Small accounting practices often do not use practice management applications, notes Jairam Padmanabhan, VP of collaborative solutions for the Kennesaw, Ga.-based Wolters Kluwer unit. "The biggest concern is they don't have the bandwidth or resources to implement or use more complex practice management solutions."

Practitioners access iFirm via a dashboard that enables them to use the Practice Manager and Trial Balance applications, and which will later provide the same interface to other office applications when they move onto the browser-based platform. The company is not ready to discuss which applications will make the move next.

The SFS application is following in the footsteps of the unit's sister, Wolters Kluwer CCH, which has introduced CCH Axcess as a cloud-based tax and accounting suite. And the two platforms share the ability to have all applications utilize the same database.

"Everything that a practitioner does for a client is connected to the core of the product, the client's record in the system. This helps the practitioner to get a comprehensive view of the client.", says Padmanabhan.

Practice Manager users can perform all functions generally associated with practice management, including tracking client information, setting deadlines, calculating utilization of staff time and preparing and sending invoices for jobs. iFirm uses the term "job", instead of "engagement", and Padmanabhan, said that choice was made because of the wide range of services provided by small firms

"We debated that," he says. But the term "job" was used because, "They could be doing payroll, bookkeeping or other tasks."

Annual subscription fees for iFirm are $999 for one to three users; $1,700 for four to six users and $2,499 for seven to 10 users. A setup fee of $199 is required with purchases.