Feature lists lie
Every vendor claims clients, deadlines, documents and portal. The difference is whether those are one client record or five modules acquired and stitched. Ask for a live demo with your messy real client — not a pristine sandbox.
UK-specific means Companies House lookup, UK date conventions, GDPR-aware portal and realistic talk about HMRC integration gates — not pretend everything is live on day one.
Score these eight areas
1. Single client record across onboarding, deadlines, documents and portal. 2. Tenant isolation and audit trail. 3. CH typeahead and officer sync. 4. Client portal with upload and visibility. 5. Team roles — not everyone admin. 6. Pricing on capacity (clients), not feature hostages. 7. Data export and portability. 8. Roadmap honesty.
Weight what hurts today: if you chase documents weekly, portal beats fancy reporting. If you are drowning in new companies, onboarding beats AI buzzwords.
Trial discipline
Run a two-week trial with one real manager and three real clients. Onboard one new company, invite one client to the portal, assign deadlines, upload a document. If you cannot complete that without vendor help, production will hurt.
Run your practice from one command centre
Clients, Companies House onboarding, deadlines, document vault and client portal — full platform on every plan.
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