CCH PRACTICE PART OF THE CCH ACCOUNTANTS SUITE

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1 CCH PRACTICE PART OF THE CCH ACCOUNTANTS SUITE Capture more billable hours, bill faster, and gain instant access to valuable management information with CCH Practice. More than just time and billing, CCH Practice delivers powerful, easy-to-use tools that allow you to effectively manage your firm. Integrated modules from time entry and billing to project management, inquiry, and reporting set the standard for meeting the information management needs of today s accounting firms. And with all of the time entry options, your staff can key time from anywhere, anytime. Now Links to Taxprep Details on page 3 Time Entry The essence of any practice management system, the Time Entry module is an efficient mechanism for capturing and administering time and expenses, as well as scheduling appointments and monitoring To Do items. Integrated with CCH Practice s Project Management features, Time Entry provides the following features and benefits: Minimized Learning Curve - Master logical, intuitive program options in no time. Simple Time Clock Capture - Instantly track time by client, resulting in more billable hours. Day Planner Interface - Easily schedule and track appointments. Easy Look-up - Quickly find clients, projects, and work codes. Customizable Time Review Process - Tailor the time review process to meet your firm s needs. Totals Calendar - Review a quick snapshot of employee time on a monthly basis. On-Screen Time Review - Display both summary and detail time transactions on a customizable review screen. To Do List - Manage appointments, view projects and tasks, and conveniently convert activities entries to time and expense transactions. Automatically updates your project information without opening another application. Notifications alert management to critical deadlines and budgets. Server is updated in real-time as time and expenses are entered. Remote Update - Enter time remotely and update transactions upon return, or send a file that can be used for updates. PDA Time Entry - Enter time in your Palm OS-powered PDA and sync when you return to the office. CCH Practice s Day Planner feature makes scheduling and tracking appointments easy and convenient. CCH Accountants Suite INTEGRATED. INTELLIGENT.

2 CCH PRACTICE Remote Time Entry Experience full time entry functionality for off-site users. Remote Time Entry allows users to enter time and expense transactions while disconnected from the main CCH Practice database. With an Internet connection between offices, remote time can be directly released into your primary data over the Internet. Quick set-up of a local database means your staff can access data even when off-line. Easy transfer of data to the network through export files or direct connection. Global Time Entry Global Time Entry provides most of the features and functionality of the traditional Time Entry module, and allows you to: Take advantage of high-speed secured hosting on CCH servers. Upload CCH Practice data. You automatically get remote Inquiry lookup capabilities, so contact information is always at your fingertips. Download time transactions at any time, or for maximum efficiency, delay the process to run during off-peak hours. All new or changed client, employee and project information is automatically uploaded. Save administrative time by downloading all time transactions simultaneously. Pay only for those months your employees use Global Time Entry (after the initial set-up fee). PDA Time Entry This CCH Practice application can be installed on your PDA, and is a handy tool that gives you off-site access to client and contact information, time entry screens and project information. PDA Time Entry leverages Palm HotSync technology to accomplish two tasks: Downloading up-to-date clients, contacts and other information to the PDA from the Practice database. Uploading field-added transaction data to the Practice database. Improve your accuracy in timekeeping when you enter time as you go. Upon returning to the office, simply use the HotSync function on your Palm OS-powered PDA to transfer your time to the CCH Practice database. Internet Connect Internet Connect can be set up to provide users in remote locations convenient access to the Practice data on your network server. When logged in via an Internet connection, users can quickly access all features in Time Entry and Inquiry, just as if they were logged into the local network. This option can also be used with Remote Time Entry, providing remote users with an efficient method of releasing transactions directly to the CCH Practice database. Users from one or more sites access the server at the main office via an Internet connection, without Citrix. Requires DSL, Cable, or T-1 Connections. A mapped drive between the client machine and server machine is not required. Experience simple, reliable and seamless communication using an IP address for connection to the server. Practice offers lots of features that other time & billing software packages do not. The ability to have custom fields, along with creating our own reports, we can manipulate the data in so many ways, and this is a must for us. We recently started using the Project module and it is a real time saver. We can quickly see what projects are on the go and what work we can expect to come in. Marla Sutherland, Stark & Marsh, Swift Current 2

3 When CCH Practice talks, Taxprep understands... Welcome to the CCH Accountants Suite - the only comprehensive suite of tools for accountants. This integrated suite of products includes market-proven applications, including CCH Practice and Taxprep, that deliver the ultimate in office productivity. Effortlessly leverage integrated features when you: Easily update client biographical data in both Taxprep and CCH Practice. Launch the time clock from within Taxprep. Automatically manage your clients tax preparation status with Practice project management. Integration features save time and improve efficiency and accuracy when you: Send your tax preparation client invoice amount to CCH Practice as an expense transaction. Open the Inquiry module to access client information. 3

4 CCH PRACTICE Project Management The Project Management module provides due date monitoring and detailed budget management tools for multi-step jobs such as audits or IT consulting. With the powerful Project Management interface, your firm will have access to dynamic tools that help manage projects more efficiently. This will allow you to: Create and track project status, due dates, and extension dates based upon client information. Project status and actual time spent working on a project is updated as staff members key time. Tax Forms library simplifies due date monitoring by providing statutory due dates and extension dates. Save custom views and share those views with other staff members. You can also restrict access for personal use. Notifications automatically alert management of impending or missed milestones or budgets. Update multiple fields on multiple projects in one easy step. Copy projects to a list of clients based on any user-defined criteria, including group, partner assignments, or entity. Monitor work progression through various stages of a project using the customizable status field. Select individual projects or groups of projects for rollover. With automatic tax return due date calculations and tracking, CCH Practice helps keep you on track to meet your deadlines. 4

5 Billing This module streamlines the billing process and provides the flexibility required to make on-the-spot decisions. With CCH Practice s Billing module you can: Instantly access summary and detail WIP and A/R. View A/R balances and payments. View previous period and year-to-date billing and mark-up amounts. Quickly bill, mark up or down, and carry forward WIP amounts. Design and edit invoices on-screen in Microsoft Word. Allow selected individuals to review, make corrections, and approve invoices on-screen before posting. Automatically archive invoices for easy access in the future. CCH Practice provides the flexibility needed to make on-the-spot billing decisions. Inquiry Time is money, and the Inquiry module eliminates the time-consuming process of retrieving information from paper files, giving you instant access to client and financial information. This dynamic on-line reporting tool allows you to: Access and filter information for Time, Payments and Adjustments, WIP, and A/R. Preview and print current and prior invoices. Instantly view all Client and Contact data, Memos, and Notes. Launch Inquiry directly from Taxprep to gain instant access to valuable client information. Reporting CCH Practice s flexible reporting capabilities allow your firm to generate standard reports in both detail and summary format, as well as custom reports through its internal report writer. You have the ability to: Broadly or narrowly define report information. Use a built-in Custom Report Wizard for quick report writing. Export to PDF file format. Customize the Report Writer. 5

6 CCH PRACTICE Advantage Database Server CCH Practice provides a state-of-the-art Client/Server database to ensure high performance and trouble-free operation regardless of your firm s size. Advantage Database Server technology results in: Lower Bandwidth Needs - Increased performance of all your firm s software applications running on the network. Enhanced Database Stability - An event such as a power failure at a workstation will not compromise the integrity of the data on the server, eliminating the need to rebuild databases. Powerful Transaction Processing - Guards against partial updates when transaction processing is interrupted, reducing or even eliminating recovery steps. Cost-efficiency - Implementing, configuring, and maintaining Advantage database technology is economical. Support for Multiple Networks - Networks supported by Advantage database include Novell, Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows Customization Treat your small tax client with the same personal attention you give your largest client. Consolidate, organize, store, and retrieve information quickly and easily, eliminating the need for multiple databases. Included are: Up to 250 custom fields each for clients, projects, and employees Seven different data types for validation and minimized entry errors Instant access from multiple areas within the software Client communications tracking User-defined reports available on all custom fields Implementation Training and Conversion Services CCH ensures your transition to CCH Practice is troublefree with Implementation Training you can attend from the convenience of your office or home. Provided via the Internet using the latest web conferencing technology, you simply dial a toll-free number, log onto a special web site, and follow along as the instructor guides you through a presentation of the software. This required training session is designed to instruct users on all functions of CCH Practice, including: Software Set-up Project Management Time and Expense Entry Billing Scheduling and To Do Lists Invoice Formats Payments and Adjustments Reports and Custom Report Writer Calculating Finance Charges Reverse Invoice Period Close Software Maintenance You can also take advantage of our comprehensive Conversion Services to conveniently convert your current and historical time and billing data into CCH Practice format. This service accurately converts your Client, WIP, A/R, Employee, and Work Codes data to ensure a smooth start-up. For more information on CCH Practice training options, call your Regional Account Manager or Kimberly Gartner, our Practice Management Specialist at ext

7 System Requirements File Server 100% IBM-compatible Pentium PC, PII or higher required 512 MB+ of RAM required for file servers Network Software Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Novell Netware 5.1 or higher Linux (kernel or higher, Samba 2.2.3a or higher) Window Networking ( Peer-to-Peer ) For office configurations of 10 users or less, a dedicated workstation used solely as a server may be substituted for a true file server. The operating system for this workstation must be Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional; 512 MB+ of RAM required. Windows 98 and Windows ME machines may NOT be used as the server for CCH Practice. Note: For optimum performance, 100 Mbps, Full Duplex is recommended throughout your network, including workstation NIC cards, switches and hubs, and server NIC cards. Network Clients Using the latest version of network clients is recommended: Microsoft Client for Microsoft Networks Novell Client for Windows 2000/XP Microsoft Client Service for NetWare Network Topology 10 Mbps or greater (Ethernet) 16 Mbps or greater (Token Ring) WAN Processing Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Terminal Services Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Terminal Services with Citrix MetaFrame 1.8 or XP Microsoft Server 2003 Terminal Server Microsoft Server 2003 Terminal Server with Citrix MetaFrame XP CCH Practice may be configured for remote usage through the optional Internet Connect feature, which does not require terminal services. Please contact your sales representative or Practice Support for details. Workstations (Also applies to Standalone Installations) 100% IBM-compatible Pentium PC, PII or higher required. 256 MB+ recommended. Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Microsoft Windows XP Professional Note: To enhance performance when running multiple CCH Accountants Suite applications, we recommend a PIII class PC or higher with 512 MB+ of RAM. Disk Space Requirements CCH Practice program files: 100 MB * Additional free space equivalent to three times your data files is recommended. Virus Scanning Exclusions Real-time virus scanning exclusion of all CCH Practice directories is required on both file servers and workstations. CCH Practice: file-level exclusion is required for the following files: *.add, *.ai, *.am, *.adm, *.adt, *.adi, *.rem and *.cds * IMPORTANT: For data integrity and firm security, you should scan all files on your system on a regular basis. However, these full scans should not be performed when the data is in use, as in when users are logged in. Using file exclusions allows your scanning software to continue to do its job against the rest of your system while ignoring the excluded directories. You may want to run a full scan with no exclusions at the start of the day before anyone is logged into the CCH Practice products, or perhaps run an automated scan after hours. The key is not to have open CCH Practice files when the scan is initiated to run without exclusions. Communications High-speed Internet connection (DSL, cable modem, T1 or T3) is required for downloading program updates (e-fx Release or e-fx Update). Laser Printer HPIII or higher with at least 2 MB of RAM 7

8 CCH PRACTICE The CCH Accountants Suite This powerful collection of integrated tools has been intelligently designed to help you meet the challenges of managing and growing your practice. These market-proven, award-winning, best-of-breed applications include: Taxprep CCH Practice Canada s leading professional tax preparation software Practice Management more than time and billing CCH Practice Driver Eye-opening practice profitability analysis tool CCH Document CCH Scan CCH Engagement CCH Profit Driver CCH Site Builder ProSystem fx Tax Helps you move to a paperless office Intelligent source document scanning Paperless trial balance and engagements Offer value-added services to your clients Have a professional web site in less than 30 minutes Leading U.S. tax preparation software To learn more about CCH Practice, please visit us at Contact your local Account Manager, or call to register for a FREE webinar or us at: cservicecas@cch.ca CCH CANADIAN LIMITED Toronto Office Sheppard Ave East Toronto ON M2N 6X Sherbrooke Office 1120, rue de Cherbourg C. P Sherbrooke, QC J1H 5N Please quote CCH Code PRAB60 Taxprep is a registered trademark of CCH Canadian Limited. Adobe and Acrobat are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Microsoft Office, Excel, Outlook and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other product names are trademarks, or registered trademarks, of their respective owners. The following are trademarks of CCH incorporated used under licence: CCH Accountants Suite, CCH Practice, CCH Practice Driver, CCH Profit Driver, CCH Site Builder, CCH Document, CCH Scan, CCH Engagement and ProSystem fx Tax. M