IT for accountants who'd rather be doing accounts.
An accountancy practice is a technology business that happens to do tax. Microsoft 365, practice management, payroll, bookkeeping platforms, HMRC gateways, e-signature — and every January, all of it has to work at once. Foundry runs the technology behind the practice so the partners don't have to.
Sound familiar?
The things we hear from accountants before they work with us. If more than one of these is your week, keep reading.
- It's the last week of January and the practice software has decided to update itself.
- A client has just emailed their passport and P60 to a partner's inbox. Again.
- We've got a new starter on Monday and nobody's sure who sets up the laptop.
- The HMRC gateway login is in a spreadsheet someone made in 2017.
- Our insurer wants to know if we have MFA and tested backups. We think so?
Your environment
What the business actually depends on.
- Microsoft 365 for email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive — almost universally
- Practice management, tax and accounts production software, on desktops or hosted
- Cloud bookkeeping platforms with client-level access
- Payroll and HMRC gateway credentials that must never be lost
- Client documents arriving by email, WhatsApp and paper
- Laptops at home, in the office and at client sites
Your risks
Security, compliance, availability and data.
- Phishing and invoice fraud aimed at a firm that moves money for clients
- A ransomware event during a filing deadline
- Client tax and ID documents sitting in inboxes forever
- GDPR, AML and professional-body obligations around client data
- Cyber-insurance questionnaires that ask for MFA, EDR and tested backups
- Microsoft 365 data that isn't backed up because nobody realised it wasn't included
Your problems
The IT frustrations we hear most.
- The practice manager is the IT department by default
- Practice software updates break things at the worst possible time
- Starters and leavers take days to set up or, worse, are never removed
- Suppliers blame each other when email or the hosted desktop goes down
- Nobody knows who owns the domain or the Microsoft admin login
The Foundry solution
Foundry becomes the practice's technology department. We administer Microsoft 365 and identity, manage every laptop, run the security baseline that insurers and professional bodies expect, back up and test-restore your data, and give clients a secure workspace for documents instead of an inbox. One team, one monthly cost, and a partner who understands that nothing can break in January.
Your Foundry stack
The capabilities of the platform that matter most for accountants, and what each one is for. Take what you need.
Foundry Support
→ Helpdesk, laptops managed and patched, Microsoft 365 administration, starters and leavers
Foundry Connect
→ Microsoft 365, email, Teams and SharePoint, identity, cloud phones
Foundry Secure
→ MFA, EDR, email security, patching, password vault, Cyber Essentials
Foundry Portal
→ Branded client workspace for year-end packs, ID and tax documents
Foundry Cloud
→ Cloud servers for hosted practice software, Microsoft 365 backup, tested recovery
Foundry Web
→ Domain in your name, DNS, website hosting, certificates, WAF