What CPAs Should Know In Regards to Hosting Websites For Accountants
Websites have become rather commonplace and nearly anyone can easily get one. Hosting, though, is still a bit of an enigma. Before selecting a service to host your accounting website, there are a quantity of components to consider. You need to look at storage, support, and cost. You need to be sure that your host will give you enough online storage for all your files, and will allow enough traffic to and from your site. And what about support? You need to know who’s going to available to help you when you need it. How much will you have to pay, and what’s included in your fee?
Let’s take a closer look at these topics one at a time…
Technical Support
What kind of technical support will your new web host offer, and are there different levels of support you can get? A lot of people don’t think about support until it’s needed and this can be a very expensive mistake. Even if you don’t have problems I guarantee sooner or later you’ll have questions.
Disk Space
The best websites for accountants need disk space to store files. This online storage allows you to display downloadble high resolution documents and videos on your site, but more importantly this is the factor that dictates how many client files you can store on your site at once. Before you decide on hosting you’ll need to decide what kind of file transfer capability your site needs. Permanently storing files for clients online uses much more disk quota than simply transferring them. Do you want to add videos or large picture galleries to your site? Make sure your host is offering enough file storage for your needs.
Find out if your web host will allow you to upgrade your storage if the need arises. This is the best possible solution because it allows you to start small and expand your capacity as your business grows. Too much space is better than too little. Most new users overestimate their online storage needs and this can drive up your costs slightly. On the other hand disk space is relatively cheap, so if upgrades are unavailable or if you’re staring down the barrel of tax season and you must err it’s usually better to pay an extra Jefferson to avoid disrupting your practice.
Bandwidth Limits
Bandwidth is one of those vital features that is often overlooked by CPA and Accounting firms. Accounting is a very seasonal profession and websites for accountants tend get hit extremely hard during tax season. Bandwidth limits the number of visitors you can recieve in a given time period, and you’re website is going to go down in the middle of tax season if you don’t have enough. Websites for Accountants have much higher bandwidth requirements than most other websites. Accountants don’t use the same “boutique” sites that are adequate for most other businesses. Most business websites only need enough bandwidth to allow visitor traffic. The more visitors they anticipate, the more bandwidth they need. This is still true of accounting websites, but even smaller firms are going to need a lot more bandwidth than a bowling alley or restaurant might need. Accountants send and recieve files over the internet all the time, and this causes their bandwidth needs to skyrocket. As a rule most accounting firms need at least 1Gb of bandwidth per month to get through tax season. 1.5Gb would be better, and this assumes a smaller firm and average use. Last year my most active client used more than 3Gb in the month of march.
Site Builder
What kind of tools are available for you to create your website? Does your new host provide you with inflexible pre-made templates do they provide you with an easy-to-modify interface or content management system, or are you on your own when creating your website? Your website host may provide you with options to choose the type of package you’d like.
Programming and Databases
OK, this is where things might seem a little intimidating, but it’s really not as scary as it sounds. In simple English, you will probably want a website that can support advanced functions. There are limits to what you can do with simple HTML. Find out from your host what options they offer. If your host is using a Windows server they most likely offer support for .NET and Microsoft SQL databases. On the other hand if it’s a Linux server they’ll most likely support PHP and and MySQL. Both servers are able to do pretty much the same things, but they do them in different ways.
Secure File Transfer and Other Support Tools
As an accounting firm you’ll find that secure file transfer capability is an absolute MUST for your website, but there are some other advanced features to consider. One very important feature is traffic stats. Your host should offer you a report detailing traffic information like number of visits, visitor movement inside the site, and traffic sources. Your host must absolutely offer FTP access to your site allowing you to access, modify, add, delete and otherwise control the files on your website without needing to use the host’s editor. And keep an eye out for other goodies, too. You may or may not need this kind of thing right now, but down the road they may come in handy.
Security Features
This is absolutely crucial and non-negotiable if you’re going to be using the website to transfer sensitive documents like QuickBooks files and tax returns! Does your host provide the ability to add SSL to your site? This acts as an encryption key and verifies users’ identities in order to ensure that all transactions are secure.
Other Stuff
Some web hosts also provide additional convenience features, such as providing domain name registration and e-mail hosting. If your host provides domain name registration, consider what the terms are for them to register the domain, especially if you decide to change your web host. Some hosts can be pretty sneaky about using your domain name to strong-arm you into staying with them.
With e-mail, you will also want to find out how you can access that e-mail remotely, if it’s compatible with any potential devices (e.g., smartphones) or software (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) that you may use. And similar to the domain registration, what happens if you decide to leave this host? Make sure you’ve downloaded ALL your emails into an email client before changing email hosts.
There are many considerations when choosing a web host. The nature of the CPA and accounting business makes foul-ups on the best websites for accountants a significantly more important matter for you than it is for most other regular businesses. Issues with data storage space, bandwidth, and in particular security can reflect very shoddily, and very noticeably, on your firm’s professionalism. While this article will impart you some pragmatic information so you’ll be able to make a reasonably informed choice I would strongly advise making flexibility a weighty ingredient in your final choice. If your host allows you to upgrade features as you reqiuire them you’ll have a much easier time building your CPA or accounting business.
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