Technology is an amazing thing. It enriches the way we play, the way we work, the way we communicate and even how we manage relationships. Accounting technology is no exception. Technology has transformed mail to email, paper filing to electronic filing, data entry to data download, and traditional workpapers to digital data.
But does technology make our firms more productive? Hold that thought.
Accounting firms are process driven organizations, not unlike assembly lines. We take inputs from clients, we process them, and we create new outputs. Profitability is a function of 1) the price we command for our services 2) the number of units we produce and 3) our productivity, or how efficiently our process operates.
At Intuit, we spend a lot of time studying the tax and accounting process, or workflows, of accountants. Most firms think they have a good workflow, but as we probe further, almost none have it written down. As partners describe the process, there are lots of exceptions to the process, or workarounds for certain types of clients. At the end of the discussion, most firms agree there is significant room to improve their workflow and become more productive.
Want to become instantly more productive? Commit your workflow to writing. While tedious and seemingly pedantic, the benefits of writing down your workflow include:
But does technology make our firms more productive? Hold that thought.
Accounting firms are process driven organizations, not unlike assembly lines. We take inputs from clients, we process them, and we create new outputs. Profitability is a function of 1) the price we command for our services 2) the number of units we produce and 3) our productivity, or how efficiently our process operates.
At Intuit, we spend a lot of time studying the tax and accounting process, or workflows, of accountants. Most firms think they have a good workflow, but as we probe further, almost none have it written down. As partners describe the process, there are lots of exceptions to the process, or workarounds for certain types of clients. At the end of the discussion, most firms agree there is significant room to improve their workflow and become more productive.
Want to become instantly more productive? Commit your workflow to writing. While tedious and seemingly pedantic, the benefits of writing down your workflow include:
- You will recognize steps to eliminate or combine, increasing productivity almost immediately.
- You can bring the exceptions into the defined workflow more effectively.
- The bottlenecks in the process become obvious and you can begin to design better workflows to alleviate the bottlenecks.
- The defined workflow becomes easier to train and share with everyone in the firm when it is in writing.
- As you evaluate new technologies and solutions, you can review your current workflow to understand what needs to change for the firm to realize the benefits of the new solution.
This is the time of year to review your workflow and decide what changes to make to improve productivity. Most firms look externally at technology solutions available to help them become more productive, instead of internally.
We have found that firms who take the time to update their process as well as their technology, realize the productivity gains they expect, but firms who simply adopt new technology without updating their process realize little or no increase in productivity. Updating the process includes making sure staff are appropriately trained. The firms who had the greatest productivity gains, not only took advantage of formal training, but they carefully walked through each step and defined keystroke shortcuts to minimize wasted effort. After all, reducing one or two keystroke per form entered can amount to a hundred keystrokes per return and tens of thousands during season. Process improvement, and productivity, is in the details.
The lesson? Technology upgrades combined with process changes can significantly improve productivity.
As part of your workflow evaluation process, here are some questions to consider:
We have found that firms who take the time to update their process as well as their technology, realize the productivity gains they expect, but firms who simply adopt new technology without updating their process realize little or no increase in productivity. Updating the process includes making sure staff are appropriately trained. The firms who had the greatest productivity gains, not only took advantage of formal training, but they carefully walked through each step and defined keystroke shortcuts to minimize wasted effort. After all, reducing one or two keystroke per form entered can amount to a hundred keystrokes per return and tens of thousands during season. Process improvement, and productivity, is in the details.
The lesson? Technology upgrades combined with process changes can significantly improve productivity.
As part of your workflow evaluation process, here are some questions to consider:
- Where in our process are we experiencing bottlenecks and problems?
- How do we automate as much of the process as possible?
- What solutions are available to improve the process? What is the benefit we expect to achieve?
- What changes will we need to make to our existing workflow to accommodate the new technology?
- Do we need to upgrade other technologies, like hardware, to accommodate the new workflow?
- Do we have a defined process using the new solution? Does the vendor have a recommended workflow for the new solution?
- Who in the firm is in charge of making sure the solution is implemented and the workflow adjusted to realize the planned benefits?
- Who will go thru training on the new solution?
- When will we evaluate the results of the change and determine the level of success?
Don’t sell your firm short by going half way. When you upgrade your technology solutions, update your workflow process too, to realize the productivity gains that technology can deliver.
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