In March 2024, the Caseware Africa division of AdaptIT announced that it was issuing an “End of Life” notice for its TaxWare and SecWare products, as well as the more modern cloud products CloudTax and CloudSec.
Due to the departure of one of its founding members, the market has been left without a key player. This has prompted accounting firms to seek out alternative solutions. Many of these firms have approached Konsise, prompting us to write this blog post. We aim to assist accounting firms in making informed decisions when selecting their next course of action.
Who else provides tax management or secretarial management software?
Several companies can provide some or all of the functionalities that TaxWare and CaseWare products offer. We shall detail a non-exclusive list below, which is my opinion on the general capabilities of these products:
GreatSoft
GreatSoft’s roots go back to 1989. It was recently acquired by Vela Software Group, a Canadian company that is a subsidiary of Constellation Software. AdaptIT was recently purchased by Volaris Group, which is also a subsidiary of Constellation Software. Small world!
As one might expect for a company with such a long history, GreatSoft has a broad offering, many customers and significant maturity in its products.
The GreatSoft offering includes Tax Compliance, Secretarial Management, Payroll and Practise Management.
Strengths:
- Holistic service in practice management, Tax Management, and Secretarial Management.
- Large User Base
- Mature Functionality
- Strong Market Presence
- Understands Accounting Firms
Weaknesses:
- Tax functionality is submission-oriented and lacks in-depth compliance functionality
- User interface is slightly dated
- Service levels are slow (according to some existing/historic customers)
AccFin
AccFin’s products are under the name Sky Tax, Sky Sec, and so on, and it prides itself on being one of the founders of the accounting firm software market.
AccFin’s broad products include Tax Compliance, Secretarial Management, CRM, Debtors, Payroll and Time Management.
AccFin hosts numerous webinars on subjects relevant to accounting firms, which are well-watched and highly informative.
Strengths:
- Holistic service in practice management, Tax Management, and Secretarial Management.
- Mature features
- Responsiveness to new compliance obligations
Weaknesses:
- User interface extremely dated
- Tax and Secretarial functionally geared more toward efficiency than compliance and management.
ProfSoft
ProfSoft has a very loyal customer base for its products, including ProfCost, ProfSec and ProfTax.
All of their products are listed under a single brochure.
Strengths:
- Holistic service in Practise Management, Tax Management, and Secretarial Management.
- Mature features
- Very customer-centric
Weaknesses:
- Limited software development team
And then there is Konsise
Konsise is a much newer arrival than the existing software companies, which comes with a few benefits:
- Latest cloud technology
- Unparalleled security
- Speed of deployment
Konsise was initially established as a tax management solution to meet corporate entities‘ needs. Over time, ABSA, Old Mutual, Imperial, Dischem, Santam, and many other companies have utilised Konsise to manage their taxes with great efficacy. With Konsise’s growing reputation, accounting firms and tax practitioners have taken notice of its remarkable performance and incorporated the platform into their practices to streamline their operations and improve customer service. The benefits of using Konsise for tax management are undeniable, as it enables them to meet their tax obligations with ease and efficiency.
Konsise does not have a practice management solution. Since the international products do this so well, and Xero has released Xero Practise Manager, Konsise’s differentiator will be its integration.
Strengths
- Most modern technology in the industry
- Large development team
- Large support and services team
- Reporting and analytics capabilities
- On the same cloud platform as the new SARS infrastructure
- Enterprise-level security
Weaknesses
- Still building some of the maturity of other solutions
- Less broad product offerings
Summary of tax & secretarial software in South Africa
If your organisation utilises the Taxware/CloudTax or the SecWare/CloudSec solutions, it is time to explore the other solutions. But with so many options available, it can be tough to know which one is the best fit for your practice. That’s why we highly recommend scheduling a demo with each of these software companies. By seeing their solutions in action, you’ll gain a better understanding of how they can help you streamline your operations and achieve your goals.
