The Ultimate Guide for Creating an Accounting Firm Website

Having a website for your accounting firm is essential in today's always-online world, but with all the options out there, creating your firm's website can be overwhelming. While the hassle of making a website may seem to get in the way of running your firm, a great accounting firm website will give your firm a decisive edge. Your firm's website can be both a hub to share files with your existing clients, and an avenue for acquiring new clients.

To make the right decision, you have to ask: what are the needs of your firm? Your choice of website will depend on the size of your firm, your budget, and what services you provide (e.g. tax preparation, bookkeeping). This is the ultimate guide, for both large firms with a big budget and sole practitioners looking to spend nothing, to set up an effective accounting website.

Essentials You Need Before Creating Your Site

Before getting into the services you can use to make your firm's website, let's cover the essentials your site will absolutely need. If you don't consider these, at best you'll lose out on clients discovering your site through search engines, and at worse you'll cause clients to lose trust in your firm's brand.

Always Use a Domain Name for Your Site

If you don't already have a domain name for your firm, that should be your first priority. There are plenty of sites that sell domain names (like Squarespace) for around $12 per year. You should choose a domain name that is close to your firm's name, so your clients immediately associate your domain name with your firm. Try to stick to a ".com" domain name if possible, as that's what is familiar to most people.

Domain names are important for building trust with your clients, but also for new clients to discover your site through search engines. As you post content on your site and attract clients, your domain name will gradually build an authority score which leads to your firm being on the top of search results when clients search for your business.

Your Site Needs to Work on Mobile

It's easy to forget that many of your clients will be visiting your site with their phones, and not on a desktop. In fact, over 50% of website traffic is from a mobile device. To plan for this, make sure every part of your site is accessible on mobile. And we mean everything! From informational content such as blogs to your entire client portal. After all, what's the point of a website if your clients can't use it!

End-to-End Encryption is a Must

Many industries mandate that businesses must protect data with end-to-end encryption. Government agencies like the IRS require encryption when sending sensitive data. It is not just becoming the law to encrypt data, but protecting your client's data is simply the right thing to do.

Using end-to-end encryption is usually easy and automatic. You just need to ensure your site has a valid SSL certificate, and to use a secure client portal service when handling client data. While this might sound complicated, all you have to do is make sure the website service you choose has these security features built-in.

Top 5 Services for Setting Up an Accounting Firm Website

There's a ton of ways to create a website, so if you feel lost, you have good reason to be! But don't worry, we distilled the unmanageable list of options down to just five key types of services for making accounting firms sites. We will go over each type of service and include the pros and cons of each.

If you're looking for a quick skim check out the summary below. Otherwise, let's get right into the best services for making your site!

• Foyer site builder (see our templates for Bookkeeping & Tax Preparation)
• • Typical Price: Starts at $10 per month
  • Recommended for: Small to medium firms
• Website builders that including hosting services (Wix, GoDaddy, WordPress)
• • Typical Price: $15 to $60 per month
  • Recommended for: Small to medium firms
• Web design contractors and marketing agencies (SiteBeam, Build Your Firm, Fiverr)
• • Typical Price: $2500 initial fee + $150 to $300 per month (varies depending on agency)
  • Recommended for: Any size firm with large budget
• Google Sites and Facebook Groups (Google Sites, Facebook)
• • Typical Price: Free or up to $12 per month
  • Recommended for: Sole practitioners to small firms
• Accounting Website Suites (CPA Site Solutions, CountingWorks Pro)
• • Typical Price: $500 per month
  • Recommended for: Any size firm with a large budget

Foyer Site Builder with Accounting Website Templates

If you're a small to medium accounting firm, you won't want to pass up building your site using Foyer.

Foyer is great because it provides simple accounting website templates that allow you to make your own accounting website in under a minute. All you have to do is customize the text, and logo to match your business.

The pricing starts at just $10 per month which is, frankly, an unmatched value compared to the other options.

To get started, all you have to do is visit the website templates page, and find a template you like.

For accounting, we suggest either the Bookkeeping or Tax Preparation templates.

Just click "Use This Template", enter your email, and your site will be ready to edit and publish.

When you build your accounting website with Foyer, you're not only getting a website, but also a full client portal.

That client portal is where your clients can login, share files, send messages, sign documents and more. There are tons of features that come with the site. Check out the list of accounting client portal features here.

Accounting Website Builders with Templates (Wix, GoDaddy, Wordpress)

Website builders like Wix, GoDaddy, and WordPress make it easy to create an accounting website. By using their accounting site templates and CPA website templates, you don't have to do any design work yourself. All you do is select the design you want, and the editor allows you to replace any text, and branding yourself. If you wanted a more custom design, their editors allow you design your own website from scratch too.

This option is best for small to medium firms who need a site just for informational purposes, and don't need any built-in features like a client portal login, secure email, or any billing features. Large firms could use a website builder for their site too, but they could benefit from having additional marketing services built-in (such as marketing blog posts and site analytics).

Most website builders offer both a free and a subscription service. The free service is more like a trial because they may place advertisements on your site, and they may not allow you to link it to your own domain. This will be a deal-breaker for most accounting firms, as having your own domain name is essential for search engine optimization (SEO). That's how new clients will find your website through search engines like Google and Bing.

The monthly subscription for website builders range from $15 to $60 per month depending on what's all included in the plan. A few things to look out for during your search is to be sure you can link your own domain, and that an SSL certificate is included. Clients are more likely to trust your site when they see that it is secure, and uses your business's own domain name.

All in all, using a web builder is best for firms who are looking for bang-for-buck, but are willing to put a bit of time into customizing their site from an accounting website template. If you or someone at your firm is savvy with websites, and willing to put the time into it, this could be the best option for your firm.

Accounting Web Design Contracting and Marketing Agencies

If you just want the job done and are willing to pay a premium, it might be best to hire a website design contracting firm or marketing agency to manage your firm's website. Agencies like SiteBeam, and Build Your Firm not only setup your website, but also handle every marketing need under the sun. They can manage your social media presence, create Google and Facebook ads, and even send you reports on your website's performance. If you don't need all those marketing services, you can also find web design contractors on sites like Fiverr or free-lance web designers who will create your site for you.

Outsourcing your firm's site sounds like an obvious solution, but before you pull the trigger, you'll want to consider the cons. Most agencies are not only going to charge you a monthly subscription fee (between $100 and $300 per month), but also a large one-time setup fee. You'll be looking at around a $2,500 fee for initial setup. Price isn't the only downside though. When your site is outsourced, you are at the mercy of the contractor or agency. Any changes you want to make to your site such as adding new pages, updating wording, adding blog posts, and updating your branding could be delayed or have additional hidden costs.

We suggest marketing agencies and web design contractors to accounting firms of all sizes, so long as it's within your budget. The professional marketing services they provide can have a huge impact on your site's performance. Marketing services like search engine optimization and ads could even end up paying for itself, granted they bring in enough new clients. We have seen smaller firms leverage web design contractors as a differentiator by creating unique sites that leave a lasting first-impression on their clients.

Google Sites and Facebook groups

If you're a sole practitioner or a small CPA firm, you may not want to spend too much on your site. Even with a small budget, you can still set your firm up with a great website that informs clients of your services and even attracts new clients by ranking on search engine results.

The best all-around solution for sole practitioners on a budget is Google Sites. Google Sites is a service included with Google Workspace that provides a website builder (similar to Wix) that enables you to quickly build a website for your firm. If you already have Google Workspace, then you already have access to Sites. That means you could set up your accounting website for free! Even considering Workspace's low $6 per month cost, it is the by far the best value website you can get. Google Sites even allows you to add your own domain name, and is secured with SSL for no extra cost which is critical for both security and search engine optimization (SEO).

Unlike more expensive website builders like Wix, GoDaddy and WordPress, Google Sites doesn't allow you to generate your site from an accounting site template. You'll need to do some design work yourself. Whether it's worth the time depends on your budget and if you're keen on spending that extra time on making your site.

Using Google Sites gives you access to the whole suite of features like Drive, Forms, Sheets and YouTube which can handle many of the day-to-day tasks of running an accounting firm online. But, if you're sharing documents with clients online, you're going to need a client portal too. Fortunately, you can still keep your costs low by using Google Sites along with an affordable client portal. Foyer starts at just $10 per month and will give you everything you need like end-to-end encrypted file sharing, secure email, e-signatures, and more. To integrate a client portal with your Google Site, just add a client login link to each page that links directly to your client portal.

Alternatively, we've found that many CPAs run their businesses directly off of a Facebook group. While this goes against our advice of using your own domain name, it has an advantage of using your social network to attract new clients. Another pro is that there's no design work required, because it is all just through Facebook.

If you're looking to get started as quickly as possible, and you are only working with a small group of clients, go ahead and try it out! Using a Facebook group to run an accounting firm sounds ludicrous, but the facts don't lie: sole practitioners are finding success with it. We certainly don't recommend it for much more than a sole practitioner though, due to these groups having low discoverability via search engines and the lack of customizations to build up your firm's brand.

Accounting Website Suites (CPA Site Solutions, CountingWorks Pro)

The most powerful of all website creation services are the accounting website suites. These are services that are built just for accounting firms that provide a wide variety of services including a website, but also extending out to billing, scheduling, file sharing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media services, e-signatures and more. While this sounds similar to what a marketing agency or web design contractor can provide, accounting website suites have a broader array of services.

Another benefit, is that many of these suites (like CountingWorks Pro) allow you to edit your site directly via their own site editor. Essentially, you get the power of having your own web design contractor without the bottleneck of needing to bother them with any change you make to your site. You can just make the change yourself in a few minutes (similar to website builders like Wix).

For every option we have covered so far, we have recommended that you create both a website, as well as subscribe to a client portal service. However, accounting website suites are unique in that they often include a client portal in their packages (such as CPA Site Solutions). This is great to get started, but not all offerings from these suites are

The bad news about all of this, is with all those features you'll have to pay a hefty price. CountingWorks Pro can cost upwards of $500 per month which doesn't include any add-ons (such as multiple home pages which add another $50 per month). CPA Site Solutions has the same issue where the base monthly cost is as low as $76, but each feature you add increases the monthly cost drastically (an SSL certificate is an additional $10 per month, unlimited client portal storage is an extra $250 per month). Don't be surprised if you run into hidden fees with these services, as the marketing services they provide like reputation monitoring, search engine optimization, social media services, and ad services could cost you hundreds of dollars each month.

Accounting website suites are a great choice for any size firm who has a big budget. Just like hiring a web design contractor or marketing agency, you'll have your website running quickly without needing to do any of your own designing or marketing. Just be careful of hidden fees, as even essential features like SSL might be locked behind an extra monthly fee.

Exchanging Files With Clients Using a Client Portal

No matter which service you choose to create your website, having a client portal is crucial for running a modern-day accounting firm. In a study done in 2016, 75% of accounting firms use a client portal, and over the years that number has continued to grow. As data security regulations are created, it is becoming mandatory to encrypt sensitive client data. Client portals are an easy way to be compliant with regulations, and as a bonus, it makes it easy for clients to share large files.

Just like choosing a service to create your website, there are tons of factors to consider when choosing a client portal. You'll need to consider which features your firm needs such as: e-signatures, secure email, secure messaging, and audit trails. Equally important is to consider your client's workflow. Do clients need to download files, or only upload files? Do you want clients to make accounts or have a passwordless login?

An easy way to figure out which features and workflows work best for your business, is to just try them out! At Foyer we offer a free 14-day trial so you can evaluate what works best for your firm with no risk.

Your client portal can be integrated with any of the solutions covered in this guide, just by adding a link to it anywhere on your site. This is typically done on the menu of each page, and is commonly named "Send a File" or "Client Login". Keeping the names consistent with other firms is a great way to avoid any confusion.