Accounting Firms
End-of-year rush, audit queries, and Inland Revenue deadlines leave no room for unreliable technology. Layer3 keeps your practice systems running smoothly so you can focus on client service and growth.
Established
Wellington, since 2005
Certified
ISO/IEC 27001:2022
Private cloud
Auckland private cloud cluster with failover in Wellington
Applications
Line-of-business software supported alongside Microsoft 365
The problem
Three problems come up again and again in accounting practices.
Seasonal peaks
End-of-financial-year and the 7 July deadline bring the heaviest load of the year onto practice systems. We plan capacity and monitoring around those peaks, not an average day.
Data protection
Client financial and tax records carry obligations under the Privacy Act. Access control and retention are built around that requirement, not added afterwards.
Practice management
When the practice management system goes down, so does everything running through it: jobs, timesheets, client files and billing. We treat it as core infrastructure, not a background app.
Applications
These are the platforms accounting firms actually run, and the ones our engineers already know how to keep online.
Xero + XPM
Secured with single sign-on, multifactor authentication and conditional access.
SuiteFiles
SharePoint-powered, auto-creates client folders from Xero Practice Manager and keeps permissions tight.
FYI Docs
Captures every email, automates document filing and syncs jobs and tasks with XPM.
Karbon
Centralises work, email and client communication. Microsoft 365 single sign-on, enforced MFA and conditional access, and repeatable workflow templates that sync with XPM.
MYOB and legacy practice apps
Hosted in our Auckland private cloud cluster with failover in Wellington, for sub-5 ms latency.
APS
Practice-management suite used by accounting firms. Proven support.
How we run it
Four things we get right on every accounting engagement.
Identity
Xero, XPM and Karbon are each secured with single sign-on, multifactor authentication and conditional access. Karbon's ties into Microsoft 365, so it is one more app on an identity standard we already enforce.
Filing
SuiteFiles auto-creates client folders from Xero Practice Manager, and FYI captures every email and automates document filing, so nothing depends on someone remembering to file it by hand.
Continuity
Point-in-time restores for Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive, with recovery point and recovery time targets tested, not assumed.
Strategy
vCIO services align IT strategy with compliance, client service and growth goals, not just keeping the lights on.
Why Layer3
Sector experience
Not a general IT provider learning your industry on your budget. We already support the applications your sector runs on, and we can name them.
Security and compliance
Certified to ISO/IEC 27001, with Privacy Act 2020 aligned retention, documented controls, and evidence you can hand to your own auditor.
Application expertise
When the practice management system is down, nothing else matters. We treat those applications as first-class infrastructure, not as someone else's problem.
Vendor coordination
One escalation path. We hold the vendor relationship, chase the ticket and translate the answer, instead of leaving you between two suppliers.
Questions
If yours is not here, ask it directly and you will get a straight answer.
Book a discovery callFor a lot of sector-specific software we already do, and we will tell you straight on the call if that is the case. Where we do not, we take it on as part of onboarding: we get access, document how it is supported, and hold the vendor relationship from day one so you are not the one on hold with the software company.
We do. You raise it with us, not the vendor, and we log the ticket, chase it, and translate whatever comes back into something your team can act on. One escalation path, not three.
They stay supported, not stranded. Where latency or licensing makes cloud impractical, we can run the workload on our Auckland private cloud cluster with failover in Wellington instead of forcing a move that does not fit.
Yes. That is Co-Managed IT: we take on the parts you want off your plate and stay out of the parts you do not, with one agreed line for who owns what. See how Co-Managed IT works.
It depends on how many systems and vendors are involved, so we will not give you a number that does not hold up. What we do promise is a documented onboarding plan before anything changes: we map your applications and vendors, agree what moves and in what order, and only cut a system over once it is proven in the new setup.
Get started
Tell us what you run. We'll tell you how we'd keep it online.
Layer3 is a managed IT provider operating an ISO/IEC 27001-certified ISMS, with offices across New Zealand.
Contact
0508 LAYER3 Book a discovery call Service status Notices
Level 2, CBD Towers
84-90 Main Street
Upper Hutt, Wellington 5018
© 2026 Copyright Layer3.
Layer3
Book a discovery call - 30 minutes, no obligation