IT for Accounting & Bookkeeping Firms
The FTC considers your firm a financial institution. That means MFA everywhere, access controls you can prove, change management with documented approvals, and logs that show who touched which client's records. TechManager AI runs that layer of your IT and hands you the evidence, so your WISP is backed by something real instead of a document nobody updates.
Built for bookkeeping firms, tax practices, fractional CFO shops, and HOA / association management companies.
Accounting IT Is Different
You hold bank details, SSNs, and payroll data for every client on your book. The rules that apply to a bank apply to you, without the bank's security budget.
You're a "Financial Institution"
Under the FTC Safeguards Rule, size doesn't get you out of it. A four-person bookkeeping shop carries the same nine program elements as a lender. Most firms find out during a client security questionnaire, or worse, after an incident.
One Staffer, Forty Client Books
Least privilege is easy to say and hard to run when every bookkeeper needs access to a different slice of QuickBooks files, bank portals, and payroll systems. Access creeps every time someone covers for a colleague, and nobody walks it back.
MFA You Can Actually Prove
§314.4(c)(5) requires MFA for anyone accessing information systems. Turning it on isn't the hard part. Showing an assessor that it's on for every user, every system, on the day they ask, is.
Busy Season Staffing
January through April you add seasonal preparers and contractors. By June they're gone, and half of them still have a login. Every stale account is an audit finding and a standing breach risk.
Client Financial Data on Home Networks
Remote and hybrid staff pull down bank statements and payroll registers onto laptops you don't sit next to. Disk encryption, patch level, and screen lock all have to hold up, continuously, not just the week you checked.
The 5,000-Consumer Line
§314.6 exempts firms holding data on fewer than 5,000 consumers from four of the heaviest requirements. Association and HOA bookkeepers cross that line fast, every unit owner counts. Count first; don't assume you're under it.
Mapped to 16 CFR §314.4, honestly
We're not a compliance certification, and we won't tell you a platform makes you compliant. Here is exactly which parts of the Safeguards Rule our platform carries, and which parts stay with your firm.
| Safeguards Rule requirement | Who carries it | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|
| §314.4(c)(1) Access controls & least privilege | TechManager AI | Role-based access enforced per client engagement. Requests, grants, and removals run through the governed pipeline instead of a hallway conversation. |
| §314.4(c)(2) Inventory of systems, devices & data | TechManager AI | Live device inventory and software tracking across every laptop, with drift flagged as it happens. |
| §314.4(c)(5) Multi-factor authentication | TechManager AI | MFA enforced and continuously monitored across M365, Google Workspace, Okta, and connected apps. Exportable proof of state, per user. |
| §314.4(c)(7) Change management | TechManager AI | Our strongest fit. Every action runs request → policy check → approval → execution → audit. Documented authorization is the default, not the exception. |
| §314.4(c)(8) Log & monitor authorized user activity | TechManager AI | Full audit trail: who, what, when, why, who approved. Filterable and exportable. SIEM integration on Enterprise. |
| §314.4(c)(6) Secure disposal & offboarding | Shared | We revoke access across every connected system with a timestamped per-system log. Essentials syncs daily and lets you run a sync on demand the moment someone leaves; Pro syncs in real time, so nobody has to remember. Your record retention schedule stays yours. |
| §314.4(c)(3) Encryption in transit & at rest | Shared | TLS 1.2+ and AES-256 inside our platform, plus endpoint encryption checks on managed devices. Encryption inside your ledger, storage, and email vendors remains their obligation and yours. |
| §314.4(f) Service provider oversight | Shared | We hand you our DPA and a maintained subprocessor list for your vendor file. Assessing your other vendors is your program. |
| §314.4(g) Evaluate & adjust the program | Shared | Compliance monitoring (Pro) surfaces control drift continuously so revisions are driven by evidence, not memory. |
| §314.4(a) Qualified Individual designation | Your firm | A named account manager is support, not a Qualified Individual. You designate the person; we give them the console and the evidence. |
| §314.4(b) Written risk assessment / WISP | Your firm | We supply the control evidence your assessment cites. We don't write the document. |
| §314.4(d) Penetration testing & vulnerability assessments | Your firm | Annual pen test and semiannual vulnerability assessments need an independent third party. We'll point you to one. |
| §314.4(e) Security awareness training | Your firm | Phishing simulation and awareness training are available on Enterprise plans; otherwise this stays with your provider of choice. |
| §314.4(h) & (i) Written IR plan, annual report | Your firm | We produce the incident timeline and control evidence those documents rely on. Authoring and reporting to ownership is yours. |
This page is general information about a federal rule, not legal advice. Whether the Safeguards Rule applies to your firm, and what your program must contain, is a determination for your counsel or assessor.
How TechManager AI runs accounting IT
The AI does the work in seconds. When a human is needed, it escalates to your team or ours. Every action lands in the audit trail either way.
Per-client access scoping
Staff get access to the client books they're assigned, and nothing else. Coverage during busy season is granted with an expiry instead of forever.
Seasonal offboarding that actually closes
When a contract preparer rolls off, revocation runs across ledger software, portals, email, and VPN with a timestamped log per system. On Essentials, run a sync the day they leave instead of waiting for the daily one. Pro syncs in real time automatically.
MFA and endpoint posture, continuously
MFA coverage, disk encryption, patch status, and screen lock checked on every managed device. Drift gets flagged when it happens, not at renewal.
Evidence on demand
A client sends a security questionnaire, or your assessor asks who accessed a file in March. Filter the audit log, export, done, in minutes.
Works with your accounting stack
We don't replace your ledger or practice management software. We manage access to it, audit usage, and handle onboarding and offboarding across all of it from one place.
Don't see your platform? If it has an API or admin console, we can manage it. Custom integrations available on Pro and Enterprise.
Servicing associations? Count your consumers before you claim the exemption
If you maintain owner accounts, collect assessments, and issue 1099s, each unit owner is a consumer whose information you hold. Forty associations at 150 units is 6,000 people, which puts the written risk assessment, testing schedule, incident response plan, and annual report squarely back in scope.
- Access scoped per association, not per staff convenience
- Audit log filterable per association for board and manager requests
- Access revoked across every connected system when a community manager or bookkeeper moves on, same day if you run a sync, automatically on Pro
FTC Safeguards questions we get
Straight answers, including the parts we don't do.
Does the FTC Safeguards Rule apply to bookkeeping and accounting firms?
The Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) applies to businesses engaged in activities that are financial in nature, and the FTC names accountants and other tax preparation services among covered businesses. That commonly reaches bookkeeping firms, tax preparers, and management companies that service client accounts and collect payments, regardless of size. Whether it applies to your specific practice is a determination for your counsel, not a vendor.
Can TechManager AI make my firm FTC Safeguards compliant?
No vendor can, and anyone who says otherwise is selling. Compliance is a shared responsibility. We carry a specific set of the technical safeguards in §314.4(c): access controls, asset inventory, MFA enforcement, change management with documented authorization, secure offboarding, and logging of authorized user activity, with an exportable audit trail as evidence. The written risk assessment, the Qualified Individual designation, penetration testing, and your written incident response plan stay with your firm.
Does the under-5,000-consumers exemption apply to an HOA bookkeeping company?
Often it does not. §314.6 exempts firms maintaining customer information on fewer than 5,000 consumers from the written risk assessment, the penetration testing and vulnerability assessment schedule, the written incident response plan, and the annual report. A firm servicing associations counts each unit owner whose account it maintains, so 40 associations at 150 units each is already 6,000 consumers. Count before you assume the exemption.
Do you replace our GRC platform?
No. We feed it. Every action goes through a governed pipeline and gets logged with full context: who, what, when, why, who approved. That audit trail exports as evidence into Vanta, Drata, or whatever your assessor works in.
What does this cost for a firm our size?
Essentials is $299/month for a single site with 1–50 users, which fits most bookkeeping, tax, and HOA management firms. It includes the full AI engine, governed execution with audit trail, device inventory, automated onboarding with daily plus on-demand manual directory sync, and 1,000 AI credits. Human escalation support is an add-on. Pro at $2,499/month adds real-time directory sync, compliance monitoring, offboarding assurance, advanced RBAC, and PII anonymization. See full pricing.
Stop guessing whether your controls would hold up
Book a 15-minute demo. We'll walk a real onboarding and offboarding scenario across an accounting stack with the audit log open, and show you exactly what exports as evidence.