6 best Client Portals for Accountants in 2024

Accountancy is a challenging field, and studies reveal that 55% of accountants suffer from stress and burnout–14% higher than average. 

So, what's the secret to simplifying your workload and reducing stress?

As tempting as it is to run away to a desert island, you’re looking for a more practical solution: a client portal that can streamline your business processes. 

Let’s imagine it now: an organised workflow, easy and secure document exchange, and one platform for communicating with clients. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?

Whether it’s your first client portal or you’re looking to upgrade, we’ve packed this 2024 guide with all the information you need. 

We'll provide detailed insights, including each portal's advantages and disadvantages, pricing, and feature sets.

What Are the Benefits of Using an Accounting Client Portal?

Client portals are becoming popular across the board, from photographers to lawyers. But what makes client portal software for accountants so worthwhile? 

• Security: Client portals are a fortified and centralised file-sharing hub, ensuring you’re compliant.
• Project Management: With project management software woven into the portal, you can break down complex projects into tasks and share them with clients. 
• Client Communication: Contact clients on one platform with a simple interface customised with your branding.

Client portal software for accountants offers a one-stop shop for you and your client to exchange documents, progress, and messages. 

The benefits?

You’ll enjoy a reduced workload and happier clients. 

What’s the Secret to Identifying the Best Client Portal for Accountants?

So, you need a client portal capable of improving your business.

But what does that involve?

Here are the eight unmissable features in an accounting client portal:

• A Secure Client Portal for Accountants: You frequently handle confidential and sensitive financial documents, so security is a top priority. Choose a security-audited portal with multiple security layers, encrypted file storage, and a trustworthy cloud platform. 
• Integration with Current Software: To maintain a smooth workflow, ensure your current software integrates with your portal. 
• User-Friendly: Studies show that a client’s economic value peaks around age 55. While this age group is tech-optimistic, they aren’t as tech-savvy as younger generations. What is the best way to manage resistant clients and employees? Choose client portal software for accountants that’s user-friendly for you and your clients with a clear dashboard and intuitive design.
• In-App Messaging: Some portals slow you down by only allowing messaging through email. While email is an excellent tool, you have a portal for a reason! It should be a single platform for everything, and many email-based messaging portals experience delays–frustrating when you’re waiting for that all-important email to load! 
• Clear Branding: Opting for a client portal for accountants that allows brand customisation will showcase professionalism in every aspect of your work.
• Project Management: Many client portals offer a complementary suite of project management features, including automation, project breakdowns, and reporting.  
• Templates and AI: Choose a client portal that can cut time creating key messages and documents with templates and AI-powered suggestions. 
• High-Level Customer Support: While AI is handy within the portal, you don’t want to be stuck in a loop complaining to a customer service bot. In a high-pressure career, you need a client portal for accountants with human staff that is there for you when you need support. 

Consider the size of your business, number of employees, and decide on your budget.

What Is The Best Client Portal for Accountants?

We've examined six client portals tailored for accountants to help you decide which platform matches your professional needs.

Hubflo: The Unrivaled Client Portal for Accounting

Hubflo is an all-in-one client portal and project management system with 360-degree security. 

This leading portal streamlines your entire business process, from the first client interaction to submitting an invoice. Its project management capabilities help you to track how your project is processing with ease. Going task by task, use AI-powered suggestions to contact clients quickly with in-portal messaging. 

But how does Hubflo look from your client's perspective?

Hubflo allows you to brand your portal with logos and colours that create a professional customer experience. The portal is easy to use, and clients will quickly adapt to its simple interface. 

Is it secure? Hubflo is GDPR-compliant and Google-certified and encrypts all data. It hosts data in Europe through Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Scaleway. AWS is an internationally recognised cloud storage platform boasting numerous accreditations, such as the ISO 27701 for privacy information management. 

Pricing :

$40 per month for one user ($34 per month with annual membership) with unlimited clients 

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Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: ✓

Tasks / Ticketing: ✓

Invoicing / Payments: ✓

Messaging: ✓

Forms: ✓

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: ✓

CRM: ✓

Project management: ✓

Scheduling / Calendar: ✓

Reports: ✓

Mobile app: ✓

Integrations:

Stripe: ✓

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: ✓

Dropbox: ✓

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: ✓

QuickBooks: ✓

Xero: ✓

Slack: ✓

Mailchimp: ✓

Pros :

• Hubflo is popular with its clients and has excellent Trustpilot and Google ratings
• Hubflo is secure and uses the reputable AWS and Scaleway to store data
• In-app messaging for ease of communication

Cons:

• Hubflo works best for companies mainly using a single currency
• While there is a chat option, you can’t leave comments for other users

Karbon: A Client Portal Software for Accountants

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Our take:

Karbon is a secure practice management tool for accountants, offering a solid selection of features. 

Previously known as “PracticeIQ”, it was renamed after carbon because it aims to improve every business process for an accountancy firm. Not a small task! Does it succeed?

While Karbon does manage to achieve its goal, it comes with a price. 

It overcomplicates itself by offering everything an accounting client portal can, from automation to document sharing to an advanced combined client-message system. 

The result? 

Some users are bogged down by the platform’s steep learning curve and end up struggling to navigate it. 

Is it secure? Karbon is a secure client portal for accountants. It’s committed to following best practices and has been audited to achieve a SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification.

Pricing:

Karbon offers three tiers: Team, Business, and Enterprise. The cheaper tier lacks many features, such as automation and reports. 

Pricing starts at $44 / user / month

Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: ✓

Tasks / Ticketing: ✓

Invoicing / Payments: ✓

Messaging: ✓

Forms: ✓

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: ✓

CRM: ✓

Project management: ✓

Scheduling / Calendar: ✓

Reports: ✓

Mobile app: ✓

Integrations:

Stripe: ✓

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: ✓

Dropbox: ✓

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: ✓

QuickBooks: ✓

Xero: ✓

Slack: ✓

Mailchimp: x

Pros :

• 24/7 support (replies take around 20 minutes)
• Secure platform with a SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification
• Automate reminders and tasks
• Triage all communications in one interface 
• Offers a wide variety of features
• AI options

Cons:

• Expensive for the full suite of features
• Steep learning curve
• Difficult to navigate'

Canopy: A Client Portal for Accountants

Our take:

Canopy is an accounting client portal that aims to simplify your entire workflow. As a result, it offers communication and document management alongside project management features. In addition, it provides add-ons for tax resolution and billing. 

The downside is that these features come with an additional cost. As a result, some users find that Canopy is only worthwhile for large teams due to this cost and complexity. 

Is it secure? Canopy uses 256-bit encryption for transit and rest and stores data with AWS. 

Pricing :

Canopy has a complex pricing model with two tiers: Standard and Pro. Each tier allows you to add the features you need–like an ice cream sundae. Add extras like document management, workflow, and time and billing features. 

Unfortunately, Canopy is a big commitment if you are looking for a budget price because monthly billing is only available for customers paying over $250 per month. 

It’s difficult to assess an exact price, but the cheaper tier with a full suite of key features is $100 / user / month (on an annual pricing plan)

Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: ✓

Tasks / Ticketing: ✓

Invoicing / Payments: 

Messaging: ✓

Forms: ✓

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: ✓

CRM: ✓

Project management: ✓

Scheduling / Calendar: ✓

Reports: ✓

Mobile app: ✓

Integrations:

Stripe: ✓

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: ✓

Dropbox: ✓

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: ✓

QuickBooks: ✓

Xero: ✓

Slack: ✓

Mailchimp: x

Pros :

• Secure platform with a SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification.
• User-friendly interface 
• Offers personalisation
• All-in-one platform
• Offers AI-powered insights and writing 
• Customisable portal

Cons:

• Expensive for the full suite of features
• Complex to adopt 
• Some customers find payments challenging with a lack of transparency
• Glitchy at times

Liscio: An Accounting Client Portal

Our take:

Liscio is a user-friendly and secure client communication platform engineered for accountants. 

Its goal? 

To enable accountants to communicate with their clients on one platform. Liscio’s central feature is its messaging suite, which offers many ways to talk to clients, including two-way texting and email synching.  

While these features are helpful, Liscio is limited in other areas. For example, it lacks advanced project management and AI features of other tools. 

Is it secure? Liscio padlocks your clients’ profiles with face ID. It also uses a 256-bit key to encrypt data in storage and transit.  In addition, it employs new security tokens every time a user accesses a file, ensuring it’s the right person every time. 

Pricing :

Liscio has three tiers: Core, Pro, and Enterprise. The discounted tiers have add-on costs for two-way texting. 

The cheapest tier, Core, is $50 / user / month

Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: ✓

Tasks / Ticketing: ✓

Invoicing / Payments: ✓

Messaging: ✓

Forms: ✓

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: ✓

CRM: ✓

Project management: x

Scheduling / Calendar: ✓

Reports: x

Mobile app: ✓

Integrations:

Stripe: ✓

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: ✓

Dropbox: x

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: x

QuickBooks: ✓

Xero: x

Slack: ✓

Mailchimp: x

Pros :

• Good range of messaging and document management features
• Offers responsive questionnaires
• Tag and organise documents
• Good customer support
• Advanced security 

Cons:

• Only offers simple task management
• No document backup
• Lack of automation features
• No AI-powered options
• Keep Liscio branding on the portal

SmartVault: Document Management Client Portal

Our take:

SmartVault is primarily a client portal for sharing documents. It’s not specifically engineered for accountants–but focuses on document-heavy industries, including accountancy, construction, and manufacturing. 

It offers document management with electronic signatures, file versioning, and compliance-checking features. 

In addition, it has extra project management capabilities,such as automated alerts and document sharing.  

While these features are practical, they’re also complex. Some users struggle to navigate the platform, and customer support is difficult to find when they do run into trouble. 

Is it secure? The clue is in the name! SmartVault offers bank-level security, protecting documents with advanced encryption. It’s a secure client portal for accountants that also keeps profiles safe with two-factor authentication. 

Pricing :

SmartVault offers the Accountant Pro and the more general Business Pro tiers. The Account Pro features bulk document sending and integration with accountancy tech stacks. 

The Accountant Pro is £40 ($50) / user / month

Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: ✓

Tasks / Ticketing: ✓

Invoicing / Payments: ✓

Messaging: x

Forms: ✓

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: ✓

CRM: ✓

Project management: ✓

Scheduling / Calendar: ✓

Reports: x

Mobile app: 🟠(iOs only- iPhone or iPad)

Integrations:

Stripe: ✓

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: 🟠 (iOs only: iPhone or iPad)

Dropbox: x

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: x

QuickBooks: ✓

Xero: ✓

Slack: x

Mailchimp: x

Pros :

• Secure platform with encryption and two-factor authentication
• Excellent for document sharing
• Good organisational features such as folders
• Many accountancy integrations
• Offers custom branding

Cons:

• Can be buggy
• Severe learning curve that can be confusing
• The drag-and-drop feature can be unintuitive
• Some customers find the customer support lacking
• Can’t edit documents within the software
• No AI features

Dropbox for Business: Document Sharing Client Portal

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Our take:

Dropbox for Business is a powerhouse file-sharing application. It offers cloud storage that meets the needs of businesses, both small and large. While it isn’t an all-rounder client portal software for accountants, we put it here because it is a fast, low-cost fire-sharing solution.

Dropbox for Business is an incredibly flexible application that supports many integrations, allowing you to hand-design your workflow through multiple apps.

While that’s a benefit, this is also time-consuming to set up, and you may prefer an all-in-one application. Dropbox does offer Dropbox Paper for project management, but it’s not well integrated with Dropbox for Business.

Is it secure? Despite Dropbox being a huge name, it doesn’t offer advanced security. Dropbox uses AES 256-bit data encryption for data in storage. However, it only uses AES 128-bit encryption while the data is in transit.128-bit encryption uses a shorter code, which is much easier to hack. 

Pricing :

Dropbox offers four tiers ranging from an Essentials tier to Enterprise. The more expensive tiers allow multiple users and more extensive storage. 

Tiers start from £22 ($27) / for only one user / month

Core features:

File management: ✓

Notes: x

Tasks / Ticketing: x

Invoicing / Payments: x

Messaging: x

Forms: x

Embed external apps: ✓

Proposals: x

CRM: x

Project management: x

Scheduling / Calendar: x

Reports: x

Mobile app: ✓

Integrations:

Stripe: x

Zapier: ✓

Google Drive: ✓

Dropbox: ✓ (you’ve already got it!)

Gmail / Outlook: ✓

Google Calendar: x

QuickBooks: x

Xero: x

Slack: ✓

Mailchimp: x

Pros :

• Allows users to edit PDFs 
• Reliable document storage
• E-signing available
• Fast download speeds
• Customisable portal for branding

Cons:

• Lacks project management suite
• No backups for documents
• Lack of automation

How Can You Identify the Best Accounting Client Portal for You?

Choosing your client portal is a big decision that will impact your business and customers. It’s essential to get it right! 

Hubflo is a best-in-class client portal designed with accountants in mind. We know you’re juggling many clients and even more documents at once. That’s why our client portal has an excellent project management suite, an easy-to-use interface, and easy document sharing. 

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