Should an accounting firm buy client onboarding software or hire an administrator?

Buy the software if the practice has no client portal, no standard checklist and nobody chasing documents by rule: the products are made for that, and their vendors publish what they cost. Hire an administrator if clients need a person and the work is varied. Have it built, by an independent builder such as Alea Applied AI, when the software is in place and the work still falls between it, the inbox and the client.

Updated 4 October 2026

How do the three options compare?

Prices are the ones each company published on 4 October 2026. Wages are medians from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS). Each cell is a summary: the detail and the qualifiers are below.

Compared on	Buy practice management software	Hire an administrator	Have it built
Cost	Karbon: 59 dollars a user a month paid annually for Team, 89 for Business, its first plan with automatic client reminders. Canopy Standard: 74 dollars a user a month billed annually. TaxDome Pro: 1,000 dollars a seat a year on a one-year term.	BLS median for secretaries and administrative assistants, May 2025: 48,310 dollars a year. ONS median for personal assistants and other secretaries in the UK, April 2025: 34,954 pounds. Employer costs come on top.	A fixed-fee audit, then a build quoted at a fixed price before it starts.
Time to live	TaxDome says most firms finish its paid onboarding in six to eight weeks. Karbon's guided package runs eight weeks. Canopy's self-guided route follows a 30-day roadmap.	The time it takes to recruit and train one person.	An audit of about a week, then a first working version usually live in two to four weeks.
Covers	The client portal, document requests, engagement letters and workflow in one product. TaxDome and Canopy include e-signatures; Karbon sells them as credits.	Whatever one person can send, chase and file in working hours, and the conversation with the client.	Each new client walked through the same steps, documents and signatures chased on a schedule, and a weekly report, across the tools the practice already runs.
Leaves with you	The setup, the move of your client data into it, and the upkeep of templates and checklists.	Recruitment, training, supervision, cover for absence, and the hours the person does not work.	Agreeing the acceptance criteria, and the cases the rules pass to a named person.

What does each option cost, and what does it cover?

Each option is described from its own published pages, read on 4 October 2026, in the currency the page prints, and closes on when it fits.

Buy practice management software
Practice management software for accountants bundles the client portal, document requests, engagement letters and workflow; TaxDome and Canopy include e-signatures, and Karbon sells them as credits, 100 for 100 dollars. Karbon lists Team at 59 dollars a user a month paid annually and Business at 89, and in pounds at 34 and 49; paying monthly costs more (79 and 99 dollars) and is offered only to teams of four or more, and automatic client reminders start at Business. Canopy lists Standard at 74 dollars a user a month billed annually (93 billed monthly) and Plus at 109 (136). TaxDome prices by the seat and the year: on a one-year term, 800 dollars for Essentials, which is for solo users, 1,000 for Pro and 1,200 for Business, billed upfront, and less on longer terms. Ignition, which handles proposals, engagement letters and billing, prices by the plan: on its US view Core is 99 dollars a month billed annually, Pro 229 and Pro+ 399, with a Solo plan from 39 for sole practitioners under a revenue limit; on its UK view the same four are 79, 169, 299 and 29 pounds. This route fits when the practice has no portal, no standard checklist and nobody chasing documents by rule.
Hire an administrator
BLS puts the median annual wage, in May 2025, at 48,310 dollars for secretaries and administrative assistants and 50,670 for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks. Benefits come on top: BLS's employer cost figures for June 2026 put them at 11.51 dollars an hour worked for office and administrative support staff in private industry, against 25.22 in wages and salaries. In the UK, ONS's provisional figures for April 2025 put median gross annual pay, for full-time employees a year or more in the job, at 34,954 pounds for personal assistants and other secretaries and 31,560 for book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks. Employer costs come on top: GOV.UK gives employer National Insurance for 2026 to 2027 as 15 percent on earnings above 5,000 pounds a year for the standard category, less an Employment Allowance of up to 10,500 pounds for eligible employers, and the minimum employer pension contribution under automatic enrolment as 3 percent, in most schemes on earnings between 6,240 and 50,270 pounds a year. This route fits when clients need a person and the work is varied.
Have it built
An independent builder builds the workflow across what you already run and operates it afterwards. That is our work: every new client walked through the same steps, documents and signatures chased on a schedule, and a report of what happened this week, in plain language. We work inside the tools the practice already runs, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, FreeAgent, IRIS and Dext among them. It starts with a fixed-fee audit; the build is then quoted at a fixed price, against acceptance criteria written before it starts. This route fits when the software is in place and the work still falls between it, the inbox and the client.

What do we do, and on what terms?

We build and run the system inside the software your firm already uses. It starts with a fixed-fee audit, about a week, that measures the current process and models the fix. The build is then scoped and quoted at a fixed price, and a first working version is usually live in two to four weeks. The acceptance criteria are written before any build begins: what the system will do, measured how, by when. If it does not meet them, the fix is ours. After that we can keep running it, reviewed monthly, and you can cancel at any time.

How do you decide?

Start with what you run. If the practice has no portal and no checklist, software is the first purchase, before a hire or a build.
Decide whether to set it up yourselves. TaxDome's self-serve onboarding is free and its paid onboarding starts from 999 dollars. Canopy charges 199 dollars for self-guided implementation, for firms of one to ten users, and refunds it to a firm that completes six setup milestones within 60 days.
Allow for the setup time the vendors publish: six to eight weeks for most firms on TaxDome's paid onboarding, eight on Karbon's guided package.
Cost the person in full: the wage, the employer's costs on top, and the time to recruit and train.
Decide who owns the exceptions: the client who sends the wrong document, the one who does not answer at all.

When are we the wrong choice?

If the practice has no client portal or checklist yet, buy the software first: that is what it is for
If the software you have can already send the reminders and nobody has switched them on, that is a configuration job, not a build
If the work you want gone is the bookkeeping itself, that is a different service from ours
If you take on only a few new clients a month, a checklist and a person are enough
If you are about to change practice management software, wait until that settles rather than building twice

Frequently asked questions

Is client onboarding software cheaper than hiring an administrator?

For a small practice, yes on the published figures, and they are not the same purchase. The software is priced by the user: Karbon lists its Business plan, the first with automatic client reminders, at 89 dollars a user a month paid annually, and Canopy its Standard plan at 74. The person is priced by the year: the BLS median annual wage for secretaries and administrative assistants was 48,310 dollars in May 2025, before benefits. The software sends the request and keeps the record. A person explains, persuades and notices what is missing.

What does client onboarding software cost an accounting firm?

On 4 October 2026 Karbon listed 59 and 89 dollars a user a month paid annually for its Team and Business plans. Canopy listed 74 and 109 dollars a user a month billed annually for Standard and Plus. TaxDome listed 800, 1,000 and 1,200 dollars a seat a year on a one-year term for Essentials, Pro and Business, with Essentials for solo users only. Ignition, for proposals, engagement letters and billing, listed its Core plan at 99 dollars a month billed annually, with a Solo plan from 39 for sole practitioners under a revenue limit.

How much does an administrator cost an accounting firm?

The BLS median annual wage in May 2025 was 48,310 dollars for secretaries and administrative assistants and 50,670 for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks. Benefits are extra: for office and administrative support staff in private industry, BLS put them at 11.51 dollars an hour worked in June 2026, against 25.22 in wages and salaries. In the UK, the ONS median gross annual pay for full-time personal assistants and other secretaries was 34,954 pounds in April 2025, a provisional figure, before employer National Insurance and pension.

Can a small firm set up the software itself, or does it need a consultant?

Two of the three vendors say a firm can do it itself. TaxDome offers self-serve onboarding at no charge. Canopy charges 199 dollars for self-guided implementation, for firms of one to ten users, and refunds it when the firm completes six setup milestones within 60 days. Both also sell guided setup. Karbon's pricing page describes implementation services, from group onboarding to guided packages, and it sells a guided package of eight weeks. A builder is worth paying when the work crosses several tools or nobody in the firm has the hours to own it.

How long does onboarding software take to set up?

TaxDome says most firms finish its paid onboarding in six to eight weeks, with one live session a week, and that it can run to 90 days depending on the package. Karbon describes its guided implementation as an eight-week package. Canopy's self-guided implementation follows a 30-day roadmap. Our own first step is an audit of about a week, and a first working version is usually live in two to four weeks.

How much does it cost to automate client onboarding for an accounting firm?

It depends on the route. Practice management software starts at 59 dollars a user a month paid annually on Karbon's published price, or 89 for its first plan with automatic client reminders, and at 74 on Canopy's; TaxDome's paid onboarding starts from 999 dollars. Having it built starts, with us, with a fixed-fee audit that measures the current process and models the fix; the build is then scoped and quoted at a fixed price.

Sources

Every statement on this page about a named company, a price, a wage or a rule was read at its source on 4 October 2026. Prices, wages and policies change: read them again before you rely on them.

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