Accounting workflow software for accountants and bookkeepers is a topic that never gets old.  

With the diversity of firms and practices, we now have a range of apps that solve these needs in different ways.  This article describes how we at Client Hub reimagined a workflow system for accountants and bookkeepers -

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Our vision and approach

Our vision is simple: a workflow solution should be all about radically increasing productivity for our customers, cloud accountants and bookkeepers.

When we looked at re-imaging a workflow solution for accountants, we had 3 design principles in mind:

• Seamless flow across your team and your clients
• Automation everywhere
• Drop-dead simple to use

... all in service to our goal of "Radically Increasing Productivity"

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How these principles drive our workflow system

These aren't just nice vision words and principles on a page.  They underpin how you experience value from our system -

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1. Seamless flow across your team and your clients:

Accounting work is unique.  In most businesses, when we produce something, we work in our own teams (e.g. manufacturing, software development).  On the other hand, accounting and bookkeeping is inherently collaborative in nature: when clients don't do their part, we are blocked in our own work.

That is why, unlike other systems where client experience is an afterthought, client experience is built-in seamlessly to Client Hub.

How this plays out: In Client Hub, a "job" in our system is a complete set of tasks that include internal tasks and client tasks.  Any step in the job can be a step where you publish a a client task to your client. Clients just click to complete the task either online – or in our modern mobile app experience that clients love.

With client tasks and client experience built-in, you'll never wait for clients to respond, eliminating bottlenecks in your workflow – radically increasing productivity.

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2. Automation everywhere:

Of course, we have the basics of typical accounting / bookkeeping workflow systems like setting up a repeating jobs and being able to move a job through stages.  For each job, set up a robust set of tasks groups and tasks (including client tasks).  And for each task, capture your internal task details so that anyone in the firm can pick up the work without missing a beat.

And, we have a jobs dashboard with a pleasing Kanban-like view for an overview of your jobs or jobs assigned to others in your firm.  

Beyond these, in the interest of radically increasing productivity, our workflow system has a lot of automations built-in to save you hours of time.

A few examples:

• Auto-pilot:  Automatically publishes client tasks at the start of a job.  For example, if you want to start your weekly payroll job and want clients to send you info a the days ahead of that, we'll automatically push that client task to your client.
• Auto-reminders: With our client experience built-in, you know exactly when clients have responded.  If you need a response within a certain timeframe, you can even set up auto-reminders to clients to get back
• Auto-created jobs from client messages: In one click, turn any client message into a Job that you can track (set an owner, set a due date etc.)  

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3. Drop-dead simple to use:

Everything we do in Client Hub is driven by ease-of-use.  This of course, is hard to describe in a blog post.  You'll need to experience it, but here are a few helpful things we can say:

• Client-centric view: Generic workflow systems (e.g. ClickUp, Asana, Monday) that aren't focused on accountants and bookkeepers are organized by concepts like Projects. Accounting and Bookkeeping work is most naturally organized by Client, which is the backbone of the Client Hub experience
• All-in-One experience: You don't need a complex tech stack and lots of redundant data in multiple systems – Client Hub has Workflow, File Sharing, Client Communication, Client Tasks, File Sharing and more – all in one place
• Sophisticated yet simple: Everything is designed to be intuitive, easy to learn, and drop-dead simple to use
• Mobile app experience: Our modern mobile app is loved by accountants and clients

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Right for You?

If your firm is concerned with lots of bells and whistles for workflow customization and a myriad of reports, then Client Hub may not be right for you.  

But if you're like most firms: looking for something sophisticated yet simple that includes a delightful client experience – and one that will save you lots of time, without overwhelming you with things you don't need, then give Client Hub a spin. Click here to view a demo or to schedule a 1/1 session with us.

We look forward to having you experience our platform and roadmap for even more delightful and time-saving capabilities as we head into 2021!