IT support for accounting and tax firms in the Charlotte, NC area

Fairoaks IT provides managed IT and cybersecurity for CPA, accounting, bookkeeping and tax firms across the Charlotte metro from our office in Belmont, NC, just west of Charlotte in Gaston County. We’ve been independent and owner-led since 1991, accounting firms have been part of our client base from the start, we won the Soteria Award for Most Trusted MSP in North America, and founder and president Tom Crossley leads our accounting work.

Accounting and tax IT support

Yes. Our Belmont office serves firms across Mecklenburg, Gaston, Cabarrus, Union and Lincoln counties and York County, South Carolina. Most issues are solved remotely in minutes, and when something needs hands on it, especially during tax season, we send a technician.

Schedule a discovery call

A conversation first, not a contract. A lot of growing firms have relied on a part-time IT person, a helpful client or the most tech-savvy partner, and that works until it doesn’t. We start with a discovery call, then an assessment of your technology and your written security plan in plain English, then a plan with every cost explained up front. Your agreement spells out exactly what’s included, and we’ll walk you through every page before you sign.

How working with us starts

Usually sooner than people think. Common signs: 10 or more people on computers every day, a second office, more seasonal staff each year, clients asking how you protect their data, an insurer asking security questions you can’t answer, or a written security plan nobody has looked at in years. If you already have an IT person you like, co-managed IT gives them a team to lean on instead of replacing them.

How co-managed IT works

Yes. Plenty of Charlotte-area firms serve clients and employ staff on both sides of the state line. Your tax software, client portal and security work the same way everywhere, but each state’s breach law covers its own residents, so your written security plan and response plan should account for both.

North and South Carolina data rules

Our Charlotte-area office is at 32 North Main Street, Suite 206, Belmont, NC 28012, just west of Charlotte in Gaston County. It serves accounting and tax firms across the Charlotte metro, including Gastonia, Concord, Huntersville, Monroe, Rock Hill and Fort Mill. Give us a call or schedule a discovery call below.

Get directions

North Carolina’s Identity Theft Protection Act requires any business that owns or licenses personal information about North Carolina residents to notify affected people without unreasonable delay after a breach. Whenever residents are notified, the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s Office must be notified too, and the national consumer reporting agencies must be told if more than 1,000 people are notified at once. The FTC and IRS have their own reporting expectations on top of that. Your attorney has the final word.

Get the data theft response checklist in our guide

Then plan for South Carolina’s rules as well. South Carolina has its own data breach notification law covering its residents, so a firm with clients or staff in Rock Hill or Fort Mill can have obligations in both states after the same incident. The protection is the same either way: a client portal instead of email, encrypted laptops, multi-factor authentication and a response plan written before you need one.

Managed security services

It should change whenever the firm does. The FTC Safeguards Rule expects you to adjust your program when your operations change, so a new office, new tax software, a move to a hosted environment, a merger or a jump in seasonal staff should all trigger a review. Once a firm holds information on 5,000 or more consumers, additional requirements apply, including a written risk assessment, a written incident response plan and an annual report to leadership.

Get the WISP outline checklist in our guide

Plan around your deadlines. Extended partnership and S corporation returns are due in mid-September and extended individual returns in mid-October, right in the middle of hurricane season, and summer thunderstorms bring surges and outages. Put servers and network equipment on surge protection and battery backup, keep a backup internet connection, make sure staff can work securely from home, and confirm your backups restore before the storm, not after.

Uptime questions

No state law requires it, but more firms carry it, and carriers require specific controls before they’ll write or renew a policy: multi-factor authentication, endpoint protection, tested backups, staff training and timely patching. Many of those overlap with the FTC Safeguards Rule, so a well-run security plan does double duty. Make sure every yes on the application is true, and let your insurance agent confirm what your policy requires.

Security and fraud questions