Is It Time to Review Your Business Processes?

May 14, 2024

 

When was the last time you took a step back from your accounting practice and looked at your business processes?

It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day workload. However, taking the time to stop, review and revitalise your processes is worth it. A review of your business processes helps you identify ways to significantly improve your output, while reducing the work strain.

Here’s some simple tips to make the review process easier:

Include Your Team in The Process

Involving your team makes a huge difference to the impact and success of your review.

This starts with understanding what needs to change. Partners and managers will have ideas on improvements, but the admin team and junior staff typically do the most tedious, time-consuming tasks. Listening to their feedback will give you the best insight into what improvements can make the most difference.

In addition, getting your team’s involvement from the start will cement their buy-in. People are often resistant to change, however when the change is driven by their input and ideas, they will own and help advance those changes.

Valuing your team’s input is key to identifying what changes will make the most difference.

Don’t have a team? If you’re a sole practitioner you could approach your peers in the industry and ask for feedback or suggestions on improvements for processes, and what they have found has helped.

 

Eliminate the Unnecessary

If you haven’t reviewed your processes in a while, you will probably find old systems in place that are now redundant or causing double handling. You can instantly revitalise the way things are done by eliminating those unnecessary processes that no longer serve a practical purpose.

 

Automate the Mundane

Thanks to significant advances in technology, there are an increasing number of tasks that can be automated. Identify and prioritise those mundane tasks that consume the most manual labour. Integrating automations to reduce that workload will give your team a quick win that helps reaffirm the value that you place on your team’s needs and stresses.

 

Outsource the Peripherals

Your business exists for a central focus, whether that’s compliance work, tax advice, tax planning, or a particular niche. Yet there are a lot of extra tasks that are essential to supporting your business and keeping it functioning.

Instead of draining your staff resources to do these extra jobs, keep them free to focus on what your business does best. Identify the functions you can outsource, such as social media, marketing, human resources, IT, and allocate these tasks to the experts who focus on these services. Not only will this help keep your staff focused, but it can also help lift your business by ensuring those complex tasks are completed by people dedicated to that type of work.

 

Start Your Review Today

Start off the review of your business processes by involving your team and asking for their input. From there you can prioritise processes that can be eliminated, automated, or outsourced.

A simple way to start streamlining your processes is to book a discovery meeting with ATOmate. We will show you how our automated ATO document management processes can reduce your paperwork tasks by as much as 90%! Your staff will thank you for freeing up their time and allowing them to focus on more productive work.

Book your discovery meeting below today!

Book a Discovery Meeting