Clifton Gunderson Technology Solutions, the technology consulting arm of Clifton Gunderson, has signed a new sales, marketing and development contract with Intacct and CPA2Biz, a subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs, allowing the firm to resell the Intacct’s Web-based accounting software and use it for outsourced accounting services.
The firm, a long-time consultant and reseller for Microsoft Dynamics, Sage, Deltek and Intuit products, will now add Intacct to its product line.
Clifton Gunderson has also joined the Intacct Accountants Program from CPA2Biz.
As part of the program, the firm will utilize Intacct within its business process outsourcing practice, which offers accounting services for small and midsized businesses. Using the Intacct Accountant Edition, both firm staff and their clients can share real-time access to financial information over the Internet.
“Our traditional technology-consulting people are doing the VAR arrangement, while the CPA2Biz arrangement is part of what we call our entrepreneurial business services, in which accounting services, CFO work, etc., will be offered as well,” said Clifton Gunderson partner and director of technology consulting Mickey Scheffki. “I like that the AICPA is taking an active role to offer an opportunity to CPA firms, and it’s a different way of viewing accounting services and write-up work that you can be involved real-time. There is no more need for after-the-fact. Boxing up [receipts and documents] and getting financials at the end of the month doesn’t work anymore. People work in and want real-time.”
Scheffki also noted that the firm selected a cloud-based accounting product to resell and use for outsourced accounting services because there has been a growing demand from clients.
“Many of our clients and prospects have multiple locations and remote workers who require anytime, anywhere access to financial information,” she said. “To better serve them, we knew we needed to expand our application portfolio to include a cloud-based system. Intacct’s whole model seems to have been designed to work better with accountants. The mindset of some other [vendors] is to sell the product and not the idea there would be an accountant involved that would be a part of the process.”
Through the Intacct Accountants Program from CPA2Biz, Clifton Gunderson’s technology practice will receive special discounted per-client pricing for the Intacct Accountant Edition, free training, dedicated partner technical support, plus implementation, sales and marketing assistance. In addition, AICPA member firms that join the program may use Intacct internally to manage the firm's business at no charge.
“Our Intacct Accountants Program continues to attract leading firms,” said CPA2Biz president and chief executive Erik Asgeirsson. “It certainly sends a strong signal within the profession when a visionary firm like Clifton Gunderson expands its use of cloud computing to deliver even better service to clients. The cloud creates many unique opportunities for firms, like greater synergies across practice areas. We’re working with a number of firms who envision their consulting services practice as a powerful lead source for their outsourced CFO practice under a cloud model.”
