Name: Embracing the Cloud: Transitioning from ProSeries to ProConnect
Uploaded: 2025-05-15T18:56:06.689Z
Duration: 1 h 4 s
Description: Embracing the Cloud: Transitioning from ProSeries to ProConnect

Transcript for "Embracing the Cloud: Transitioning from ProSeries to ProConnect": Alright, everyone. Welcome. We are so happy to have you for our webinar today on embracing the cloud, transitioning from pro series to pro connect, presented by the wonderful Ralph Estep Jr. My name is Ashley Henderson, and I will be your moderator today. I'm a senior solution specialist. I've been with Intuit going on nine years now, so I've supported both ProConnect tax as well as Lacert. I've led other webinars and training sessions. I am known as a subject matter expert in ProConnect tax, and I'm so excited to be with you all today. And I would like to introduce you all to our wonderful mister Ralph, and he brings over thirty years of invaluable experience in the tax industry. He'll be leading our session today. He is the principal at Saggio Management Group, and he holds many advanced business degrees. Beyond his extensive professional achievements, Ralph is active plea involved in his community as a mentor, and he hosts his own podcast and radio show. So hello, Ralph. Welcome today. Well, thank you. And thanks for having me today. Thank you. And so we'll go ahead and jump in to our housekeeping now. So for the polling questions, you will see, a pop up launch, and you'll see it at the bottom left area of your screen. You can click on go to polls, to go directly to that polling tab, or you can click on the polls tab located in the upper right hand side of your screen. And you can here you can view the chats and messages as well. Alright. For participation, the audio will stream exclusively through your computer speakers. We do recommend you use Chrome or Safari. If you have any, VPNs, ad blockers, please do turn those off now. And at the end of the session today, you will be prompted to take a brief survey, and we really appreciate all of your feedback. It will help us continue to improve our our webinars webinar sessions going forward. Alright. And now we have our CPE and, unfortunately, today's session is not eligible for CE credit, but it is eligible for one CPE credit. Just as long as you answer the polling questions, so there'll there will be two polling questions. Just be sure you answer those. And then, for the sorry. For the CPE credit, you also, will receive your certificate within forty eight hours. That should be contained in an email. Please check your spam or junk folder if you don't receive it. You can contact us at pro tax underscore training at Intuit dot com. Alright. And here is our disclaimer. This session is educational in nature and should not be constructed as or I'm sorry. And now on to our disclaimer. This is a an educational session and should not be construed as tax advice. Now for our first poll question, what is your primary reason for attending this webinar? Is it to earn free CPE credits, explore new solutions, to solve a specific problem, or general interest and or education, or is there some other reason that you're attending our session today? So we'll give you about sixty seconds here. Actually, I was really hoping it would say something like to c Ralph's sparkling personality, but I guess that wasn't one of the options today. Yeah. So if that's the case, just select other. That works. Alright. Give you a couple more seconds there. Looks like most of everyone has answered. Alright. Got some good feedback there. Looks like what we were expecting. So now it's time for mister Ralph to come on stage and kick us off. Well, thank you, Ashley, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for taking time to be here today. As Ashley said, my name is Ralph Estep junior. Like many of you, I've been in the tax preparation field for quite some time, and for me, over thirty years, in fact. And, wow, when I was putting this together, that certainly makes me feel old. I've actually been working in a tax practice since I was about 12 years old, and, yes, it's my family business. So I guess I could say I have a bit of experience in this area. Well, today, I wanna share a strategic perspective on the transition many of us have either made, maybe we're considering it, or we're gonna likely face, and that's moving our core tax preparation workflow from that of a traditional desktop solution, in my case, that was ProSeries, to a cloud based platform. Specifically, today, I'm gonna talk about Intuit ProConnect. And this isn't just about swapping one software for another. It's it's really about adapting our practices to the evolving technological landscape and really exceeding our client expectations. Yes. We gotta consider our clients because that's what they're demanding. Well, at least I say it if you wanna grow your practice, and I assume all of us wanna do that, don't we? The truth is we all likely face similar challenges, and and we've all been through these similar crossroads with technological shifts. And my goal today isn't just to talk about features, but I wanna share some real practical insights from one practitioner to another because I made this change this past year. And so this isn't some elaborate sales pitch. It's really my honest assessment from a professional who made the change. And and I'm gonna suggest that as I talk today. So today, I'm gonna share my real story with you from from that as someone just like you. And and if you're like me, you're you're apprehensive, but you realized that you need to make a change. And I realized I needed to make a change. So today, I'm gonna talk about I'm gonna discuss the reasons behind the move. I'm gonna talk about the challenges encountered with the with the old ways of doing things. I'm gonna talk about the tangible benefits realized from working on the cloud, and I'm gonna share some key lessons learned along the way, all framed within the context of managing a modern accounting practice like yours and probably like mine. Well, let's start by acknowledging our shared history. Now many of us build our practices relying heavily on robust desktop software like Intuit ProSeries. These have been solid platforms. They're our workhorses, and they they served us and our clients well for many years. We mastered them. We built workflows around them. We understand them. And when I was preparing to tell you, it's kinda like that old pair of shoes you always grab in your closet. You they fit, and we like the way they feel. But the landscape of our profession, just like all industries, is continually evolving. We've seen the progression from purely manual file. You think of the old days which some of us might remember fondly. Yes. I even remember those handwritten tax forms and those schedules. But now we're in a time of efficient games of desktop software, and now truth is, increasingly, we're moving towards cloud based solutions. And this shift isn't arbitrary. It is truly driven by some fundamental changes we're seeing. Fundamental changes in how we work and what our clients expect. And listen, we've got to adapt. So from an accounts perspective, the the key drivers pushing us all towards the cloud are becoming undeniable. So I wanna take a few minutes and talk about the key drivers that I see. The first one is this, clients' expectations have absolutely shifted. They just have. We have to either meet these expectations or our practices are simply not going to survive and they're they're certainly not gonna thrive. The reality is clients demand faster turnaround times. They they wanna see seamless digital in interaction, and they absolutely are demanding secure ways to exchange sensitive documents. And this is quickly moving beyond the risks of standard email. It is people are just not happy with that at all. Our clients are speaking to us loudly, and we've gotta listen to their demands. Secondly, our operational needs have changed. The desire for remote work flexibility, whether for ourselves or maybe even for our staff has changed the need for access across multiple locations and the critical importance of business continuity planning are now absolutely paramount. We're living in different times, and our platform has to reflect the new realities on the ground. Well, the third thing, the security landscape, frankly, it's more threatening now than ever. We face increased cyber threats and growing compliance burdens like the FTC standards rule. Effectively, managing security protocols on local machines and networks is becoming increasingly complex, and it's becoming increasingly resource intensive. And many of us like myself, look, I am the IT department at my place. Yes. I wear many hats here at my firm. How about you? We don't have the staff of professionals to back us up. It's it's our burden. It's our risk. And, ultimately, it's our responsibility because the truth is our reputation depends on it. And finally, let's be honest. There are significant competitive pressures. Firms that successfully leverage cloud technologies to enhance efficiency, they enhance security and client experience, those firms are gaining a competitive advantage and a competitive edge. These are just facts. We can accept them or or we could continue to bury our heads in the sand and pretend the landscape hasn't changed, but it has. So now despite seeing these trends, I I have to be very honest with you. I initially hesitated. I was comfortable with pro series. I I knew it inside and out, and the the thought of disrupting established workflows, especially during busy season, that idea was daunting. I was really concerned about messing with the, what I call, the bread and butter of my practice. I asked myself, will I be able to learn a whole new system? Will my staff be able to learn a new system? Will our workflows need to change dramatically? How will the clients experience this change, and will preparing tax returns take more time? Time I simply didn't have. And listen, these are all tough questions, and they demand answers. I also question the return on investment or the ROI for a fancy accounting term and ask myself, would the benefits truly justify the cost and the effort of a transition? See, it's so easy to fall into the if it ain't broke, don't fix it mindset. But I came to realize that waiting for something to break in today's environment is a reactive stance, and I didn't wanna move forward being just reactive. So proactive modernization became my necessary path. So you might be asking, Ralph, what changed your mind? What helped you shed that if it ain't broke mindset? But to be very transparent with you, my hesitation began to fade as recurring challenges with the traditional desktop setup moved beyond just minor inconveniences and became genuine strategic limitations. We impacted both efficiency and risk management on mind. Those are two of the most vital components of a successful practice in my view, efficiency and risk management. Now maybe some of these inconveniences resonate with your own experiences. Let me talk about some of those. First, device and location dependency. Like many of you, I suspect my primary workflow was tied to a specific hardware in the office. Now for me, since I'm on a Mac, this meant maintenance of a standalone Windows machine. I've moved way beyond the Windows environment at this point, and maintaining a separate machine for tax work was becoming a major real big hassle. This wasn't just inconvenient. It was an operational bottleneck. Again, as I said a few minutes ago, I am the a t I am the IT department, so guess what? The buck stopped with me. More importantly, it poses significant business continuity risk. What happens if that machine crashes? What if it happens right before a deadline? Or or for me, I had no other Windows machines in my office? Or if office access is unexpectedly prevented due to weather or some other type of issue. Sure. Remote access solutions existed, but often they were clunky. They were slower. They required, you know, this ridiculously complicated complex setup. Maybe you can relate with those ever changing IP addresses. Oftentimes, I had the remote setup done, but then my office IP address changed and now I had no access. It created a single point of failure that I just couldn't afford any longer. The second inconvenience, and this one I can't undersell, is data security and backup management. With the desktop model, the the burden of securing client data rested entirely on the firm. And since I am the IT department, guess what? It all fell on me. Performing consistent backups, verifying them, and ensuring off-site storage, managing encryption encryption. Let's be honest. This requires significant discipline and carries a high risk of oversight or even critical failure. Getting a backup, having a drive failure, or facing a disaster between backups could be catastrophic. Furthermore, meeting increasingly stringent data security compliance standards is inherently more difficult and costly when managing everything locally, when you're doing it yourself, and a potential liability is significant. The third inconvenience is collaboration inefficiencies, and I'll talk a little bit about that now. Internally, working with colleagues often involve cumbersome check-in and check out procedures, lending to version control headaches and and making simultaneous access for preparation and review difficult. Externally, client collaboration often meant relying on some insecure email for document transfer or or trying to juggle cumbersome third party portal solutions, which just added friction to the document gathering process. It was inefficient. The client struggled with it. My staff didn't understand it. And in the end, and I'm looking back at it now, it was a complete nightmare. Fourth inconvenience was scalability and licensing limits. Adding staff, especially seasonal help, that often involved complex network configurations. I had to manage additional licenses. I had to ensure software version consistency and then potentially added a bunch in in new hardware costs. The inherent architecture of that desktop software felt less flexible for handling practice growth or adapting to changing staffing needs smoothly. It was a real chore, especially for me since, like I said, all my users are on a Mac. And to be honest with you, I just never gave them access to the tax software, which meant more work for me. I had to handle all the routine items that I knew I really didn't need to handle, but creating a better environment without that IT staff just wasn't gonna happen. And finally, the inconvenience of updates and maintenance overhead. While most vendors manage the updates themselves, no, we don't have to update the code. I guess that's a good thing. But applying those updates often required manual downloads and installations and which led to potential downtime and ensuring every workstation was updated correctly. You know, this represented an administrative time cost and carried the risk of version inconsistencies within the practice. Now in the end, individually, maybe none of these were deal breakers, but adding them cumulatively, they represented friction. They they represented risk and they represented true inefficiency, and that prompted a serious look at some of the alternatives. This led me to really think about a better solution. So as I investigated cloud solutions, Intuit ProConnect emerged as a strong contender primarily because its core architecture, and it directly addressed those desktop pain points that we discussed just a few minutes ago. You know, those minor inconveniences became the real impetus for a true cloud solution. I also lived in the Intuit world with QuickBooks online, and I was already a pro series customer, so ProConnect made sense for me to look at. And before you ask, yes, I tried hosting with ProSeries, but it just didn't work for me. That remote desktop connection, constant printing issues, I needed a true cloud platform, so I took a hard look at ProConnect. Now the fundamental difference is that ProConnect is a true cloud platform. There's no software to install or maintain on local machines. Access is entirely through a standard web browser. You can use Chrome or you can use Edge or or Firefox, whatever you use for browsing the Internet and from potentially any device with an Internet connection. Yes, even my iPad and other tablet devices. No separate Windows machine for me. It just used my Mac and let me just tell you right now, I was thrilled with that idea. By choosing this cloud solution, it immediately eliminates those installation hassles, those operating system compatibility concerns, and that need to manage a local software footprint for the tax application itself. Like I said, I was having a machine just for that. And guess what? I could finally shed that role of IT professional for good. Just that alone would save me valuable time and give me operational peace of mind. But let's talk about some of the operational changes and how I found peace of mind because that's one of the things I really wanna stress today. One of the major operational relief points comes from those automated updates covering both tax law changes and software features. Intuit manages all the updates on their servers. So when you log in, you're always using the most current version. This removes that administrative burden from the firm and helps ensure compliance and minimizes those user disruptions that are typically associated with manual update processes. We're waiting for updates to install when I go to do something. It seems like it was always it would always prompt for an update when I had about five minutes between clients and I wanted to send a few e files. And it's funny. It occurred to me as I was preparing today that that since this was my first season on ProConnect, I never had to wait for those pesky updates. I was able to jump right in and work right away. We call that time saved. Another operational update is the shift towards centralized professionally managed data storage. Instead of relying on a local hard drive and our own backup discipline or, to be honest with you, the lack thereof when it's crunch time, maybe you felt that way also. But with ProConnect, all client data resides within Intuit's secure data centers. They handle the infrastructure. They handle the backups. They handle the redundancy and that physical security. And this represents a significant shift in responsibility that allows me to leverage enterprise grade security protocols that might be difficult or cost prohibitive to implement and manage effectively if I was still doing this in house. And we'll we'll touch more on security specific shortly. I guess I can actually get rid of that third party backup service now. So I guess what? Money saved. Finally, another operational update, ProConnect is designed for the cloud. This means its interface and its workflows are optimized for an online experience rather than simply trying to replicate a desktop program in a browser. I gotta be honest with you. Candor requires acknowledging that, you know, it also means a learning curve. The user experience paradigm is different, but the design aims to leverage cloud capabilities for potentially faster processing and just has smoother integrations down the line. Look. It really is easy to use. There is a learning curve, yes, but it's really intuitive. I'll discuss that learning curve later, and I got a few ideas that I would suggest. Well, these core architectural differences, they form the foundation for the specific benefits I experienced after making the switch. Let's talk about some of the benefits that I've experienced. The most immediate and perhaps most impactful benefit realized was a dramatic increase in accessibility and flexibility, and that had direct impact, a positive impact on our practice operations. The primary advantage is work location flexibility, and this one is huge. With ProConnect, our team could access the full application and client data securely from anywhere with an Internet connection. It could be at home. It could be in the office. Even while traveling or at a client site without needing some complex clunky VPN or or dealing with the the typical performance issues often found with remote desktop setups. Yes. I was finally able to grant access to my support staff, and I'll talk more about that a bit later. The capability is crucial for supporting flexible staffing models, including having remote employees and ensuring a consistent user experience regardless of their location. And this directly enhances business continuity. Listen. We are far less vulnerable to office specific disruptions like severe weather or power outages or or maybe you have building access issues. And our dependency on any single piece of hardware functioning correctly is significantly reduced. Listen, the truth is if if one machine fails, a user can simply log in for another. Like I said, I actually use my iPad a few times this tax season, and if I'm being honest, this is gonna be a funny one. I developed an evening laptop ritual doing tax returns for my recliner while watching Netflix. Now there's also the potential for improved responsiveness as well. This is something I was able to take advantage of right away. Being able to securely access client files or review work outside traditional office hours or location, it really allows for greater agility in addressing urgent client matters. Now my wife will tell you there are no accounting emergencies, but our clients would tell us something different. Of course, this flexibility requires some discipline, and honestly, I'm not great at that part. You can ask my wife about that. But even with the even with this responsiveness, we need to manage boundaries. We need to maintain work life balance, but the capability itself is absolutely invaluable. It also offers device flexibility. While work while primary work is typically done on laptops or desktops, the ability to review information or perform even light tasks, potentially even on a tablet, adds another layer of convenience. For instance, I recall an unexpected office closure due to a snowstorm this past winter. Now I have my office here on the farm, so I was able to come over to the office, and I can do that regardless of the weather. Now previously, this would have crippled our workflow for maybe a day or even two days. But with ProConnect, my team simply worked from home. They logged in via their browsers, and we experienced virtually zero downtime in productivity. And listen, that's just not convenience. It's operational resilience. Let's talk about some other gains I've personally seen since making the switch beyond just access. And I do this to move to ProConnect, introduce some tangible things, and that first one is efficiency and productivity gains. As accountants, we're always looking for ways to optimize workflows and save time, and this is where some ProConnect Cloud features really shine. While any new software requires adapting to a a modern interface, once learning curve was overcome, we found the navigation generally intuitive and designed to minimize clicks for common tasks. That was huge compared to other older desktop paradigms. A significant time saver, particularly for firms with clients using QuickBooks Online, is the potential for data integration. Now I gotta be honest here. When I was looking at ProConnect, the sales rep kept talking to me about this integration. You know, you could integrate this between QuickBooks Online and pro and ProConnect. I really didn't think I would actually use it. Let me tell you, this was a real game changer for me. Not sure how I was able to work in the past. The integration with QuickBooks Online or QBA allows for direct import of the trial balance data, often with intelligent mapping suggestions. This meant for my applicable clients, I was able to drastically reduce manual data entry time and remove the potential for transcription errors. You know, those key and errors that we all tend to make when we're not being super careful. As an aside, as far as ease of use, let me just share this with you. Here's something interesting. When I allowed my staff once I granted my two staff members access to the software, they each came to me and they said, Ralph, hey. Can we try doing our own tax returns? You know, they saw how the software uses the uploaded documents to to fill in their return. And, honestly, I I look at their returns and each of their returns were correct. You know, I guess that speaks volumes since neither had ever prepared a tax return in the past. But let's talk about interacting with our clients. The process of client data collection is also streamlined. Tools like Intuit Link provide an integrated, secure client portal directly within the ProConnect environment. This allows us to send digital organizers. Now as an aside, I'm gonna tell you, we actually moved away from organizers, and I developed a series of questions for clients to answer. And to be completely honest with you, in the past, only about 30% of my clients even did the organizers. But these questions, they answered them. And we were able to request specific documents and receive uploads directly into the client's file all tracked within the system. I have to say, this is really pretty slick. It reduces reliance on insecure email attachments and those cumbersome third party portals and provides a more professional client experience and a clearer audit trail for document requests and receipts. I even even pulled my clients this year as they came in, and most said they love this new interface. They they found it easy to use. They found it efficient, and only a few struggled with it. I will offer a pro tip though. I found that recording a video to share with my clients on how to use it really helped. I also experienced a huge time saving with being able to have their uploaded documents populated to the actual spots in the software. Listen. This is a game changer as well. It gave me more time to give to my clients and added value such as tax planning. I would bet this saved me on average, and listen to me on this one, about fifteen minutes per return preparation, and who knows how many K and N errors. Let's shift to eFiling and diagnostics. These are tightly integrated within ProConnect. The workflow from return preparation to review to diagnostic checks and electronic submission, it feels seamless. Additionally, leveraging Intuit's cloud infrastructure can sometimes result in faster calculations and processing for complex returns compared to relying solely on those local machine powers. It seemed like it just flowed nicely. And, yes, there was a change in our workflow, and I'll talk about that later. But the process is now very, very streamlined. Perhaps less direct but still important is the reduced IT overhead. Again, like I said before, I am the IT department. We spend less firm time and resources managing those local software installations, troubleshooting update issues, or or dealing with network configurations related to the tax software itself. But we're all accounts, so let's talk some real numbers for a bit. It's all about the numbers. Right? Well, let me just tell you this. Quantifying these gains can be powerful. Here's what I found out. For our business clients on QuickBooks Online, I estimate saving anywhere from, and listen to this, thirty minutes to an hour per return on data entry alone. Now for individual clients, as I said, I would say that I saved about fifteen minutes per return. Multiply that across dozens of clients, or maybe hundreds of clients, this reclaimed time translates directly into increased capacity for higher value advisory services, handling more compliance work, and simply achieving a better work life balance during that compression of tax season. I think that's something we can all get behind. But now let's shift to a few other benefits I've experienced since making the change to ProConnect. Let's talk collaboration, both internally within the team and externally with clients. This is another area where cloud platforms offer significant advantages over those traditional desktop setups. Let's look at team collaboration first. One of the biggest frustrations with desktop systems can be managing file access when multiple people need to work on a return. You know, the old check-in, check out dance. I said earlier, I never even bothered trying to share the tax software with my support staff, but I granted them access now because it was simple. With ProConnect, multiple users based on their assigned permissions, yes, it is great. They can access and work within the platform concurrently. Yes. You heard me right. Concurrently. A preparer can be working on data entry while a reviewer accesses the same file for oversight. Now for me, this meant that my support staff was able to upload client documents. They were able to go in and correct demographic information. I have to worry about change in addresses and phone numbers and driver's license, and they really were able to get me ready for the actual prep work. This saved me a ton of time this tax season. The system manages data consistently in real time, ensuring that everyone is looking at the most current information and reducing the risk of version control errors. That could be a nightmare. It also simplifies staff onboarding and management. Setting up a new seasonal user is so much easier than configuring network access and installing software on a dedicated machine, finding that machine, finding that printer, find a you get the idea. Let's talk about our clients. You know the people who actually matter in this equation. Let's talk specifically about client interaction. As I mentioned, integrated tools like Intuit Link create a secure branded portal. This not only professionalized the document exchange process, but critically enhances security compared to email and sensitive documents. If you haven't heard anything else I said today, we shouldn't be emailing documents anyway. No more file sharing apps. Those had truly become the bane of my existence. Now communication is centralized. Requests and client uploads and messages can all be tracked within the context of the tax platform, reduces the email clutter and that manual effort of tracking what documents are still outstanding. I don't know about you, but most of my clients, it seems like they never have all their documents at the time I'm going to prepare the return. So this is a huge benefit. And this efficiency improves the client experience and strengthens our image as technologically adept advisors. And, honestly, for me, it provides that wow factor. I had many clients tell me, Ralph, you are so ahead on your technology. It's impressive. Well, this seamless remote collaboration capability is invaluable, whether you're working with staff members who are located elsewhere or you're serving clients who have moved or are traveling. Truth is I've got clients all over the world now. But let me ask this. How many of you currently find yourself struggling with version control issues when multiple staff touch a file? Or maybe you feel uneasy about the security or how you exchange document with clients. Maybe like me, you don't even have your staff in the tax software. These are common pain points, and cloud solutions are specifically designed to address these. Let's talk about a topic that is or certainly should be top of mind for every accounting professional, and that's security and peace of mind. As stewards of highly sensitive client data, our responsibilities are immense. Think about just how much sensitive data you have access to. A key strategic advantage of moving to a reputable cloud platform like ProConnect is shifting a significant portion of the security burden to them. I say this, tag your it. With a local desktop setup, the ultimate responsibility for robust security rests squarely on the firm. Again, I was the IT guy. Physical security of the machine, consistent operating system and software patching, reliability and test backups, data encryption, you get the idea, and firewalls, all these require constant vigilance and resources. Now contrast this with the cloud model where we leverage Intuit's investment in enterprise grade security. And Intuit, like other major cloud providers, manages secure data centers with sophisticated physical security. They have redundant systems, and they have professional round the clock monitoring. I would even venture to say that not many of us has or can afford that type of security. They implement key security features often beyond the practical reach of us who are in smaller firms. So here are a few highlights. I just wanna go over these for a few minutes about that whole security thought. Client data is encrypted, both traveling over the Internet and while stored on their servers. Automatic redundant backups are part of the service, and that drastically reduces that risk of catastrophic data loss due to local hardware failure or theft or some sort of disaster. Their infrastructure includes managed firewalls and intrusion detection systems and other protections. Now in the end, this doesn't absolve us of all responsibility, of course, but we still need to to have strong access controls. We need to have robust password policies and and staff training on phishing and social engineering awareness. However, leveraging a cloud platform can provide a much stronger baseline for overall compliance alignment, helping us meet those regulatory requirements like that FTC standard rule I talked about at the beginning regarding the protection of client information. And, ultimately, this shift significantly reduces operational risk, and it provides invaluable peace of mind. It certainly has given me a break from that constant worry of data security. Think about the time and the cost and the anxiety involved in managing your own comprehensive backup strategy or maybe a comprehensive encryption and a security protocol. Compared to that, leveraging the specialized infrastructure and expertise of the cloud vendors. That nagging worry about a hard drive failing this week before a deadline largely disappears. Okay. I know we've covered a great deal. Finally, let's talk about scalability, the ability of our technology to adapt easily to the changing needs and growth of our practice. Cloud platforms generally offer inherent advantages here. Many cloud solutions, including ProConnect, offer more flexible cost models compared to traditional desktop software. Options often include paper return pricing or tiered packages based on usage rather than requiring large upfront investments for software license. This allows software expenses to align more closely with actual revenue and usage patterns. And for firms just starting or those experiencing variable workloads, this can lower the barrier to entry and provide better cost control. This year, I'm a tell you, honestly, I actually just bought blocks of 25 returns at a time, so I was able to really manage expenses for software and tie the income stream right to the expense side. Now user management is also significantly simplified. Adding or removing team members, whether permanent hires or seasonal staff, is typically done through a straightforward online admin interface. Yes. With ProConnect, this is simple. You can easily define roles. You can change access control and permissions are granted centrally, and this eliminates the need for complex network configurations or individual software installations for each user that you're wanting to grant access to the tax platform. Just makes it a lot less of a technical hurdle or or even if you wanna bring on temporary help during peak season. This inherent flexibility allows the software to, what I'll call, adapt to workload fluctuations, and it does it seamlessly. You can scale user access up during the busy season and, potentially, you could scale it back down afterward without that friction associated with traditional software licensing cycles and installation processes. Now from a strategic perspective, scalability is crucial. Whether your growth plans involve hiring more staff or acquiring another small practice or expanding service offerings require more collaborative tools, a scalable cloud platform provides a technology foundation that can grow with you rather than becoming a bottleneck requiring major IT overhauls. Let's talk about that learning curve I mentioned earlier. So after highlighting all these benefits, I wanna be completely transparent. The transition wasn't instantaneous perfection. I wish I could tell you it was, but it wasn't. Moving from a system that you've used intimately for years to something entirely new involves a learning curve. It just does, and it's crucial to acknowledge and plan for this. There are real challenges. Let's discuss some of those challenges. First one is this. There's a new user interface and experience, And even if well designed, the buttons are in different places. The menus are organized differently. It's a it's a time of retraining muscle memory, and it simply takes time and repetition. Second thing, you've got to plan for workflow adjustments. They're just absolutely necessary. Certain processes, maybe how you review diagnostics, maybe how you import specific data types or or manage client organizer, and I talked about we're doing there, they'll work they're gonna work differently in the cloud environment. That's completely different than what's, you know, you were doing in pro series. You have to be willing to adapt your processes and not just try to replicate old habits in a new interface. And, honestly, part of the challenge is a little bit bigger than that. It's what I'll call change management. That's getting yourself and potentially your staff to let go of those old habits and embrace the the new way of doing things. But that requires conscious effort. So you might be asking, how can you manage this transition successfully? Based on my experience, here are some key strategies that I would recommend. First thing, timing is critical. Plan your implementation during the off season. Give yourself some breathing room, some and give your team some breathing room without those deadline pressures. This is not something you wanna do at the April. Second thing I'm gonna encourage you to do, invest dedicated time in training. I will encourage you to make full use of the resources provided by Intuit. They have great webinars and video tutorials and and knowledge based articles. Don't try to figure out everything through trial and error alone. Okay. Well, to be honest, I tried that approach at first. That was a huge mistake. Invest some time in the process. Watch the videos. They are really excellent. The third thing I'm gonna recommend that you do is leverage support. When you get genuinely stuck and let me just tell you, you will get stuck a few times. For me, it was that dreaded backdoor Roth conversion. I only do a few of those each year. Or maybe when you when you need assistance with that transition specific questions, I encourage you. Contact Intuit support Intuit support. They are great. They are familiar with users. They're familiar definitely with users moving from pro series. The fourth thing, and this thing I found to be invaluable, is consider a pilot program. This was mission critical for me. This is something I feel you simply must do. You might start by preparing returns for just a small group of clients or handling all new clients in ProConnect initially to learn in a lower stakes environment. Now for me, I decided to beta test ProConnect during the summer after tax season went over, and I worked on those returns I had on extension from the prior year. I didn't have that time crunch to worry about, and I could actually do the returns in both systems to compare the results. And the truth is this, about a month into the beta test, I was ready to make the change, and I could already see the benefits. And finally, fifth, learn from your peers. Connect with colleagues in community forums or or user groups who have already made the switch. Their practical tips can be invaluable. I actually joined a few Facebook groups for ProConnect and it was really great reading their comments and they provided some really keen insights for those actually using the software. And in the end, the transition was not simple. It required patience. It required deliberate practice. But here's the thing I'm gonna tell you. Keep the why in your mind, that long term strategic benefit. Keep it in focus. The initial effort is an investment. It just is, but it pays off once you achieve proficiency. So if you're currently using a desktop solution like pro c ProSeries and you're contemplating a move to the cloud, here are my concise pieces of advice, and this is coming from someone who actually just went through the conversion right before this past tax season. First thing I'm gonna advise you to do is conduct a strategic assessment. You don't wanna just look at the features. That's great. Features are great. But, honestly, evaluate the pain points in your current system, the pain points that are affecting your particular firm. What are the inefficiencies? What are your firm's grace? What are those limitations? And then ask yourself, how do these align or or misalign with your practice's goals for efficiency or your practice's goals for growth and and client service and and risk management? That's really the first thing you wanna do. The second thing you wanna do, and this is equally important, you wanna plan to transition carefully. Listen. Don't underestimate the time and effort required for data migration. Now I gotta be candid here. The data move from ProSeries to ProConnect was very, very simple. And I figured it would be since I was staying with Intuit. Intuit basically handles it all. I just had to upload a few files, but also plan for training and plan for workflow adjustments. As I keep stressing, start early, ideally in the off season. Again, this is not the time to do this in October, November, December. I truly believe the best time to be doing this is probably right about now, actually, in that May, June, July time frame so that you can sorta kick the tires and you can start to get used to the workflows because there are some differences. But listen to me on this. It will benefit you. Now the third thing, I'm gonna advise you to utilize all available resources. I'm gonna encourage you. Leverage Intuit's onboarding programs. Those folks are great. Their training materials are fantastic, and their support channels are there to help you. And if you have staff, here's one of the big things I'm gonna tell you to do. I'm gonna encourage you to assign what I'll call a transition lead or a a new software champion to manage the process and the training. You don't need to reinvent the wheel here, but get your people involved. Fourth thing I'm gonna highly recommend you do is consider a phased rollout or pilot test. That's exactly what I did. It worked well for me as I said earlier, and this can significantly derisk the process and allows you to learn and adapt in a more controlled manner before switching your entire client base. That was really important to me. I was able to go and test some 10 forties. I tested some 11 twenties. I tested some eleven twenty s's. I tested some ten sixty five, and I started to feel like how this was all gonna play out. Number five is set expectations for patience and persistence because, listen, there will be an adjustment period. Let me say that again. There will be an adjustment period, but focus on achieving proficiency and realizing the long term benefits rather than expecting instant mastery. And finally, if you've got a team, and hear me on this, engage them early. Involve your staff in the evaluation and the planning process because here's a true takeaway. Their buy in and feedback is crucial for a smooth transition and successful adoption. And I will encourage you one other thing. Have a debriefing once you start to use the software. We just did that recently here in our firm, and I was able to sit down with my staff and we really talked about, well, how did that go? Well, how did that go? I'm getting ready to do the same thing for my clients. I'm actually gonna send out a client survey, and I'll hopefully be able to share those results with you sometime in the future. So bringing it all together, looking back at the transition from ProSeries to ProConnect, what do I consider a success and a move I'm genuinely glad I made? Well, it really boils down to these key strategic wins for the practice, and these are massive. I'm so happy that I made this change. First, operational agility. The flexibility to work from anywhere, the enhanced remote capabilities, and the improved business continuity, they are simply invaluable in today's environment. Like I said, I can sit in my La Z Boy at night and I can knock out a couple tax returns or send some e files. I couldn't do that in my old system. Second is efficiency gains. There was tangible time savings resulting from better data integration, streamlined workflows, and overall reduced IT management overhead. What did that do? It freed up capacity. I personally have done about 500 tax returns this year, and listen, I feel good about it. It was a more simple process. The third thing was all about risk reduction. We significantly improved our security posture, and we reduced that anxiety associated with data loss thanks to professionally managed security and automatic backups. I don't have to worry about, did I put that backup drive in? Did I did I make sure that backup brand did I I make sure the server's protected? Fourth, and I can't I can't stress this one enough, there was significant improved collaboration. Working together as a team became smoother, and our interaction with clients regarding document exchange became more secure and professional. Like I said, many of my clients said, Ralph, I'd love this new system. Like I said, there was a couple that had some struggles, and that's why I said you may have to do some coaching with your clients. But I would say probably 80 to 90% said, Ralph, I wish you had done this sooner. This system works great. It was point and click. I gave you all my stuff and, wow, you exceeded my expectations. And fifth, this one is huge also, future proofing. We now have a scalable platform that can easily more easily adapt to practice growth, changing staff needs, and evolving client expectations. Making this move was a significant decision, especially after decades with that familiar system, and it required a real investment of time and effort to adapt this change. But hear me on this. Strategically, it was absolutely the right choice for me for modernizing the practice, for reducing risk, and positioning us for the future. Now in closing, I just wanna say a few more things. Every practice here today is unique. Each of us have different client bases. Each of us have different staffing structures, and each of us have different strategic priorities. It's not for me to tell you what the right solution is, and and I don't know there is one one right solution, but you wanna find the one that best fits your specific needs. However, if you're experiencing any of those friction points, those pain points that we talked about earlier with that traditional desktop software, those access limitations, the backup anxieties, if you're still the IT person, those collaboration hurdles, the the scalability constraints, I strongly recommend you take a serious strategic look at what true modern cloud solutions like ProConnect can offer. In the end, you've got to evaluate your current system, not just based on familiarity, but on how well it supports your practice's future goals. Moving to the cloud isn't merely adopting new technology for its own sake. It's a strategic choice about optimizing your practice for efficiency, for security, and client service in this current and future professional landscape. And my final thought is this, while there is an initial an initial adjustment period, once you and your team experience the freedom, you experienced security and the efficiency benefits of a truly cloud based workflow, you'll likely wonder as I did, why did I wait so long? Well, thank you very much for your time and attention today. I hope sharing my practice's journey and perspective has been helpful as you consider your own technology strategy. If you wanna reach out to me, I'm happy to answer your questions. You'll see my information right there on the screen. My email address is ralph@askralph.com, and I'd be happy to talk to you individually about the transition. So, Ashley, I know we have another poll question to get to here. Yes, Ralph. I'll take it over to our last poll before we close out today. And that is, would you like a personalized sales demo or consultation about what you've learned in today's training event? So, yes, please contact me or not at this time. Totally understandable. But we would love to hear from you. So we'll give you about sixty seconds before we close it out. Alright. Ralph, that was a wonderful presentation. And let's see here. Perfect. Thank you all for answering that poll question. So I'll go ahead and transition us over. But before I do, I just want to thank Ralph for walking us through his experience, and thank you all for attending today and being engaging throughout the, webinar. And we hope that Ralph's experience is as helpful as, sharing his experience is helpful for you and your firm moving forward. So, if you would like to attend additional webinars or some, additional training resources, here you will see you can visit the accounts.Intuit.com/training. You can view our live and recorded webinars, any virtual conferences. We also have self paced trainings. And then we also have the tax pro center down below. Alright. And then for support and community, we have the accountants support where you can visit and search through our different articles to help you solve your problems or get feedback from other, members of our community. So you can ask for recommendations, post your own experience as well. And thank you. Thank you so much for your time again. Here is Ralph's contact information. Ralph, is there anything you'd like to add or tell our attendees? I would just say, listen. This is a this is a decision that you will make, and it's a decision that if you go with a ProConnect, I think you're really gonna be happy with it because I am ecstatic about it. And I've been through transition before, but this one was seamless, and it has given me great benefits to my practice. It just has. That's just the truth. Well, thank you so much.