What actually breaks
Everything at once, for ten weeks
Load that’s fine in October is not fine in March. Machines that were “a bit slow” become the constraint on how many returns get out, and that’s the worst possible moment to be diagnosing it.
Client data across too many machines
Working copies on laptops, source documents in email, a shared drive with everything from 2019 in it. Retention obligations apply to all of it, and so does a breach.
Software that must not be touched in season
Tax software updates have their own calendar and it’s not yours. Patching still has to happen — scheduled around the season rather than postponed into it.
Backups nobody restored from
Most firms have backups. Far fewer have restored from one recently enough to know it works, which is the version insurers now ask about.
REMOTE FIRST, ON-SITE WHEN IT MATTERS
Why we don’t drive out for everything
Most of it is remote at $85/hr, which matters more here than elsewhere — in season, waiting for someone to drive over is the cost. On-site at $130/hr is for servers, network faults, and hardware that can’t leave. Complete includes it outright.
Pick-up and drop-off anywhere in the Edmonton area is $50 flat if a machine simply needs to come to the bench.
Client financial data
PIPEDA applies to client information, and your professional body has its own expectations about safeguarding and retention. We don’t sell a compliance product. We do the practical half: encrypted backups that get restored and dated, access that ends when employment does, patching on a schedule that respects your season, and a written record of where client data lives — including the copies on laptops.
WHAT IT COSTS
Three tiers, and what each leaves out
Managed IT is $100 per user per month for Essential and $140 for Standard. Complete is quoted on scope.
Essential will not get you through a cyber insurance application. It has no backup and no threat detection — the two controls carriers scrutinise hardest. Standard is where most practices belong. The full breakdown is on the managed IT page, and the insurance side is on what cyber insurance requires.
Projects — migrations, new servers, office moves — are quoted separately at every tier. Nobody in this industry includes them.
Answered plainly.
Can you do the disruptive work outside tax season?
That’s the point of planning it. Migrations, hardware replacement and anything that needs downtime get scheduled for the quiet months. In season we keep things running and change as little as possible.
What about the laptops people take home?
They count. Insurers ask what percentage of endpoints have threat detection and the answer has to be all of them — the laptop somebody took home included. That’s in Standard and Complete.
How fast can you respond in March?
Unlimited remote support is in every tier and we’re usually in within minutes. If you need a guaranteed round-the-clock arrangement for the season, that’s Complete and we’ll quote it.
We’re four people. Is this overkill?
Possibly. At that size remote support at $85/hr when something breaks may cost you less than a monthly contract, and we’ll tell you if that’s the case. What changes the answer is client data you can’t lose.
Tell us how many people, and what keeps going wrong.
Quotes are free. If the honest answer is that you don’t need a managed contract yet, that’s the answer you’ll get.