New Year, New Technology – what systems and process should your firm invest in, in 2020

A new financial year is a great time to revisit, review, and renew your internal systems and processes, and map out a plan for projects that will support your team and business to grow over the year ahead. To help you do so, we’ve created a hit list of key business areas with technology solutions or suggestions to help you and your team work better, faster, and smarter.

Before you get started, be sure to prioritise the project for the right time of year. You should direct your focus to the improvements that address your biggest workflow issues and impact your top strategic priorities first – for example, if a major process bottleneck is delaying client turn-around time, you should prioritise that activity over something that adds improvements solely from a practice management point of view.

• Processing / Production: No one enjoys doing journal entries – and if you’ve got your qualified team manually entering the same figures year on year into a spreadsheet, or double handling data between spreadsheets and practice management programs, you’re putting time where it doesn’t need to go. We can help you to implement Scribe, an excel based add-on that automates the posting of journal entries straight from your working papers into your general ledger program.
• Delivery: Once you’ve done all the hard work to prepare an annual report or a set of financial statements, you then have to piece the puzzle together and make it presentable to send to the client. In our accounting practice – we found on average our team was spending at least 45 minutes per family group preparing the annual report package compilation. FuseDocs is a solution that sits on top of your existing systems and processes to completely automate the collation and presentation of the report data and information – simply direct it to the family group and type of document you want to collate, and press go. It can also be used to automate company secretarial reports, management documents, conveyancing and audit packages etc. Watch the video below to hear what others are saying about FuseDocs.
• Document Management: A robust document management system is the backbone of your business, so if you’re considering a new platform it’s important to do your homework. We recommend you consider how different functions in your team will use the system, how current paper-based workflows will change and improve in the digital landscape, and what impact the new system may have on the client via Portals etc. It is a big project to implement, but there are a number of providers that work specifically with accounting businesses to ensure you get the most out of your new system.
• Debt Collection: Very few people enjoy chasing money, but solid debt collection systems and processes are integral to the businesses success. While many businesses dedicate in-house resources to managing, reporting and following up debt, services like FeeSynergy can help make light work of the process. Their “Collect” debtor management platform integrates with your practice management system and allows your in-house team to easily manage, monitor and report on debtors as well as set up automatic follow-ups and workflows, while their monthly finance solution enables your clients to pay invoices monthly and you receive the full invoice value upfront.

Regardless of the project/s you choose to take on, it’s important that your team are on board with the direction and change. Nominating an internal champion, someone familiar with the business area and process, and who is excited about the change, can help overcome any fear of change within the team by acting as an early adopter.

Make sure your champion has the full support of your directors and/or practice managers so that they can lead the research, implementation, and execution of the project effectively.

We enjoy helping our clients uncover new ways of working – so if you’d like an external perspective to ask the key questions, prompt your thoughts and challenge the status quo on best practice processes for your business, feel free to drop me an email at melissa@fuse.work.