Tag: accounting technologies

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Client Solutions, not just Professional Services

Client Solutions, not just Professional Services

Accounting Professionals serving a small business client base are struggling to find ways to demonstrate the value of the services they provide, yet many firms remain focused exclusively on their own processes and improving profitability therein rather than looking “outside the box” to see how they might involve the client in the discovery.  The obvious element which these firms are not addressing is the client user, and how a direct participation by the client becomes the foundation for internal process improvement.  After all, a lot of what accounting professionals are battling against is perceived value.  If the client were to be a more direct participant, the value of the work and the tools which support getting it done could provide a more tangible or visible aspect and increase the overall value perception of the client.

It is easy to say “get the client more involved”, but actually doing it can be the real challenge.  Professionals are recognizing this reality as they attempt to engage client users in online portals for document exchange and by providing application functionality which is supportive of the accountants’ processes.  While some professional firms are experiencing success with this approach, many other firms are not.  There are likely a variety of reasons why some firms have more success than others in getting clients to work with their online tools, but I believe there are two key elements which impact success:  accountant-centric focus, and provider lock-in.  Whether these elements work to the firms’ advantage or not depends solely upon the specifics of the service model and client market being served.

Accountant-centric focus

Most accounting professionals recognize that paperless approaches to working with client information and documents makes a lot more sense than working with the actual paper.  Particularly with the innovations in image capture, OCR and zero-entry solutions, it is logical to try to get as much of the required information transformed into useful digital data as possible.  Data entry time is reduced, accuracy is improved, and the resultant information is better and more useful and may be processed more efficiently… for the accounting professional.  For the client, on the other hand, it’s just another way to get information to the accountant (who is always wanting more information).  The value of the deliverable – the reconciled bank account, financial report, tax return or whatever – isn’t increased.   The solution often offered to the client is a solution intended to solve not the client problems, but the accountant’s.  For the client, it is difficult to see this as a “solution” to any evident problem they face.

Provider lock-in

Business software customers are often commenting about how the solutions they use don’t allow easy transition to alternative products, or add-ons are only available from developer-prescribed sources.  Vendor lock-in is a consideration and may be a barrier to doing business, because business owners want to know that they have the ability to change as business requirements change… whether it means changing software and systems, or whether it means changing professional service providers.  As more professional service providers attempt to engage their clients in technology-based approaches to doing business, clients are recognizing that these approaches may come with “strings attached”, limiting their future choices.  While it is important for the professional services firm to protect its work product, it is also important to consider the client’s position.  Part of every business relationship is trust, and that trust should not be one-sided.  Just as the professional trusts that the client will work with them in a legitimate manner, so does the client trust that their professional will not hold their information hostage if they elect to make a change or engage with other providers in the future.  Additionally, does the system provided by the accounting firm allow the client to collaborate with their own team members or other service providers, or does it address only the interactions between the accounting pro and the client?  This also represents a barrier to participation, as any given client business likely interacts with a variety of providers – many of whom are also asking that owner to implement solutions which improve their ability to do a form of e-business together.

As accounting service providers look to technology to facilitate closer and more efficient working arrangements with clients, they would do well to also consider how that technology is positioned to benefit the client as well as the professional practice.  Delivering a solution which provides clients with the capability to control information access, which allows collaboration with their various service providers, and which facilitates a lean process approach for all involved could be the right answer to the problem.  Perhaps this becomes the most important factor – client enablement – and focusing on solutions which address the clients’ information management and processing requirements as well as those of the firm.

Make Sense?

J

Read more about Data Warriors: Accountants in the Cloud

Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries

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Workflow is Essential in Document Driven Business

The popularity and proliferation of online applications and cloud computing solutions for business has transformed how organizations manage activities, people and resources.  The Internet-connected marketplace has introduced both opportunity and challenge for businesses of all sizes, and much of this focus has been placed on the management and control of digital documents and data.

Electronic document management has been commonly used in professional services business for many years, yet has not always been viewed as an essential technology to apply in the context of organizing and structuring the processing of the document.  As clients of these professional firms continue to generate and utilize a great deal of paper documentation and written information, firms continue their reliance upon paper files, shared drives, and other more traditional methods of organizing the work, and storing or controlling access to documents.  However, key trends in the industry are causing these approaches to be increasingly burdensome for professional service firms, including:

  • Need to support multiple offices, geographically disbursed team members, and mobile workers and devices
  • Increasing use of email as a primary tool for collaboration
  • Introduction of new risk elements accompanying new technologies
  • Increasing numbers of forms and document types coming from clients
  • Rising expectations of clients and increased market competition
  • Growing need for businesses to increase earnings and profitability with fewer resources
  • Increasing requirement for knowledge management supporting sustainability, creating the ability to retain and reuse best practices and work produced

Advances in the design and underlying technology supporting many document management solutions today have delivered great capability to firms adopting electronic document management approaches.

Benefits of implementation include the ability to create a centralized, searchable documents base which includes all client-related content, including email communications as well as documents and data files. Easy search, access, collaboration, and re-use of information are enabled, and complete audit trails may be retained. Electronic document solutions also reduce physical document storage needs, reducing costs associated with managing and storing paper files, and can better serve business disaster recovery and continuity initiatives.

While today’s electronic document management solutions may address many of the challenges involved in working with large volumes and varieties of documents and data, there are few solutions on the market which address fundamental issues relating to document processing workflows and how they are impacted by various business or data-driven events, or by the availability of people or resources to facilitate the process.

The growing problem facing businesses today is the volume and variety of information which must be organized, processed and archived. The market is sold on the idea that electronic communications and record keeping will simplify things, but the reality is proving otherwise. Businesses are hoarding information at unprecedented rates and with the ability to collect and generate increasing volumes of digital data, businesses have not simplified their information processing, they have only created a greater need.

Generating and collecting data is not the issue created, nor is ultimately the archival and storage of the information. Rather, the problem created is in organizing the work related to processing this ever-increasing volume of documents and data.

Businesses dealing with documents and transaction-based activities should not only attempt to structure workflows necessary to support the various processes, but must also seek to normalize as much as possible, developing a consistent and methodical approach to the work which results in predictable and consistently high quality service delivery.

The efficiency gained through this structuring and standardization of the work allows the professional services firm to achieve a greater level of profitability for outsourced processing engagements, which are often viewed as low-margin and low-profit activities.

Make Sense?

J

Read about Using Structured Workflow to Manage Offline Clients | Intuit Accountants News Central

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Using Structured Workflow to Manage Offline Clients | Intuit Accountants News Central

Using Structured Workflow to Manage Offline Clients | Intuit Accountants News Central

The demand today requires that accounting professionals be more attentive and, yes, aggressive, in terms of “attacking” a regular flow of processing client information rather than batching it at period end. This drives a great need to structure and organize the work, and workflow, so that the repetitive and regularly performed processes may be streamlined and made easier to manage on an ongoing regular basis. It is no longer good enough to wait for clients to deliver the information and request the resultant reports. We must proactively request and gather the required information for processing, especially with offline clients, in order to get the work done more frequently.

Read the entire article at Intuit Accountants News Central

J

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Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

Not Everybody’s Accounting Online: Outsourced Bookkeeping and Accounting for “Offline” Clients

With all the focus on online technology, solutions that help you work smarter and not harder, and having mobile access to information at any time and from anywhere, you’d think that the entire world had adopted an entirely mobile and high-tech approach to life and business.   The popularity of software-as-a-service models and apps for just about everything are certainly a testament to the movement toward a more connected and mobile lifestyle and business environment.  However, not every business has adopted a comprehensive paperless, mobile-accessed, virtual working world – not by a long shot.  In fact, more folks than you may realize are still using actual paper, writing things by hand (things like checks and invoices), filing piles of paperwork in stand-up filing cabinets, and generally doing things the long, slow, painful way and then recording it on PC-based spreadsheets.  You know – the way we did things before the Internet showed up.

While paperless offices and technology-enabled approaches to collaborative business are gaining popularity and adopting users every day, there is a community of business users out there who are not as laser-focused on the high-tech approach to online accounting and working closer with their outsourced accountant or bookkeeper.  These business people are just getting the job done, and have found ways to handle their information and processes that work for them.  It is this business user that accounting professionals should not forget as they seek to adopt new and innovative cloud approaches to service delivery, and for a couple of reasons.  First, this type of client is likely to be in need of process support and additional service as the business grows, and the accounting professional is in a great position to help with those needs.  Second, this type of client exists in great number.

Consider the following scenario; a discussion I discovered when perusing a small business forum recently.  The interesting thing is that this is a discussion I see pretty frequently with small business owners and entrepreneurs – the discussion about the value of actual accounting or bookkeeping solutions versus a simple spreadsheet approach to record keeping.

I am the owner of a brand new small business. It has only been up and running for a short time. My accountant is pressuring me to use the online version of QuickBooks, but I am doubtful as to whether this is the right software for me.

I know that QuickBooks has a lot of different features, but I really only need it to track spending and customer payments, and since it’s still early on, I don’t have a lot of either. I would only need the very basics, and would probably only check it every two weeks at most.  The fees they want for the software would add up pretty quickly for something I’m not really going to use much.  My business is very small (just me) and service-based (tour guide), without much potential for repeat customers. I don’t need the payroll, invoicing, or other advanced features.

I honestly think that the easiest thing for me would be some sort of spreadsheet or really basic software that I could put directly on my computer instead of accessing online.

The truth of the matter is that spreadsheets often provide the common ground between small business owners and their accountants.  For a business owner, spreadsheets offer a simple and intuitive way to organize and record information because the column layout makes it easy to understand where to enter which data.  For the accountant, a spreadsheet can fairly quickly be sorted, filtered and prepared as accounting or tax return data.  While working with clients in a fully online, collaborative model may be the “best case scenario” in terms of delivering high levels of service in the most efficient manner, understanding how best to work with those clients in other scenarios is also necessary.  Getting the spreadsheet from this type of client is generally not terribly difficult – they are often more than willing to email it.  As long as the professional has a good document management solution to capture and manage these files, and introduce them into the firm workflow, then working with this type of offline client doesn’t have to be a huge impact to internal firm efficiency.

For accounting and bookkeeping professionals working with small business owners around the country, this type of client likely fits into the “normal” category more than those with a strong motivation to use cloud computing and having a great desire to use the Internet and connected services for everything they can (eventually the “new”normal?).  I believe the reality is that only a small fraction of smaller companies – solo, soho, and small/medium business – are actively managing the majority of their business process and information online.  In fact, Intuit (makers of QuickBooks) and other entry-level accounting and bookkeeping solution providers continue to heavily target small business users who are still tracking their finances using spreadsheets and other methods.  This simplified and after-the-fact approach to spreadsheet record keeping is being further facilitated by the banks and credit card companies providing customers with a greater ability to classify and categorize transaction information, and then quickly download it into said spreadsheet.

Yes, the dichotomy is clear: many small business owners resist (or are, at least, unimpressed with) cloud accounting approaches, yet these very same individuals are likely utilizing cloud services from banks and other financial institutions to support their spreadsheet and checkbook record keeping, as well as accessing email and other services via the web for various reasons.  It makes some sense, though, when you look at it from the business owner perspective.  Their way sounds easier, is less overwhelming, and meets the need – for now.

J

Learn more about Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

Read more about Online Accountants and Their Clients: Working Smarter, or just Closer?

Read more about Data Warriors: Accountants in the Cloud

Read more about using the cloud to extend “connectedness” beyond traditional boundaries

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Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

Working Online With Clients: How to leverage the internet and cloud computing to work closer with your clients

When it comes to using technology and the Internet to work closer with bookkeeping and consulting clients, it is important to recognize that there is never only one way to accomplish something, and different clients will have equally different ideas on and tolerances for how you work with them.  In order to serve each and every client to the best of your ability, you have to carry around a “toolbox” of solutions and services which will assist you in delivering the most effective and efficient service in each situation and under each set of conditions.  While you must do what you can to streamline and standardize your processes to be as efficient as possible while delivering a high level of service, but you can only work within the parameters allowed by each client and circumstance.

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I think we can all agree that, whenever possible, it is wise to avoid situations where you have to get in the car and drive somewhere just to pick up information or paperwork.  These are the activities which are most costly in terms of time and resources.  Using file sharing solutions, such as DropBox or ShareFile, is a great way to get documents from clients.  That is, if the documents are in electronic form already.  If not, then either scanning the files and saving to the Dropbox or web folder, or faxing them to a service such as eFax, is the process.

Sometimes Internet connectivity is the issue.  Using a fax-to-email solution like eFax takes that out of the picture, in terms of getting documents and other paperwork from the client.  But let’s face it… there is no good way to electronically exchange or share QuickBooks or other computer data files safely and quickly unless the client has broadband Internet access.  You can always go back to dialup modems and connect using the old version of PCAnywhere, the way we did it years back, or you can recognize that sometimes you just have to get in the car and bring a USB drive with you.

Internet-based remote control solutions, such as LogMeIn, provide you with the ability to connect your computer directly to the client computer in order to perform tasks on their system and with their data.  This is a better approach than going to the client office and doing the work there, but it doesn’t address a situation where both you and the client need to be working at the same time.  If you are controlling their computer, you take over the workstation while you are connected, which prevents the client from doing independent work while you are doing your job. The better option is to use a solution that allows you to both work at the same time, even when connecting to the same computer.  MyQuickCloud does this. MyQuickCloud is a remote access solution that can be applied as both a remote access and remote working solution. It is better than remote control because it can allow many users at the same time to connect to the computer and run applications.

In some cases, working online with the client may mean working in the same applications and data files by accessing a centralized online solution, such as QuickBooks Online Edition or hosted QuickBooks (QB Online and hosted QuickBooks are not the same thing).  When both people (the client and the accountant/bookkeeper) have access to the same programs and data files in real-time, it allows them to work together more closely yet at times and from locations which work for the individuals.  This arrangement works quite well when the accounting professional and the client can both serve their requirements with the same software solution.  If the client uses QuickBooks to perform their daily tasks, the bookkeeper and accountant are able to simply log in and use the same solution to perform their work.

A model which more people are beginning to recognize as valuable is the model where each user or functional area in the business has the solution which works best for them, and the various solutions in the business each integrate and share data as necessary.  For an accountant or bookkeeper working with a small business, this may mean that the software or solution used by the client to handle their daily tasks is different from the solution used by the accounting professional to do their job.  Just as a tax preparer will use accounting data to prepare a tax return using a tax preparation solution, accountants may use transactional or financial data from other systems to perform accounting functions in an accounting software solution.  As long as the data is easily accessed, via built-in integration or sync tools, it makes a lot of sense to give each user a solution designed to meet their process needs because they will use the solution more effectively.  Giving a user way too much functionality can be confusing, and expose them to areas of business activity or information they should not have access to (or which is meaningless to their job) can waste time and introduce risk.

Examples of this approach might be where a small business owner uses FreshBooks accounting to manage their daily invoicing, but the information is then exported to and integrated into QuickBooks financial software, where the accountant or bookkeeper handles the rest of the business accounting functions. Another example may be when services such as Bill.com, TSheets, Expensify, Concur, and other “point” solutions are in use. These web-based solutions provide specific functionality, such as bill payments and approvals, employee timesheet management and reporting, expense management, and more.   They make it easier for the client to handle certain functions and address related information management and reporting needs, and facilitate the data integration with core accounting and finance.  In many cases, this approach delivers not only more relevant functionality and process support for the business users, and still allows the accounting professional to do their work with the tools which work for them.

Providing a high level of service to your client while embedding as much efficiency in your processes as possible can be a challenge for any outsourced accounting or bookkeeping professional.  Your profitability and the goodwill you develop with your client depend on finding the best way to engage and deliver on the promise of great service.   Your toolkit  – the connected services and solutions you leverage to this task – can positively impact the “degree of success” you experience with each client or project.

Make Sense?

J

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Accounting Professionals: It’s Good To Be Sticky

You’re a professional services provider, perhaps an accountant.  Your client is a growing business, and they came to you to prepare the corporate tax return.  After several years of faithfully performing this service for your client, you send them the annual email reminding them to bring in the information to get this year’s return completed.  When they don’t respond, you call them.  And find out that the tax return was completed by another accountant this year, the accountant who took over the bookkeeping.  “But we could have done that for you, too”, you say.  But now it’s too late, and the client has a different accountant.  Consider it an opportunity lost, along with the client.

Is this something you run in to fairly frequently, losing clients to others who provide substantially the same services as you do?  It happens to the best of firms, and the secret to keeping it from happening is to be sticky – delivering the services which securely attach the client to your firm – and provide the ongoing value that your business clients can’t do without.

The first place to create stickiness is in your service offering.  One-time or annual projects (like tax returns and audits) don’t keep you in front of your client often enough for them to think of you daily, and daily (or at least frequently) is how often you want them to think of you.  As the business owner faces daily decisions, do they consider calling you for advice or insight?  If not, then you probably aren’t delivering the value, or the sticky service, which will tie your practice to the client for the long-term.   Daily bookkeeping, or helping the client keep their books in order, is a valuable service that most small businesses need.  While your firm may not be realty interested in performing or supporting the business bookkeeping, it is important to recognize that this level of work allows the firm to be more intimately involved with client business processes, providing a great deal more insight and understanding into client operations than through an annual tax interview.  By attaching your firm to the daily activities of helping to account for business activities, you elevate your position from an occasional service provider to a consultant whose advice is sought after on a regular basis.  You are now in a position to understand better what areas of business may need focus and attention, and have placed yourself as a trusted advisor who can help determine the best course of action in any given situation.

The other, critical element to being sticky is to make sure your clients know what you can do for them.  Don’t assume that each of your clients knows what service or value you can offer them (you know what happens when you assume, right?).  You have to tell them; spell it out and thoroughly communicate the variety of ways your firm can help them.  Just because you’re an accountant, you should not assume the client will ask you to help them with various business issues.  Often, a business owner will face a challenge and not know who to turn to.  Seeking out the assistance of specialty consultants is a standard approach, as is turning to IT contractors, software consultants, attorneys, or other service providers. Why not you?  Did they know you were available to help with this?  If they didn’t call you, then they probably didn’t think this was a service you provide.

Accounting professionals serving business clients must not only make their range of services known, but should also actually ask for the additional business from those clients.  Only through consistent exploration and value building, asking the client if services offered might be valuable to them and demonstrating how those services have benefitted others, will the firm begin to make the impact necessary to keep the client coming back, and coming back for more.

When the client comes back for more, you know you’re getting sticky.  That’s a good thing.

Make Sense?

J