How This Firm Uses Accounting Project Management Software to Reduce Manual Tasks and Improve Collaboration

Every accounting firm relies on automation and effective collaboration (among other essential features) to consistently meet client deliverables.

When these features are missing, teams drown in manual tasks and struggle to get up-to-date client data for work. This results in wasted hours, inaccurate projects, and dissatisfied clients, who will want to take their businesses elsewhere.

Stelle Anderson, like every growth-minded firm owner, knew that taking her firm to the next level depended on her choice of project management software for accounting teams.

In this article, she walks us through the thoughts that guided their journey to finding a tool that enables her team to (1) automate time-consuming processes and (2) find up-to-date work and client information to ensure quality client service.

Meet the Firm: Infinite Accounting Solutions

• Brief Background

Infinite Accounting Solutions is a team of experienced accounting and bookkeeping professionals helping self-employed tradespeople and small business owners manage their books to ensure timely and accurate financial reporting.

As a remote firm (with clients spread across Langley, Abbotsford, Pitt Meadows, White Rock, and Surrey), the seven-person team does not have the luxury of sharing files and information across desks. They rely on a central communication system to communicate, collaborate, and keep everyone in the loop for quality client service.

• Their Original Challenges:

Too Many Manual Processes

The team started out using Trello to manage their projects, but Trello made them recreate all their recurring projects at the beginning of each month. This increased the chances of error, and they did this manual work at the expense of tasks that were many times more profitable.

Disconnected Communication

When they used Trello, client emails remained in the individual team members’ inboxes. If that team member has to be out of the office, the information in their inbox is inaccessible to other team members for that length of time. This created delays and threatened work deadlines.

The Turning Point: Why They Sought a Project Management Tool Built for the Accounting Industry

Each team in Infinite Accounting Solutions has a slightly different use for its project management software.

The payroll practitioners, for example, want the ability to post images to payroll cards to ease payroll processing, among other needs.

These varying needs require an advanced project management solution that addresses all their workflow needs, unlike Trello can provide.

Trello just wasn’t robust enough. It didn’t have certain features we were looking for in terms of automation and growth. We outgrew it, said Stelle.

Why They Choose Financial Cents

Upon trying out Financial Cents, Stelle found that it was as easy to use as their previous tool (Trello), but much more advanced because (1) it is built specifically for professionals in the accounting industry and (2) its features and functionalities are built with insights from actual accounting firm owners.

Financial Cents’ blend of simple interface, advanced workflow, client and team management features enables accounting firms at all levels to stay efficient.

Stelle said, “I had coffee with a bookkeeper friend of mine, and she told me about Financial Cents. I looked it up, and it was exactly what we needed. I loved the feature options, the colors, and everything. It was just next-level to Trello.”

The Key Features They Were Looking For

• Recurrences

The recurring task feature helps accounting firms cut down their admin time. The Infinite Accounting team needed it, but they could not access it in Trello, so they created all their recurring projects from scratch every month.

Every month, we had to create a new board for our monthly projects, and that took so long to do, because it’s so manual, and then there was too much room for error.

Key Improvements After Implementing Accounting Project Management Software

1. Less Manual Work

Since moving to Financial Cents, the Infinite Accounting team has gotten a better grasp of its priorities thanks to Tag Automation. They use the Tag feature in Financial Cents to label projects by their urgency levels.

This has helped them allocate resources more proactively to avoid missing client deadlines.

Similarly, the team uses the Client Task feature to prevent unresponsive clients from delaying project completion, wasting precious time, or impacting their overall productivity.

Once they identify the file and information they need from their client, they create a list for every item, select a reminder frequency, and send it to the client.

With the reminder frequency set, Financial Cents will automatically chase the client until all requested files and information have been provided.

2. Improved Team Collaboration

The Infinite Accounting team assigns two people to each project and task to ensure workflow continuity. Thanks to Financial Cents Email Integration, the team doesn’t worry about any of the assignees working in silos.

When one assignee receives an email from a client, they can pin it to the project for the other to see.

This keeps both assignees on the same page, so if anyone is away, the other doesn’t have to worry about a client email that might be stuck in their inbox.

3. Increased Efficiency and Accountability

Due to the complex and dynamic nature of accounting processes and the variety of ways a project can be completed, workflow templates have become critical to the efficiency of team operations.

That is why the Financial Cents Template Library has become a gold mine of workflow insights for the Infinite Accounting Solutions team.

Its library brings new and experienced accounting firm owners together to share the workflow templates they use to address their everyday workflow challenges.

Unlike traditional templates, the templates in this library were created by actual accountants for various industries and according to the financial reporting requirements of various countries (USA, UK, Canada, etc.).

As a Canadian firm, the Infinite Accounting Solutions team goes into the library (from time to time) to find the insights that will help them make their workflows more efficient.

4. Happier Team and Clients

Access to up-to-date information enables team members to do the work they are proud of, which is usually the kind of work that also meets client satisfaction.

With the ability to share information and collaborate on projects (using Financial Cents’ Team Chat feature), the Infinite Accounting team members can communicate openly inside projects. They can also use the mention feature to tag their colleagues in comments to get their attention faster.

This also gives new assignees an audit trail of project-related communication, helping them get up to speed more quickly.

Stelle said, “We enjoy the ability to share information between staff. We can talk in Financial Cents for other staff members to see. When things are stuck in an email, only the people in those emails can see it.”

Chatting in Financial Cents gives us historical information. If someone did a project and wanted to look back at what happened, the information is stored in the project or client profile. Just having that ability to communicate more and share information has been instrumental to the growth of our company, she added.

Final Thoughts: Is It Time to Upgrade Your Firm’s Processes?

Moving the team to a suitable project management software has enabled Stelle Anderson to build a team that spends less time on manual tasks and can collaborate to complete client projects quickly and accurately, which has produced a satisfied clientele.

While these benefits are available to every firm owner, you will only enjoy them to the extent that you understand your workflow needs as much, if not better, than Stelle does hers.

For example, Stelle not only understood what needed to change in their procedure, but she also didn’t waste time making up her mind to get another project management tool.

You might not know what needs to change in your workflow management yet, but trying some of the available project management tools can show you how better things can get for your team.

I invite you to check Financial Cents today. Click here to start your 14-day Free Trial, then you can decide for yourself afterwards.