The methods behind your firm, without the client files

Accounting firms want to know one thing first: what happens to client and taxpayer information. In short, it can be left out.

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What is usually valuable

What a model learns from an accounting firm is the way its staff review and verify work. You can see it in the firm's own material:

Workpaper templates and engagement checklists
Close procedures for month end and year end
Notes from review and the sign-offs that close each one
The firm's internal guides and knowledge bases

The first worry: taxpayer data and client files

You can leave client files and taxpayer data out. Tax information is covered by strict confidentiality rules, and your firm and its own counsel decide whether any of it belongs in scope. Many firms leave their tax software and client folders out entirely and include only internal know-how. What your obligations allow is a legal question, and we do not advise on it.

Your templates remain yours

What you license is a copy, not the practice. Your original files stay in your systems, and you keep using them as before. If you regard a method or template as central to the firm, exclude it. You can exclude any system, folder, client or engagement.

The usual fit

Firms that fit tend to employ 20 or more full-time staff and have kept procedures and templates in practice or document management software for 3 or more years. Smaller firms with a long, well documented history may also qualify. The services you offer do not change the estimate.

How the copy is prepared and reviewed

The first step is an NDA. In the de-identified copy made by License Your Data, our licensing partner, placeholders replace names and identifiers, including those of your staff. No passwords are ever asked for or shared. Nothing is shared until you approve a sample, and it costs your firm nothing.

Questions owners in this field ask

Is every system needed?: No. A library of firm procedures, or a practice management system kept in good order, may be all you need at first.
Who on our side should be involved?: Normally a managing partner, the person who runs practice and document management, and your firm's counsel.
Does it matter if it is busy season?: The call is 15 minutes, and everything after that follows your pace, so the sample review can wait for a quieter month.

Find out what your records might be worth

Within minutes, a License Your Data specialist calls to book a 15-minute call.

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