How to Know The Status of Work Across Your Firm

Best for firm owners who want to:

  • Access real-time project metrics to provide timely updates to their clients.

  • Prevent work from slipping through the cracks and causing missed deadlines.

  • Keep their teams efficient and accountable to improve work-life balance.

If you want real-time project information (to drive accurate, timely, and satisfactory client results), using tools like spreadsheets is a losing proposition.

Spreadsheet programs are difficult to maintain as teams grow. Plus, they require a lot of manual input to stay up-to-date.

Elizabeth Byrnes didn’t need many staff members to experience this frustration. With just two other persons on staff, she wasted hours of billable work trying to know what the team was working on.

“With Excel Spreadsheet, I didn’t know what my team was doing. We needed a way to know where we fit on things. Did this task get done? Did this not get done? A lot of the following-up wasted too much of our time.”

Elizabeth Byrnes

Owner of Elizabeth M. Byrnes Inc.

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Here’s how Financial Cents provides firm owners with real-time project insights to know what needs to be done and provide client updates whenever necessary.

Let’s dive in👇

Step-by-Step Guide:

Step 1: Create Projects Using the Workflow Tool

Tracking project status across your firm starts with creating your projects and adding the tasks that make up the project.

This tour shows how to do that:

Step 2: Set Up Your Firm Dashboard

When you create a project, it goes into the workflow dashboard, where you can monitor the progress. But the project information you can see depends on your dashboard settings.

Here’s how to configure your dashboard to see the high-level information you want to see:

Add Your Team Members and Assign Roles to Them (To Know What They Are Doing in Real-Time)

If your staff members are not in Financial Cents already, watch this short video to understand how to add them:

Once your team members are inside Financial Cents, you (the firm owner or Manager) will be able to see what they are working on and where they spend their time.

Step 3: Monitor Project Progress

The Financial Cents workflow dashboard is simple enough to know where all your client work stands at a glance. But if you have too many clients or projects, scrolling through your dashboard to find project information can become burdensome.

That is where our workflow filters shine. See them in action:

PRO TIP: You can also combine multiple tags to drill down to more specific information.
If you search for monthly bookkeeping, click in review and then due this week, Financial Cents will display only the monthly bookkeeping projects that meet these additional conditions.

Step 4: Automate Notifications and Reminders

How do you maintain deep work sessions without missing out on important team events?

Financial Cents automated notification feature provides in-app and email notifications to help your team members regulate their notification frequency.

Step 5: Collaborate in real time to Address Issues as They Arise

Accounting and bookkeeping firms use internal communication and collaboration features to maintain team clarity across projects.

Here’s how:

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Why Tracking Work with Financial Cents’ Workflow Dashboard is a Game Changer

The inability to track project information in one place can result in a last-minute rush that leads to errors and missed deadlines.

JNW Group, a tax firm in Indiana, experienced this until they started using Financial Cents to track work and other project resources.

With a mission to “provide the best client service possible,” the lack of visibility into who was working on what task and when certain client work would be completed left them disorganized.

“Now, when a client calls asking for something, it gets recorded, and if you don’t get it done that day, you can put it on the calendar due for tomorrow for everyone to see. So if the client calls asking for an update, we can quickly know who is working on it and when it will be done.
You no longer go home at night thinking, ‘I hope that I got everything done that I was supposed to get done’.”

James “Jim” Rogers

President of JNW Group

Read full case study

Regaining project visibility across your firm is not brain surgery. With Financial Cents, you can start seeing results in a few hours.

Get a demo

Frequently asked questions

Does the free 14-day trial provide access to all the features?

Yes, you will have access to all the features and features that Financial Cents has to offer during your free trial. Also, you will be able to invite your entire firm to use the solution.

If the accounting software doesn’t have a feature, can you add it?

We offer a very robust accounting workflow software full of all of the features your firm needs to grow with ease. However, if there is something we don’t offer, you can recommend it to our team! We release new features every week and constantly ask our users what we need to build next so we can drive more value for their accounting firm.

So yes, if you have new feature ideas and requests, we will add them to our roadmap and work with you on the best way to develop them.

How does FC prevent work from falling through the cracks?

Financial Cents makes it easy to track the status of client work, see who’s working on what, and know where everything stands within one simple view. Financial Cents also has built-in reminders and notifications to keep your team on top of client work and deadlines.

How does Financial Cents help protect client data?

We focus on serving accounting firms, and because of that, the security of your data is our number one focus. You read about how we keep your data safe here.

What kind of support does Financial Cents offer?

Offering best-in-class customer support is the core of our business. We understand that you are busy and don’t have time to wait for someone to get back to you after a few hours. That is why we promise quick and responsive support with responses within 15 minutes. We offer live chat support directly inside the app so our team can. If we can’t solve your issue via chat, we will jump on the phone or zoom to quickly resolve your issues.

How easily can I add my clients to the software?

Adding your clients is as easy as 1, 2, 3. You can import all your clients and their data within 30 seconds with our QuickBooks Online integration. If you don’t use QuickBooks Online then you can export your client list (via CSV) from your current software and import it into our system in just a few steps.

How does FC help me automate client data collection?

Our system allows you to send your clients automated requests for data needed to complete your work. It will also follow up with them until they complete the request, so you never have to chase down your clients again. This allows you to focus on what matters most—getting your work done on time and growing your firm.

What reports are available in Financial Cents?

We offer several reports that give you insights that help you identify bottlenecks in your process, drive efficiencies, and boost your firm’s profitability. Some of those reports include capacity management, measuring your effective hourly rate, and time tracking reports.

Do you offer unlimited storage?

Yes, we offer unlimited storage for client and firm files. You can easily store all your documents in Financial Cents to keep your firm organized as it grows.

Can time tracking be integrated with QuickBooks Online for Invoicing?

Yes, you can easily integrate your time tracking with QuickBooks Online. It will automatically push all the time tracked in FC to QuickBooks Online so you can easily invoice your clients and manage payroll.

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