Setting Up Your Firm

During the first login, you should have created the firm, main office, default business unit, and a default administrator. You may have also defined some other items, such as regions, additional offices, and additional business units.

This setup applies to all CCH Axcess areas, which is why it is so detailed. As you install new products, there may be additional information to set up for those new areas; however, you will not be required to re-enter the following information for the new product:

Modify your firm settings.

• Entering General Firm Information
• Managing the Firm's Custom Address and Phone Types
• Configuring the Firm's Email Settings
• Entering the Firm's Defaults
• Set up your firm's organizational structure. See Entering the Firm's Organizational Structure for more information.
The organizational unit Organizational units define your organizational structure. The structure can consist of multiple levels: firm, region, office, and business unit. If regions are used, at least one office must exist in each region. At least one business unit must exist in each office. is a means for your firm to define your organizational structure. They are used for the following:
• Managing client and staff data
• Sorting lists
• Reporting by organizational unit
• Controlling access to client and staff data
• Defining user functional rights
• Assigning defaults for return configuration sets and print sets
You should decide in advance the organizational structure that will best fit your firm's procedures and policies. See Defining Your Firm's Organizational Unit Hierarchy for more information.
Structure can consist of up to 4 levels: firm The main organization or partnership. Firms can be multi-national, national, regional, or a single office., region An area within the firm comprised of one or more offices, for example, northwest or southeast. (optional), office Either a specific geographic location or a logical partitioning of a firm. For most single-office firms, firm, region, and office are synonymous. An office can only be assigned to one region., business unit A level of the organizational unit associated with one or more offices. Examples may be Human Resources, Billing, Tax, Audit, and Financial Planning. All offices must have at least one business unit. A business unit may be assigned to one or more offices.. Each lower unit is mapped to the next higher unit. For example, at least one business unit must be mapped to each office. If regions exist, at least one office must be mapped to each region.
When CCH Axcess™ is installed, a default firm, office, and business unit are automatically created.
• See Setting Up Login Options for information.

Set up your firm's staff information.

Each staff is assigned to an office and business unit. In each staff profile, the firm can give the staff access to organizational units of clients, projects,staff. The access is across all work product modules.

• See Adding or Editing Staff Custom Fields for information.
• See Managing Areas of Expertise for information.
• See Managing Areas of Expertise Levels for information.
• See Setting Up Departments for information.
• See Managing Staff Positions for information.
• See Adding Client Associate Types for information.

Set up your firm's client information.

• See Adding or Editing Client Custom Fields for information.
• See Adding or Editing Client Associate Custom Fields for information.
• See Managing Contact Categories for information.
• See Managing Client Responsible Staff for information.
• See Managing Lines of Business for information.
• See Managing Primary Service Types for information.

Set up your firm's general information.

• See Setting Up Notes Categories for information.

Add staff templates.

Add staff, if they were not imported.

Add staff teams.

Add your clients, if they were not imported.

Add your client contacts, associates, and associate contacts.

Add your firm's client groups.

Add access groups for clients and staff.

Add security groups.