After a year testing the use of secure portals on a limited basis, Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP will be expanding our use of secure portals by making them available as a primary method of exchanging documents with clients and their advisors.

In case you are not already familiar with secure portals, they have been around for many years.  Most of us use them every day without even knowing it.  For instance, when we pay bills on-line, we are using secure portals and when we log in to our investment accounts to check our portfolio values we likewise are using secure portals.

Here are some of the ways Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP and clients will use secure portals:

Upon receipt of our clients’ personal tax data, we will scan it and place PDF copies in their portals; they will then have access to their tax data during the tax preparation process as well as anytime they need it in the future, for instance if they need copies of their w-2s to support mortgage loan applications

When we complete our clients’ tax returns, we will place PDF copies in their portals; as above,  they will then have access to their tax returns anytime they need it in the future, for instance if they need copies to support mortgage loan applications

Clients wishing to have us review confidential financial documents, such as leases, wills, trusts and contracts may place them in their portals rather than e-mailing them to us; we will then be able to retrieve those documents, review them and provide our comments

Clients wishing to give access to their portal to a relative, employee, business advisor or other person may do so or single use portals may be established on a temporary basis for use by persons other than clients themselves; any person with access to a portal may transfer documents to that portal.

Some documents, like tax returns and financial statements, will be retained in portals permanently so that they will be available for reference when needed.  Other documents, like memoranda, letters and workpapers will be purged occasionally from portals to reduce clutter.

Secure portals are the safest way to electronically transfer documents.  With e-mails, there is always the risk that they may be intercepted.  Although, e-mail encryption and passwords applied to documents delivered by e-mail offer some protection, the level of security is considerably less than the level of security available using secure portals. 

In anticipation that some states may make it unlawful for professionals to send confidential client information using e-mails and to provide the highest level of security when we electronically transfer or receive confidential client information, Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP is moving away from sending confidential client information by e-mail and moving, instead, toward the electronic delivery of confidential client information using secure portals.

Secure portals are also a good alternative to delivering documents using the postal and private delivery services, such as FedEx and UPS.  Portals are less costly and reduce the need to create paper documents.

Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP is in the process of establishing secure portals for every client.  It may take some time for clients to get acclimated to using secure portals, but over time we expect portal use to become the norm.  In the mean time we will also provide paper copies of tax returns, tax organizers and other documents until our clients feel comfortable without paper copies.

Once secure portals are created, the portal system automatically sends e-mails to clients with instructions for the establishment of user names and passwords.  When those user names and passwords are created by the clients, the portals are ready for use and the portal system sends e-mails to us letting us know that the portals are now active.  Each time documents are added to the portal, either by clients or Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP, e-mails are sent notifying the other party that documents have been added.

Developing a portal system is a major undertaking, requiring resources that would be vastly beyond the resources of an individual accounting firm such as Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP.  That is why the portal system that we use was developed by CCH (Commerce Clearing House), a Wolters Kluwer company.  The system is called ProSystem fx Portal. 

CCH is an international company that provides research and software products, as well as other publications, for accountants and lawyers.  Based on Brown, Kaplan + Liss nearly half century of experience using CCH products, including this past year when we have been testing ProSystem fx Portal, we have the utmost confidence in the security, safety and operational integrity of  ProSystem fx Portal.  If you wish to do your own due diligence, you may learn more at CCH Portal

If you have any comments or questions about how Brown, Kaplan + Liss LLP will use secure portals or how you may be affected, please e-mail me at jliss@bkl-cpa.com or call me at 847-733-7185.