An accounting firm must invest in an accounting workflow process. Why? Because workflows increase productivity by powering entire processes across your business.
These are the five workflows that every accounting firm should focus on to deliver a better client experience:
Although they appear similar, they are different. So let’s dive in.
Workflows are primarily designed to boost efficiency and productivity and are centered on a task or activity. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it;
“A workflow comprises an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of operations, the work of a person or group, the work of an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms.”
So a workflow is:
An example of an accounting firm's workflow would be a recurring job such as how a client is billed and invoiced.
What Is a Process?
Made up of several workflows, Wikipedia defines it as:
“A business process, business method or business function that is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks”
An example of an accounting firm process would be a new client onboarding. Here, several workflows are put together to create a master process that may include workflows that:
So, as you can see an accounting workflow and an accounting process are two sides of the same productivity coin.
Accounting Workflows: How To Design Them
Although this is a big subject and beyond the scope of this article, it’s important to get an overview of the method. However, this will change depending on what technique you use for workflow design.
For example, if you are using a system such as Agile for your project management process, your design will look different from another accounting firm that uses SCRUM or LEAN methods.
Some General Principles For Designing An Accounting Workflow Process
Whatever method you use, here are some things to remember. These may include improving your new product development, client onboarding, payroll, tax planning, or sales.
First, It’s important to start small.
It’s worth mentioning that there are some things often overlooked in the design stage, but are important. This is particularly so around the workflow technology you are going to use.
Some things to check, when selecting an accounting workflow process platform, include ensuring:
Simply put, the workflow and processes have to make it easier for you to focus on the customer and for your client to have as much of a seamless experience as possible.
Your clients expect the work they do with you to be secure and consistent and as an accountant, you need to be productive and time-efficient.
That means having a dedicated cloud-based workflow to manage your activities is essential. Some of the key components that will make this a great process include having:
As an accounting firm, your day-to-day activities contain lots of repetitive tasks. From compliance considerations and preparing financial statements to the client’s payroll and reconciliations.
To complete each step, you can automate the setting up of repeatable task lists. You can attach “how-to guides” showing the steps to carry out each element of the workflow. A great resource for new staff or for tasks that are not done regularly.
Automatic task pipeline elements include:
Creating automation is essential to take the stress out of your task pipelines.
Gone are the days of putting files in shared Dropbox folders. Secure file sharing is an essential part of any communication workflow.
Keeping them protected and organized will help with productivity and help you as an accounting firm be more responsive to client demands.
From a risk and compliance view, files must be hackproof. Therefore, using a secure client portal gives you the security you need.
When designing a file-sharing workflow, it’s important to remember that clients are on the go and teams are working more remotely.
This means the process needs to enable the exchange of files via mobile helping you to organize client-facing and internal folders.
This summarized how to streamline your accounting workflow process which will improve efficiency and productivity of your firm.
We covered:
Something worth mentioning is just how implementing a cloud based accounting workflow process will help increase your firm’s profits by:
This is why in a recent SAGE report, they found that:
“57% of accountants find technology literacy to be the most critical additional skill for future employees in the field.” Sage Practice of Now.
If you are considering implementing an accounting workflow process, why not try out Client Hub free for 14 days to see how it can significantly help your accounting firm.
An example of an accounting firm's workflow would be a recurring job such as how a client is billed and invoiced.
They comprise a number of smaller workflows that are put together to create solutions for more sophisticated and longer processes.
An example of an accounting firm process would be new client onboarding. Here, several workflows are put together to create a master process that may include workflows that:
There are 8 parts to an accounting flow:
They can be small step workflows such as invoicing a client, or multiple large-scale processes that incorporate a number of smaller workflows such as client onboarding.
