With the 2022 tax season behind us, it’s a good time to look in the mirror and ask yourself: how can I make the next tax season easier and less stressful for my team and me?
Preparing Your Business for the Next Tax Season with Automation
The accounting industry has seen unprecedented changes over the last two years due to entrepreneurship seeing its highest volume of applicants since 2004, COVID relief, labor shortages, new technology, and consultation. There are ways of navigating the changes by creating subscription-based pricing that brings recurring revenue and leveraging automation.
Automation can bring efficiencies to parts of your accounting firm, such as client onboarding, data collection, data manipulation, and client communications. Even better, there are many types of automation tools available that can be tailored to unique business needs and goals. Each company and team has different needs — there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
To help kick start your journey into the realm of automation, we’ve compiled a few of the best accounting automation tips for 2022:
Onboarding Automation allows new clients to fill out a customized form that gathers all the information you need to do your job through automated email communications and questionnaires. Once they submit their data, it is collected through your software to limit manual data entry. . Technology such as ActiveCampaign allows accountants to schedule client reminders and requests for data months in advance. When combined with software like Typeform, accountants can easily collect tax data and documents from hundreds of clients simultaneously.
Bookkeeping Automation helps take bookkeeping tasks off your plate. Software like Botkeeper and Bookie.ai can help your team eliminate repetitive tasks and free up critical capacity to address more important work or take on more clients. Botkeeper is a great choice if you’re trying to increase your capacity on a budget. Bookie.ai is a great choice for accounting firms struggling to handle their current client base and not looking to scale.
Subscription-based pricing is crucial for contemporary accounting firms because it allows you to offer targeted revenue packages that clarify client expectations and optimize your client experience while improving your teams' productivity. To implement subscriptions and automated billing, check your current practice management software, website builder, or look into Chargebee.
At first, automation can seem overwhelming. But we believe technology can be used to get your team out of tedious day-to-day tasks and instead focus on ensuring your customer is set up for success.
Automation helps accountants by eliminating boring and repetitive tasks and makes accounting firms more efficient. With the help of automation, your team can spend more time on what matters most. Before bringing automation into your firm, we recommend reviewing your current business software. It may have integrations or API available that will help to connect all your software together and limit manual data entry.
Implement Automation Technology and Train Your Team
Implementing new technology in the workplace is a process that requires careful planning and training. We recommend the following steps to help:
Pick no more than three people to test out the technology before rolling it out to the whole team
Create a technology SOP that provides detailed onboarding of new users into technology and training videos
Set a deadline for when the technology will be rolled out, and align this with a kick-off meeting to announce it to the whole team on the same day
Meet in person or remotely with the person receiving the new technology to make sure they are properly trained in the technology
Using the new automation technology, send a detailed onboarding email with links to the right resources and feedback on areas to improve
Genwise helps accounting firms identify, implement, and train their teams to effectively utilize cloud-based accounting software and other technologies in the workplace.
Because no two companies are the same, our process starts with a deep dive into your current processes and systems to examine your firm's strengths and areas for improvement. Your highly-trained Operations Specialist will then recommend technology that will strengthen your processes and automate repetitive tasks. After you’ve selected the best solutions for your organization, your Operations Specialist will help you implement your new tech and train your team on best practices. Then, we’ll continue offering our expertise on demand, with your Operation Specialist waiting on standby any time you or your team need additional support.
Email us at info@genwise.com or sign up here to learn more about how Genwise can help your business succeed with accounting technologies.