DRIVE from Relate Software is designed to change the way accountants manage their clients and their practice. DRIVE brings together practice management, customer relationship management, document management and communications management in one powerful integrated system designed specifically for accountants.

A comprehensive, centralised database of clients, jobs, prospects and contacts is maintained with unlimited additional fields and records that the user can specify. The single, integrated application enables a full system of alerts on new communications, those for follow-up, reminders for action and various exceptions for review. Overall client and job status screens give the complete picture for control and management purposes.

DRIVE contains ten primary modules:

Communications Management

DRIVE manages the flow of communications into and out of the practice, including emails, Word documents, scanned documents, phone logs, faxes, SMS text messages, memoranda, tasks, events and meetings, grouped or filtered by topics or issues, for particular clients, jobs, prospects, contacts, suppliers or staff. All client communications are centralized and can be viewed at the touch of a button by authorized users.

Clients, Prospects, Contacts, Suppliers and staff with their own individual contacts can be mail merged individually or using data mining and records kept of the documents in the communications module

Time & Expense Management

Relate DRIVE offers a complete and highly customizable time and expense management facility. DRIVE captures and processes time and costs submitted by staff members based on selected frequencies and different charge out rates. The system also caters for write offs, accrued WIP, profits & losses, etc. Expense monitoring is done automatically and can be applied globally through the use of alerts.

Deadline Management

Deadline Management allows you to define a client’s compliance date calendar and maintain multiple deadline dates across the year. Using DRIVE improves office efficiency in leaps and bounds. The new proposed filing deadlines for 2008 will not be a problem for DRIVE users. Deadline dates, whether fixed as in the case of accounts filing or variable or recurring, are set globally according to the type of entity and can then be varied client by client.

The management system enables users to plan for high risk clients including those from whom information is normally received late. Estimates of the time taken to meet a deadline based on past experience can be used to anticipate the resources required and have them in place at the optimum time. Each task and associated communication is controlled by a process of assignment, status setting and follow-up alerts.

Deadlines & Datamining:
The new timescales actually allow users more time to dedicate to added value services for clients. DRIVE is used for marketing to an existing client base and also for converting prospects especially using the powerful data mining facility. DRIVE can also be used for launching campaigns to generate more business through developing new revenue streams or by niche marketing.

So what do users need to do to control deadlines using DRIVE?
Well, first of all, the statutory standard deadlines for the UK are already set up for you, including accounts, annual returns, corporation tax, income tax, payroll and VAT. Of course you can add in your own deadline dates for, say, management accounts. Each deadline date is marked applicable to certain types of entity. The user can set a typical duration for the work necessary to meet a deadline and can also allot a member of staff to take charge a deadline across clients. Next, the user can adjust which deadlines are applicable client by client, set start dates and change who’s in charge of meeting the deadlines for a particular client.

A client-by-client diary gives the full picture of deadlines. It can be seen in a summary or planner view. A particular deadline can be selected and viewed. The user can also see the deadlines by status with the user defining any number of statuses, beyond those supplied, before the deadline is met. Statuses can be changed until a completion date is entered. Where the status is such that the client needs to take action, the user can see when a reminder letter or call is required and can note any action taken.

Document Management

DRIVE Document management is a comprehensive scanning, indexing and retrieval system. Correspondence is automatically loaded into a client repository and DRIVE users can click to see the scanned correspondence to get a full progress picture of what is happening with the client. Each day correspondence will automatically appear on screen and internal email is used to forward relevant items to other members of staff. The index scanned documents are viewed in the communications module along side other related communications. Documents can be filled with a user-definable structure and file name.

Marketing Management

DRIVE’s Marketing Management module provides firms with the ability to produce controlled and targeted marketing campaigns and communications to existing or new clients. Suitable for the occasional user and marketing professionals, communications such as mailshots, letters and newswires can be cost effective and simple to produce.

The data mining feature ensures that only targeted lists of clients or prospects are contacted. The system will produce reports on leads generated and resulting success. The segmentation routine allows a firm to perform data mining on a section of the client base with similar profiles and assess one client’s performance against another.

Standard letter templates can be loaded on to the letter template directory to be used within the relevant modules.

Billing Management

DRIVE’s Billing Management Module is a vital part of the program. Allowing staff to raise bills on the system will increase recovery of chargeable work. Bills will be issued quicker and cash collection cycles will greatly improve. Integration allows for the efficient billing of time, expenses and outlay. Billing information will automatically be displayed on the client’s account; the job ledger, age debtors and the general ledger will be updated in real time.

Billing is through Microsoft Word using multiple billing templates. Whether you want to use summary or detailed text bills, the system controls the process automatically. The system will manage linked client billing, proforma, recurring bills, fixed amount billing, Non-WIP Bills and Multi-Job Billing. Full credit control functionality is included.

Recovery records can be generated by WIP code or staff code. These include accrued WIP, Profit and Loss. The module comes with a fully integrated Fees Ledger.

Financial Management

DRIVE’s Financial Module is at the heart of the back office. Transactions are updated to the general ledger in real-time. General ledger accounts are live, allowing authorised staff to review billing during the month, check cumulative balances and make comparisons. Managers do not need to wait until month end to see how their department or section is running against budget.

DRIVE contains full bank and cash account management. You can define any number of bank/cash accounts. Flexible posting routines with comprehensive reconciliations allow the practice to integrate all banking needs into a central system. This will ensure that all ancillary ledgers are kept up to date so that when partners/managers are chasing cash all the information they need is available.

The general ledger routine has a number of standard financial reports. The system produces a trial balance report by date of period as well as a set of financial statements based on user-definable templates.

A full cost centre based nominal ledger forms part of the main financial package. The integrated nominal ledger has data, screen and reporting access restrictions. Access is also restricted by using PC hard disk or network ID numbers. The system is multi-currency.

Purchase Ledger

DRIVE offers firms a fully integrated Purchase Ledger Module which handles all supplier costs. Outlays recorded on purchase invoices can be automatically tagged and sent to a clients WIP ledger for billing. Aged creditors and controls are standard. The purchase ledger includes cost centres.

Jobs Planner

DRIVE Job and Project Management Module will allow firms to set up clients and jobs in one central database enabling users to: create standard and recurring jobs on a client; drill down into a summary of jobs, balances and transaction history by client; automatically create current year job plans based on previous years; allocate job resources based on staff grades or to specific staff members over multiple jobs; create job budgets, and more.

When you create a job you can record WIP and fees budgets and the system will update the client job file to show actual vs. budgeted comparisons.