Managed IT for tax and accounting firms
Stop being your firm’s IT department
We look after your laptops, Microsoft 365, email security, backups and your WISP. One price per person, no setup fee, month-to-month. From $89/user/month.
15 minutes with an engineer, not a sales script. Not ready to talk? Get the 12-point IT checklist for tax firms
What the invoice says
Managed IT, 8 people × $89 = $712/month
Device fees: $0
Setup fee: $0
Security add-on: $0
Example for an 8-person firm at the monthly rate. Billed annually, it’s $80 a person.
What $89 a person actually buys
Everything below is in the price. There’s no device count, no setup line and no security add-on on the invoice.
Laptops and desktops
Patching, setup, monitoring and replacement prep for every machine a person uses.
Endpoint protection (EDR)
Installed on each machine, watched by our team, and acted on when it flags something.
Microsoft 365
Users, licenses and mailbox moves handled for you. MFA is switched on for every account.
Email security
Phishing and spoofed “IRS” mail get filtered before they reach the inbox.
Microsoft 365 backup
Mail, OneDrive and SharePoint are backed up. We test a restore every quarter.
Security training
Short staff training plus phishing tests, with results you can see.
Your WISP
Written for your firm and updated as staff and systems change. What goes in it
New hires and leavers
A working laptop on day one. Access shut off the hour someone leaves.
Audit
Covered by our own [SOC 2 Type II] report, the one your insurer can ask to see.
A normal morning in season
February 11, 8:40 a.m.
Your senior preparer’s laptop updated overnight. Now Outlook wants a password it won’t accept, the scanner has disappeared, and there are six returns to finish before lunch.
You tell us once. Someone from your named team of 3 engineers picks it up, and they already know that laptop, that mailbox and your scanner model. Nobody tells you to call Microsoft first. Nobody calls it a “printer vendor issue.”
There’s one thing we can’t fix. If Drake Web or CCH Axcess is down on the vendor’s own servers, that’s on them. We’ll confirm it, open the ticket with the vendor for you, and tell you when it’s back.
Pick by where your tax software runs
If your tax software already runs in the vendor’s cloud, you need Managed IT. If it runs on a server or a desktop in your office, you want both.
| Managed IT | Private Cloud + Managed IT Most popular | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $89/user/month ($80 billed annually) | $139/user/month ($125 billed annually) |
| Who it’s for | Firms on cloud tax software: Drake Web, CCH Axcess, QuickBooks Online | Firms on desktop software: Lacerte, ProSeries, UltraTax CS, CCH ProSystem fx, QuickBooks Desktop |
| Hosting | None. Your apps already live in the cloud | Your own private server with all your apps. Setup and migration included |
| Laptops, EDR, Microsoft 365, email security, WISP | Included | Included |
| Server backups | Not applicable | Every 4 hours, kept 90 days |
| Tax-season capacity | Not applicable | Extra CPU and memory Jan–Apr in the contract |
Seasonal preparers are added in January and removed in May, at the same rate with no setup fee. Only need hosting? Private Cloud is $79/user/month. See every plan
Your IT calendar, built around the filing calendar
October to December
The work gets done
We patch everything, retire the laptop that’s been dying since June, run a phishing test and review your WISP. Seasonal hires get machines and logins before Thanksgiving, not on January 3.
January to April
Change freeze
Security patches still go out after hours, but no big upgrades or new tools while the extension pile grows. If something breaks the Monday after March 15, you’re talking to people who have already seen your setup.
May to September
Catch-up season
Seasonal seats come off the bill. Hardware refresh, the quarterly restore test, and help with the cyber-insurance renewal questionnaire. We keep an eye on Sept 15 and Oct 15 too.
One page on the first of every month
A single page you can read in two minutes. It shows what we did last month and what we’d change next month.
When your insurer or a client asks how you protect taxpayer data, send them that page.
On the report
- Machines patched, and the ones that weren’t
- What the EDR stopped
- Who clicked the phishing test
- When backups last ran, and when we last restored one
- Open tickets
Questions owners ask about handing over IT
Why per user and not per device?
People have a laptop, a desktop at the office and a phone. Per-device pricing means paying more every time someone needs a second machine to work from. You pay for the person, with no setup fee per machine.
We already have an IT person. Do we still need this?
Maybe not. Managed IT is a full handover of laptops, email, security and the WISP, not a part-time add-on. If your setup is in good shape, we’ll tell you on the call.
How does onboarding work?
Your engineer takes inventory of every laptop, mailbox and admin login, moves the passwords out of one person’s head and into a managed vault, and installs EDR and backup. Then we write your WISP. We don’t start during tax season unless you ask.
We run Lacerte on a server in the back closet. Which plan?
Private Cloud + Managed IT, at $139/user/month. We move Lacerte onto your own private server and manage it, plus every laptop that connects to it. Migration takes a weekend, not an hour. How Lacerte hosting works
What if we want to leave?
It’s month-to-month. Give notice and we hand over your admin logins, documentation and data in full.
Do you write our WISP or just give us a template?
On both Managed IT plans, we write it for your firm and update it when staff or systems change.
Not ready to talk? Grade your own firm first
Get the 12-point IT checklist for tax firms. Enter your email and we’ll send the PDF.
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Find out what your IT really costs
In 15 minutes we’ll go through your current setup, tell you which plan fits and give you a per-person number. If you’re fine as you are, we’ll say so.
No setup fee. Month-to-month. Your data is returned in full if you leave.