Accounting IT Support 

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Simplicit is a comprehensive provider of IT services for Accountants 

Many accounting firms trust Simplicit Technologies to deliver enterprise level professional IT services and white glove approach to the SMB world. At Simplicit we support users of Datafaction, QuickBooks, Lacerte, Thomson Reuters, CCH, CFS Tax Tools, etc.  

Stability is key for your technology infrastructure to manage operations for your clientele. If your organization cannot rely on critical applications being highly available, you and your clients will suffer. At Simplicit Technologies, we use a checklist of over 7points to manage the health of your technology infrastructure. This service is included for all clients who engage our Managed Services offering. 

Accounting firms who elect our Professional Services are eligible for discounted Managed Services once their infrastructure is brought up to the Simplicit Standard for the first year. We believe this is a necessary step for organizations coming from an undeveloped IT strategyIf your company is going through an audit or must meet increasing regulations for data handling, our team can help you get there with peace of mind. 

Simplicit works with many financial applications, including: 

  • Datafaction 
  • QuickBooks 
  • CCH Engagement 
  • Thomson Reuters: Accounting CS, UltraTax CS, Practice CS 

In our experience auditing and working with accounting firms, we often see great room for improvement to increase security standards including: 

  • E-mail Security 
  • factor authentication 
  • Encrypted e-mail 
  • Verify e-mail services use TLS encryption in transit. 
  • Train employees on how to send user-encrypted messages containing sensitive information to external recipients. 
  • Email backup 
  • Anti-Spam e-mail service to limit spam, spoofing, phishing, and otherwise malicious e-mail data 
  • Identity management and security 
  • Enforce 2 factor authentication for all users 
  • Least privilege for all users 
  • Recurring audits of existing access control and sign-in activity to applications 
  • Proactive monitoring of malicious activity to user accounts 
  • Network Security 
  • Managed firewall as part of Managed Service offering. 
  • Web, DNS, AV and SSL data inspection to block malicious content before employees can access it 
  • Data and workstation security 
  • Enrollment of all devices in device management platform, like Microsoft Intune. 
  • Data Leak Prevention (DLP) policies applied across cloud services to prevent unintentional leak of confidential information, including client or internal company data like SSNs, credit cards, or personal information (names, addresses).  
  • Workstation encryption with BitLocker: All workstations storing or accessing confidential information should be encrypted to limit your organization’s liability from data theft. 
  • Desktop as a Service with Windows Virtual Desktop (DaaS, WVD): Secure your client data and internal applications in the cloud. Access your applications from a workstation securely with WVDDaaS is the most secure approach an organization can implement to control its data and prevent unwanted loss of confidential financial or customer information.  
  • Industry Best Practices 
  • Microsoft’s Security Compliance Toolkit 
  • General IT standards including NIST, CIS Security Controls, ISO 27001 
  • HIPAA, PCI-DSS for firms who may work in health care or process credit card transactions. 

 

Accounting firms can be especially at risk due to need for access to financial intuitions for banking purposes. If IT standards are neglected, there can be serious consequences. TrickBot, which surfaced in 2019, is a modular banking trojan designed to steal login credentials for online banking sessions1 According to CPA Practice Advisor, firms are more likely to lose clients to competitors following a data breach.2 Implementing the aforementioned security standards will mitigate this risk significantly and give your firm the peace of mind that your data is secure.  

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