Instead of CCH iFirm
Keep lodging. Stop renting CCH iFirm for the rest. Own your ATO correspondence register.
Enterprise DNA builds your version around the way your practice handles ATO mail after lodgment, brings your iFirm client list across, and runs it for you.
Wolters Kluwer does not publish CCH iFirm pricing. It is quoted privately per practice, by module and by user, through a sales demo.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
How CCH iFirm is sold
A suite of modules, a private quote, and a vendor-led setup
CCH iFirm comes in pieces: tax, client accounting, practice manager, portal, signatures and documents. Each one you switch on is part of a price you only learn from a sales call.
A price you cannot look up
There is no pricing page. You book a demo, Wolters Kluwer quotes your practice, and comparing it with anything else starts with a phone call.
Modules that stack
Tax, Practice Manager, Client Portal, Signatures and Documents are separate products in the suite. The joined-up workflow the brochure shows assumes you hold several of them.
Users on the quote
The quote is built around how many people need a login. A busy season with extra staff reading client files is a conversation with your account manager.
Implementation run by the vendor
Wolters Kluwer assesses your data migration, tailors the settings and connects the modules for you. That is time and a project before the new system earns its keep.
Lodgment is the centre, not the reply
The suite is built around getting a return prepared, signed and lodged. What the ATO sends back afterwards, and what your team did about it, is not what it is described as tracking.
Your history inside their modules
Client records, documents and job history live across several Wolters Kluwer products. What each module lets you export is something to check with Wolters Kluwer.
What you get instead
The follow-through after lodgment, in records your practice keeps
Intake
Every ATO letter on file against the right client
Save the practice mail you download from ATO Online, and any scanned paper letters, into one folder. Each one is read, tied to a client and recorded with its reference, amounts and due date.
- check One sweep handles the whole morning's mail in a single ask
- check A letter it cannot place is held for a person to confirm by the last three TFN digits
- check A running list of letters no client has heard about, longest waiting first
- check Your own turnaround standard measured on every letter, not the vendor's default
Assessment check
The notice compared with what you expected when you lodged
When a return goes in, the refund or amount payable you expect goes on the record. The notice of assessment is compared with it on arrival, and any gap needs a written reason.
- check Expected and assessed side by side, with the difference and its reason
- check Gaps left unexplained after 30 days are raised, because objection windows close
- check No client letter can be drafted from a notice nobody has checked
- check Your practice rules, each with its source, run across every record in one ask
Client debts
Every amount owed to the ATO, and who has been told
One list covers what each client owes the ATO, when it is due and a plain yes or no on whether your practice has passed it on.
- check Debts due inside 14 days with the client still in the dark come first each morning
- check Payment plan instalments followed one at a time, so a missed one is caught early
- check Client letters drafted in your practice's name, read and sent by a person
- check Lodgment due dates kept beside the correspondence, overdue at the top
Ownership
One database, as many staff as you like, no full TFNs
The register sits in a database your practice owns, on a laptop or shared across the office. A new starter reading client mail is not a change to a quote.
- check Only the final three digits of a tax file number can ever be stored
- check Questions across family groups, staff workloads and years
- check No module list and no login count to renegotiate
- check MIT licence, plain records, nothing to unpick if you leave
Make it yours
Design your own CCH iFirm replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from CCH iFirm. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your CCH iFirm data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from CCH iFirm
The move involves exporting your client list, bringing in the ATO letters you already hold, and checking the new register alongside iFirm before you switch your correspondence work over.
- 1
Export your records
Run the Contact Details report in CCH iFirm to download your client list as a CSV. For past ATO letters, gather the PDFs your practice already holds. The available material does not specify an iFirm export for other records, so check with CCH iFirm about what your account can export rather than assuming every record can be moved.
- 2
Load the records
Have the client columns mapped to the register’s import format, then load the client list. The columns differ, so do not load the CSV unmapped. Bring past ATO letters across from PDFs you already hold by processing them into the register. If your import offers a test run, use it before loading the live records.
- 3
Review the import results
Check the client counts and review what the import reports before relying on the records. Pay attention to how many tax file number fields were shortened, since the register keeps only the last three digits. If the mapped columns or counts do not look right, resolve that before using the new register for day-to-day correspondence.
- 4
Run both side by side
For a short period, keep iFirm available while you use the new register for correspondence that comes back from the ATO. Compare the client records and letters you expect to see, and keep using your existing lodgment process. The new register picks up after lodgment. It does not prepare or lodge returns.
- 5
Switch off correspondence work
Once you have checked the imported clients and letters and are comfortable that current ATO correspondence is being recorded in the new register, stop using iFirm for the correspondence work it replaces. Keep CCH iFirm Tax or another lodgment tool if you still need to prepare and lodge returns. The free register does not do that.
Where the real effort goes
The real work is usually mapping your client columns to the import format, matching the register to your own fields and rules, and deciding how much history to bring in. The client CSV columns differ from the import format, and past ATO letters come from PDFs you already hold. If Enterprise DNA installs and runs it for you, they handle the mapping and check the counts.
Not ready for a call?
Get your CCH iFirm switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off CCH iFirm, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your CCH iFirm switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardTwo ways to start
Try the free version, or have Enterprise DNA set yours up
Open source
Do it yourself
Free
- 1 Download the free version from GitHub
- 2 Start the demo practice and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask what needs attention across the sample clients
- 4 Run the iFirm Contact Details report, map the CSV and import it, and add this week's ATO mail
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA build and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check Your client list brought across from CCH iFirm, with the counts checked against what you hold
- check ATO Online downloads and scanned letters routed into one intake for the team
- check Review standards, letter wording and turnaround rules written to how your practice works
- check Run for you inside Omni, our managed Command Center, beside the rest of the practice
Questions
Instead of CCH iFirm, answered
Do we still need CCH iFirm Tax to lodge returns? expand_more
Yes, or another lodgment tool. The free version does not prepare or lodge anything with the ATO. It picks up after lodgment: what came back, whether it matches what you expected, what you told the client and what is still owed.
Can we get our client list out of iFirm? expand_more
Yes. Running the Contact Details report in iFirm downloads a CSV of your clients. Its columns are not the same as the free version's import format, so Enterprise DNA maps it and checks the counts, or you ask Claude Code to map it yourself. Past ATO letters come across from the PDFs you already hold.
Does it connect to the ATO directly? expand_more
Not the free version, and no ATO credential is kept in it. It reads the practice mail your team downloads from ATO Online and scans of paper letters. If you want a direct feed, Enterprise DNA builds one for your practice under your own access.
What about tax file numbers? expand_more
The database will not accept more than the last three digits. Any import cuts TFN columns down on the way in and reports how many it shortened, and no client letter ever carries one.
Is this cheaper than CCH iFirm? expand_more
Wolters Kluwer does not publish its prices, so we cannot say from here. Bring your iFirm quote to the call and we will set it beside our setup fee and retainer for the part of the work this register would take over.
Lodge where you lodge. Own what comes back.
Thirty minutes with Sam. We go through which CCH iFirm modules you pay for, how ATO letters reach your team after lodgment and who checks them, and what your own register would look like. If it fits, we build it and run it. If it does not, the free version is yours to keep.
ATO Correspondence for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
Done paying for CCH iFirm?
Get your version built