In this article we’re going to look at the steps you can take as an accountancy practice owner to deal with these complexities, increase efficiency, and boost profitability.
Huzzah.
When offering a variety of services to clients across different industries, keeping track of what needs to be done for who and by when can quickly become a task in itself. That’s why it’s important to spend time developing workflows for your core services.
By having the first iteration of your common workflows documented, you’re creating a guide for existing employees to refer to, whilst at the same time creating a tool that can be used when onboarding new members of the team and showing them ‘how things are done around here’.
To build a thriving accountancy firm you need to employ the right individuals and empower them to become subject matter experts.
As an accountant you’ll offer your clients a whole host of services. From tax advice to forecasting, payroll, and more. By appointing a member of your team to own the processes associated with a particular service, you’ll be empowering your staff and boosting employee engagement.
By encouraging your subject matter experts to meet regularly to discuss how they’re implementing different processes, you’ll be able to develop best practice that can be shared across your firm.
Like running an accountancy firm itself, knowing which technologies will benefit your clients and which are a waste of time and money can be a challenge.
Rather than concentrating on the perceived pros and cons of each tech solution, the key here is to develop a framework for identifying and testing different pieces of tech before introducing them to your client base.
The starting point is to list the tech solutions that you, your team, and your clients already use and are familiar with. With that in place you can start thinking about new technologies to add to this core stack.
Before rolling out a potentially ‘game changing’ solution to your entire portfolio of clients you need to ensure it’s going to both benefit them - and be profitable for you. If a piece of technology doesn’t tick both of these boxes, then it isn’t something you should be looking to use.
Accountancy tech moves fast. Developing a process to identify and test new pieces of technology is far more important than quickly adopting the latest shiny new piece of software, only to find out down the line that it’s not right for you and your clients.
After spending time mapping a new process, testing it internally, trialing it with some of your most trusted clients, and then rolling it out to your entire client base - you'd be forgiven for considering the task complete and moving onto something else.
But the truth is you need to build in time for gathering feedback from clients and iterating the processes you’ve developed. You need to ensure that time is allocated for continued development and that you don’t ever consider your processes ‘done’.
The world of accountancy tech moves fast and it’s important you and your team keep learning and researching new technologies that have the potential to make your firm more profitable and your clients' lives easier.
Here at itsettled we’re aiming to do just that. Our software helps SMEs get their invoices paid faster and improves their cashflow.
If you’d like to see how itsettled can help your clients book a call with one of our credit management specialists today. With our cashflow calculator and a few key numbers we’ll be able to show you how we can improve the cash position of one of your clients or your entire portfolio over 7, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days.
Contact us at hello@itsettled.co.uk to start the conversation.
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