beware that third bucket.
by roman h. kepczyk
quantum of paperless
firm knowledge and information is usually stored in one of four “buckets.”
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the most obvious is within the accounting applications themselves where tax, audit and accounting programs store client files in a format that can only be accessed with that program. files are usually indexed and accessed in designated directories so there is not much the firm can do about moving these files.
the second bucket for more advanced firms is a document management application where final documents can be archived in alignment with a comprehensive document retention plan and easily searched.
the third bucket is the network drive where the firm’s client and administrative files reside. this is usually maintained with microsoft windows explorer, allowing anyone to create, move and delete any files or directories. unfortunately, this is often where the firm’s core knowledge in the form of documented processes, procedure manuals and administrative tools/forms resides. accessing this knowledge requires lengthy searches and knowing exactly what the user is looking for.
“53% of firms utilized an intranet to store firmwide information.” – cpafma 2017 survey
to solve this issue, many firms have set up intranets to capture firm knowledge, which is the fourth information bucket found in firms today. an intranet is an internal website that uses internet protocols to securely share the organization’s information. it is only available to members of the firm who have authorized access. many firms have developed intranets because they have a familiar web interface, which is the most common method for searching information. however, the benefit of the intranet is that it can be easily customized and limited to firm members so they can search for specific items within the firm’s policy manual, look up the firm’s updated audit schedule and access any personnel forms in one place.
traditionally, larger firms built their original intranets with lotus notes. today, most intranets are developed with microsoft tools such as microsoft expression, sharepoint and recently low-cost cloud solutions such as wordpress and intranets.com. microsoft tools use similar menu structures as other microsoft applications (word, excel) so it is easier to train administrative personnel to manage updates once the design is complete. all firm documents and knowledge that needs to be shared should be accessible through the firm’s intranet.
there is also a trend among the practice management application providers to include “dashboards” into their products that display real-time production metrics within the firm. these dashboards can be customized to each person’s preference to highlight the key performance indicators (kpi) that they use to track their business and more than one-fourth of the respondents utilized information dashboards within practice management for internal reporting.
recommended actions:
- set up firm intranet to host firm knowledge and resources that are not part of a production application or document management system.
- add dashboard products to monitor kpis.