Microsoft 365 vs. AbakusMicrosoft 365 on its own, or built around your firm.
Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's productivity suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
Microsoft 365
Abakus
The short answer
Microsoft 365 is where your firm's email, files, and day-to-day work already happen. Abakus builds on it: client email gets filed and answered with drafts grounded in real status, uploads land in the right client folder, and the shared-inbox and filing add-ons you pay for separately can be replaced by one platform built for your firm.
What Microsoft 365 does well
- Email, documents, and chat under one login
- Business-grade security and admin controls
- Excel, still the backbone of most firms' workpapers
Where firms hit its limits
- General-purpose by design: it doesn't know which client, return, or deadline an email or file belongs to.
- Built-in rules and filters are set up by hand and break as clients and staff change.
- Filing, naming, and follow-up still depend on each person remembering to do it.
Microsoft 365 on its own vs. with Abakus
Microsoft 365 on its own
Off the shelf, built for every firm
Microsoft 365 + Abakus
Rules designed around your firm
Filing client email & files
By hand, or with simple rules each person sets up.
Automatic filing to the right client and job.
Replies to clients
Written from scratch.
Drafts in your firm's tone, grounded in the client's actual status, reviewed before sending.
Folders & naming
Depends on who saved the file.
Your firm's convention, applied every time.
Permissions
Managed in the admin console.
Respected: automations only see what they're allowed to.
What we build around Microsoft 365
Typical automations for firms that use Microsoft 365. Each one follows your firm's rules, keeps a human review step where professional judgment matters, and changes in hours when you need something different.
Client email filed and answered with drafts grounded in each client's real status
Uploads saved to the right SharePoint or OneDrive client folder automatically
A private AI assistant that answers from your own files, with permissions intact
Teams alerts when a client is blocking a return
Microsoft 365: common questions
Do we have to move off Microsoft 365?
Can automations read our client email safely?
What happens to our existing folders and rules?
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Tax software CompareMicrosoft 365 is a trademark of Microsoft. Abakus Automations is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Microsoft. Product details are summarized from public information and may change.
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