Firm onboarding is a pain. But the good news is you have the control to help reveal yourself of the painful manual tasks. Once you have established your firm’s primary goal and the people performing the tasks (see "Creating Your Firm's Onboarding Workflow"), you can move on to the various apps at your fingertips to help make documenting and performing these tasks possible.
Through years of experience, I have found most businesses (even larger ones) do not have documented job titles, descriptions or organizational charts. Each is necessary to help prevent duplicated, forgotten and wasted efforts. Time is a limited commodity, and using it wisely means understanding where you and your team spend the most of the precious limited resource—time.
The place to begin uncovering where resources are needed most is to create an organizational chart. For example, what tasks need to be performed, who should be serving them, and the business hierarchy. In addition, creating a diagram helps to share who workers should connect with to complete tasks and seek help with the organization.
Organizational tasks diagramming
An organizational chart is the breakdown of an organization’s structure, such as the relationships and rankings of each position. Having an organizational chart is extremely important, as it helps to offer clarity of the different departments within a company and how they all work together. It also is a great resource to determine who employees need to address with questions and issues of a particular department.
Examples of org chart solutions:
Lucidchart example
Lucidchart allows you to create flowcharts and diagrams in a collaborative environment! It is a great way to map various processes and create digestible flow charts with subscriptions starting at $7.95/per month.
Intake Proposal Options
Most accounting and bookkeeping firms only need a light CRM (Customer Relation Management) software to create an easy and consistent workflow for sending customer engagement letters and staying up-to-date on those current leads.
Customer engagement letters need to include accounting firms' critical information, such as terms of the relationships, tasks performed and pricing.
Since most accounting firms perform the same tasks for multiple clients, proposal software is the best method of creating consistent pricing and terminology. For example, Ignition stores templates with populated services, terms and pricing, which means team members can quickly generate engagement letters with consistent pricing.
Proposal software also helps with team communication, so clients receive the exact pricing and terms no matter which team member they communicate with. Examples of proposal solutions:
Ignition example (Practice Ignition©)
Ignition, formerly known as Practice Ignition, changes how you communicate with clients. It offers many templates to help you get started and has endless automation possibilities.
Meeting Scheduling Options
Playing the back and forth calendar availability game is hugely time-consuming and loses productivity. Instead, when utilizing a calendar scheduling tool, you can share your availability directly with new leads so they can pick a time that works best for them. This is great for those initial consultations and keeps you from getting double booked.
Examples of calendar scheduling solutions:
Calendly example
Clients can quickly view your real-time availability. It takes the work out of connecting with others. You can even set up paid meeting types to create an automated, seamless process.
Client Experience
The client’s experience is a crucial part of growing your firm. The best marketing tactic a firm can have is word-of-mouth marketing. Creating a positive client experience helps instill loyalty and trust between you and your client.
Examples of client experience solutions:
Liscio example
Liscio is a great client experience solution that allows you to communicate with your clients even on the go securely. In addition, it offers mobile features for ease of access to exchange sensitive information, eSignatures and documents.
There are numerous apps and solutions that can help make your workflow more efficient and productive. Next week, we will talk about workflow management, file storage, and security to ensure you have all the tools you need to create an effective onboarding workflow.
Liz Scott is a multi-business entrepreneur working to bring together technology and accountants through her business, Liz Scott Consulting. A member of Intuit Trainer/Writer Network, she authored
and taught Master level courses, including Advisory Guides and Consulting Tools for Accountants. In addition to Liz Scott Consulting, she also owns Accounting Lifeline, a firm to serve small businesses with their financial needs. Liz is a co-host of the "Appy Hour," which helps other accountants learn about the different tools and apps for small business needs. Holding a high passion for real estate investment, she owns properties throughout Oklahoma.
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