Questions about accounting practice management software

Accounting practice management software is the system an accounting, tax or bookkeeping firm uses to run its client work. It tracks clients, repeating jobs and due dates, document requests, e-signatures, proposals, invoices and staff time. It doesn’t keep a client’s books or prepare returns; the firm’s ledger and tax software still do that.

No. Accounting software such as QuickBooks Online or Xero is the client’s ledger. Practice management software runs the firm’s own work around that ledger: requests, deadlines, signatures and billing. Some practice tools sync with the ledger, for example Financial Cents with QuickBooks Online on every plan.¹

No. Tax preparation stays in programs such as Drake, Lacerte or UltraTax. Practice management software handles what surrounds the return: organizers, document collection, e-signing and status. TaxDome, for example, reads a client’s prior-year return from six named tax programs to build the document checklist.²

Per-user pricing charges for each staff seat, so the bill grows when you hire; Karbon says client count doesn’t change its price.³ Per-active-client pricing charges for clients with activity in the past 12 months, with seats bundled; TaxDome includes 20 seats and starts at 150 active clients.^4,5

TaxDome counts a client as active after any activity in the past 12 months, such as logging in, uploading, messaging or receiving an invoice.⁴ Contacts without activity cost nothing. Each client account counts separately, so a person with a personal and a partnership return is two active clients.⁶

At list price as of 10 Nov 2026, billed annually, Canopy starts at $74 per user a month,⁷ Financial Cents at $19 a month for one user,⁸ Jetpack Workflow at $40 per user a month⁹ and Karbon at $59 per user a month.¹⁰ TaxDome starts at $1,500 a year for up to 150 active clients.⁵ Add-ons and payment fees come on top.

Often not yet, in our view. If both people see every client email and the due-date list is current, the software mostly adds a subscription. It starts to pay once someone has to ask where a client’s work stands, or the same documents get chased every season. One-user plans exist, such as Financial Cents Solo.⁸

A client portal is one part of practice management software: the side clients use to upload, answer, sign and pay. The rest is the firm’s side, with work, deadlines, time and billing. Jetpack Workflow is the reverse case: a workflow tool that lists no client portal, and the vendor says firms needing one pair it with other tools.¹¹

Workflow software covers one part of practice management: repeating jobs, checklists, due dates and assignments. Practice management software adds the client side, signatures, proposals and billing. Jetpack Workflow describes itself as a workflow tool rather than a full practice management suite, and says it doesn’t handle billing.^12,13

It depends on the vendor and how much you move. Canopy refunds its $199 self-guided implementation fee if six setup milestones are done within 60 days.¹⁴ Karbon puts its expert-led billing and payments go-live at 3 to 4 weeks.¹⁵ By TaxDome’s account, most firms complete implementation in 6 to 8 weeks.¹⁶

Usually some of it, and the amount varies. Canopy’s help center describes a client list export to CSV.¹⁷ Firmary lets an owner export the whole firm as a ZIP of CSV files and documents.¹⁸ TaxDome exports accounts, jobs, invoices and time as zipped CSV files.¹⁹ Run a test export before you commit.

TaxDome switched new firms from per-seat to per-active-client pricing for sign-ups from 2 Nov 2026 and merged its three plans into one.²⁰ Existing customers keep their plan and price until their first renewal on or after 1 Jan 2027, when they move to the new pricing.²⁰