TPS Cloud Axis

TPS Software has been selling time and billing to accounting firms out of North Vancouver since 1999, and Cloud Axis is that product rebuilt for the browser. The centre of gravity is still the timesheet. Staff record time against custom work codes with chargeable and non-chargeable split cleanly, billing runs off the resulting WIP, and partners read WIP, accounts receivable and productivity reporting without leaving the system. Around that sit client records, workflow automation with task progression and deadlines, document storage, and payment collection through Stripe, PayPal, PayClix, Clover Connect or CPACharge. Recent additions include AI-assisted email drafting and note summarisation, and TPS eSign handles signature workflows inside the system rather than through a third party.

Pricing is the strongest argument. Entrepreneur is $18 per user per month, Pro is $25 and Ultimate is $34, quoted in US dollars for US firms and Canadian dollars north of the border. Ultimate is where the practice management picture completes, adding bi-directional QuickBooks Online sync, a client portal with unlimited storage and Power BI dashboards. At $34 a seat that is roughly a third of what Qount charges and well under half of TaxDome, and there is no onboarding fee. Data conversion is quoted separately and a QuickBooks Online implementation runs $350 including two hours of work.

The gaps are specific and they matter for a US tax practice. No US tax software integration appears anywhere on the site, so nothing connects to Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, ProSeries or CCH Axcess and e-file status lives outside the system. Xero is not listed either. Nothing published addresses SOC 2, MFA, encryption or data residency, and the practice management page makes no compliance claim at all, so a firm with client-data obligations has to ask the vendor directly and take the answer on trust. The client portal only arrives on the top plan, which reverses the order most tax firms would prefer. The heritage also shows in what the product optimises for: this is a time-and-billing system that grew workflow features, not a client-experience platform, and a firm whose main complaint is that clients will not send documents is buying the wrong thing.

BQE Core is the closest functional comparison on the time, billing and WIP side and costs considerably more. Mango covers similar ground for small US firms and is the more direct head-to-head at this price. Practice CS from Thomson Reuters does the same job for firms already inside that ecosystem, with a much heavier footprint. Against Financial Cents or Karbon, Cloud Axis trades client-facing polish for billing depth.

The inherited tier was dated, and the fetchable evidence argues against it. The site carries a 2026 copyright, pricing is published and current, AI features have shipped, and QuickBooks Online sync is bi-directional rather than an export. That is an actively developed product. Strong-option rather than top-pick, because the fit is narrow: an hourly-billing firm that already has its tax and document workflow settled and wants realisation reporting at a low per-seat price. A tax practice that needs an 8879 flow and portal-first client handling should look at TaxDome first.