The warning came from leading independent practice automation specialist, Mark Ryan, who advises accountancy firms about technology, during a Practice Software Selection webinar hosted by the online community AccountingWeb.

During a vibrant discussion majoring upon software for the dynamic practice, Mark Ryan was evangelical about the importance of operating a paperless strategy and how it makes firms more productive, more customer focused and more secure.

He told the audience that no modern practice can function effectively without a document management software solution. He said, “Firms need to work as efficiently as possible. It is important to get rid of paper as a first step and then think about integrating the document management system with your other software. We have been paperless for four years and it has changed the whole way we work. It makes working easier and it is more secure.”

Having advised firms, large and small, over the years on which software to implement, he went on to recommend that accountants look to document management specialists for their software.

Alison Jackson, director of Lindenhouse Software; a company that specialises in the development of next-generation document management technology, commented, “Accountants process confounding levels of documents every day and they need a secure and controlled environment for documents that fully integrates with their back office systems. By going paperless it is possible to save hundreds of hours a year. One of our practice customers told me that they are saving three minutes per client by using just one of the features in our document management solution, Virtual Cabinet. When that is multiplied by 2500 tax returns that represents a massive saving of over 125 hours in a single year. There is no other practice technology that provides faster ROI.”