Thomson Tax & Accounting — FileCabinet CS

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From the August 2007 Review of Document Storage Systems

FileCabinet CS is designed specifically for tax and account-ing firms and delivers the greatest value when used with the Thomson Tax & Accounting CS suite of professional products.

Usability -- 5 Stars
The design of the FileCabinet CS interface consists of a left pane that displays a list of client drawers’ filed alphabetically. In the main window pane, users can view a list of recent document activity, configuration of storage locations and status of storage space. This design is consistent with the other CS applications.

Document Organization -- 5 Stars
Documents are organized by drawer, with each drawer representing a particular client. Within the drawer, the organization is by CS applications and custom-defined folders. The drawer view screen includes a “Drawer Notes” window where users can post notes that will be date and time stamped. Custom folders can be set up globally for the entire firm but cannot be customized at the user level in order to provide a consistent filing organization model. The system will only show folders that are populated with documents so users don’t have to look through an extended list of folders that are empty.

Annotation -- 5 Stars
Annotations are built-in to FileCabinet CS and can be used on any document. The available annotation formats include highlights, stamps, redaction and audio clips.

Integration -- 5 Stars
As previously noted, the strongest integration is with other CS applications. In the CS Professional Suite of applications, any time a user prints, he/she has an option to store an image of the report or document directly into FileCabinet CS. The initial list of client drawers can be created automatically from either UltraTax CS or CS Professional Suite Accounting products. Users can view FileCabinet CS documents directly from within the other CS applications. When printing from UltraTax CS, the system will index each page separately.

Records Management -- 4 Stars
FileCabinet CS provides both access-level and activity-level security controls. Access can be controlled through either individual access or group-level access privileges The activity-level controls include granting or restricting the ability to archive, delete, add, edit or overwrite a document.

Relative Value -- 4.5 Stars
FileCabinet CS is a robust document storage solution that offers features that compete with some of the document management solutions reviewed in this magazine’s June/July issue (www.CPATechAdvisor.com/go/1588). If your practice’s information system is built on the CS family of products, then FileCabinet CS offers a compelling advantage as a result of the direct integration with the CS suite of applications. A bonus feature of FileCabinet CS is the option to subscribe to the web-hosted solution. Pricing for FileCabinet CS starts at $1,500 for the first user and $500 for an additional four-user network pack. Additional four-user packs are priced at $250. The hosted solution starts at $35 per month.

2007 Overall Rating: 5 Stars