Busy season is not the time to find out your firm’s IT cannot keep Lacerte, CCH Axcess, or QuickBooks Desktop online or recover you from a ransomware attack.
CPA firms sit on a trove of taxpayer data, and attackers know it.
Recent analysis in the accounting trade press notes that CPA firms now see around 300 cyberattack attempts per week in normal periods and as many as 900 per week during tax season, leading some experts to talk about a “CPA Data Breach Epidemic.”
At the same time, multiple studies show that roughly 43 percent of cyberattacks now target small businesses, with an average loss of around $25,000 per incident for small and mid-size firms.
Against that backdrop, “good enough” IT support for your accounting firm is a real business risk.
Many practices still rely on a patchwork of a local consultant, one internal IT person, and a generic managed service provider that does not truly understand tax season load patterns, how IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule apply in practice, or what cyber insurers expect after an incident. That kind of setup might keep the lights on, but it rarely delivers the uptime, security, and compliance posture a modern CPA firm needs.
Choosing the right IT partner for an accounting firm is not about who offers the cheapest per user rate or the slickest proposal. It is about finding a team that understands:
- How a 5 to 50 person tax practice actually works in March
- How client data moves between email, portals, and tax software
- How to keep that environment fast, available, and defensible if regulators or insurers ask hard questions
The information that follows focuses on that practical side of the decision: how to look at your own risk, what to ask during vendor conversations, and a straightforward way to compare providers so you are not choosing on price and likeability alone.
If you want a concrete benchmark as you read, it helps to look at how a specialist provider supports another regulated profession and then ask potential partners how they would offer the same level of structure for your firm.
What an IT Partner for Accounting Firms Actually Does
When most firms hear “IT partner,” they picture someone who fixes printers, sets up laptops, and helps staff when Outlook stops working.
That work still matters, but for a modern CPA firm it is only a fraction of the job. A true IT partner for accounting firms is responsible for the environment that keeps your practice productive, secure, and compliant throughout the year, especially during busy season.
1. From Break-fix IT to Managed Services
In a traditional break-fix model, you call for help only when something is broken.
There is little monitoring, no proactive planning, and limited accountability when the same issues repeat. The focus is on resolving today’s ticket, not on preventing tomorrow’s outage.
An IT partner operating under a managed services model takes a different approach. They monitor systems continuously, apply updates, tune performance, and follow documented processes for incidents and changes. The goal is to design and maintain an environment where serious problems are rare, contained, and quickly resolved.
Specialist providers such as Verito and Ace Cloud Hosting build their managed IT model around this proactive approach, so the default expectation for their accounting clients is stability and predictability rather than constant firefighting.
If you want a concrete example of that managed approach in action, it can be useful to look at providers that build their platform around accountants and other professional practices. Verito is one such provider, structuring its cloud hosting and IT services around firms that depend heavily on line of business applications, remote access, and tight uptime requirements.
2. Keeping Tax and Accounting Applications Available and Fast
For an accounting firm, the first test of an IT partner is whether your core applications stay available and responsive.
Tax software, write-up tools, audit suites, and accounting platforms such as QuickBooks Desktop or Enterprise need to work smoothly from offices and remote locations.
Lag, timeouts, and intermittent disconnects are not minor annoyances in February and March. They directly reduce billable hours and increase filing risk.
A specialist IT partner looks at server capacity, storage performance, network quality, and remote access as one system. They plan for peak tax season usage, not just average traffic during the off season.
That includes making sure you have enough resources, configuring remote access correctly, and scheduling maintenance outside of critical periods instead of applying updates during your busiest days.
3. Implementing Layered Cybersecurity for Accountants
Accounting firm cybersecurity is not a single product that you can buy and forget.
It is a set of layered controls that work together to reduce the chance of a successful attack and limit damage if one occurs. A competent IT partner for CPA firms will specify and manage these layers as an integrated stack rather than a collection of separate tools. In practice, that means:
- Endpoint protection on all workstations and servers
- Strong email filtering
- Multi-factor authentication wherever possible
- Disk encryption
- Secured and logged remote access
- Timely patching
- Monitoring of key logs and alerts
It also means backups that are isolated from your production environment and regularly tested for restore speed and completeness. The provider’s job is not just to install these controls once, but to keep them current and to respond when something suspicious shows up.
4. Supporting IRS Publication 4557, FTC Safeguards Rule, and Your WISP
Technical safeguards do not exist in a vacuum.
For U.S. accounting firms, they are part of a broader set of expectations under IRS Publication 4557, the FTC Safeguards Rule, and related state regulations.
Regulators and insurers expect you to:
- Understand your risks
- Implement reasonable safeguards
- Maintain a Written Information Security Plan that reflects reality
A good IT partner does not hand over a generic security policy and walk away. They help you perform or update risk assessments, supply the technical details that underpin your WISP, and map their services to specific safeguard requirements.
When a cyber insurer, large client, or regulator asks how you protect taxpayer data, they should be able to provide concrete descriptions of controls, monitoring, and incident response rather than vague assurances.
5. Acting as a Strategic Advisor, Not Just Tech Support
Beyond daily operations, your IT partner should help you make better decisions about technology over the next one to three years.
That includes:
- Whether and when to move workloads to private cloud or hybrid hosting
- How to support remote staff securely
- What hardware lifecycle makes sense, and how to structure access so staff have what they need without exposing every file to everyone.
Instead of reacting to last minute purchase requests or emergency upgrades, a strategic partner works with firm leadership on a simple roadmap.
That roadmap should consider expected hiring, new service lines, office moves, and planned application changes so your environment grows in an orderly way rather than in a string of rushed fixes.
6. Delivering Day-to-day Support That Understands Accounting Workflows
Even with the right architecture and security in place, staff still need fast, effective help when something goes wrong.
Day-to-day support is where many generic providers fall short. A help desk that does not understand how tax applications behave or how your document workflow works will take longer to troubleshoot issues and may misjudge what is truly urgent.
A strong IT partner for accounting firms trains support staff on common accounting workflows and applications. They know the difference between a generic Windows problem and an issue inside your tax software that may require vendor involvement.
They are prepared to:
- Troubleshoot printing problems for organizers and returns
- Fix performance issues inside specific applications
- Coordinate with your software providers when updates cause disruption
They also define support coverage explicitly, including extended hours and deadline periods, so your team is not left waiting during critical windows.
When you evaluate options, look for providers that can demonstrate this kind of accounting specific support capability in practice. Verito, for example, trains its teams around common tax and bookkeeping workflows rather than treating them as generic help desk tickets, and other accounting focused IT partners should be prepared to show you a similar level of specialization.
Taken together, these responsibilities define what an IT partner should actually be doing for your firm:
- Maintaining availability
- Enforcing layered security
- Supporting compliance
- Guiding strategic decisions
- Resolving day-to-day issues with an understanding of accounting work
What a Good Managed IT Partner Looks Like
Once you are clear on your risks and what an IT partner is supposed to do, the next question is what “good” looks like in practice. Almost every provider will say they know small businesses and professional services. For a CPA firm, that is not enough. You are looking for clear evidence that they understand accounting environments, security, and regulatory expectations.
Proven Specialization in Accounting and Tax Environments
A strong IT partner for accounting firms shows real, repeatable experience in your world. That means supporting tax and accounting stacks such as Lacerte, ProSeries, Drake, UltraTax, CCH Axcess, CCH ProSystem fx, QuickBooks Desktop or Enterprise, and common document management systems in multi-user setups.
They should be able to describe, without prompting:
- How performance changes when everyone is in the tax application at once
- Typical pain points with hosting QuickBooks for multiple users
- How they coordinate with software vendors when an update disrupts production
If a provider cannot talk through these basics in concrete terms, they probably learned the niche from a marketing sheet, not from supporting real firms.
Security and Compliance as Part of Everyday Operations
Security that sits in a separate “project” is not enough. For a good accounting IT partner, cybersecurity and compliance are built into the standard managed service.
You should hear clear, specific answers to questions like:
- Which controls they deploy on every endpoint and server by default
- How they enforce multi-factor authentication and secure remote access
- How their monitoring and incident response processes work day-to-day
They should also be able to explain how their approach supports IRS Publication 4557, the FTC Safeguards Rule, and your Written Information Security Plan in language a non-technical partner can understand.
Clear SLAs, Coverage, and Support Quality
Quality of support is one of the easiest ways to distinguish a capable IT partner from a generic provider. A good partner publishes service-level agreements that define:
- Response times for critical, high, medium, and low priority tickets
- Target resolution times for high-impact issues
- Coverage hours, including evenings, weekends, and peak tax season
Equally important is who actually answers when your staff need help. You are looking for a help desk that is familiar with accounting workflows apart from generic desktop issues. They should understand the difference between a Windows problem and an issue inside your tax application, and they should know how to work with your software vendors when that is required.
During tax season, support coverage and responsiveness are non-negotiable. Look for providers that can explain exactly how their support pattern changes from January to April.
Scalability For 5 to 50-user Firms and Remote Teams
Most CPA firms fall into the 5 to 50 employee range, with a mix of partners, preparers, reviewers, and admin staff, plus seasonal hires. A good IT partner can grow with you across that entire roster without having to redesign everything every time you add staff or a new location.
You should see evidence that they can:
- Onboard new users in a predictable, consistent way
- Standardize equipment and configurations across offices and home workers
- Keep policies and security controls aligned as you add new staff and service lines
They should also understand how to support remote work in a way that keeps experience consistent and secure. That means having clear patterns for remote access, printing, scanning, and file access that work just as well for someone at home as for someone in the office.
Working Alongside Internal IT or Local Consultants
Many firms already have an internal IT person or a long-standing relationship with a local consultant. A mature IT partner does not automatically try to replace them. Instead, they can define a shared model where responsibilities are split cleanly.
A common pattern is:
- Internal IT or local consultant: deskside support, office network, hands-on hardware tasks
- External IT partner: cloud or hosting platform, security operations, monitoring, backups, after hours incident response
When a provider talks about partnership, listen for how they propose to coordinate with existing resources, how they escalate issues between teams, and how they ensure nothing important falls between responsibilities.
Transparent Pricing, Contracts, and What is Included
Finally, transparency in pricing and contract terms is a practical sign of professionalism. Predictable per user or per server pricing is common, but the detail matters.
You should know:
- Which security and backup services are included in the base fee
- Which items are optional and why
- How frequently pricing is reviewed or adjusted
Contracts should use plain language where possible and include reasonable terms for termination or changes. Providers that rely on long, punitive lock-in periods or that hide key services behind a series of “recommended add ons” are signaling that their business model is built around upsell, not long-term fit.
Taken together, these traits give you a clear picture of a good IT partner for your accounting firm:
- Understands accounting environments
- Treats security and compliance as part of routine operations
- Offers defined support quality
- Can grow with your firm, works well with existing resources
- Is open about costs and commitments.
Key Questions to Ask a Potential IT Partner
Once you have a shortlist of candidates, the quality of your questions will determine how much you really learn. Most providers will give reassuring, high-level answers if you let them. Your goal is to force specifics, especially around security, uptime, support, and long-term fit with an accounting practice.
Use the questions below as a script. Ask every provider the same questions and take notes in a simple scorecard so you can compare answers side-by-side.
1. Questions About Security and Compliance
Security and regulatory alignment are where generic IT support for small businesses often falls short of what a CPA firm needs. Push for concrete examples, not marketing claims.
Ask questions like:
- How do you help accounting firms comply with IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule in practice?
Look for a provider that can describe specific controls they implement (for example: encryption, access controls, monitoring, secure remote access) and how they map those to safeguard requirements. If they only refer you to a template document, that is a warning sign.
- Can you walk us through how you build and maintain a Written Information Security Plan for a firm like ours?
A good answer will mention risk assessment, technical and administrative safeguards, roles and responsibilities, incident response procedures, and an update cycle. “We have a standard policy you can use” is not enough.
- What security controls do you include by default for endpoints, email, and remote access, and which ones cost extra?
You want essentials such as endpoint protection, email filtering, multi-factor authentication, patch management, and secure remote access in the base service for all users. If critical controls are treated as optional add-ons, you are likely to end up under-protected.
- How do you help with cyber insurance questionnaires and security due diligence from larger clients?
Mature providers are used to supplying evidence such as network diagrams, control descriptions, and reports from monitoring tools. If they seem unfamiliar with these requests, they may not be ready for the level of scrutiny many firms now face.
- How do you detect, respond to, and communicate about suspected security incidents?
You want to hear a clear process: how they identify suspicious activity, who is notified, how they contain and investigate, and what kind of reporting you receive. Vague answers about “taking security seriously” are not sufficient.
2. Questions About Uptime and Tax Season Performance
For an accounting firm, uptime and performance during peak months are just as important as security. Generic small business SLAs do not account for the fact that April downtime is not the same as August downtime.
Ask questions like:
- What uptime have you delivered for accounting or similar professional services clients in the last 12 to 24 months, and how do you measure it?
Look for real numbers based on monitoring data, not guesses. They should be able to distinguish between planned maintenance windows and unplanned outages.
- How do you plan for and handle load spikes during busy season when all staff are working on tax and accounting applications at once?
A capable partner will talk about capacity planning, performance baselines, monitoring thresholds, and how they adjust resources or architecture for peak periods.
- How do you schedule maintenance and updates so they do not disrupt pre-deadline work?
The answer should mention maintenance windows agreed with you, change control, and communication in advance. If they routinely apply updates during business hours, particularly in tax season, that is a problem.
- Can you describe a time when you handled a major outage or performance issue for a firm like ours, and what changed afterwards?
You are looking for a clear incident story: cause, impact, response, and lessons learned. Providers that cannot point to any real incidents are either inexperienced or not being transparent.
- What redundancy and backup strategies do you use to recover quickly from hardware failure or ransomware?
You should hear about tested backups, offsite or logically isolated copies, recovery time objectives, and documented disaster recovery procedures.
3. Questions About Support and Responsiveness
Support quality is what your staff will feel every day. Slow or unhelpful responses undermine even the best technical architecture.
Ask questions like:
- What are your guaranteed response and resolution times for critical, high, and normal issues, and how often do you meet them?
Push for numbers, not adjectives. Ask if they can provide recent SLA performance reports, at least in anonymized form.
- Who answers the phone, email, or chat when we contact support?
You want to know whether you reach a front-line call center with scripted responses, or technicians who can handle most accounting IT issues directly. If they say “it depends,” ask for specifics.
- What does support coverage look like during evenings, weekends, and key filing deadlines?
For an accounting firm, “business hours only” is usually not enough. A good IT partner will have extended or 24/7 coverage for urgent issues and will have a different posture between January and April than in the off-season.
- How do you separate urgent issues (for example, firm-wide downtime) from routine requests, and how are they prioritized?
You want reassurance that a server outage is not going into the same queue as a keyboard replacement.
- What is your typical first response time and first contact resolution rate for accounting firms?
This is where providers with strong processes will refer to data from their ticketing system. If they cannot provide any metrics, it suggests they are not tracking what matters.
3. Questions About Fit and Long-term Partnership
You are not just buying tools or hours; you are choosing a long-term partner that will sit close to your core operations. Fit, process, and communication style matter.
Ask questions like:
- How do you onboard a new accounting firm, and what do the first 30, 60, and 90 days look like?
A mature partner will describe a structured onboarding process: discovery, documentation, stabilization, quick wins, and a handover into steady state support.
- How do you work with firms that already have internal IT staff or a local consultant?
Listen for concrete role splits and escalation paths. Good partners can explain how they share responsibilities and avoid duplicated effort or gaps.
- How often do you meet with clients to review performance, risks, and upcoming changes?
Quarterly or at least semi-annual strategic reviews should be normal, especially for firms that rely heavily on managed IT services and cloud.
- What kind of documentation do you maintain about our environment, and do we get a copy if the relationship ends?
You should retain access to your own network diagrams, configuration notes, and key procedures. If they are reluctant to share documentation, it will be harder to switch providers later if needed.
- Can we speak to two or three existing CPA firm clients, ideally of similar size and complexity?
References are still one of the most effective ways to validate claims. Ask specifically about tax season performance, responsiveness, and how the provider handled at least one serious issue.
Using these questions consistently will make it much easier to compare IT partners for your accounting firm on more than just price and promises.
Shortlist the Right IT Partner
By this point, you have a clearer view of what you need and what good looks like. The final step is to turn that understanding into a shortlist and, ultimately, a decision that partners can stand behind.
1. Clarify Your Must-haves and Deal Breakers
Start by creating a short yet defined set of non-negotiables, such as:
- Proven experience with your tax and accounting software stack
- Demonstrated ability to support IRS Publication 4557 and FTC Safeguards Rule expectations
- Defined SLAs and extended support during tax season
- Layered security, tested backups, and realistic recovery objectives included by default
Anything that falls outside this list can be considered a preference rather than a requirement. This prevents you from getting distracted by “nice to have” features while overlooking gaps in fundamentals.
2. Narrow the Field to Two or Three Serious Candidates
From your initial research, referrals, and early conversations, identify two or three providers that best match your must-haves. For each one:
- Review your scorecards and notes from discovery calls
- Remove any provider that triggered multiple red flags
- Confirm that pricing and contract terms are broadly compatible with your budget and risk tolerance
There is rarely value in deeply evaluating five or six similar providers. A focused comparison between two or three strong candidates is more manageable and usually more productive.
At this stage many firms will include at least one established accounting focused provider such as Verito or Rightworks alongside any trusted local or regional IT partners, so they can compare a specialized model against more generalist options before making a decision.
3. Run Structured Second Stage Conversations
For your remaining candidates, hold a second round of discussions with a tighter agenda. Focus on:
- Walking through a sample incident, such as a tax server outage or suspected phishing compromise, step-by-step
- Reviewing how their monitoring, backup, and reporting tools would look for your firm
- Clarifying integration points if you already have internal IT or a local consultant
- Confirming how the first 90 days of onboarding would be handled
Use the same questions and structure for each provider so differences are easier to see.
As part of that second stage, it is worth reviewing how each managed IT provider describes its services on its own site, especially any page that spells out support scope, security measures, and response commitments for regulated firms, because those details often reveal more about how they actually operate than a slide deck.
4. Validate with References and Documentation
Before you commit, speak with two or three reference clients for each finalist, ideally firms of similar size and complexity. Ask directly about:
- Tax season uptime and responsiveness
- How the provider handled at least one significant problem
- Whether communication has remained strong after the initial honeymoon period
Request sample outputs where possible, such as monitoring dashboards, backup verification reports, or SLA summaries with client data removed. These artifacts show how the relationship works in day-to-day operations.
5. Make a Decision and Set Expectations Early
Once you have weighed scores, references, and documentation, choose the provider that best aligns with your risks, culture, and long-term plans. When you commit:
- Agree clear success measures for the first year, such as reduction in unplanned downtime, completion of a current WISP, or improved response times.
- Set expectations about communication, review cadence, and how changes will be handled.
- Ensure you have access to key documentation about your environment and that ownership is clearly defined.
The right IT partner should feel like an extension of your firm rather than a vendor you only think about when something breaks. With a structured approach to selection, you dramatically increase the odds of finding that kind of partner and reduce the time you spend worrying about technology instead of client work.
Putting it All Together: Choosing the IT Partner Your Accounting Firm Can Rely On
In a CPA firm, IT problems rarely stay in the server room. Slow tax software turns into overtime and write offs.
Downtime in March turns into missed deadlines. A phishing email can turn into a data breach that partners have to explain to clients and insurers. That is why choosing an IT partner is fundamentally a risk decision, not a shopping exercise for tools.
Firms that handle this well start by naming their real risks instead of collecting product sheets. They look for providers who understand tax season load, IRS Publication 4557, the FTC Safeguards Rule, and how returns and source documents actually move through the firm. They ask specific questions, insist on clear examples, and treat vague or generic answers as a reason to walk away.
From here, the path is straightforward. Write down your top risks and non-negotiables, build a simple scorecard using the criteria in this guide, and run structured conversations with two or three providers who genuinely work with accounting firms or similar regulated professions. Check their claims with references and sample reports, not just proposals. If you do that, you are much more likely to end up with an IT partner who behaves like part of your firm: keeping systems available, applying security as standard practice, supporting your compliance story, and giving you fewer reasons to worry about technology when it matters most.
FAQ:
1. What is the difference between IT support and a managed IT partner for an accounting firm?
Traditional IT support is usually reactive: you call when something breaks and they fix that individual issue. A managed IT partner works on a proactive basis. They monitor your systems, maintain your environment, implement layered security, plan capacity for tax season, and align their work with IRS Publication 4557 and FTC Safeguards Rule expectations. For a CPA firm that lives and dies on uptime and data protection, a reactive-only model is not enough.
2. How much should a small CPA firm budget for managed IT services?
Budgets vary by region and service scope, but a common range for small firms is a flat per user fee that includes support, monitoring, security controls, and backup management. Many U.S. practices end up between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars per month, depending on user count, hosting model, and whether the provider also delivers private cloud or application hosting. The bigger question is whether the provider’s baseline fee includes core security and backup services, or if those are hidden as optional extras.
3. Do we still need cyber insurance if we have a managed IT partner?
Yes. A strong IT partner reduces the likelihood and impact of incidents, but cannot eliminate risk. Cyber insurance is designed to help with costs such as forensics, legal counsel, notification, credit monitoring, and some business interruption losses. Many insurers now expect firms to prove that they have reasonable safeguards in place. A good IT partner can help you answer those questionnaires honestly and provide evidence of controls, monitoring, and backup practices.
4. Can an IT partner help us comply with IRS Publication 4557 and the FTC Safeguards Rule?
They should. Publication 4557 and the Safeguards Rule expect tax professionals to implement and maintain reasonable technical, administrative, and physical safeguards. Your IT partner cannot write your firm’s policies or accept legal liability on your behalf, but they can:
- Implement and manage technical safeguards such as encryption, access controls, monitoring, secure remote access, and backups
- Provide input into your Written Information Security Plan
- Help with risk assessments and incident response procedures
- Supply documentation and evidence when regulators, clients, or insurers ask how you protect taxpayer data
If a provider cannot connect their day to day work to these requirements, they are not a good fit for a regulated practice.
5. How do we know if our current IT partner is “good enough” for a modern CPA firm?
Look at outcomes and specifics, not relationship history. Signs of a good partner include:
- Minimal unplanned downtime in tax season and responsive handling of incidents
- Clear, documented security controls (MFA, email filtering, patching, tested backups)
- Awareness of IRS Publication 4557, FTC Safeguards Rule, and support for your WISP
- Published SLAs and evidence they meet them
- Regular review meetings where they proactively recommend improvements
If you see repeated outages, vague answers about security and compliance, or no structured planning for busy season, it is worth benchmarking them against another provider using the scorecard approach described in the article.
6. Should we prioritize a cloud hosting provider or a managed IT provider for our firm?
You need both capabilities, but they do not have to come from separate vendors. Some accounting focused providers combine private cloud hosting for tax and accounting applications with managed IT and security services. Others focus on either hosting or endpoint/network support. The key is that, between your providers, you have:
- Stable, performant hosting for your applications and data
- Endpoint and network security, patching, and monitoring
- Backup and recovery that covers both cloud and local systems
- A clear single point of accountability when something breaks
If you split roles, define responsibilities clearly so that issues are not bounced between vendors.
7. How long should we commit to an IT provider in the contract?
Most firms prefer one to three year terms with reasonable exit options. Very long terms or punitive exit fees are a red flag. Your environment should be documented well enough that you can transition to another provider if the relationship stops working. In practice, if you have chosen well, you will stay because of the results, not because the contract makes it hard to leave.
tl;dr
- Treat choosing an IT partner as a risk decision, not a tools decision. The real issues are uptime during tax season, cybersecurity, regulatory exposure, and consistency for remote and in office staff.
- CPA firms are high value targets. Basic antivirus and a local “IT guy” are not enough when a breach can expose full identities, tax histories, and bank details.
- A true IT partner for accounting firms provides managed IT, not break-fix work. They monitor systems, plan capacity, maintain performance, and respond using documented processes instead of just putting out fires.
- Their core job is to keep tax and accounting applications fast and available when everyone is logged in, design remote access that actually works for busy season, and schedule maintenance around your calendar.
- Security must be layered and part of the default service. Expect endpoint protection, email filtering, MFA, patching, secure remote access, and tested backups as standard, not as optional add ons.
- The partner should understand IRS Publication 4557, the FTC Safeguards Rule, and your WISP, and be able to show how their controls, monitoring, and documentation help you meet those expectations in practice.
- Look for real specialization in accounting environments: experience with Lacerte, CCH, UltraTax, Drake, QuickBooks, document management systems, and common workflow problems in multi user and hosted setups.
- Demand clear SLAs, extended support during tax season, and a help desk that understands accounting workflows instead of generic desktop issues. Support quality in February and March is a key differentiator.
- Watch for red flags such as vague security answers, no busy season plan, limited accounting software experience, over reliance on one engineer, security treated as an extra, and restrictive contracts.
- Before you decide, write down your top risks and non-negotiables, ask every provider the same structured questions, and verify claims with references and real examples. The right IT partner should feel like an extension of your firm, reducing surprises and giving partners fewer reasons to worry about technology.
