In Practice
Managing Your Practice in a Time of Change
By Paul Murray CCH Software
Sep 29, 2009 - 9:08:44 AM

Managing the practice in a time of change

Despite the recession in the global economy accounting practices appear to be taking a pragmatic view. In a recent survey, almost 60% said they were looking to grow their client base at this time and a quarter expected to extract greater value from existing clients. Only 16% were content simply to maintain current business levels. Accountants clearly believe there are opportunities to be had even in this depressed market, but what’s the best way to exploit them?

Look a little deeper and you’ll see that the underlying principles which bring business success are exactly the same in 2009 as they were pre-2007. For an accounting practice these are:

Managing and motivating staff – Your most important asset and certainly your most expensive cost.

Attracting and retaining clients – They may be expensive to acquire, difficult to keep and occasionally infuriating to deal with, but clients are the lifeblood of all accounting practices.

Running the practice efficiently – Most of the advice you give to your clients applies equally well to your own business: control risk, bill promptly, collect debt as quickly as you can, deal efficiently with admin.

Let’s look at each in a little more detail.

Your Staff

Recruitment freezes work both ways – while employers are less willing to hire, those in work are less inclined to change jobs, so it becomes even more important to make full use of the staff you’ve currently got. Now is the time to prepare for the upturn. By helping staff to keep up to date with their technical skills you not only improve their motivation and enhance the service you can offer your clients, you also build loyalty which will help you retain staff (and new clients) when the labour market returns to normal.

Your Clients

SMEs consistently rate accountants as their most trusted adviser. Do your clients know about all the services you already provide? Take the initiative and show them what you can do. But instead of handing over pages of figures they’ll struggle to understand, use specialist financial analysis and reporting software to give them something meaningful they can comprehend and act on straight away. Some systems are so simple you can produce a basic company health check in minutes, which means you can afford to give it away for free - in many cases they’ll want to know more and be prepared to pay for it. The software should allow you to answer their questions with ‘What If?’ scenarios, goal-seeking calculations and benchmarking tools.

Promoting and marketing your services

Now’s the time to capitalise on existing relationships and build new ones.  Don’t re-invent the wheel – whatever marketing or CRM system you select make sure it can use the information you already hold about your clients. Avoid anything so specialist that it needs dedicated staff or expert knowledge to run. And don’t forget that communication is a two way process, so as well as sending mail shots and emails to your clients you’ll want to be able to record their responses and track the necessary follow-up activity.

Sharing information

Your clients already access their bank accounts, place orders and pay bills online. Shouldn’t you be able to offer them the same? Web-based systems are more secure than email and those with inbuilt synchronisation and version control will ensure that everyone always has the latest copy of every document, while preserving historical changes. Ideally, any client-facing system should be integrated with your internal document management software, allowing you to share information both within and outside the practice.

Your Practice

If you’re looking to return to the fundamentals of practice management then surely nothing is more fundamental than getting your staff to complete their timesheets. Timely and accurate timesheets mean faster billing, better recovery, fewer disputes and more fee income. Make timesheet entry as simple as possible and give your staff a choice of data entry methods, for example using their existing Outlook calendar. Few of us now spend all of our time in the office and your software needs to be designed with the needs of mobile workers in mind. Look for a range of options to capture time and expenses from out of office staff – using mobile phones and connected laptops to keep information accurate in real time throughout the practice.

Managing tasks and workflow

Having the best people is only half the battle. The other half is matching those people to the work that needs to be done. Proper planning and resource allocation not only enables you to match skills to tasks, it also eases the strain during peak periods, such as tax year ends and allows the practice to respond to temporary resource bottlenecks. This reduces the risk of overruns and the expense of overtime or underused staff resources. Workflow management helps a practice to automate its procedures, reducing risk and improving client satisfaction.

Facing challenges

IT systems have certainly made it easier to record, store and share information, but sometimes the amount of data available makes finding the right piece even harder, never mind finding it at the right time. If this is affecting the efficiency of your practice, maybe it’s time to start managing by exception. While software can give you visibility, it sometimes clouds your view with too much information. Tools are available that allow you to control the flow of data and the level of detail of data in management reports, while at the same time knowing you’ll be the first to learn of any significant deviations from the norm. Look for systems that inform you. This can be through mechanisms such as automated emails whenever a trigger condition occurs – overdue information or excessive WIP – so you can deal with issues before they become problems.

Final thought!
At the beginning of this article we noted that accountants are taking a pragmatic view in the current climate and the majority of accounting practices are expecting to grow their client base – remember though, they can only do this at the expense of other practices. Don’t let it be yours!

Paul Murray is General Manager of CCH Software (Ireland)
CCH Software (Ireland) is the sponsor of The OmniPro Practice Development Conference 2009 that is taking place at the Clarion Hotel, Liffey Valley on Thursday 24 September.  Visit our website to view our expert line up.

www.ie.cch.com          info@wolterskluwer.ie