The Ultimate Tech Stack To Help You Run + Streamline Your Bookkeeping Firm

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When I started my very FIRST business, it was a bookkeeping and tax firm. I was running it part time until I decided to quit my job and go ALL IN. And back then, my tech stack was really different from what I use today.

But it’s not because what I was doing back then was wrong! It’s because tech has evolved and improved SO much since 2016. Plus, the firm I run now is a lot more sophisticated than when I first started out.

So when you’re looking to create, improve, or assess your tech stack for your firm. There’s a few pointers I’d like to share based on my experience starting and growing a firm in 2022!

Here’s a list of our exact tech stack at Magnetic Bookkeeping & Consulting ✨

You can hover over the name of each item in the database and click the ‘Open’ button to learn more about how and why we use each of them!

We get asked all the time which apps and software we use for each aspect of the business. But we want to make sure you understand that you don’t need everything on this list! Every single item on this list is super important to how we run our firm, and they all support our mission.

There’s no perfect list that would work for every single firm owner, so make sure you choose what makes the most sense for how YOU operate your business as a whole.

In this blog, we’re going to highlight a few of our MUST HAVE pieces of tech that truly elevate our experience as business owners and our client’s experience as well!

These Apps Are Non-Negotiable For Running An Efficient, Professional, Virtual Bookkeeping Firm

Here’s a list of tech that shows you exactly what we’d consider to be the essentials for when you’re building your tech stack. This isn’t the wholeeee thing though, because in this blog post, we talk about the foundational systems and tech to have set up in your firm from the beginning before you expand to anything else. These right here are really going to round out your tech stack and set you up for some REAL success!

If you haven’t read our blog about the 5 core systems every bookkeeping firm owner should have, go ahead and read it first right here!

Okay, now we can get into the really, really juicy stuff! You’ll notice this list doesn’t include Asana, but that’s because your project management system is part of the 5 CORE systems you’ll need to get set up before moving on to this list. Implementing each and every one of these apps has improved how we run Magnetic Bookkeeping & Consulting, so let’s get into it!

Content Snare

Holy moly, Content Snare is an absolute game changer for onboarding clients. This is the best thing we’ve found to collect information and documents from clients during the onboarding phase. You have the option to set up questionnaires for clients with conditional formatting (aka - they only see the questions that are actually relevant to them).

But we ALSO use Content Snare for monthly document requests! A lot of firm owners choose to use Keeper for this, which is also a great option. The reason why we stuck with Content Snare for this was because of how user friendly it is. And it has features that automatically follows up with clients who forget to submit their information.

We have an entire blog dedicated to why/how we use Content Snare in our firm, go check it out here! And if you reallyyyy want to learn more about the power of this tech, we have a guest expert session inside of our Breakthrough for Bookkeepers & Accountants program!

Loom

Loom is one of THE most effective ways to communicate with others, especially when you have to explain something complex. We use Loom internally when we need to show another team member something via screen share, record a new process, or even just send them an encouraging message! For clients, we use Loom to give them video updates on their financial reports or to explain the difference between each package in their proposal. The possibilities are endless with this app and it’s definitely a MUST in our firm!

Check out our other blog about how to use Loom to record processes in your firm.

Hubdoc

Hubdoc is 100% something you need to make your job as a bookkeeper, and your client’s life as a business owner SO much easier. We cover the cost of Hubdoc for our monthly bookkeeping clients because we require them to use it when they work with us. The expense is well worth how much more efficient we are when it comes to matching receipts with transactions!

If you’re not familiar with Hubdoc, it’s a receipt management software that allows biz owners to capture their paper receipts using the app or forward their e-receipts to a dedicated email address. It’s absolutely genius!

Plooto

STOP running ACH payments through QuickBooks Online! Seriously — it’s costing you way more money than it needs to. Plooto is your answer to processing automatic payments without losing so much money to transaction fees. This app has helped us streamline ACH transactions and give our clients a better experience. They don’t have to worry about remembering to pay their invoice every month, and WE don’t have to worry about creating/sending a bill.

We wrote a separate blog post about why we made the switch to Plooto and why we highly recommend it to our students and other firm owners! You can read the full post right here.

Zoom

It’s probably no surprise that Zoom is essential to running a virtual bookkeeping firm. But there’s one thing about Zoom that we strongly suggest to our students that might surprise you!

Upgrade to the paid version. It’s well worth the cost (which isn’t much to begin with) and it’s sooo much more professional to have unlimited meeting time and participants. Your clients don’t want to jump off the call and jump back on at the 40 minute mark. And if you’re working with team members or need more than one person on the call, you’ll need to have the extra capabilities Zoom Pro has to offer!

If you want to know about every single thing in our tech stack, just hop over to this Notion page anytime! We’re constantly updating our tech stack so just remember that you can do the same — you’re probably not going to use the same tech for the entire lifespan of your firm. As tech changes and new apps are born, you’re free to explore what makes the most sense for you.

As your firm grows, you’ll probably need to add more tech or upgrade what you already have. Take a few minutes to browse through our tech stack and see if there’s anything you can add to your own!