Accounting Power Starts From a Different Assumption
Many accounting systems assume that the small-business client operates the books and invites the accountant in periodically.
Accounting Power is designed around the accounting professional.
Its current product description says the system is exclusively designed and sold to professional accountants and combines professional accounting tools with a general-ledger environment that can also be selectively exposed to clients.
That makes its architecture particularly relevant to firms building Client Accounting Services.
The professional accounting side
Accounting Power contains functions that matter primarily to accountants rather than ordinary business users.
Current documentation describes:
- customizable trial balances;
- adjusting entries;
- multiple trial balances;
- financial statement customization;
- drill-down analysis;
- journal workflows;
- accrual-to-cash conversion;
- consolidation;
- financial ratios;
- tax-system integration.
This professional layer is important because accounting firms frequently need to transform client transaction data into a reviewed financial product.
Bookkeeping captures activity.
Professional accounting interprets and adjusts it.
The general-ledger side
Accounting Power also contains a broader GL system.
The product page currently identifies banking, accounts receivable, accounts payable, job costing and inventory capabilities.
That gives a firm the option to perform ongoing books for a client rather than waiting until year-end to receive an outside bookkeeping file.
Write-up work
Traditional write-up is another distinct workflow.
The current product documentation describes bank feeds and transaction-import tools intended to reduce repeated manual entry while retaining accountant-oriented review and financial-statement processes.
For firms with many small clients, the relevant efficiency question is:
How many client records can staff move from raw transaction data to reviewed financial statements without rebuilding the process each time?
Client collaboration without giving away every control
Accounting Power also allows the firm to create a more collaborative arrangement.
Current AccountantsWorld documentation says firms can configure client access to selected GL functions while the firm’s staff retains professional-level work.
This can support several service models.
Accountant does everything
The client provides documents and information.
The firm maintains the books.
Client handles routine entry
The business enters selected transactions while the accounting firm reviews and performs higher-level work.
Hybrid CAS
The firm handles functions such as bill payment, close, reporting and advisory while internal client staff performs agreed operational tasks.
The important point is that “collaboration” does not need to mean giving every user unrestricted access.
Bill payment as part of CAS
Accounting Power currently includes bill-payment functionality rather than requiring every firm to send the workflow to an unrelated product.
This matters because Client Accounting Services increasingly involve operational finance rather than simply month-end bookkeeping.
Once a firm touches payables, it needs stronger controls around:
- invoice intake;
- authorization;
- payment;
- vendor information;
- accounting classification;
- review.
Software is only one part of that control environment, but bringing accounting and payment data closer together can reduce unnecessary handoffs.
Advisory comes after reliable accounting
AccountantsWorld also positions Accounting Power for advisory and virtual-CFO work, including budgeting, forecasting, dashboards, financial ratios and performance analysis.
That progression makes operational sense.
Reliable transaction data enables financial reporting.
Reliable reporting enables analysis.
Analysis can then support advice.
A firm attempting to sell advisory without first controlling the accounting foundation often creates more spreadsheet work for itself.
Integration matters
Accounting Power can import transactions from external systems used by clients, including widely used accounting applications, according to current trial-balance documentation.
This gives firms another operating option:
not every client must immediately migrate its entire workflow.
The accountant can sometimes use Accounting Power as the professional processing/review layer around information originating elsewhere.
The decision question
Do not evaluate Accounting Power solely by asking:
Does it have a general ledger?
Ask:
Does our firm want the accounting system to be organized around our professional workflow or around the client’s bookkeeping workflow?
That distinction is the real reason Accounting Power deserves a separate place in the AccountantsWorld ecosystem.