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The APS Annual Client Conference in Sydney last November was the largest conference we have held with over 300 clients and delegates attending. In many ways, it was also the most important: for the first time we were able to present all our product updates, enhancements and new releases knowing that there is now integration between most elements of the Advance suite. This is the ‘great leap forward’ for practice software generally and is very much a first for any practice software suite in this part of the world. The Integrated Accountants Desktop First questions first, what do we mean by ‘integrated’ practice software? Simply, it means that most of the APS practice software applications you and your team use on a daily basis are completely accessible through your practice management console, linking relevant data in your core business applications. Those attending the conference saw how their firms and teams will benefit from having, for example, the information contained in their Practice Management, Document Management and CRM database integrate seamlessly with their compliance applications including Taxation, Client Accounting, Self Managed Superannuation, and Corporate Affairs. Efficiencies built in – in step with the times It is important not to underestimate the importance of the fully integrated Advance suite from a practice efficiency perspective. We were able to present the new Workflow and Resource Planning module within Practice Management, which allows partners and managers to plan and monitor, within Advance PM, exactly which members of their team will work on a particular matter and how much of their time is budgeted into the job. Similarly, we demonstrated other ‘new’ software including the new Work Paper application and Advance Corporate Register. We also saw how Advance PM integrates with QuickBooks; bringing all the strands together we saw how one firm of considerable size has taken components of the fully integrated solution and implemented it throughout their practice. The key word used by them to describe the benefits is that the investment has ‘efficiencies’. Ultimately the purpose of enabling all Advance suite applications to work together is to drive practice efficiencies and reduce duplication; in effect, integration allows all elements of both practice and client affairs to be managed within what is effectively a single piece of software. 2009 – introducing the integrated Advance suite to you Of course, not all clients were able to attend the November Conference and will not have yet been exposed to the ‘great leap forward’ in Advance’s integrated capabilities. However, our Client Briefings in March will help those who have not seen what is on offer get quickly up to speed. In addition, the APS CRM team will be spending the year versing all clients in what is available and the steps necessary to update their own versions of Advance to the newest releases.
A fully integrated Advance suite – all data in all applications accessible through the Advance Central Console. Brian Armstrong
The APS Annual Client Conference in Sydney last November was the largest conference we have held with over 300 clients and delegates attending. In many ways, it was also the most important: for the first time we were able to present all our product updates, enhancements and new releases knowing that there is now integration between most elements of the Advance suite. This is the ‘great leap forward’ for practice software generally and is very much a first for any practice software suite in this part of the world. The Integrated Accountants Desktop First questions first, what do we mean by ‘integrated’ practice software? Simply, it means that most of the APS practice software applications you and your team use on a daily basis are completely accessible through your practice management console, linking relevant data in your core business applications. Those attending the conference saw how their firms and teams will benefit from having, for example, the information contained in their Practice Management, Document Management and CRM database integrate seamlessly with their compliance applications including Taxation, Client Accounting, Self Managed Superannuation, and Corporate Affairs. Efficiencies built in – in step with the times It is important not to underestimate the importance of the fully integrated Advance suite from a practice efficiency perspective. We were able to present the new Workflow and Resource Planning module within Practice Management, which allows partners and managers to plan and monitor, within Advance PM, exactly which members of their team will work on a particular matter and how much of their time is budgeted into the job. Similarly, we demonstrated other ‘new’ software including the new Work Paper application and Advance Corporate Register. We also saw how Advance PM integrates with QuickBooks; bringing all the strands together we saw how one firm of considerable size has taken components of the fully integrated solution and implemented it throughout their practice. The key word used by them to describe the benefits is that the investment has ‘efficiencies’. Ultimately the purpose of enabling all Advance suite applications to work together is to drive practice efficiencies and reduce duplication; in effect, integration allows all elements of both practice and client affairs to be managed within what is effectively a single piece of software. 2009 – introducing the integrated Advance suite to you Of course, not all clients were able to attend the November Conference and will not have yet been exposed to the ‘great leap forward’ in Advance’s integrated capabilities. However, our Client Briefings in March will help those who have not seen what is on offer get quickly up to speed. In addition, the APS CRM team will be spending the year versing all clients in what is available and the steps necessary to update their own versions of Advance to the newest releases.
A fully integrated Advance suite – all data in all applications accessible through the Advance Central Console. Grant Linton APS winner of UK Accounting Software Awards We were delighted to announce late last year that our Practice Management suite, Advance PM, won the Practice Management Software of the Year Award at the UK’s prestigious 2008 Accountancy Age Awards ceremony. In the UK market, APS competes with a broad base of large software houses including MYOB, Iris, CCH, Star, Sage, Digita and many more. In the Award final, APS beat off competition from both Iris and CCH to claim the industry’s most coveted award. This award is a fantastic achievement for the APS team and clients alike. It represents a clear recognition and endorsement of our commitment to investing in market-leading technology, our people and client relationships.
Client Briefings - Australia In March, the Australian team will host their annual series of Client Briefing sessions across Australia. The briefing sessions will provide an update on APS products and the status of functional and version enhancements and all APS clients are invited to attend. This year will also present the opportunity for clients to put forward enhancements, ideas and trends that clients feel would be relevant to the development of the APS product suite. At the conclusion of the session there will be great opportunities to network with other users over drinks and nibbles. The session will cover the following topics;
The briefings will be held on the following dates:
To register for a Client Briefing, please click here .
Client Briefings - New Zealand
The New Zealand APS team will be hosting annual client briefing sessions across the country. This is the third year they have run these very successful sessions and will run from February to the end of April. This session will help you formulate a strategy to maximise the return on your investment in APS and practice software. So come along and meet the team face to face and learn about product updates and new developments. Content for the session includes: APS Strategic Update
Software Presentation
Please click here to view the registration form and fax back on 09 302 2121. If you have any queries please contact Christian Taylor on 09 302 2228 or email christian.taylor@aps-advance.co.nz. Prospect Briefings - Australia
In March 2009 we will also run a series of briefing sessions around Australia for prospective clients interested in learning more about the APS Advance suite. The sessions will demonstrate to prospective clients how APS software is helping more and more accounting firms to maximise their practice efficiency. As well as presenting the newest version of the Advance suite, APS will show firms how they can benefit from having the following applications integrate seamlessly off a single platform and accessible via a single console:
If you or any members of your team would like to attend, please click here to complete and submit an online registration form. APS People
Qualifications / Background:
How long have you worked at APS? What attracted you to APS? What does your job involve? Since sustainable revenue only comes from a happy client base, my ultimate goal is to look after clients and give my all to make sure they are happy with the performance of our team and our software. What are some of the things you look forward to accomplishing while working at APS? Career high (so far!) – Biggest achievement Memberships For relaxation Best indulgence Personal philosophy Best advice * N.B. ‘met APS in London’ in fact means that Sam met Brian Armstrong and Brian Coventry (known universally in APS as ‘BA’ and ‘BC’) in a pub in London where Sam was working. He obviously looked after them well and the rest, as Sam says, is history!
Advance Document Management - ADM At APS we continually strive to meet the needs of our clients, so it is essential that our products are updated on an ongoing basis. Click on the link below for the latest on Advance Document Management: What is Advance Document Management (ADM)? Advance Document Management is an entry level document and email management solution. We have two offerings within the Document Management suite – ADM and Interwoven. These two solutions are entry level and high level solutions, respectively, and both are integrated into Practice Management 9.1 and Advance Documents. ADM offers through Central console a centralized document storage solution for Client, Matter, Milestone and Staff documents. Filing and Saving documents from the MS suite including Outlook email, is simple, easy and is linked to clients. Key Features:
What's New! Profile Documents & Profile Search The ability to attach an attribute such as author, date, subject to a document that can be later used for search and retrieval. Index Search The ability to search text within the content of the document. AdvanceDocs Optical Chartacter Recognition (OCR) The ability to convert an image file such as a scanned bank statement into a text searchable document. Favourites Documents that are regularly referred can be added to the “My Favourites” or “Practice Favourites” area and viewed within the Personal Console. Email Management & Office Integration Advance Document Management makes it easier for users to save outgoing and incoming emails. It allows all email correspondence to be managed by firms centrally rather than on individual systems. Tip of the Month How do I use Watchfolders within AdvanceDocs?
Select Settings - Watchfolders from the toolbar menu It is possible for documents to be automatically saved directly into AdvanceDocs as soon as they are created. AdvanceDocs can be configured to constantly monitor or watch a directory for new documents being placed into them. AdvanceDocs checks this every few seconds, as long as your workstation is switched on and can access that directory. When your computer workstation first logs on each day, it will check for any additional files that have been placed in the watchfolders. As soon as a document is detected in the watchfolder, AdvanceDocs will attempt to import it to the Organizer window, converting any graphics files into PDF format. Once a document has been processed by AdvanceDocs, it will be removed from the Watchfolder. If the document was not able to be converted to a PDF format, it is moved into a ‘Failed’ directory within the watchfolder. You may also find that you wish to change the delay time when a new document is received into a watchfolder. This setting is made in the AdvanceDocs.ini file in the user’s directory in the AdvanceDocs directory. The setting Monitor_Watchfolder_delay is an amount in seconds. AdvanceDocs will wait for the amount of time specified in this setting and check that during that time, the file has not been modified. AdvanceDocs will only proceed to process the file when the file has not been modified for a time longer than the delay specified. This is particularly useful if your scanner is placing the scanned image in the watchfolder and it is taking the scanner some time to gradually save the scanned image. Each user of AdvanceDocs can be configured to watch their own watchfolders, and can monitor as many as you wish at the one time.
This feature is particularly useful when scanning documents. Most scanners can save the scanned image as a PDF or TIF document. Many companies are now using networked scanner/photocopiers. Once the documents are scanned they can be saved into a particular directory on your workstation or network. With AdvanceDocs configured to monitor this as a watchfolder, AdvanceDocs can automatically process and launch as soon as a new document is scanned. Auto Launch Click this option for a watchfolder if you want AdvanceDocs to launch when a new file is detected. If this is not selected, AdvanceDocs will process the new file, converting it to a PDF format, but will not launch the ‘Organizer’ window of AdvanceDocs. Auto OCR This option is available if optional AdvanceDocs OCR Server product is available to the workstation. When checked a PDF or graphic format document placed into the watchfolder will be automatically sent for OCR process before being loaded into the Organizer. Image & text This option will bring both an OCR'ed version of the document and the original version of the document into the watchfolder. Optimize This option should strictly only be used upon instruction from DocsCorp Technical Support. Watchfolder colours Watchfolders shown in ‘grey’ indicate that the path is not currently available. Commonly this will occur if you have a laptop set to monitor directories on your server. When you are away from the office, these watchfolders will not be available and will show in red. When you next logon to your network, any files in the watchfolders will be processed.
Why we chose APS: Chapmans Chartered Accountants, New Zealand This month’s client selection case study comes from Chapmans Chartered Accountants Ltd based in New Zealand. We interviewed Karl Dickins, Director, who took us through the firm’s experiences with the APS software and the team that delivers it.
Name: Karl Dickins Title: Director
Tel: +64 9 831 0205
Email Address: Karl@chapmans.co.nz General When did your firm implement APS Advance Practice Management system?
Which APS products are you licensed to use? How many users do you have? Who was your previous supplier and how long were you using that supplier’s software for? From start to finish, how long did the meeting, testing and decision-making process take that saw you move over to APS? How did your firm arrive at the decision to become an APS client? APS prides itself on its ability to listen to its customers regarding their business needs and business aims and its commitment to then work closely with customers to meet and achieve them. Tell us about the APS approach from your perspective.
The Relationships Has APS been more than a software supplier to your firm? What has been the relationship formed between your firm and APS? Would you recommend APS to another supplier in the market? Installation / Implementation - Product Functionality Looking at APS from a product perspective, what were the most important factors from a functionality point-of-view that were seen as critical to your business?
How does Advance suite compare to your previous product in terms of functionality? There is no comparison – we wouldn’t go back, APS is far superior. Will you be taking on any further APS products in the future? Also, we would like to see a cash flow budgeting tool as part of the APS product suite – we do a lot of cash flow reporting for clients and banks and these would normally be linked direct to our monthly reporting. In Sol6 we used CFB and now we are using Strategic Focus. (APS Note – available within XPA) Installation / Implementation - Product Return on Investment Obviously there is an investment when implementing any software. APS pride themselves on bringing clients on-going return on investment. In your experience has this been the case? Having been through the conversion, do you feel you made the right decision to join APS? TestimonialDo you have any final words that sum up how you feel about APS, its team and its software? APS software enables us to manage our core business areas more successful and provide a higher level of service to our clients.”
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