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What Every Bookkeeper And Accountant Needs To Automate In Their Business

What Every Bookkeeper And Accountant Needs To Automate In Their BusinessIf you want to save time and money, you need to automate. A good, effective automation allows some tasks to happen automatically, improving the customer experience and cutting the cord that has you at your computer all day.

If you want to save time and money, you need to automate Click To Tweet

But automation also takes time and some tech know-how. Sure, you can pay someone to do it for you, but that defeats the “saving money” part of setting them up in the first place.

I recommend starting small and building from there. Automate some of the most essential functions in your business and then add on as you have time. What are those essential automations you need to set up now?

Your Calendar

How often do you exchange emails with a client that look like this:

  • You: Let’s get together to talk about your monthly bookkeeping. I’m free on Tuesday from 3-5 p.m. and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Let me know what works for you.
  • Client: Great! Unfortunately, I’m not free during those times.
  • You: Okay, how about Friday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.?
  • Client: I’m heading out early on Friday. That won’t work.
  • You: Have a nice long weekend! Let me know when you are available.

Then, crickets. Which means you have to follow up with the client and go through the whole process again. It’s frustrating for both you and the client and it’s a colossal waste of time.

Instead, the email exchange should look like this:

  • You: Let’s get together to talk about your monthly bookkeeping. Here’s a link to my calendar. Find a time that works for you in the next two weeks and I’ll talk to you soon!
  • Client: <books appointment>

It’s easy, painless and you just saved a few days of bouncing emails back and forth. Plus, quality scheduling software like Calendly will automatically add the appointments to your calendar, send reminders to the client and allow you to set up multiple appointment types.

Email Templates

You’ve probably sent a payment reminder email 100 times to 50 different clients. Or a request for documents–every time you onboard a new client. If you don’t have automated emails that request information from clients or prospective clients, it’s time to build some email templates and automate them.

If you don’t have automated emails that request information from clients or prospective clients, it’s time to automate them. Click To Tweet

Within your client relationship management (CRM) platform, you can create templated emails that are sent out at designated times or after specific milestones in a project. Often, you can also customize these templates for specific types of clients so they never really feel like templates.

Contracts

A lot of business owners rely on DocuSign for contracts, which I believe is an unnecessary expense and a good way for these important documents to get lost. When housed outside your CRM, contracts and other forms tend to get clunky and easy to misplace and add an extra step to save them to your internal client folder. Not only that, but many business owners build new contracts from scratch for every client. I agree that many projects have special stipulations, however, it’s not necessary to start from a blank slate every time.

I recommend creating standard contracts within your CRM, such as 17hats or Dubsado, and customizing those templates as needed and when needed. You can also set up the automation so when the client signs the contract, they automatically receive their invoice or another form.

Setting up these and other automations within my business has saved me so much time. Because I worked in the industry for so long prior to branching out on my own, I knew exactly where to start and how to add new automations and workflows to help my business run even more smoothly.

If you’re struggling with getting your automations set up, I have a workflow template shop that can get you started. The Business Workflow Template Shop has templates and automations for those in the bookkeeping and accounting industry as well as other small business owners. Check it out today and start saving yourself some time! And if you need some help getting started, check out my Case Study for the Solopreneur and watch my free webinars on creating your own step-by-step Lead or Onboarding workflow.

Why Automations are Key to Business Success

Why Automations are Key to Business Success

You sign a new client and now have to send out all your onboarding paperwork:

  • Your contract
  • A welcome packet
  • A questionnaire
  • A request for passwords and log-in information

So much goes into starting a new client off on the right foot! Depending on your intake process, you could have several more pieces to the puzzle. And then there’s the actual project, ongoing communications, off-boarding, etc.

I talk to a lot of business owners who do this all by hand—create the documents and send them out individually for every client. I used to do that too, until I discovered the joy of automations.

Putting regular administrative tasks on autopilot not only saves you a boatload of time, it also makes you look more professional. And it also vastly improves the client experience.

Putting regular admin tasks on autopilot saves time and makes you look more professional. Click To Tweet

Imagine receiving just one email from a new team member. An email that gave you a list of to-do items that she needed to get your project on track. Not only would you be impressed with the efficiency, but you also wouldn’t have the inbox clutter that comes with separate emails for all of these tasks and requests.

One place to really focus your automations is in your bookkeeping. It takes some time to set up, but it’s much more efficient and you’re much less likely to miss an invoice—or a paycheck.

A great place to focus automations in your #smallbiz is bookkeeping. Click To Tweet

Here’s how to do it:

  • Set up rules in our QuickBooks Online program (or other bookkeeping program). While it might take a few hours to set it up the first time, you’ll never have to code, categorize or upload your bank transactions again. My point? A few hours of up-front time will save you many, many hours in the long haul.
  • If you’re working with a long-term client, set up recurring invoices. If the invoice is the same each month, you can create a template invoice and have QBO or PayPal send it out each month (and you don’t even have to think about it).
  • Automate your bill pay. Similar to your recurring invoices, you can set up your online banking to automatically pay your bills so you don’t need to worry about them. Basically, you don’t have to ever pay a bill late because your bank already knows when to pay (to whom and how much).
  • Set up your payroll to run virtually on its own with Gusto or another payroll service. Whether you have a team or it’s just you, your corporate set-up could lend itself well to using a payroll service to ensure you’re paid on time, every time.

Think about other areas where you could automate business systems. Virtually anything that you do in your business on a recurring basis could be automated—you just need to find the right process and the right tools to help! If you’re a CPA, I can help you tweak your bookkeeping systems and processes for a more efficient workflow. That’s part of the consulting services I offer.

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