Services
Along with our highly functional, feature-rich practice management software, IRIS Star Practice Management offers a full range of consulting services to ensure your firm is set up to succeed.
The majority of Star’s staff have a background in the accounting profession and are qualified or part-qualified CPAs, or from a more specialist background, such as tax, corporate recovery or IT management. This means our staff are already familiar with the relevant working practices and procedures and are well aware of the business issues facing accounting firms.
We achieve success by sharing the responsibility of the implementation with each of our clients and providing whatever level of services or support is required to ensure a successful outcome.
Services usually include project management, implementation planning, data transfer, training, report writing and software support. The very high success rate we have achieved in terms of ‘live’ implementations is proof of the effectiveness of this approach.
Best practices
Most implementations of a new practice management system involve a degree of re-engineering of the business process, with everything that implies in terms of new procedures and cultural change.
The practice concerned is usually looking for added value, whether this is in terms of:
- Using mobile applications securely
- More timely and efficient billing
- More effective cash collection
- Better control of costs
- Integration of previously disconnected areas (Budgeting, Scheduling, Due Dates, CRM)
- Improved provision of management information
- More flexible reporting
- Managing the client relationship more effectively
- More effective marketing of the firm’s services.
Working in partnership with its clients Star can advise on best practice approaches to the many issues that concern firms wherever they are located, such as:
- Time recorded accurately
- Getting time entered on time
- Expense submission and approval
- Implementing a consistent firm wide approach to budgeting and scheduling
- Setting realistic budgets
- Dealing with provisions/reserves
- Bill approval workflows
- Getting jobs billed promptly
- Improving recovery/realization
Data migration
Nearly all new client projects will involve migrating data from one or more legacy systems. IRIS Star Practice Management has proven experience in migrating data from a wide range of applications, including:
APS · CCH · Elite · IRIS Practice Engine · NetSuite · Sage · Thomson Reuters
We have also converted data from custom systems, UNIX and other legacy platforms.
Usually we would expect to convert:
- client static data
- job static data
- contact static data
- staff static data
- all transaction level open items for WIP and AR
- a number of years of transaction level history
- job budgets
- current schedules
- CRM data.
We typically advise on how to map legacy data to the fields in Star and to help your firm identify and clean up poor data in the legacy records.
It’s common to do a number of test data conversions prior to going live, providing time to clean up data, use real data for consulting and training purposes, and improving the conversion scripts for a quicker turnaround at Go-Live.
Reporting
Many accounting firms cite poor reporting as a key reason for change from their legacy system. Some of the functionality built into the IRIS Star Practice Management software helps overcome some of the fundamentals that can cause reporting issues, such as remembering when the ownership of a client or job on a client changed so we can offer reporting by both current and historic dimensions.
Star also provides a comprehensive library of standard reports in MS SQL Reporting Services (SSRS), with up to five levels of sorting available. Any of these standard reports can be copied and adapted to give your firm a unique version that meets your needs. Likewise, any of the 300+ standard views available in the Dashboard can be copied and modified for your firm. Star can also integrate directly with PowerBI.
Additionally, entirely new SSRS Reports, Dashboard views and BPA alerts can be written to meet a specific requirement, such as emulating a key report that your firm has used for years and wants to keep using. What once took hours every month to compile in Excel is now a real time view in Dashboard.
We can also train people within an accounting firm on the database structure of Star and report writing, so you can become as self-sufficient as you wish to be in this regard.
Training
Accounting firms will often carry out their own internal training for certain end user functions, with staff from IRIS Star Practice Management directly training the more specialist users or super-users such as system administrators, accounts and finance staff as well as those who will be training others on the end user functions.
Star can also provide ongoing training any time after Go-Live where new staff are replacing those already trained by Star. Most training is done face to face but can also be undertaken remotely. Most projects consist of a mix of the two.
Adoption
A successful Go-Live is critical as it is a time that can shape opinions on the system long afterwards. IRIS Star Practice Management recommends having one or more staff on-site at time of Go-Live, as often questions will arise that the firm’s own staff are not yet experienced enough to answer. This speedy resolution of questions helps to ensure that this critical point in the project is viewed as a success by the firm as a whole.
We can also be present when the firm is doing its first month-end when more questions may arise or provide technical training for report writers, internal support desk staff, etc.
We provide comprehensive software support services available 21 hours a day (Mon-Fri). Our support locations offer unrestricted telephone access plus Internet support in order to ensure that all clients receive a first class service, wherever they may be located.
Phone: +1 (733) 867-8343
Email: StarPMsupport@irisglobal.com
Online: https://starpm4me.irisglobal.com
IRIS Star Practice Management is available as a managed instance in the Cloud. As part of the hosting fee, Star takes responsibility for:
- Backups
- Microsoft updates
- Updates to IRIS Star Practice Management
IRIS Star Practice Management user groups provide an opportunity to learn about new developments, share thoughts and ideas on development, meet other clients and share experiences and knowledge.
The Star Americas user group is a free to join association managed by a committee staffed by members of client firms and is for all clients located in the Americas and islands close to it. It meets annually and all new Americas clients are provided with details about the group.
