Tax season is a whirlwind. Between juggling client communications, managing deadlines, and ensuring compliance, the last thing you need is a cumbersome e-signature process. Enter Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA) e-signatures—a secure, IRS-compliant method for obtaining electronic signatures on critical tax documents like Form 8879.​

At Keeper, we've seamlessly integrated KBA e-signatures into our Tax Suite, eliminating the need for third-party tools and streamlining your workflow.​

What is KBA, and why does it matter?

KBA is a security measure that verifies a signer's identity by prompting them to answer questions based on public records (think previous addresses or loan details). This method ensures that the person signing the document is indeed who they claim to be.

For tax professionals, KBA is a legal requirement. The IRS mandates KBA for electronically signed Forms 8878 and 8879, which exist to authorize the e-filing of an individual’s tax returns.

The old way:

Historically, incorporating KBA into your tax workflow meant relying on separate platforms, leading to:​

• Manual data transfers between systems
• Increased risk of errors
• Additional costs for standalone KBA services
• Disjointed client experiences​

These inefficiencies can obviously slow down your operations and increase the likelihood of compliance issues or overwhelm for tax teams, which is exactly why we built a KBA feature into our Tax Suite. Now, your firm can securely manage and verify signatures without leaving the platform.

The Keeper way:

Keeper’s e-signature features makes sending, signing, and verifying documents simple. The highlights include:

• Uploading documents directly from a client’s tax return page in Keeper.
• Adding multiple signers and customize the signing order easily.
• Customizing fields with various types (text, signature, date, etc.), ensuring all necessary information is clearly requested. Make templates so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each tax season.
• Optional KBA verification enhances security, verifying the signer’s identity through personal information and public records.

How it works:

1. Enable KBA verification simply by selecting "KBA signature required" from the Role drop-down when adding recipients.
2. Pay per signature: affordable pricing ($1 per signature in the US) covers the cost of verification.
3. Pre-fill optional client details (such as Name, Address, Date of Birth, and SSN) or let clients provide this information during the verification process.
4. Signers complete verification by answering KBA questions before being redirected seamlessly to sign their document.

Put simply: clients get a link, they answer a few simple questions, and they sign. They’ll automatically receive confirmation, and so will you. That’s it!

Stay organized and compliant

Once completed, signatures and related documents are auto-organized within Keeper’s Files tab, accessible anytime. Both you and your client receive notifications confirming the completed signatures.

Keeper’s integrated KBA e-signatures simplify your firm’s workflow, ensuring secure, compliant, and stress-free tax seasons. Ready to get started?

The post Simplify IRS Compliance with KBA e-Signatures in Keeper appeared first on Keeper.

Ever get stuck waiting on missing receipts or scrambling to reconcile uncategorized transactions at month’s end? Most accounting professionals have been there, juggling multiple apps, and sending clients endless follow-up emails. But what if a single, integrated tool could streamline every stage of your monthly close—from task management to real-time collaboration with clients?

In a recent Earmark Expo, Andy from Keeper demonstrated how one cloud-based practice management platform can tackle the monthly close in a streamlined, client-friendly way.

1. Streamlined Task and Project Management

A smooth month-end close starts with effective planning. Instead of juggling spreadsheets or generic project tools, Keeper lets you create recurring monthly tasks alongside ad-hoc projects (e.g., onboarding, payroll processing, sales tax). You can:

• Set Custom Frequencies: Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly tasks with specific due dates.
• Create Checklists & SOPs: Store all the instructions, links, and passwords your team needs.
• View Firm-Wide Progress: A central dashboard shows each client’s close status, from pre-close tasks to account reconciliations.

From an owner’s perspective, this holistic view helps ensure junior staff follow standardized procedures. No more scattered checklists; everything is tracked and auditable in one place.

2. Intelligent Review: Direct Ledger Integration

Keeper integrates with QuickBooks Online or Xero, analyzing the general ledger for anomalies and inconsistencies. It flags potential issues, such as:

• Vendors with Inconsistent Categories: If a vendor was previously coded to “Software " but ended up in “Advertising " this month, the system notifies you.
• Missing Payees or Transactions: Instantly spot missing or incomplete vendor info.
• Auto-Added Bank Rules: Verify that automated rules are accurate, reducing errors.

Changes can be made from Keeper itself—no toggling between platforms. When you recode a transaction or add a vendor, it updates QuickBooks or Xero in real-time. This ensures everyone from the bookkeeper to the reviewer is working with up-to-date financials.

3. Consolidated Client Communication

If you dread sending 40 emails to a single client each month, modern platforms offer a better way. Keeper consolidates client questions—uncategorized expenses, missing statements, etc.—into a single, branded portal. When you’re ready, you notify the client.

“Rather than sending the client 40 messages throughout the month, we wait until all our questions are ready and then let them know they have new items,” explained Andy from Keeper.

Clients click a magic link—no password needed—and land in a portal with your firm’s branding. There, they see only the transactions or questions that need attention. They can respond by typing an explanation or uploading documents. Communication remains organized with a clear audit trail, so your team can finalize the books faster.

4. Proactive W-9 Collection & 1099 Prep

The year-end 1099 season can be a scramble when you haven’t collected W-9s in advance. Keeper automates the process by:

• Tracking Thresholds: Once a vendor exceeds $600 of reportable spend, the system flags them.
• Sending Branded W-9 Requests: Vendors get a link to fill out or upload their W-9 electronically.
• Syncing Data: Submitted forms are attached to the vendor record in QuickBooks Online (or Xero).

By converting 1099 tracking into a recurring monthly task, you can avoid the January rush of incomplete or missing vendor details. Firms can even export data directly to a 1099-filing solution, turning W-9 collection into a year-round routine.

5. Receipt Management on Your Client's Terms

Receipts are one of the most common pain points in bookkeeping. Keeper’s receipt capture tools offer multiple ways for clients to submit documents:

• Dedicated Phone Number for Texting: Clients can snap a picture and text it directly.
• Magic Link Portal: They drag and drop files from a desktop or mobile device.
• Email Upload: Optionally forward digital receipts to a dedicated inbox.

Once in the system, OCR technology extracts key data and either creates new transactions or matches receipts to existing ones. This eliminates redundant steps like re-keying or reconciling bank feed entries separately.

6. Additional Features: Time Tracking, KPIs, and More

Beyond communication and transaction reviews, Keeper offers tools to centralize your entire CAS practice:

• Time Tracking & Budgeting: Set budgets per client or project. Track time with built-in timers.
• Advanced Reporting & KPIs: Customize monthly financial reports with real-time variance analysis, graphs, and even non-financial metrics (e.g., headcount).
• Inter-Company Transfers: For multi-entity clients, Keeper can sync due-to/due-from accounts across different QuickBooks or Xero files.

The result is a single source of truth for all monthly close tasks, collaboration, and data oversight.

A New Era of Month-End Efficiency

Platforms like Keeper reimagine not just client communication but the entire month-end process—reducing the back-and-forth between email threads, spreadsheets, and accounting files. From automated anomaly detection to text-based receipt collection, these solutions let accountants focus on higher-value advisory work.

Ready to streamline your month-end and client collaboration? Watch the complete Earmark Expo session featuring Keeper. You can also earn continuing professional education (CPE) credit for learning how integrated software simplifies your workflow—giving you time back to serve your clients at a higher level.

The post Earmark Expo - Keeper: Transforming Client Communication in Accounting appeared first on Keeper.

• MCO cut their final review time by 85% using Keeper, resulting in 375 hours saved per month.
• Keeper centralized MCO's task management process, enhancing efficiency and providing comprehensive client insights in one place.
• Implementing Keeper's Client Portal increased client interaction, achieving a 95% adoption rate and reducing follow-up emails.

Building a niched practice

MCO Bookkeeping (MCO) was founded in 2018 with the goal of providing quality accounting services to a very complex and specific niche: UPS franchise locations. While growth was initially slow, MCO’s business began doubling each year starting in 2021 – and the bookkeeping team experienced the same growing pains that nearly every firm struggles with at some point or another. The volume of clients was quickly outpacing the systems MCO had in place, manual tasks slowed down the month-end close, and onboarding additional clients became daunting. If MCO was going to continue its impressive growth, it needed a new solution that was built specifically for large-scale bookkeeping practices.

Saving 375 hours per month with Keeper

The bookkeeping team at MCO was historically relying on dated systems and manual processes, and quickly discovered that the transition to Keeper alone was going to save them hundreds of hours per month across their large book of clients. In 2021, before MCO had subscribed to Keeper, bookkeepers at MCO could conduct a final end-to-end review of a client’s books in an hour and a half. Today, that process has sped up nearly 85 percent, and takes MCO’s bookkeepers as little as 12 minutes per client. Stretched out across their entire book of clients, that totals to roughly 375 hours per month of saved time.

Keeper’s integration with QuickBooks Online and the file review features that come along with that integration were key for increasing efficiencies at MCO.  “Before, we had to log into QuickBooks, which may take five minutes in itself,” said Mike. “You find your login credentials, get into the file, then pull up the transaction. Now, it’s all together in one spot – and that alone saves us a ton of time.”

When it comes to running a firm with a large volume of clients, the team at MCO agrees it is paramount for quality to stay consistent with quantity. By leveraging Keeper’s Automatic File Review Reports, the bookkeepers and reviewers have additional confidence that they are delivering the cleanest and most accurate books possible. These features, paired with MCO’s robust use of the internal chat functionalities, allow the team to provide seamless, quality work while still scaling the business as a whole.

“We’re able to have one supervisor manage upwards of 175 accounts, whereas prior that number may have been half."

Navigating task management for hundreds of clients

Before Keeper, MCO relied on a general CRM system along with QuickBooks Online to manage over 500 franchise clients. Working through these tasks, sifting through tons of client information, and reconciling individual QuickBooks files generated confusing and problematic administrative work that took away from the bookkeeping at hand. 

“We had a ‘square peg, round hole’ mentality,” said Mike Greenblatt, Partner and VP of Operations and Strategic Development at MCO. “We built something within our CRM that worked, but we eventually grew out of it. It was too manual, too many tasks, too many items – and the system was not built for the actual close itself.”

After implementing Keeper and working with their Customer Success Manager, it was clear that they had found a solution that was well-suited for large bookkeeping teams. Instead of flipping through their task management system, CRM, Teams chat log, and QuickBooks Online to complete their monthly work… they could simply login to Keeper. 

Keeper’s ability to support every aspect of the month-end process was incredibly valuable to MCO. The bookkeepers could look at a client’s close page from top to bottom for immediate context by viewing previous internal chats, checking in on client portal communications, and using Keeper’s file review reports to catch errors automatically (without ever opening QuickBooks Online.)

Mike observed that with previous practice management tools, the tracking of tasks felt like an afterthought; teammates were simply checking off tasks with little follow up. “In contrast, Keeper is a system where we use the task feature to efficiently get our close done. It gives us an enhanced level of understanding on a very large scale.”

Engaging 500+ clients on Keeper’s Client Portal

Beyond the increased organization of tasks and saved time MCO experienced using Keeper, the team also benefits from the Client Portal to all their clients. Before using Keeper, MCO’s communications with clients were largely email-driven. While the team did set up automatic notifications through their CRM at the time, MCO’s bookkeepers found themselves having to follow up with individual, one-off emails to clients. Mike observed that this process took time away from the month-end work at hand, and failed to encourage true engagement between the client and their financials.

Mike and his team quickly came to the conclusion that Keeper’s Client Portal would become the single location for their clients to answer questions, submit documentation and access their financial reporting packages on demand. By giving their clients a dedicated platform to interact with their accounting team and the status of their books each month, MCO found a way to make their large practice feel smaller and give clients a truly personalized experience. 

For many large firms, changing systems can seem like a tricky undertaking. However, MCO proves each day that investing in new, intuitive practice management platforms can make all the difference in service quality and client participation.

“Since moving to the Client Portal, we have seen a 95% adoption rate from clients, as well as a rapid increase to our day-to-day communication with clients,” said Mike. “We also saw heightened engagement in their finances.”

Looking into Keeper as a large firm? Here’s what you need to know.

For larger firms that are interested in Keeper to manage a high-volume of clients, Mike offered up a key piece of advice: “Dive into it. The real value of Keeper is seeing how all the features are interconnected, and how they work across multiple teams, individuals, and tasks.”

Today, there are several practice management systems on the market that help keep firm owners organized, but lack the ability to shrink the work size itself. With Keeper, large practices can distribute the work efficiently and give supervisors the ability to oversee their team’s work on both the micro and macro levels. 

“Selecting Keeper for our business has been the right decision. It’s made a tremendous difference in terms of growth and efficiency.”

The post How MCO uses Keeper to manage 500+ QuickBooks files per month appeared first on Keeper.

• Keeper’s File Review tool helps On the Books’ team catch hundreds of common bank feed errors, like inconsistent transaction coding and transactions missing payees or classes.
• Keeper centralizes account reconciliation and client communication, improving client relationships and decreasing response times.
• On the Books replaced three different tools with Keeper, giving managers more visibility over the team’s work.

“We don’t need to do manual reviews, or use QuickBooks to run 10 different reports – instead we use Keeper.”

The post How On The Books reviews 700 transactions per month using Keeper's File Review appeared first on Keeper.

In 2019, Cheryl Lanahan put her entrepreneurial spirit to the test when she started PlumbBooks. Specializing in accounting and bookkeeping services for residential home service companies, Cheryl’s vision stemmed from her time working at a plumbing company. She realized the need for a specialized bookkeeping practice catering to the trades industry.

The post How PlumbBooks saves 30 minutes per client per month with Keeper appeared first on Keeper.

Client reception and engagement

After REI Bookkeepers introduced Keeper to their clients, the feedback and reception was overwhelmingly positive. “We had 90% of our clients using Keeper’s Client Portal within the first week,” said Greg. Compared to previous portal interfaces which required yet another set of login credentials, Keeper’s use of one-click Google Magic Links proved attractive to their less tech-savvy accounting clients. With enthusiastic support from those clients as well as the bookkeepers who were using the app, Dave was ready to take the leap. “I started to love Keeper, and we decided to go all in.”

Steering clients away from email and onto Keeper has been REI Bookkeepers’ number one priority.  Greg found Keeper’s Client Portal easy and straightforward to use – and his clients agreed. The bookkeeping team also loves the option to set up automated reminders for clients, which get sent twice a week until the client responds to the questions in their portal. Today, all of REI Bookkeepers’ clients are up and running on the new communication system.

“We’ve seen higher response rates across the board, and no one misses the old system of using Google Sheets and sorting through email inboxes.”

Leveraging Keeper as a whole

Keeper has quickly become the single source of truth for Greg and the team. Beyond the overall benefit that the Client Portal provides from a communication standpoint, Greg’s team also relies on the many review tools that Keeper offers.

One of the favorites amongst the team is the uncategorized transaction report. Greg and his bookkeepers no longer have to go through the effort of downloading uncategorized transactions into Excel, tidying up the file, and sending the questions one-by-one via email. Keeper’s two-way integration with QuickBooks gives Greg’s team the ability to mark and edit transactions in the app, and add any questions or comments straight to the Client Portal for his clients to review and respond to.

“Keeper makes it easy for me to do my work where I review my work,” said Greg.

“I would not be able to manage this workload as well as I do without it. Paying to have Keeper on our team is a no-brainer.”

What the future holds for REI Bookkeepers

After buying REI Bookkeepers and assuming the role of CEO, Greg admits that his team has only scratched the surface with Keeper. Their next undertaking is to explore the management reporting packages that Keeper offers. “We still send manual reports out of QuickBooks to do reviews. I am well aware that using Keeper will make our reporting that much more valuable to our clients.”

The post REI Bookkeepers gets 1.5k client questions answered per month using Keeper’s Client Portal appeared first on Keeper.