Increase Productivity In Remote Teams for Accountants
In these difficult times when the global economy has been left shattered in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, remote working has been emerging as the “new black” in helping out business from sinking. However, Accounting is one of the few industries that has barely worked remotely and have just started migrating to the cloud. Accounting is still reliant on collecting bills and files and documents in hard copy, and during the recent lockdown, accounting firms are finding it really hard to keep up with the transition to a remote workforce.
However, adaptability is the one reason that has been the core to the survival of our race, and it is that time again where businesses have to adapt or else they will perish. So here is a guide every accounting firm needs to follow to minimize losses and maximize productivity while working remotely for clients.
Tips for Accounting firms to efficiently manage Remote Teams:
Start with Cloud accounting:
No matter what sector you are working in, technology is a driving factor for every business, and migration to the cloud is one of the fastest-growing techs every accounting firm needs to advise their clients to over switching to. When working remotely with clients, Cloud-based accounting software can help you share and access client records from anywhere in the world, and that, too, with guaranteed security. So the first step towards boosting productivity with remote accountants is migrating to the cloud.
Encourage communication:
Staying connected is very important if you wish to boost productivity with remote accountants. Use video conferencing apps like Skype and Google Meets to get your client’s supervision. Stay connected at all times and organize client meetings online; and it is no different than working in the same office as your client.
Upload bills and share other transaction documents via secure channels:
With the internet at your disposal, accountants can easily get access to client’s bills and other necessary transition details that are needed to manage their books efficiently. Apps like Bill Minder and Zoho Books offer easy syncing of bills and therefore are very useful for accountants to increase productivity while working from a remote location.
Use services like google docs etc to share numbers, calculations:
Accounting is all about managing numbers and while accountants are working remotely, apps like Google Sheets offer both easy calculations and end-to-end encrypted sharing between the client and the accountant. Adapting to such services allows efficient calculations while your accounting team serves the clients remotely.
Keep track of your goals with apps like Trello:
Even accountants need to keep a tab on their goals to ensure efficient management to increase efficacy. Apps like Trello come in very handy in managing goals, no matter you are handling one client or many clients. Achieving small goals is the key to avoiding a disorganized workflow. Setting daily targets is a practice that every accounting firm needs to incorporate to keep things running smoothly and boosting productivity.
Allow team members to take ownership:
If you are an accounting firm with a team of remote-working accountants, you need to let every team member take ownership of their work. It is no brainer that distributing work among responsible team members reduces the workload on the whole team and is, therefore, a major factor in increasing team productivity.
Conclusion:
While you are in the business of handling accounts for various clients, switching over to working remotely isn’t as bad as it sounds, and with a little experiment, mostly by leveraging technology into your current working model, will not only make the task easier but better. Once you successfully transition into the culture of remote working, you can see a significant improvement in your delivery.