{"id":59012,"date":"2019-05-01t12:00:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-01t16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=59012"},"modified":"2019-05-27t13:06:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27t17:06:50","slug":"how-to-define-project-workflow-and-statuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2019\/05\/01\/how-to-define-project-workflow-and-statuses\/","title":{"rendered":"workflow for dummies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>so you can quickly tell when a delay is the client’s fault. plus: the 12-step tax return and 8-step writeup workflows. by frank stitely<\/i> let\u2019s play buzzword bingo. i\u2019ll go first: workflow.<\/p>\n more:<\/b> what goes into a client project?<\/a> | tammy\u2019s tale of tax season tardiness<\/a> | beware the leeches and consultants<\/a> | the value-pricing con job<\/a> | the 21st-century cpa firm<\/a> | ruthlessly efficient workflow management<\/a> workflow is the cpa firm buzzword of the decade. every vendor leech trying to suck the life out of your bank account drops this term, and in so doing, workflow now means everything and nothing at all. marketers have so devalued the term that we shouldn\u2019t be surprised that no one has an effective workflow, because no one knows what it is. let\u2019s flush the confusion. workflow is not scanning and import software. workflow is not workpaper binder software. workflow is not a portal or tax return preparation software. workflow is not project management software, much as it pains me to so state. these are no more workflow than a hammer is real estate development. they are tools to accomplish workflow.<\/p>\n workflow is the steps necessary to complete a project. it\u2019s that simple. workflow is entirely separate from the tools used to accomplish it. you and i might use different tax software but have nearly identical workflow processes. for our purposes, we can equate workflow with project steps or statuses.<\/p>\n workflow is defined on a project type by project type basis. for instance, we will have one workflow process for individual tax returns, but a different method for compiled financial statements. let\u2019s clarify the concept of workflow with a real example.<\/p>\n we\u2019ll document our workflow steps for individual tax returns. start by remembering that projects have four necessary steps or statuses:<\/p>\n all of our workflow steps are subdivisions of these four statuses. let\u2019s flesh out how an individual tax return flows through our system. your process is likely pretty similar.<\/p>\n most cpa firm staff suffer from a common misconception about the first step for every tax return \u2013 the stage where they agonize for an hour, staring blankly at the computer screen not knowing how to get started. the removal of this unnecessary step is my most significant contribution to the theory of tax return preparation. i teach staff that you start a tax return by moving your hands. you don\u2019t prepare returns by staring at a screen or getting the eighth cup of coffee. if your hands aren\u2019t moving, the return isn\u2019t getting prepared. those numbers aren\u2019t going to miracle themselves into the computer.<\/p>\n our individual tax preparation workflow process goes like this:<\/p>\n you might be surprised that we have as many as 13 steps to complete an individual income tax return. now you know why so many returns get lost in the process during tax season without effective project management. tax returns hide in a lot of places.<\/p>\n without effective project management, here\u2019s how the client calls about status are handled.<\/p>\n with effective project management and well-defined workflow, here\u2019s what happens when a client calls about status.<\/p>\n workflow steps for corporate tax returns mirror the personal tax return steps pretty closely for us. they don\u2019t have to for you. you may decide that entering the income statement and balance sheet are separate steps. defining workflow is about you.<\/p>\n let\u2019s look at a recurring service such as monthly bookkeeping or writeup.<\/p>\n these workflow steps are a good start:<\/p>\n you might ask why we have separate steps for reviewing the financial statements and fixing the review items. simply, these steps are probably completed by different people. if they aren\u2019t, you may not need the separate steps. we are creating workflow steps with the idea that we will be assigning a staff member to each step. that way, we know whose throat to choke if the project falls behind schedule.<\/p>\n step eight reminds us to create the project for the next month because this is a recurring project. i recommend separate projects for each month of recurring service. you then have historical records of the performance of each month separately. for instance, you\u2019ll know if july\u2019s project was two weeks late, but all of the other months were on time.<\/p>\n we haven\u2019t discussed the importance of tracking workflow step completion dates yet. documenting completion dates gives you a weapon to battle client claims that you were late completing work and caused penalties.<\/p>\n how many times have clients backed you up against deadlines by not answering questions on a timely basis? if you\u2019ve been in business for a few years, i\u2019ll guess a few hundred times. if you know when you asked the client questions versus when he answered the questions, the debate over who\u2019s paying the penalties ends.<\/p>\n one of the main issues we face with e-filing is getting signed 8879 forms. when you have the date you delivered the return versus the date the client returned the signed 8879 form, you\u2019ll pay no more penalties, because you have hard data to prove responsibility. of course, someone will still tell you they didn\u2019t know what to do with the forms. so you respond, \u201ci\u2019m sorry. we wrote the instructions in 3rd<\/sup> grade-level english. was that not the correct language?\u201d<\/p>\n i love clients who tell us they didn\u2019t know what to do, so they did nothing \u2013 for six months.<\/p>\n keep your workflow steps simple. don\u2019t get lost in the weeds trying to take into account every situation that can occur with a type of project. what ifs are not a part of your workflow process. accommodating all the what-ifs turns workflow into workstop.<\/i><\/p>\n your job as ceo is eliminating the what ifs. complexity is the enemy of effective project management.<\/p>\n let\u2019s look at an example in which you might be tempted to add complexity to workflow steps. what if the irs or a state rejects an e-filed return? adding a step or steps to handle rejections tempts project management newbies. here is their first impression of how rejections should be handled:<\/p>\n this looks simple enough once you get past the idea of adding one-quarter more steps to our process to handle something that happens about 1 percent of the time. but what happens if the federal is accepted and four of eight state returns are rejected? what happens if the return is retransmitted and is rejected again? do we need another four steps to handle second rejections? how many potential rejections do we build into our workflow steps?<\/p>\n the correct answer is zero. don\u2019t build in additional steps for exceptions. we need a procedure to handle them that is not part of normal workflow. not every procedure becomes a part of a workflow.<\/p>\n here\u2019s how we handle e-file rejections.<\/p>\n rejected returns don\u2019t get lost in the system, because they are reviewed daily until they are either accepted or we give up and paper file them. we added zero additional workflow steps to handle rejections. we don\u2019t need four or more additional workflow steps for 2,000 returns to accommodate something that rarely happens.<\/p>\n at first, your staff will whine endlessly about the need to build exceptions into your workflow, especially the longest tenured staff. they\u2019ll argue for creating a new workflow step for all 2,000 of your tax returns to prevent a situation that happened once 20 years ago.<\/p>\n imagine the time wasted performing a step that requires two minutes 2,000 times during tax season to prevent something that has a .01 percent chance of happening. that\u2019s roughly 67 hours of wasted time. that\u2019s 30 tax returns that don\u2019t get done and are put on extension. that\u2019s 30 angry clients who are all going to call you on april 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n load the glock and say, \u201cno thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n let\u2019s open up a spreadsheet and define workflow steps for a number of project types. for simplicity, create a separate worksheet page for each project type because they may all have different workflow steps. you should have something that resembles the illustration below for each project type.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n these worksheets look like a magnificent step toward effective project management because they are. you now have the ability to track statuses of projects by project type. indulge in an adult beverage of your choice. you earned it.<\/p>\n what\u2019s wrong with our little project management spreadsheet? our project types are all on separate pages. looking at project statuses firmwide remains difficult. seeing staff workloads across all project types remains difficult at best.<\/p>\n yes, we could add some conditional formatting to the status column based on project type and just have one worksheet. but at this point, consider using project management software to get other features such as due date tracking, automated drafting of questions, review note tracking, automated client communications and more.<\/p>\n your assignment, should you decide to join the 21st<\/sup> century, is to define your workflow steps for your project types.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>
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\nthe relentless cpa<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n
\nexclusively for pro members. <\/span><\/strong>log in here<\/a> or 2022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\nso you can quickly tell when a delay is the client’s fault. plus: the 12-step tax-return and 8-step writeup workflows.<\/strong>
\nby frank stitely<\/em>
\nthe relentless cpa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1362,"featured_media":56466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1908,3120,3002,1906],"tags":[2396,882],"class_list":["post-59012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special","category-tax-practice","tag-cas","tag-workflow"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n