How to Run a Practice Software Trial in a CA Firm: A 90-Day Plan

Short answer: Run a practice software trial as a 90-day project with written goals: two weeks to set up on real clients, eight weeks of live work through at least one full GST cycle and one month-end billing run, then two weeks to score and decide. Involve a partner, a manager who leads the trial, an article assistant and whoever raises invoices, score every tool on the same weighted scorecard, and agree your go and no-go criteria before day one.

Last updated 14 October 2026. Written for CA, audit and tax firms in India. MyPract is our product and offers a three-month trial; this plan works for any vendor, and we note where MyPract will score poorly.

Most trials fail quietly. Someone signs up, imports ten sample clients, clicks around for a week and gets pulled into a due date. Thirty days later the trial expires and the decision is made on the demo. A trial is only useful if it runs on your real work, through the moments that hurt: a GST due date, a timesheet approval, a month-end invoice run. This guide assumes you have already shortlisted one to three tools using our guide to choosing practice management software; for the market, see the best practice management software for CA firms.

What should you settle before the trial starts?

• Must-haves. Five to eight points from the checklist that a tool must pass. Write them down; they become your no-go criteria.
• Trial terms. Length, whether a card is needed, whether it converts to a paid plan automatically, and what happens to your data at the end. Get the answers in writing.
• Data rules. Client data is personal data under the DPDP Act 2023, and the DPDP Rules, 2025 were notified on 14 November 2025.^[1] Import only what you need to test, and ask where it is hosted (see our DPDP Act checklist for CA firms).
• A start date. Pick one that puts a GST due date and a month-end inside the first eight weeks, and avoids the peak of tax audit season.

Who should be involved?

What data should you import?

• Clients: either the full list or a representative slice (one partner's portfolio works well), with PAN, GSTIN, contacts and services. Importing from your existing Excel file is itself a test: see how the tool handles bad PANs, duplicates and blank columns.
• Team: everyone taking part, with the role each would really have, so you can test what an article assistant can and can't see.
• Three or four live engagements of different kinds: one audit with a budget, one group of monthly GST clients, one income tax or TDS batch, and one time-billed advisory job.
• Rates: bill rates per person, and any client-specific rates, so invoices can be checked against what you would really charge.

Leave out archived clients, old documents and anything sensitive you don't need to test, such as Aadhaar copies. Keep your existing tracker running in parallel until the decision.

What is the week-by-week 90-day plan?

If your trial is shorter than 90 days, keep the order and compress weeks 6–10, but don't drop the GST cycle, the billing run or the export test.

How should you score the trial?

Score each line 0, 1 or 2 (not available; partly or with a workaround; works fully on the plan you would buy), multiply by the weight, and only compare totals between tools that passed every must-have. Adjust the weights to your firm before the trial, not after.

A copyable version for each participant:

Trial scorecard – [Tool] – [Name, role] – [Date]
Score 0 / 1 / 2 and add one line of evidence for each.
Recurring compliance (x3):
Engagements and tasks (x3):
Time capture (x3):
Approvals and billing (x3):
Client portal and documents (x2):
India-specific needs (x2):
Access and security (x2):
Usability for juniors (x2):
Reports (x1):
Data export (x2):
Three-year cost (x3):
Support (x1):
Must-haves failed (list):
Would you be happy to use this every day? Yes / No, why:

What are good exit criteria?

Write these down in week 1 and hold to them in week 13:

• Go if every must-have passes, the pilot team records most of its time in the tool by week 8, one invoice run comes from approved time without spreadsheet work, the export test passes, and the three-year cost fits the budget.
• Extend only if a specific, named test couldn't run (for example, no GST due date fell inside the trial), and only if the vendor's terms allow it.
• Stop as soon as a must-have fails, or if the daily users still keep a side spreadsheet in week 8.

Whatever you decide, export your data before the trial ends, and remove client data you no longer need from any tool you don't buy.

How does this plan work with a MyPract trial?

MyPract's trial is three months, which fits this plan. It starts only when an Owner or Admin accepts the trial terms; a workspace that never starts the trial becomes read-only 30 days after it was created, so accept the terms in week 1. No card is collected and the trial never converts to a paid plan automatically. When it ends, the workspace becomes read-only until a plan is bought, and data stays available for export for 30 days.

For the import in week 1, MyPract takes up to 2,000 clients per Excel or CSV file and checks every row (GSTIN and PAN format, emails, phone numbers, duplicates) before saving. Owners and Admins can limit a Manager, Staff or Viewer to selected clients, which is useful for testing a low-access user in week 10.

Where MyPract will score poorly on this plan, so you aren't surprised: it does not create the next recurring task automatically or apply a checklist template in one step (week 3–4), has no native mobile apps (week 10, test it in a phone browser instead), and does not collect payments or send recurring invoices automatically (week 9). It does not sync with the Income Tax or TRACES portals or track UDINs. See the full list on our facts page and prices on the pricing page.

How we checked

The trial plan is our own method, built from the checklist in our guide to choosing practice management software. The DPDP Rules note from the Press Information Bureau was checked on 13 October 2026. MyPract's trial terms, import limits and access controls come from our facts page and were checked against the code. We don't publish figures on how long firms' trials last or how often they convert, because we have not surveyed firms. No prices or exchange rates are used.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a CA firm trial practice management software?

Long enough to cover at least one full GST cycle and one month-end billing run with real clients. Ninety days is comfortable; less than a month rarely shows how the tool copes with due dates, approvals and invoicing.

What data should we import for a trial?

Your client list (or a representative slice of it), your team, and three or four live engagements of different kinds, such as one audit, one group of monthly GST clients and one time-billed advisory job. Leave out archives and anything you don't need to test, such as Aadhaar copies.

Who should be involved in the trial?

A partner who owns the decision, a manager who runs the trial day to day, at least one article assistant or junior who records time, and whoever raises invoices. Users who will live in the tool should score it, not only partners.

What happens to our data if we don't buy after the trial?

It depends on the vendor, so ask before you start. In MyPract the workspace becomes read-only when the trial ends and data stays available for export for 30 days. The trial needs no card and never converts to a paid plan automatically.

Should we run two tools in parallel?

Only if you have the people for it. Two tools on the same small client subset gives a fair comparison; three or more usually means none is tested properly. Keep your existing tracker running until you decide.

What are good exit criteria for a software trial?

Agree them before you start. For example, every must-have passes, staff record most of their time in the tool by week 8, one invoice run comes from approved time without spreadsheet work, and the three-year cost is within budget. If a must-have fails, stop early.

Start your 90-day trial

Use this plan on MyPract: three months, no card, and it never converts to a paid plan on its own. Import your clients in week 1 and run a real GST cycle and a month-end billing run before you decide.

Sources

[1] Press Information Bureau, DPDP Rules, 2025 Notified, 17 November 2025 (checked 13 October 2026).