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Gone are the days when firms needing a web site had to spend several thousand dollars to have IT professionals design the site, then hundreds just to host it. It is now easily within the range of all professional firms, whether a multi-office full-service firm or a seasonal tax office. With this reduction in cost and the prevalence of consumer use of the Internet to find businesses, a web site should be considered a required component of any firm.

If you're not convinced that you need a web site, consider the value of one: At its core, a web site provides at least contact information, firm and partner profiles and the services offered through the practice. This enables Joe Taxpayer to find your firm and take the first steps in retaining your services, instead of just sitting at his home computer at 1:00 a.m. worrying about how a recent investment or inheritance is going to affect him. If he doesn't find your firm, he will find another.

Optimally, however, a web site should serve as more than just an online yellow pages listing; it should offer benefit to prospective and current clients alike through useful content that provides information on tax law and planning, and technology tools such as tax, savings and loan calculators. Additionally, technologies now allow secure delivery and sharing of files, which means that tax and accounting professionals can give their clients access to returns and other documents without having to photocopy and mail the files. Some interactive tools even allow clients to upload tax organizer data, payroll or bookkeeping files through secure portals, with the information automatically incorporated into the appropriate program.

So how do you get there? Essentially, you have three choices: Build it yourself from scratch, use a web site consulting firm, or use a web site builder application. Building it from scratch generally requires web editing software, which can cost several hundred dollars, along with the cost of domain registration (buying your dot-com name) and web site hosting (which means storage of the site on a server). This can cost as little as $20 per month, but can easily reach into the hundreds per month for high-traffic web sites. While this option can have the lowest initial price tag, it is not the best choice for firms without a dedicated IT staff and web developer. A poorly designed site can be as detrimental as a well-designed one can be beneficial. Instead of attracting clients, it can shun them, and perhaps even distract current clients. Using a web site development firm or advertising agency will result in a highly professional site with excellent features, but can cost thousands of dollars, and the firm will still need hosting and domain services.

This leaves the option of using a web site builder. These programs are usually accessed online through a web browser and let users build their own web sites without needing to know how (or why) things work. For an all-inclusive monthly price that is usually offered in a variety of service levels, these systems generally include web site hosting and even domain registration. Web site builders use templates and wizards that guide users step-by-step through each process, allowing the firm to modify various components of the site. While hundreds of general programs are on the market, there are several designed specifically for accounting and tax firms. Such programs allow users to automatically include libraries of tax information, multiple visitor tools, analysis from leading providers such as PPC and CCH, with the most advanced ones providing e-mail accounts, automatically refreshed financial content, and even secure client access to files. These systems ensure a professionally designed site without the expense of hiring a webmaster, and without having to learn a new program (and spending hours working on it).