CLIENTS SOLUTION ASSOCIATE LIMITED

Clients Assistant Software

Accounting, Invoicing, Making Tax Digital for VAT returns, MTD for Income Tax for Self Assessments, Payroll management process and submissions for employees.

Features

• Management of Payables and Receivables via the Accounting module
• Invoicing,Bank Reconciliations and Making Tax Digital VAT Returns
• Importing and submitting VAT Returns from uploaded spreadsheets
• Manage payroll processes for employees HMRC Submissions FPS and EPS
• Automatic calculation of NI and Tax Payroll with the Accounting

Benefits

• Leverages on microsoft's pricing unit for consuming Azure Cloud Services
• Manage payroll processes for employees
• Notification of VAT Returns due date on the move.
• Individuals and Agents ability to MTD ITSA on Quarterly basis

• Education pricing available
• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at kehinde.sorunke@clientssolutionassociate.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 15

Service ID

524163438468886

Contact

Kehinde Sorunke
+447747685902
kehinde.sorunke@clientssolutionassociate.com

About the service

• Service categories:
  • Applications
    • Enterprise resource management
      • Financial
        • Financial and Accounting Applications
        • Accounts Payable Applications
        • Accounts Receivable Applications
      • Payroll management
        • Payroll management
• Multi cloud support: No

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: No
• Cloud deployment model: Private cloud
• Service constraints: Planned arrangements due to software upgrades which include enhancements and additional functionalities would always be communicated to customers before hand as well as the estimated time /window this would take.
• System requirements:
  • Processor: 2 GHz : Dualcore 2x2 GHz /or faster
  • RAM: 2 GB, RAM: 4 GB or more
  • Resolution: 1280 x 720 /: 1920 x 1080
  • Network and internet connection
  • Operating system: MS Windows 7/: MS Windows 10
  • MS Edge, Google Chrome Enterprise 67, Firefox ESR 60

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support response times: Acknowledgement of the ticket comes within 30 minutes and then the nature of the request will determine the subsequent response times. But it is the standard that users are kept updated within every 2 hours after the initial response from the acknowledgement .
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: No
• Support levels: What we provide is application support only, should in case the user is having issue with any area or functionality in the app on deployed cloud based data engineering solutions
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: Users can sign on the web application by creating an account. This automatically creates an instance of the application for the user to use. At the moment, we provide online training and we have online user documentation to guide the users through on how to navigate and use the app. It is our intention that we will be able to provide onsite training, but would be at additional cost.
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats: HTML
• Documentation accessibility standard: WCAG 2.2 A
• End-of-contract data extraction: Users can access the data in Excel via ODBC connection.
• End-of-contract process: No matter how the contract or agreement ends, the information stored in Clients Assistant remains the customer information and the customer can access it in a format provided by Clients Assistant before the end of the contract.; If the customer wishes to access their information after contract or agreement has ended, the customer would agree to pay our reasonable charges for that access.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: Yes
• Supported browsers:
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Opera
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: No
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: WCAG 2.2 A
• API: No
• Customisation available: No

Scaling

• Independence of resources: Users or customers applications are provisioned under the Azure Platform As a Service feature. We deploy customers apps under the Standard; and Premium features which allows for Automatic scaling capabilities

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: From App side: CPU Percentage, Memory Percentage, Data In, Data Out, Disk Queue Length, Http Queue Length, Requests,; From Azure Database side: Blocked by firewall, CPU percentage, Data IO percentage, Data space allocated, Data space used, Data space used percent, Deadlocks, DTU limit, DTU percentage, Failed connections, In-Memory OLTP storage percent, Sessions percentage, Successful connections, Workers percentage, SQL Server process core percent, SQL server process memory percent, Tempdb Data file Size kilobytes, Tempdb log file size kilobytes, Tempdb Percent log used.
• Reporting types: Reports on request
• Resource tagging: No
• FOCUS resource tagging: No

Supplier type

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Conforms to BS7858:2019
• Government security clearance: Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations:
  • United Kingdom
  • European Economic Area (EEA)
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Complies with a recognised standard (for example CSA CCM version 4.0)
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with CSA CCM v4.0
  • Physical access control, complying with SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Scale, obfuscating techniques, or data storage sharding
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed / Cryptographic Erasure
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation / Secure Erase
• Equipment disposal approach: Complying with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0, CAS (Sanitisation) or ISO/IEC 27001

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: There is Export to Excel button on relevant screens that allow that users can click to export data to Excel.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks:
  • Private network or public sector network
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway
  • Legacy SSL and TLS (under version 1.2)
  • Other
• Other protection between networks: For data in transit, Azure uses industry-standard secure transport protocols, such as TLS/SSL, between user devices and Microsoft datacenters. You can enable encryption for traffic between your own virtual machines (VMs) and your users. With Azure Virtual Networks, you can use the industry-standard IPsec protocol to encrypt traffic between your corporate VPN gateway and Azure as well as between the VMs located on your Virtual Network.
• Data protection within supplier network:
  • TLS (version 1.2 or above)
  • IPsec or TLS VPN gateway

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: See our service terms at https://www.clientsassistant.com/csaerpapp/termsandprivacy
• Approach to resilience: As our applications are deployed to Azure platform, our approach to resilience depends solely on Microsoft and this is available at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cloud-platform/global-datacenters; and https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/TrustCenter/
• Outage reporting: Email alerts which is configurable for each Client on Microsoft Azure Cloud. Users can have a high level of service outage from Microsoft using the link as well https://status.azure.com/en-gb/status

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Clients Assistant application allows for addition of users and assignment of relevant roles to the added users. Roles include Administrator, Standard, View Only , Accountant and Employee. Administrators have access to features in the app, assign administrative roles to others, add new business or client among others.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users have access to real-time audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users receive audit information on a regular basis
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months
• How long system logs are stored for: Between 6 months and 12 months

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Software Security Code of Practice: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Identification of the the security decisions that need to be made in the organisation. The approach also include identifying the people who will make them as well as the information required to make sensible and informed choices
• Information security policies and processes: To be completed

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: We have in-house formal standard operating procedures (SOP) governing the change management process. These SOPs cover both software development and release management, and are consistent with established regulatory guidelines.
• Vulnerability management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Vulnerability management approach: As our apps are hosted on Azure Cloud, we follow recommendations from Azure Security Center on performing vulnerability assessments; on our Azure virtual machines, container images, and SQL servers.
• Protective monitoring type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example CSA CCM v4.0 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Protective monitoring approach: We rely on sophisticated software-defined service instrumentation and monitoring provided by Microsoft Azure. This integrates at the component level and server level, providing visibility when a service disruption is occurring and pinpointing its cause.
• Incident management type: Complies with a recognised standard, for example, CSA CCM v4.0 or ISO/IEC 27035:2011 or SSAE-18 / ISAE 3402
• Post-quantum cryptography secure: No
• Incident management approach: Even though we rely on the robust processes developed by Microsoft to facilitate a coordinated response to incidents, we have the help desk software where users can log incident requests relating to the usage and we can then follow through.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Conforms to a recognised standard, but self-assessed

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Pricing

• Discount for educational organisations: Yes
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: All the features of the software : Accounting and Finance, Payroll, HR and Making Tax Digital for VAT submissions and Income Tax for Self Assessment.
• Link to free trial: https://www.clientsassistant.com/

Discount percentage by annual call-off contract value (excluding VAT)

• Less than £250,000: 2.5%
• Between £250,000 and £500,000: 2.5%
• Between £500,001 and £1,000,000: 2.5%
• Between £1,000,001 and £2,500,000: 2.5%
• Between £2,500,001 and £5,000,000: 2.5%
• Over £5,000,001: 2.5%

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2022 certification: No
• ISO 9001 certification: No
• Quality management systems (QMS): Yes
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber Essentials Certificate Number: Provided
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Cyber Essentials Alternative: In relation to the services you do not have a current and valid Cyber Essentials Plus certificate which has been awarded by one of the government approved Cyber Essentials accreditation bodies but you are working towards gaining it, and will be in a position to confirm that you have been awarded a current and valid Cyber Essentials Plus certificate by one of the government approved accreditation bodies within 12 months of the date of award.
• Other security certifications: No

Social value

• Mission: Kick start economic growth:

  To secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 - with good jobs and productivity growth in every part of the country making everyone, not just a few, better off.

  Policy Outcome 1: Fair work: That offers fair wages and good working conditions. Help people get a job, stay in work, and progress in their careers, with good employment opportunities across the country. Notes: Where there is a large proportion of labour costs in the contract, commercial teams should consider MAC in Outcome 1 as a priority

  • New or retained jobs on the contract workforce in the relevant area that meet the criteria set out in MAC 1b, 1c and 1d
  • New apprenticeships on the contract workforce in the relevant area that meet the criteria set out in MAC 1b
  • Providing opportunities for, and measuring and monitoring of, staff workforce conditions over time, including employee engagement, involvement in decision-making and satisfaction and adapting to any changes in the results, with clear processes for acting on issues identified
  • Plans to engage the contract workforce in deciding the most important workplace issues to address
  • Monitoring of employee engagement rates (by protected characteristic) and, where necessary, the development of actions to ensure all voices are heard across the diversity of the workforce
  • Employment contracts that reflect actual hours worked; steps taken to ensure employees understand their contracts and have the ability to review and adjust them if actual hours regularly exceed contracted hours
  • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about, and feel empowered to, address their physical wellbeing
  • Activities that support an environment where staff are educated about and feel empowered to report and address bullying and harassment
  • Offer a pay and leave entitlement to all eligible staff who become kinship carers, ideally equivalent to statutory adoption pay and leave
  • Payment of more than the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage (as appropriate) to the contract workforce
  • Monitoring and reporting of gender and ethnicity pay gaps and plans to address them where necessary
  • Entitlement to sick pay for the contract workforce, with provision in place for any staff who do not meet the earnings threshold for statutory sick pay, payment of sick pay from day one of absence and payment of staff on the contract workforce who are off sick a replacement income of 100% of their usual earnings for as long as possible
  • Plans for an appropriate income replacement policy for staff who are required to spend time away from work to care for a sick dependent or close relative
  • Understanding of in-work progression issues affecting the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors
  • Measures to support in-work progression to help people in the contract workforce, to move into higher paid work by developing new skills relevant to the contract
  • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
  • Volunteering opportunities for staff
  • Understanding of the modern slavery risks and issues affecting the market, industry, sector or country (of origin or of source) relevant to the contract, and the workforce in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key subcontractors

  Policy Outcome 2: Skills for growth: Supporting growth sectors and addressing skills gaps.

  • Understanding of employment and relevant skills issues, and of the education and training issues relating to the contract. Illustrative examples: demographics, skills shortages, new opportunities in high growth sectors, geographic/local community and skills/employment challenges
  • Support for educational attainment relevant to the contract, including training schemes that address skills gaps and result in recognised qualifications
  • Activities to support relevant sector related skills growth and sustainability in the contract workforce. Illustrative examples: careers talks, curriculum support, literacy support, safety talks and volunteering

  Policy Outcome 3: Resilient, innovative and flexible supply chains: Support economic growth through enabling resilient businesses, opportunities for small businesses and voluntary, community and social enterprises

  • Understanding of the types of businesses in the market and the level of participation by new businesses, entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs and mutuals
  • Structuring of the supply chain selection process to ensure fairness (e.g. anti-corruption) and encourages participation by a diverse range of businesses, including with regard to new businesses, entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, VCSEs and mutual
  • Understanding of local demographics, needs and opportunities for the co-design of the goods, services and works to be delivered under the contract
  • Methods for engaging with different parts of the community (including the education system and charities representing the community) and how communities come together to inform decisions, strategy and projects to leave a positive legacy for future generations
  • Measures to involve local stakeholders and/or users in design (e.g. in the design of services, systems, products or buildings)
  • Collaborating with anchor institutions and community groups to make facilities available for education, training or community events
• Mission: Make Britain a clean energy superpower:

  To cut bills, create jobs and deliver security with cheaper, zero-carbon electricity by 2030, accelerating to net zero

  Policy Outcome 4: Sustainable procurement practices: Reducing carbon footprints, minimising waste, and promoting the use of clean energy and green technologies.

  • Understanding of opportunities for additional environmental benefits delivery in the performance of the contract, including working towards net zero carbon emissions and use of clean energy and green technologies
• Mission: Break down barriers to opportunity:

  By reforming our childcare and education systems, to make sure there is no class ceiling on the ambitions of young people in Britain

  Policy Outcome 6: Employment and training: For those who face barriers to employment

  • Understanding of employment and skills issues, and of the skills and employment shortages of high growth sectors relating to the contract
  • Creation of employment opportunities particularly for those who face barriers to employment, such as prison leavers, care leavers and/or who are located in deprived areas, and for people in industries with known skills shortages or in high growth sectors
  • Delivery of training schemes and programmes to address any identified skills gaps and under-representation in the workforce for the contract (e.g. prison leavers, care leavers, kinship carers, disabled people)
  • Understanding of the issues affecting the representation of disabled people in the workforce in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors
  • Collection of the views and expertise of disabled people and their representative organisations on successfully supporting disabled employees or applicants
  • Introducing transparency to pay and reward processes
  • Offering a range of quality opportunities with routes of progression if appropriate, e.g. T Level industry placements, students supported into higher level apprenticeships.
  • Working conditions which promote an inclusive working environment and promote retention and progression
  • Other measures to provide equality of opportunity for disabled people and those with health conditions into employment, including becoming a Disability Confident employer and inclusion of supported businesses in the contract supply chain
  • Understanding of the issues affecting inequality in employment, skills and pay in the market, industry or sector relevant to the contract, and in the supplier’s own organisation and those of its key sub-contractors. Measures to tackle inequality in employment, skills and pay in the contract workforce
  • Inclusive and accessible development practices, including guidance for line managers on recruiting, managing and developing people with a disability or health condition

  Policy Outcome 7: Creating a pipeline of opportunities: For the contract workforce, reducing barriers to entry for under-represented groups.

  • Understanding of the issues affecting the development of new skills by target cohort
  • Understanding of the underlying factors affecting improvements to reduce barriers to entry and training schemes for the target cohort(s) related to the contract workforce
  • Understanding of issues relating to entering the contract workforce
  • Creation of outreach activities to create a pipeline of employees for the future contract delivery
  • Content of the outreach activity is designed to suit the target cohort
  • Advertising, promotional and outreach activities designed to raise awareness of the offer to reach the target cohort
• Mission: Build an NHS fit for the future:

  That is there when people need it; with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers; in a fairer Britain, where everyone lives well for longer.

  Policy Outcome 8: Increasing productivity through physical and mental wellbeing: In the supply chain and communities in the relevant area.

  • Understanding of issues relating to health and wellbeing, including physical and mental health, in the contract workforce
  • Understanding barriers to access to health and social care services or employment opportunities e.g. digital inclusion
  • Inclusive and accessible recruitment practices, development practices and retention policies that support-focused activities including those provided in the Guide for line managers on recruiting, managing and developing which support people with a disability or health condition
  • Actions to invest in the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the contract workforce

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at kehinde.sorunke@clientssolutionassociate.com. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.