A client portal where documents arrive against a checklist, recurring GST, TDS, income tax and ROC tasks created for every client on the right cycle, review stages that show partners what is stuck, DSC and UDIN records in one place, fee billing that shows who still owes you, and a firm website written to stay within the ICAI Code of Ethics. Built for proprietor CAs, partnership firms, tax consultants and accounting outsourcing firms across India.
Reply within one business day · Navi Mumbai team · Website, app and admin under one roof
A website that informs without soliciting, a portal clients actually use, and an office system for partners, managers and article assistants, all on one client master.
An informational website that describes your services, partners and offices in plain, factual words, reviewed against the ICAI Code of Ethics in force.
Clients upload documents, see the status of their work and pay fees from their phone, instead of sending files on WhatsApp.
The office software your team works in every day, from the first document request to the filed acknowledgement.
A chartered accountant’s year is a chain of due dates. GST returns every month or quarter, TDS deposits every month and TDS returns every quarter, advance tax instalments, the income tax return season, tax audits, ROC filings for company clients and LLP filings, plus certificates and statutory audits in between. Each deadline needs documents from the client, preparation by an article assistant or junior, a review by a manager and a final check by a partner.
Clients send salary certificates and bank statements as blurry WhatsApp photos, the same file is asked for twice, and nobody can say which of 900 tax clients have not sent documents yet. A client’s DSC expires the day before a filing. A partner finds out on the 19th that a GST return is stuck because purchase data never came. Fee invoices from last year stay unpaid because nobody tracks them. And client PAN, Aadhaar and bank details sit on staff phones and personal email.
The Income-tax Act 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 with a single “tax year” in place of previous year and assessment year, and new form numbers under the Income-tax Rules 2026, while work for earlier years still uses the old forms. GSTR-3B liability has been locked to what flows from GSTR-1 since the July 2025 period. And ICAI’s revised Code of Ethics, applicable from 1 April 2026, is reported to give firms more room on websites and write-ups while keeping the ban on solicitation and testimonials. Old checklists, task templates and website copy need a fresh look.
Infoways, a web, app and software company in Mahape, Navi Mumbai, builds client portals, practice management systems and firm websites for CA and tax practices. Below: how each module works, the professional and tax rules it has to respect, an honest comparison with ICAI’s own free practice software and the tools firms already use, the numbers worth tracking, and a rollout that avoids the busiest months.
Talk to us about your ca & accounting businessEight modules, who uses each, and the details that decide whether your team keeps using it in July and September.
One record per client: PAN, GSTIN, TAN, CIN or LLPIN, constitution, financial year, contact people, the partner in charge and the services you provide. Each service is an engagement with its own fee terms and start date. Group clients, such as a promoter, his family and five companies, are linked so the partner sees the whole group. Engagement letters and appointment documents are stored with the engagement. When a client leaves, the record is closed, not deleted, so past work stays traceable.
Solved in your appTasks are created automatically from each engagement: monthly or quarterly GST returns, monthly TDS deposits, quarterly TDS returns, advance tax, the yearly return, tax audit, ROC and LLP annual filings. Due dates live in a calendar your firm edits, because CBDT, CBIC and MCA extend dates often. When a date is extended, one change moves every affected task. Tasks for work on years before April 2026 carry the old form names, and later ones the new numbering, so juniors do not mix them up.
Solved in your appEach task sends the client a checklist that depends on the client type: a salaried person gets a salary certificate and bank interest; a trader gets sales and purchase registers and bank statements; a company gets trial balance and fixed asset details. The client uploads by photo or PDF from the app or a WhatsApp link, and files are named and stored by client, year and task. Staff can raise a query against a document, and the reply stays on record. Nothing needs to be forwarded from a personal phone.
Solved in your appA task moves through stages your firm defines: awaiting documents, in preparation, under review, partner approval, filed. Each stage has an owner. Reviewers leave review points that the preparer must clear before the task moves on, and every point is kept. The partner sees what is waiting for them and what is overdue. Filed acknowledgements are uploaded against the task and become visible to the client. This trail also helps when a peer reviewer or a client later asks who did what.
Solved in your appEvery digital signature certificate the firm handles is logged with the holder, class, token location and expiry date. The system warns staff weeks before expiry, and the client gets a renewal message, so no filing is blocked on the last day. Where tokens are kept at the office, check-in and check-out are recorded. For certificates and reports a member signs, the UDIN generated on the ICAI portal is recorded against the document and engagement, so it can be found later without searching email.
Solved in your appPartners see tasks by staff member, stage and due date, so overload is visible before the 15th, not after. Work can be reassigned in two clicks. Article assistants see only the clients and tasks given to them, which also limits access to client data. Time logged per task, if you choose to track it, shows which clients take far more effort than their fee covers. Leave and exam calendars for articles feed into planning for July and September.
Solved in your appInvoices are raised per engagement, per filing or as a monthly retainer, with GST on professional fees. The invoice goes to the client portal and WhatsApp with a UPI link through a payment account in the firm’s name. Receipts are recorded against invoices, and the ageing list shows every unpaid bill by client and partner. You can choose to hold the release of a filed acknowledgement until the fee is paid, or never to, as your firm decides. Billing exports to Tally or your accounting software.
Solved in your appAn informational site with your services, partners, qualifications, offices and articles. Under the revised Code of Ethics as reported, it can describe services factually, show client names only with permission, publish articles and updates, and offer a client login and chat with confidentiality controls. It leaves out what remains barred: testimonials and star ratings, superlatives, private awards, banner ads and anything that solicits. We write the copy with your partners and you check it against the Code before it goes live.
Solved in your appTell us your client count, your services and how many staff and articles you have. We will tell you which module to set up first.
These points affect how a CA firm’s website, portal and task system should be set up. They come from ICAI material and tax publications. Confirm each with ICAI’s current text or your own professional judgement.
| Term or rule | 1What it means | 2How the software handles it |
|---|---|---|
| No solicitation or advertising beyond what ICAI permits | The Chartered Accountants Act and ICAI’s Code of Ethics bar members from soliciting clients or professional work, directly or indirectly. The revised Code applicable from 1 April 2026 is reported to allow more factual write-ups and digital visibility, but solicitation remains prohibited. | The website carries no pop-ups asking for work, no paid banner ads and no pressure calls to action. Enquiry forms are plain contact forms for people who come looking. |
| What a firm website may show | Reported permitted content includes factual descriptions of services, qualifications and experience, government or regulatory awards, a passport-style photo, contact details, positions held in ICAI, articles and updates, client names with the client’s permission, and a client portal with login. | Content sections map to the permitted list. Client names appear only where a stored permission exists, and for services reserved for CAs, such as statutory audit, only the name and not the nature of the work. |
| What a firm website may not show | Testimonials and endorsements (including star ratings and “trusted by” claims), exaggerated or comparative claims, disparaging references, private awards, monograms or catchy slogans, and banner ads remain barred as reported. Asking visitors to like or follow social pages is also treated as solicitation. | No review widgets, no rating badges, no “top firm” wording, and social links shown plainly without prompts to like or share. |
| Push promotion of non-exclusive services | The revised Code is reported to allow push promotion of services that are not reserved for CAs, such as accounting and consultancy, but not of reserved services like audit. | Newsletters and messages are tagged by service type, so reserved services are never part of a promotional send. Updates to existing clients stay informational. |
| Income-tax Act 2025 and the tax year | The new Act came into force on 1 April 2026, replacing the 1961 Act. It uses a single “tax year”, and the Income-tax Rules 2026 renumber many forms (for example, the salary TDS certificate reported as Form 130 in place of Form 16). Work for 2025-26 and earlier years still follows the old forms. | Task templates and client checklists carry the right form names by year, so a request for a 2025-26 return asks for Form 16 and a later one for its new equivalent. |
| GSTR-3B liability locking | From the July 2025 tax period, outward tax liability auto-filled in GSTR-3B from GSTR-1 is locked; corrections go through GSTR-1A before 3B is filed. A three-year bar on filing very late returns was also reported from the same period. | GST tasks have separate steps for GSTR-1, any GSTR-1A correction and GSTR-3B, with the order enforced, and very old pending returns are flagged. |
| UDIN | ICAI requires a Unique Document Identification Number, generated on its portal, for many certificates and reports signed by members, so third parties can verify them. | Each signed document has a field for its UDIN, linked to the engagement and partner, with a report of documents missing one. |
| Client confidentiality and the DPDP Act 2023 | Members are bound by confidentiality under the Code of Ethics, and client PAN, Aadhaar, bank statements and financials are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023. The firm is responsible for consent, purpose and safe storage. | Access by role, so articles see only assigned clients, encrypted document storage, download logs and a retention setting per document type. |
The ICAI points above come from published summaries of the revised Code of Ethics applicable from 1 April 2026, not from the full ICAI text, and tax points from tax publications. Read the Code of Ethics yourself before approving any website copy. We build to the rules your partners approve; we do not interpret the Code for you.
Start with what you may already have. ICAI offers its members a free cloud practice management software with task, client and team management and mobile apps. Many firms also use practice subscriptions such as CCH iFirm, QwikCA, eProcessify or Simplify Practice, alongside tax filing software and accounting tools like Tally. Several Indian vendors now add client portals and WhatsApp reminders. Compare current versions with your own needs, because these tools change every year.
For a proprietor CA or a small firm with a standard workflow, ICAI’s free tool or a ready-made subscription is usually the right choice, and we will say so. It costs little to try, and the vendor handles updates when forms and due dates change. Before you commit, check that it lets you build your own document checklists per client type, that review stages match how your partners work, that client documents can be exported in bulk, and where the data is stored.
A custom portal and practice system make sense when your firm has outgrown templates: several partners and branches, an accounting outsourcing team handling bookkeeping for hundreds of clients, NRI or group clients with unusual document needs, a strong need for your own brand in the client’s phone, or links into your own billing and accounting setup. Often the best path is to keep your filing software and build only the portal and workflow around it. Our guide on custom software vs off-the-shelf covers the trade-off.
A plain comparison. Many firms do well on a ready-made tool; your own system makes sense when your workflow or client mix is unusual.
| Factor | 1Excel, email and WhatsApp | 2ICAI tool or practice subscription | 3Your own portal and practice system |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A proprietor with a small client base | Most small and mid-sized firms | Multi-partner firms, branches and outsourcing teams |
| Client documents | Email and WhatsApp | Vendor portal, check checklist options | Your branded portal with checklists per client type |
| Tasks and due dates | Excel and memory | Standard templates | Your services, stages and review rules |
| Links to your tools | None | What the vendor supports | Built to your filing, Tally and billing setup |
| Who holds client data | Staff inboxes and phones | The vendor, under its terms | Your firm, on a server or cloud account in its name |
| Time to start | Already running | Days | Weeks to a few months, in phases |
Product names are mentioned only to help you compare. Features change, so check each tool’s current version directly.
A good practice system shows these without anyone building a spreadsheet.
Count of tasks due this week split into awaiting documents, in preparation, in review and ready to file. A large “awaiting documents” pile five days out is the earliest warning of a late filing.
Solved in your appDays from the document request to the checklist being complete, by client. A short list of clients is always late; those are the ones to call personally, early.
Solved in your appReturns filed by the due date divided by returns due, by law and by month. Track it across a full year, since July and October behave very differently from quiet months.
Solved in your appAverage number of review points the reviewer raises, by preparer. It shows who needs training and which article assistant is ready for more responsibility.
Solved in your appUnpaid invoices split into 0-30, 31-90, 91-180 and over 180 days, by partner. Old fees rarely get paid unless a partner calls.
Solved in your appHours logged on a client against the fee billed, if you track time. A few clients usually take far more effort than they pay for, which is a conversation for the next engagement renewal.
Solved in your appCount and list of client and partner DSCs expiring soon. It should never be a surprise on a due date.
Solved in your appShare of clients who uploaded documents through the portal rather than WhatsApp or email this season. It tells you whether the portal is actually saving staff time.
Solved in your appSay you are a three-partner firm in Thane with about 900 individual tax clients, 250 GST clients and a dozen audit clients, run by eight staff and six article assistants. The numbers here are only to show the flow. When the return season opens, the system creates one return task for each individual client and sends each a WhatsApp message with a portal link. The checklist depends on the client type: salaried, salaried with capital gains, business, NRI, or senior citizen with pension.
A salaried client with mutual fund sales uploads her salary certificate, bank interest certificate and a capital gains statement from her phone. The checklist marks them received. A trader uploads only half his bank statements; the system keeps reminding him for the rest, so no one at the office has to call. Clients who have not opened the link in a week get a second message, and the relationship manager sees a list of those still silent after two weeks.
When the checklist is complete, the task moves to “in preparation” and goes to an article assistant. She prepares the computation, matches it with the annual information statement, and moves it to review. The manager raises two review points; she clears them, and the partner approves. The return is filed, the acknowledgement is uploaded against the task, the client sees it in the portal, and a fee invoice with a UPI link goes out at the same time.
Through the season, the partners’ dashboard shows how many returns are awaiting documents, in preparation, in review and filed, and which staff are overloaded. Two client DSCs flagged in June were renewed in time for company filings. In October the firm knows its on-time rate, fee ageing by partner and the handful of clients whose work took far longer than their fee, ready for the next engagement conversation.
We sit with partners and a senior manager to list every service, its cycle, the stages and reviewers, and the document checklist for each client type. Website copy is drafted in the same weeks for partners to check against the Code of Ethics.
We import clients, PANs, GSTINs, contacts, engagements and partner allocation from your sheets or current software. Duplicates and group links are fixed, and a manager signs off the list.
Client portal, practice admin and website are built on one backend. You set up a payment account and a WhatsApp Business account in the firm’s name, and we get message templates approved.
Start with one cycle, such as monthly GST for one partner’s clients, for a month. Every task, reminder and document request is checked, and the checklists are corrected before other services join.
Staff and article assistants are trained on their screens in an afternoon. Clients get a short message in English, Hindi or Marathi with a two-minute video on uploading, and older clients can still send documents to the office, which staff upload for them.
We plan the full switch for a quieter month, never in the weeks before the return or audit due dates. Open tasks finish in the old way; new ones start in the new system.
Form names, due dates and checklists change every year. Maintenance and support continues after launch, so templates are updated before each season.
Tell us what you use today and what keeps going wrong. We will tell you honestly whether ICAI’s free tool or a subscription fits, or whether a custom portal is worth it.
Every practice is different, so we quote after understanding yours. A firm website with a simple client upload portal is a small project. Adding recurring tasks, review stages, DSC and UDIN records and fee billing makes it a medium one. A full practice platform for a multi-branch firm or an outsourcing team, with client apps, time tracking, group clients and links to accounting and billing tools, is a large one.
The cost goes up with the number of services and client types, how detailed your review stages are, how much client data has to be cleaned and moved, and links to other tools, such as pulling data from accounting software where its maker offers a way to do that. It comes down if you keep your filing software as it is and build only the portal and workflow around it, and if you start with one service, such as GST, before adding the rest.
Timelines: a website with a client upload portal usually takes 4-6 weeks. Adding tasks, review stages, DSC records and billing takes about 2-4 months from approved screens. A full multi-branch platform runs 4-6 months in phases, timed to avoid due-date peaks. See custom software development and our guide to app development cost in India for the general drivers.
Do not launch in June or September. A new system in the busiest weeks will be blamed for every late filing. Switch in a quiet month and let the first season run on a tested setup.
Do not copy last year’s checklists. The Income-tax Act 2025 renamed forms and introduced the tax year, while earlier years still use the old forms. Clients get confused fast if the portal asks for the wrong document.
Do not let marketing instincts creep into the website. Testimonials, star ratings, “leading firm” wording, award badges from private bodies and pop-ups asking for work can breach the Code of Ethics. A clean, factual site with good articles serves you better and keeps you safe.
And do not build your own system if ICAI’s free tool or a ready-made subscription already covers your work. A proprietor CA with a few hundred clients rarely needs custom software. Build when your firm has several partners, an outsourcing team, unusual client groups, or tools that need to talk to each other.
Systems we built for businesses that run on TallyPrime.
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Ask on WhatsAppYes. ICAI permits firm websites with factual content about services, partners, qualifications and contact details. The revised Code of Ethics applicable from 1 April 2026 is reported to allow more flexibility, but solicitation is still barred. Read the current Code before approving copy.
As reported from the revised Code, testimonials and endorsements, including star ratings and “trusted by” claims, remain barred even if genuine. We leave review widgets and rating badges off CA firm websites.
The revised Code is reported to allow client names with the client’s permission. For services reserved for CAs, such as statutory audit, only the name may be shown, not the nature of the work. We store the permission against each name.
The revised Code is reported to allow push promotion of non-exclusive services such as accounting and consultancy, but not of reserved services, and bars banner ads and soliciting likes. Check the Code’s current text and ICAI’s guidance before running any campaign.
For many small firms, yes. It covers task, client and team management with mobile apps. If you need your own branded client portal, custom checklists per client type, deeper review stages or links to your own tools, a custom system can sit alongside or replace it.
Task templates carry form names by year. Work for 2025-26 and earlier uses the old forms, and later years use the new numbering reported under the Income-tax Rules 2026. When rules change, we update templates as part of support.
Yes. Due dates sit in a calendar the firm edits. One change moves every affected task and reschedules client reminders.
Yes. Clients upload by photo or PDF from the app or a WhatsApp link against a checklist. Files are named and stored by client, year and task, and staff can raise queries that stay on record.
Yes. Every DSC is logged with holder, class and expiry, with alerts weeks ahead. For certificates and reports a member signs, the UDIN generated on the ICAI portal is recorded against the document and engagement.
We do not replace your filing or accounting software. Fee billing exports to Tally, and filed acknowledgements are uploaded against tasks. Deeper links depend on what each software maker allows.
Only if you allow it. Access is by role, so articles see only the clients and tasks assigned to them. Every download is logged.
Client PAN, Aadhaar, bank statements and financials are personal data under the DPDP Act 2023, and you also owe confidentiality under the Code of Ethics. We use encrypted storage, role-based access, download logs and a retention setting per document type.
You can set it either way. Some firms release acknowledgements only after payment; others never hold them. The software follows your policy and shows fee ageing by partner.
A website with a client upload portal usually takes 4-6 weeks. Tasks, review stages, DSC records and billing take about 2-4 months. We plan go-live away from July and September.
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