CPA Practice Advisor - 41

HOW TO MODERNIZE YOUR ACCOUNTING FIRM

It is even possible to pull multiple years of transcripts in as little as a
few minutes and review easy-to-read reports that display the most relevant
information.
To efficiently manage client contact information, you should keep a
master contact list in a single location. Customer relationship management
(CRM) software can offer a wide variety of ways to help organize your
contact list.

2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT
It is common for an accounting firm to have laid out numerous tedious
steps to get each job done, along with many administrative factors to
manage. Team members often resort to using sticky notes and to-do lists
to keep track of their work, which can make personal organization and
team collaboration difficult.
To streamline the tasks and team members included in a project, you
can start using a project management software. This will transform the
way your firm runs. Project management software provides many different
benefits, including: easier delegation of work, increased transparency, and
improved task management.
Project management software makes the delegation process simple
and transparent. It typically incorporates a dashboard of all the current
projects. Flexibility in project and task creation varies among different
tools, so look for one that allows users to assign team members to specific
tasks. They should then receive a notification for the new assignment and
be able to access any relevant information. With the right software, you

will be able to track the progress of all tasks from the dashboard or filter
to narrow your view.
With this dashboard, transparency into projects is also increased.
Every team member involved in a project can see exactly what is going
on with it, in real time. Some software even notifies the user anytime a
change happens within a task that involves your client-whether or not you
are assigned to the specific task. This increases the level of transparency
and reduces the need for team meetings. You'll have more peace of mind
knowing that no one is falling behind on a project or missing deadlines.
It can be overwhelming to juggle numerous cases at one time, and it
also can be quite challenging to identify priorities and timelines. Project
management software helps with all of this. Tasks and deadlines - and
where they fit in overall - are easy to identify in a dashboard. You can jump
right into priority work that needs to be done each day.

3. SELECTING THE RIGHT ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE
All the tools we presented generally come with accounting software and
choosing the right one is of utmost importance. You may already have
invested in many pieces of software over the years and have access to a
lot of services that are disconnected from each other, or you may be using
software that isn't completely satisfactory.
It is paramount to accurately evaluate the return on investment (ROI)
of a given software and the time needed to implement a new system in
your firm.
To assess your current situation, you can do an audit that would include
the following steps:
■ Identify the real value of your current software
■ You can use these questions to analyze any software you use:
■ What value does this software add to my firm?
■ How much do I spend on it?
■ Is using this software an enjoyable experience?
■ Do I already have other software that can perform the same tasks?
■ Use your answers to evaluate how much benefit you're getting from each
software. Identify which software provides the most value and make a plan
to move off the others.
■ Compare functionality with pain points
■ You should then weigh the pros and cons of the software you want to keep.
Do you need entirely new software or do you just need to add new features
that work alongside your current software?
■ Finally, shop for the best solution
■ If you decide to replace all or some of your current software, you will need
to shop for the best combination of tools, for the most reasonable price. This
can be achieved through research, reading reviews, and signing up for free
accounts. The point of doing this kind of audit is to optimize your firm with
the best software for your particular needs.
When you do choose a new software, you should not worry about
making the change. Typically modern solutions make it easy and intuitive
to switch without losing data and functionality, and your practice will
significantly benefit in the long run. ■
Larry Furr, Chief Product Officer at Canopy, inspires the teams delivering on Canopy's
vision of powering the virtual accounting firm. He loves attending rock concerts and
delivering products that delight customers. Connect with him @larryfurr.

AUGUST 2020 ■

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