A few years ago, a good scanner was considered an indispensable piece of hardware for an accounting firm, due to the number of paper documents that needed to be added to electronic file cabinets and document management systems. Today, they are rapidly going the way of the typewriter - a specialized tool that may not be worth the investment given how infrequently it is used.

As technology is evolving at such a rapid pace, it causes challenges for those of us who own our own firms. Every day there are more tools available to make us more productive and increase the ability for our clients to reach us whenever it is convenient for them. The reality is the amount of information and tools available is not only overwhelming but ultimately can decrease our productivity if we are not diligently focusing on what is important to our firm.

Trial Balance and Engagement software solutions represent the first two building blocks in a successful client engagement.The trial balance is at the core of double-entry bookkeeping, providing an assessment of whether the general ledger is in balance by making a tally of the debits and credits. Engagement workpaper and process software has come more recently, combining workflow processing, document management, reporting, collaboration and other underpinnings of the engagement process into a more streamlined package. The two are often used in tandem, and are sometimes even provided in the same software.