For more than 40 years, Frost, PLLC has provided specialized tax compliance and business consulting services to the agriculture and food processing industries as well as to a traditional array of industries. Case study explains how Wolters Kluwer software and research solutions help Frost, PLLC increase efficiency. Visit CCHGroup.com/DigitalTaxWorkflow to learn more.

1. Tax & Accounting
Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs
by Going Paperless
with CCH®
Solutions
Case Study:
Digital Tax
Workflow
When you have to be right

2. Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions2
Firm gains efficiency and saves money
by eliminating paper tax organizers and
delivering returns electronically.
For more than 40 years, Frost, PLLC has provided specialized tax compliance
and business consulting services to the agriculture and food processing
industries as well as to a traditional array of industries. Niche clients include
poultry and egg producers, pork and cattle operations, and row crop farms.
The firm grew beyond its Little Rock, Arkansas headquarters to acquire or
merge with firms in three other locations.
The diverse geography has made it important
for Frost, PLLC to take advantage of technology
to help employees and clients communicate
more quickly and easily.
“We take our expertise
to wherever our clients
are, resulting in clients
all over the country.
Paperless technology and
electronic tax returns are
especially important to us,
given our logistics, with
regard to clients and our
multiple offices.”
— Rob Gunther,
Partner,
Frost, PLLC
Frost, PLLC Key Data
• Founded in 1974
• 4 locations, headquartered in Little Rock,
Arkansas
• 150 employees
• Specializing in tax compliance and audits for the
agriculture and food processing industries
• Member of BDO Alliance USA, LLC

3. Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions 3
Association with BDO Alliance USA Brings in
New Clients and Access to Expertise
Frost, PLLC is a member of BDO Alliance USA.
This association helps the firm locate outside
expertise when needed to help clients with
special issues, and Frost, PLLC also assists
other member firms with business issues
related to agriculture and food processing.
“Our membership in
BDO Alliance USA gives us
an opportunity to both share
and receive information
across the country, across
industries, and even across
the world. It gives us the
opportunity to be able to
service our clients, no matter
how large they grow or where
their footprints lead them.”
— Gunther
Rob Gunther
Partner
Frost, PLLC
Little Rock, Arkansas

4. Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions4
Wolters Kluwer Software and Research
Solutions Help Frost, PLLC Increase Efficiency
Frost, PLLC has used software and research
solutions from Wolters Kluwer for many years
and in various practice areas of the firm.
CCH®
ProSystem fx®
Tax has been in place since
before 2001 when Gunther joined the firm.
In 2004, the firm added CCH®
ProSystem fx®
Engagement to manage its audit workflow.
Gunther started at the firm as an auditor
and recalled that Engagement was “a big
step forward; everything was in one place, in
an electronic binder, and it was much more
effective and efficient.”
A couple of years later, Frost, PLLC added
electronic document management with
CCH®
ProSystem fx®
Document. Gunther said
Document was “step one” on the firm’s journey
to a paperless workflow.
“We use Document to store
all source documents for
individual returns, to compile
projections and estimate
calculations — anything
that should go into a client’s
permanent file. We travel
all over the country and
Document allows us to easily
access information from
whatever client office or hotel
room we’re sitting in. That
was extremely important
and something we could not
do easily before.”
— Gunther
The firm also uses CCH®
IntelliConnect®
and CCH®
Accounting Research Manager®
for tax and audit research. Gunther said
CCH IntelliConnect offers robust, timely
research, and partners felt it was important
for staff members to conduct their own
research rather than leaning on manager or
partner knowledge.
“We chose CCH IntelliConnect
because it is important for
our staff-level people to get
into the research side of
things, and not just go to
the Manager or the Partner
and ask questions all the
time. We want them to have
that information at their
fingertips and be able to use
those resources to get the
right answer before it goes up
the chain. We have enjoyed
having it and I think it is
robust enough to do what we
need done within our firm,
for our clients.”
— Gunther

5. Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions 5
CCH Axcess™
Portal Completes the
Paperless Transition
The final key to creating a paperless tax
workflow was adding a way to securely
exchange documents with clients online.
CCH Axcess Portal is an online storage space
that allows firms to send, receive and store
client files quickly and securely, staying in
compliance with data privacy legislation.
Frost, PLLC uses Portal to deliver electronic
tax returns and gather source documents
from clients.
“We used to have too much
expense in processing,
printing, copying and
shipping paper tax organizers
and completed returns.
It was inconvenient for
clients. The whole process
was inefficient. Delivering
returns through Portal is
efficient because we can
put the return directly
into Document, sign it and
publish it. Then it is in the
client’s ballpark. We used to
race to meet FedEx®
every
night; now clients get their
returns faster.”
— Gunther
To introduce Portal, the firm sent an email to
every client to explain what Portal was and
why it was a benefit to both the firm and its
clients. Next, they published the (previously
paper) client tax organizers for the upcoming
tax season in Portal, and clients received an
automated notification. Many clients were
enthusiastic about the new technology, but
some preferred to receive paper copies.
Gunther said the firm continued to encourage
clients to use Portal at every opportunity.
“I think the attractiveness
of Portal to our clients
has grown because of our
continued effort to get them
to embrace it. Those that
didn’t accept it, whenever
we send out an organizer,
we give a gentle reminder.
And when we have their tax
returns ready, we ask if we
can publish it to Portal.”
— Gunther

6. Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions6
Electronic Document Exchange Saves Time
and Delivers Superior Client Experience
According to Document Specialist and Tax
Processor, Missy Cherry, the paperless tax
workflow “saves an amazing amount of time,”
from an administrative standpoint. Instead of
printing and mailing paper tax organizers, she
can publish them quickly to Portal and send
clients an automated notification. When it’s
time to deliver returns, she no longer has to
rush to meet FedEx®
deadlines.
“As opposed to reviewing,
printing and assembling
which might take 15 or 20
minutes for each return,
it takes just 5 minutes to
prepare the PDFs and send
them out to clients. It’s
just a matter of pushing
a button and they receive
their returns in Portal. It has
definitely cut down on the
costs and tasks involved in
the administrative side of the
tax department.”
— Missy Cherry,
Document Specialist and Tax Processor,
Frost, PLLC
“When we compare expenses
before and after our
implementation of Portal, it
appears that our combined
cost for manual processing
of paper returns during busy
season — including shipping,
paper and administrative
overtime — has been cut, on
average, by about 30%.”
— Gunther
Portal improved client service — especially
for the firm’s largest business clients. Gunther
noted that for clients with tens or even
hundreds of tax returns, Portal provides one
location to access all of their documents.
Clients can also easily send their electronic tax
returns to their bankers or others who request
the information.

7. 7Frost, PLLC Cuts Costs by Going Paperless with CCH®
Solutions
Paperless Technology Brings the
Team Together
By providing a more cohesive, paperless
workflow, Document and Portal helps the four
Frost, PLLC offices function more effectively as
a unified firm. Both Gunther and Cherry noted
that this is an important additional benefit
the firm has enjoyed by using solutions from
Wolters Kluwer.
“These solutions have unified
us. Not all of these offices
started as Frost; most of them
were someone else’s firm
first. Our electronic workflow
with Wolters Kluwer has
really bridged some gaps.
That might have been
more difficult to do if we all
worked separately.”
— Cherry
“We struggled for a long
time with our identity as
one firm instead of four
separate offices. You cannot
always hire the people that
you need in one location, you
have got to hire them where
you can get them and then
utilize them with the right
technology. Document allows
us to do that.”
— Gunther

8. When you have to be right
© 2016 CCH Incorporated and its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Contact information:
Wolters Kluwer
2700 Lake Cook Road
Riverwoods, IL 60015
United States
800-739-9998
6/16 2016-1146
Please visit CCHGroup.com/DigitalTaxWorkflow
for more information.