Does it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day?
Sometimes it seems that we are incredibly busy but never get anything done. That’s because hidden in the depths of our practice are time-stealers that suck away all of your productive time onto manual, repetitive tasks.
So we reckon that you could probably save a good 20% of your time by adopting our key tips including;
It is a fact that people who write daily to-do lists get more done. Psychologically they work and whilst it might take a bit of time to get into the habit, a daily to-do list is a great productivity booster.
You can make them on a pad on the side of your desk or use a digital version like Asana but whatever you do make one and see your productivity rise.
Rather like a to-do list, a digital work planner allows you to set up a list of projects that you are working on, assign them to team members and collect information relating to the task itself.
Asana and Trello are great examples and even if you use their free plans they make life so easy. Investing in the paid version and the automation and rules means that a lot of the drudgery with project management is taken away.
One of the key things that people say about working from home is that it allows them to focus without the usual office interruptions.
Now it is not always possible to be away from the office so it is a good idea to set a certain period of the day as ‘focus time’.
This is when there are no distractions like meetings and calls and you are left to get on with what is on your to-do list.
Make sure everyone knows that when you shut your office door or you are wearing your headphones then that is focus time.
Pretty much all of the software and systems you buy nowadays are online and that brings a benefit that can really speed up your day - APIs.
API connectivity means that you can integrate your CRM with your booking software, your Payroll with your payments system(like Caxton).
This means that you only need to type a customer’s name and address once and it will propagate across all your systems and if you have data that you need to use then it is available across all of your apps.
A lot of our day is spent dealing with customer requests and yet so many of the requests are simple and mechanical such as running a P&L or letting them have their VAT number so why not make it easy for them to self-serve?
Set up a standardised secure folder system and share the details with your customer. Make the folder structure easy to navigate so that they can find exactly what they want, when they want it.
Automation is an absolute god-send and there’s nothing like the buzz you get when you automate manual tasks that used to take hours.
With online systems, it is even easier. Take a look at Zapier for an easy way to automate simple tasks across lots of different apps.
The starting place has to be with your workflow.
Do you have a formal workflow map for customer onboarding? For management accounts production? For statutory accounts submission?
If not then invest some time in sketching out exactly what you do and when you do it. You’ll probably find there are some steps that aren’t needed anymore or that there are faster ways to do things.
Strangely, committing this to paper makes these things stand out and helps you to refine your workload.
Understand where and when you work best - 30 mins
We are all different. Some of us are morning people, some of us are happy to do detail in the afternoon.
Have a think about when you are at your best and do your detailed work then. Use your less productive time for things that don’t require so much attention and focus because nobody can be totally focused for 8 hours a day.
Batch processing is a major time saver and it is so simple to do that you will kick yourself for not doing it earlier.
A good example of this is payroll payments. Imagine you started a client when they had 2 employees and it was easy to manually key payment details. Now they have 40 and it is a major chore.
With Caxton for example, you can upload batch payments directly from your payroll system meaning less work and fewer errors which in turn reduces re-work.
CRMs can be pricey things but good Customer Relationship Manager or Practice Management software can be worth its weight in gold.
You can always start on the free plans with apps like Hubspot and then work up to the paid plan once you need more functionality.
Check out a few different versions like Zoho and Klaviyo too as they are all different and offer a range of alternative functionality.
So there we have it, almost eight hours of time-saving tips that won’t cost the earth but could find you another day a week.
If you are being honest, do you feel that you often spend too much time working on the day-to-day accounting in your practice rather than the strategic and tactical planning for your practice?
If so then these may help.
Of course some of them you may do already but we think there’s something there for everyone and even if you do some of these why not check out the others to see if they offer you a little time-saving benefit?