As tax season approaches, accountant’s everywhere are looking for the latest advantage to add to their workflow in order to outperform the competition, gain more clients and make their work as streamlined and effective as possible.
Time for a Change
It’s alarming to know that over one-third of accounting firms haven’t reviewed or updated their tax prep workflows in over three years, and over 10% haven’t addressed workflow issues in over five years. To put that into perspective, think about what cell phones looked like five years ago compared to where they are now. The technology has advanced exponentially. You can begin to understand how using a five-year-old workflow approaches is a foolhardy way to fall behind and be outgunned in the fight for clients come tax season, especially if you fail to even be aware of what’s out there.
What is Workflow Management?
What is workflow management— is it simply document tracking? Is it simply process rules and procedures?
Workflow management is the conscientious understanding of the movement of documents and/or tasks through a work process. Let’s go through each stage of this analysis and address how a document management system could assist in the process.
How tasks are structured– Utilizing a DMS can help improve the way tasks are developed and structured by making project instructions readily available to any users who are granted access to the cloud-based database. This allows organizations to easily ensure that the initiation phase of the workflow is operating efficiently and effectively.
Who performs those tasks– Delegation can often become one of the most difficult aspects of running a firm. With a DMS, everyone can be instantly made aware of their responsibilities and what is expected of them.
What tasks are synchronized– Accounting professionals know that given tasks never occur in a vacuum. They build off one another and are dependent upon the completion of other tasks in order to move forward. An effective DMS allows users to be constantly updated with the status of simultaneous tasks to ensure productivity continues.
The flow of information– Ensuring that all employees (and clients) are constantly kept informed on the status of various tasks and the information necessary to complete those tasks is absolutely critical. A document management system allows users to disseminate information instantaneously so all involved parties within the firm so that productivity never has to cease due to lack of information.
Budgets and timelines– Staying on budget and staying on schedule are equally critical goals that must be managed effectively. By implementing a digital workflow, significant costs like storage cabinets, filing costs, and printing supplies are reduced to a degree matched only by the amount of time saved when employees don’t have to rummage through files several times per day.
Billing tracking– Payments simply matter— you are a business after all. But with a streamlined DMS, payments can be taken care of quickly, efficiently and easily so that your firm can get back to serving your clients.
To find out more about how using a digital document management system can optimize your workflow and transform your accounting firm, schedule a demo of eFileCabinet’s advanced DMS. Click here to schedule a demo.