Getting in control of practice workflow: No more wasted 'pick up, put down' time

Managing a big portfolio of clients can be tough. Keeping all the different plates spinning is difficult, especially when you’re firefighting and trying not to waste too much billable time on a 'pick up, put down' way of working. 

Because of this, there’s one super important question for your accounting or bookkeeping firm to ask: 'What can we do to eliminate this wasted time?’

The answer is to get a tighter grip on your practice workflows. In a nutshell, it’s about automating, organising and centralising these workflows so you’re running a lean and effective firm. And tech can really be your friend when it comes to cracking the practice workflow whip.  

Let's take a look at the best ways to streamline your practice workflows and how Content Snare makes your client-facing tasks an absolute breeze for you and your clients.

Ditch the wasted 'pick up, put down' time 

When it’s busy, your team is likely to end up working on multiple jobs at the same time. But every time an engagement is picked up and then put down again, you add more time to the job. A major chunk of this time gets spent on low-level admin tasks – things like sending out requests to the client, chasing up missing receipts or getting clients to answer a query.   

Getting held up with basic manual tasks is one of the biggest drains on your staff resourcing. To stop this, you’ve got to change your processes. That means coming up with a solution that eliminates the stop/start workflows and puts some smoothness back into your operations. 

To tighten up those practice workflows:

• Reduce the billable time that’s wasted on basic engagement tasks
• Make each job more efficient, productive and profitable
• Look for a tech solution that helps you meet these goals

Find the tasks that can be streamlined and supercharged 

Every client job has its own set of tasks and deliverables. The job checklist will be slightly different for every client, but there’s always going to be some key tasks that pop up in every engagement. 

The key here is to look at the types of work you’re doing and to pin down the tasks and processes that are crying out loudest for help from your tech stack.

Cloud storage, online collaboration and automated client processes have changed the technological landscape of accounting. If you embrace the tech benefits of a platform like Content Snare, there are plenty of ways to cut the team’s workload, get more productive and focus your billable time on high-value tasks. Content Snare automates the collection process, reducing back-and-forth communication and making the whole job way more productive. 

To get the best from your practice tech:

• Look for opportunities to go automated – if you can automate a manual task, you’re already saving time and cutting down on staff resourcing. Think about automating client reminders and notifications or automating your client onboarding process. 
• Switch to centralised online collaboration – using our online client hub is a great way to boost productivity and your client experience. Collaborate and discuss the job with the client without all those messy email chains and wasteful phone calls. 
• Check on job progress in real-time – knowing how the job is tracking is crucial. Content Snare’s dashboard gives you that all-important overview of your whole portfolio, with real-time reporting on each and every task and deliverable in the engagement.

Accelerate your productivity to boost billable time and revenues

Making a profit is something every accounting firm and bookkeeping practice wants to do, right? But meeting your profit goals isn’t just about getting your fees right. Making each and every job productive and getting your utilisation spot on is what drives your margins and revenue.

If you can get the job done and dusted with two team members instead of three, that’s already saving on your payroll costs. If you can also get more engagements completed in less time, then you’re pulling in more sales, more fees and healthier revenue numbers. 

This is where moving to Content Snare makes such a difference to your bottom line:

• Cut out the wasted admin time to streamline your jobs – you waste less of your billable time and get in control of staff resourcing. That means your engagement team has more hours in the day to focus on the big, high-value, high-fee client work.
• Automate every process you can to get more productive – automation gives you a helping hand, making it easier to get more engagements done in less time than before. That’s great for pushing up productivity and sales volumes and driving firm revenue.
• Build a better client experience and retain more clients – clients love collaborating online with you. They see the value you’re bringing to the table and how you’re making their life easier – sending your client satisfaction and retention scores rocketing.

Content Snare: Putting you back in control of your practice workflows

If you’re serious about improving your workflows, productivity and time wastage, switching to Content Snare is a no-brainer. Don’t take our word for it – accountants and bookkeepers across Australia are telling us the difference that Content Snare is making to their workflows. 

Here’s what Jodi Porteous, CEO of Northwest Accountancy told us:

“We were sending clients Excel spreadsheets, and they’d send back half the information or no information at all. The accountants were getting frustrated, and the clients were getting annoyed because they were like, ‘I don’t know what you want me to do here’.”

“With Content Snare, we’re getting through our drop-offs a lot quicker now. There’s not as much back and forth between our clients and our accounting team because they’ve got all the information they need when they pick up the job.”

Find out the difference that Content Snare makes to your productivity and your profitability.

Try Content Snare for 14 days