// Gainesville, FL · Accounting Firms · FTC Safeguards

ACCOUNTING FIRM IT
IN GAINESVILLE, FL.

FTC-Safeguards-aware managed IT for Gainesville CPA firms, tax preparers, and bookkeepers. QuickBooks, Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProSeries support, tax-season email security, and WISP technical documentation across Alachua County. No long-term contracts.

Get a Free Safeguards Assessment →Call (352) 723-5003
// What's Included

SIX SERVICES TAILORED FOR GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS.

Simply IT's managed IT for Gainesville accounting firms is the same flat-monthly-fee structure used for other clients, but the controls, the vendor coordination, and the email security are built around the FTC Safeguards Rule and the tax-software stack accounting firms actually run.

FTC-Safeguards-Aware Cybersecurity

EDR, MFA, email security gateway, DNS filtering, and tested backups — the technical safeguards the FTC Safeguards Rule expects from Gainesville tax preparers and cyber insurance underwriters demand from any accounting firm handling financial information.

WISP Documentation Support

Simply IT delivers the technical evidence — risk assessment records, access control logs, encryption configuration, MFA enforcement — that supports the Qualified Individual's annual report under 16 CFR 314 for Gainesville accounting clients.

Tax & Accounting Software Support

QuickBooks Desktop and Online, Drake Tax, UltraTax CS, Lacerte, ProSeries, Sage 50, Xero — Simply IT handles integration, vendor coordination, and the database and network layer these platforms depend on year-round and at tax-season peak.

Tax-Season Email Security

Attachment sandboxing, impersonation protection, MFA enforcement, and DNS filtering tuned for the phishing and BEC patterns Gainesville accounting firms actually see in January through April.

Help Desk for Accounting Staff

Unlimited remote help desk for the entire firm — partners, staff accountants, bookkeepers, admin. Most issues — printers, tax-software errors, password resets, portal access — resolved within 15 minutes during business hours.

Encrypted Backup & Ransomware Recovery

Immutable encrypted backup with quarterly restore drills. If a Gainesville accounting firm gets hit with ransomware mid-tax-season, Simply IT can restore the tax-software databases and client document repositories without paying a ransom.

// Why Gainesville Accounting

GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS HAVE A SPECIFIC IT REALITY.

Gainesville has a substantial accounting community — CPA firms serving the University of Florida academic and medical community, real-estate-heavy bookkeeping practices tied to Alachua County's growth, tax preparers serving small businesses and individual filers, and a tier of higher-end firms doing audit, advisory, and forensic work. Accounting IT is a specific discipline: the FTC Safeguards Rule, the tax-software stack, tax-season volume, and the cyber insurance underwriter expectations all differ from generic small business IT.

Most generic small-business IT providers don't document the technical safeguards that a tax preparer's WISP requires. They don't plan for tax-season load. They struggle with QuickBooks, Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, and ProSeries integration. They don't tune email security for the phishing and BEC patterns accounting firms see from January through April.

Simply IT does all of that as part of standard managed IT for Gainesville accounting clients — not as expensive add-ons. The same flat monthly fee covers a 4-person Gainesville bookkeeping shop and a 15-person Gainesville CPA firm with multiple partners and a tax-season seasonal staff bump.

// Real Challenges

WHAT GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS ACTUALLY DEAL WITH.

FTC Safeguards Rule enforcement

The December 2023 Safeguards Rule amendment added a 30-day FTC reporting requirement for breaches affecting 500+ consumers and tightened the WISP's nine required elements. Many small Gainesville accounting firms still don't have a documented WISP. Simply IT provides the technical safeguards record that makes a WISP defensible rather than aspirational.

Tax-season phishing and BEC

Tax season is the highest-volume threat window for accounting firms. Fake IRS notices, fraudulent wire-transfer requests targeting partners, W-2 / 1099 phishing campaigns aimed at the payroll inbox — all spike from January through April. Simply IT deploys email security and security awareness training tuned for the threats accounting firms actually face, not generic small-business security.

Client document workflow

Tax documents arriving by unencrypted email is the single largest Safeguards Rule exposure for most Gainesville accounting firms. Simply IT deploys secure client portals, configures email security to quarantine unencrypted PII attachments, and trains staff to redirect clients to compliant channels — which closes the workflow gap that most firms have just lived with for years.

Tax-software stack complexity

Most Gainesville accounting firms run a multi-vendor stack: QuickBooks for client books, a tax-prep platform like Drake or UltraTax for returns, a CRM or practice-management tool, and sometimes a payroll add-on. Each vendor blames the others when something breaks. Simply IT handles the network, server, and integration layer — and absorbs the vendor-coordination work the firm shouldn't be doing during tax season.

// Pricing

TIERED PRICING FOR GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS.

Most Gainesville tax preparers land on Simply Compliant ($150/user/mo) for staff handling client tax information under the FTC Safeguards Rule. Simply Secure ($125) is common for bookkeeping firms that aren't IRS-registered tax preparers. Simply Managed ($75) covers admin and reception roles. No long-term contracts.

Simply Managed
$75
per user / month

Admin / reception. Monitoring, patching, unlimited help desk.

Simply Secure
$125
per user / month

Bookkeeping firms. EDR, email security, MFA, tested backup. Advanced security without full Safeguards documentation.

Simply Compliant
$150
per user / month

Tax preparers. Full FTC Safeguards technical safeguards, WISP documentation, audit-ready posture.

See Full Pricing Detail →
// FAQ

COMMON QUESTIONS FROM GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRMS.

What is the FTC Safeguards Rule and how does it apply to a Gainesville CPA firm?+
The FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314) requires tax preparers and accounting firms that handle customer financial information to maintain a written information security program (WISP) with nine specific elements — including a designated Qualified Individual, a written risk assessment, access controls, encryption, MFA, monitoring, vendor oversight, an incident response plan, and annual reporting to leadership. Since the December 2023 amendment, breaches affecting 500+ consumers must be reported to the FTC within 30 days. Simply IT maintains the technical safeguards portion of the WISP for Gainesville accounting clients and helps coordinate the documentation that satisfies the Qualified Individual role.
Does Simply IT support QuickBooks, Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, and ProSeries for Gainesville accounting firms?+
Yes. Simply IT supports QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online, Drake Tax, UltraTax CS, Lacerte, ProSeries, Sage 50, and Xero — the platforms most Gainesville accounting firms actually run. We handle the network, server, workstation, and integration layer these applications depend on, and we coordinate with the software vendor when a database issue or version upgrade is genuinely a vendor problem rather than an IT problem. During tax season, that vendor-coordination piece is the difference between a half-day outage and a 15-minute fix.
How does Simply IT protect Gainesville accounting firms from tax-season phishing and business email compromise?+
Tax season is open season on accounting firms. Phishing volume spikes in January, fake IRS correspondence circulates by email and SMS, and clients sometimes send genuinely-malicious tax document attachments without realizing it. Simply IT deploys layered protection: email security gateway with attachment sandboxing, MFA on every account, endpoint detection and response (EDR), DNS filtering, and quarterly security awareness training tuned to the threats accounting firms actually face. Business email compromise targeting wire transfers and W-2 / 1099 data is a separate threat pattern we train staff to spot.
Can Simply IT help our Gainesville CPA firm document the WISP required by FTC Safeguards?+
Yes. Simply IT provides the technical safeguards documentation that anchors a tax preparer's WISP — risk assessment evidence, access control records, MFA enforcement, encryption configuration, EDR deployment, monitoring logs, and vendor BAAs/contracts. The Qualified Individual designation typically stays inside the firm (an owner or office manager), but Simply IT delivers the underlying technical record that supports their annual report to firm leadership and any FTC scrutiny that follows a reported incident.
What does FTC-Safeguards-aware IT cost for a Gainesville accounting firm?+
Simply IT's Simply Compliant tier — including FTC Safeguards technical safeguards, tax-software vendor coordination, encrypted backup, and tax-season-grade email security — is $150 per user per month for staff who handle client tax information. Simply Secure ($125) fits bookkeeping-only firms that aren't IRS-registered tax preparers and therefore aren't directly subject to FTC Safeguards. Simply Managed ($75) covers admin and reception roles. No long-term contracts.
Does Simply IT support Gainesville accounting firms during the tax-season crunch?+
Yes. Simply IT targets 15-minute remote response during business hours (Mon-Fri 6:30am-6:30pm), and during tax season we expect — and plan for — higher ticket volume from accounting clients. Workstations that run fine the rest of the year start struggling when partners are running 12-hour days, when client portals are saturated, and when half the staff is working remotely from a client site or a home office. We pre-stage capacity for tax-season load rather than scrambling in March.
Can Simply IT help our Gainesville accounting firm handle secure client document exchange?+
Yes. Email is not an acceptable channel for tax documents, W-2s, K-1s, or bank statements — and most clients still try to send them that way. Simply IT helps Gainesville accounting firms deploy a secure client portal (typically integrated with the existing tax software, or as a standalone tool like SmartVault or ShareFile), trains staff on how to direct clients to it, and configures email security to block or quarantine unencrypted PII attachments. That single workflow change resolves the largest source of Safeguards Rule exposure for most firms.
// Continue Reading

EXPLORE RELATED RESOURCES.

Industry Hub
Accounting Firm IT →
Service Area
Gainesville Hub →
Service
Gainesville Cybersecurity →
Service
Gainesville Microsoft 365 →
Get Started
Free Safeguards Assessment →
READY TO TALK FTC-SAFEGUARDS-AWARE IT FOR YOUR GAINESVILLE ACCOUNTING FIRM?

Get a free Safeguards Rule technology assessment from a veteran-owned local team. We'll review your current WISP technical posture, tax-software vendor coordination, tax-season email security, and ransomware controls — and tell you honestly where the gaps are.

By submitting you consent to be contacted by Simply IT via phone, email, or SMS. Reply STOP to opt out of SMS at any time. Privacy Policy

Or call us directly: 352-723-5003