The way accountants work has changed a lot in the last decade, with many folks now required to work remotely. While in the past, everyone showed up to the same firm to get the job done, more and more accountants are required to work from wherever suits them best. Any accounting practice looking to thrive in this market should embrace these changes and (more importantly) come up with a solution that can facilitate this new kind of work environment.
With the need to manage growing remote teams more prevalent than ever, finding a platform that can streamline your team and client communications, as well as all your business processes, is key. Here's what you can do to set your accounting business up for success when it comes to keeping everyone on the same page (no matter where they are):
Traditional email causes more hiccups than it should when it comes to client communications. Email interaction often happens between one team member and a client while the rest of the team is left in the dark.
READ NEXT: The 5 Best Accounting CRMs for CPA Firms
While you might be able to get away with this when your team shares an office (and can tap each other on the shoulder, though highly inefficient), it's definitely not the case when everyone's working remotely. It becomes really hard for everyone to know what the status of a client account is when they were last contacted, and what's going on in the business overall.
That's why it's crucial for accounting practices that want to embrace the rise of flexible workplaces to find a smart technology that can streamline their entire business for them in a fully integrated platform (effectively bridging the gaps and silos that could hurt business).
Being on a team means everyone is on the same page, but it’s hard to ensure that at work when not everyone is kept in the loop with access to all the daily activities, documents, and client emails. Having a successful accounting practice means making sure everyone there is playing for the same team—but they can’t play well if they’re not informed on where to stand in the field.
Your employees need to have easy access to the data and information they need to work efficiently and deliver quality client work quickly. While this holds true for accounting firms that have all of their employees in one office, it's especially true for remote teams.
Make sure you’re equipping your team with a solution that can give them the visibility (and agility) they need to score and get more done, faster. For you, this might translate into having one single place to access client accounts, records, communications, and work instead of having everything scattered between different spreadsheets, internal databases, and tools (which can cost you time and energy).
You need visibility into what’s happening with your clients and communications, but you also want to automate repeatable processes so that you can focus on more profitable work (instead of admin work and making sure everyone is looped in). On the flip side, if you had a smart technology that could automatically tell which emails were important for the entire team, what work needed your immediate attention, and so forth, you would never have to worry about forwarding or cc’ing colleagues again. Everyone would be looped in on only what was pertinent to them—automatically. For remote teams and flexible workplaces, having a system that automatically notifies you with smart triggers when clients need your attention when communications should be sent, or sends invoices when certain conditions are met, means operating like a well-oiled machine—and a healthy business.
If you’re thinking this sounds awesome, you're correct ;-). You should really do some research into the smart platforms that exist out there that can streamline your client communications, email, and workflow so that you can get back to the work you love (and be even more successful). Or, feel free to scope out Accelo to see how it has helped other accounting businesses like yours.
