Tax season IT checklist for accounting firms in Vancouver and Burnaby
What to test, fix and buy before February so your firm's computers hold up through April 30 and June 15.
Most of the IT problems that hurt an accounting office in April can be found and fixed in October. It’s usually a file server nobody has restored from backup, a partner who signs in to email with only a password, or a laptop that won’t last through a client meeting. This tax season IT checklist is for bookkeeping and accounting firms with 2 to 25 staff, and it covers the parts of IT for accounting firms in Vancouver that tend to break under deadline pressure.
The dates you’re working back from
The CRA’s filing deadline for most people is April 30. If you or your spouse are self-employed, you have until June 15 to file, but any balance owing is still due April 30 (CRA due dates). Online filing for 2025 returns opened on February 23, 2026, so the crunch runs from late February to the end of April, with a smaller wave of sole proprietors before mid-June. Anything you want changed on your computers should be done by the end of January.
Your tax season IT checklist
- Renew your tax software licences, whether you use TaxCycle, CCH iFirm, Cantax or something else, and plan how the new version gets onto every workstation that prepares returns.
- Restore a real client folder from last year’s backup to a different location and open the files. Do the same for anything stored in SharePoint, OneDrive or a Google shared drive.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) for every mailbox, including shared ones, and for your client portal and tax software accounts.
- Pick one secure way for clients to send you documents, then put it in your engagement letter and email signature.
- Book a 20-minute phishing refresher for staff in January.
- Check every computer for pending Windows updates, full disks and tired batteries, and set aside one spare laptop with the tax software installed.
- Test remote access from a staff member’s home before anyone needs it at 10 p.m.
- Write down who to call when something breaks after hours, and put the number where everyone can see it.
Test a restore before you need one
Your backup software probably sends a green “success” email every night. That email means the job ran, but it won’t tell you whether you can get last year’s working papers back by lunch if the server dies or ransomware locks the shared drive. The only way to find out is to restore something and open it, and to time how long it takes. If your files live in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, ask whether anything backs them up outside that account.
Client files are full of SINs and bank details. BC’s Personal Information Protection Act (section 34) says a business must protect the personal information it holds by making reasonable security arrangements, and a backup you’ve tested is part of that.
MFA on email and client portals
A stolen password for a bookkeeper’s mailbox gives someone years of client correspondence and the ability to send a convincing “please upload your T4s here” message from your real address. With MFA on, the password alone isn’t enough to sign in. Turn it on for every account, and check that the phone or authenticator app on your CRA Represent a Client login belongs to someone who’ll still be at the firm in April. We’ve written up what a secured Microsoft 365 setup looks like for accounting firms if you want more detail.
While you’re in there, move client documents off email attachments. Attachments sit in inboxes for years, get forwarded, and go to the wrong “Sam” when autocomplete guesses wrong. A client portal or a secure upload link from Microsoft 365 gives clients one place to send T-slips and gives you a record of what arrived. Use one method for everyone so clients learn it.
Phishing season arrives with the T-slips
From February on, your staff will get real CRA notices mixed in with fake ones, and so will your clients. The CRA’s Recognize a scam page makes a good handout for your January refresher. It says the CRA won’t send refunds by e-transfer or text message, its emails won’t include a link asking you to enter personal or financial information, and its web addresses start with canada.ca or end in cra-arc.gc.ca. Teach staff to never sign in from a link in an email and to type the address themselves.
Scammers can also pretend to be your firm. When we checked the public DNS records of 3,392 Lower Mainland businesses in September 2026, 52% had no DMARC record at all. DMARC is the setting that tells other mail servers what to do with fake mail sent using your domain, and our DMARC post shows how to check yours.
A spare laptop and working late from home
A laptop that’s six years old or has a battery that dies at 40% won’t get better in March. If a preparer’s machine fails in April, you want to hand them a working spare with the tax software installed and licensed, instead of waiting three days for a new one to ship.
If a senior in Coquitlam or Surrey is going to finish returns from home at night, test the VPN or remote desktop from their house now. Staff who can’t get in tend to email files to a personal Gmail account, and that’s the leak you’re trying to avoid.
Who to call at 7 p.m. on April 29
Say it’s the night before the deadline at a six-person office in Richmond, and the server won’t start. That’s a bad time to learn your only option is an email to the IT person. Ask your IT provider now what after-hours support you have, what it costs, and how fast someone answers. If your IT is one person, ask what happens when they’re on holiday.
Umbrella IT was founded in Burnaby in 2013 and supports businesses across the Lower Mainland. We test backups by restoring real data on a schedule, and our average response time is about 15 minutes.
We’re also running a free webinar for accounting and bookkeeping firms on Friday, October 30, 2026 at 1 p.m. PT: Everything you need to scale your accounting business. It covers Microsoft 365, remote access, backups and security for a growing firm.
Common questions
When should an accounting firm do its tax season IT prep?
By the end of January, so nothing new is still settling in when online filing opens in late February.
Is it OK to receive client tax documents by email?
Many firms do, but attachments stay in inboxes for years. A client portal or secure upload link keeps SINs and bank details out of email.
How often should we test our backups?
At least once before tax season, and again after any big change such as a new server or a move to Microsoft 365.
If you’d like a second set of eyes on your setup before February, book a free IT assessment and we’ll go through this list with you.
Want this checked against your own setup?
Book a free IT assessment and a senior tech will review where your business stands, with no obligation.