GreatSoft - the great new hope for cloud Practice Management in a Xero ecosystem

It's been a long time coming but finally there is an Australian, (well technically South African), cloud based solution for multidisciplinary firms and firms who are too large to appropriately use Xero’s Practice Manager (XPM). GreatSoft is used by over 1000 medium and large accounting firms in 19 countries, including three of the ‘Big Four’ in Africa, and has been playing in this space for over 20 years. 

Back in 2018, Clarity street was lucky enough to jump out of an Uber, after attending a cloud meet up event hosted by Heather Smith, at the Practice Ignition Precon party (thanks to Sam from Go Cardless for shouting that uber and the socks!) and run into Daniel Fourie, who was also walking around aimlessly searching for the party. We hit it off right then and there and we were so excited that we booked in a chat for after Xerocon to explore the product in greater depth - we love how the universe works sometimes! Boy were we happy that we did have that chat, while the product at that stage was going under the radar in Australia, we saw the potential and couldn’t wait for the Xero Tax integration...fast forward to today and here's our reasons below. 

Why are they on our app stack? 
Why wouldn’t they be on our app stack is more the question to be asked? They would have been on here sooner but we had to wait for the Xero Tax integration to be able to offer a full cloud based practice management system. GreatSoft have positioned themselves as a cloud based alternative for the server based practice management incumbents targeting mid tier, already demonstrated with RSM Australia transitioning to the platform, and the big four. They are also building out their integrations with many of our app stack recommendations which will position them well to be a full cloud based alternative to the incumbents. 

What does GreatSoft do? 
GreatSoft does everything you would typically expect a practice management system to perform, time capture, billing, debtor management, job management, workflow management, client relationship management, comprehensive customisable/intelligent reporting, along with a mobile app that captures time and logs travel distance for reimbursements while on the go. The kicker for Clarity Street is that in Australia, GreatSoft was built with integrations front of mind and they have an API that, while is not “open” as such, it is available for apps to integrate with. We see this as a big plus over the vendors who typically want to control and build everything themselves to create their own suite. 

What are the benefits to an accounting firm? 
GreatSoft fills the void in the cloud Practice Management ecosystem at the moment for those typically larger firms who want to move to the cloud but don’t want to give up their level of reporting and accountability and who want the same look and feel as the system they are moving from. It’s also great for multi disciplinary firms that are used to having multiple businesses run through one practice management solution (something that XPM can’t do).  A firm that adopts GreatSoft will gain the benefits of not only being in the cloud and truly mobile, (so, more than just a VPN/remote desktop), but being able to leverage best of breed applications.  
 
Integrations 
Xero Tax and by default the broader Xero ecosystem: 
The moment Xero “officially” announced that GreatSoft was a fully integrated alternative solution at Xerocon 2019, Clarity Street almost cried with joy. The announcement meant that GreatSoft was basically a complete solution, and by integrating with Xero tax it, by default integrated with Xero ledgers, Xero Financials, Xero Workpapers and the other 1000 odd apps in the ecosystem that integrate with Xero client files.  
 
Other integrations within Clarity Street's app stack: 
The following are listed on the GreatSoft website as being live integrations at the point of publishing, but it would be a wise move to read their integration page here for updated integrations. 

• BGL  
• Now Infinity 

• Class 
• Mailchimp 

 Future integrations are: 

• Practice Ignition 

• FYI Docs 
• Suitefiles 
• Accountkit 
• ATO Smart Docs 
• ATO Mate 

​GreatSoft is a very welcome entrant into the practice management space in Australia and it will start to shake up the Australian landscape for those mid tier and Big Four firms, or any firm that is multidisciplinary or requires robust workflow, job and report management. The ability now for those firms to be cloud based and truly unchained from their desks, can only be a positive for their team members and by subsequently the bottom line.