how to evaluate workflow management software

don’t be afraid to use the full trial period to decide.

by jody grunden

when evaluating workflow management software, it is important to evaluate your priorities and know what you want out of the system. it is also important to understand that there isn’t going to be an exact fit.

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after comparing options, make sure that the system you go with meets the priorities at the top of your list. once the system is picked, it is important to spend time inside the system to figure out how your company is going to use it.

a lot of companies seek quick onboarding and implementation, but this isn’t always a good thing! before you roll out the system for the entire company, you want to make sure most of the bugs are worked out.

when we picked our workflow management system, our top priorities were:

• an easy interface (easy for anyone to pick up)
• the ability to easily document our process using videos
• features that helped us create standardization

we met with six companies that focused on accounting workflow management systems. each one walked us through a demo of their product. after the demos, we concluded that two of the products met these priorities, so we began to evaluate the pricing structures of both systems. one of the final two vendors wanted to tie us into a long-term contract that didn’t make financial sense for our budget. that made our choice easy!

at this point, we were ready to try our one-month trial period. during this trial period, we created a small team to explore the product. this team met twice a week to design how we could best use the system. everyone on the team knew the problems we were trying to solve, and they were asked to keep these problems at the forefront of their minds throughout the month. we spent the trial period

• watching youtube videos of others who were using the system,
• trying out different processes,
• adding example clients and
• trying to find and solve problems with every approach we took.

at the end of the month, the team had created a manual in powerpoint on how summit cpa would use the workflow management system.

the best part of this approach was our meeting with the onboarding specialist for the product at the end of the trial. we had the entire team on the call and had a list of questions prepared. once the questions were answered, the specialist concluded with a laugh that his job was done, and we knew where to go from there!

posted on april 5, 2020