Don’t Make These 4 Mistakes When Outsourcing Your Accounting Work
You want your current in-house team on board. In fact, you need them to be firing on all cylinders because making the leap to outsourcing is going to require that you and your team rethink your current work processes. That is not something you want to attempt to do all on your own (unless of course you’re a one-accountant show). Here are 4 big mistakes you should make an effort to avoid when you’re gearing up to evolve to an outsourcing accounting firm:
Sell Value, Not Services – BOSS Tips on How to Keep Your Prices Up
Making sure you have highly noticeable Unique Selling Points (USPs) is a effective marketing tool. But we here at BOSS (Back Office Shared Services) would like to remind you that, aside from attracting customers away from your competition, USPs serve another important function – if you don’t offer your clients unique values then the only thing different about your firm from anyone else’s is your price.
8 Common Leadership Missteps to Avoid to Help Improve Your Accounting Practice
It’s absolutely true that missteps, mistakes, blunders, and outright errors can lead to wonderful insights. But there is no law that says that you have to be the one making these mistakes – you’re free to learn from the mistakes of others. We here at Back Office Shared Services have worked with a lot of firm owners, CEOs, and management execs, and we’ve managed to compile a list of some of the more common errors we see all the time.
How You Can Outsource Accounting to Help Make Mistakes Pay Off in the Long Run
You have flaws. You’re the one building your firm, ergo your firm is bound to have flaws. There is no question that you will make mistakes. That means that the question really becomes how can you use those mistakes to make a positive and permanent impact on your firm? When you outsource accounting you’re able to do just that.
Listen More To Your Clients to Grow Your Firm
One of the greatest challenges we face when working with accounting firms is encouraging them to ask their clients about their needs, and relate them back to the services the firm is providing. Principals and partners of firms will often tell us they already know their clients very well. However,the chances are very high that you do not know your clients as well as you think. When was the last time you sat down with your top clients and really asked them about their business and personal financial goals?
Must Read Tips for Cloud and Server Security
Everyone’s jumping on the cloud, outsourcing is becoming the norm for accounting firms and telecommuting (even if it’s just for some out of hours work) is becoming more common. But solid, robust security steps can be overlooked. So what can you do to protect your precious data?
Warning about Use of Dropbox and similar providers
Dropbox is in the news again about security issues (see the links at the bottom). The takeaway is: don’t use the same password for more than one website. You may be interested to know that BOSS has a secure web server with an Intruder Detection System which includes blocking access from an IP address that is not your office IP address. We also have a lockout system that will lock someone out after 5 failed attempts – preventing robots from hacking too!
Are You Doing Everything You Can to Streamline Your Workflow?
Keeping any organization running at maximum efficiency can be a Herculean task for any manager or CEO. And if you’re looking to expand your company in the future, you’re going to be adding more cogs to the machine – more specialized staff that has to integrate with other sections, more software that also has to be integrated, more services that have to be co-ordinated, and so on. Here are 3 ideas we think will help you streamline your management efforts.
6 Tips to Enhancing Your Accounting Services in the Internet Age
Technology is changing what clients need from their accounting firm of choice. These changes present new opportunities for a firm flexible enough to embrace them. We’d like to present you with 6 methods you and your team can use to start reworking the way your firm uses technology to establish a more advantageous relationship with your clients.
Top 10 Lead Generation Methods
Getting and insiders view on what works can save you a lot of blood, sweat, tears and money! The Welleslley Hills Group is a specialist marketing agency for professional services firms. They surveyed 700 firms and broke down the different lead generation methods to 33 in all – so in fact I am going to give you a list of all 33. So without further ado the 33 methods ranked by the percentage of firms that found them effective are..
3 Productivity Mistakes to Avoid
As the boss a lot of lost productivity can be laid at your doorstep. How do you tell when the problem is you, and what can you do to boost your firm’s productivity? Let’s take a look at four of the more common mistakes big bosses sometimes make and what can be done to eliminate them from your firm.
Here’s How You Can Become Your Clients’ Greatest Coach
Business owners are often lost not knowing exactly how to improve their business and even where to start. As a trusted advisor an accountant is uniquely positioned to provide advice grounded from the financials of their individual clients. Here’s how to get the process going.
Here’s How Outsourcing Accounting Work Ups the Hourly Rate
We all know the saying “Work smart, not hard.” Unfortunately far too few business owners actually figure out the magic formula to achieve this truism. The truth is it’s actually fairly simple to make your hours on the job earn you more – start outsourcing accounting work.
Tips on Minimizing Write-Offs
Is your firm struggling with write-offs? Benchmark reports show many firms are now achieving zero net write offs or even write-ons. What are some of the practical actions you can take to address this? No matter what your approach, the key to success is to set expectations up front. This applies both to the accountant(s) doing the job and to the client. Use the following 5 steps to guarantee success in eliminating your net write offs.
Increase Referrals with this System
There is no doubt that accounting practices get most of their business through referrals. But what seems like a great source of new clients can appear hard to scale. So how do you capitalize on your network of contacts and the reputation within that network?
Tips to Save Time to Bring in More Accounting Revenue
If you find yourself overwhelmed with compliance work and unable to complete jobs in a timely manner, you are not alone. Many companies face this challenge. However, there are companies who have found ways to turn this situation to their advantage. Before we dive into the strategies for saving time and increasing value-add work, let’s first explore why this is important.
How to Motivate Public Practice Accountants
The following is a chapter summary from David Maisters’ fascinating book entitled “Managing the Professional Services Firm.” The book is a nice “How to” manual that draws on his extensive experience in the professional services firm arena and is a great way of learning so you don’t need to re-invent the wheel!
Business Strategic Succession Planning
This article was kindly provided by Craig West of Succession Plus. Business strategic succession planning was never heard of 10 years ago – however business owners now understand that succession is a significant aspect of the success of their business.
Bookkeeping Stress Relief – How Outsourcing Accounting Work Puts Your Focus Back on Your Business
Running a business is a never-ending litany of tasks and problem-solving. As the big boss you can only put out so many fires in a day. Outsourcing accounting work is not only an efficient way to claim a significant chunk of your time back; it can also lead to some healthy savings that can be recycled back into your business.
5 Tips to Supercharge Your Website!
It’s that moment of the year when your clients will definitely be searching your firm to recollect your address, talk about you to their partners and fish for some free help and advice. Supercharge your website with worthwhile news, ideas and quick touch-ups in time for busy months. We have five helpful hints that tell you how.
