Kevin Miller
When your accounting or bookkeeping practice is a one-person shop, you might be able to manage most of your client accounts without routine project management systems in place. However, as your business grows and you hire additional teammates, keeping important client details in your own inbox, to-do list, or brain can make it difficult for you and your colleagues to successfully meet and exceed client expectations.
If you’re preparing to hire additional help or have noticed important items falling through the cracks, it may be time for you to consider implementing project management strategies. Having clearly outlined guidelines for how projects should be managed from start to finish and how new clients should be onboarded can ensure that you and your team always know a project’s status and next steps. Even more importantly, it increases the likelihood that you’ll be delivering quality work and exceeding client expectations
Ultimately, every practice is unique and you’ll need to find a way of managing projects that works for you. One way to start thinking about the project management practices that will enable your business to grow is to focus on key points in your project workflow.
Here are four areas for you to consider:
Standardize Initial Client Conversations: The first conversation you have with your new client is the first opportunity you have to make a good impression. To ensure your first meeting is productive, consider standardizing the questions that you ask of new clients by putting them into a checklist.
Designate Account Representatives: The idea of relinquishing control of a client account to a colleague might be nerve-wracking at first. But if you set up clear project management guidelines, you’ll enable your colleague to deliver an exceptional level of service by being the “go-to” person for all of your clients’ questions.
Define Project Review Steps: The nitty-gritty details are what often make or break a project’s success, which is why it’s important to make sure you have clear procedures for reviewing work before finalizing it. You can build checklists with certain tasks that must be completed by each team member before work goes out the door. You can also establish guidelines for who is performing which role, which further reduces the likelihood of errors.
Set Communication Guidelines: If you don’t have a client communication strategy, you might want to consider being more proactive and managing client expectations with a regular weekly update email. You can devise a template for what information you might include so that each newly hired teammate can simply update the template content each time they send an email.
Make it Easy for Clients to Share Information: One of the most difficult things about project management is that you need your clients to share information with you. That’s why one of the best things you can do to manage projects as you grow is to use a cloud-based accounting or bookkeeping software. Not only will it allow you to see all of your clients’ ongoing projects, but you’ll also be able to make it easy for them to share receipts, invoices, and other important information.
Project management might not be a line item in your client invoices, but it’s still one of the most important “hidden” services you offer. The clearer you can make your company’s policies, the easier it will be to deliver exceptional service that leads to happy clients and referrals.