Exploring and Expanding Your Bookkeeping Practice to Mid-Sized Clients
Jun 16, 2023As someone who embraces technology, I was thrilled to be asked recently to write a book about how legal technology can modernize law firms. During this process, I reflected on how technology has become integral to my workday. Specifically, I thought about how technology has transformed my mid-market bookkeeping clients and made their financial management more efficient and effective.
In the past, I remember relying on grid sheets, pencils, and calculators to manage their clients' finances. However, with new technologies, bookkeeping has become more efficient and streamlined. Looking back, it's clear that we've come a long way regarding technological advancements in the accounting industry.
Most clients can benefit significantly from the use of technology such as QuickBooks. With the ability to enter data and have it automatically aggregated and sorted, the manual processes are greatly reduced. With the ability to enter thousands of transactions in seconds using bank rules, tasks that used to take hours can now be completed in a fraction of the time. This allows bookkeepers to focus on more important tasks, such as analyzing financial data and providing valuable insights to their clients. As technology continues to improve, the possibilities for streamlining bookkeeping processes are endless. Plus, the time savings is there for us to do more with our time than data entry.
Now, am I frightened that my manual work will soon be automated like something from the TV series, “The Jetsons”? No. With every enhancement in technology, it’s an opportunity for me to level up my game and use my brain for things far more important than manual data entry.
The best-suited QuickBooks subscription to use for these large firms is Advanced. QuickBooks Online Advanced is a versatile program offering a range of features for mid-market bookkeeping clients. As a specialized practitioner working with attorneys, I appreciate this program's detailed reporting capabilities.
While some may think that QuickBooks Online Advanced is only suitable for specific industries, it is actually designed to work for all industries. By layering the right software on top of it, I can create a customized workflow that meets each client's specific needs. Whether you work with clients in the legal industry or any other industry, QuickBooks Online Advanced can help streamline your bookkeeping processes.
For example, here’s a workflow illustration of how my practice looks today:
As you can see above, we use a lot of software. The key is to ensure all pieces work seamlessly together. For example, using QuickBooks Online Payroll - my favorite is the Elite version for mid-market clients, which works seamlessly with QuickBooks Online Advanced. Elite has all the bells and whistles needed for a larger client. My favorite is the HR benefit that provides a targeted HR specialist for the firm. Adding Keeper (excellent software for our team) and Digits, which presents beautiful metrics and reporting for our clients, is a win-win!
For mid-market bookkeeping clients, having the proper workflow is essential. By specializing in my practice, I can provide my clients with the metrics they need to track their potential clients, and we can monitor attorney productivity and understand their net profitability. These metrics are crucial for making strategic decisions and running a profitable firm. While software tools can be helpful, nothing beats the expertise and knowledge that comes from years of experience in the industry. With QuickBooks Online Advanced, I can provide my clients with the KPIs and benchmarks they need to grow their businesses.
I have set my firm up to be future-ready and can provide my mid-market bookkeeping clients with higher service. By specializing in my practice and utilizing the advanced features of QuickBooks Online Advanced and the integrated software, I can provide detailed reporting on metrics such as lead tracking, attorney productivity, and net profitability. This allows my clients to make strategic decisions and run their firms profitably.
Businesses have the flexibility to assign tasks and grant precise user permissions by enabling workers to accomplish their responsibilities with the assurance that delicate financial details remain secure. For example, a business owner could limit an employee's access to authorize or pay invoices only to those with authorized access. We see this often with law firms. Multiple hands process customer transactions, but not all have full access and can see banking details.
Spreadsheet Sync is another helpful feature for law firms offered by QuickBooks Online Advanced. Excel is a staple for virtually all businesses. Intuit has added Spreadsheet Sync to make the process of passing information back and forth between QuickBooks Online Advanced and Excel easier. With Spreadsheet Sync’s customization and pre-made reports, Advanced users can solve more complex reporting needs, such as the ability to combine multiple companies into one financial report. `This could be valuable if your firm has multiple locations that you want to track separately, yet also be able to view the total “roll-up” of the firm’s financial data as a consolidated report in Excel. This feature can spare you hours of manual calculations in spreadsheets and ensure that your data is always synchronized with your QuickBooks account.
Moving into this space of targeted offerings has provided me with amazing revenue and the flexibility to expand our services to include budgeting, forecasting, help with hiring decisions, and much more! This work is exciting and fun, and far more valuable. Don't be afraid to implement a trajectory for your accounting or bookkeeping firm to grow and get paid what you're worth.
I hope you join us. I hope this article has piqued your interest in moving towards larger firms and more intricate work. Helping our client partners navigate the waters of firm growth is rewarding. And although there are challenges along the way, seeing your client thrive and prosper is fun.
Note: This is a paid partnership with Intuit.
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