From the Nov. 2009 Feature on Website Builders for Tax & Accounting Firms.
Website creation and hosting is just one of the many offerings for accountants and tax professionals from Thomson Reuters. Their website building product, Web Builder CS, was first offered in 2000, and the enhancements and new features have made this an impressive product. Additions for 2009 are updated calculators, links to federal tax forms and IRS publications, and the ability to rename the URL of web pages.
Web Builder CS is a do-it-yourself online web page creation tool, with templates and themes suitable for professional firms. The page builder includes a generous selection of templates, colors, fonts and images, and the site builder gets everything organized. Locally produced text, images and other content is easy to upload and include. With support for unlimited pages, the firm can fill out a new website by selecting from a wide array of pre-built pages with relevant content that should be of interest to clients. Some of these ready-to-go pages include a Welcome page, About Our Firm, About Our Staff, Our Services, and Newsletters.
An attractive and useful website should also have fresh content on a regular basis, and Thomson Reuters provides numerous resources to help with this goal. The Forefield KnowledgeTrust content boasts access to more than 350 articles, 500 frequently asked questions, and 200 interactive tools that would be of interest to tax and accounting firm clients. Polls, surveys, questionnaires, and stock quote tickers can be added easily to enhance the site visitor experience … and to elicit responses that can lead to new clients and more services for existing clients. All of these options are available for the build-it-yourself website, as well as sites built by Thomson Reuters’ design staff.
A visit to some of the reference client sites (see URLs below) showcased the rich content that Thomson Reuters can provide. One example is the client portal page, where the firm’s clients can sign in and securely exchange documents without the exposure of email attachments. Another firm included an interactive Google Map centered on the firm’s address — a very handy feature in a big city environment. Still another firm had a page with numerous short articles on tax planning, estate planning and personal finance. All the sites had a consistent, professional look and feel and were easy to navigate. Web Builder CS and Thomson Reuters’ hosting can handle an unlimited number of web pages, but most of the firm websites tend to be around 10 pages.
Web Builder CS starts with a basic setup fee of $350, then $62 per month for hosting. Thomson Reuters offers a 30-day free trial period with easy online sign up. This is a great way for the experienced or just curious website builder to try out their online web page creation. Each hosted website will need a unique domain name, which will be owned by the accounting firm; these will not be sub-domains of Thomson Reuters.
All of the sites are hosted in a Thomson Reuters owned Tier 1 data center with four redundant Internet connections. Optional services beyond the basic monthly service include a newsletter package, web page design services and email hosting. Thomson Reuters’ hosted email accounts have a 25MB storage allowance per account and up to 9MB per email, which will accommodate fairly large attachments. These hosted accounts are protected by server-side anti-virus software. Also, the tax and accounting firm can choose to keep their existing Exchange server, if needed. Web Builder CS from Thomson Reuters looks like a great value for the tax and accounting firm that wants a professional presence on the web at a very affordable cost.
The following websites were built using Web Builder CS from Thomson Reuters:
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