tools are only as good as their users.
by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers
workflow. tasking. these two words are thrown around quite a bit and sometimes they are used interchangeably. so, let’s get this part defined a bit more.
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workflow definition: noun, the sequence of industrial, administrative or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion
tasking definition: noun, a piece of work to be done or undertaken
verb, assign a piece of work to
workflow is always a noun and tasking can be either a noun or a verb. no wonder people get this confused.
a good friend and fellow quickbooks proadvisor, liz scott from accounting lifeline, does these great little workflows for her clients that work directly in their accounting application. she builds the workflows into dropdowns on the browsers. here is an example for making a deposit:
the browser bar has the name of the workflow, make deposit. when you click the button on the browser, there is a link to each step in the qbo workflow. the steps are the workflow. the actual work, i.e., the data entry, clicks, saves, close are the tasks that occur in each step of the workflow.
so, do you need to plan out workflows? yes! so says #6 of seven kids, in a house of 10 people in a big rambling east coast dwelling, with loud rambunctious people and no locked doors where the only rule really was “don’t get caught.” my mother had her workflow, and we all just ran in and out of it causing chaos. now as a family, that kind of worked. we all got out early; she finally took a breath and retired to the cape. but businesses cannot run like that. my mother’s tenacity and growing up in the great depression made it a profitable outcome for her and us, but a business needs a bit more control.
using the service level agreement (sla) you create with the client, set up the workflows for the tasks that are to be performed. this is a team effort, so anywhere from two to all members of the team will be in the workflows and actually perform a task. remember, even if you are a sole proprietor, your client and the ai you both utilize are part of the team.
case study: how workflows can fail when things change
this was a combined failure of us and the canadian client accounting firm. we had a recurring task with checklists to perform monthly and quarterly gst returns. this firm was sold mid-year and the new owners kept the workflow application and all the procedures, at least that we could see and were involved in. the new year came around and suddenly, we no longer could access the workflow. the new firm had decided it did not need the cost of the cloud workflow system they inherited when they purchased the firm. we requested information on the change, but none was forthcoming. our supervisor just kept doing the work that showed up in her slack channel with the client, and she could access the internal email they provided as well as the document storage and all accounting applications. she and her team did the work they saw in front of them. being used to the monthly gsts, they did those on autopilot.
the monthly gsts were getting done without the workflow task being pushed to us. however, i received an email that we missed the first q1 gst needed for one client. the documentation for that gst return was never provided and so it was forgotten in the batch of the other returns. it never arrived and we never asked for it. not a good thing. the q2 gst returns for the client were completed, and it was not until q3 that the firm mentioned they did not have q1 gst for that specific client. that was a total failure on all parts of the circle. the loser could have been the client had it not been for the lead bookkeeper taking care of the communication with the client and the taxing agency. even on regular recurring work, the same people may not remember or do things the same way.
another case of richard iii and the want of a nail. that missing gst could have been our bosworth hill.
workflows and procedures only work if everyone follows them.
get a workflow/tasking application and have everyone trained to use it properly. have everyone use it the same way. check on it regularly to make sure it fits the sla with the client. check the reports to make sure work is not being held up. have checklists on tasks. don’t let your client miss a filing because of reliance on multitasking. multitasking in chaos is never fun. just ask my mother.
without a set of solid procedures that everyone follows, unchecked work will creep in and change, and before you know it, the work becomes cumbersome and costly. when you go to the expense of using workflow apps, it is a pretty good idea to implement them across the board.
some recommended workflow and tasking applications we use and actually like are, in no particular order: karbon, aero, xcm, jetpack and firmflow. each has its own pros and cons that are more dependent on the actual firm using it. all of these mentioned have great support. support is huge when picking apps.
don’t overlook workflow tools outside the accounting and finance industry. you can find quite a few applications that are viable for tracking bookkeeping and accounting work. asana and wrike are both good options with a bit better pricing, but more setup and management. my personal preference are those that allow interaction with the client within the workflow and that integrate with apps like slack or teams.
the big caveat with any of these workflow tools is that they will only work if they’re used consistently. we often find that unless the firm has fully adopted the workflow and unless all employees and partners are required to use the application for tracking, it will fail, or rather you will fail it. so again, you purchased it, so use it or get rid of it.