Change is constant. It’s now even more of a constant. Change happens due to changing customer requirements, changing compliance requirements, changing technology and the changing app landscape. Our processes need to evolve to keep up. Here are some steps accountants and bookkeepers can take to systemise their business for efficiency and sustainability

This was inspired by a community chat – watch at the bottom of the post.

GETTING STARTED

Don’t try to rebuild what you know. Identify what you’re trying to achieve and the desired outcomes. Start with an experimental mindset where you try and test things, knowing they’ll probably change.

  • Start sooner than later and systemise everything.
  • Start documenting checklists of everything, resources, processes, technology.
  • Start writing procedures as if you have staff
  • Think as if your business will grow
  • Start with one process – start small – and look for easy wins.
  • Is every step necessary?
  • Can bottlenecks be eliminated?
  • Can the process be automated?

THE SECRET TO CREATING SYSTEMS IS BUILDING FOR STAFF

  • Get staff involved in figuring out what needs to be developed, then refined and implemented.
  • Question if the systems are robust enough for several staff members.
  • Incorporate clear guidelines for staff performance success into the procedures. For example, identify the appropriate staffing level of the process, the desired outcome, and the time required to achieve it. That way, the person undertaking the process has clear goals and knows whether they have met expected targets. Encourage. Measure.Reward.

SYSTEMISING YOUR BUSINESS, FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

  • Stay on top of the latest trends without getting overwhelmed with the noise.
  • Consider holding a Productivity Hackathon or Innovation Day to give your team a chance to suggest different processes. Give them permission to try and test different options – embracing automation, and explore possibilities.

OPTIMISING PROCESSES WITH TECHNOLOGY

  • MYOB AO – does everything.
  • XBert – Align your Template tasks to pre-set processes – uses Ai.
  • Set up Templates in One Note and keep them open while working on the client file – so you can update them with anything in real-time.
  • Loom is an excellent tool for recording processes, supplementing written notes, and Staff Induction
  • Use Trello https://trello.com/
  • https://www.notud.com/ Note-taking software. Easily create or edit notes straight from your Xero Contacts or in Notud. Need more to love? Here are some other features.
  • So it looks like you can write notes, and they can attach to your contact file.
  • It’s free for up to 10GB of data storage.
  • Click-Up https://clickup.com/ 
  • Give everything a go and give it a full go!!
  • Also, use timesheets like MinuteDock to surface the data point, analyse efficiencies, and improve systems and processes.

RESOURCES FOR SYSTEMISING YOUR BUSINESS

DEVELOP A PROCESS FOR ONGOING SYSTEMS MAINTENANCE

  • Ask colleagues for advice.
  • Review systems as often as you need. We change our business constantly, so reviewing our processes should be a regular occurrence too.
  • Be open to change
  • If you don’t know something, YouTube will have the answer!

SYSTEMISING YOUR BUSINESS

Never stop iterating. This blog explores how accountants and bookkeepers can tackle systemising their business, optimising workflow, staff training, growth, and developing an asset to sell with the business. You can watch the chat we had about this subject below.