Accounting firms are increasingly going paperless as they prepare for next tax season, relying more on scanners and workflow technology, according to a new survey.

The Association for Accounting Administration surveyed its members and found that 86 percent of the firms are scanning their client-supplied tax return supporting documents, compared to 75 percent who indicated the same in a similar survey two years ago.

Seventy-one percent of the firms said their personnel are updating the due-date status of returns in a real-time format and managing the digital workflow of tax documents, compared to 69 percent two years ago.

Fifty-seven percent of the firms are delivering electronic tax information to clients using secure password-protected or encrypted methods, compared to 45 percent two years ago. At least some of the personnel at 37 percent of the firms are using three or more monitors, up from 10 percent two years ago. Thirty-two percent are using intelligent scanning to organize their scanned documents or input them into the tax return, up from 29 percent two years ago.