Many companies have watched in despair as technology fell

short on its promise of creating a paperless world. But John Reed, a technology

consultant before he became a CPA, decided to do something about it.

Reed, a partner in Reed, Blackwood & Co., a Southwest

Florida accounting firm with just seven employees, decided to create a software

program capable of handling all tax preparation services online. “While

researching how to implement this system, I realized many companies have

investigated such software programs, but no one went through with it,” Reed

says. “Basically, most companies found

the expense made the idea seem too extravagant.”

But Reed spent very little money—less than $2,000—on a

system that has saved his company a lot. “Most accountants are not technology

minded, and software programs can be expensive. But we were able to do it on

the cheap,” Reed says.

Because the company was growing, Reed, who has been a CPA

since 1991 and merged his company with Blackwood two years ago, faced a tough

choice: Hire more staff (the firm

employs three CPAs) or increase fees. “We wanted to stay where we were and

still handle more customers,” Reed says.

“The only conceivable way to achieve this was to eliminate the mounds

and mounds of paper.” Partly because it’s easier to handle data that’s already

in the computer, a paperless workplace increases productivity and makes a

company more efficient.

With offices in Fort Myers and Naples, Reed Blackwood

typically posts yearly growth of 10 to 20 percent. But after going electronic,

the firm’s revenues shot up 40 percent last year, and the number of employees

stayed the same. Sales for 2001 approached $500,000.

The firm earned Practical Accountant magazine’s 2001

Practical Innovation Award for developing a service to promote efficiency. Not

only did the new software reduce overhead by decreasing staff time and

minimizing file storage, paper use decreased by nearly 30 percent and is

expected to decline further.

Carol Conway, president of CRS Technology, which has offices

in Cape Coral, Fort Myers and Naples, and installs document-imaging systems for

businesses that want to reduce paper usage, says that cost isn’t the main

reason some companies hesitate to go paperless. “It means people will have to

change the way they do business,” she says. “They have to embrace the

transition from physical to digital.”

CRS Technology worked with Reed and is working with other

local accounting firms on document imaging, a relatively new process of

managing and storing information and files via computer hardware and software.

The process minimizes the need for multiple file cabinets and storage space.

Before going paperless, Reed wanted to make sure that his

customers were comfortable with the idea. He designed a streamlined,

user-friendly program that guides clients to templates and includes simple

directions about how to fill out computerized forms.

The financial data is available on the company’s Web

site–www.reedblackwood.com. Clients access their information through a password

to the firm’s secure site, protected by CCH Pro System—high-end software that

scrambles the information as it goes over the Web. The company can hook up with

a client online and walk the customer through the process. “If someone calls on

the phone with a question, I don’t have to pull the file. I can easily pull up

backed-up documents right from my desktop, which is a huge time savings,” Reed

says.

Using QuickBooks software, clients enter checks for Reed

Blackwood to retrieve online. The firm can then show clients in which category

each check should be recorded.

The only glitch is that clients using a dial-up service may

wait a little longer for the screens to come up. As more and more businesses

switch to DSL digital high-speed phone service, cable or satellite, Reed says,

that problem should disappear. “Everything will be faster,” he predicts.