How to Improve Work Quality by Documenting Your Accounting Processes

Best for:

  • Firm owners looking to scale their firms without sacrificing work quality.

  • Firm owners and managers looking to improve team performance and consistency.

  • Firm owners who want to empower their staff to fill in for their team members when necessary.

Scaling a firm requires hiring people to serve your clients. But every new staff you hire likely might have a different way of getting work done that does not align with yours.

So, how do you get them to deliver results that consistently meet your standard?

If you choose the micromanagement route, it would cost you the time you’d have spent doing strategic work.

That’s where our workflow templates shine.

Financial Cents’ templates help you document your workflows to effectively delegate work to your team, knowing they will get the same results.

“The client task feature (and the new ReCats) is a time saver. Going out of our project management system to communicate with a client creates too many steps and variables. Automating the recurring reminders to clients helps us save our staff the time to draft emails and follow-up manually.”
Stacey Feldman
CPA, Chief Operating Officer at Full Send Finance

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Here’s how we set your firm up for success 👇

Step-by-Step Guide:

Step 1: Identify Processes to Document

The mere thought of where to start documenting your processes is enough to stop firm owners in their tracks.

It would feel overwhelming if you think about documenting all your processes at once. But if you take it one process at a time (like you should), you’ll see it is much easier.

So, how do you know which process to start with? These criteria will help:

  • Complexity: the more difficult a process is the higher the need to outline the steps needed to complete it. That’s the essence of having workflow templates in the first place.
  • Urgency: if a key employee is leaving your firm, you’d want to ensure they document their operating procedures so that other team members can do it in their absence.
  • Frequency: if your team performs a process every day or week, it makes sense to prioritize it over the once-in-a-year projects.
It doesn’t help to put off a checklist you’ll need next week for the one you wouldn’t need in another three months.
PRO TIP: Work with Your Team Members to Ensure No Critical Step Is Missing.

If someone is already doing the work, invite them to document the process with you.

Their ideas could help to ensure the process is exhaustively documented.

Step 2: Create Process Templates in Financial Cents

Financial Cents offers several ways to document your processes and automate key project attributes to streamline work creation and delivery in your firm.

Watch this short video to see them:

PRO TIP: Whichever option you choose to document your processes in Financial Cents, be sure to fully set each template up before creating a project from it.
Once you create a project for a client, that template is no longer related to the work. If you edit the template after creating a project from it, the update will not be reflected in the project already created.
You will have to manually update each of the projects you already created one by one.

Step 3: Create Projects from Templates in Financial Cents

The prebuilt templates in Financial Cents give your process documentation a significant head start.

The templates outline the tasks that go into completing these processes in a typical accounting firm, so take them as a starting point and customize them to fit your unique processes.

How to create projects from templates:

Step 4: Review and Optimize Documented Processes

Documenting your processes is never done and dusted. Your firm (team, services, and tech stack) is growing, your client’s needs are evolving, and very importantly, the regulatory environment is changing.

These require a regular review of your processes to see where an adjustment might be needed to maintain your quality standard.

Usually, this review should be done on an annual basis, but it can be more frequent in times of significant structural and regulatory changes.

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Collaborate with Your Team Members to Refine Workflow Templates

Unless you’re a solo firm owner, you’re definitely not doing all your firm’s processes all by yourself.

Since your staff is doing most of the work, you need their input to ensure the workflow templates are still serving your team and clients.

Why Documenting Your Processes Is a Game Changer

When your firm’s standard procedures are not well defined, each team member will execute client projects however they think best. This will create inconsistencies in your client deliverables.

Workflow Templates will guide your team members to follow your standard procedures, which will help to reduce errors, maintain your work quality, and streamline your firm’s day-to-day operations.

Financial Cents doesn’t just provide best-practice templates; it also allows you to leverage AI for more creative ideas.

Moreover, our templates library shows you how other teams are getting work done. This will inspire you to create and reduce the confusion and procrastination that come with not having a frame of reference for a project.

“Before Financial Cents, I wasted a lot of time sending my staff emails to explain anything I needed them to do.

Before Financial Cents, I wasted a lot of time sending my staff emails to explain anything I needed them to do.
In Financial Cents, every task has a checklist. Once I delegate tasks to team members, they can see what they need to do.”
Sarabjeet Ghai
CPA, CGA, Managing Director

Give Your Team the Confidence They Need to Complete Work to Your Standard

Any investment in documenting your processes upfront will save you a lot of time, money, and stress in the long run.

That’s because when your team members are clear on how to complete their assigned tasks, they will channel their energy into finding the most accurate and efficient manner of doing it.

Start Documenting Your Processes with the Financial Cents Free Trial Today.

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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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