Why accountancy IT is its own thing
There’s a temptation to treat accountancy as just another professional services sector. It isn’t, at least not from an IT perspective. The combination of high-value financial data, regulated software (Sage, IRIS, Xero, QuickBooks each with their own quirks), seasonal performance demands, and a particularly active threat profile (invoice fraud, payroll redirection) makes it specific.
Most accountancy practices I’ve worked with have one of two IT problems: either they’ve never really invested in IT and it’s gradually become a constraint, or they bought enterprise-grade tooling for a 10-person practice and it’s unmanaged sprawl. The right answer is almost always somewhere in between, proportionate, practice-specific, and quietly competent.
What my work for accountancy practices typically covers
The core managed IT retainer (Microsoft 365, security, networks, day-to-day support) is usually the foundation. Layered on top, there are a few things that come up more often for accountancy clients than for other sectors:
Practice management software performance. Whether you’re on Sage 200, IRIS, or a hosted CCH, the IT layer underneath these platforms makes the difference between a busy quarter-end that runs smoothly and one that’s a daily fight with slowness. I’ll review your setup, identify the bottlenecks (usually network, sometimes the local SQL Server, occasionally the on-premises hardware), and recommend what to change.
Client document exchange. Most practices have evolved a mix of email attachments, occasional shared folders, and a half-used document portal. Done properly, SharePoint plus a well-configured client portal can replace all of that with a single, auditable system that clients actually use. The tricky bit is the change management, not the technology.
Email and identity security. Accountancy firms get phished aggressively, and invoice fraud is a real, common, expensive problem. Proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), anti-phishing policies, MFA across the board, and conditional access to limit where admin accounts can sign in, together these stop the bulk of attacks and meet most cyber insurance requirements.
Backup and disaster recovery, properly tested. Practices have tax data they cannot afford to lose. Tested backup is non-negotiable, and most existing setups have gone untested for years. A documented restore drill is usually one of the early pieces of work.
Working with practices around their cycles
Accountancy practices live by a calendar. Q-ends, year-ends, January self-assessment, payroll cycles, audit deadlines. Most providers treat IT as if it were a flat workload; in reality it has very predictable peaks where any disruption is genuinely costly.
What that means for how I work with accountancy clients: proactive checks ahead of each peak, scheduled change windows that avoid them, and the kind of out-of-hours availability for genuine emergencies that recognises late January is not a normal week. None of which costs more, it’s just a different way of organising the same work around when it actually matters.