanned image?

68%

69%

10. AUDIT - Are all audit workpapers stored in a paperless audit application?

71%

59%

11. AUDIT - Is your firm producing financial statements utilizing electronic links between the audit application and the reports, rather than re-keying data?

75%

76%

12. AUDIT - Does your firm primarily link its audit application to its tax application to digitally transfer trail balance information?

64%

64%

13. AUDIT - Do your personnel working outside of the office access firm applications and information via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or Citrix/WTS more than 50% of the time?

54%

NEW

14. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm utilize an intranet to store firm wide information (i.e. personnel manual and internal firm procedures)?

68%

73%

15. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm deliver firm financial and management reports electronically via email, secure portal, or posted to owner section of the intranet?

46%

51%

16. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm have an electronic document destruction procedure to ensure deletion of outdated electronic files on the network?

39%

27%

17. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm primarily utilize a centralized scanning process for capturing images of documents (as opposed to individual preparers doing the scanning)?

67%

NEW

18. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm use a firm-wide document management program for archival of all final tax returns, financial reports and firm correspondence?

55%

43%

19. ADMINISTRATION - Does your firm pay accounts payables via electronic means such as credit card, online transfers, and direct deposit?

34%

NEW

20. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT - Do owners/managers receive internal management reports electronically (via email or by looking them up on the computer)?

67%

77%

21. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT - Are the majority of invoices prepared onscreen (rather than using billing sheets)?

51%

45%

22. PRACTICE MANAGEMENT - Does your firm maintain its contact/prospect list in its practice management or groupware application?

72%

75%

23. COMMUNICATIONS - Do all partners and managers utilize notebook computers as their only computer?

31%

49%

24. COMMUNICATIONS - Does your firm have a digital fax system that allows you to receive faxes via email and save them digitally to the network?

50%

33%

25. COMMUNICATIONS - Does your firm deliver client invoices by email or digital fax?

13%

30%

26. COMMUNICATIONS - Does your firm utilize a client portal/extranet to transfer and store client documents?

22%

NEW

27. COMMUNICATIONS - Do more than half (50%) of firm personnel have access to firm applications via electronic means to do work outside of the office?

67%

NEW

28. TECHNOLOGY - Does your firm backup all firm data to the Internet (web-based storage) on at least a monthly basis?

25%

NEW

29. TECHNOLOGY - Does your firm utilize a SharePoint team server or Lotus Notes knowledge database?

19%

NEW