The customer is always right, right? Maybe if you sell clothing or run a restaurant. But for accounting firms, let’s dispel that myth immediately. If you want your firm to be more efficient, productive, and profitable, seize the reins from your clients and take client accounting online, advises Darren Root, CPA CITP, and CPE Link instructor.
“For many years in my own practice, I allowed my clients to dictate the process. It was the client that was in control, delivering their data on CD, in paper format or by email. They also got to choose what client accounting system they used—and version!” Root calls this “living in the silo” and says its time knock down those silo walls and break out into the clear air of “the cloud.” The next generation accounting firm will have a strategy for online accounting and delivering services in a shared space that’s convenient for both the client and the firm.
“In a shared space, data is always accessible, current, and easily exchanged between the firm and the client because it resides in a shared environment. The real value of adopting the shared space mode is that you control the workflow. And when you are in control of your own processes, many pain points are eradicated,” says Root. In a shared online environment, you won’t be waiting for the client to deliver CDs. Instead the data is always available to you. You have correct data at processing time, because errors in journal entries have been caught and corrected along the way. And you’ll take back several days during the month because the client is no longer a bottleneck.
What do you need to move your practice into the cloud and greater productivity? Here’s what Root recommends:
o Think about your services
o Take an inventory the solutions your clients use
o Develop a strategy that promotes efficiency
o Identify solutions hosted and software-as-service solutions that support your strategy.
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Controlling the ledger
Great post Sue. We're seeing this play out with our accounting partners globally where the disconnected relationship that evolved in the desktop world is now being fixed through a collaborative approach in the cloud. By working with clients online in a single ledger environment accountants are able to take back control of what they've studied for years to master - accounting and the core GL - while giving clients the tools to do what they need in their normal daily business activities like invoicing, reconciling bank transactions (teaching clients to ask when they're not sure where to reconcile the item to) and expense claims. This shared approach means the accountant spends less time getting the data into the software as clients are contributing through their normal daily business activities and cloud providers are building efficiencies in like automated bank feeds. The time saved can now be spent on producing management reports (also much easier in a single ledger cloud environment) and adding value to clients.
The result is a real-time relationship with clients that's much higher value to both parties. Everyone wins when accountants are brought back into the accounting process before year end - funny that.