E. Mochila, Inc. — Websites for Accountants

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From the Nov. 2009 Feature on Website Builders for Tax & Accounting Firms.

Introduced in the Fall of 2002, Websites for Accountants by E. Mochila, Inc. focuses on CPAs, public accountants and tax preparers. The vendor’s web page templates and standard related content reflects a familiarity with the expectations and conventions of that market. Clients of E. Mochila have a choice of website design paths — either via a web interface for do it yourselfers or by utilizing the E. Mochila expert staff of full-time web designers. Either way, the accounting firm can expect to get a custom website online quickly and with a professional appearance.

E. Mochila offers a wealth of standard content that can give a website depth and credibility without reinventing a lot of wheels. There are about 150 pages of prewritten material related to tax and accounting matters along with tax tips, approximately 120 interactive calculators, tax refund tracking, downloadable forms and Business Guides. All of the calculators and other features are pages of the firm’s website rather than links to external services, which is relevant in retaining the visitors’ focus.

One impressive feature that E. Mochila offers is the Client Accounts Page. In the past, transferring financial and tax data between accountants or tax preparers and their clients has been a clumsy, frustrating and risky process. Gone and forgotten are the days of passing diskettes or CDs by hand or mail along with the inevitable delays, misdirection and misplacement. Not so far gone is the method of sending spreadsheets, tax returns and other documents as attachments to emails. Most have noticed that the evolution of firewalls, spam filters and anti-virus software is making that process less viable every day.

With the Client Accounts page, clients can sign up for a user name and password and have access to a secure file directory, presented in the familiar folder and file explorer format. After log in, files can be uploaded, downloaded, deleted, and even emailed to one or more addresses from the contact manager. Support for folder creation keeps the files organized. This should become the preferred method for transmitting client files, considering the technical issues and weak security involved with emailing documents as attachments. Security for the Client Accounts page is via 256-bit SSL encryption.

For those professionals who can’t seem to find the time to do regular marketing, Websites for Accountants produces a monthly newsletter that is emailed automatically to a list managed by each firm, with no limit on the number of email addresses. This is an important method to keep the firm name in front of clients year round. This type of professionally written content, delivered consistently, can make a positive impression on accounting and tax clients. The newsletter goes out on the tenth of each month, and the firm has complete control of which email addresses receive it.

E. Mochila’s Websites for Accountants offers an initial setup at no charge, with a basic recurring charge of $70 per month. The maximum number of pages is unlimited, but their typical website has 150 pages, most of which are professionally written content, calculators and links. Custom website design ranges from $499 to $1,999; most popular, is the $899 design package. Websites for Accountants offers a 30-day free trial with no obligation, with online sign-up followed by a response from E. Mochila within one business day.

Websites are hosted in a secure co-location facility, with an off-site backup, and both physical sites are within the United States. Each client firm will have a unique domain name that will be owned by the client firm. E. Mochila will provide Help and support for the entire creation process, from domain name registration to website maintenance, even if the custom web pages are created by the client firm.