here’s what you’re looking for: penny breslin

advisory & consulting

three demos: pricing your value add

woman examining documenthow to take that big first step.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

the big part of pricing is the value added. how do we go from fixed to value-added pricing where the firm actually can really make a difference and move from just back-office support to client advisory services? the steps to get there mean providing the base of bos so that you have the needed knowledge to perform client advisory services.

more: set expectations with an anticipatory set | get the most out of your client meeting | why bos calls for flat rates | four steps for controlling source documents | why you need standard naming conventions | procedures require regular revisiting
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the u.s. bureau of labor statistics states that about 20 percent of small businesses will fail in their first year and by the end of the fifth year 50 percent will fail.
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advisory & consulting

set expectations with an anticipatory set

businesswoman using a tabletbonus: a full proposal for bos services.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

in 2000, our company created a quickbooks training dvd. the owner wanted it done professionally and hired a movie company and rented a studio. the rfp went out. all proposals received had a fee for discovery.

more: get the most out of your client meeting | why bos calls for flat rates | procedures require regular revisiting | why federated search matters | tips for getting clients started on bos | the best tech for your team and clients | marketing? know your goals first | eight things to stop doing now
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

today, if you were to hire a development team to create, update or install code, they would charge you a certain amount for discovery before they would do any actual coding. what you are paying for is the development of the anticipatory set and a clear definition of the scope.
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advisory & consulting

get the most out of your client meeting

woman listening to man across deskbonus: a case study of what not to do.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

“we can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality.” – ayn rand

the reality is that the robots and ai are here, and they will eventually take over much – if not all – of the day-to-day work that is typically done by a human interacting with a computer. you may not like it, but you cannot avoid it. so utilize robots to make your life easier.

more: why bos calls for flat rates | four steps for controlling source documents | how to use onenote to create a firm playbook | how to develop procedures for bos | top tech tools for building your new bos business | choose your little black dress of technology
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

prepare for your meeting

do your homework before going out to the client’s office. if this is an existing client where you have been doing standard compliance work, review the data in their accounting program and make sure you are working with up-to-date information. if this is a new back office support prospect, ask to review their accounting data before going out to their offices. if they are not open to this, it may require an extra visit. the steps below assume you have either worked on the client’s accounting in some capacity, or you have had the opportunity to review the accounting files.
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advisory & consulting

why bos calls for flat rates

timesheets are used, but for tracking productivity.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

let’s get to the big questions that confound professional service providers of all types in today’s tech environment:

  • how do i charge my client for these services?
  • how do i continue to get paid?
  • how do i charge hourly for processes that will be taking less and less time because of the application of technology?

more: four steps for controlling source documents | why you need standard naming conventions | how to develop internal procedures | workflow tools can deepen client relationships | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | which kind of team do you have? | meet the new bos | why ai is not the enemy
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

fixed pricing

flat-rate billing is the logical choice for back office support (bos) services. this fixed pricing is typically used for monthly recurring work. we can do this by knowing how long it takes to create any given transaction. there will be swings in time, but the idea is that the fixed monthly rate considers the busiest season or months for the business. that way, on less heavy months, you receive the same rate and it makes up for the times when the workload increases.
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management

four steps for controlling source documents

woman typing on laptop in front of windowcharge less for more efficient methods. reward your clients.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

permissions are key. in our company only three people have a connection to their local c drive from our managed server. also, we can track who is logged in, from where, how long and what they accessed.

more: why you need standard naming conventions | procedures require regular revisiting | why federated search matters | tips for getting clients started on bos | the best tech for your team and clients | marketing? know your goals first | eight things to stop doing now | you don’t have to do everything | why ai is not the enemy
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

if documents are in our cloud storage, the permissions to download them can be turned off. viewing is done from within the document storage app. nothing is perfect. they can still take a screenshot but we attempt to keep things as closed as possible while still allowing for work and efficiency.
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management

why you need standard naming conventions

man's hands typing on computer keyboardsixteen suggested guidelines to use … and document.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

one of the most time-consuming parts of reconciliation is attempting to discover why or where to allocate expenses. you want to find and pay the correct vendor. you also want to be sure that you have the vendor’s correct name and tax id number when 1099 reporting time rolls around, yet it won’t be easy to do so if you do not have a consistent vendor naming convention.

more: procedures require regular revisiting | how to use onenote to create a firm playbook | how to develop procedures for bos | choose your little black dress of technology | keep the accountants focused on accounting | what do you want advisory services to be?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

consistent naming conventions are a critical component of good file management. the same is true if customer names are in the accounting program. any list really needs to have consistency of entry. duplicates and linking to the wrong record are common mistakes that take time to find and fix.
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advisory & consulting

procedures require regular revisiting

woman drawing flowchart on a blackboardremember it’s not just your team on board, it’s also your clients.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

once you have your procedures, you can assign tasks to your team members. because we perform back office work for many accounting firms, we often adapt to other firms’ workflows. we are often on their workflows for our tasking but internally we also needed a simple means of tasking. another easily integrated app with slack provided this, teamline. with teamline we just type /teamline into any channel and:

  • create a new task on the fly or use a premade template
  • assign it to a team member
  • set a due date
  • attach a file
  • add a checklist of items

more: how to use onenote to create a firm playbook | how to develop internal procedures | proper workflow demands consistency | workflow tools can deepen client relationships | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions)
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

teamline notifies both the assignee and the creator as to the progress of the task automatically. integration to our google calendar puts the teamline task into the calendar. we never leave slack while doing this as the integration between slack, teamline and google calendar is seamless.
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management

how to use onenote to create a firm playbook

portrait of investment advisor businesswoman sitting at office in front of computer and consulting with young professional man.client-specific information that should be included.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

we use onenote to create a firm playbook for each client we work with. this program allows you to record voice and video and save it to a page or implant videos directly into the relevant onenote page.

more: how to develop internal procedures | why federated search matters | tips for getting clients started on bos | the best tech for your team and clients | marketing? know your goals first | eight things to stop doing now | you don’t have to do everything
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

we get lots of zoom recordings on procedures from firms. in our world, the onenote template has a specific page for all videos as a subpage for each client. this onenote book resides on the shared server so that all the team members can access it at any time to verify, review or update procedures.
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advisory & consulting

how to develop internal procedures

smiling woman using smartphoneplus three apps for organizing them.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

there is a symbiotic relationship between your technology and your processes. you have to consider both, or you won’t get the full benefit.

more: why federated search matters | top tech tools for building your new bos business | choose your little black dress of technology | pick your favorite clients | keep the accountants focused on accounting | what do you want advisory services to be?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

mckinsey global has been researching the impact of automation around the world, and (no surprise) found that when companies try to retrofit technology to fit into existing processes, “companies end up with a patchwork of incongruous technology tools that automate separate and distinct parts of the process. this approach is fine for capturing the first 5 percent or so of automation’s impact. but unlocking the full potential requires a fundamentally different way of thinking. to capture that potential, managers must be willing to re-engineer their processes completely.”[1]
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management

why federated search matters

cluttered computer screen
take a look at your team’s desktops.

no more subfolders! just imagine.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

much has been done to help people deal with information overload. desktop search tools have made it easier to find a piece of data hidden among all the other data stored on your system. but what about all the data available on portals, stored in shared drives, and trapped in business applications, let alone the valuable information stored in various employees’ heads?

more: how to develop procedures for bos | proper workflow demands consistency | workflow tools can deepen client relationships | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions) | which kind of team do you have? | meet the new bos
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

this information is vital to your firm. employees need this data to do their jobs, and they need it quickly.

the key to finding information quickly is a mighty search engine. enterprise search engines can find information stored almost anywhere in your system. whether looking for data stored on the desktop, tucked away on an intranet site or locked in a line of a business application, an enterprise search tool can help you find it. the search solution combines desktop search with fast intranet searching capabilities.
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management

how to develop procedures for bos

process touch screen showing workflow designevery client needs a playbook.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

as back office support, you assist your clients in making timely and accurate business decisions. in the past, you worked on hourly billing doing compliance management. everything was about time.

more: proper workflow demands consistency | tips for getting clients started on bos | the best tech for your team and clients | marketing? know your goals first | eight things to stop doing now | you don’t have to do everything | why ai is not the enemy
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

when you did work for a client, you may have billed out an $18-per-hour employee at a rate of $60 per hour. when your employee took the time to call the client for the documents, walked down the hall to ask someone how they had previously handled a transaction, then waited for a document to show up with nothing to do until it showed up – all of this time was billed hourly.
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advisory & consulting

proper workflow demands consistency

pixelated blue text "workflow" on binary code backgroundtools 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.

more: top tech tools for building your new bos business | workflow tools can deepen client relationships | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions) | which kind of team do you have?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

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:
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advisory & consulting

tips for getting clients started on bos

bonus: two case studies.

by penny breslin
it’s not just the numbers

i love the question i get when i set up someone on back office support systems. “what do i need to have to get this started?”

more: top tech tools for building your new bos business | going viral: today’s top marketing strategies | top ten types of clients (and 24 more reader suggestions) | which kind of team do you have? | meet the new bos
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

i tell them i need to know your name, address, phone number, ein/ssn and your passwords. except for the guy who closed his bank account and had to have the old statements mailed to him, i run with a chromebook and make sure there is accessible wi-fi when i go onsite. if i need to collect documents that have never been digitized, i just have them download dext and start snapping pics. no paper, no pen, no mess and typically a stunned prospect who wants to become a client. see, i can’t sell, so i let the technology do the selling for me.
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